RADIANT, by Tony Valente. First published in 2013 and first published in North America in 2018.
PLOT:
In the land of Pompo Hills, there are ordinary people and there are the Infected. These people are wizards filled with a magical force called Fantasia that produces strange side-effects but allows them to fight deadly magical monsters called Nemeses. Seth is a wizard in training who is ready and eager to fight a Nemesis, and during his first fight with one discovers that he has a special power: he can wield fantasia without the use of the usual magical gauntlets. This skill makes him powerful, but it also makes him desirable to both other wizards and to the Inquisitors who would oppress them.
