Rex didn't retreat; he exploded.
"Fine then," he growled, his voice dropping into something primal as he shoved his palm toward the earth. "Let's see how fast you can run through hell!"
He tapped into Elemental Magic Creation, but he didn't reach for the predictable flames of a novice. He reached deeper, twisting the fundamental frequencies of mana until he birthed something alien.
A wave of violet flame rolled out of his palm in a flat, roaring sheet that swept across the entire front garden.
This wasn't orange or red; it was a sickly, beautiful amethyst that hummed with a sound like grinding glass.
The fire tore across the rose bed, incinerating the petals into ash in milliseconds, and screamed toward the iron fence, melting the metal into glowing slag.
The heat was so intense it created a vacuum, sucking the oxygen from the air. Rex braced himself, expecting to see the charred corpse of the girl who had just broken his ribs.
