Six Warriors

A Sunddely Volcano Erupts - (Jack)

"I'm so boooored!" Jack suddenly exclaimed as he followed Marcus's side.

"Are you really going to be whining?" Marcus complained, "I could be following anyone else you know? Maybe they complained less."

"Dude, but the whole thing about looking for information and blah blah blah, it's really boring! After all, why is this whole Metaphysical Configuration thing so important?"

Marcus pulled Jack by the collar of his shirt and looked him in the eye seriously.

"Make sure you keep your voice down, okay? Stop announcing around that you're trying to do something important! You don't know who might be watching us."

"Alright, alright, my bad, it's just that you look kind of uptight, Marcus."

"If you weren't serious, Jack, why did you take it all this, then?" Marcus asked with a frown, "you know, I've been training for a long time to take on this responsibility. I trained hard to get to First Class level, and then it was just passed on to you by a fluke of fate and whims of a fallen goddess."

"Are you still angry about this?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm not," Marcus seemed to respond sincerely, "but I want you to take things seriously. It's not all about winning battles, it's not all about glory, sometimes you'll have to make tough choices, Jack. That was the responsibility you took it for yourself, that's what you've been waiting for all your life to be taken seriously, isn't it?"

Jack looked at Marcus for a while. They had known each other from a very young age, as children, and even had a very, very distant family kinship. Marcus had always been disciplined and focused, whereas Jack often didn't care so much about things. That's why Jack got along well with Fenrir, why they were both kind of ditzy, but unlike Fenrir, who seemed to really care about nothing, Jack sometimes felt ashamed of himself, sometimes wanted to be taken seriously, to be more than he was before and Marcus knew it, as the two lived close by and had a long friendly relationship. Sometimes Marcus was someone Jack was jealous of, had always been interested in martial arts and things like that, had always taken himself seriously and had trained to improve himself. Compared to that, Jack was just a clown who made fun of himself to hide the fact that he didn't like the way he was. Yes, at the end of the day, he could see that his friends were something, but he couldn't see anything in himself other than being an ordinary boy who wasn't particularly good at anything, had never done anything nice or important in his life and always thought. mirrored in characters from anime, movies or games. The chance to change all that had come with that power, the chance to be the hero he'd always wanted. He couldn't handle this irresponsibly. Marcus was right.

"You're right." Jack said, "come on, what information do we have?"

"Apparently there are several pieces of information that form a code and are scattered around the academy, we can see the next one in one of the inscribed on the obelisk. It usually goes unnoticed, so we have to pay attention."

Jack and Marcus then headed to Myrddin Square, where many of the students had just walked by, or chatted enjoying that place, all of them carefree. The day off was about to end.

"It's a pleasure to see you here, gentlemen, although I hoped only one of you would be here." Said a guy coming out from behind the obelisk, casually.

"Are you talking to us?" Jack wanted to know.

"Didn't you come to see the secret information hidden subliminally in this obelisk? Yeah, Jack Zaek, I think I'm actually talking to you."

"Who are you?" Marcus asked seriously.

"I didn't expect you to be here, Guardian, but that doesn't matter, as long as you can also agree to our terms. After all, we want to be allies and our allies' allies are allies too."

"Allies, allies, fine man, but who are you?" Jack asked with a frown. The guy gave a cynical smile. He was blond and his hair hung down his forehead in messy bangs, his eyes were green as emeralds. Before he could say anything else, someone interrupted that strange conversation. Jack had heard of her before, according to the description of that appearance, short hair with a white streak, nose piercing, that must be that Amy girl.

"Are you Jack? That boy, Stanis, told me that maybe you were here." She asked with a serious look on her face.

"Yeah" Jack grinned, "I'm getting a lot of demand today, but you're friends with Arthur, right? What do you want?"

"Stanis heard about this too and was going to check on the situation, so I came to let you know, personally. Arthur is in the infirmary, he lost a fight."

"What?" Jack asked uncertainly.

"Losing a fight is an understatement" the blond boy chuckled, "Arthur got his asss kicked hard, that's much closer to what actually happened."

Jack shot the weird guy an annoyed look, but for now he decided to ignore it.

"Marcus, let's go see him, he can't be all right."

Jack couldn't believe it. And where were his other friends? What were they doing? What the hell! He turned to go straight to the infirmary when the unknow guy stopped him.

"Hey, hey, where do you think you're going, champ?" the guy asked Jack.

"That doesn't interest you, I'm getting fed up with you. By the way, who are you? You know what, just get out of the way!"

"So this is how the Six Warriors treat others?" The guy whispered in his ear. "I am Sebastian Vielgold!" He announced loud and clear, opening his arms in an almost theatrical way. "It's nice to meet you, Jack Zaek."

"We don't have time for this, Jack" Marcus warned, "let's move on, let's see Arthur."

"Arthur wasn't the only one of his friends to get into this situation", Brandon announced, "everyone else was dumb enough to turn down our alliance proposals, so they proved our power, maybe so learn a little bit to think better about proposals?"

"What are you talking about?" Jack growled, "my friends wouldn't lose to people like you or whoever your friends are."

"Oh, yes they would, and the same would happen if you refused too. We need to show that it's more profitable to work with us than against us. Come on, Jack, be the first to accept the proposal, set an example to your friends like a torch of fire lights up in a dark cave." The guy was talking loudly and gesturing, seemed to want to draw attention or something, it was like he was a theater actor in a play. Some of the students in the square started to pay attention to that little show.

"Screw you!" Jack cursed, "Right now I'm going to see my friend, damn your proposal!"

"Oh, how touching! If you really want to join your friends, if they are that important to you, then prove yourself different, accept my Fair Fight, or accept my proposal!"

"Jack, you don't need to accept his teasing" Marcus said, "he's nobody, just let's go."

"Look, isn't this the Guardian you took the place?" Sebastian teased, "Do you let him make the decisions for you? Uh, so who really is the fire magic wielder?"

"I don't want to hear your proposal, you trash!" Jack growled, then brought fire to his hand, "but if I'm going to give you a fight, I'll give it to you anytime you want." Jack put out the fire and took a deep breath, "but not now. I have more important things to do."

"You have no choice, you pathetic hero", Sebastian slapped Jack across the face. Marcus wanted to advance against Sebastian, but Jack waved him away.

"That's it guys. Jack here is too cowardly to make his own decisions, too cowardly to fight his own fights, he trusts everything to that better specimen" he pointed to Marcus, "will it be like that when you have a girlfriend too, Jack? "

The 'audience' laughed and Sebastian seemed to enjoy the show. Jack growled and fire again began to rise in his fists.

"Okay then, if you want a fight that bad... let's have a fight!"

"Really? Marcus over there will let you?" Sebastian further teased, "Alright, I accept, before Marcus changes his mind and makes you change too."

Jack received the Fair Fight request on his bracelet and accepted right away.

Sebastian smiled and with his bracelet he touched a specific spot on the obelisk, which glowed and in the next moment a kind of square arena appeared around them both, the edges made of magical power blocking any passage before the fight was over. The audience roared excitedly, Sebastian said something about the instant arenas dotted around the academy that few people knew about, but Jack paid no attention.

Jack tried a punch, but his opponent dodged, jumping back. Sebastian kicked the inside of Jack's knee, which doubled over in pain, and then the blond spun around, kicking Jack in the face, who fell backwards.

"You're strong," Jack said, the outside in his hand where he'd been hit, trying to maintain his dignity, "I underestimated you." Said the boy, getting up.

"Of course, of course you subestimate me." Sebastian smiled, then opened his arms and announced, "Fight as hard as you can Jack, or you'll shame me! Fight as if your life depended on it!" Jack lunged at Sebastian with a string of hard punches. Vielgold parried all blows with ease, then crouched and ground kicked Jack, who went down again. The chosen one got up, and now he was flustered. "Come on, Jack, you can start fighting seriously!" He encouraged Vielgold with mockery.

"DOUBLE FLAMING DODGEBALL!" He screamed, shooting powerful red and orange flames.

"HELLISH SHIELD!!" Sebastian yelled, making something blazing hot, a kind of pasty smoldering fire erupt in his arm. Magma. Sebastian's shield seemed to drink Jack's fire. The fire's chosen eyes were wide.

"H-how? What... what is this?!" Jack asked with wide eyes.

"That, my dear, is a show of power," Sebastian chuckled, "of course, for me, dodging those little farts you call attack magic would be pretty easy, only it wouldn't be as cool for a show as showing my power. See? with the audience it's excited and look at you, you're turning yellow" Sebastian laughed again, "this achieved my goal well."

Frustrated, Jack made his fire burn more intensely. That guy didn't just want to win a fight, that guy wanted to demoralize him in front of an entire audience, it was kind of a maniac thing.

"I won't lose this fight!" Jack exclaimed, "DOUBLE FLAMING DODGEBALL!!" Jack threw the two balls as if they were dodgeballs, just a little bigger. Sebastian dodged them all, Jack then joined the two flames together and focused on them. "Now you will see that my power is not to be underestimated! A new attack!" Jack's flames ignited, as did his mood.

"Is that so? Only capable of that, oh great legendary hero?"

"GREAT FLAMING DODGEBALL!!" Jack yelled, sending a huge ball of pure fire magic out of his hands. Were it not for the magical walls, the spectators would have been in trouble with that great ball of fire, yet those outside the arena experienced heat like a forge and that heat would increase even more, like a volcano:

"HELLISH IMPETUS!!" Sebastian yelled. A great continuous gush of his magic came out of his hands, crashing into Jack's powerful fireball, making a great roar and causing great flames and heat to spread throughout the arena, making all who watched awestruck. Jack's magic was dispelled, and Sebastian's lashed out at Jack menacingly. Jack was hit hard. He thought he heard his friends screaming for him, but he wasn't sure if it was true. He felt people's eyes on him.

It was more heat than he could bear, and he fell helplessly to the ground. His bracelet warned him that he must stop fighting right then and there, or he would be in big trouble.

"You're not that great," said Sebastian, shrugging, "unless you get up now and surprise me, which I think is impossible."

But the impossible happened. Jack stood up and Sebastian's eyes widened.

"Amazing" the blond chuckled.

Jack growled. His clothes were rags and his legs were jelly.

"Did your friends resist as much as you?" Sebastian laughed. "I bet they felt a lot of pain, and if you don't give up soon, you will too."

"Shut up… shut up…" Jack growled very low.

"What?" Sebastian asked in a mocking tone.

"Shut up… YOUR DAMN MOUTH!"

"Uh, how awful." He continued to mock. Jack advanced with the rest of his strength against the boy, who only gave Jack an aerial kick, causing him to fall.

"Weak."

Jack got up again.

"Jack, that's enough!" Marcus yelled. " You have nothing left to prove!"

Jack hadn't paid attention to him. He hobbled toward Sebastian.

"I feel sorry for you. You better do what your friend asks."

"Shut up!"

"Okay man, you've been defeated, what's the harm in that? You can have a rematch later, or rather, you can accept my alliance proposal."

Jack flashed fire from his hand.

"Do you still have the strength?" Sebastian was impressed. "Deserves an honorable defeat." He said with some respect.

"Since you are so hardworking, I'll give you some advice. Be careful what your answer will be for us in the future. We are six of us, just like you and your friends, we are a specific squad so that you don't even have a chance and we are together with our master. He is so powerful it could make Lord Eagle or Lord Percival cry like little children. Jack, you and your friends don't stand a chance and this defeat was just a small taste of what awaits you. Why try so hard?"

"Because… they trusted me" Jack glared at Sebastian, "and if it wasn't for being serious, I would never have taken it!" The boy focused his power even more and then rushed forward "DRACONIC MOMENTUM!!"

Sebastian dodged easily, scurried like a horse towards the chosen one, stooped to him and raised a kind of magma glove in his hand, then punched Jack with all his strength. Jack was lifted his feet off the ground, and dropped like a sack of onions. He was finished…or not?

Jack insisted on standing. Sebastian looked at him with admirable respect.

"This time… I lost…" Jack gasped. He was notified of his defeat in his bracelet, while seeing Sebastian no longer mocking, at least for now. His vision got weakened, no longer felt the legs, or arms ... or any part of the body. His vision darkened, and he fell once more.