"--Stupid... steps to... infinity," gasped out the silver haired youth as he trekked up the unmaintained mountain path. "Why couldn't... they just... make some... water break areas!?"

Having been climbing at top speed for the past 15 minutes, the boy was understandably overcome with fatigue and exhaustion that were only made worse with the 50 pound backpack he was carrying.

"There better be (wheeze) a waterfall or lake (cough cough) to wash up in when I get there or... or... I seriously might die...!"

His destination was at the halfway point of the mountain dubbed: "The Peak Above The Sphere". The top of this famous landmark stood at about 9000 meters from its base and far trumped the clouds that it pierced.

Simple math would imply that the young man would need to climb 4500 meters to reach the halfway point.

Ah! Finally! I was beginning to think the old geezer lied to me!"

And simple math would indicate that he had scaled at an average pace of 4500 meters in exactly 17 minutes to reach his destination.

It was needless to say, but I'll say it anyway: He was no ordinary boy.

And neither were the giant red Tori gates that stood before him.

Engraved on the base of the gates were special characters that symbolized toughness and perseverance along with the name of territory they stood guard for: The Spinner's Library.

Customarily, visitors of this location would mutter a short prayer, bow to the gate, place their hand on whichever character they valued more, and finally walk along the side of the gate that they had chosen.

Our abnormal adolescent ignored all of these, probably out of ignorance, and walked straight down the middle of the red entryway.

"'Oh Vivran... we know just the place for you to train' they said. 'Oh Vivran, there's this really strong old guy you should meet, he'll be good for you!' they said," the boy, evidently named Vivran, muttered to himself in sour recollection. "'Okay, Nanny Yeast! Where is he?' 'Oh, it'll be easy getting to his house, it's only ABOVE THE LITERAL CLOUDS! Jeez, I don't even know if I wanna train here, but I still gotta do all this work!"

Forgetting about the wheezing and panting he had just been going through, Vivran started to go about throwing a miniature tantrum, but quickly changed gears. Even if he could somehow force his body to stop showing the symptoms, he had still put it through a monumentally arduous task.

"Whoaaaa, its's more spacious than I thought I'd be," he said to himself while observing the area. "Look's like there's a big building, two small buildings, an actual path leading up to the rest of the mountain, a water well, and- OH YEAH, A POND!"

Shooting out of his backpack's strappings, Vivran dove right into the glimmering flat surface of the water. The huge splash echoed throughout the territory, but the boy hardly paid it any mind as he basked in the cool sensation that he had been longing for.

"Ahhhh, this is great. Perfect temperature and everything! A few minutes of this and I'll be back at full energy, no sweat involved... I forgot to take my clothes off."

Indeed, he did. Too late to do anything about it, the overzealous youth was now sitting in the fresh spring water with now soggy clothes clinging to his skin.

Most people would find this to be an embarrassing oversight, but after a couple seconds of blank reflection about his actions, he went straight back to enjoying his well-earned bath.

"Alright, time to schedulize.* Once I'm done soaking in the sun, I should check this place out a bit more. That big huge building was probably the main dojo area thingy, so those two other small ones must be... smaller dojos?"

"I'll consider not scorching you into an ashen pile if you state your name and reason for intrusion. Then again, no promises, I'm in a bad mood."

A new arrival had graced the side of the pond without any warning and nearly startled Vivran out of his skin.

"Eh!? Eh! Ehhhhh? Who are you?! I was told that this master guy was some old dude who was super strong! So why do you look my age?! Wait, is this cause of some immortal juice scenario? Like, that well over there is actually the Fountain of Youth and you're the only one allowed to drink it? Cause if that's the case, you're pretty selfish old ma- OW OW, HOT HOT HOT!"

The middle of Vivran's rant was suddenly stopped midway with him leaping out of the pond as if it had been replaced by molten lava.

"Gah, what the hell?! I got in there to cool down, not turn into roast beef!" he cried out. His wet clothes had also been subjected to the sudden super-heat and he could feel his skin screaming from the itchy irritation that came from entering a scalding bath without caution. Only this time, the dangerous temperature had entered after him.

Vivran turned his head to look at the newcomer with suspicion. This supernatural event had only occurred when he had showed his face to Vivran.

Sure enough, the opposing boy had at some point during their "conversation" knelt down and placed two of his fingers into the spring water.

"You little-! You did do something, didn't you?!?"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

His aggressor was indeed the same age as him, but he conveyed a more mature air. With short, dark auburn hair, and sandy brown eyes that glared at him and his every movement, he could be summed up as a pretty boy with a privileged aura. Even if he did look like he had been someone's punching bag 10 minutes prior.

The red haired boy stood up and turned to face the other while raising his right hand forward.

"I guess I didn't make it simple enough for you, trespasser. God knows if you've ever had to use your brain," he sighed. "Who are you, how did you break in, and why are you here?"

"Break in? Nuh-uh, you got it wrong. I was invited here to train under some master guru guy named "The Spitter". Or wait, was it "The Dinner"? Nah, that's even dumber..."

"You could've at least tried to come up with a semi-believable excuse before coming here," red hair hissed. "All students of Ton-Ire are sent special letters of identification to prove who they are and allow them to get to this area. Not only do you not know the Master's proper title, but you're sorely lacking in the physical evidence that you claim you have."

An awkward silence hung in the air as the two teenagers faced down, one with his hand still ominously aimed toward the other, who now donned a blank look on his face. Eyes glazed over for a few seconds, Vivran then sprang up with a metaphorical lightbulb illuminated above his head.

"Oh, you mean that important map thingy? I got it right here," he said reaching into his right pocket.

And bringing out a poor, crumpled, soggy piece of parchment.

Another awkward silence was met between the two teenagers, one now holding out the sorry excuse for paper with a pleased expression on his face, the other looking as though his dog had been run over by a tractor in front of him.

"Ah-... eh-?" were the only sounds that came out of his mouth. His eyes were both wide, albeit slightly twitching, while staring at the dripping mess in the silver haired interloper's fingers. His outstretched arm had gone slightly limp, no longer aiming for the head, but the stomach, or rather a little to the left of it. Not that he was aware.

During the seconds of silence, a gust of wind blew across the training grounds, scattering the fallen pines, and coincidentally causing a piece of the paper to tear off and fall to the ground with a moist, pathetic splat.

"You- you- you audacious piece of garbage!"

Re-aiming his open palm, the boy screamed in fury as his hand was engulfed in a red, shivering aura.

"Whoa, whoa, hey, what's with you?" Vivran nervously asked, quickly raising his hands to try to reason with the red-haired teen.

"There's no chance that you're scheduled to be a student of 'Spinner'" he snarled. "Treating a master Pathfinder's invite with such disregard and clumsiness-! It doesn't matter anyhow, your lie was over the second you opened your mouth. As the current student of Ton-Ire, I can say without a shadow of doubt that there were no other reservations made for his training."

"...Huh? Wait, what do you mean? You're also a student of the geezer? Hey, I thought this was some sort of special V.I.P privilege, but I guess they really do just give the 'invite' to anyone."

"You scum-!"

"Ah, wait, that came out wrong-"

Further words of de-escalation would have been said, but just as quickly as he attempted them, just as quickly he gave up. No matter what Vivran did, the attack would come.

After half a millisecond of deliberating on how to respond to the incoming assault, the silver-haired teenager decided to leap back and put as much distance between himself and his assailant as possible. If it was a melee attack, he would avoid it, and if it was ranged, he would have more time to assess and dodge.

However-

"Escaping into the air was the wrong decision, you litter-born. Red Flash!"

"Eh-?"

Before he could even vocalize his mistake, a hazing red beam was suddenly closing in fast towards the middle of his chest.

"Grk-!"

Quickly, Vivran threw his arms up in a X-formation to intercept the blow as best as possible.

It connected at the intersection of his arms, and upon contact, he had expecting to be pushed or sent flying back.

However, this attack wasn't made up of physical substance.

The sensation that instead met him was-

"Kch-! HOT!"

Scorching pain.

The sensation of his flesh melting off shot its way into his brain. Vivran's arms and eyes both burned, one from the attack, the other from the pain.

"Going into the air just means you limit your mobility, wastebin!" yelled the other adolescent. "You're pathetic! Weak! You have no right to qualify as a student of anyone or anything!"

Along with the heat being drilled through his arms, Vivran now had to deal with the onslaught of verbal abuse that Red-Hair was throwing at him. However, oddly enough, Vivran didn't feel as though those words were meant for him. Like the speaker didn't even consider him when he shouted them out. Almost as if Red-Hair was just talking to himself, and Vivran was merely another object in the background of his monologue.

He felt an odd emotion stirring within, one that momentarily caused him to forget about the attack that threatened to melt him into nothing.

Rage. He didn't like it. Vivran considered it to be a waste.

But that's what he felt in that moment.

Was it because of the provocations? Because they weren't meant for him specifically? Nah, maybe he felt a little lonely that his opponent wouldn't even offer proper trash talk, but he wouldn't get angry over it, much less... Rageful?

Was it because his first impression, the thing that Nanny Yeast said to prize above all else, had gone out of his control? Maybe. He did feel kinda annoyed that he was getting attacked for, according to his own understanding, no reason.

Vivran didn't know. Even as he mulled over why, mid-air, forearms turning into rotisserie, he pondered for an answer that he just couldn't grasp.

Clenching his teeth, Vivran smiled.

"-Huh?" was all the other boy could manage to get out. It was incomprehensible. A full second had passed since his Red Flash had made contact with Vivran's body. Smoldering pain should have overtaken him by now, and the only expression he should be making was one of defeat and misery.

But he was smiling.

"Hmph-!"

With astonishing speed, Vivran shot back down to the ground with a grunt, out of the red ray's path. He landing crouched down with one knee raised and the other on the floor, assuming the perfect position to dash forwards toward his opponent.

"How did you just-?"

"I never got to pay you back for ruining my bath time."

"!?"

"So here's the reimbursement-!"

Kicking off the ground, the only thing left in Vivran's wake was a shockwave that tore up the dirt. With a toothy grin still on his face, he approached his assailant at a speed that would have made him seem like a blur from an outsider's perspective.

Red-hair let out a single grunt of surprise, before quickly shifted his body weight and holding his arms out in a braced position.

"He's going for a tackle to knock me down. All I need to do is to receive it without letting either of my feet off the ground and he'll be right where I want him!"

But moment's before the two made impact, Vivran suddenly planted his left foot into the ground, halting all of his momentum.

"What-?"

"Here it is with interest!"

It was incorrect to say that all of Vivran's momentum vanished. It was more that he put it all into his flying right arm. The same arm that had a huge burn mark on the middle of its forearm. The same arm that was now on its way to cave the opposing boy's face in.

"I have to block- no, there's no time-!"

In a last ditch effort, he tried to bring his hands up to stop the attack, but-

"Vibrio-"

-it was far too late.

"-Bell!"