In the Mental Space…
A fierce battle was underway.
Lagner was made to crumble at the duo’s destructive exchange. Rei and Ralf went all out, pouring everything they had into defeating their opponent.
This wasn’t to say that they relaxed in their other matches, far from it. The desire to win was an undying flame that burned with unrivalled heat in the duo’s souls. It was just that this match’s circumstances were special. Not only was it the training session’s last scheduled match, but the duel scores were also tied up as well. The winner would be able to gloat until their next session. Given these high stakes, the two’s desire was at an all-time high.
The battle was just past its tenth minute. No elegance could be found as one tuned in at this moment.
Tangled up like coiling snakes, a badly battered and bloody Ralf and Rei were hurling through the air at high speed, wrestling for supremacy while using their Chaotic Disruption to stifle the other’s Psi use.
*Crash* *Crash* *Crash*…
With their flight disabled, gravity dragged them down and they began toppling down the rocky hill. Force absorption Psi splashed at each collision, with both Ralf and Rei being forced to bear the brunt of the impact as the other attempted to slam them into the ground.
Like this, they skidded down the hill. Dirt and blood gathered on them as the duo’s injuries worsened. Just like they were currently, their Health Points entered free fall, and was fast approaching zero
While the two appeared to be scrambling erratically, this wasn’t the case. Despite the messiness of the affair, the duo’s minds were still calm as ever. Their extensive battle experience prevented any ripples from disrupting the still lake that was their minds in combat mode. Each action was calculated to gain an advantage, no different than a move on a chessboard.
‘Ah…’
The thought passed through both Ralf and Rei’s minds as they registered the boulder at the base of the hill. Only two seconds separated them from crashing into it. Following the realisation, the duo began plotting to have their other self tank the collision. This caused them to rotate even quicker.
Ralf - Rei - Ralf - Rei - Ralf…
Two seconds later, the living coin flip that was the duo, ‘landed’.
*Boom*
The boulder quaked and cracked at the collision. Rei mentally winced as he felt his Health Points drop to the single digits. Powering through the feeling, he rushed to stop Ralf’s next attack. With him being forced to tank the collision, Ralf was allowed a window to act.
Legs wrapped around his other self’s, Ralf pulled back then fired off a double punch. Rei moved with desperate speed. With arms already in an ‘x’ pose in front of his chest, he had them fling outwards, deflecting Ralf’s armoured fists with his forearms and sending them wayward.
Trounced, Ralf didn’t falter. He pulled back, but not before latching onto Rei’s wrists. Once in his grip, he had them spread to either end. Now, with a clear shot, Ralf rushed to deliver the finishing blow. Psi sped to his head and a sharp ‘beak’ materialised.
Seeing this, Rei gathered his defences for the woodpecking that was soon to arrive.
However, it didn’t.
‘Now!’
Eyes shining brightly, Ralf silently roared.
Fwoooosshhh!
From Ralf’s mouth, flames came ejecting out. It was quick, engulfing Rei’s head and chest area in an instant and colouring his vision with its bright orange hue. The heat passed through Rei’s unprepared barrier, causing his Health Points to instantly fall to zero.
The outpour lasted another second before Ralf’s supply was all burnt up. When Rei’s vision finally cleared up, he met with a smirking Ralf, which caused his face to instantly twist up.
‘Hmph!’
With the announcement made, the battle was over. Not wanting to face his other self’s smug face, he turned into a dark mist then reappeared a short distance away, arms hugging his knees and wearing a pout.
A short distance away, Ralf was beaming with satisfaction; an ear-to-ear smile adorned his face as he allowed the light of victory to shower him. Victory always felt good, but this one in particular really hit the spot.
‘Haa, I finally managed to do it. That was just perfect.’
Dragon Breath, the technique he used just now, was one he had been meaning to use for dozens of matches already. However, he had never found the right circumstances…until just now that is. Finally unleashing the technique felt incredibly satisfying.
The technique’s creation was one that came as naturally as breathing. He was a Fawkes, and what was a Fawkes without fire? Ralf didn’t know and was certain, no one did. The dragon statue and the Dragon Prince novels only sped up the inevitable.
As Ralf’s thoughts were on the technique, so was Rei’s. “You actually hid it in your stomach, you must have got the idea from those Zeroes.”
Ralf nodded, knowing exactly what the other was referring to. After Silver wrecked Hoodlums’ Paradise again, Rei had got even sneakier. Certain Zeroes would swallow short-fuse grenades and have them reside in their stomachs. Thing is, all their pins would be removed and replaced by Psi pins. This addition pretty much killed close-range takedowns and returned Level 3 to the unbeatable status it was previously.
“I did hide it, but I made sure to be more discreet,” Ralf snapped his fingers and an identical avatar was summoned to his side. With a thought, the avatar’s internal structure was revealed. Ralf approached then poked at the figure. His hand slipped through the avatar and prodded the bag residing in the stomach.
“I had the fuel reside in this container. This protects it from the digestive juices while it sloshes around.”
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Rei watched the container’s motion.
‘That will probably be very uncomfortable,’ he thought with a squint. ‘It was a good choice though. If he had used Psi to form the container, I would have sensed it and eventually figured it out. So, he waited, till the last conceivable moment before doing it. When he suddenly switched to heat absorption Psi, my momentary confusion slowed my reaction enough that his attack could land.’
Speeding through the line of thinking, Rei refocused on his other self’s explanation.
“...and then, grabbing the liquid with my telekinesis, I have it rush through the internal Psi tube and out of my mouth. Oh, and for the ignition, I used this,” Ralf had the avatar’s lips part and two sticks floated out.
“A match striker strip and a match stick, huh,” Rei commented with a tilt of his head.
“Yeah, thought it'd be best to keep it simple. A Psi coating keeps these things dry in my mouth. When the fuel comes through, they collide, and viola, we have flames,” Ralf expelled a spurt of fire from his lips for emphasis.
“The technique is called Dragon Breath. I have a few different versions already made, with one focusing on duration, another on speed, and another focused on spread. So, what do you think? This is ultimate technique level, right,” Ralf asked with glittering eyes, awaiting praise.
Rei’s face faltered and fell into a wry smile. He couldn’t help but give in to the other’s desire. In fantastic fashion, he stretched his right arm to pat Ralf’s head as he said, “Good work Ralf, nice thinking.” After a few seconds of positive reinforcement, Rei retracted his hand. In the aftermath, Ralf stood wearing a sweet smile.
Rei’s eyes flickered.
‘Sometimes you can be pretty adorabl-ah shit,’ his face twisted up as the thought passed through his head.
They would fuse very soon after all. And once they did, this thought of his would be read. Knowing this pained him to no end. He shook his head, desperately trying to shake the memory out of his soul.
“Rei?”
“Ah, nothing. I was just exorcising demons, don’t mind it. Back to the technique, this opens an interesting new road, fire-based attacks. There’s no need to stop at Dragon’s Breath, we can take this much further.” Rei’s eyes swam with possibilities. Just a few seconds was sufficient for a dozen ideas to bloom in his head.
Ralf nodded, envisioning similar possibilities. “That’s what I was thinking as well. The main issue with Dragon Breath is the container. We can get matches or a lighter and the appropriate alcohol pretty easily, but a container that can withstand our digestive juices isn’t readily available. We’ll probably have to order it somewhere…unless we try fashioning one out of monster crystals.”
“Don’t even joke about that,” Rei squinted in remembrance.
The ‘what if I eat it’ question that had passed through Ralf’s head while in the forest was tested. They didn’t just plop the monster crystal down his throat, no, instead, they grabbed a bit of stomach acid and had a monster crystal bathe in it. Hours passed and nothing, the monster crystal didn’t break down in the slightest; what did break down though, was pretty much everything else. The stone, glass, and wood were all made to sizzle as they made contact with Ralf’s digestive juices.
The duo knew that a normal human’s stomach acid had a low PH, but they reckoned their own sat somewhere in the negative numbers. That was the only possibility they could think of to describe the incredible spectacle they witnessed. So impressive was the sight, that it caused the duo to seriously consider extracting it from their stomach bit by bit and then filling a jar with it. But this begged the question, where would they find this indestructible jar?
Ralf shrugged. “Anyway, a special container is something we’ll have to find; we can probably order one from Ventos. They have everything. Till then, we should use a gourd.”
“A gourd,” repeating, Rei’s eyes flickered.
“Yep, a gourd. We’ll carry our alcohol/fuel in there. With it, there’s no risk that the container will rupture and poison us. With a gourd, our fuel supply is larger, meaning much bigger and hotter flames and we can even use it for other things…it can double as a poison container or something. With it, we’ll be able to do an array of other fire attacks. I’ve already worked on a few, it looks awesome. Here, I’ll show you.”
Ralf materialised a lance. Liquid poured into the internal structure along with two familiar sticks. He took a stance, aiming the tip towards the avatar’s chest, then counted down from three before thrusting.
Dragon Lance!
Upon making contact, the tip split and a wave of flames burst forth, engulfing the avatar’s figure and disintegrating it in the process.
Throwing out the strike, Ralf held the pose with a satisfied smile on his face.
“Pretty awesome right?”
“Yeah, very.”
Ralf smiled, then straightened his posture. “That was just for show, I could have done that faster if I wanted. These gourd-assisted flame attacks won’t work against us, but they’ll probably do fine against normal people. Also, I’m thinking we could even pretend to be alcoholics to better disguise our purposes. It wouldn’t be strange, people will probably just think Greg’s habits have rubbed off on us. We can make a show of it…buying out all Golden Jug’s bottles should be enough for that. Then, we’ll have Jeff spread the word.”
“You seem to have everything figured out,” Rei smiled, his arm extended out again. “You’re really my other self, no doubt,” he said, giving Ralf another round of pats.
“Fire-based attacks will be a great addition to our arsenal. A workable Dragon Breath has the potential to be our third ultimate technique. Still, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. A lot of work still has to be done.”
“Of course.”
Rei nodded then got to his feet. “There’s an hour left, let’s unwind till then. I’m thinking some gambling, what do you think?”
“I’m game,” Ralf replied happily.
Battle was fun, but it was hardly the only fun thing in this place. The next hour was spent on meaningless conversation, playing games, and just messing about as they usually did.
At the hour’s end, Silver came into existence. Heading over to the outside world, he opened his eyes, ignorant of what would become one of the most memorable days in his life.