As Necro approached the bonfire, all the eyes focused on her. Despite having always been the center of all attention, this time Necro felt overly nervous...

Today was the first time she was actually showing her magic to people. Of course, she'd shown some childish tricks to her "master" but today people were actually looking forward to seeing what she could do. She squatted a couple feet away from the wood, and started to channel her mana.

For her it was a simple matter of gathering the mana and casting the magic. For the others, it was something magical as they saw red light gathering on her right hand and expanding into a gorgeous formation.

 

For Ace, more than anyone, it was a fantastic sight. She was the only present who clearly grasped the grandiosity of what was taking place in front of her eyes. This time, differently from when Necro went berserk, she felt nothing. There was no pressure. Instead, she could see the gorgeous and calm flow of fire mana all around her body moving towards her hand. It wasn't just something beautiful. It was magical. There was no waste, all the mana flowed majestically, in a single direction, laminarly. She had never seen anything that beautiful. What enchanted Ace the most though, was the realization that this was not Necro's main element. She had reached such perfection at such a young age, and that was not her peak performance. Ace's eyes shone in fervor as the mana took the form of the smallest Magic Circle she'd ever seen. 

 

A magic circle's size is limited by two factors: The complexity of the magic, and the skill of the magician or artifice drawing it. Most magicians could not even draw their own circles in a feasible size due to the sheer level of detail. Even less were the ones able to cast magic without a medium, using their own mana to draw the circle in thin air. Yet, this girl in front of her was making the hardest thing possible, drawing the circle with her very mana, at a scale so small most magicians would call insanity. The circle was barely the size of the middle of her palm. 

To put that into perspective, Ace's Water Whip, of which the circle was drawn in a piece of parchment by a professional artifice, was more than double that size. Mana-made circles were supposed to be huge, which caused the magic's mana cost to increase manyfold since it increased the waste in the casting. Yet Necro's casting was simply flawless. No mana was escaping...

 

This realization startled her.

This amount of mana, with no waste, corresponded to an insurmountable amount of magic power.

'What is this girl even...'

 

Before she could finish her reasoning. The mana flow stopped, and the tiny casting circle was substituted by a blazing inferno.

 

"Kya"

 

Ace watched in awe Necro falling on her ass from the scary appearance of a massive flame in front of her. 

 

"Was that... A Flame spell...?" Ace murmured as she witnessed in shock the fire tongue pillaring almost 20 feet in the air, before contracting into a mere bonfire. The scale of the flames legit looked like an advanced fire magic... But she had recognized the magic circle as that of a basic Flame, which was still not as simple as it might appear.

 

"ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL YOURSELF!?" Ace yelled at the fallen Necro, who was strangely frightened by her own magic. 

 

"..." 

 

All the others stood there, in complete and utter amazement.

 

Tears started running on Necro's eyes as she stared at the startled Ace. She thought Ace was pissed at her for showing off. Ace ran towards her and leaned down, hugging the crying Necro. 

 

"I'm so sorry! I was just nervous and used too much magic and-."

 

"That's not why I got angry, idiot"

Ace, tightened her grip around Necro's shoulders as she pressed her face against her chest, Drying her tears. She gave her a kiss to the head before pulling her up to stand on her feet. 

 

The confused necro raised her eyesight, looking at Ace with a pleading face, still scared about what just happened.

 

"I got angry because you were reckless... I was worried about you..."

 

A wide smile appeared on Necro's face as she heard those words. She leaped forward, grabbing Ace's head with both hands, as she gave her a deep passionate kiss right there, in front of the bonfire.

 

For a second, she completely forgot about the others around them. Necro only realized what she'd done once she let go of ace, seeing her extremely embarrassed face, and looking around to see all others staring at them, their mouths wide open. She became as flushed as Ace once the coin dropped. 

 

In Bid and Hal's case, they were just flabbergasted. Not only because of the kiss... But also of the sheer firepower of Necro's magic, that was supposed to only light up the fire.

In Mary's case... She had already felt a hunch that they were strangely close... She just didn't expect them to be together for real already...

 

'They are so cute...' She was holding herself not to "Aww" at the pair

'NO! I shouldn't. What they are doing is a sin... Why am I getting turned on by this?! ITS A SIN! GOD FORGIVE ME GOD'

 

Mary failed to realize that, while in her head she was dealing with a battle against the sinful desire, in real life she was actually drooling...

 

The boys, realizing the atmosphere started to take their leave.

 

"I'm going to get the meat from the earlier hunt for us..." (Hal)

 

"I'll go with you!" (Bid) 

 

Bid poked at Mary who was still drooling.

 

"Ha! What?" 

 

"Are... you coming?" (Bid)

 

"Where to?"

 

"Guess you're staying behind then..."

 

"Huh?!"

 

Ace sighed... While Necro felt relieved. She was legit worried about what Mary was thinking... but it seems everything was gonna be just fine...

 

The three sat around the bonfire. Necro and Ace snuggling close together holding hands as the night's cold increased. Mary was a little aside, still somewhat embarrassed about her suppressed desires.

 

"Necro, what magic was that that you just used? It looked amazing." She started talking, trying to break the ice.

 

"Ah... That was just a flame spell..."

 

"Eh?!" Mary was confused for a second, before truly comprehending what that meant "HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH!??????"