("Hmm, other than having gnarly looking horns, I don't think there's much difference between begs in this world and the last") Tibaut thought to himself as he looked at a beetle in his hand.

He was currently crawling through the bushes looking for bugs.

"Woah, this one looks crazy."

He was gawking at a really bizarre-looking creature. It was a rhinoceros beetle-looking thing with a scorpion tail. As put his hand near it, it started to get a bit feisty. It flicked its tail at him but he didn't seem too bothered. He glared at it and flicked it with his finger. It was flipped over and was struggling to get right side up.

"Oh, he survived it."

A few minutes into their search, his brother quickly ran back to the mansion to get five small wooden boxes to put the bugs in. And Tibaut had used up about four of the five so far.

He had a sly grin on his face. "Hehe, you can be my ace."

He then captured the invertebrate and decided to keep looking through the bushes.

After a few his brother pulled him out of one.

"It's time to get this started, Tibaut." He said as he held his brother up in one hand.

"Kay."

They leisurely walked to the tree stump while looking at each other's bugs. Tibaut made sure to hide the last one he found, though he wasn't discrete.

"Oh, you have something special, eh? Don't you worry I probably have something here that can match it." His brother said while grinning.

Tibaut didn't look too concerned as he had decided to run over to the stump.

"Oh come on, Tibaut, are you really gonna have me carry all these boxes by myself?" He complained but his little brother didn't seem to be paying him any attention.

("Sigh, was I like this as kid.") He thought as Tibaut watched him approach.

"Okay, do you know the rules?" Pyrus asked him.

"Rules?(How does putting two insects together in a deathmatch have rules?)"

"Alright here's how it goes. We put two bugs on the stump and the one that's still alive is the winner."

Tibaut nodded his head.

"Also if they don't fight, we'll call it a tie and have our next bugs fight. Finally if for whatever reason one of them falls off the stump that bug loses."

"Okay let's do this already." The boy said impatiently.

They both readied their first bugs and began their makeshift bug tournament.

----------------------------------------

Tibaut was sat on the floor with a sour expression on his face.

"I'll be honest with you Tibaut I didn't expect for it to turn out like this."

Tibaut got up and tried to walk away.

"Come on, Tibaut don't be like that, we have one more match waiting."

"I wanna go read a book, maybe I'll get Cillia to read me one."

While Tibaut could read, he enjoyed hearing the maid's voice. But that aside his mind had long left the bug fighting and he was all but in body, in his room resting on the bed.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"Come on, Tibaut, it's just one more." His older brother pleaded.

"But it's just so boring!!!"

For the past hour or so they had been watching their bugs with much anticipation. Unfortunately for them, these bugs didn't feel like playing their games. For four consecutive rounds between eight bugs, guess what happened?

That's right, a whole helping of nothing. When they placed the bugs down they'd just walk around the stump while occasionally bumping into each other and slowly backing away. They tried various things like placing a single piece of food on the stump, putting them close to each other, and boxing them into an even smaller space through the use of the boxes yet it all resulted in the bugs not being any more aggressive to each other.

"I'm bored Pyrus, can't we just go back now?"

"Now, now we still have one more round (I could swear these bugs were more aggressive when I used to play this, did that magician dad hire cause this? Anyway, I have to impress Tibaut or else he might grow up thinking I'm lame. Ah, I can see it now, we'll grow further over the years and anytime I try to bond with him he'll say "You're lame" and try to avoid me. I have to give him a strong impression or our brotherhood is finished."

"okay." Tibaut said, clearly running empty on enthusiasm.

They both brought out their final bugs and placed them on the stump. First up was Tibaut's nippy little scorpion beetle thing he caught earlier. It came out of the box swinging as it tried to attack the box itself when Tibaut was pulling it away.

His brother's bug was simple. It was crab. Like straight up just a brown crab. Granted its claws were pretty big for its size and it had a large mouth but yeah. Just a land crab. It just sat there trying to pick at the stump.

Tibaut's enthusiasm had reached new lows but at least he was positive a fight was actually gonna happen now.

"That's it?" Tibaut said.

"Dear brother, you should learn there is more to things than they would seem."

"?"

The beetle rushed the crab and started stinging. The crab started to move but it didn't seem like it was fighting back.

("Sorry little fella, maybe you should have stayed in the sea.") The small boy thought to himself.

It went on to be stabbed several more times without much in the way of defence. If things kept going on like this it was going to lose quite badly. Then Tibaut's excitement came back to him with the next move.

"What!?" he said with a slight grin at something actually happening.

"What did I say, little brother?" While looking at the stump.

The crab had grabbed the stinger with his claw. Then with surprising dexterity, lifted up and slammed the beetle into the stump. The stinger was completely ripped off and it decided to have it as a snack. Within a few seconds, it had eaten the stinger whole. The stump was stained with the bug's green blood.

"Go on, you still have the advantage!" Tibaut shouted at the bug.

"He may have hit more strikes but mine certainly doesn't seem worse for wear. Yours on the other hand seems to have lost a major weapon."

"Tsk," Tibaut clicked his tongue and his eyes were laser-focused on the stump.

His beetle had decided it wouldn't take this lying down and rammed the crab. The crab seemed unperturbed and simply grabbed its lower horn and with a shockingly loud crack, broke it. Just like the stinger, it ate it within a matter of seconds.

"Dear brother, this is the quality you can find when you look past appearances. Consider this a learning experience." Pyrus remarked.

Yet the hope in Tibaut's eye did not waver.

("Children do like stubbornly clinging to hope. Hopefully, he doesn't cry when it loses.)

The beetle rammed the crab again but all it did was push it back slightly. Like a butcher separating the various cuts of neat, it calmly reached its claw towards the beetle's upper horn and crushed it. Like last time it ate it whole while staring down the beetle.

"I must say Tibaut, you have a lot of fate on that thing."

"Do you not see it?" Tibaut calmly responded.

"?"

His brother calmly looked at the stump again.

"!"

("How, could I miss something so obvious?")

"Dodge it!!!"

"The battle is ours!" Tibaut shouted.

Pyrus had overlooked that with every ram the crab was pushed closer and closer to the edge. It had made no attempt to move away from it. With the next ram, it was going to fall.

Then without any warning, the beetle was flung from the stage.

Tibaut turned to his brother with suspicion.

"Why are you looking at me like that, Tibaut? It was just the wind. (tch, that hurt more than I thought it would)" He said while holding one of his hands behind his back.

"You cheated."

"Oi, oi, don't throw that word out so loosely. It really was just the wind!" He tried to convince the young boy.

He had used his fire magic but there were no signs of burns on the stump. What did he do?

He had cupped his hand to aim it at something. Not his fire magic but the blast it produced. He generated a mini fireball in his cupped hand and used the aimed blast of it to knock off the beetle. Why he thought his hand would fare better than it did was anyone's guess.

Tibaut looked at his older brother while pouting.

Tibaut then put both his hands towards the crab and it was blown away by a small ball of fire.

"Sorry Pyrus, the wind got your crab."

"Don't do that Tibaut, being spiteful is for women."

The little brother blew raspberries at him before the older brother caught on to something.

"YOU CAN USE MAGIC!?"