SWNOVELXO Chapter 7: First Duel
Time flowed, like a waterfall that keeps on streaming, it is endless, where at times a single lifetime is not enough to see even one cycle of it...
However, an exception to that was beginning to sprout, as besides the river of time was a sapling with stakes carefully placed all around it, with the hope that it may grow into a beautiful and upright tree.
It was childhood filled with innocence, where at the time all those kids who were born in the same generation as Philip would only be fussing about magic, after all, among them, who wouldn't be fascinated? to the kids this was a time of discovery, a measurement and at the same time a competition of their magical affinities and talents, to see what their future holds and to establish the hierarchy from the get-go.
As it happens, it is also around this time when the other kids teased Philip about his unusual looks, and the fact that he had an almost endless magical affinity but with so miniscule mana to the point that it was just plain and utterly useless, there was literally no point in having that much affinity.
But of course, Philip is not one to just take their insults lying down, he was a bold and calculative kid that only feared his parent's wrath, plus with the strength and intellect to back his personality.
Still, even with that, Philip had to put them back in their place where they belonged multiple times just for them to learn their lesson-
"Oyy, Philip you red-eyed freak, we've come here to duel with you" As the three little brats approached Philip with a smug look on their faces.
'Hehehe, you've always beaten as at racing and wrestling, but this time it'll be different, there's three of us now.' The first brat thought.
'Kukuku I've heard that he hasn't been able to develop his magic talent, and he's been struggling to even cough up not even an ounce of mana, there's no way we'll lose.' The second brat thought.
And finally, the last brat who seemed to be their leader thought, 'Hmph! It's finally time to put him in his place, though he beat us up mercilessly when we were younger and just thinking about it still gives me shivers-We're different now! he had already fell behind and with my magic talent I can surely beat him!'
Philip then closed the book that he was reading, stood up, looked at them with serious eyes, and nonchalantly asked, "Alright, but what do I gain from accepting?"
The brats felt scared by his intimidating aura and took a step back for a second, probably thinking something along the lines of "Impossible! Does he still have something up his sleeve?"
The trauma from losing horribly to Philip without him even trying resurfaced, that's just how horribly he beat them.
But at this point they had already resolved themselves-
So, they swallowed their own saliva and replied to Philip with, "T-Then let's make a bet, whoever loses has to follow what the winner says for a week."
But then Philip had a thought and involuntarily smirked because of it, he then quickly wiped off the smirk off of his face and then resumed to speaking in an arrogant tone, as if he was still very much full of himself and that had no idea what he was getting himself into, "Hoh? What an interesting proposition, then why don't we make it inviolable? let's end this rivalry once and for all, how about it?"
Although with a bit of hesitation the brats agreed-
"A-Alright, y-you're on!"
Not knowing of the future that awaits them under Philip's commands...
Now, to begin the story on how Philip's first duel went, well firstly, because they were still inexperienced, there was only one thing that came to mind when holding an official magic duel, it was the rules of the magic duel that they saw the adults perform, that was that they had to at least put a distance of twenty meters between them before duking it out.
So, as if they've come to an unspoken agreement, imitating the actions of the adults, they've all turned their backs on each other and walked like gallant sportsmen's-
Tap! Tap! Tap!
With the brats thinking that they've finally become like the adults and that they were so cool...
"I'll be the one starting the countdown, I'll count from one to three—Let's begin!" The leader of the brats said, trying to gain a competitive advantage over Philip.
"Wait! Before we start, why don't you all just come together at me" Philip said, continuing his provocation, just as he had planned.
"Y-You!" The leader of the brat felt infuriated, seeing as Philip was still looking down at them.
However, after calming down the leader of the brats agreed because he thought that 'Hehehe, your arrogance will be your undoing"
"F-Fine..." The leader of the brats said, pretending to be hesitant and thinking that he was the first one to put on an act, and that he had come up with a brilliant plan.
The leader of the brats completely full of himself, started the countdown without hesitation-
"1!"
"2!!"
"3!!!"
Immediately the three brats picked the elemental affinity that they are most comfortable with and started chanting the strongest magical spell they are capable of.
But this was already within Philip's expectation, before they could even utter a single word, Philip punched their leader directly on his face and bitched slapped the remaining two.
Pow! Pow! Kapow!
The force of Philip's attack was enough to send all three of them flying-
"W-What are you doing?! Purely physical attacks are against the rules! Yo-You've lost!!!" The leader of the brats claimed while still bleeding from his nose.
Philip with a stone-cold expression, trying to act innocent replied with, "No, I used lightning magic combined with my physical attack, weren't you guys able to catch it?"
The other two brats then started to recall their memories-
As if time had frozen down, they returned to the moment right as they got hit. Their blinks moved ever so slowly, but right as they were about to close their eyes as an instinctive reaction, there was indeed a tiny yellow magic circle that emitted a miniscule lightning spark, which hit their faces right alongside with the slap.
"C-Come to think of it? I did saw something like a spark before I got hit"
"Now that I think about it, you're right"
"See? even your friends confirmed i-" Philip retorted smugly.
But before Philip could even finish his sentence, the leader of the brats in an angry tone said, "Shut up! are you two idiots?!!"
The leader of the brats then further exclaimed that, "T-Then what about your attack on mine, can you prove that your attack wasn't purely physical?"
"Well, I punched you so you might have just missed it since I closed my hands." Philip smiled as if the argument was going to the direction that he wanted, as if everything was going according to his plan.
"..." The leader of the brats overwhelmed by Philip's tone of voice and logic wasn't able to think of any rebuttal at the moment.
Then for the final nail in the coffin, Philip further supported his logic with, "Well, if you want to argue technicalities, none of you even stated that this duel was a magic duel, you've all just assumed that this was a magic duel.
"Still! I can't accept it! I can't accept the results of this duel!!" The leader of the brats exclaimed.
"let's fight another round, I don't care whether it's a duel a magic duel or whatever type of duel!! As long as there are no more tricks, and you fight fair!" The leader of the brats complained, as there was just too much on the line.
Philip to not give away that he orchestrated everything leading up to this very moment, that this was all part of his plan, spoke in a friendly but competitive manner, as if he had gained a newfound respect for the other bratty kids, "Fine, but no matter what the result of this duel is, you're gonna have to accept it."
...
"Then, to give you guys more handicap, I'm gonna double the distance between us" As Philip hid his dubious smile, knowing that he had already won.
"Since you've been so kind to us by giving us a handicap, I'm gonna let you start the countdown." The leader of the brats smiled at him, feeling proud of himself, for what he had just done, for putting down all of the trickery and now only fighting fair and square from this point forward.
Philip who could almost read the leader of the brats line of thoughts by looking at his expressions, couldn't help himself but to think that, 'Honestly, what a simple-minded fool'
"1!"
The leader of the brats started instructing his subordinates, "Both of you! stop him from coming near us!"
"H-How!?"
"H-How!?"
Both of the subordinates said synchronously, because that feat was impossible to begin with, seeing the results of the previous round.
"I don't care! Just use lower tiered spells, like those first-tier spells to distract him-Just stop him at any costs!!" The leader of the brats said instantly, explaining his commands further-
"2..."
"I'll be the one casting the strongest spell" The leader of the brats said his final instruction, confident that he could win this-
"3!!"
Brown and light blue magic circles with letters started to manifest in the right hand of both of the subordinate brats, meanwhile their leader at the back also started to gather dark blue letters forming a bigger magic circle relative to the other two, albeit slower.
On the other hand, Philip almost in no time covered half of the distance between them, but the two brats were already ready to cast-
"Icicle Spear!" The kid with the light blue magic circle shouted and a single spear made of ice appeared to precisely hit Philip.
Swoosh!
It looked like the icicle spear was fast enough to pose a threat to Philip, so he jumped over it.
However, the other brat with the brown colored magic circle saved his spell for this very moment-
"Earth wall!" and with that a sturdy wall made of clay in front of Philip emerged from the ground before he could even land from his jump.
But Philip moved smoothly like an acrobat and used his arms to propel himself upwards on the earth wall in front of him to get over it.
Hap!
Swooosh!
The wall, which was supposed to stop Philip's momentum, instead became a helpful obstacle that served to help lunge himself forward and even close the distance on the two brats that already casted their spells.
Now that move surprised them-
'W-What the hell' The two subordinates both thought at the same time.
However, amidst of it all, the two of them didn't panic and immediately abandoned casting their spells on their right hand, but instead, just ran towards Philip to stop him by using their bodies in any way possible, just to gain a bit of time-
"You're not getting close on our boss!"
"Stop!"
Meanwhile, in the perspective of the leader of the brats, as he saw that both of his subordinates abandoned casting spells and as a desperate attempt they just used their bodies to catch Philip, he hurriedly finished his spell, because he thought that he was surely never getting another chance like this and that this would be the perfect timing to cast it while Philip was distracted and busy dealing with the two-
"Waterball—Barrage!" The leader of the brat screamed, and a flurry of water balls in different directions came out of his magic circle aiming to hit Philip.
However, right as they were about to grab hold of Philip using their left hand, he vanished-
"Huh? Where did he go?" All of the brats thought.
He then instantly reappeared behind the leader of the brats like he had always been a part of his shadow all along, and maybe it was just a part of the brats imagination, but Philip at that time looked as if he had somehow gained eyes and a mouth of a devil, almost as if he was actually threatening to kill all of them-
"Nothing personal kids" Philip whispered to all of the brats.
'I-I messed up' the leader of the brats thought, before absolutely being pummeled to the ground by Philip-
"Guh!"
"Guh!"
"Guh!"
...
In the end, the only explanation on how such a thing could happen was that Philip was probably holding back since earlier and still wasn't at his top speed, it only looked like as if Philip teleported in the eyes of the brats, but it was just him closing the gap between them-
"From now on, your names will be Underling Number One, Underling Number Two, and Underling Number Three, keep in mind that your rankings may change depending on your usefulness." Philip said, declaring his victory while he was stepping on the back of the leader of the brats.
"Y-Yes Sir!"
"Y-Yes Sir!"
"I've got a name you know, Tony!" The leader of the brats complained.
"Oh! Should I step harder? or Should I just call you Brat Number One!" Philip said in an irritated tone.
"Y-Yes Sir! I've understood sir!" The leader of the brats hurriedly said, just so everything would be over.
But even after saying all that, the leader of the brats still thought that 'This is bad, I'm sure the surveyor wouldn't pick to recommend me now if he ever hears of my lose.'
From then on, the brats respected Philip as their leader since their feud ended in a somewhat acceptable conclusion, they've all thought that the battle was close and that they still had a slight hope of winning in the near future.
But maybe this was also all part of Philip's plan from the start, holding back his strength to completely crush their hope and gain something more from them.
If so, what a smart and cunning kid Philip is...
[Honestly, even if the kids sinned, I can't blame those kids for acting that way at the time, but someone needed to straighten them out, but I also can't say that it wasn't due to my pride at the time, that I chose to do such things.]
[However, this is the part of their life is where the ember of their youth begins to ignite, where they can still be hopeful to achieve great things, but whether that flame serves to ignite the passion of the next generations that will come after them, or serves to burn them and those around them, will all be up to what choice they will make moving forward.]