"Sometimes the brothers that you need in life are fosters."
Cold, sadistic, and a hint of crazy describes the pyromaniac perfectly. Never choosing to settle down and only taking risky and high paying guild requests and a passion for gambling to surv...
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As per the captain's request, I attacked his open palm by delivering a high roundhouse kick to it.
His tall stature made it noticeably harder since his palms were higher than I was tall.
Occasionally he would grab my leg and try to trip me or shove it and throw my leg to the floor, each time forcing me to catch my balance.
"Your foot shouldn't be pointing forward. That just weakens your base. Anchor it facing the shoulder opposite of the leg you're kicking with."
I followed his instructions and when I delivered my next kick I felt more confident in my balance, enabling me to exert more power into the kick. Still, his arm barely moved despite the higher force.
"Better." The hair of his beard moved with the appreciative exhale he released from his nose. "So, why is it you're only using your legs?"
"So that my hands are free for grappling and casting long-range spells."
"I see. Well then, let's see what your spell capabilities are. You've had a few months to come up with a few tricks."
Nodding my head I activated my fire magic around my entire body, focusing everything in my legs and arms. My limbs turned into flaming cyclones that slowly whirled around as flame condensed in a greater space than what ordinary fire magic could occupy.
"Hmph. Clever. Using that ability to morph yourself to continuously cast magic without releasing it is smart, but let's see how you use it," he said as he flicked his fingers at me in a taunting motion.
At his prompting, I ran up and jumped as my body shifted into a flaming cyclone that accelerated my spin. The kick my flaming body landed exploded, sending fire around his palm and into his face. My arms weren't idle, as I raised them up and strengthened the blast with another surge of fire before flying out of range of the captain's reach.
Waving the smoke out of his face, Tatsuo stood there with a look of genuine surprise on his unharmed visage. "I'll admit, I didn't expect that."
"Everyone else just uses fire to propel their attacks, but since I can turn into fire I can speed up my rpm as a cyclone."
"And disguise your next attack in the process. Clever. But don't you get dizzy?"
"You get used to it."
"Hmm." Walking back over to the porch while stroking his beard, the captain took one last swig from his sake before pulling out an hourglass. "I'll admit that I might've gotten lazy if something as obvious as that slipped past me. I'm so used to the same spunky upstarts using the same tricks that someone barely a tenth my age managed to surprise me. You might be a fun student after all."
"That's...all the test was?"
"The first part at least. Usually, I'm looking for promising talent, someone worthy of my teachings but I haven't had a student like that in ages. But you, you don't need to fight the same way everyone else does. You're young with a different magic. I can give you my teachings as well as use you as a way to experiment with magic in a way I haven't in decades. It's a win-win. If you pass the second part of my test. I'll give you five minutes to prove yourself. If you meet my standards then you'll pass the second part of my little game."
