Unsouled

Lindon is the only member of his family who cannot tap into the Paths that power the sacred arts, and that gap has followed him his whole life. He scrapes together whatever tactics he can beg, borrow, or take to make his situation better, but the ranks of the truly formidable seem permanently closed to him. Then the sky itself opens and reveals what is to come. Lindon alone recognizes the disaster approaching, so he sets out from the land he knows, both to avert it and to find out how far a person can climb by following a Path of his own.

This is the first book in the Cradle series, a leading example of progression fantasy, a subgenre centered on a protagonist who grows steadily stronger in the use of magic. The novels move quickly and keep their attention on conflict, spending little time on building the world around the story. Readers often liken the series to anime, praising its loud, vivid clashes between characters with enormous power.