Pain taught lessons no mentor could.

  Kaelis learned that when a second creature ambushed him while he was distracted, tearing across his side before he could fully react. The wound burned, searing through muscle and focus alike.

  He retreated, heart pounding, forcing his breathing to steady. The sigil on his arm reacted immediately—heat spreading outward, sealing flesh slowly, imperfectly. It wasn’t healing him fully. It was teaching restraint.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Kaelis waited. Watched. Calculated.

  When the creature returned, Kaelis didn’t rush. He baited it. Let it believe him weakened. Then Grav Pulse triggered—not wide, not powerful, but precise. The creature collapsed, its momentum turned against itself.

  Kaelis slumped afterward, exhaustion setting in.

  The scar remained. Thin. Permanent.

  He didn’t resent it. He welcomed it. The world had marked him, and he had survived.