Amber Highlands

It is an elevated, grassy area on the outskirts of Amber City. The area had many large rocks, ditches and hills. Nobody actually goes to this place because there’s nothing of interest here.

But it just so happen it is perfect for the purpose of a certain pair.

Behind one of the rocks was a young Magic-user hiding from his opponent.

“You can’t hide out there forever, Benny!”

His opponent’s voice taunted him. If he replied back, he would know where he was. But he had guessed already how to outmaneuver him. He raised his staff and prepared his spell.

Jumping out from behind the rock, he aimed, “Meteor Canon!”

His opponent turned and saw ball of light rushing towards him.

“Nice try! But that won’t work against me!”

He quickly positioned his stance, readying his sword and slashed the ball of light. It was quickly dispelled.

“Tch!” Benny clicked his tongue.

“You’ve got to do better than that if you want to beat me! Not that you could!”

His opponent quickly rushed towards him and readied his sword.

“Flame Dragon Style: Blitz Fang Blade!”

Quickly holding his staff in front of him, he shouted in a loud voice.

“Light Barrier!”

His staff glowed with light and a large yellow Magic Seal appeared in front of him. Tenryu’s Sword collided with Benny’s shield and caused a shockwave that reverberated across the field.

(Damn! Tenryu sure is strong!) But he focused his gaze with a smile. (But I haven’t practiced just so I can be a push over!)

He shot his free hand forward, “Flash!”

He felt a surge of energy gathering in his hand and burst of light came forth causing his opponent to cover his eyes.

“Ah! Blistering Blazes! My eyes!”

Calculating his timing and he quickly pointed his staff downward.

“Water Fountain!”

The Magic Seal protecting him quickly disappeared but a new one appeared beneath Tenryu. This one was blue in color.

A geyser of water shot from the seal and engulfed his sword-wielding opponent before shooting him in the air.

“UWAAAGGHHH glub*glub*glub*!!!”

“Gotcha!”

Benny grinned, feeling as though he made a great leeway. Tenryu had a briefly annoyed look on his face before returning the grin.

(Oh, nice try! But this won’t stop me!)

Tenryu quickly ignited his sword and caused it to superheat! He then slashed the Water Fountain with a loud “Ha!” The intense heat caused the water to evaporate and Benny to back away. Tenryu landed on his feet coincidently completely dried from the heat of his own flames.

He then rushed towards Benny with his sword raised, “Take this!”

Tenryu swung down his blade at Benny...before he quickly turned it on his hand an aimed the hilt on Benny’s head.

“Eh? Wait a minute-”

“Ha!”

After being struck by the hilt, Benny fell backwards and landed on the ground with a thump.

“Looks like I win again this time!”

Tenryu grinned again but Benny still lay on the ground completely unconscious. Tenryu started to feel uneasy.

“H-Hey? Benny? You okay?”

Benny did not respond.

“Oh, blitz! Magma-tia is gonna grill me!” Tenryu quickly tried to shake Benny awake, “C’mon Benny! This isn’t funny!”

All of a sudden Benny started stirring much to Tenryu’s relief.

“Oh, thank blazes... Don’t scare me like that-”

Tenryu stopped when he saw Benny wasn’t stirring. He was wiggling like he was made of jelly!

“What the blitz...”

Suddenly ‘Benny’ disappeared and in his place was a strange blob of water in the shape of him.

Tenryu leapt back with a yelp, “I-Illusion Magic?”

The water quickly reformed into huge bubble of water. It then started glowing.

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“Oh, blitz!”

Tenryu cursed when realization hit him. He tried to get away but it was too late. The water bubble exploded and he got washed away. As the water subsided, he lay on the ground completely soaked.

Benny appeared from behind another rock with a smile.

“No fair! You tricked me!”

Tenryu stood there completely soaked but he simply waved his sword and it caught in flames again. This allowed himself to dry quickly.

“Weren’t you the one saying I had to give it my all? Using tricks is one of the basics of what people call “Magic” from where I came from.”

“That’s not really Magic, you know!”

“Well, I prefer this type of approach in a battle. Speaking of which, the battle’s not over yet!”

Benny twirls the staff in the air before he stabs it at the ground. Large, glowing fissures quickly spread throughout the field and right underneath Tenryu’s feet. Benny lifted his staff and upon doing so, huge chunks of earth rose from the fissures and started floating around Tenryu.

“Crushing Earth Cage”

This was a Spell that utilized the Earth Element. It was an Advanced Rank Spell that could easily crush a man caught by it. Now Benny wouldn’t use this Spell on a normal person but his opponent was a full-fledged Adventurer. Tenryu himself was the one who drilled the “no-holds-barred” concept in him during practice.

And besides, he knew Tenryu wouldn’t be beaten by it so easily.

And to prove that point, Tenryu readied his stance.

“Flame Dragon Style: Strike Zone Claw”

As the earth block closed in, Tenryu slashed them all rapid strikes and the earth blocks shattered.

(I should’ve expected that from him…)

“Here I come!”

Tenryu quickly rushed towards him with his flaming sword at the ready.

If Benny was like he was before, he would run screaming from a guy wielding a flaming katana sword. But right now, Benny had toughened himself to face at the very least this.

Benny swung his staff and a multitude of Magic Seals appeared.

“Frozen Meteor Shower”

Spears of ice shot from the Magic Seals and rained down towards Tenryu.

Rather than being fazed by the dangerous ice spikes raining down on him, Tenryu skillfully slashed and hacked each one that came his way. When he finally cut them all down, Tenryu held his sword as though to jab him while running at full speed.

“Flame Dragon Style: Dragon’s Fire Breath!”

Tenryu jabbed his sword towards Benny! A torrent of flames that took the form of a fiery dragon shot out from sword rushed towards the Magic-User!

To escape that, Benny used one of his greatest trump cards.

“Flight!”

Benny rode on his staff like a witch and zoomed towards the sky, narrowly avoiding the torrent of flames! He then flew towards Tenryu at full speed with his hand shot forward. A sphere of light gathered and glowed brightly!

“Comet Impact!”

Benny shot that Spell right at Tenryu which had been further boosted by his increased speed form flying.

However, Tenryu agilely leapt away at the last minute! The sphere of light wnet straight into a rock and exploded!

Benny zoomed to a stop while midair.

“Ah! You managed to dodge, Tenryu!”

Tenryu grinned at him, “You have to go faster than that! I can easily dodge something at that speed!”

(Oi…that’s the same speed as a meteor plunging down to earth you know…)

Benny landed back on the ground and readied his staff, the tip of which was flowing brightly.

“Well, then! Let’s settle this!”

“Let’s see you try!”

Tenryu raised his hand and beckoned him, all the while his sword blazed brightly.

There was a tense moment of silence before the two boys rushed towards each other. Both the staff and sword were glowing brightly and blazing hot respectively. They were readying to clash! If they were, an inevitable explosion is due to happen.

At least, that was supposed to happen.

DONG* DONG* DONG* DONG*

The two boys skidded to a stop.

A loud chime coming from the Milagros Cathedral resounded across the city. It was so loud that it could even be heard even from here.

“Ah, it’s already twelve! I’m gonna be late for my shift!”

“Blistering Blazes! We better hurry up! Flare-ate has me on waiter duty too!”

***

The boys quickly used Benny’s Transposition Spell to bring themselves to the Sun Dragon instantly.

It is a lively restaurant which in sharp contrast to the surrounding European-style buildings, the Sun Dragon has a more Oriental theme akin to a Japanese Izakaya.

Teleporting straight into their room in the upstairs apartment, the boys quickly changing to their work clothes then they had downstairs.

Aunt Magma greeted them from the counter, “Oh! Welcome back, boys!”

““We’re back, Magma-tia/Aunt Magma!””

“You’re both late!” snaps Flare, who was busy finishing the sweeping of the floor.

“Hey, we got here when the bells rang!”

“Have you seen the line outside? Any more later and it’ll be a riot!”

“We used Benny’s Spell to get here! So of course we couldn’t see what was happening outside!”

As the two siblings argued, Benny approached the counter.

“I see you’ve used your “express” method of getting here.” She chuckled.

“I wouldn’t call it express. But it is indeed convenient.”

“Did your training go well?” says Aunt Magma.

Tenryu crossed his arms, “Yeah, I got wet several times thanks to Benny.”

“Wet?”

“I used my Water Bomb Spell that got cloaked an Illusion of myself. Tenryu didn’t know what hit him.” explains Benny.

Flare chortled, “You got him good then.”

Tenryu grumbled incoherently at that.

Aunt Magma simply giggled. “I see. It’s pretty obvious that when it comes to Magic, Benny-iho is clearly in the better.”

“Isn’t that an understatement? Benny is clearly the best Magic-user out there.” says Tenryu.

“I don’t usually agree with Tenryu but it is true.” says Flare.

All three Fyreroar nodded in agreement much to Benny’s embarrassment.

“Please don’t exaggerate. But hand-to-hand combat and weaponry are my weak points. I’ve never beaten Tenryu even once at that. I’ve lost count how many times I got beaten up.”

“About 140...” Tenryu grinned at Benny.

Benny raised an eyebrow at him. Tenryu seems to have a selective memory where he can remember the number of times he swings his sword a week but forgets how many times he has been scolded for blowing up a building.

“But if you fight using your strong points, I think both of you are nearly even.” says Aunt Magma.

“I would’ve easily beaten him if he wasn’t playing tricks on me!”

Tenryu grumbles a complaint to which Benny waves it off.

“In a battle, being able to deceive your opponent is good thing. And speaking of fairness…you weren’t exactly fair when you used your combat techniques right of the bat when we first started three months ago!”

Benny lost count how many bones he had broken due to Tenryu’s “training.”

“Fine! Consider this a draw then!” Tenryu said that with a reluctant smile.

He disliked losing and often would demand a rematch. But Benny had a way of making their practices interesting that I didn’t bother him as much as usual.

“But mind you, you just caught me off guard! I won’t go easy on you the next time!”

“Well, it won’t do me good if you did let me off easy. I still have ways to go before I take the exam.”

“Hey, with all the practice and studying you’ve been doing, I’m sure you’re gonna pass the exam!”

Benny tried his best to smile but he felt that familiar clenching in the stomach whenever he had a big exam coming up.

“Okay, that’s enough you two. You boys better go and get ready. It’s almost time for lunch hour and we have a number of customers who are waiting outside.”

““Yes!””

Benny tightened the apron he was wearing as he went behind the counter next to Aunt Magma. He was dressed in an authentic Japanese-style chef outfit befitting the shop’s theme. That’s because he was a part-time assistant chef of the restaurant.

“Alright! Everyone get ready.”

Flare opens the sliding door revealing a long line of customers waiting.

““““Welcome to the Sun Dragon!””””

Benny said that along with the rest of the Fyreroars.

Up until now, this was something he had been doing for the past three months since he has been transported to Mundo Magica.