...On a few hours before it reaches 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 in the middle of their works, so they just went about their days. But there were also some adults who decided to bet, so they have attended 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 a 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 being bullied and the potential embarrassment, they just opted not to join.
...
"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 jumped only once to reach to top of the smallest tree around to gain a better view of the whole field.
The tree that he jumped on was slightly red, with the fibers of its barks being similar looking to an oversized veiny root. It stood at about a hundred meters tall, similar to the coast redwood trees.
"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 those of the side characters you would often see in stories.
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 he is.
However, he could actually be a main character hiding in plain sight that was disguised 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, since there is a reason why he is called underling number three in their rankings, as he is slightly weaker than compared to underling number two.
(Damn narrator, what kind of beef do you have with underling number three?!)
Underling number three then pretended to walk with a determined gait, because somehow, he felt like he was being insulted somewhere, which 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 when they reached a certain distance, where both of them are comfortable with.
And finally, one of the adults started their countdown.
"3!"
"2!"
"1!
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"Go!!!"
'Hehehe, 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 above 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 a long distance. They've 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...
Then as Underling Number Three's opponent successfully casted his spell, he smiled as if he had already won, even the audience thought that this round was over.
But what they didn't think about was that all of Underling Number Three's action 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-
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!
...
Until finally, when Underling number three was at the distance where he exactly wanted to be, he revealed the first-tier magic spell that he had conjured right before he ran, to use either defensively just in case or offensively.
"Icicle Spears!" Right as he chanted, one normal sized and one small sized pointy spear made of ice appeared.
Swish! Swish!
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, because he was proud of the fruits of his labor.
"How?"
"He can already cast a spell while moving?!" 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?"
"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 stongest 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!"
...
His 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 uppercutted.
"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?"
"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!!"
"Looks like we're gonna be seeing both of the Baltazar's today"
"Will he be able to match his brother's performance." The adult who had assumed the role of an announcer declared with enthusiasm.
As Underling Number Two, started walking menacingly into his position...