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Time for another entry on the basics of energy casting in the world of Gatekeepers. This time it's thermal casting.

Thermal casting provides the ability to manipulate heat. A thermal caster can both add thermal energy to melt different materials or create jets of fire, or they can remove thermal energy to create ice or freeze things. The usefulness of these abilities in food preservation and preparation are many and varied, as they are in other crafting disciplines.

>Pyrox smiled slightly. “Good… you aren’t lacking spirit, like Ghost was. But I’m sorry to disappoint you… there is no way you can best me. I’ve seen you fight, and there is a gap between our power that you can’t even fathom.”
>-Pyrox, Class Seven Thermal Caster

Thermal casters are renowned as one of the most capable combat types, rivaled only by kinetic casters. The ability to wear opponents down by increasing local temperature by even a few degrees can be invaluable, and their energy shielding is stronger than most other energy types. Creating temporary ice walls as shields is a common technique, as is throwing both fireballs and ice spears.

>Pyrox burst into flames, now entirely engulfed as the ice immediately around him sublimated into steam and the ice further away began melting rapidly.

Thermal fusion allows the caster to merge with either fire or ice, and is one of the main reaons powerful thermal casters can be so dangerous. Engulfing oneself in fire not only allows the caster to propel themselves through the air, it makes it far more difficult to approach them safely as well as making it far easier for them to create bursts of flame. Ice provides a more defensive stance, with the increased energy shielding reaching near impenetrable levels, and allowing more rapid creation of ice walls. Neither state leaves the caster anything resembling vulnerable, and both allow devastating strength to be used against opponents.

There really isn't much more to say about thermal casters, honestly. They are one of the more surface level casting types, and can be easily imagined as a combination between cryomancers and pyromancers. But the simplicity of their casting does not reduce the ferocity of their attacks in combat, and perhaps the lack of frills and special techniques adds to their power. There are still thermal casters who use more technical abilities in battle, but those are more rare than they are in other types of casting.

That's about all for thermal, then. Next is gravity. Stay tuned.

(Excerpts taken from currently unpublished novel, coming soon.)