Broken body, crawling mind. The cauterized wounds were present all over his body. The burnt muscles restricted his ability to move, sometimes outright making some actions impossible. It forced him to start developing a new style. It was completely different from his normal, controlled, planned fights.

Like a broken machine his movements contained random uncontrollable motions. His limbs refused to move as ordered, spasming frequently. This led to his attacks lacking the precision and power required in a physical confrontation. The results were stacked even more against him as the exhaustion made what little actions he could physically perform even more painful. It forced him to fight using the spells only.

The repeated use of spells exhausted his mind.  He put out the torch and the darkness enveloped him for the first time in a while. Eyes closed, he focused on his ears to not miss any noise. Controlling his breathing he slowed it down. He moved into a covering that was created as multiple roots bundled up in the same area.

He took out a new crystal and started focusing on recovering his energy. It felt like the time was crawling as his mind wandered on how to optimize his usage of spells during the fights. With physical fighting out of question, all that he had left for survival were the two spells that he had. The spells were powerful so much that even now just a single Spark was all that was needed to kill a monster. The problem was the energy usage. It was the bottleneck for so many things and despite the new crystals speeding up the recovery process by multiple times the time it took to absorb a single crystal remained the same. It was more than the energy these crystals possessed was greater so within the same timeframe the flow of energy was greater.

In the fights, the crystals mattered little. Just to recover energy worth a single Spark took multiple minutes even with the newer crystals while the older ones he could not even think of using. A whole crystal was used up just to recover the energy usage of a single Spark. With the successive usage of spells during the fights, he always ended up with headaches that forced him to rest and recover his energy.

Spark, his first spell. His one and only offensive spell. He was currently focusing on the sparks that were generated after the explosion of the flames. Even though he could now control the direction they would fire towards that was the maximum he had been able to accomplish. It was not enough. After each fight, he was left with patches of fires that spread at astonishing speed. With his body running on its last fumes he did not have the drive to put them out. Now that he was resting he looked inwards, connecting with the spell module and going towards the mechanism that controlled the targeting of the spell. He randomly messed with the mechanism. Observing and recording everything within his memory he remarkably improved after the 10th floor.

He wanted to hit something. Only God knew how much time he had spent withering away in this hell but nothing seemed to be appearing better. There was no end to these fights, no end to the pain, no end to the suffering he had to go through. Constant fear, and doubt. Had he made the correct decision? Should he have stayed back and kept rotting in the prison? At Least he could eat and sleep and pray there, here he did not even remember the last time he had slept. Even in this unforgiving environment he knew he would sleep without a moment's notice if he did not keep himself in check.

The place he was in cared naught for what he was going through. The monsters were everywhere which made it dangerous to stop at a single place for too long. It made sure he could not rest. 

The constant battles kept his sleep in check but even that was starting to stretch. Many times in battles he would almost node off, many times barely coming out alive because the barrier was there to protect him. As time passed the desire to use the elixir only increased.

He wanted to be ridden of pain. His head was throbbing due to the constant usage of the spells, his reservoir the lowest it had ever gotten. So much pain was assaulting his mind that instead became numb to it. His brain automatically filtered it out.

Upon his trembling hands a flame appeared. It was difficult to stretch his arm out and though the flame was there he kept staring at it having forgotten why he had cast it. He kept on staring only after a while remembering why. He kept on looking and then the connection was established, not with the spell module but with the flame that was hovering above his palm. A structure appeared within his head. The structure of the flame was completely different as he compared it to the web-like structure of the barrier.

A container that contained numerous small beads within. Even though he could just sense it he felt that it must look really beautiful. It was hypnotizing and slowly drifted off to sleep as his brain forcefully put his body to rest.

Creepy noises echoed as the wind crossed through the tree and he jumped up straight or tried to but he was struck with a massive bout of pain instead. He cursed himself. He should take it. He knew he should be but he still didn’t. It was expensive after all. He had many sleepless nights before and even though his condition was serious, all that he need to do was complete the floor and then he would be completed fine.

The fights only got more and more gruesome. Having to constantly manage his energy he had to decide. Either he could use energy to cast a barrier or he could take the non fatal hit and save his energy. He did the latter. It was not only the amount of energy that made him do so. As the energy levels were used up, the greater mental pain he felt. It was just like when he kept on repeatedly using the spells but much greater. It forced him to keep his reservoirs near the top levels, another reason he had been fighting physically all this time even though the spells would have kept have away from most of the pain.

Ever so slowly he felt himself getting better at consistently making the connection with the flame. For now, he did not try to do anything more. He knew his state was not stable so he kept away from this unknown thing for now.

The spells having become the primary focus drastically changed how he fought. Unlike the previous maze, in this forest, he had to be aware of attacks from all sides. He had to discard all of the strategies that had been created in the previous maze. He was still unafraid and even though his mental state made it impossible to create new strategies his years of experience in the police force and the time he was trapped in this tower had refined his instincts and those instincts combined with the powerful spells worked together to make sure he came out alive from the fights.

The way he used the spells was quickly refined as he fought under massive pressure. As he now did not have to move much in the fights he tried making connections with the spells during the fights. 

***

Opening his eyes on the next floor was now not comfortable as it once had been. The number of monsters that he now had to kill was in the thousands. Greater than thousand at least, that he was sure of.

A flame appeared upon his palm and he connected with it and tried observing the movement of energy within. He sent a burst of energy striking the capsule holding the beads inside. The flame exploded upon his palm but before the beads could escape he tried squeezing them there which failed. Before the sparks spread any further he sent a burst of energy at them causing them to disintegrate.

Again he felt at awe. He was fully recovered and did not feel the need to get even a wink of sleep. The terrible headache was now gone. He had only blinked and suddenly the way he perceived the world had changed. The filters had been replaced. Instead of pain he felt comfort. Instead of doubts, he felt confident. Instead of distress, he felt a calmness.

He kept on experimenting, trying to control the sparks but it was difficult to control them all so he instead started focusing on directing them towards his desired location. Pressuring the shell from all sides he used a minuscule amount of energy to activate the beads. Like popcorn they became crazy. Slowly he lifted the pressure from a specific side. Finding the weakness within the shell they broke out, swarming towards his desired location.

The cycle kept on turning. His usage of the spells became better and better due to the constant fighting but what he wanted to achieve, the manipulation of the flames, he was still far from it.

The cycle kept on going, becoming more and more gruesome and with time the encounters became even more dangerous as the monsters were now equipped with weapons. He slowly got used to it, the constant fights, the constant alertness. Learning from the experience he increased the usage of the spells even more in the fights.

The flaming barrier appeared around him but unlike their body, the weapons were unfeeling as they pierced the barrier. The red hot blade quickly started melting and with it, he had to pore in more energy within the barrier. The monster tried retracting the blade, but he did not give it the chance. A sword cut off its arm and rushed forwards hugging the monster as the barrier burnt it alive. The inefficiency made him grit his teeth but he had to bear it in as he was being attacked from all sides.

Along with the Spark, he started experimenting with the Cloak of Fire. Failure upon failure he experienced but that did not stop him. He kept on fighting and kept on trying.

With each battle, his execution became better and a positive turn started taking place. Despite the monsters having become even more dangerous he could feel a slight ease with which he handled them. Not letting it make him lazy he renewed his efforts even more after all just having time to be lazy here meant he was in the right direction.

The structure of energy inside the spells was delicate. It forced his minuscule control over the energy to grow. Focusing on the connection with the barrier he felt the delicate web-like structure that had been created within the barrier. Ever so slowly he tried compressing this web in an attempt to scale it down, hoping it would somehow result in the barrier compressing. Like always though, just when he tried it he felt a ripple violently spreading through the structure breaking it down and the barrier disintegrated.

The monster had black scales with a reptile-like head, small eyes, needle-like pointed and sharp teeth that were visible even with the mouth closed. Their fingers ended in long and sharp nails that cut through his flesh like butter. Then the most important part of their body, their feet. They allowed the monsters incredible movement capabilities that made them like a slippery frog, always slipping away from the attacks, being able to evade in ways he would not have thought possible and which were impossible for him as his body was not developed to perform them. 

Now equipped with all sorts of cold weapons they were made even more dangerous due to their agile movement capabilities. The barrier played a pivotal role in keeping him safe as it delayed the weapons from reaching his body that saved him from many hits. As the fights increased the priority of the barrier increased to the top and he kept on trying to enhance its usage as it used up the most energy overall.