All Chapters of Jade: The Hybrid Mage: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

My knees hit the ground, and I gasped. The last embers of fire left my limbs, and the light in my veins fizzled out. The machines closed in like wolves. Dozens. Hundreds. Then they stopped. Their bodies twitched. Glowed. Then began to move again, but not toward me. They turned away—toward each other. Toward the center. Their forms shifted, folded, and twisted. Metal clanged, plates screeched, gears roared to life. It was like watching a swarm of insects become a monster. War machines fused and expanded, crawling up one another, snapping and locking into place, climbing themselves to form something colossal. They were building a titan. A beast of war. A mountain of blackened steel, smoke, and raw power. Arms like towers. A torso the size of a hill. Legs that made the quaking ground feel like a whisper. Its head turned. It saw me. "I'm so dead." Then from the swarm came more shifting, more assembly—a weapon. Massive. Its right arm transformed into a blade forged from hundreds

The training room looked like something from a dream. Or a nightmare. I couldn’t decide which.Fluorescent walls shaped into a perfect octagon surrounded us. The white glow of the platforms beneath our feet hummed with subtle power, keeping us slightly suspended in the air. Everything about the room whispered of ancient brilliance—Gyrange’s final forge, they'd called it. Built by the most legendary Magic Engineer in history. And now it was watching us.Literally.“Does it feel like we’re being judged by the walls?” Bainer whispered beside me, shifting her weight uncomfortably on her podium.“They’re alive,” Orin muttered, half to himself. “I’ve heard of this place. It’s reserved for ranked Watchers only. Records everything—every move, every error. Even has a voice.”“Great,” I mumbled. “No pressure at all.”The sound of Commander Kema’s voice rang through the room, deep and calm. “You are now inside one of the most adaptive training environments in the realm. This chamber will push yo

The next day’s training began with an odd tension in the air. Not the usual dread from a brutal combat assessment or another mind-warping illusion. This was something else.We all felt it.Brand, especially.We stepped into the training chamber to find a single figure already waiting for us—lean, composed, draped in the gray-black combat robes of a senior Watcher. She had short silver hair and deep brown skin that glowed under the fluorescent lights. Her stance was relaxed, but something about her presence made the air feel sharper.“Oh stars,” Nyomei breathed. “Is that . . . Lysar Fallan?”“Who?” Lotanni whispered back.“Lysar,” Bainer echoed. “As in—the Lysar? The prodigy who made the A-Class list as a second-year? The one who knocked down three smug royal werewolves in a ranked match?”“Number eleven on the potential successor list for Commander,” Nyomei added. “She’s that good.”And standing beside me, Brand—the usually composed, deadpan, untouchable Brand—was sweating.Actually s

I didn’t make it past sixty-eight seconds.One minute and seven seconds, to be exact.That was my best attempt so far against the reflection of Petrusia—the artificial construct conjured by the system that fought with all of Petrusia’s best traits but none of her weaknesses.I’d lasted nine seconds during our first match.This was supposed to be an improvement.It didn’t feel like one.I lay flat on my back, breathing hard, staring at the high ceiling of the reflection chamber while the fluorescent runes on the platform dimmed down around me.“One minute and seven seconds,” the system confirmed. “Cadet Jade Ishola: Defeated.”The words echoed like a taunt.I sat up slowly, brushing sweat from my brow and fighting the sting of frustration rising in my throat.Why was I still this weak?I’d trained. Fought. Thought. Bled.And still, I couldn’t lay a finger on her. Not one.“The reflection was modeled on Princess Petrusia of Króna,” the system said, as if offering comfort. “Royal werewol

(Back to Jade's POV)The chamber sealed shut behind me.No sound. No wind. Just a dim glow humming from the ceiling and the faint static of the training panels.This was isolation training. Me versus me. Me versus her.The reflection.But I wasn’t going to beat Petrusia’s reflection by throwing punches blindly in here. I needed more than stamina. I needed instinct.So I trained.Every day followed the same rhythm.Five hours in the mind realm.The system had crafted a simulated world just for me—a time-warped bubble where one day outside equaled ten inside. I’d spend five 'outside' hours locked in that space, which meant nearly fifty hours passed in there. Two straight days of combat packed into one session.The mind realm wasn’t gentle.It was where I sharpened my instincts. Battled wave after wave of randomized combat trials—dummies, wild beasts, humanoids, constructs, and variants. The enemies never repeated. Never got predictable. Every blow I dodged, every parry I missed, every s