Chapter 35: Fire vs Water Magic

Four years was not a long time. But for two children who were only ten years old and had only known each other for two years it was a long time. Trip was terrified of the fact that Alex would be leaving. Alex was still weak compared to Trip, and if it weren’t for Trip always being there then Alex wouldn’t even be alive. Alex also knew this and therefore he decided that he would prove himself to Trip. He wanted to show that he was not the only one that was strong.

Alex approached Trip and said “I want to duel you. No light magic allowed!”

Trip looked at Alex in shock. It was inconceivable. Even if Trip only used water magic his skill was at a much higher level than Alex. Trip could be considered a strong intermediate level water mage, and yet Alex could only be called an elementary level fire mage. There was simply no comparison. 

However, when Trip saw the determination in Alex’s eyes he couldn’t help but agree. They began the duel immediately.

Trip and Alex stood 10 meters apart looking directly into each other’s eyes. There was a determined fire within Alex’s eyes and a calm look of indifference within Trip’s eyes. Trip was actually quite surprised by Alex. There was no way for Alex to defeat Trip and yet he still showed such determination and strength to try and win.

“Ok, we start in 3 seconds.” Trip’s uncle said, “3, 2, 1, GO!”

The moment that the word was said Alex rushed towards Trip. He shot a massive bolt of fire. This was the most powerful thing he could do at the moment, and it contained all his emotions, determination, and strength. Unfortunately, fire is not exactly strong against water and a quick swipe of Trip’s hand released enough water to leave the fire completely gone. Alex was incredibly frustrated. His most powerful move was so easily defeated, and it made sense why. Fire was chaotic and water was tranquil and peaceful. Chaos will never survive when faced with tranquillity and peace, there was simple no contest between the two. But Alex still couldn’t understand how everything was destroyed so quickly.

Trip’s uncle was also massively impressed by Trip’s ability in water magic. He had a pretty good understanding on how strong Trip was in light magic, but he hadn’t seen Trip perform any water magic. However when he saw that Trip actually had such strength to completely disregard a powerful attack (for a kid) he felt incredible respect for his nephew. It was clear that to Trip’s uncle that Trip had been practicing basically since the day he was born. He also felt proud as it was clear that Trip was no ordinary child and that he definitely had many strong abilities at an incredibly young age.

Alex knew that he had no way of winning the duel any longer and he decided that it would be stupid to continue. He immediately surrendered and ran off. Not to cry, but to try to counter water magic. Alex found a waterfall and started launching attacks at it, but nothing seemed to work. All of the water simply cascaded on his fire and destroyed it completely. After an hour of pointless practice Alex was incredibly tired. He sat down and started to think.

“Water is tranquil, fire is chaos. Unless there is a massive amount of chaos then tranquillity will always win. There is no way that I will be able to create an attack of fire that is much larger than any of Trip’s water attacks so I need to find a way around that.” Alex spoke to himself.

Suddenly Trip’s uncle appeared and said “You seem to be at a loss of what to do.”

“AAAH” Alex was shocked by the sudden appearance, but then he managed to speak, saying “Well, yes, but you don’t know anything about water or fire magic right?”

“That is true, but I think that some things in magic are universal. You know, where I come from there are people that can use light magic and people that can use dark magic. For many years people considered light magic to be unable to cope with dark magic, similarly to fire being unable to cope with water magic, but one day my ancestor found a way to fight dark magic equally. This way cannot be applicable to your magic, but what I’m trying to say that there is always a way. So don’t give up.”

Alex looked at Trip’s uncle in disbelief. While it was an interesting story it served him absolutely no purpose whatsoever. Alex wasn’t planning on giving up either, making this entire speech rather useless to him.

Alex wanted to scream at him and tell him that what he just said didn’t help him at all, but since it was Trip’s uncle saying stupid things he could only respond by saying “Thanks for the advice”

Trip’s uncle seemed pleased with Alex’s response and was about to leave, before saying “One last piece of advice. Try not to think of water magic as being superior to fire magic. Water magic has weaknesses. All you need to do is find one.”

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Alex shrugged this advice off. Of course fire magic wasn’t inferior to water magic, and of course water magic has weaknesses. That much was clear to Alex, but actually finding a weakness and exploring that was much more difficult.

However, the more Alex thought of what Trip’s uncle had said the more he understood what sort of weakness he could exploit.

“Water magic is only superior to fire magic in a head on battle. In a way water can be like a stable government and fire could be like a rebellion. A small rebellion could never win against a massive stable government, but if that rebellion could create a small hole in the walls of the city and sneak into the centre of the government then they could destroy the source and they could attack.” Alex mumbled to himself.

His eyes lit up as he thought of an idea. He went up to the waterfall and thought ‘Trip would be behind the water, he is the centre, but there is a wall protecting him. I don’t need to break down the whole wall, but instead I can just break a small part and infiltrate that way.’ Alex immediately created a strategy to attack the wall. ‘I will not stop until the wall behind the waterfall is scorched with my flames!’

Alex shot some fire through the waterfall, which should theoretically create a hole for a split second, allowing him to infiltrate and attack. However this split second turned out to be so quick that it was virtually impossible to do anything. The waterfall turned back to its natural state immediately, whereas the fire simple disappeared, causing there to be only a small amount of steam.

Alex knew that in order to give himself more time to attack the wall behind the water he would need to keep up a constant flame in the waterfall that would not be extinguished immediately. However this would mean that his fire would need to be hotter and larger. However this could only be achieved through tons of training. He knew that at this point there was no way for him to defeat Trip, but what he could achieve within a week to prove his strength to Trip would be to defeat the waterfall. If he displays tenacity and the ability to learn quickly then Trip will definitely feel more at ease with the whole situation. Feeling pleased with himself Alex went to sleep.

The next morning he woke up to Trip poking his face with a stick.

Alex gave Trip an angry look and said “I cannot beat you.”

Trip smiled and said “Do you understand now?”

Alex was confused, “Understand what?” he asked

“Understand that you cannot beat me, but that it will not always be like this. Make your fire hotter and stronger. At this point you cannot beat me, but in the future your fire might just match up to my water.” Trip said “I am fine with you leaving, but at the moment I do not think it is safe with your strength.”

Alex was surprised that Trip had changed his attitude towards the situation, but he realised that Trip had a plan. “I was planning on trying to break through the waterfall with fire as training for the last week, but what do you have in mind?”

Trip released an evil smile, which gave Alex a shiver down his spine. Trip then began to speak “Remember how I almost drowned once?”

Alex gulped nervously as he nodded in response.

“Well, even though I can’t speak to Grelin at the moment I do remember him saying something about a special training method for fire magic.” Alex’s eyes lit up when hearing this, seeing this Trip continued to speak “When I got submerged and almost drowned in the water I became, for a while, a part of that water. This can be done with fire as well.”

“Wait, so you want me to sit in fire, burning myself and hurting myself constantly as a training method? This will kill me!” Alex said, clearly unwilling

Trip giggled seeing Alex like this, before continuing an explanation “Actually in fire magic it is a bit less physically traumatising. Water magic is tranquil so it is hard to use or get to ‘wake up’, but fire magic is chaotic and can be activated in an easier way. Also in fire magic there are no hidden particles so you don’t need to try and befriend them. In order to get stronger what you need to do is temper your body and soul using fire magic.”

“How can I do that?” Alex asked

Trip’s face turned serious as he said “You need to become chaotic, and learn to control it. In the technique that I will explain soon you will need to quite literally inject fire within your soul and become an embodiment of chaos, from that point on you will need to learn to control it.”