Six Warriors

Flaming Battlefield - (Jack)

Jack stared at the girl, still thinking of some way to defeat her. So he just stopped thinking and once again fired his fireball at the girl, who dodged to the side without difficulty. Jack continued to shoot his fireballs as the girl dodged, but with increasing difficulty until finally she got tired of it all and countered Jack's attack with her magical technique "Bycicle Kick on Fire", which broke Jack's fireball easily.

"That's what I was waiting for!" Jack thought, advancing on the girl and hitting her with a strong shoulder, which made the girl moan when hit and was thrown back, knocking her to the ground. He pointed at her and spoke with a confident smile on his face: "You know, your technique is really impressive, but there's a little problem, which is your guard opening right after you land back on the ground after doing that somersault."

"Impressive, so you noticed" Thea replied with a smile, "But it was a bit of a hard job just to figure it out, right? You know your magic power isn't infinite, right? And if you use it stupidly, it's going to run out, leaving you pretty tired."

"Yeah, I know that, but I still have a lot of wood to burn."

"Just an hour and you've regained so much magic power? Impressive. Very well, you've discovered the weakness of my technique. Now what? I'm still much better prepared than you." The girl moved into close-range combat, it was obvious, as her technique required proximity, but Jack had better keep the long range combat, as her only magic was to shoot those fireballs.

"FLAMING DODGEBALL!!" Jack fired. The girl dodged, the chosen one then fell back, the girl always on his heels.

"Can't run away forever, Jack, don't be a scared little bunny and face me boldly."

Jack stopped running, set his feet firmly on the ground.

"FLAMING DODGEBALL!!" Jack once again declared, throwing his fireball at the girl. The attack made a small curve and the girl barely made an effort to dodge.

"Now is your aim getting bad too, boy?" The girl asked with a little smile.

"How about looking again at where you are?" Jack replied also smiling. A sound of fire hitting rocks was heard, and then rocks rolling. Thea looked to her side and one of those piles of rock was rising right there, Jack's attack hit that and created a small avalanche of rocks heading towards the girl. "Arthur would be proud... or jealous" Jack thought.

Thea didn't have much time to think or react, she simply cast her magic again.

"BICYCLE KICK ON FIRE!" The girl growled as she did that somersault with half her leg on fire to deliver a graceful, lethal kick. She destroyed the small avalanche easily, but as soon as it landed Jack gave him no rest and then soon fired his own technique.

"FLAMING DODGEBALL!" And the fireball once again shot towards the girl, who couldn't defend herself in time and took the attack directly, causing a scream as the flames hit her body, especially her chest. Without mercy, Jack advanced once more, this time with a punch that hit directly the place where the fireball had previously hit the girl, pushing the Guardian away.

When Thea stood up, she no longer had a smile on her face, perhaps indicating that she would start taking the fight more seriously now.

"I kept going after you, not noticing anything around me, just focusing on my goal, you took advantage of that and used the terrain to your advantage. You were smart."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow, I'm so cool right now, just... just wow!" That's what Jack was thinking, but outwardly he tried to contain himself and just kept an ordinary smile.

"I kept telling you not to underestimate me, that I wouldn't underestimate you and all that sort of thing, but in the end I'm the one making these amateur mistakes." Thea started to get up and dusted off her body and gave a confident smile "those attacks from before... hurt... I'll make you pay for them." Thea raised her knee and leg a little in front of her body, as if preparing something, flames began to spread in the girl's lower leg, she made a move like she was about to kick something and then exclaimed: "BURNING STRIKER!!" Thea kicked the air and a wave of fire erupted from her leg, advancing towards Jack. The boy tried to dodge but part of the magic hit part of his back, causing a burning pain, which made him clench his teeth.

"FLAMING DODGEBALL!!" Jack counterattacked with his magic, but his opponent didn't even move.

"BURNING STRIKER!!" Thea exclaimed in response, invoking her magic that rushed like a torrent of fire in the shape of a wide arc. Thea's flames engulfed Jack's flames and advanced even more dangerously and powerfully towards the boy, such was the speed of those flames that he had no chance to dodge. Jack just tried to defend himself by putting his arms in front of his body. That magic was not only extremely powerful and burning, but had an impact force also quite impressive, being in fact a real strike, Jack just felt the burning pain spread through his body and he was thrown away without being able to do anything. The Chosen's body slammed into one of those rock mountains and he felt the pain of the impact of the rocks on his back, but somehow he still managed to get on his feet, even though that blow really damaged him a lot. In the meantime, Thea had run closer to him and when she got close enough she once again cast her magic one more time: "BURNING STRIKER!!!" And the arc-shaped blast of fire once again hit Jack's body full in and this time he couldn't even raise his arms to attempt a block. The magic caused a small "boom" shattering the rock ledge Jack had crashed into earlier. The rocks fell on top of the boy, he blacked out...

...But only for a few seconds, and then he found himself buried in still steaming and hot rocks. He tried to lift himself with difficulty and even managed to get out from under the shattered rocks, only to fall back on top of them a moment later, weakened, that's when he saw a pair of legs getting closer and closer to him. Thea. He lifted his head with difficulty, only to see her looking him up and down, as if in a very superior way, she winning, he losing. She looked away and picked up one of the boulders that was on the ground...no, it wasn't a boulder...it was the crystal! It must have fallen out of his pocket in that whole sequence of attacks.

"Thanks for warming up my blood, but it's over now." She turned away without another word and was on her way. Jack couldn't let that happen.

"WAIT!" He yelled while still on the ground and then gathered his remaining strength to get to his feet once more. She stopped walking and watched him try to rise. Thea squinted her eyes at the chosen young man, she turned towards him, still holding the crystal, and when she realized he was fully upright she attacked him without any trace of pity:

"BICYCLE KICK ON FIRE!!" The girl spun in that flaming somersault kick and caught the helpless boy in the chin, who just lifted into the air and fell limp to the ground like a sack full of potatoes. "It's over."

Jack mustered all his willpower not to pass out, he bit his lower lip hard, he couldn't just go out and lose. He wondered how his friends were doing, if they were winning or just getting beaten up like him.

"A dragon should lie down only on its own pile of treasure, not lie down defeated on a pile of rubble." The voice that spoke to him when he acquired the powers said. It was the voice of fire. The voice that came from the crystal and, above all, the voice of his own heart.

"I am not a dragon... I am not a warrior... above all, I am no hero..." Jack thought wistfully. To be honest, his fire magic technique was cool at first to play with his new powers, but seeing it now, she wasn't all that impressive, even more compared to the spells he had just seen.

"Indeed, thou never will be... if thou continue to think in such a boeotian way."

"What do you mean?"

"Thou were chosen! Honor thine ancestors of fire! Honor the Dragon Totem! Honor thy power! Honor it liketh a warrior! Fight!" The thunderous voice that sounded like fire igniting, sometimes crackling like a bonfire, roared in such a way that Jack's body was invaded by a pleasant heat.

"Yes I understand. This is my moment. This is my chance to prove myself once and for all. There won't be another one. I've reached a point I've never reached before... and I can't let that go. I can't afford to miss this." Jack, inspired by the warmth of that voice, began to rise once more, this time more determined, "I'll never get another chance like this. I won't give up, not until my body is in pieces!" The chosen one of the fire was once more standing. In Thea's hand the orb seemed to burn in flames contained by its crystalline shell.

The girl looked at Jack impressed.

"That...it's impossible...you shouldn't be standing right now, no one would resist that many direct attacks."

Jack pointed at the crystal in Thea's hand with a fierce glare.

"That's my power! Give it back!"

A flaming aura formed around the boy's body, Thea tried to pull away and conjured fire in his leg. The aura around Jack all pooled in his right hand, which burned like compressed hell.

"BURNING STRIKER!!" Pronounced Thea, attacking with her aggressive spell. Jack lunged at that flaming bow with all his strength and, with his hand blazing with magical flames, he struck Thea's magic which dissipated into countless sparks of fire, which eventually were sucked into Jack's blazing hand like stars being sucked into a black hole. "I...impossible!"

"DRACONIC MOMENTUM!!" Jack roared before hitting Thea like a comet. The attack exploded in blazing flames on all sides. The girl screamed in pain at the attack hitting her body. The cold night of that stone desert turned to day for a fleeting moment with the heat and the light of those burning flames.

Thea fell defeated. The crystalline orb came rolling to Jack's feet.

"I won... I... won..." He thought, still disbelieving, forgetting all the damage he had suffered, all the pain and fatigue.

In the next moment, however, the pains and the tiredness came to him excruciating and he simply fell unlit to the ground. Under his body was his crystal, making him act more or less like a dragon sleeping on his little treasure.