Free Web NovelChapter 770: Free Advice
Gabby remained still for several moments after Liam declared the spar over, her body facing partly away from him while the last traces of flame and disturbed air faded around her. Her breathing was heavier than she wanted it to be, not because the spar had lasted long enough to exhaust her completely, but because her body had been forced to shift from aggression to shock too quickly.
The platform beneath her boots still felt warm from her own flames, and the air around her skin still carried the faint pressure of the wind she had compressed moments earlier. Slowly, she turned to face Liam again.
Liam noticed her expression immediately.
Gabby was stunned, yes. Frustrated too. But beneath both of those things, there was something else sitting in her eyes, something that looked almost like satisfaction. It was small, barely there, but it was clear enough for Liam to read.
She had lost the spar. She had been marked dead five times. She had not landed a single hit. Yet because he had used his flame affinity at the end, some part of her had decided that she had achieved something worth feeling proud about.
That surprised him a little.
Then it disappointed him.
"You look pleased with yourself," Liam said.
Gabby blinked, caught off guard by the bluntness of his tone.
Liam stood across from her with his hands relaxed at his sides, his sleeves still folded to his forearms and his expression as calm as ever. But his voice had shifted slightly. It was not harsh exactly, but there was a quiet edge in it now, the kind that made the words harder to dismiss. ƒrēewebnovel.com
"It’s because I used my affinity."
Gabby’s lips parted slightly, but she did not answer.
"You did force that much," Liam continued. "That part deserves acknowledgment."
For half a second, Gabby’s expression steadied, almost relieved.
Then Liam kept speaking.
"But if that is what you are focusing on right now, then you are looking at the wrong thing."
The faint satisfaction on Gabby’s face weakened.
Liam did not raise his voice. He did not step closer. He simply spoke with the same direct calm he had used throughout the spar, which somehow made the criticism sharper. "In a real fight, you would be dead five times. If that happened, there would be nothing to be pleased about."
Gabby’s body stiffened.
Sasha and Anna, still standing off to the side, went quiet as well. Even Dylan stopped smiling quite as widely, though his eyes remained fixed on Liam with interest. frёewebηovel.cѳm
Liam continued, "You made me use fire because I was recovering and because I chose not to use magic until you became dangerous enough to require it. That is useful information for you, but don’t turn it into a victory. It isn’t one."
Gabby lowered her gaze slightly, and the realization hit harder than she expected. She had been so focused on the idea of making him use his affinity that she had almost ignored the rest of the spar.
She had ignored how easily he read her. How many times he placed her in losing positions. How quickly he ended the fight when he decided to stop giving ground.
The small pride she had felt a moment ago began to feel foolish now, like she had grabbed at the only piece of the fight that made her feel less overwhelmed and tried to make it mean more than it did.
Liam watched that realization settle before speaking again.
"I’ll give you this for free," he said. "Your flame control is decent for a first year. Your air affinity is better hidden than I expected, but you rely on the same pressure points too often. Left foot before heavy burst. Shoulder dip before redirection. Flame flare before leg-based attack. You use fire to pull attention and air to correct your movement, which is smart, but once someone sees the pattern, they can start predicting where your real movement comes from."
Gabby’s eyes lifted slightly.
Liam went on. "You recover quickly from missed attacks, but only when your opponent lets you keep moving. If they step into your recovery window, your balance breaks. That happened with the first two kills. You were fast, but you were committed. Once your body committed, your choices narrowed."
Gabby said nothing.
Liam’s gaze stayed on her. "Your biggest flaw is not your speed, power, or technique. It is that you stop thinking properly when the fight starts pushing your emotions."
Gabby’s fingers curled.
"You got irritated when I did not use magic. You got more aggressive because of it. Then when you realized you were forcing me back, you became focused on proving that point instead of controlling the fight. That is why your final technique became easy to interrupt."
Gabby swallowed.
Liam’s voice remained flat, but each word landed with weight.
"Don’t wait until you’re calm to think clearly. Real fights won’t give you that luxury. You can be angry, scared, injured, or exhausted, but your mind still has to keep working. Feeling something isn’t the problem. Letting it decide your next move is. As long as you can still think, you still have choices. The second you stop thinking, all that speed and power becomes something your opponent can use against you."
Gabby stood completely still.
Those words struck deeper than the losses had.
The spar had bruised her pride, but this made her look at the shape of that pride more clearly. She was talented. She knew that. Among the first years, she was ranked first for a reason. Her fire and air affinities gave her explosive movement most students her age could not match, and she had enough aggression to make opponents react to her rather than the other way around.
But standing across from Liam made something painfully clear. Talent and skill were not enough if her mind became easy to steer. He had not only outclassed her physically. He had understood her faster than she understood herself.
And if Liam could do that while still recovering, while barely using his affinity, then what would happen against any truly skilled second year?
Her thoughts moved unwillingly toward Dylan.
The insufferable senior standing at the side with that stupid grin and sharp eyes.
Even he would probably outclass her.
The realization annoyed her almost as much as losing to Liam.
