I've grown stronger thanks to you

There were 18 days left until the fight with the arch ghoul, and Alexander decided it was time for some more practical training. One could read as much theory in the magical arts as they wanted, one could practice their chants and learn new spells as they pleased, it wouldn't change a thing if they freeze up or use the wrong spell in the middle of combat. Angelica couldn't just use spells against random targets Alexander planted, she needed to fight monsters.

And where did someone go if they wanted to find monsters they wanted to fight? The adventurer's guild association! The guild building was a place where many different guild and trade organizations gathered, but the most populated of all was the adventurer's guild, to the point that guild was nearly synonymous with adventuring.

But what exactly was adventuring? There were many different types; dungeon crawling, mountain climbing, sea exploring, but they were all united by the task of hunting monsters. The adventurer's guild would put bounties on monster parts and their materials, and the adventurers were tasked with hunting and collecting those materials and submitting them for a cash reward. This wasn't the only task of adventurers, tasks such as mapping unknown locations and retrieving lost property were also common, but most took the job solely to hunt monsters.

And of that group was Angelica Lux.

"I feel strong enough to take on a dragon!" In front of the questing board, where all the monster bounties were posted, Angelica was boxing the air in delight. "I mean, I was able to take on an orc the other day without my equipment, now that I have it I can probably take down ten!"

"You're rather excited about this," Alexander noted.

"Of course I am! Just a bit ago there was no way I could defeat an orc all by myself! I would have to rely on the strength of my party and..."
Just attempting to recall her party was still a bit saddening. So many people she knew so intimately had their lives now riding on her success. She could only hope they were doing well without her.

"Something the matter?"

"Say Alex," Angelica slowly asked. "Do you think I'll be strong enough in time? Sure I can beat an orc, but an orc is not a dragon, and a dragon is not an arch ghoul or whatever. Do you actually think I'll be able to beat it in time?"

For a moment Alexander was silent, unsure how he should respond to such a question. While he was at first confident he could teach her much more magic in this period of time he didn't account for her unique style of learning. There was still quite a bit more he could teach her, a few more techniques that could increase her power dramatically, but would she really have the time for it?

"Trust me," he said a bit after. "I'll make sure you succeed."
Even if it wasn't the full truth he didn't want to see her disappointed.

"If you say so." Angelica turned her attention to the questing board. "They're rewarding so much for orc bones, I've got to get my hands on them!"

She looked up towards Alexander with the eyes of a pleading puppy dog.

"Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Come on, take a hint. Am I allowed to go on this adventure or not?"

"You are? I shouldn't have to tell you, you can decide for yourself."

"But you're the teacher here, shouldn't you... never mind."

"Never mind what?"

"Never mind never mind!" Angelica blushed and looked away. "Just wait here, I'll be back with those orc bones pretty soon!"

Angelica raised her golden sword in the air, light radiating off of it like she was some sort of hero, before running out of the guild building. Alexander was sure he heard some snickers and whispers from people as Angelica rushed out, but he didn't dare say anything.

But the moment she stepped out that laughter grew clearly louder. The whispering and snickering and talks going around had gotten louder. Alexander could finally make out what was being said under their hushed breaths, though mostly just a few incomplete words. "Trash." "Weakling." "Failure." Words like that were running around the crowd. While he didn't know exactly what was being said, he could imagine none of it was nice.

But was it really his place to look into such things? If Angelica desired it then he'd be glad to shut them up, but since she seems none the wiser he might as well leave them be.

And so he stepped out of the guild building, ready to-

"Wait just a moment. I want to talk."
Before Alexander could fully walk through the door a hand fell upon his shoulder and stopped him. The guy who stopped him was about a head shorter than him with short black hair, or at least it looked black at first. Closer look revealed the roots were a bright blue, so the black was likely a dye. His loose-fitting robes, mostly black with a few gold edges looked rather expensive, so it was shocking to see that they were so damaged and worn out. Who would treat such expensive clothing like this?

Wait a minute, he recognized the guy. This was the dude Angelica tried to save back in the forest, the guy that she attempted to defend from a dragon. Alexander heard his name when transporting him to the healer, it was... it was... what was his name?

"Excuse me, what is your-"

"I'll get to the point. I'm challenging you to a duel!"

The entire building went quiet, all of the adventurers' eyes looking at the duo with shock. It felt like the building's temperature had suddenly dropped.

"Sorry, but I don't know your-"

"My motives are of no importance right now. Just meet me behind the guild by noon."

"But your-"

"Also!" He glared straight at Alexander. "I've seen what you're capable of, don't you dare hold back against me! Do you understand?"

"I forgot your name."

"...it's Cyan."

"Got it."

"Don't bail out on me." Cyan stomped out of the guild building, slamming the door behind him.

It took a few minutes for Alexander to fully realize what just happened. A duel? With this guy he barely knew? Why? For what purpose?

He wasn't going to bail though, he couldn't even think about it. Going back on something he promised wasn't in his DNA, even if the promise was accidental. It'd take him something remarkable to want to break a promise, something like meeting someone like her...

Now that he started to think about it, he didn't have much of a problem with this duel. Back when he was part of the Rex family they'd forbid him from engaging in any duels or friendly competitions with common folk, but he wasn't under them anymore. If Angelica were to hear about this duel she'd probably push him to enjoy himself.

Okay, there shouldn't be a problem with accepting this duel. He looked like a spellcaster too, maybe he'd get to see some cool use of magic. He just hoped a big crowd didn't form, it'd be more trouble than it was worth if his name got too far out there.

***A Few Hours Later***

A crowd had formed behind the guild, surrounding the two combatants in a wide circle. So many cheers and cries blared out that it was hard for the two fighters to even hear their own thoughts.

This was the worst-case scenario in Alexander's mind.

The events of just a few days ago were still as clear as day in Alexander's mind, and Cadence's words afterwards were still ringing in his head. She was watching him, she was keeping eye on all of his actions, she may have even been watching the very moment he accepted this fight. If he stood out too much was there a chance it'd make her suspicious? Would he unknowingly be putting all of these spectators in danger?

And yet there was one more thing that made Alexander worried about being seen by so many people:
He never performed in front of a crowd like this before. Was this stage fright?

"Cyan feels the need to beat down on some noob again."
"I've never seen him so serious before, this is bound to be good."
"OH GREAT LORD CYAN PLEASE DESTROY HIM MARVELOUSLY!!!!"

It seemed like most of the crowd was focused on Cyan, barely anyone even acknowledging Alexander's presence.

"Any last words?" Cyan glared at Alexander, his eyes cast in shadow. "Or are you ready for me to destroy you?"

"I have a request," Alexander said. "Can we do this without a crowd?"

"BOOOO!!"
"Let us watch!"
"Don't try to hide from us!"
The crowd's immediate disagreement was obvious.

"Just do your best to ignore them," Cyan said. "At this point I can't stop my fans from wanting to see me at my peak."
Cyan started to chant, and sparks began to crackle around his head. Two orbs of what appeared to be pure black lightning grew to his sides, stopping when they became large enough to engulf his head.

"Do you have something against me? I don't exactly know why you're doing this in the first place."

"I don't expect you to know. Just think of this as me establishing the hierarchy of power around here."

In the blink of an eye beams of black lightning fired from the orbs, targeted right at Alexander's head. The beams would have made his head burst to pieces if he hadn't reacted in time, a green and blue barrier of light blocking the lightning from striking his head.
Yet even if the attack didn't hit its force was still felt, knocking Alexander back a few feet. If his leg didn't dig into the ground he likely would have flown straight into the guild building.

"It's so pretty," Alexander said, admiring the spell. "At first it looks like electricity but it appears to be pure concussive force. Is the electricity theming in order to be deceptive? To bait out elemental resistances or immunities? Or maybe it's just a byproduct of how the spell is fashioned. Its speed is certainly comparable to real electricity, I wonder if-"

He quickly had to quit his analysis and begin yet another chant, producing another green and blue barrier to stop a similar attack from behind. One more orb of black lightning had suddenly sprouted up a bit behind and above him, perfectly in his blind spot, but Alexander reacted just in time to prevent any real damage. The force nearly buried him into the Earth, his knees completely submerged into the ground.

"And it can be deployed remotely!? Wouldn't this require an incredibly long chant? He has to be compressing it on some level, but I thought chant compression wasn't common knowledge."

"Hey, Cyan grumbled. "Are you just going to stand there and speak? Are you not going to do anything?"

"Relax," Alexander said, putting his hand on Cyan's shoulder. "I've been told I'm a bit of a magic nerd, let me obsess over it a bit."

Cyan nearly jumped out of his skin. Just a second ago, within the span of a blink, his opponent had been meters away, pelted by three black lasers at once, yet now he had appeared right behind him. Was this teleportation? But wormhole spells weren't supposed to be this fast, were they?

If Cyan had looked a bit closer he would have found the answer to his question on his opponent's hand. A bluish symbol made of pure magic was implanted on his hand, a teleportation sigil designed to transport his body to a specific location just once. It took a lot of careful thought to configure this, one wrong move and he would have teleported right into the laser, so he had to breathe a little sigh of relief that it even worked.

"Are you mocking me!?" Cyan nearly swatted Alexander's hand right off of him. "Are you even taking this seriously!?"

"I am?" Alexander tilted his head like a confused animal. "I mean, I almost died there."

"Be serious! You haven't attacked me even once! You're mocking me, aren't you!?"

"...no?"

"THEN FIGHT BACK!"

Cyan clasped his hands together and chanted, waves and streams of mana condensing into his palms and solidifying. A long bright and glowing sword extended from his hands, long enough to dwarf both Cyan and Alexander in height.

"Is that conjuration magic!?" Alexander was excited until he looked a bit closer. "It's not a material sword, it's merely condensed mana formed shape. And here I imagined you managed to conjure steel, something even I can't-"

Before Alexander could finish the thought he was forced to leap back, the mana sword swung down so hard it made the ground crack. Just a second late his feet would have been chopped right off. As much as he wanted to know just how hard and sharp this pure mana sword was staying close to it was far too dangerous a gamble.

And so with a single chant mana began flowing through his legs, increasing their power and enhancing his speed. With his newfound swiftness Alexander dashed away from the sword swings, not letting the blade even get close.

"FIGHT BACK COWARD!" Cyan screamed as he put his hand to the ground and chanted, glowing red blades emerging from the ground and slicing their way towards Alexander.

"More blades made of mana? This is a rather customizable spell type," Alex said as he casually leapt over the blades.

"I SAID FIGHT BACK!" Cyan pointed his palms forward and activated his next spell, creating small but fast fireballs that blasted out of his fingers.

"Fireballs? But the chant's a bit off." Alex quickly dodged the initial blast, only for the fireballs to turn around and head at him from behind. "I see, you gave them homing properties. But how did you get them to differentiate me from the audience? What exactly is it homing in on?"

Spell after spell was fired off, Cyan doing whatever he could to hit Alex, but he was completely out of luck.

"Hold on, is this guy actually toying with Cyan right now!?"
"This guy may actually be stronger than Cyan!"
"Did Cyan start growing weaker or something!?"

The attitude of the crowd had started to change, a guild that had unilaterally supported Cyan was now voicing their support for Alex. Never before had Alex heard such praise for him, such recognition for his strength, and if he had to be honest it was quite embarrassing.

"Please don't worry about me." Alex blushed, his dodging skills growing worse and a bit mor sluggish from the praise. "You guys are making me feel a bit awkward here."

"DON'T MOCK ME!!"

Cyan suddenly appeared in front of Alex, the giant mana sword raised high in his hands. Was it teleportation? No, from the way the dust kicked off the ground it was clear he ran, he moved so incredibly fast he looked like he disappeared and reappeared. There was no way a human being could move this fast on their own, there had to be some sort of spell involved.

There was barely any time to react as the blade started swinging down, so in desperation Alex activated a spell on the soles of his feet. A gust of wind emerged from them, boosting him back like a rocket and making his body rocket towards the guild building. Another barrier spell was activated around him, allowing his body to burst through the building to the road on the other end before the sword could even touch him. Said sword of mana crashed through the wall, making half of the structure begin to collapse, but not even a speck of dust had hurt Alex.

Cyan once again fired off the homing fireballs from before, gatling and blasting them over and over like his hand was a machine gun. Alex leapt up the guild walls to avoid the blast, stamping his feet through the wood in order to stick to it and boost himself up in the air. He did this and leapt just a few more times in order to reach the roof of the building, and the moment he did he took a running start and leapt.

For a single moment in time all eyes were on Alex as he glided through the sky, the fireballs following him like his own personal streamers, before he fell deep into the forest and seemingly disappeared.

"You..." Cyan bit his lip before quickly giving chase, diving headfirst into the deep brush to finish off his prey. With a single chant he created two mana swords instead of one, though these were much smaller than the singular one he made use of earlier. Mana ran around the edges like butter, allowing them to cut and slash through the trees around him just by running near them with the blades out. Without any bit of force needed the swords sliced through any obstacle, and he was confident they'd cut through any barrier with ease.

Yet when he made it through the forest, when he finally found Alex, he nearly stopped his own heart in awe. In the dark and thick brush, blind to any intruders, a sole beam of light managed to crown Alex in its glory, as if he were an angel that had descended from the heavens for this very moment. His eyes seemed to glow in the light, like the stars inside were ready to reach out and bring in any that dare to oppose him.

And the fireballs? The homing attacks that were meant to be his downfall? They were making circles around him, most around his torso while one circled around the top of his head like a halo.

"I figured out just what your fireballs were tracking, it was movement," he said in an excited voice while doing his best to keep still. "You were relying on me so actively dodging and running from the fireballs to keep them on my trail, while you and the crowd were mostly stationary so the attacks wouldn't come for you. It's a neat trick, I almost didn't notice."

Cyan snarled. "Why are you explaining my own trick to me?"

"Because if you move now, you'll get caught up next. I stopped the spell by creating little fireballs of my own and making these things chase them. But since those fireballs have disappeared they're now stuck chasing themselves. If you move too fast you'll just make yourself their target, and I personally think getting hit by a spell you casted is embarrassing."

Cyan didn't look pleased. "Is fighting me that boring to you?"

"Boring? How could it be, it's been a while since I've had this level of exercise, and I've never even thought of applying movement tracking to a fireball like that. Watching your spells are interesting!"

"Watching!? So this isn't even a fight to you!?" Cyan looked like he was about to bash his head into a wall, but somehow he stayed civil. "Now that I think about it you were so bothered about not knowing my name but I never asked for yours. What is it?"

"Alexander."

"Alexander what? What family are you from?"

"...Rex." It felt hard to say it every time. "Alexander Rex."

"So you're part of the Rex family?" Cyan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "That explains a lot. Tell me, Alexander Rex, before you came around, do you know who the guild's strongest member was?"

Alexander shrugged.

"Of course you don't know, because there's no need for you to care. I've had to work the skin off my bones for this position, and you just stroll in as the strongest guy from the born strongest family, it's not fair."

"It doesn't exactly work like that."

"Does it? When your entire family is born full of geniuses I'm supposed to believe you're not all born powerful?"

"No really, you kind of misunderstand-"

"I've spent five years building myself up as the top dog of this place, do you think I'm just going to let you come in and take that title without a fight!?" Cyan lifted up his bangs, placing two fingers to his forehead. "Master said I shouldn't activate this unless I'm in extreme danger, but I think this is extreme enough."

Alexander barely got a look at what was under his fingers, but immediately understood it was dangerous. The magical red glow and shape meant it was some sort of sigil, a spell planted directly on the body. Red spells like that were used to take complete physical control of the target. And the placement was right on his head, activating it could give the spell direct control of the brain!

"Don't touch-"
Alexander tried to leap at Cyan to stop him, but the movement gave the fireballs the perfect target to shoot at once more. They exploded on his skin with a touch, and while it hurt a lot at least it wasn't anything too dangerous for him. Small burns like that were easy for him to heal, especially when it came to his own body.

But the explosions did slow him down, and he was just slow enough to miss Cyan as he poured mana into the sigil without interruption.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!" He suddenly screamed, his eyes nearly rolling back into their sockets, breaths halting, heart stopping for just a moment. He fell into the grass, completely motionless.

"Cyan!" Alexander ran to his side immediately. Controlling the brain was incredibly dangerous because of just how delicate it was. To control the brain was to control every bodily function and process at once, messing up even a little bit would in the best case leave a permanent scar on the target, though the more likely option was straight up death.
Alexander quickly checked his pulse. Maybe if he was fast enough he could do something. He couldn't confirm Cyan was brain-dead just yet, he had to make sure the rest of the body was functional and-

He couldn't breathe. Cyan's hand was wrapped around his neck, choking the living daylights out of him.

"I knew playing dead would get someone like you to worry." Cyan slowly sat up, his eyes slithering back into place. His smile widened into an eerie grin like he had been possessed, and his free hand was scratching at his skin. "I mean, you know about the risks of trying to control the brain, clearly you'd expect the worst."

"Who..." Alexander could barely breathe. "Who are you?"

"This boy's master. Interested in how this spell works? You can tell it's something interesting, right?"

Indeed it was a rather interesting spell. Most manipulation-based sigil spells were like a written set of predetermined instructions, like a line of code that directed the target on how to move and what to do in very specific ways. To not only control a brain, but control it to a point that it seemed to give the person under a new personality, that would require a library's worth of instructions. Unless there was some sort of trick behind it he was looking at the most complicated control sigil that may have ever been made, something that could interest any magic nerd.

"Let him go." And yet Alexander didn't let his curiosity get the better of him, grabbing Cyan's wrist and pulling the hand off his neck. "Stop controlling him."

"You were never any fun."

"Do you know me?"

"Want to see a cool trick?" The possessed Cyan jumped up to his feet, and started a surprisingly long chant. Leaves flew off their branches and flew into the air, clumping up and fusing into three piles. Those piles of leaves mashed together and liquified, only to stretch and solidify in a new form. Bones, skin, teeth, all of them were formed into humans, and not just any humans, perfect copies of Cyan.
"I was even able to copy the hair dye and clothes," the possessed Cyan said with a smile. "Cool, right? It's like I've given birth!"

Alexander was sick at the display. The world spun around him, his breakfast threatened to come out from his mouth, his face went paler than snow just looking at it.
"Stop it," he said weakly.

"Ah..."
"Ho..."
"Wuh..."
The newly created Cyans were like babies, just barely able to stand and babbling nonsensical words.

"Oops, almost forgot this part." With a snap of his fingers the possessed Cyan casted a spell, and the sigil on his head appeared on the forehead of all the other possessed Cyans. All he had to do was clap his hands and the change was immediate, making the new Cyans clearly lose control of their bodies. Their limbs stiffened and jerked a bit, as if some part of them was giving some futile resistance, but in the end they were sporting the same smiles as the original possessed Cyan.

"STOP IT!" Alexander barked, tears starting to form in his eyes.

"You want to know the best part about having four of us? It means having four times the mana. So we can do stuff like this!"
The four Cyans held each other's hands and linked up in a circle, chanting and chanting and chanting. Sparks started to fly between them, until an orb of pure darkness and black appeared, an orb so dense and powerful light itself was drawn to it.
"Isn't it beautiful? And we still have enough mana to make one more it we wanted."

The black hole grew and grew, beginning to consume all around it. The plant-life was no match for its gravitational pull, grass and shrubs and entire trees uprooting in order to be consumed by its power. Alexander could barely keep standing, doing his best to hold onto the quickly crumbling ground, but the Cyans merely stood there as if they weren't a part of this world, as if they could choose to not be affected by the black hole.

"But beating you with a black hole would be a bit too simple."
And with a simple clap the black hole shrunk into nothingness, bursting into an explosion of white sparkles.

Alexander was still on the ground from the black hole's creation, but right now he didn't even want to get up. He was terrified, in awe, confused, enraged, so many different emotions he both knew and didn't all at once.
"Who... are you?"

"Wait, you didn't realize who I was?" The Cyans pouted in unison. "I thought your big sis's handiwork would be obvious!"

Immediately Alexander got on his knees, shivering down to his bones.
"PLEASE FORGIVE MY RUDENESS SISTER GREATEST!!"

"Oh please, you don't have to call me that anymore. You're not a part of the family so technically I'm not your sister anymore, just call me Bella."

"B-Bella..."

"Yes, just like that." Bella smiled through all of the Cyans. "You know all of our siblings are so mean for their reasons for kicking you from the family. They say things like you disgust them or you bring shame to them. But me, I've never thought of you like that. I don't care if you're of that kind or not, there was a part of you that was dazzling no matter what you were."

Alexander almost wanted to ask what it was, but knowing his sister he had a good idea of what the answer was.

"There's a part of you that we adore and always will adore Little Bro... oh right, I should be calling you Alex now, whoops." Bella faked a laugh. "And that part of you that we admire, is your strength! Why don't you apply yourself more? You could easily be the strongest of our siblings, no, the strongest in the world! There's no one in this world who was born for the art of combat like you were. It was too bad then that us siblings weren't allowed to fight each other."

"You did all this... j-just so you can fight me?"

"Of course! Don't you know how embarrassing it is to get a girl to make the first move? So when I saw this boy over here itching for some training I decided I'd teach him a little bit, and it was thanks to him I was finally able to speak to you again! Isn't it lovely!?"

Alexander felt sick.

"Isn't it wonderful!?"

Alexander wanted to throw up.

"I know the me using this brat's body isn't exactly as strong as I usually am, but I just can't wait anymore! Let's fight already!"

Alexander backed away, his heart pounding like it was going to leap out of his chest and run away for him. Fight her? How? He could barely lift a hand against her, or Cadence, or any of his other sisters. How was he supposed to fight her?

His back hit something solid, but when he glanced back there was nothing there. An invisible wall perhaps? And if he knew his sister, it surrounded the both of them, preventing either from getting out.

"Come on Alex, you already know how I operate. Neither of us are leaving until there's a winner!"
All four Cyans chanted, but different chants came from the four mouths. The first to finish created the orbs of black lightning, blasting the black lasers right in Alexander's direction. The second to finish created the gigantic mana sword, only to quickly chant spells to boost its power and speed. The third placed his hand to the ground, creating blades of mana that cut through the ground and ripped straight for their target. And the fourth? The fourth Cyan was still chanting, chanting and chanting like his life depended on it.

Alexander just barely managed to make a shield to block the black lasers. He dodged to the side as the grounded blades rushed past him, the swords barely cutting his hairs. He was forced to kick off the air with a gust of wind to avoid the larger mana blade, the Cyan holding it swinging wildly and recklessly.

"Come on, come on, come on!!" Bella gritted her teeth through Cyan's body. "Fight back! Fight back already!"

"I can't," Alexander said, his body shaking from all sorts of emotions. "I can't just attack you!"

"You trying to be a pacifist or something?" Bella sighed. "You're like a dog running out the house the first moment the door is opened. What would you do if I just ordered you?"

"Ordered me!?"

"Did you forget who you are!? Did you forget who you were meant to obey!? So tell me, which do you value more, your loyalty to the family you're no longer part of, or this newfound pacifism or whatever you're doing?"

Alexander's head was spinning, unsure what he should make of this. Never was he to hurt another member of the Rex family, it was something deeply imprinted into him for as long as he lived, something that almost felt like a part of him at this point. Never was he to disobey an order from another member of the Rex family, it might as well be part of his identity, it was something that nearly defined who he was. What defined him versus what was part of him, which was stronger? Which was more important? His head hurt just thinking about it.

"FIGHT BACK ALREADY!!!"

The thought distracted him just enough for Bella to punch him in the gut, slamming his body right into the invisible wall. His head was spinning. His mouth tasted like puke. His stomach felt like it crumpled. His vision was blurring. His limbs were getting cold. His entire world was turning upside down and inside out, over and over and over and over.
Screw it.

Bella swung the mana sword once more, but Alex disappeared in an instant. He had used a sigil to teleport once more, and it didn't take Bella long to find him. There he was, standing behind one of the Cyans, his body glowing in a rainbow of colors with an aura so bright he looked more divine than mortal. All he did was backhand Cyan, and that sent Cyan flying at intense speeds before his body splattered on the invisible wall.

"THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!"
The Cyan with the mana sword charged straight at Alex. The Cyan who was chanting continued to chant and chant. The remaining standing Cyan went to the one splattered on the wall to heal him.

Alex barely dodged the swings of the giant sword, each slash tearing through the ground and slicing apart even the air itself. Even with all of his buffs he wasn't confident in his ability to survive such powerful attacks, so he couldn't let such an attack stay close.

Alex raised his palm, and in half a second his attacker was sent halfway across this makeshift arena. It was a simple attack, effectively a blast of wind but more deadly. He hardened the air and compressed it into an invisible wall that nearly crushed the target.

But immediately he was forced to run, with the now healed Cyan pelting his general direction with homing fireballs. With the swordfighter currently down there was no way the fireballs would ever chase anyone else, which meant he had to find a way to deal with it all by himself. Making more spells for them to chase instead was going to waste some time though.

In that case he should just destroy them. He placed his hand to the ground and chanted, creating blades of mana that tore through the ground. It was just like the spell Cyan used against him but with a small twist; it was fast.
The blades blasted towards the healing and healed Cyans, and the fireballs, noticing their speed, chased down the blades instead. The blades hit the wall and the fireballs struck the blades, making them explode and sending the shrapnel into the Cyans' faces.

That left one Cyan, the one still chanting...
...the one who just finished chanting.

The other three Cyans began to jerk and twitch, their bodies shaking uncontrollably before flying towards the one that chanted. That one Cyan held out his hand, all of his doubles landing there my the neck, and then they melted.
Their bodies seemed to morph into balls of pure flesh, mashing and melting and muddying together like dough, before growing and expanding into something horrifying.

Magical spikes emerged from whatever this creature was. It was like a dragon made of flesh, with eyes across its snout, wings made of hair and dead skin, and limbs so muscular the veins bulged out of them. Alex could only gag looking at the thing.

"Don't be rude." Bella made Cyan pout. "I've spent a lot of time designing this thing. Don't knock it until you make your own. Now that I think about it, I haven't seen you conjure a single creature even once this battle, something wrong? You're already so strong, if you cloned yourself you could easily be so much stronger!"

"...you make me sick." Alex's voice was low and quiet.

"Oh, is it because you relate to these things? You shouldn't worry about this sort of stuff, you're pretty different from these things in my eyes. Just think of them as like objects, what's the harm in that?"

"But aren't they alive!?"

"So is a tree, yet I'd still chop one to make wood, what's your point?"

"I'll never understand you."

"I don't ask to be understood, I ask to fight you!"

The crystals on the draconic creature began to glow, time and space itself condensing within its mouth, readying for a single attack. It was impossible to look directly into the mouth of that attack without losing oneself in the cosmos.

"I..." Alex wanted to say something, but he was too disgusted to think of anything.

With a snap of his fingers a small glowing blue wormhole appeared by his hands, just big enough for his fist to fit through. He reached in and pulled out a smooth brown stick, around a foot long and pointed on the end like a magic wand. He pointed its end at the creature's mouth, closed one eye, then began his chant.

A rainbow of colors of mana emerged from the stick.
A rainbow of colors of mana emerged from Alex himself.
All of the colors of mana condensed in front of the stick, forming a flame that felt like an embodiment of the heavens.

And in a second they fired. From the mouth of the beast was a blast containing all of the cosmos. From the stick of man was a blast containing the rainbows of the heavens. The attacks clashed, a combination that momentarily made time stand still.
But in the end man was victorious.

The rainbow flames pierced through the beast, making it burst into colorful flames that left not even ashes behind. In a sparkling show of stars the creature was completely erased, not a trace of it left.

"Rest in peace," Alex said with a bow before pointing his stick at the remaining Cyan. "Now, what to do about you?"

"Hey, don't kill my student yet," Bella snickered. "I still have so many things to teach him."

"What about Rex family policy?"

"Yeah, what about it? What an odd thing for you to be asking."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play dumb. If fighting you was my only reason to come here Mama wouldn't let me leave. Cadence wanted me to keep an eye on you, and surely you know why."

Alexander started to sweat. "Does that mean-"

"Relax, she has suspicions but no proof. And no matter what happens I don't plan to give her any, that is as long as we still get to fight sometime."

"Fine..." Alexander groaned. This wasn't the best situation, but it was leagues better than Cadence finding out.

"Great! When I'm ready for our showdown I'll use this guy to tell you. Good luck!"

Cyan put a finger to his forehead, and the sigil disappeared, evaporated into thin air. The possessed boy collapsed, Alexander catching him before he could hit the ground.

"He still has a pulse." Alexander sighed in relief. Mental damages were yet to be seen, but knowing his sister there likely wasn't any harm done. Despite how battle crazed she was she could be surprisingly delicate when it was something she considered human.
As long as she considered it human.

Hopefully Angelica was having a good time hunting orcs.