A Friendly Duel in the Park
A park in Ersand'Enise, near the Castle dorm | Sometime before the gathering with Hugo Hunghorasz
It had been days since Leon had been sent out to learn fire magic. Mastery of light meant he didn’t have to learn it from scratch. Instead, it was a matter of using the same techniques while emitting a different form of energy. But there was a crucial thing, Leon needed to learn about fire magic.
Control.
One can cast light magic all they want without refrain, it won’t harm those around them and it won’t scorch the Earth. Leon became accustomed to this, letting his magic flow to his every whim with no restraint. But fire meant recklessness could claim lives and he wouldn’t allow himself to do that.
Leon came up with a simple test. He would spar against another student in a specific location. In the middle of a park, full grass and sparse trees surround the area. With non-stop sun for a few days so all of it was dry. Should flames catch onto them, it is unlikely he would be able to put them out. But if he couldn’t use fire without setting the grass alight, he didn’t want to use it at all.
The only thing left to do was wait for a contestant. The sun shone high in the sky and he meditated below the incandescent light. Every breath he took felt like it stoked embers in his core. He felt dangerous like he was using the sun’s power for a grim purpose he wanted nothing to do with. Something in his mind wanted him to fail here so he could put this phase behind him. But he knew he had to become something stronger.
Eun-Ji had seen the note that Leon had left on the board of the Castle that day while she was out taking a break from her own studies in her room. It piqued her interest; not because she was specifically interested in sparring herself but because she wanted to see the other students sparring. Thus she went to the location described on the note, expecting to find Leon and another student already mid spar… Only to find that Leon was alone, waiting for a potential sparring partner.
And he was, once more, shirtless. Just like when he and his group were coming over to Zeno Zemana’s house back on the second day. At first, Eun-Ji wondered if he just preferred not to wear a shirt unless he must; but then she followed it up by thinking that it’s not all that weird for a male to be shirtless while exercising or sparring. Regardless, she ended up watching him a while longer, wondering if another student would come.
Nobody else came even after the wait. She started to think that maybe nobody at all would come, and it made her feel like perhaps she should just volunteer herself then. After all, she knew Leon and it would be a lie to say that she didn’t have some curiosities about him after the thing with the rose that he gave to her on that first day. Thus, she approached him quietly, and when she was sufficiently close she spoke to him.
”Excuse me, Mr. Solaire… I saw your note on the board of the Castle…”With a final exhale Leon opened his eyes to see who greeted him. He was pleasantly surprised by who it was, it gave the smile he was going to give off an air of sincerity.
"Ah, yes, the note. I am glad actually, I’m all out of flowers.” He joked while hopping to his feet with a laugh. Patting off his pants he continued.
"Are you wanting to spar off against me? Because I am quite hesitant to harm someone of beauty."Leon stretched out prepping for a fight as if he hadn’t said the previous sentence. With every strain, faint embers trailed off his body.
"If I can ask, please don’t warn me about your techniques. Take every advantage you can… Oh, but I would like to know your name if you don’t mind.” Leon was so caught up in it all, he almost forgot to ask the girl for her name.
”Yes… Thank you again for the violet rose you gave me before.” She bowed politely at him, before continuing to introduce herself.
”My name is Seung Eun-Ji, of Tan Keoul. It is an honour to meet you again, Mr. Solaire.” She paused, looking at Leon with a completely neutral expression, in reality wondering how much of her own combat capability should be told to Leon despite his request to not be warned about it. After a brief moment, she nodded to herself and spoke up once more.
”Please do not be worried about harming me, Mr. Solaire. I am… Not unfamiliar with the intricacies of combat.” She said so humbly, stating it as a matter of fact.
”How would you like to do this, Mr. Solaire? What do you have in mind for this sparring session?”"The rose was the least I could do. Please, call me Leon. You don’t need to be so formal.” Leon took a bow in return, this lacked the politeness and subtlety of his company.
”I intend to use fire during the sparring session. Even if you say I shouldn’t be worried, fire is a dangerous and destructive thing. If you think you could be hurt, please leave now. I won’t judge you for it.” A serious streak crosses his face as he prepares for a fight. From the eye of Eun-Ji, this would pretty clearly be someone imitating an experienced fighter as opposed to the real thing.
”Very well… Leon.” She said while still giving him a polite and respectful nod.
”I understand. Indeed, it is a dangerous thing to manipulate fire. Harm is definitely a possibility… However.” She moved to shift her own stance into the neutral stance of the Seun-chi-go martial art style. Despite knowing that Leon’s own preparation seemed to be an imitation rather than the real deal, she intended not to disrespect him by holding back too much.
”I am also not unfamiliar with fire and flames. Please, if you are ready… Shall we begin?”Despite her words, she didn’t seem to do anything else aside from getting into a combat stance, not performing any drawing or other feats of magic. She intended to give the opportunity of the first move to Leon.
Leon’s eyes narrowed a bit. He was suspicious of this girl. She was familiar with combat and flames alike, just what had she been through? Surely it could not be normal, not as though he would have a solid reference. Tan Keoul is a place he had only seen in passing, but normal kids can’t be accustomed to things like that.
But that was all a matter for another time. Eun-Ji stood waiting for him to act. This was a test of his own abilities first off, so it was up to him to initiate. Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out a single marble.
"Well, don’t mind if I do.” Suddenly, almost by reflex his showman persona returned as he initiated the attack. He tossed the marble high into the air as his left foot double-tapped the ground. A gust of wind took beneath him, quickly gliding in a twirl toward Eun-Ji.
Eun-Ji focused entirely on Leon and his actions. The marble tossed into the air, the left foot tapping the ground twice. She kept watch of it all while also keeping in her mind that they might be nothing more than empty gestures, reacting with tempered reflex as Leon started moving quickly towards her. She drew from the ambient heat and the noises of grasses being caressed by the wind; just a little bit was needed for her opening move. As Leon got within 2 meters of her, she moved backwards matching the speed of Leon’s approach in a way only a Skyborn like herself could, as if hovering on the ground, all the while conjuring and flicking a small lick of intense fire at him; the Wyvern’s Breath spell at the lowest tier. A move that should be fitting for the purpose of the spar.
Leon ducked immediately. This had two effects. The flame coming toward him would fly over his head and the marble behind him could detonate at full effect. The marble burst out into blinding multicoloured light. Seeing an opportunity, he swung his leg across the ground in a kicking motion as the fire was expelled from his feet in a sweeping motion.
Light. It was a clever trick by Leon, trying to blind an opponent using a light that burst behind himself. Eun-Ji recalled her mistake with the Light of Ahn-Shune she used against the Masked Soldier the night before, and coupled with her mind never forgetting about the marble, was able to react quickly to it. She drew from the light itself, protecting her eyes from the blinding effect while at the same time earning her some energies to use. She floated up to the air seamlessly to avoid the sweeping fire from Leon’s feet and then took to performing a more serious offence than before, swiftly taking a dagger from the fold of her dress, flipping it around and imbuing it with just a bit of kinetic energy to accelerate it, and then throwing it. The kinetically imbued dagger flew at high speed, the blunt side of the handle aimed at Leon’s stomach.
Leon was already too absorbed in his next move to consider the attack Eun-Ji just threw out. With a deep inhale, he was about to continue the assault as the dagger connected with his stomach. The blow took the wind out of him, but that was very bad timing for both parties involved. The heat rose up in his lungs and with a lack of control, the fire began erupting out of Leon’s mouth. In a panic, he threw his back to the ground letting the flame discharge into the air. He hoped Eun-Ji was alright but he wouldn’t have been able to tell.
Eun-Ji had expected Leon to be able to evade the attack, and thus the discharge of flame was unexpected. Fortunately, being a Skyborn that is also a Kineticist worked to her advantage. She quickly changed direction midair, dashing horizontally back down to the ground at an angle that allowed her to evade the flame, accelerating herself with a little bit of Kinetic energy to make doubtlessly sure that the flame did not even graze her. Landing solidly in a kneeling posture, she calmly straightened herself to a standing position as she called out to Leon, a bit of worry creeping into her voice.
”Are you quite alright, Mr. So-.. Leon?”Leon lay on the ground, looking up to the sky, letting the relief wash over him that she replied. With a couple of blinks and a now unfiery exhale he tilted his head over to see that she wasn’t even touched by the flame. He let out a laugh of relief, even if the grass he lay on was mildly scorched.
"I’m quite alright.” Leon tilted his head back to see the sky.
"Quite alright indeed.” A bit of a pause went by as Leon pondered his future with fire. Sure the nature of it was dangerous, destruction is inevitable. But people aren’t helpless like motionless plants.
Leon sat up and looked toward his sparring partner.
"So… lunch?”Eun-Ji was in turn also relieved that she hadn’t overdone it and that Leon was in fact quite alright. She walked closer to Leon as he sat up, offering him her right hand to help him stand back up.
”Ah… Yes. If we are done with our sparring, I suppose we are just in time for lunch. It would be an honor to accompany-” She paused as she realized she was defaulting back to her overly formal speech.
”I mean to say… Yes. Lunch. If we are done.”Leon found this girl quite confusing, she switched between an extremely formal dialect to some attempts at laidback speech. Combined with a strange affinity to combat, he had some theories about what type of place she came from. But none of those theories sounded very nice so he was just going to ignore them.
"Excellent!” Leon said with a smile and a clap of his hands. Taking to his feet again, he continued.
"It's a date.” ... A date? The word made Eun-Ji wonder if the meaning of a date was different here than it was back in Tan Keoul. Regardless, she was herself too polite to ask about it further, nor was she sure whether it actually mattered much or not. Thus, she simply nodded.
”Very well… Let us be off, then?”Leon blinked a bit, he wasn’t expecting such a straightforward reply.
"Ah…, yes, let's be off.”And thus on that note, the two left the park to get their lunch together, in what might or might not actually be a date.
Izurich
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