Jeff was standing in their path with his arms folded, waiting for them.

“I can't just let you walk away Ax!” Jeff beckoned

“What do you mean? What do you have against me? This was all PB's doing wasn't it?” Axel said confused

“He” Jeff laughed “You don't get it do you? Once he’s got his eyes on someone that's it. He'll chase you to the end of the earth if that’s what it takes to regain his pride!” Jeff explained

“His father left him badly bruised after he was reprimanded by Mr. Johnson, and he's not going to get over that for quite some time. If you think this is over you really are dreaming!” Jeff yelled

“Why…. Why are you doing this?” Axel asked

“The same reason you are” Jeff said smiling “Pub is my friend... The only one I’ve got”

“How can you call someone like that your friend?” Axel asked

“When he's the only one who sticks up for me it isn't as hard as you think” Jeff said “Is it harder to believe that I think of him as a friend? Or that he thinks of me that way?”

Axel took a step back hesitating. Why was this happening? Pb was the one he wanted to fight not J.

“But you saved me… just the other day you stopped PB!” Axel said.

“Just because I didn't want to see you get killed doesn’t mean I like you!” J said defiantly. “Don’t get full of yourself!” J shouted

“Take a look at PB!” J shouted. “Right now you’re nothing more than the man that hurt my friend! We will have our revenge! Hand over 6 now before things get ugly!” J said raising his fists.

“And if I choose not to?” Axel said

“Well then” Jeff said, extending out his hand. A strand of liquorish came out of his sleeve. “You’ll have no choice but to fight me!”

“Do you really think you have a chance after what I just did to PB?” Axel said

“He underestimated you, you must have just awakened your powers. I don't know what's going on with you but I do know I can't get anywhere close. Luckily I don't have to worry about that!”

[https://i.imgur.com/y1mt0Hh.jpg]

Expanding out of Jeff’s hand was a long strand of licorice. After swiping his arm the strand whipped above Axel barely missing his face before it landed into another tree smashing a hole into it.

“Unlike most people I wasn’t born with normal hair… I was born with strands of Liquorish”

“I can expand a single strand into a small piece I can enjoy” he said sucking on a small

Strand, Or I can make thousands of fibers come together to make an Ax to take your head right off your body! If you really want to fight me then I’m not going to go easy on you!”

Axel took a look at the dented tree behind him and then started trembling.

Jeff smiled pleased with Axel's capitulation

“It’s okay if you want to go back I understand, you’re not a fighter after all, I didn't expect you to try.”

Axel looked up into Jeff eyes. He wasn't trembling he was laughing

“What’s so funny?” Jeff asked confused

“So this is how it actually feels to be a Shifter!!” Axel exclaimed

“That last attack…. I didn't even see it….. I didn't even hear it, my body told me to duck and…. I did. It was an overwhelming feeling, almost like if I didn't duck, something really bad was going to happen. Then, I saw it, I saw each individual fiber go back into your body as hair. This must be the advanced sight that I never had. Even more amazing is during this whole time from that attack on Pb to now I haven't felt even the slightest bit fatigued. I can feel the power flowing through my body and although it's constantly pulling me in and out in and out. It's like….. I'm alive for the first time! And now you're saying that you want to fight me? You're saying that you want to stop me, and for the first time in my life I feel like….. I… I can stop you! I actually have the power to fight! I don't have to run away anymore!”

Axel felt a tug on his arm

It was 6

“Ax….Don't get too cocky…. that explosion was from when you first awakened your powers….. Don’t expect to be throwing out another attack like that anytime soon….. I doubt you even know how to control the water let alone use it….. Maybe you should let this one go let's get out of here he can't chase both of us down.

“6.” Axel said solemnly. “We have both been running away for quite some time…. If it's not today then it's tomorrow…. if it's not tomorrow it's the next day, it's always going to be a showdown between us and them until we start standing up for ourselves!”

“Don’t say I didn't warn you” Jeff retorted

Instantly another strand of liquorish swept at Axel again which he again swiftly ducked under. But this time, before Axle had time to recover, another Liquorish strand was coming from the opposite side.

Having no time to dodge he lifted his hands against the side of his head to block the attack.

The purple strands slammed into the side of his arm, dragging him across the floor and slammed him into a nearby tree.

“Well your senses didn’t help you there did they Ax?” Jeff laughed retracting the purple strands into his arm.

Axel got back to his feet and dusted off his shoulders.

“The water” He thought, “I can feel it, but I can't control it well enough to make it come to me, I’ve got to figure out how to attack from a range…. I'm not going to be able to beat him without it.

Before he had time to finish that thought, another strand of Liquorish was flying towards him.

This time learning from the previous attack he jumped over it and sure enough a second string came from the other side which he positioned himself in the air to dodge

Firmly landing on a tree branch he pushed his arms outward in a karate stance ready for the next onslaught of licorice.

Jeff let out a sigh.

“ I honestly hoped I wouldn't have to get serious, I was hoping a couple of attacks would put you in your place, but things are going to have to get messy now” He said, flowing liquorish out of his hands.

“Liquorish isn't always soft and sticky.” he mused

As he spoke small shards of violet appeared on the outside of the skin. “I called it hard liquor!” He said pointing his arms at Axel.

Little shards of violet began to grow and flow down his arm like porcupine needles, each of them aiming in Axel’s direction.

“These will easily pierce your skin! They are much more deadly than they look I promise!”

Axel looked to his left and right struggling to find a place to hide. He had landed on the far end of the tree branch, a foolish mistake! He now stood too far away to scurry behind the tree and take cover. The next closest place was far from arms reach. Anywhere he moved he wouldn't be able to get behind cover in time.

“I'm sorry Ax, but this is over!” Jeff said shaking his head

“Lithium!” He shouted

The bright strands of licorice begin to shine in a brighter pigment as they seemingly became charged. His arms lit up with hundreds of shards of neon licorice illuminating a vibrant violet.

Thrusting his arms to the side, he unleashed an on slot of little shards as they flew through the air towards Axel. They flew forward through the air like tiny pieces of shrapnel exploding from a hand grenade.

Axel fell to his knees covering his face bracing for impact.

After closing his eyes for a few moments he didn’t feel anything from the attack.

“What the?” Jeff said.

Axel looked up expecting to find shards digging into his skin only to find that they were levitating in the air. More specifically, they were levitating in water.

He had somehow managed to create a small shield of water protecting him from the violet shards as they stood just inches away from his skin.

As he lowered his hands the shield of water came crashing down onto the ground along with the purple shards.

“How did I do that?” He thought puzzled.

Axel tried to assemble the water into shield again but could only manage to get a very small sphere of deranged water to rise. He desperately tried to retain the spherical form but water began to leak from the sphere falling back onto the ground.

“Blocking my lithium attack with just water? That’s Impossible!” Jeff remarked

“It’s not just water” 6 said. Not only did your shards go through a 2 ft. wall of incompressible liquid. It went through water being held together by Axel’s ether. It’s still in its infantile state, but liquids held together by ether are netted in all direction making them much more resistant to force. With enough time Axel's wall of water could become harder than your Needles!”

“You’re Crazy!!” Said Jeff preparing another round. Axel noticed that the strands of hair/liquorish usually on Jeff’s skin were gone, almost as if he had to reload them. This time knowing what to expect Axel started to move back towards cover.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Jeff fully reloaded his stock of liquorish needles and shot them towards Axel once more.

Now at a further distance than before Axel had time to react and dodge the barrage as he continued to struggle to control his ether.

“If I can just combine the water like I did it before…. I can knock him out in one punch! But I can't seem to get control over this stuff!”

“Axel”! Yelled 6 from out in the distance.

“Pretend as if you're actually picking the water up! You don’t do that with open fingers right? It would fall right through the spaces!”

“I see!” He said. It was finally making sense. Right now his grasp on ether was so bad that he had to envision himself picking it up himself and building it with his fingers until he had progressed enough. As it stood now, all he was doing was creating splashes and picking up a small amount at a time

“I wonder…” He thought.

Forming his hand in to a wedged shaped cup, he focused ether into the water and pulled his hand back, then thrust it towards Jeff.

Seemingly a success, a large sphere of water soared through the air towards Jeff’s face with great velocity.

Inches away from colliding with his face, using his bare hand Jeff sliced the attack open with a swift chop, bursting it open. He laughed at the frivolous attack like a water balloon had been thrown at him and he had popped it with a pin.

Axel became nervous and hid behind a tree. What was he supposed to do against this opponent? He was outraged and outclassed. He needed more time, he still didn't understand how his powers worked.

“You're moving too fast” 6 yelled to him. “This is your first time doing it! You need to give yourself time to build up ether! Instead of thrusting immediately try to gather as much as you can in your hand at a time and then attack.”

Axel looked down at his hands. He had forgotten the strings. He needed to gather all of the invisible strings in one place before he launched an attack.

Rolling out of cover, he landed in a crouched position similar to when Lance had used his attack during gym class. He focused his ether, gathering all the invisible strings into one area. As he began to channel his power a flood of water started rushing towards him.

“Like I’m going to just stand here and let you do that! I won't underestimate you!” Jeff said slowly covering his body in liquorish needles.

“Come on If I could just” Axel said

“Lithium! Jeff yelled again

Thousands of little purple shards spread out towards Axel. He lept from branch to branch jumping through the trees avoiding their trajectory.

Standing behind a tree, he tried to gather water into his hand once again.

“Okay…. focus this must have been what Lance was doing when he closed his eyes during gym class. Axel said, reflecting on last month’s gym prep.

Axel began to feel a cool touch cover his arms, as the feeling of flowing ether went through his body. Forcing the flow into his hand, he felt the water collect.

“Yes that's the flow! I've got it!” he said triumphantly.

He Stepped out from behind the tree and catapulted the Second Barrage of water towards Jeff’s position.

Instantly he saw a change in Jeff’s expression

“This one is strong” Jeff said as the sphere of water accelerated towards him. It was much larger and faster than the previous attack.

“I can't block it with my hand,'' he said scrambling.

“HA and you're out of ammo!” Axel said gloating at the lack liquorish on Jeff's surrounding skin.

Booom!

A dense cloud of water erupted on Jeff shrouding his body in a splash.

“Nice one Ax!” 6 said

“Not bad but you'll have to do better than that”. Jeff said

As the mist began to clear Axel could see that there was a large violet shield blocking his view of Jeff.

“How? You were out of ammo!” Axel questioned.

The shield slowly retracted back into Jeff slowly returning to its original place. As it began to shrink it drooped on the floor and slowly crept up Jeff legs and shoulders returning to his head!

“Well, now you know why I always wear a hat” Jeff said displaying his liquor ice head.

“Holy shit! Axel exclaimed

Jeff’s hair was pointed completely vertical in long thick strands of licorice. The liquorish on his body was small and pointy like cactus needles but the ones on his head were long and thick like crystal shards.

“Yen go ahead and laugh! Kids used to tease me all the time as a kid!”

“But I don’t think it’s -”

“Kids used to chase me down, they called me candy land! They used to pull out my hair! And eat the liquorish off of my head! It was PB who gave me this Cap, It was Pb who stood up for me! It was PB who made all those other kids disappear and they never bullied me again! “That's why I always gotta stick up for PB! You outsiders can never understand what he’s been through He’s got every right to hate you to the bones!”

“Just what exactly did we do to him?” Axel asked

“Outsiders...” Jeff began. “Killed his father!”

“How…. how did that happen?” Axel asked

“What does it matter to you!” Jeff yelled angrily shaking his hands at Axel “You’ve got enough to worry about right now!”

Axel, realizing the small window of downtime he had, took a step back and rethought his position in the fight.

“I just don't get it I was I was able to bypass a shield of lead... A shield of liquorish should be no problem, how do I...” He thought

“YOUR TOO FAR AWAY” 6 yelled to him. “The farther away your attack is from your body the weaker it becomes! Over time, the amount you can control and the distance from yourself are directly correlated! You have to stick to hand to hand for now you haven't mastered ether control yet!”

“I see” Axel said. “Well considering he can make licorice come out of any part of his body, approaching him isn't going to be easy” Axel said

He stretched out his arms reaching out to draw the water towards him again.

“And as I said before, I’m going to make it even harder for you to do that!” barked Jeff

The huge bands of liquorish expanded out into a giant whip homing on Axel’s position.

Axel dodged to the side but the liquorish changed directions mid attack landing a strong blow on to his stomach!

Sticking to his belly, the strand smashed him into a nearby tree before dragging him across the ground and then returned to Jeff's head. Gasping for air, Axle struggled to convince himself he hadn't just been hit by a truck.

Before he could stand back up he was knocked over Again buy a fist-sized licorice slamming into his face, smashing him into another tree. One after another the thick strands delivered heavy blows to Axel dragging him all over the battlefield. After at least a dozen blows Jeff stuck the liquorish to Axel’s stomach once more.

“I’m not holding back!” Jeff yelled.

His liquorish dragged Axel through the forest crashing him through dozens of trees before bringing him into the sky. In a devastating pin drop out of the air Jeff smashed Axel down into the gorge of bushes before the strands finally returned to his head.

“Damnit!” Jeff said gritting his teeth “I smacked him too far away! Now I'm going to have to go in and find him!”

“Uhhh” Axel coughed, recovering from the barrage. “This isn't good. He has too much control over his strands on his head… and they are so heavy and violent.” “Unlike the ones on his arm it seems these strands can extend much further without compromising power… as well as his ability to recall them back, which prevent him from having to wait for them to grow into place. I need just a little more time.”

“Alright Ax! Come out of those bushes! Don't make me slice the whole thing apart with my sword!” Jeff said drawing out his licorice saber.

Axel rolled onto his stomach and knelt into a crouched position staying low into the bushes. As he came to his feet he noticed a strange feeling coming from the bottom of his leg like there was something stuck to it.

“Alright you leave me no choice!” Jeff said slashing away a section of the bushes.

As Axel looked down to examine his pants more closely he realized that there were a bunch of licorice shards on the outside of his pants

They weren't the sharp needle like shards they had been before, they were now bent and curved on Axels drenched pants. It looked as if a maroon colored cat had been grinding up against Axels leg.

“How? Have I gotten hit and yet didn't notice?” Axel thought “No... They would have penetrated the skin….”

“Come out Come out!” Jeff said drawing closer to Axel’s positon. It wouldn’t be longer before he found where Axel was.

“Wait…. Maybe I was dragged on the ground and picked them up during that attack.”

He looked back at the path he had been knocked around finding that all the prickly licorice from earlier was on the other side of the shore meaning he hadn't been hit anytime soon, he must have been hit earlier.

“Wait a minute” Axel remarked. “It was at that time after I had blocked Jeff's attack… I splashed myself with water! That was when these shards must have gotten on my leg, but why aren't they hard?

“Haha Bingo!” Axel said

He stepped out from the bushes grinning from ear to ear.

“Alright! I'm done playing around with you Jeff!” Axel said defiantly

“Hahaaha,” Jeff laughed arrogantly. “You haven't even landed a punch yet!” He laughed

“Exactly my point! One punch is all I need!” Axel remarked drawing out his fist. “And at this distance there’s no way you can stop me in time!”

Axle closed his eyes and tensed up his hand trying to gather the water into it.

“No good!” Thought Jeff “He's going to use that attack again! I forgot he's extremely strong at close range! I need to fall back.”

“Heh! What good is a punch if you can't reach your target?” Jeff said jumping back further away from Axel. “I'll slap you down before you get anywhere close with my strongest attack!”

Focusing his ether into all of the fibers in his hair, his flesh began to be covered in violet liquorish once again. As the strands in his hair met the one sin his arms a large spherical liquorish began to erect from the tips of his arms. After a few moments of Expanding and forming, a giant Spear of Licorice stretched out from his fingertips. It was a huge arrow shaped shard with a long 20 foot pointy end with a base of at least a 5 foot diameter that covered his face.

“Don't think I can't be this far away and still attack! I'm not limited like you are!” He yelled.

“Silver!” He yelled catapulting the huge spear towards Axel.

Axel had enough time. He clenched his fist as the bursting fountain of water he had hit PB with earlier pulsed in his hand...

“AHHHHH!” Axel yelled running towards Jeff

“What is he doing?” said Jeff as his long arrow of Licorice shot out at Axel. “He is not actually going to take it head on, is he? He'll surely die!”

Axel continued on the straight path carrying the bursting flood of water in his stride.

Just as he was about to make contact with Jeff’s arrow he changed position. He jumped over it smiling as he soared through the air with a trail of water following close behind. Using the water in his hand to propel him into the air, he was now drifting above Jeff’s attack way out of range.

“Hmph! YOU Really think!”

Jeff said grabbing his arm and pulling it towards the sky.

“I can't turn this thing AROUND!”

With a huge motion from his right hand the arrow changed directions and bolted into the sky towards Axel its diameter becoming smaller and smaller as its tip became sharper and sharper.

Axel smiled as the arrow came just a few feet from reaching him, and with his left hand ran the current of water over as a shield as it made its way towards him.

“HA, you think a little water is gonna stop it!” Jeff laughed

The arrow penetrated straight through the water traveling further up Axel’s path.

“AXEEEEEEEEE LLLLLLL!” 6 shouted from the distance.

The Licorice strand reached Axel position with no shield left Axel extended out his hand to block the attack.

“HAHAH You’re Finished!” Jeff laughed.

Smiling Axel used his bare hand and flattened the licorice like a tootsie Roll. Then using his right leg He kicked the Licorice sending it catapulting to the ground.

“WHATTTTT!!!” Jeff said digging his hands into his head.

“HOWWW!” He said, as his arrow drifted toward the ground. Using all of his strength he tried to reposition the Licorice but it wouldn't budge.

“You didn't notice it before but your tiny shards are useless in water! It seems like once your liquorish gets wet… its starts behaving like normal hair! You were shooting them out at me and not retracting them back into your skin so you never noticed! On top of that with the amount that is now drenched in water you can no longer lift it! It's now several times heavier! You may have better control over ether than I do but at this distance from your body there is no way you can freely control something so huge!”

Jeff looked to his left and right, He was screwed. Nowhere to run and now with no time to reload his licorice he was defenseless.

“Hahhh! You’ll never hit me from that far away! I’ll just”

“Aqua Jet!” Axel shouted. Using all of the water in his hand he created a boost accelerating him towards Jeff at blazing speed.

“That’s Impossible!” Jeff said As Axel dive bombed out of the sky. “I lost to a kid who just got his powers today?” “I lost to a dreamer?”

“Boom!”

Blood blasted right out of Jeff's mouth as Axel’s foot crashed into his stomach.

After dropping down to the ground he slid across its surface and skipped like a rock until he had made a hole in the same boulder PB had tumbled into earlier.

“The boy who used to dream is long gone!” Axel said. “I finally woke up! You two thought I would stand by and let you harm a precious friend? It was you two who were the dreamers!”

Axel shook his fist as the two boys lay incapacitated on the other side of the valley.

“Enjoy your nap!” He shouted

Axle dropped his shoulders letting his arms hang by his side. Running out of breath he took out his necklace, kissing it. He had done it.

“AXXXXXXXXXXXXEEEEEEEELLLL” cried 6 from the tree he was tied down to.

“That was amazing! That was awesome man!”

Shaking his head Axel came back to reality and ran over to 6.

“Before we celebrate let's get you out of here first!”

Dabbing the licorice surrounding Tristin with bits of water he ripped them off of him, freeing him from his prison.

“I knew you could do it” 6 said, looking into his eyes.

“I had no idea if I could … but…. I was still willing to bet my life on it!” Axel said laughing.

COUGH! COUGH!

Axel’s eyes popped open as sweat dropped from his eyebrow. He slowly turned around shaken by the exasperated voice on the other side of the valley.

“Well……. I’d put my bets back up….

COUGH! COUGH!

“If I was you” a coughing voice said coming from the destroyed Boulder.

“There’s absolutely no way!” 6 remarked.

Limping to his feet in drenched hair and tattered clothes was Jeff.