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Flame punched the smaller kid out the way and grabbed his second round of extra scoops. He heard the bowl cut guy yelp as he got pegged in the chest. Man, he felt great! A night's sleep was ‘apparently’ all he needed.

The hole in his chest was pretty much gone, and–

He frayed his fingers and cracked his knuckles. His dose of the paralyzing poison had gotten away. He rubbed under his nose.

Of course it did. He was fantastic. A prodigy born once in a thousand years!

He stood on a rock and a giant wave flashed behind him as he raised his hands up royaly. He was the creme la creme.

“You gonna keep posing, or bring me something to eat?” Rumble said, annoyed. Flame stopped, and surprisingly, got a little embarrassed. A new emotion for him.

He tossed his propped up companion two handfuls of gord. Warrior had already gotten her two pieces, laying next to her sleepy body that hadn’t awoken by any of Flame’s earlier yells.

“Rumble, make me a seat!” Flame said. Rumble’s head was propped with a stone that had moved over next to him with earth mana, and he gave Flame a look.

“What?” Flame asked.

Rumble motioned to his messed up body.

“Oh…” Flame said.

“Yeah,”

“You moved that rock earlier, why can’t you move one out of the woods for me?”

“Dude, I can barely move– Cough, Cough, I’m saving my strength for when we have to do this stupid test. Get Warrior to do it.”

They both looked over to their motionless companion and both silently agreed that they should probably leave her alone. The fact she didn’t move for his dragon roars meant that she either was a fantastic actor, or she truly was out.

She felt cold.

Flame sighed, and looked at his hands.

He should have some earth magic in here.

That lady said he did…

Flame shook his head.

He wasn’t going to attempt to use something he never attempted before. Especially not in front of his team.

Team…

As he walked to the woods, Flame’s mind went back to the dark place it went last night. His chest felt hot as he tried to contain the fire that was starting to build. Rumbles ambiguity of what happened due to his sleep hadn’t made it better.

As he brought the giant stone over his head a leaf caught fire as he walked past it. He picked a rock just ‘slightly taller than the one rumble had to prop up his body. Half because he liked the biggest seat. Half because his new body made it better.

Was this evolution?

…

…

No.

After some debating, he realized that this couldn’t be it. He was bigger, but he wasn’t that much bigger. A small part of him told him that when it happened, he’d know.

The entire camp would know.

And considering that old lady who was with Navy was still an imp, growing would take a very long time.

No way would he get in on day one.

He returned.

His scattered thoughts about the stragglers, growing stronger, and his encounter with a goddess going through his mind. He made his way back to his group to see Rumble chuckling softly.

“What are you laughing at?” Flame said as he put down the rock.

“You punched that kid for my piece, jeez man,” Rumble chuckled as he took a big bite out his food. Well, Flame said bite but it was more of a nibble. “I think he’s still crying,”

The bowl cut child screeched across the camp to the shadow boy. Pointing their way and shaking his fist.

Flame’s eye’s predatory at the idea of a challenge. Huh? No, not from bowlcut. The shadow boy. He was half tempted to walk over there and claim the boy. Battle him and make him join…

But something told him that was a bad idea.

He remembered the way the boy gutted that pig. The eye’s hanging from the boars face as he dragged it by his sharp implements. The long meat that dragged–

Scared?!

N-No–that wasn’t it.

The boy was just…

It wouldn’t work. Even if–When Flame won, the boy was someone who would just not obey him. He and Flame were both different beasts but both beasts all the same.

Similar to Navy, he would probably need more than just something physical to recruit him. Because… he would need some new people.

“Rumble,” Flame and Rumble had been eating in silence. Rumble probably knew what Flame was about to ask.

Every movement seemed to hurt him even though he wasn’t poisoned. Dude wasn’t even stabbed and he still moved like he was the most hurt.

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He really fought tooth and nail to get them out of here.

It was an understatement to say that he had won Flame’s respect, but the others…

He looked at Warrior’s motionless body and… the absence of their other members.

It was odd, looking at the aftermath. Something that he felt responsible for. A slight feeling of shame and a–different kind of fire.

A bubbling.

The rawness of this inferno was something new. He was an impulsive person, and sitting and eating with his one comrade, he didn’t like where his mind was going. He didn’t like what his imagination was twisting in his brain.

But it was clear what had happened.

Seven missing.

An entire group gone, and…

Two deserters.

The forest rustled as the autumn wind moved through the clearing. Flame’s expression was something grim.

Vulnerability?

Was that weakness?

It felt like weakness.

It was weakness.

Then… why…

…

“Rumble, tell me what happened last night.”

“...”

Time passes,

Clouds move,

And it has been thirty minutes.

On the outside, he appears fine. Just a look of quiet waiting while the instructors get ready to finish up the test. But Rumble can feel it. Anyone who passes to get more gord can feel it.

That crunch.

That crunch as they pass by the moisture burned, nutrientless dirt around Flame. The earth crumbles and seems to cry out with vapor tears.

Flame’s hand grabs at the earth and feels that bubbling comes to a boil that runs cold.

Rumble had tried to get words out of him, but Flame hadn’t responded after the boy tells his tentative story.

He tried to sugar coat it.

He tried to make it seem like it was something that anyone would have done.

But there was something deeper.

A nudge.

A seed he tried to plant in Flame’s mind with keywords that he knew would trigger him. Weakness, Cowardice, Lessers, Alone, Battled with all my own strength. That last one.

Part of strength is numbers, but now that he looked down at his teammate, he’d now seen now that he’d grossly miscalculated what kind of numbers he had recruited.

This was his fault.

He was in charge and it was his fault.

They had run away. They had disrespected him. If Rumble was like them… If Rumble was normal…

He,

I,

…

He felt two heat signatures walk towards the camp. Must be those “Preparations” they were waiting for.

Oh.

A surprise.

Coming out of the woods is one of the nameless boys and Shoji. The nameless boy, one of the bigger imps Flame had recruited came back looking shaken up.

Like a wet dog he shook. His eyes darted back and forth, his posture was hunched. What had Flame seen in him before?

He looked so small now.

Nike walked over to their group as Shoji talked to him at the edge of camp. The boy’s eyes hadn’t yet peeped the fact that Flame had been staring.

When Nike got over he had his usual jolly demeanor, acknowledging the two boys. He let Rumble acknowledge him back. “Oh, lass.” Nike got on one Knee and looked down at Warrior. He grabbed a clump of gord meat and held it aloft. “You need to eat, wake up,”

He said softly.

No response.

The grizzled man looked confused, “Cmon child,” He laughed quietly, “This is no time to sleep–” As he reached his hand to poke her face, his face immediately became grim.

“...Oy, hey… oh lords. Lesser!”

He called to the lesser adult who immediately rushed over. Flame’s eye’s turned glossy as he realized almost immediately what happened.

He felt almost like he was made of porcelain as the two adults frantically checked over his teammate. Watched as they pushed on her chest.

Watched as the lesser adult swore as he dug in his bags for herbs and other spices to help.

Watched, as Nike yelled about if there was anything he could do.

Watched as Rhodney tried to come over to help. His powers weren’t working. They glimmered and shuddered like they were denying his orders.

Watched as the green light seemed to deny him for the first time, and after he had begun to cry, Flame had to tell him it was Ok.

Her flame had been extinguished.

The boy could do nothing for her.

The course dirt almost turned black as he watched her body. He got down on his knees, and cupped her face in his hands.

Cradling her.

Guiding her to the great furnace below.

“I’m sorry,” Flame said. “I should’ve been better,”

Rumble started to cry.

He got a pass today.

Because Flame was close.

It wasn't attachment. It wasn’t the tears of a lost loved one. It was tears of shame. He’d attracted a crowd. Warrior’s body turned into petals of ash as he held her, and floated into the sky. Black petals that drifted into the sky as her soul went to meet the goddess.

Or at least, he hoped it did.

He prayed it did.

A warm hand raised his head up to the sky. It was warm, smoothe, and he knew it in every fiber.

He heard his god answer in his mind, telling him she’d be in her care, to not worry, for he had work to do.

He told his mother, thank you.

The bubbling, The boiling, and The cold.

…He didn’t know how long he was staring into the sky.

“h-hey…” The boy’s conversation with Shoji was over, and he had mustered the will to make it over to Flame. “I… I just wanted to say… I–um–I…”

The boy was stuttering.

Prattling.

Stumbling.

But Flame wasn’t listening. His eyes were closed as he still felt her hand on his cheek, his eyes affixed to the sky, as he let the autumn breeze move through his mind, body and soul. The boy mumbled out something of an apology. Something of a “I’ll do better next time,” but in Flame’s eye’s…

In his eye’s…

…

“Rumble, I’m–” He cut himself off.

No,

Not here.

Not in front of the adults.

Bottle it.

He’ll get his.

A thin mask was placed over the boy’s face, and all the words he wanted to say, every explosion, every small slight was quelled,

For now.

People started to separate and go back to their pods as Flame gathered himself. Rumble was practically growling.

He wasn’t going to like this, but…

It’ll go down smoother if you wait for the food to heat to the right temperature. You’re the leader, lead my child.

…Yes mother.

“It’s alright,” A smile appeared on his paper thin mask.

The small boy sighed relief. “Thank gods,”

Rumble gave Flame a look of rage that he hadn’t seen in him before. He assumed it was the same look he’d given the nameless boy who had run off.

Betrayal.

Flame gave Rumble a moment, looking him in the eye, then turned back to the deserter.

“Where’s the other one?” Flame asked.

“Oh yeah…” The boy began to talk about what he’d saw in the woods, talking as if things were back to normal.

Flame would have to fill in Rumble.

Flame would have to plan.

Flame would have to make a way to get back, but currently…

He listened.

Because as much as he wanted to make the boy feel small, he would need pawns. And he’d just found the first one of many. The boy had used someone he was responsible for.

So it only was fair that the boy suffered the same fate…

Right?