How did Hyōen ever make it to the ring? It was a very strange situation for the young Fire Mage to stand here and await himself to be registered as an opponent for the new champion of whatever this was, a guy whose reputation was almost infamous among the others. This guy had recently made a huge mess with another guy, Tyler, who was then requesting a mage to aid him against this Rodric. He found Hyōen eating some raw rabbit, and the encounter went just as strange. It started with Hyōen trying to greet, but his mouth was filled with meat, so he had to chum it and remain silent while Tyler could hear the small bones and raw meat getting ripped to pieces. It was a very nasty situation, but as soon as the Fire Mage finished, Tyler finally spoke: “… Okay, so can you help me? This guy, Rodric, used a cheesy trick against me! Now he has the title of champion; a title that he doesn’t even deserve!” The impact of the words and his gestures showed that Tyler was pretty pissed with all of this, so Hyōen was already deciding to help him out. “Eh… that sounds pretty cheesy, yeah,” he mumbled a little. However, he didn’t know much of boxing matches and rings. Those were new things to him, so he was very curious with all of this. Now, he stood in the line and awaited his turn, and it took surprisingly faster than he thought. Not many wanted to fight Rodric, a thing that made the Fire Mage curious, but when he finally moved towards the ring, people began cheering for him as if he was a legend. He looked around, shocked and sweaty. “H… Hehe… what are they doing..?” he asked himself in worry, feeling that one must’ve been hating this Rodric to the roots of your heart in order to cheer on a complete stranger. This was strange in many, many ways.

Rodric stood in the middle of the ring. His blonde, bright hair was clear to see, and his face didn’t look that intimidating. However, Hyōen couldn’t underestimate him like that, and he quickly took a stance and spoke: “I heard a lot about you. You’re that prick who stole the championship from someone…” That surely triggered Rodric a little, and his blank, white face turned red in anger. “J-Just you wait, newbie! I’ll end you in 60 seconds or less!” Then, he charged towards Hyōen, and the Fire Mage went through everything that he learned from Tyler earlier:

He’s… he’s actually extremely strong. Strong, but as in physically hard. He hits hard, but that’s about it. I think that it would take me about 32 clear hits to beat him down, but I only made it to 20… try and make the time go, he’ll get nervous and impatient. Also, for the love of God, avoid his direct attacks! One hit, and you won’t wake up again! If I wasn’t so careless, myself… argh, never mind me! Just make sure to do a lot of damage to him, and remember not to use any spells. I want him to taste a humiliating defeat by a fair share of hands, you got me? Also, don’t mind his speed; he is as slow as a snail, and you can easily dodge him as long as you keep your eyes open. He also drops his guard when having made a hit, no matter if it hits or not… specifically a kick… that’s about it. Please, let me have my title back, I count on you.

Hyōen guessed that he had nothing more to do, and as Rodric came charging, the Fire Mage decided to use a single spell that didn’t reveal as much as his other fire spells. What, he didn’t care much about the ‘no spells’ rule, but then again, if he didn’t care, then he would have used a more apparent spell. This spell did cut down air resistance, making his movements slightly faster as he easily dodged Rodric’s punch. “Is that all?” Hyōen teasted, making Rodric stand up as he almost fumed with rage. Then, the blonde boy released a series of kicks, but each time that he made one, Hyōen was on the other side. Air began feeling weird in his presence, but if not for the rage that was building, Rodric could’ve called out Hyōen for ‘using spells’, despite the fact that no rule pointed at the usage of spells. He suddenly tried to jump Hyōen, but the Fire Mage simply rolled to the side and made Rodric hit the middle of the ring. It began to crack a little due ot his strength, but he was pissed as hell. “Come on! Show me what you have, boy..!!!” he roared to the Fire Mage, but Hyōen simply stood still and even put his hands into his pockets. Then again, remembering Tyler’s accident, he pulled them out again and looked at Rodric with a serious face. Then, he slowly lifted his arms and looked straight into the blonde brawler’s eyes. “… 53… 54… 55… 56-“ he counted, loud enough for Rodric to hear that as he suddenly realized that he made an oath to finish Hyōen off in 60 seconds. A roar echoed through the ring as he stomped and began collecting muscle power as he looked at Hyōen. 57 seconds. He stomped his foot for a last time and readied his body for a leap. 58 seconds. All of a sudden, Rodric was in front of Hyōen with a surprising speed, giving it his all, so that he could hold his promise… The punch was suddenly approaching Hyōen like a bullet. It was so fast, so fast… how was he going to avoid it? One hit was enough, one hit could knock him out and cancel the mission, but he couldn’t disappoint Tyler like that. No… he remembered his teachings… his training back at the Woodsea…

A large rock in front of him appeared to be the perfect start of his daily training since that accident happened. It was distant for the primitive human boy to do such thing as ‘magic training’, but the earlier thoughts about seeing the world and its wonders of magic had revealed him a new aspect of life. Without hesitation, his nails drilled into the giant boulder that appeared more like a giant part of the entire mountain that he stood on than any ordinary rock. With a swift blow, the boulder suddenly revealed embers from his palms that spread around the stone and covered the small rock. Something didn’t satisfy him enough, though… it was a good start, but strength wasn’t everything…

He could always try and get faster as well as stronger. The wolf’s movements from earlier were almost unpredictable, even for his own senses. Speed appeared essential for a fighter’s style, and what else could train his speed and reflexes than a trip across the forest? In fact, his feet had a good grip to the dirty ground in every step that he took on his two legs as a charging runner. Wind was pushed away on his path. His contour was transparent if one would spot his track as he passed birds, a boar, and a thousand of trees. Wanting to take it further, he suddenly grabbed onto the surface with his feet a little harder, causing more dirt to shoot up from his sprint. Trees began to reveal his track by having leaves blowing apart from his run, and he could barely see his direction, until a certain boulder at the other mountain ended his marathon…

Annoying little nose he had as it trickled down traces of blood. A smart boy would’ve removed the blood somehow, or wiped it off as it would attract predators, but as if Hyōen was thinking the same as before… he could clearly feel a small change in himself. Was it coincidental that he ever turned into this… his mum was dead, and what now? Why’d sudden events like that happen for him… the world was surely crueler than he thought. He couldn’t stay here alone, not alone… His cottage had to be left alone for a while. Perhaps he needed to go out in the world and check it out… his mother never showed much of it when she was around, anyway.

Now, as he stood before a large rock, something in the green grass below his feet reminded him of a certain ability… he was capable of using a little amount of fire out of something. Exactly how he did it was distant for the young human, but perhaps if he just tried his best, then it would probably work. He’d only done it a couple of times in the past, but… maybe it would work a third time? Shaking the hesitation away, he stood ready in front of the mountain and inhaled… deeply… until his lungs were filled with air. Then, as if a cocky lion stood in front of him, he let out a huge scream that echoed across the forest, while an orange light erupted from his throat. Nothing else other than the depth of his throat igniting happened that day, though… but he felt so alive. So alive… and so sad as well.

And that was what made him what he was today. That was what made him a mage, one that would complete the mission no matter what. That was what made him react quick enough to duck, letting Rodric get launched up in the air by his feet. A loud scream could be heard from the blonde brawler as people suddenly went silent as Rodric was midair. A few seconds later, and Rodric hit the floor with a loud bump, making the audience shout out in excitement and disbelief! “HE DID IT, HE ACTUALLY-“ they were roaring, but Rodric kind of made it up on his feet again. It was surprising, but Hyōen looked at his state; exhausted, out of strength. This was his chance. Now he just remembered what Tyler said to him earlier, about what he was going to do if he ever got the upper hand during the brawl:

[i]Listen… if you get the chance or if you manage to tire him out, please, finish it thoroughly. He tainted my honor and the honor of thousands of brawlers out there, so you have to make an example out of him. Do your best to finish the battle in a silly way, so that he won’t want to mess with our ways ever again…

That was when Hyōen suddenly approached Rodric and grabbed his pants. All of a sudden, a huge wedgie was given by the Fire Mage, and Rodric screamed almost comically. The audience went silent once again to see the cruelty, but Hyōen had to do it. It was the only way to teach him not to mess with all of this. Once when he was done for, he threw Rodric down and pulled off the champion’s belt. Who was the champion now? People around him were convinced that the dark mage had deserved the title, but he quickly interrupted by saying: “Hey, Tyler! Are you out there?!” The client heard it very well and walked towards him, looking at the belt and all. “W-Woah, you did it..!” he spoke in surprise, while Hyōen approached the audience. “I don’t have much to do with boxing matches… this will probably be the last time. I give the belt to the former champion before this fool,” he explained as he threw the belt at Tyler and walked out. Outside, Coda was waiting for her partner and landed on his arm, nuzzling his face in happiness. Hyōen couldn’t but smile, but he was interrupted by Tyler who wanted to thank him, reward him and even gave a few advices about joining the fighting scene again. “Ah, no thanks; I’m a mage at heart, and I prefer to use these ‘dirty tricks’…”

2008/2000