A thunderous explosion rang out.
Centered on Ur's fist, an overwhelming force smashed into the ground, caving it in. The once-solid stone paving cracked like fragile glass, fractures spreading outward in a spiderweb pattern at terrifying speed.
"Waaah!"
"Help!"
Screams erupted everywhere.
The shockwave rolled through the courtyard. Combined with the collapsing ground, it was impossible to keep one's footing. The entire scene descended into chaos.
Ur had already tried to hold back the power of that punch.
Unfortunately, the magic inside his body had other ideas. At the instant he struck, a massive surge of energy amplified his blow.
And so, the earth shattered.
The force continued surging forward.
Then, with a resounding crash, half of the guild's dormitory building collapsed spectacularly. The remaining half trembled violently, teetering on the brink of joining it.
Silence fell.
Every guild member stared at the devastation caused by Ur's single punch, faces frozen in collective shock.
As for Makarov Dreyar, he looked as though he'd been struck by lightning. The light drained from his eyes. He slowly sank to the ground, petrified.
A gust of wind blew past.
He practically turned to dust.
"Ahhh… this is bad. This is really bad," muttered Macao, appearing from who-knew-where. One look at the ruined backyard, and he clutched his forehead in agony. "The losses are going to be brutal."
Gradually, the others recovered from the shock. When they looked at the ruined courtyard, their eyes widened to the limit.
"What the hell did you just do?!"
They were no strangers to destruction; being members of Fairy Tail practically required it.
But someone who nearly destroyed their own guild with a single punch?
That was a first.
Even Gildarts Clive usually limited himself to blasting a hole through a wall.
The crowd's expressions were complicated.
Ur's expression wasn't much better. He was already calculating the compensation fee in his head. Just yesterday, he'd paid damages for the incident in the Hoglia Mountains—but that bill had been shared among several guilds, so his portion hadn't been too painful.
This time?
Without at least tens of millions in reimbursement, Makarov probably wouldn't be standing up again anytime soon.
Thankfully, only the dormitory had been damaged. If he had accidentally blown up the main guild hall, that would've been game over.
When guild members caused damage during missions, the guild usually paid.
But this?
It came out of the individual's pocket.
Honestly, having a group like this under him, Makarov must have had the worst luck in eight lifetimes.
Fortunately, Ur had recently come into some money. Otherwise, forget full compensation—he probably couldn't have afforded the down payment.
Amid the uproar, Ur's A-Class Mage exam came to an end.
The result needed no explanation. After all, when the candidate nearly kills the examiner with a single punch, there's not much left to evaluate.
Maybe some bald hero out there could pull off something similar.
But in this guild?
Only Ur.
However, this incident made Ur fully aware of how serious the instability in his magic had become.
So for nearly the next two months, Ur stayed quietly at the guild. Aside from meditation, he devoted himself to studying magic, hand-to-hand combat, and swordsmanship.
For a time, life was peaceful.
Of course, there were occasional minor accidents.
For example. One day, while practicing the advanced spell Destruction Storm, his magic spiraled out of control again. The rampaging gale accidentally finished off the remaining half of the dormitory building in the backyard.
After that, Makarov strictly forbade him from practicing magic there.
Still, it wasn't a big deal.
Just a little seasoning in Ur's tranquil routine.
Then there was another day.
Ur was meditating as usual when Levy suddenly ran up to him, looking aggrieved.
"Who's Jingjing?" she demanded.
Ur: "???"
How the hell should I know who Jingjing is?
Before he could respond, tears welled up in her eyes. Then she began firing off questions he couldn't make sense of at all.
"Is she your lover?"
"I'm not trying to steal you from her!"
"I just want to meet her!"
Ur was completely dumbfounded. After painstakingly clearing up the misunderstanding, that very day, he accepted Natsu Dragneel's second challenge.
According to eyewitnesses, Natsu flew straight from the backyard, arcing over the guild's roof and crashing through more than a dozen buildings before finally hitting the ground.
Happy searched three times before finally locating him unconscious in the middle of a street—bruised, swollen, and nearly unrecognizable.
Naturally, the battle once again devastated the guild's backyard. The reconstruction that had just begun was reduced to rubble—this time even more thoroughly destroyed than before.
When Makarov heard the news, he fainted on the spot.
Shortly afterward, a new rule appeared in the guild. Certain individuals were strictly forbidden from entering the backyard.
With the backyard off-limits, Ur had to find a new training ground.
After some thought, he chose the eastern forest. It was spacious enough that even if something went wrong, the damage wouldn't be catastrophic.
He even selected a bamboo grove specifically, so that Panda would have plenty to eat.
It didn't take long for him to realize he'd miscalculated.
The panda he raised seemed… different. It had zero interest in bamboo. Instead, it spent all day gnawing on dragon bones. When it got tired, it would trot over for a gulp of dragon blood, then resume chewing.
"Weren't pandas supposed to be omnivores?" Ur muttered, beginning to doubt his own memory as he watched Panda munch away with alarming enthusiasm.
Dragon genes were powerful. Most creatures that ingested too much would develop draconic traits.
Panda was no exception.
Its version of "dragonization," however, was… peculiar. It inherited the dragon's massive size. To put it simply, after consuming all that dragon flesh, the only noticeable change was that Panda kept getting bigger.
And fatter. From a distance, if you weren't paying attention, you'd think it was just a ball.
A very well-inflated one.
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