A Fight In a Bar

A day and a good few hours later, the newly formed party had managed to make their way out of the massive mountain range and into the land directly beneath them. They now collectively stood at the foot of the range, which was mostly deserted save for the small carpet of green grass surrounding them on all sides, as well as a gravel path starting a few feet away from where they were standing and stretching out towards the faint lights of a small town in the distance.

“If the green cat can fly-,” Erie began.

“Gopher,” Knave and Gopher interrupted, nodding solemnly.

“Right, Gopher.” she corrected herself, and then continued, “if he can fly, then why did we have to walk all the way down here instead of the easier method?”

“Because he’d get tired out way too quickly,” Knave answered simply.

“Yeah!” Gopher chipped in, “we need to save my wings for important situations!”

“Like?” the black-haired young woman asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow.

“Another avalanche,” Gopher answered simply.

“THAT WASN’T MY FAULT!” Erie cried as she delivered a mock karate chop to the bipedal, green-furred cat’s head!

“Sorrrryy,” Gopher muttered as he rubbed the top of his head with both paws, “it was just a joke...”

Erie puffed out her right cheek slightly, thinking the cat’s words over. After a few brief seconds she relented, taking a small almost-bow. “Then sorry,” she said simply.

“I-it’s okay,” Gopher stammered as he took a step back, a bit shocked by her response. A brief pause filled the air, and it wasn't one that could be considered comfortable in any possible way.

“Okay!” Knave said suddenly, pumping his fist up into the air once more, “the town’s that way, right?” He pointed at the gravel path.

Erie glanced at it for a brief few seconds to confirm, her eyes quickly making the connection between the path itself and the town lights in the distance. “Right,” she nodded, “this should lead us to Landdown. It’s a small place, but it should let us stock up on supplies and maybe get some work.”

“Work?” Knave asked, tilting his head.

“You can’t just get things in this world for free,” his female companion explained, “or hunt them... or however you acquired everything you needed during your time up there. Out here we need something called money, and when it comes to money what you really need to know is that we count it in Jewels, and that we’ll need a lot of it in order to stock up properly.”

“Mnnnnn,” Knave made a vague agreement noise, seemingly staring slightly off into space. After observing him in this state for a few minutes, Erie decided to get straight to the point as bandying words seemed to be an ineffective method of communication with the green-haired Dragon Slayer.

“The point is, in order to get that money mages like us often offer our services to do a variety of jobs for ordinary people. We do the dirty work and they give us the money and maybe other things as compensation, the amount and/or material depending on the difficulty of the job. Is that easy to follow?”

“It’s like trading!” Gopher said happily, punching the air with his fist in a similar manner to Knave, though in his case his fist was aimed in a more diagonal direction.

“Oohh, I get it!” Knave said happily as the combination of Gopher’s and Erie’s words finally sunk in, “so we just do what they want and they’ll give us whatever we want, right?”

“It’s... close enough,” the dark-haired mage compromised, “and we need to head to the town in order to get one of the jobs in question.”

“The hell’s a ‘town’?” Knave asked, placing his hand on his brow in a salute-like gesture while attempting to get a better look at the lights a good few miles away.

In lieu of a response, Erie seemed placed her hands on Knave’s shoulder blades and began pushing him towards the gravel path. “Just keep following the path and you’ll see,” she answered, a bit of exasperation now evident in her voice.

“Okay!” Knave said happily, smiling and resuming the action of walking on his own, heading along the path towards Landdown itself.

“N-not that we want to get you angry or anything,” one of the townspeople said nervously as he helped his fellow residents heave up a massive structure using only ropes and pulleys, “but putting up a giant neon sign just to attract someone you want to fight doesn't quite seem like the best idea-”

“Shut up!” the purple-haired young man commanded as he delivered another kick to the townsperson’s face, “trust me, this plan is FOOLPROOF!”

Upon hearing of his potential new adversary, the young man had demanded that Landdown devote ALL of its resources towards attracting and luring in the ‘strong green-haired bastard’ to the bar where he devoted most of his time. He had spared no expense in figuring out as many details about his prospective opponent as was humanly possible, even tying up the cloaked figure from earlier around a convenient lightpost.

“Can I go now...?” the figure in question asked, his body sagging due to a vicious combination of exhaustion and lack of nutrition.

“Nay!” the boy howled, pointing his finger a tad too dramatically at the inquirer, “I haven’t fought a good opponent in MONTHS now! MONTHS, I tell you! So, you’re either helping me lure him in here, or you can stay there for all eternity and see if I care enough to let you down!”

“Point... taken...” the figure groaned, his head drooping to the side as he became resigned to his potentially brief (and also potentially eternal) fate.

The villagers and proprietors of the various shops and hotels that made up Landdown gave one final push of strength, finally hoisting up a massive sign. The purple-haired young man gave a satisfied chuckle. “Turn it on, then,” he finally said.

The people of Landdown sighed one last time, before one of them reached to the back of the sign’s stand and flicked a switch. Immediately a variety of lacrima buzzed to life as magical power flowed through them, as the words imprinted on the sign came to life, being flooded with neon-style color, and the sign displayed its message for all around it to see.

“Peeerrrfeccttt,” the young man almost hissed/purred, rubbing his hands together in a comedically sinister manner, “all we have to do is wait then, right? Yes, right! Alright then!” He turned to face the townspeople-turned-his-personal-henchmen, “prepare to give him and whoever he’s travelling with one hell of a welcome, okay?!”

“If-if you say so... YES SIR!” the townspeople replied dully, saluting and trying to look as enthusiastic as possible.

“Can I please head back to my guild now..?” the cloaked figure piped in with an almost sheepish tone of voice.

“You’re still here?” the young man asked in shock and bewilderment.

The gravel path had turned out to be much longer than either Knave, Erie, or Gopher had expected, and the sun was once more dipping down into the horizon by the time the lights of the town had managed to look a great deal closer than when the group had started. Knave, having grown bored rather quickly of the consistency of the surrounding landscape, had settled with picking up random bits of gravel and throwing them haphazardly into random targets chosen throughout the nearby area.

He’s like a little kid, Erie thought to herself as she walked about a foot to the side of Knave, Gopher having sprouted wings and taken up the middle position, flying at about Knave’s shoulder level. And only now did it occur the black-haired mage to inquire about how old Knave actually was. He’s about the size of a teen, she observed, ''but that doesn’t mean anything. It’s a vast world, so there are probably little kids that are bigger than him out there.''

Gathering up a small bit of resolve, she finally spoke out loud. “...How old are you, anyway?” she managed to get out. The marimo blinked a few times, her words taking a few seconds to break through the layer of boredom and monopoly that had seized total control of his train of thought. It took him another few seconds to actually think of an answer.

“I think... seventeen,” Knave mused, rubbing his chin slightly as he stared up towards the sky, which due to the sunset had taken on the coloring of a ripe peach, a beautiful orange nicely tinted with shades of darker red and pomegranate, the few clouds above them a dark and mellow purplish blue. “Raigus always celebrated my birthday,” the young Dragon Slayer continued, “but it’s been a good while since he vanished and Gopher keeps saying it’s been a year... so if the last birthday I had was me turning sixteen then... seventeen should be right.”

“He never checks the calendar at all,” Gopher quietly explained.

So he’s the same age as me? Erie thought to herself, her mind quickly absorbing the necessary information, ''I guess I have a good idea about how being isolated for most of your life affects someone now... gah, like I needed to know that in the first place.''

“Oh, hey!” Knave said, having stopped in his tracks and gazing up at a source of vibrant light a few feet into the air, a happy and excited expression on his face, “didn’t expect to see THAT!”

“Huh?” Erie asked, following her companion’s gaze. Upon seeing what he was viewing, her eyes took on a cartoonish quality, becoming pure white with a rough, sketch like black outline. “...Ah,” she finished, “didn’t expect to see that either.”

Right in front of them, standing at an impressive ten feet into the air, was a massive sign suspended on a large metal pole. The sign itself was decorated with a variety of light lacrima that had been arranged into the shape of what appeared to be letters. All of the lacrima where active, displaying a variety of neon colors and allowing the letters to be clearly red despite the rapidly advancing lack of light.

In brilliant green where displayed the words “STRONG MARIMO BASTARD!”, and right below it was a bright purple arrow that appeared somewhat crudely drawn, pointing towards the inside of Landdown itself.

After a few moments of nothing but staring at the sign, Knave took a deep, calm breath and then proceeded to walk briskly towards where the arrow had pointed as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Hold on a minute!” Erie almost barked, seizing the green-haired young mage by the back of the scarf, “you’re just going to go?! This is the most obvious trap that I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a large amount of traps in my time, let me tell you!”

“But...” Knave responded, turning to face Erie with something akin to puppy eyes, “the sign’s talking to me... right? And it’d be rude to walk away, right...?” Though she couldn’t be entirely sure, Erie could swear that there were the beginnings of tears glistening in the corners of the young Dragon Slayer’s eyes.

“But...” she tried to answer, before Gopher leaped up into the air behind her, waving his arms excitedly.

“Besides!” the cat squeaked, “didn’t we want to head into town to get one of those job things?”

“You’re so smart Gopher!” Knave cried, crying freely now at the perceived brilliance of his feline companion.

Erie quickly cut the moment short by delivering twin punches to the heads of her two fellow travellers. As they rubbed the small red bumps that were rapidly rising on their heads, she decided to concede their point on this particular argument. “Fine, we’ll head into town. But don’t end up blaming me if something goes wrong in the slightest, okay?”

“Yes ma’m!” the two replied, both of them flashing a thumbs up into the air in order to confirm their agreement.

Well, she thought to herself, at least they’re not intolerable.

“Sir...” another of the townspeople said to the purple-haired young man as politely as possible, “this is yet another request, that, to be frank... I don’t think we can grant, sir.” He shivered slightly as the words left his mouth, dreading any retribution that could be dished out.

“Well...” the young man ‘hmm’ed as he looked at the plans he had hastily sketched together again, “I guess I can suppose that building a ring as large as the entire town and out of the finest gems money can buy might, just might, be a bit of an unreasonable request.” He tossed the paper to the side. “Ah well... the bar should do anyway.”

“THEN WHY DID YOU TRY TO GET US TO DO SUCH A RIDICULOUS THING?!” the townsfolk collectively cried, slapping the air near the youth’s head. At a venomous glare from the young man in question, they quickly quieted down and even seemed to shrink slightly at the aura he was giving off.

“Ah, well, it doesn’t matter that much anyways,” he muttered as he sat back on a barstool, picking his nose in a lazy manner with the pinky on his right hand, “so long as they come here and I get to fight the marimo guy, I think I’ll be juuustttt fine.”

Only milliseconds after the words had left his mouth, the door to the bar began creaking and was suddenly shoved open! Knave stuck his head in, quickly followed by Gopher’s, both of their eyes scanning the entire area and looking for something of interest. “Hey!” the young Dragon Slayer decided to open the door all the way and walked in, Gopher flying behind him and Erie stepping in last, a few inches from the green-furred cat with the scarf, “I was wondering if you guys had any of those ‘job’ things I keep hearing about... Erie keeps mentioning that these aren’t bad places to get the from so I thought that I could-?”

Before he could even finish his sentence, the purple-haired boy had leaped from his seat, muscles tightening in his legs as he launched himself across the entirety of the bar and delivered a forward punch right to Knave’s face! The marimo didn’t even have time to cry out, and was simply thrown into the nearest wall, landing with a crash and nearly causing the somewhat rotting wood it had been constructed out of to nearly collapse under the sudden and violent addition of weight.

“What the-?!” Erie gasped as her travelling companion was suddenly knocked a good few feet away from her by the blow.

“Knave!” Gopher cried, flying over to where his older brother figure had landed and quickly dispelling his wings, running the rest of the short way on his tiny feet, “you okay?!” He finally reached his friend, placing his paws on Knave’s knee in an anxious manner.

“Gahh.. what the HELL?!” Knave groaned and then yelled as he wrenched himself out of the crevice, standing up and facing the man who had punched him. The young mage was clearly pissed off by the sudden assault, and his fists were clenched in preparation should the fight decide to continue.

In response, the puncher himself threw his head back and laughed loudly, the sound carrying with it feelings of mirth and happiness. He righted himself quickly, wiping tears from his eyes, as such was his joy at having his prospective opponent turn out unharmed. “What the hell? That was amazing! Most people I punch these days give up after the first blow! And you rolled with the punch?! Amazing, just plain incredible! Where’d you learn to do that?!”

“Why’d you punch me?!” Knave growled back as his only form of reply.

“Because you looked like you’d be fun to fight,” the purple-haired young man answered simply, his expression being a perfect, painfully obvious poker face.

“Oh,” Knave replied, mirroring his attacker’s face almost exactly with his own expression, “that’s alright then.”

“It is NOT alright!” Erie countered from where she was standing, a safe distance away from what she had judged to be the line of fire.

“I haven’t had a good fight in so freaking long!” the young man laughed, then suddenly became more somber and pointed his index finger directly at his green-haired opponent, “the name’s Duncan Valentine, the greatest barfighting mage in all of Minstrel! You wanna go a few rounds?!”

“Heh,” Knave snickered, his previously angered expression changing to one of excited amusement, “I don’t entirely mind!” He smashed his fists together, and as soon as they collided a magic circle rose out of the place of impact, filled with a variety of ornate and dragonic symbols. The circle itself was a storm-green color and as it appeared, a small wind current seemed to fill the area, also sparking with a great deal of lightning that flashed throughout wherever the wind ventured.

“Excellent!” Duncan shot back, extending his left arm slightly to the side and dropping it low somewhat, allowing his fist to partially open in an almost weak and submissive manner. As soon as he did so, purple energy seemed to explode around it and began flowing evenly in the area directly surround it, as his own magic circle sprung into being. This featured a variety of designs that evoked images of gladiators and ancient coliseums, places of bloody but honorable combat, and the circle itself was a soothing purple color with flashes of white spaced evenly around it. “Then let’s fight!” he finished, “and have a lot of fun doing it, okay?!”

“Right back at ya!” Knave answered, his hands separating with one dropping to his side, the other lifting up to around his neck area, still clenched into a fist. The magic circle seemed to travel with the fist that moved to attack, and seemed to vanish as it was covered in a massive amount of storm.

“Storm Dragon’s...” Knave intoned as he lifted the fist back even further, before punching with all his might directly at the barfighting mage! “Turbulent Fist!”

“Genie....” Duncan began, his own magic circle vanishing as the fist surrounded with purple energy clenched once more, he himself bringing it back before swinging it forward in order to counter and clash with Knave’s punch! “KNUCKLE!”

The two magical strikes collided, and as soon as they did a shockwave filled the entire bar, the gale-force winds created by the dual attacks whipping through the area! Erie covered the top of her head with her hands, leaning slightly into the wind as a form of resisting it, while Gopher simply lifted up his tiny hand to shield himself, his scarf flapping behind him wildly as he did so. However, the cat was still incredibly excited by the whole spectacle before them.

“This is incredible!” Gopher cried, barely audible over the sound the collision had given off, “Knave always keeps talking about how strong he is whenever the subject comes around... but this guy.... is he matching him?!”

Within the center of the shockwave stood the two combatants themselves, both of them gritting their teeth with surprisingly happy expressions. They both strained, putting as much force as they could into their two colliding attacks, audible grunts coming from both of their mouths as the struggle continued.

“Ohhhh.....AAAAAAAHHHH!!!” the two cried in unison as their attacks both reached their limit, causing the shockwave to finally come full circle and deliver its effects upon the both of them. With a small explosion of noise the two were sent flying away from their previous positions, hurtling across each side of the bar and smashing into the walls! Already having taken some abuse from Knave’s previous impact, the wall the marimo crashed into once more finally gave way, and the young Dragon Slayer was sent tumbling into the street, a small dust cloud rising up as his head collided with the dirt.

In around 1 millisecond Knave was back on his feet, still grinning happily, though there was something of an edge to his expression now, as if he was finally taking things seriously. He lifted up both hands this time, and storm quickly sprung into being, wrapping tightly around them. He then brought both hands together, and the storm around his hands rapidly expanded in less than a second, filling the air around him but remaining in a flat, 2D shape. The green-haired young man exhaled slightly, and his muscles tensed, preparing for another charge and attack.

Across the area, Duncan exploded from a pile of wooden boards that had once been a certain wall. He was grinning as well, though there seemed to be no seriousness in his eyes as before. Rather than prepare his own attack, he simply began running as fast as he could across the bar once more, his fist and arm recoiled slightly, as if preparing for another blow.

Before he could get the chance to strike, Knave began moving as well, his leg muscles unclenching as he launched himself forward, the storm surrounding him slowly filling out the area around his entire body, beginning to form something similar to the tail of a tornado, with the rest billowing out around him-

“Genie Lariat!” Duncan announced suddenly, putting on a massive burst of speed and reaching Knave instantly! Along the part of his arm and fist facing his opponent, purple energy burst out. As it did so, Duncan brought his arm forward, catching the marimo directly on the throat and delivering an incredible amount of force!

“Gaahhh!!” Knave grunted as spittle flew out of his mouth. He was tossed across the bar once more, though this time he managed to fling both his hands down, his fingers digging into the wooden planks that made up the floor and causing a good deal of them to be suddenly uprooted as he skidded for a short bit, his feet eventually coming down and digging in as well. He finally managed to halt his movement, only mere inches from the hole he had made previously. “Hmph!” the marimo growled bemusedly, and promptly seized a rather large beam that had fallen off with his previous impact, hefting it over his head and proceeding to chuck it directly at Duncan.

The purple-haired young man had almost no time to react, and therefore simply allowed the beam to strike him head on. Duncan was sent flying out of his own, wall-sized hole once more and crashed into the ground a few feet away, the dust emanating from that area testifying to the fact.

Before his opponent was even in sight again, a line of purple energy lanced past Knave’s ear and flew off to some place behind him. The Dragon Slayer raised an eyebrow in confusion, still facing Duncan as the barfighting mage walked into view, the purple energy still connected to his outstretched fist.

“I... think you missed,” Knave said confusedly.

“Did I?” Duncan grinned, “did I really?”

Knave’s eyes widened suddenly, the reality of the situation gripping him. Too late, Gopher cried out from inside the bar, “Knave! The purple stuff is still attached to another bea-!”

“GENIE GRIP!” Duncan crowed triumphantly as he swung his hand back with as much strength as he could muster! The purple energy seemed to travel with it, as though it was a massive energy rope... a comparison that wasn’t too far from valid. The rest of the purple energy was yanked right behind him, now having taken the shape of a giant purple hand that had seized another beam, which promptly smashed directly into Knave’s back!

The green-haired Dragon Slayer cried out as he was knocked forward, his entire front slide colliding with the ground violently and smashing completely through the floor of the bar, leaving a semi-comical hole which looked exactly like the outline of Knave’s lower half. Almost as soon as he had hit the ground, Knave pulled himself back up, now furious. His form had degraded to that of a chibi, and he was waving his arms frantically and angrily through the air. “That’s cheating, dammit!” he yelled unhappily at his opponent!

“Eh?” Duncan said, recoiling slightly at Knave’s response, before taking the bait and transforming into his own chibi mode, yelling back at the marimo with his hands waving manically, “how the hell is it cheating?!”

“You just-” Knave sputtered for a moment as he tried to formulate words to go along with his indignation, “-you just can’t do that, okay?! It’s not like I did anything like that to you! If there were rules than you’d be kicked out or something!”

“The hell?!” Duncan shot back, “if there aren’t any rules than what I did was perfectly legit, right?!”

The Storm Dragon Slayer paused as the barfighter’s words took root, his hands dropping to the side slightly, his brow furrowing as he attempted to digest the information that had just been fed to him by his opponent. As Knave’s brain worked harder and harder on figuring out Duncan’s statement, his face slowly turned red and smoke began working its way out of his ears.

Erie, having poked her head out of the hole the two fighters had made, observed the whole situation and allowed a large trickle of sweat to make it’s way down the back of her head as she watched Knave struggle. “He can’t even think that far?” she asked in a mixture of amusement and bewilderment, topped off with the slightest bit of deadpan.

“Nope,” Gopher sighed, flying up next to her but allowing his entire form to be seen through the whole, “Knave’s got less common sense and logic than even I do.” The cat shrugged, evidently used to his partner’s antics and general mental functionality.

“Hey!” Knave shouted, turning around in a motion that none present, him included, could see and pointing a finger dramatically at Gopher, “I resent that! Just because I can’t do the multiplication tables or read in anything besides basic script does not mean that I am not intelligent!”

“I feel like I’ve been forgotten already,” Duncan sighed, his figure leaning pathetically against a nearby building, an aura thick with gloom and sadness filling the air near him.

“And then there’s THIS guy!” Knave growled, whipping around once more and pointing angrily at his adversary, before mentally collapsing and simply staying in place, hands at his sides and extended out slightly, seething quietly at the entire situation that he had been engulfed in.

“How ‘bout you two just finish your fight?” Gopher flew between the two mages, finger on the edge of his lip as he thought over the solution he had come up with.

“Pardon me, but I think you’ll regret saying that,” Erie interrupted, sliding into frame with her hand raised, as if about to ask a teacher a question in some sort of class.

But the words had left her mouth too late, as Knave and Duncan had quickly recovered their fighting spirit. They now stood in something akin to their old positions, each shifting slightly to the side in opposite directions, their auras having sprung up around them with a new sense of vigor, Knave’s being a storm green while Duncan’s a powerful purple of sorts. The dual combatants had equally large, almost predatory grins on their faces, and both pairs of fists were quickly surrounded with what their respective magics produced.

“Wanna end this in one shot?” Duncan snarled, the purple energy surrounding his fists suddenly spiking with a sense of offensive purpose.

“Sure!” Knave said back, his voice a mix of amiability and fighting spirit, as the storm around his hands moved in a similar manner to Duncan’s energy, “if you can do it, I mean!”

“Ha!” the barfighter shot back, “that should be MY line!”

“Can we just attack already?” Knave suddenly asked in beautiful deadpan, his hands at his sides and his body now in a highly casual position, “this sort of back and forth is getting really boring...”

“Son of a-” Duncan began, and then corrected himself, “yes!” He slammed both his hands together, purple energy beginning to spike and warp around it. This completed, he brought both hands forward, palms facing towards his marimo opponent. The purple energy began to swirl, and eventually formed into a small twister-style shape after several minutes of the aforementioned swirling. “You ready?!” he yelled at his opponent, “I’m using a pretty damn strong technique on ya, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t dodge, okay?!”

“Of course!” Knave replied cheerily, “it’d be boring otherwise, right?” And with that, the young Dragon Slayer allowed the previously storm construct to reform, though this time the 2D shape expanded, covering all of Knave’s body in storm and the sharp tip becoming even sharper, with even an extra bit of lightning sparking angrily at the end of it.

“Storm Dragon’s...” Knave began, beginning to run forward and push his two fists onward, straining slightly as the storm tried to escape and do as it wished....

“Genie...” Duncan countered, the purple energy’s spinning reaching maximum levels, now causing large winds to form around the area and sending dust and other small particles flying everywhere around him.....

“-TORNADO RAM!”

“-TWISTER!”

Both of them released their attacks at the same time, the purple energy around Duncan’s hands firing off and launching through the air in order to meet Knave’s own strike, which seemed to consist of him simply continuing to charge forward. The energy struck the end of Knave’s Ram head on, and immediately the air nearest to them was filled with rapidly clashing energy and storm! Duncan’s arms dropped to his sides as the rest of the energy abandoned them, already feeling somewhat drained from using the Genie Twister spell.

Knave struggled for a brief period, the muscles on his hands clenching tighter and tighter as he grinded his teeth together slightly, desperately trying to push forward and continue his very own attack.

Over on the sidelines, still snugly within the confines of the bar where this had all started, Erie and Gopher watched the final clash safely behind a few overturned tables and bits of rubble. “...Who do you think is going to win?” Erie finally asked, watching the final clash with the faintest expression of worry, “because it looks like that Duncan guy is going to claim this one, to be brutally honest.”

Gopher watched the battle with what appeared to be a practiced eye, analyzing every movement, every ounce of force that the two combatants were delivering at the current moment. Finally, the bipedal cat came to a conclusion, his eyes closing and nodding his head to confirm his own statement. “Nope,” he said simply, then looked up, a smile on his face, “Knave’s stronger.”

Right as the words left his mouth, Knave let out one final push of effort, a cry being torn from his lips as the muscles in his legs and arms pushed to their very limit, and those efforts managed to bear fruit. All the storm surrounding his body suddenly dissolved and was promptly yanked into the middle of the ‘tip’ on the end. Once this action had been completed, the tip suddenly became much larger in what felt like an instant, and almost immediately sliced through the purple energy Duncan had released!

“AH SHIT!” Duncan gasped, taking a step back as the wind currents from Knave’s spell reached him, blowing both his hair and clothes back and leading to them flapping wildly. Before the barfighter could say anything else, Knave and his attack surged forward with remarkable speed, carving through the air and striking him directly on the chest. The storm violently discharged right onto him, and the pure force of it began to blow him back!

As it did so, however, time seemed to oddly slow... Knave looked down slowly, and realized with a sinking feeling in his stomach that he had lost control over the tip itself, and a good deal of the storm was also surging towards him with not exactly the best intentions. Ahhh, nutbunnies, the green-haired Dragon Slayer thought in a bizarrely calm manner as the storm struck him as well.

The two were flung backwards once more in opposite directions, with Knave cleanly soaring through the hole he had made in the bar, straight on through the hole that he had made earlier, and right into a nearby hotel wall, which, to be honest, did not stand up well to 17 year old, green-haired Dragon Slayers who had just been thrown a good distance by their own magic. Duncan, on the other hand, had a somewhat shorter flight, smashing into the next building over, the wall promptly crashing down around him.

Nevertheless, there was a good deal of silence after, with the only real visible stimulus outside of the people watching being the smoke and dust rising from where the two former combatants had clashed.

“D-did he just get taken out by his own magic?!” Erie asked incredulously, clearly not believing what had just transpired before her eyes.

“Yeepp,” Gopher sighed, his eyes closed and his paw rubbing the bridge of his feline nose, “see, Knave’s magic is very... temperamental. It doesn’t always like to do what it’s told, so occasionally it’ll do... that.”

“I’ve never heard of a temperamental magic before,” Erie observed, a slight edge in her voice to indicate she was trying to see if Gopher was attempting to pull wool over her eyes or not.

“It’s the only magic I’ve heard of that’s like that too,” Gopher answered simply, “...except for maybe that purple guy’s magic.”

“?”

“It acted oddly,” the cat elaborated, “like it had something of a mind of its own. You saw when it grabbed that beam earlier, right? He didn’t give it anything resembling a command, and even if he did he was able to launch the attack when he didn’t have anything resembling a clear view of what he wanted to snatch. Either he’s just that good with his magic, he memorized what he wanted to grab before doing it, or his magic is sentient in some way. It’s rare, but Ragius said it was possible.”

“You sure put a lot of faith in that dragon of yours,” Erie mused quietly, one of her fingers gently caressing her chin as she waited for either of the two fighters to get up, or at least prove that they were still conscious.

“He’s really smart!” Gopher said brightly, lifting his hands up into the air as if to signify the dragon’s intelligence in terms of physical area, “and he’s super duper strong! I don’t think we’ve ever heard of anyone beating him, and Knave couldn’t even leave a single scratch on him!”

“Speaking of...” Erie interrupted as both piles of rubble that contained the fighters finally stirred...

Knave and Duncan pulled themselves out of their respective piles of rubble at almost exactly the same time. Both of them sported incredibly, almost ridiculously serious faces, and as they stood up they seemed to ignore the at times very large pieces of rubble that dropped from their forms. Staring intently at the other, they walked forward towards each other, each step echoing through the air due to the silence their rising caused. They both stepped into the bar and met in the center, hands clenched into fists.

Erie and Gopher stayed silent, waiting for the two’s next course of action...

And then Knave lashed out with a punch, striking the barfighter directly across the face and sending him smashing into a large amount of tables and chairs that hadn’t yet been destroyed by their previous attacks. However, as soon as he landed, a hand made of purple energy quickly rose up from Duncan’s own hand, and clenched itself into a fist as well before delivering a punch directly into Knave’s gut! The marimo flew a very short distance as well, destroying any remaining furniture (save for the literal bar and accompanying bar stools) as he did so.

Silence resumed for several more tense seconds, the air slightly thick with tension, before the two pulled themselves out of the rubble. They were now both sitting in the piles of rubble, and oddly, looked completely comfortable. Knave and Duncan remained silent a little bit longer, staring across at the other...

And then they threw back their heads and started laughing uproariously!

“...Huh?” Erie and Gopher asked as one, their jaws dropping in reaction to the attitude the two fighters had suddenly adopted.

Duncan paused in his laughter, wiping some tears away from his eyes with one of his thumbs. “Hey, hey, hey!” he chuckled happily, “you’re not half bad at all, man! That was the most fun I’d had in awhile!”

“The same here!” Knave finished his own laughing and now looked like a child who had just found a new best friend, “where’d you learn to fight like that?”

“I’ve been fighting for awhile,” Duncan briefly exposited, “my parents dumped me as a kid, so I ended up getting some training in a local colosseum and found myself moving from bar to bar, fighting a lot and even earning some money from it.” The purple-haired young mage clenched his hand into a fist, looking up slightly towards the ceiling. “My dream’s to become the world’s #1 barfighter, and like hell I’m stopping!”

“I’m not sure that’s an actual position,” Erie pointed out, sliding into the scene once more, Gopher right behind her.

“Oh!” Duncan said, turning towards the female mage and smiling in an innocent manner, “I didn’t really get a look before, but now that I do you’re actually kinda cute-”

A raven sliced through the air, it’s beak impaling the ground right between the barfighter’s legs! Duncan slid backwards slightly, his hands raised into the air as if preparing to protect his little gentlemen bits from another strike. “Say that again and you’re a dead man,” Erie said simply, her hair now suddenly casting a shadow over her eyes.

“E-erie got scary,” Gopher stammered, having transitioned from her side to hiding behind one of the few remaining wooden pillars that provided support for the place.

“T-then I’ll settle for simply saying ‘Hello! Pleased to meet you!’” Duncan corrected himself quickly, still a bit afraid of his potential near brush with one of the worst fates that he could possibly come up with, even in his darkest of nightmares.

“Anyhow,” Knave began, deciding to ignore the events that had just transpired, stood up and walked over to where Duncan was sitting. Once there, the Storm Dragon Slayer extended his hand, offering it to his former opponent, “wanna come with us?”

“WE REFUSE!” Erie and Duncan said as they appeared on frame again, this time with their upper torsos appearing larger than usual and waving their hands back and forth as a means of protest.

“Aww, c’mon!” Knave said unhappily, “he’s a nice guy, and besides, we’re friends now!”

“Since when were you two friends?!” the two dissenters collectively cried again.

“When you fight someone and there’s no hard feelings, you’re friends,” Knave said simply, nodding his head with his eyes closed in a sagely fashion, “mhm hm!” He reconfirmed his own statement.

“I’d love to!” Duncan said, now spontaneously standing up while giving a very proud and happy thumbs up towards Knave.

“We were completely ignored,” Erie and Gopher sulked in the corner as Knave shook hands with the barfighter, forming a powerful friendship that could withstand anything, even an angry barman with a knack for imposing stupidly harsh punishments on anyone that messed with his beautiful iron harmony!

“Oi!” such a bartender growled as he smashed a jug of undoubtedly alcoholic drink onto the actual bar itself. The action provoked a sudden feeling of solemnity in the air, and Duncan promptly jumped over to where the bartender was, bowing deeply and semi-apologzing with every word that was henceforth released out of his mouth!

...Or not, I suppose.

“You punks did give us a good fight,” the bartender growled, his magnificent mustache prickling as he snarled down at Duncan, “but you also messed the hell out of this place! I’m not gonna be the guy who just lets that sort of thing go, you hear? You’re gonna need to PAY, Valentine, and it’s coming out of your pocket!”

“Why me?!” Duncan cried indignantly, shaking his fist at the bartender in a futile act of resistance.

“Because you were the one who wanted to have this whole battle,” the bartender replied with as much burly and badass anger as he could muster, “so you’re the one who gets to pay for the entire mess.”

“Awww mannn,” Duncan sulked as he almost waddled back to Knave and his group, his entire aura giving off a feeling of defeat and depression, “guess I can’t go with you guys after all... at least until after I replace all of THIS!” He flung up his arm, vaguely gesturing at the entire wrecked bar.

“Well, we came to get one of those job thingies!” Knave said, grinning happily, “so we can just pay for the damage with that money stuff we get from it, right?”

“That’s right!” Erie said, remembering their purpose for coming and quickly striding over to confront the bartender. She placed her palms on the physical bar and leaned over, speaking face-to-face with the manager of the establishment. “Do you have any jobs that we could get some money from?”

“Hmm...” the bartender muttered, scratching the previously mentioned mustache of pure magnificence and thinking over her question, “well...”

“I have a job for you,” came an incredibly soft and effeminate voice from a few inches away. Both Erie and the bartender turned around to face the source of the voice, Knave, Duncan, and Gopher following their lead.

The owner of the voice was a rather tall man with very smooth and girlish features. He had light, almost paper-colored skin and silky, dark-purple hair that was immaculately groomed and arranged. He had oddly glowing red eyes and wore a simple yet elegant red coat with a beautiful gold trim. In his hand he held a large scepter, which was also pure gold, with an aurora-patterned jewel placed on the very top of it.

“My name is no concern,” he said, answering their unvoiced question while twirling the scepter slightly, “but let it suffice that I am a man of considerable wealth, and am willing to pay you three... or four, to get rid of a certain bother that I have.”

“And that bother is?” Erie said suspiciously, narrowing her eyes as she examined him closer.

“A little guild. A bandit one, to be precise. Not exactly affiliated with anything resembling our happy little branch of the Magic Council,” the rich man replied, “but nonetheless, they have been interfering with my cute little caravans, and they’ll have to be dealt with as quickly as possible. If you think that you’re confident about your capabilities, then I wouldn’t mind rewarding you with quite the sum.”

The group of four quickly exchanged glances, weighing the odds of the job that the rich man had presented.

On one hand, Erie thought to herself, still studying their potential client, his clothing definitely states that he’s rich, and nothing about him seems to scream that he’s faking it in any way. Perfectly clean shaven, not a scratch of dirt on him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a small entourage of personal stylists waiting just outside for him. But still... someone that rich in a place like this? He could be heading for the other side of the mountain range, but that sort of person either stays with their group or gets room service in one of the hotels here... It’s too hard to tell and too risky to try.

Right as she was about to reply in a negative, Knave slammed both of his fists together, grinning happily again. “We’ll take it!”

“HUH?!” Erie gasped, before quickly seizing Knave by the scarf and shaking her back and forth with as much force as she could muster, “you just ruined my entire plan!”

“I d-d-d-d-d-unno what p-p-p-p-plan that is!” Knave cried helplessly as his head jerked back and forth, his eyes replaced by constantly swirling spirals as he succumbed to dizziness, Gopher racing to attempt freeing him.

As the three engaged in comedic antics, Duncan prepared to join in, but something happened to catch his eye. Or, rather, the lack of something. He looked towards the lightpost where he had tied up the cloaked figure.... past tense being key here, as he had vanished...

Several miles away, there lay a plain completely free of vegetation of any kind. The dirt that did make up the ground was hard, packed, evidence of hundreds, if not thousands, trampling it as they all walked towards a certain location. In the distance, several of the ever-present mountains were visible, almost stretching up past where one could see the sky. If said one turned their attention back to the ground, however, they would have noticed that the ground was also heavily pockmarked, as if dozens of explosions had blown apart the landscape, only to be hastily refilled, as well as numerous tripwires and pitfalls that had once been here... and to be honest, were most likely still here. And if one had looked up just a tad bit, they would’ve noticed a very large, ramshackle castle at the very edge of the massive expanse.

It was across this landscape that the cloaked figure crawled, panting slightly as he tried to avoid all of the various traps his guild had planted here in order to ward off any unwanted guests, while also allowing their members to come and go as they pleased... a decision that worked easily enough for those who still had a full range of movement, but not so much for one who was doing all it could to keep his arms pulling him forward.

“Just you wait...” the cloaked figure gasped, pulling himself closer and closer to the castle and looking up at with an expression of happiness, awe, and a little malice on his face, “you bastards, just you wait... we’ll get revenge... destroy the town... just you wait...”

Several hours later, after much stress and exhausting all of his endurance, the cloaked figure finally arrived at the doorstep of his proud little guild.

The bandit guild, Quick Hands, stretched up before his very eyes.