Selis walked into the training grounds, Kazimir following closely on her heels.
The statues scattered throughout the space loomed over them, their unblinking stone gazes fixed forward, as if silently observing them.
They walked toward the archery section, a dedicated area marked by bow racks and neatly arranged arrow stands. Wooden arrows filled the racks, lined up in perfect rows, waiting to be used.
In the far distance stood a series of archery targets. But more unusual than the targets themselves were the knight statues stationed between them.
Each statue bore intricate engravings, spiralling outward from their chests, their patterns almost organic, like veins sprouting from a heart.
Kazimir narrowed his eyes.
Before, such a distance would have rendered the details a blur. But his sight had changed. Ever since his transformation, his vision had sharpened far beyond human limits. He could now see every minute carving, every hairline fracture in the stone.
Selis plucked a wooden arrow from the stand and handed it to him.
"Show me what you can do," she said.
Kazimir exhaled slowly, turning his gaze toward the distant targets.
It was more than five times farther than anything he had ever hit before.
A shot like this would have been impossible in his previous life. But he was stronger now. His body, his senses, his very existence had changed.
He reached into his cloak. Shadows shifted, parting effortlessly as he summoned his black bow into his grasp.
The moment his fingers curled around it, he felt a connection, the familiar pull of its power, as if it recognized him just as he recognized it.
Kazimir steadied his breath.
He nocked the arrow and pulled back the silver moonlight string, feeling the tension coil in his fingers like a living thing.
Then, he focused.
Through the haze of distance, he felt the shadows around the target, how they stretched, how they bent, how they outlined its position in the world.
He let his instincts take over.
Memories flooded his mind.
Every arrow he had ever loosed.
From the first shaky shot as a child, to the desperate strike that felled the beast in the Umbrax ruins.
He exhaled.
And released.
The bowstring sang.
The arrow tore through the air, slicing the silence like a whisper of death.
Kazimir's senses followed its shadow, feeling its precise movement through the hall.
Then, impact.
A perfect hit.
Right in the center of the target.
Kazimir's breath caught in his throat.
He had never hit something from this distance before, let alone with such speed and power.
Selis remained unreadable, but there was the faintest flicker of something in her pale silver eyes.
Approval.
"Good," she said, her voice even. "But inanimate targets mean nothing. Let's see how you fare against moving ones."
Before Kazimir could respond, Selis raised her hand.
A flame flickered into existence, but unlike normal fire, it glowed with a pure white light, shifting and twisting like liquid moonlight.
Moon fire.
She rolled the flame between her fingers, playing with it as if it were something as harmless as a coin.
Then, with a practiced motion, she clasped it between her hands,
And pulled.
The fire stretched, twisting into the shape of a burning white arrow. Its flames coiled around it like living tendrils, shifting with a mesmerizing beauty.
Selis stretched her left arm forward and right arm back. No hesitation. No wasted motion.
She loosed the arrow.
The moment it left her grasp; it hissed through the air.
Then it split apart in mid-air into dozens of smaller flames.
They struck every statue between the archery targets right in the chest, embedding themselves precisely into the center of the engraved markings.
The effect was immediate.
A pulse of white fire spread from each impact, flowing outward, filling the statues' engravings as though waking something long dormant.
Then,
The statues moved.