The man's smoky eyes narrowed as they darted from tree to tree, only relaxing when he was sure that the creature had retreated a considerable distance away from him, and the chances of a sneak attack from the trees was slim. A single bead of sweat had begun to travel its way down Houren's neck, but the Fairy Tail mage wiped it away before it could do so. He had  made his way to the East Forest today with the intention of training with one of his guild mates and, as he was wont to do, had arrived early. While waiting for his guild mate, he had been ambushed from behind by a vulcan but more or less managed to scare it off without much effort, leaving him with absolutely nothing to do until Kazumi arrived.

"I wonder if I got here too early...?" the Fire Dragon Slayer murmured under his breath as he squared up to one of the many large trees that adorned the forest, east of Magnolia and well known in town as a place where dangerous animals (such as the aforementioned vulcan) and hermits lived. Now that he thought about it, also, the tree that he had just approached could easily have made a cozy little residence for him; all he'd have to do to make it livable was to hollow out the inside and add in some furniture and the like to make it more homey. The idea brought a smile to his face, but of course, he had not come here today with such diurnal intentions. He had come here to train, to make sure that he was stronger tomorrow than he was today.

With that in mind, the Fire Dragon Slayer took a single step back and allowed magical energy to flow freely throughout his body. His elemental affinity was fire, and perhaps because of that, Houren could feel his body heating up slightly. In spite of this elemental affinity though, the Fairy Tail mage wasn't particularly the kind of person who appreciated a warm climate, although it had to be said that he certainly had the ability to fare better in the heat than many of his contemporaries. When the magical energy reached his palms, the Fairy Tail mage focused them there, causing both fists to blaze up; swiftly, he began to punch the tree in front of him repeatedly while waiting for his sparring partner to arrive.

The Righteous Right Fist: 406/750
The Legendary Left Fist: 0/750
Draconic Origin: 0/1000

While waiting for his sparring partner to arrive, the Fire Dragon Slayer had begun some solo training of his own, and had become so engrossed in it that by the time Kazumi actually did show up, he did not notice her until she had approached him. By now, the damage that he had done to the tree trunk was apparent, and upon hearing her voice, he stopped lest he cause the entire tree to topple over. His dark eyes narrowed, focusing in on the new arrival to make sure that she was not, in actuality, a vulcan in disguise; they were masters of Takeover, after all. "It's more beneficial to train with others, isn't it?" the Fairy Tail mage began to shake both hands, allowing the flames to disperse. "That way, you know where you stand," although it did not bother him in the slightest, the Fire Dragon Slayer was aware that his hands would still be a little bit too hot for another person to be comfortable shaking them. After all, had his magic not given him complete immunity to the element of fire, Houren would have wagered that both his hands would be charred black by now. He did not shake her hand, instead he slapped it with his own as a form of reciprocation.

He turned his back towards the tree that he had been punching just a few moments earlier, and walked away closer to the center where there was less dense vegetation in the way. It was essentially an open area surrounded by trees, but it was more than enough space for two people to spar. It wasn't as though this area was created by Houren or anything though, no, he merely had the good fortune to chance upon this natural ring, an area that the Earth itself has designated as an appropriate fighting ground. He wiped away the beads of sweat that had begun to form around his forehead after that rigorous tree punching workout, and took his stance fifteen meters opposite the tree that he had been punching, and where Kazumi had approached him.

"Shall we begin?" the words flowed listlessly from his lips.

The Righteous Right Fist: 750/750
The Legendary Left Fist: 17/750
Draconic Origin: 0/1000

The stage was now all set for their spar; a distance of fifteen meters was all that separated the Crystal Mage from the Fire Dragon Slayer, both mages of Fairy Tail respectively. It was a good environment, Houren thought to himself, for him to use the new spells that he had been working on, since, you know, he had nothing to lose experimenting in a spar match against a person who could vaguely be called a friend. A low whistle escaped the man's lips as Kazumi brandished her sword. Truthfully speaking, he hadn't been expecting her to draw a weapon, but at the same time, it wasn't a bad thing for Houren to gain experience in fighting armed foes. He wasn't talking about adventurers who specifically specialized in weapons either, but rather, he was referring to mages who had the good fortune to be able to utilize both magic and weaponry in battle. The Fire Dragon Slayer's mouth curved to form a slight smile. "It's unfortunate, but I seem to have left my sword at home. Sorry, but you won't be practicing your swordplay today," he told her. In other words, he had no intention of letting her get too close to him, but he imagined a bright girl like Kazumi would be able to understand the gist of what he just said.

The Crystal Mage's form wasn't bad, but from what Houren could gather, Kazumi was more intent on reacting as opposed to acting. Basically, in its simplest terms, at this very moment, she came across to him as someone who was waiting for something to happen as opposed to wanting to make something happen. The silver haired man took this as a courtesy, a cue for him to make the first move to get this spar underway. He wasn't going to make it easy for her either, as he outstretched both arms, quickly generating flames in both his hands as he dashed forward at his expected pace before clapping both hands together to create an even larger flame that would be sent in Kazumi's direction. Unless she had the refined reflexes of an Olympic god, she probably wouldn't have tried evading it; not from this distance, anyways. The Fire Dragon Slayer did not stop to see whether she had managed to block it with a spell of her own, or by constructing a shield. Instead he continued to run at a steady pace towards her, the flames in both hands still burning strongly as he did so.

"Why don't you try this on for size?" he shouted. The Fire Dragon Slayer did not stop to see whether she had managed to block it with a spell of her own, or by constructing a shield. Instead he continued to run at a steady pace towards her, the flames in both hands still burning strongly as he did so.

1010/1210:

Training:

"Done already?" it wasn't as though he was judging her or anything like that, but rather, he hadn't expected their training session to end with the setting of the sun. The Fire Dragon Slayer had believed that there were certain merits to training with others, but it seemed like that wasn't the case after all, well, not necessarily. There definitely was something to be gained from practicing with another person, but in the end, it was a matter of dedication and not skill. Houren would gain a lot more from training with a young kid who genuinely wanted to improve and was willing to put in the hours as opposed to sparring with a Wizard Lord caliber mage who didn't regard multi-person training with the same respect as it should be regarded with. In any case, the Fire Dragon Slayer, in the end, decided to wave his fellow Fairy Tail mage goodbye, but noted that he would still be staying here for the next while to continue his training. "Are you going back to the guildhall? Don't worry about it if you don't see me later. I think I might be camping out here tonight," Houren cracked his knuckles as he headed back to the tree that he had been doing a number on before Kazumi had arrived for their spar. The Fire Dragon Slayer decided to make a game out of it; he swore to himself, that by the time the sun rose in the morning, this tree would be topped over and he would do it without the use of any projectile spells. It would be a game, no, a test of strength.

He had a few tree seeds in his pouch that he was planning on planting later, you know, to compensate for destroying this one without any mercy. It was a thing that they liked to do back in his hometown; for every tree that you chop down, you should plant two or three trees in its place. Of course, Houren would need to do some work and find different locations for every seed, because it would be bad if he planted all three in the same location and they end up fighting. He'd normally worry about water and stuff like that too, but it was the rainy season and there was place of precipitation in the East Forest all year around; all in all, he had nothing to worry about and besides maybe in twenty years, he'd come down and knock down the trees he planted and then plant another two or three trees. He also made a mental note to himself to collect the wood from the tree that he was planning on toppling with his strength, for emergency firewood. When Kazumi was out of sight, and by extension, out of mind, the Fire Dragon Slayer approached the tree and began to beat on it again, feeling every punch. He did this for the next ten minutes without stopping and by the time he stopped, his hands were bleeding, not from the brunt force of having punched a tree repeatedly, but also from the dozens of splinters he had received.

''Looks like I have a long way to go, huh?" he hacked and spat on the ground in frustration as he began to take the splinters out of his knuckles one by one.

IN TRAINING:
The Righteous Right Fist: 750/750
The Legendary Left Fist: 750/750
Draconic Origin: 305/1000

It took the Fire Dragon Slayer quite a long time, but not as long as one might have expected, to finally fell the tree with one of his brand new attacks. It fell to the ground with a great tumble, forcing many of the critters that had been living in its branches and in its leaves to scatter away as the tree fell to the ground, lifeless. It was almost a sad sight, and the Fairy Tail mage almost felt bad about doing what he had done before remembering the three seeds that he had kept in his pocket. Moving to a more secluded area without many trees around, Houren dug a fairly deep hole, placed the seed inside and began to cover it with dirt. It was unfortunate that he wasn't a water mage, but he supposed that he was OK with giving up a little bit of his water for the plant. After all, his training sessions tended to be get this extreme quite often, and when he knew that he would be gone for a long period of time, the first thing he did was bring himself large jerrycans so that he would have an ample source of water. Even if he gave up his entire water bottle worth of water, he would still have a lot left by the time he made it back to the place he had made camp for the night. After doing this for the first time, the Fire Dragon Slayer traveled away to another area and planted yet another seed and giving it a generous helping of water. He only had one seed left now, and was, in all honesty, quite tired but managed to force himself to yet another secluded area to plant yet another seed and to water it yet again with the tenderness one would not expect of a man of his physique.

After he had planted those three seeds in appropriate locations, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail headed back to his camp and decided that there was still a little bit of training left for him to do. He couldn't lie and claim that his muscles weren't incredibly sore because they, as a matter of fact, were incredibly sore. But still, if he wanted to get stronger then he needed to break his limit even during training sessions; he started with a hundred pushups and a hundred sit ups as a warm up. After he finished with that warm up, and he felt that his body was suitably warmed up for the strenuous training in which he was about to partake, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail allowed magical energy to flow through his body and of course, into his finger tips. He made no effort to restrain it as his hands literally caught fire and he clashed them together to send a giant beam of fire soaring straight into the sky. This was a strong spell, certainly useful enough to use in combat situations but what he needed to train was his own reaction time. If he wasn't able to use this spell in time then it would be practically useless. It was a good damage dealer, but at the same time it wasn't really all that practical. Without so much as even a shift in his demeanor, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail began to shadow box, pretending as though he was face to face, one on one, against a tough opponent who specialized in hand to hand melee. Eventually, after training for quite a long time and the sun had begun to come up again, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail realized that he had expended all of his magical energy. There was a lot to be said about this particular training session but he supposed that it was good since it seemed like his capacity for magical energy had increased slightly. In previous sessions, he would collapse exhausted way before sunrise and now he could last until after the sun had taken its place in the morning sky. He was still fairly far off the mark, but this was more than a good start.

The Righteous Right Fist: 750/750
The Legendary Left Fist: 750/750
Draconic Origin: 1000/1000