Chapter 8: It's Actually a Standoff (1)
[After my duel with the three brats, what followed were uneventful years, only that as our generation grew older, we started to assuming the roles of adults, but if there was one thing that was worth mentioning was the fact that two rival factions among our peers formed and somehow, I became the leader of one.]
[But I wasn't interested none the least, even to the leader of the other faction at the time, I didn't even know who she was at the time, if I only I was able to see the future-No what am I even talking about, even if I was able to go back I probably would not be able to approach her, anyways the sole reason why I accepted the role of the leader was because I only cared about the upside of having someone whom I can boss around at my beck and call, however that would prove to be a shortsighted mistake as it actually came to bite me in the back later-
"B-Boss! Please help us." [The trio cried while kneeling in front of me.]
"What trouble did you guys cause now? Huh?!" [I replied tired of their usual bullshits.]
"Shut up Tony! You know what you did!" [The bratty girl shouted as she slowly walked towards our territory-now that I'm remembering it, we were pretty lame, aren't we? talking about territories and stuff and declaring it as if it really was our own...]
"You guys can't even handle cleaning your own mess? Why should I help you troublemakers?" [I asked clearly, confused with the situation at hand.]
"I knew you would get in the way Philip! That's why I called our leader Ada!" [That bratty girl reaffirmed herself, thinking that it was wise for her to do so.]
'H-Hey don't just instantly include me in this, I didn't even remotely say anything that could make you think that. Seriously?! just how did you come to that conclusion that I would help them?!!' [Was what I probably thought to myself at the time, bewildered by that woman's way of formulating thoughts.]
"Hey, so you were the one they call Philip! Nice to meet you, I'm the leader of the other faction HAHAHA!" [As the rowdy red-haired girl greeted me.]
'Finally, someone I can easily communicate with' [I thought to myself happily as we shook hands.]
"Honestly I don't care whatever you did, or your lackeys did or who's at fault. I just wanted to fight you to see who's stronger!" [The girl said to me in a cheery tone while still shaking my hand with both of hers and even tilting her head slightly, to show how polite she is.]
"L-Leader?!" [Heh! that one bratty girl said in a shocked tone, probably feeling betrayed by her leader's words.]
'Another troublemaker!!' [I thought to myself, as that was honestly my first impression of the rowdy girl.]
"Then why didn't you just challenge me back then? Why now?" [I asked curiously.]
"Well, I needed justification to challenge you, because I just felt bad just challenging you out of nowhere." [The rowdy girl said proudly.]
"W-What?!! You seriously don't see anything wrong with that line of thinking?!!!"
[HAHAHA! I was bewildered, perplexed, befuddled even, by how the rowdy girl's brain worked.]
***
On a few hours before it reached midday, where the wind blows from east to west, right in the edge of the town, where the land transitions from habituated to the territory devoid of any humans, all of the pre-teens who were members of both the factions gathered to hold a bout.
The news of this standoff had already spread and reached the ears of everyone around town. However, although most of the adults were curious on who will win, it was just too much of a hassle for them to watch as they were in the middle of their jobs, so they just went about their days. But there were also some adults who decided to bet, so they had to attend to confirm the results of this little charade.
Which coincidentally, this was also around the time when the surveyor was staying at their village, so of course he was curious too, and he decided to attend to gather information on the kids.
...
The rules of this bout were simple,
Number one, there must be an equal amount of representatives/fighter on both sides,
Number two, each round both of the teams must send a representative, and whoever wins in their duel will receive the right to decide whether they want to continue fighting or to concede the right to enter the next match to their succeeding representative,
Lastly, number three and also the final rule, whichever team has the one last representative standing wins the bout.
...
Fifteen members of each faction stepped forward, like they were heroes that have assembled to fight the villains, which from their perspectives were the other faction, and although the remaining kids would've liked to participate, but sadly they can't even conjure a first-tier magic spell, or if they could, they would only be able to use one spell at best, so instead, to avoid the potential embarrassment from joining and even being bullied, they just opted not to join.
Philip then gave his instructions to the trio-
"Then, go ahead and let loose underling number one, number two, and number three. I'm a bit irritated since you guys dragged me into this mess and cost me my reading time, so, I'll just stay at the tree branch over there, make sure that you guys make it interesting so that I don't fall asleep." As Philip looked around the canopy of trees which all similarly had a slightly red color, and with the fibers of their barks being indistinguishable to an oversized veiny root, identical to the coast redwood trees.
Then without moments pause, Philip chose the smallest tree around which stood at about a hundred meters tall, and jumped once to be able reach one of its top branches, thus gaining a better view of the whole field-
"I've got a name you know!! TONY- It's T.O.N.Y." As the leader of the brats exclaimed, trying to squeeze himself for at least the side character position in the novel.
Underling number three was the first to enter the round, he has a generic black hairstyle and face, similar to the side characters you would often see drawn on action comic books.
In fact, if you would try to draw and depict him, it would be much better if you would only draw his hair and his body, but without his facial structures, that's just how bland his looks are.
However, it might also be possible that he is secretly the main character and was actually just disguising himself as a side character, since those types of stories have been trending as of late—But, sadly he is just not up to the task, as there is a reason why he is called underling number three from their rankings, because he is just a tiny bit weaker compared to underling number two.
[Damn! narrator what kind of beef do you have with underling number three?!] (Philip commented on the narrator's savage narration.)
What are you talking about? I only speak the truth. (The original narrator retorted the protagonist's words)
Underling number three then pretended to walk with a determined gait, because somehow, he felt like he was being insulted somewhere, which also kind of affected his confidence.
'Is someone from the other faction making fun of me? Just so they wait! I'll show them!!' Underling number three thought to himself, as sweat started pouring from his forehead.
They then stopped walking after they reached a certain distance, to where both of them are comfortable with fighting on.
Then to make sure that the duel was fair one of the adults started the countdown for them-
"3!"
"2!"
"1!
"Go!!!"
'He Hehe! I'll win this and win the heart of our leader; it's time for me to show my brilliance and prove that I'm worthy her' The opponent of underling number three thought.
The ambitious opponent of Underling Number Three then began chanting his strongest spell just like how the inexperienced trio brats did back then, revealing their trump card along with it their level of strength, a common mistake that amateur mages make.
However, since underling number three had sparred with Philip so many times to the point that he was sick of it, he was already past that. In fact, he might've already gone and beyond that phase-
So, in the eyes of underling number three, this guy was just too predictable.
Whoosh!
Without even an ounce of hesitation, Underling Number Three rushed towards his opponent, still casting his magic spell, which seemed to be a second-tier water spell. Furthermore, he didn't even hesitate to use his magical element ice, not to form a magic spell but to help increase his mobility while running.
Crackle! Crackle!
This definitely surprised underling number three's opponent and even the audience around, because this was such an unorthodox way of fighting from such a distance, thus both his opponent and the audience all thought that if he wanted to battle like this, he should've just stopped from walking and shouldn't have increased their distance by this much.
Because now, he will pay the price since it seems that his opponent was almost done casting his spell-
"Waterball Barrage-x2" Sixteen rotating water balls then instantly appeared and promptly moved towards underling number three in a fixed direction.
Swirl! Swirl! Swirl!
Swirl! Swirl!
Swirl...
However, right as Underling Number Three's opponent successfully casted his spell and smiled as if he had already won, at the point where even the audience thought that the round was already over-
Gracefully, Underling Number Three dodged the water balls by the breadth of his hair, while those he couldn't dodge as he wasn't fast enough, was parried by freezing them using his cold mana.
Woosh! Woosh!
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Crackle! Crackle!
Because what they didn't think about was that all of Underling Number Three's actions could've been done on purpose, the deliberate increasing of his distance from his opponent to bait them into casting their strongest magic attack, because they might hesitate if the distance is shorter, and even faking how fast he could actually go by not even covering half the distance to conserve his energy and so that his opponent wouldn't cancel their spell midway.
Thus, leading to the position they are in now, where Underling number three was at the distance where he exactly wanted to be, he then revealed the first-tier magic spell that he had conjured right before he ran, to use either defensively or just in case, offensively-
"Icicle Spears!" as he chanted those words, one normal sized and one small sized pointy spear made of ice appeared-
Swish! Swish!
Then, his opponent who couldn't move as he was in the middle of controlling his spell, cancelled it, and in a last-ditch effort jumped sidewards, thus barely managing to dodge the bigger icicle spear.
Swoosh!
But wasn't able to dodge the smaller one.
"Kugh!" Underling Number Three's opponent involuntary gargled as he got hit.
"I did it! I've won!!" Underling Number Three shouted, showing just how proud he was at the fruits of his labor.
"How?"
"He can already cast a spell while moving?!"
As all of the audience wondered in amazement and shock.
"Interesting... But no, they were all wrong, he had already casted that before he ran, he just maintained it very well, while hiding it." The surveyor muttered to himself.
"Will you still fight in the next round? Baltazar?" The guy in the audience who now clothed himself as a referee asked.
"Yes" Underling Number Three answered, feeling confident that he can still go for one more round.
...
'Fufufu! I'll use a lower-tier spell first to tire him out, then once he's exhausted, I'll use my strongest spell to guarantee a hit. The guy that came before me was just caught by surprise by his attack that's why he lost, but the same trick won't work twice, now I that I know what level he's at and that he probably hasn't fully recovered from the last fight, I'll definitely win this round' Underling Number Three's next opponent thought.
"2!"
"1!"
"Go!!!"
"Earth Mud!" "Earth Mud!"
"Earth Mud!"
As Underling Number Three's opponent spammed offensive first-tier spells without rest, like there was no tomorrow-
However, Underling Number Three used the stamina that he has been conserving and instantly zoomed in on his opponent.
Swooooooshh!!
So, before his opponent could've even cast his fifth spell, he was dealt with an uppercut right in the face and was sent flying in the air.
"Pow!"
"Kwoooh!" his opponent made this weird sound as his mouth was open before getting uppercut.
"Huff! Huff!" Underling Number Three panted.
Everyone cheered for Underling Number Three, he definitely surpassed the expectations of the crowd.
"BAL-TA-ZAR!" "BAL-TA-ZAR!"
"BAL-TA-ZAR!"
...
"Do you still wish to continue?" The referee who was decided in the heat of the moment asked.
"No" Underling Number Three answered, as he knew that he had reached his limit and that there was no point going for the next round where he is sure to lose.
"Now, why don't we cheer it up for the next guy on their team-
This guy's twin brother!!" As another guy from the crowd now dressed as the announcer popped up and exclaimed.
Then all of a sudden, a new guy again from the audience appeared as a commentator, who now became partner with announcer from earlier shouted "Looks like we're gonna be seeing both of the Baltazar's today!"
"Will he be able to match his brother's performance?" The adults who had assumed the role of an announcer and commentator declared with enthusiasm.
As Underling Number Two, started walking menacingly into his position...