Samuel’s face was red with anger, a thick vein of irritation forming just along his forehead.

“How fascinating,” said the climber president. “She’s really made her airbringer trait her own with this move.”

They stared through the window to the arena below as the paper cranes swirled around Sybil.

* * *

Sybil held up her arms defensively but it was no use.

There were simply too many cranes.

“Aghhh!” she screamed out in pain.

She tried to push the wind back but it was no use. Technically, Sybil’s power over the wind and higher mana affinity stat should have been able to reverse direction of Casey’s tornado, but Casey’s paper cranes were imbued with mana of their own. All of the cranes were contributing to the ferocity and power of Casey’s tornado to a level much stronger than Sybil was capable of pushing back on her own.

The wings of the paper cranes sliced through Sybil’s clothing and flesh. Tiny bleeding paper cuts opened up all over Sybil’s body.

Sybil jerked spasmodically all over the place unable to defend the countless number of small attacks from the paper cranes.

The audience was silent, waiting with bated breath to see the outcome of Casey’s powerful attack.

For the longest time, Casey had never known how to make her trait special, unique to her. But it was after meeting Max and seeing the fierce determination in his eyes, his willingness to do anything to find and save his sister, that unlocked a determination in her self that had long been dormant. From that point on, she’d been working on perfecting an airbringer attack that would take advantage of her own unique strengths.

The thousand paper crane attack was the result of that effort.

“Agggghhhhh!” screamed Sybil as the pain grew worse and worse. She was bleeding out of countless cuts across her body now.

Casey screamed as she used all her power and mana to unleash the devastating attack.

The cranes swirled in a destructive violent torrent all around Sybil, her childhood tormentor.

“Do you see now, Sybil?” shouted Casey. “There’s one thing being raised within the traitless community that I’ve learned that a pure-vein doesn’t and that’s learning to work together with others, the idea that when combining forces you can create whole new strengths you never thought possible. You’re so focused on channeling as much mana and wind as possible to do powerful martial attacks, you didn’t realize one could use the wind to empower something seemingly innocent into something incredibly powerful. My paper cranes aren’t strong on their own, but when infused with mana and wind power and in a collective flock, each weak individual crane suddenly becomes infused with a massive amount of power! MY TRAITLESS BACKGROUND IS MY STRENGTH! BEING A FAKE-VEIN IS SOMETHING ONE CAN BE PROUD OF! NOT ASHAMED FOR!”