‘El...Electron… Uh? Shock… No. Fuck, I should’ve spent more time on this.’
“Next on the docket we have a fiery bout between applied thermodynamics and raw fire power!!”
Para didn’t leave much room between fights, announcing the next challenge as Kaz and his dad were still leaving the circle. Seth looking up and nodded to Kaz as he passed and took his seat, about all he could manage between the marginalization and trying to make up a name for himself. Samurai leapt back up to the stands behind, a renewed smile on his face that no longer covered up his pain, simply. Beamed his joy for all to see. Except with maybe a bit of dehydration. As Kaz stepped in to the congratulation spree that was the trainee bench, Kabar stood up to ready for his own fight.
“Ladies and Gentlemen… Toaster!!”
Kabar walked out into the arena floor, turning only to mean eye Para at the hopefully last utterance of that stupid nickname. He took his position in the circle and readied, the massed catharsis had finally calmed and put people back in their seats.
“And his challenger… ehem… I mean challengers!!”
Kabar snapped up, expectations thwarted.
‘Oh boy, how fucking original.’
The central shutter door the trainees had entered from reopened, a new spotlight illuminating four figures entering the arena. It was Kabar’s trainers. Cauterizer, Dr. Kallinikos, Friction Sweep, and Phoenix Tech. All walking out in unison to cheers from the stands, stopping at the edge of the central circle with a proud air and a fight already clearly in the making.
As Para moved to announce more though, he stopped in sudden-
*bwoo*
Seth looked up to see Hothead grabbing up Para’s mic away and leaping into the arena to join the others.
“All right people listen up!! This fight is more than just a graduation! More than just a culmination of a lot a hard work! This fight is a baptism, a ritual all fire heroes must go through! A test only we can administer, and only we can judge! Our newest initiate KABAR!! will undertake a test of the 4 main elements of firepower! Heat, Saturation, Utilization, and Martial prowess! Not strictly in that order, but you get the idea. Each of our challengers here are masters in these elements! So it’s fair to say we can’t just set them all on him at once! Thus Kabar’s challenge is simple!”
Hothead, put down the mic and leveled a hand at Kabar who recoiled knowing full well what it could do. But he deftly moved his hand in a circle, and roared a ring of arena sand into ignition around him. A line of orange melt turning to lapping flames as it caught the air. Though noticeably smaller than the official ring.
“He must knock each of his challengers out of this ring of fire! Though in Phoenix’s case he must be knocked to the ground as well! It’s only fair, flyers are special. Getting knocked out himself isn’t a detriment, his safe zone is the full circle proper! But every time he’s knocked out… a challenger returns or is sent in! So he better make sure to knock them out good.”
Hothead turned to Kabar, hand still out maintaining the fiery boundary.
“You understand!?”
Kabar took a breath, probably his last cool one for a while, and nodded. Hothead smiled wickedly and turned back to Para, tossing him the microphone. Para wasn’t impressed, but at least he kept some of his job. He raised his hand again, only slightly reveling in the tension. Till defeatedly he sighed and threw his hand down.
“Fight!!”
The ring flared to nearly block away the entire bout, chest height and turning the air to soup. If not torching it away entirely. It put out enough heat to invalidate the protection in front of the bench and flinch the stands back. Things were still a little jumpy. But it slightly dimmed as Cauterizer strode in first. Little doubt the heat of the ring was worse inside, but where heroes like these were concerned it was barely an afterthought. Not even his old style combat medic uniform felt the heat as he took his place opposite Kabar, putting his hands up in a grappling stance.
“You ready K?”
“Are you? Because I’m not paying anymore dry cleaning bills!”
“Well if you think you’re heat’s strong enough then lets go!”
Suddenly his hands began to glow like forged metal, getting white hot at the palm in no second flat. Kabar stood his ground and took a stable stance, thermal cords heating up in sequence toward his hands. But this fight was already started.
Cauterizer struck before it could fully ignite, charging in with both his hands open and ready to grab. Leaving Kabar little to do than meet his grab with his own. Both literal fire fighters slamming together, locking hands in a pushing match. The heat from both sweeping over the fire ring and adding to the already stifling atmosphere.
Kabar finished heating his lines, glowing threads taking to the open air with orange flames, but the struggle was already not in his favor. Why Cauterizer was chosen for the heat challenge and not the martial one was confusing, but Seth could remember the little bit he’d studied about him. He wasn’t strictly a fire hero, the uniform more than enough of a giveaway. He had control over the way he used his powers, using them both to heal through adding energy and fighting by over energizing. Aka, burning anything he gets his hands on. Kabar seemed to understand this as well, this wasn’t really about higher temperatures. It was about strength of control. And he was slower on the draw just because of surface area.
Flames spouted from between their hands, Cauterizer was pressing the already present advantage he had by putting his all down range, and threatening to burn through Kabar’s hands before he could get parity. But this contest was already being forfeited, and shifting to Kabar’s strengths. His lines suddenly extinguished around his arms, contracted and hardened as their heat was forced around. A stiff exoskeleton locking in his position. While he poured all the heat generated from them into his feet.
The sand under his soles burning to a darkened patch, despite all of it basically being baked to a crisp by the ambient firestorm. Steadily soaking into those cooled lines, reheating that impromptu exoskeleton and letting Cauterizer push Kabar back. Till there was finally a give and the both of them were falling to that baking sand. And yet only one of them was left open.
Kabar’s feet shot up faster than his back could hit, planting onto Cauterizer's chest as his hands flared in a single sudden directed burst. A wave of over stoked flames lightening that baking grip for the second he needed. Cauterizer falling forwards, blinded by jets of fire, and caught off guard, was not able to react to the explosive kick Kabar loosed at his chest. As, on contact, those superheated soles exploded less metaphorically. Sending him flying out over the fire ring and into the sand on the other side like a lazy mortar shell.
Both equally slammed back first, but only Kabar dug his own rut in. Yet still had wind enough to kick back up, just as Cauterizer lurched upright. With two burned in shoe prints on his vest and a dejected look of someone who has to pay tailoring costs for custom fireproof clothing. Again.
“Huhh! Told you!”
“I’d better get that friends and family discount!”
“Not my department!”
Hothead drew closer to the ring, a prideful smile rising to the occasion.
“1 down, 3 to go!!”
Friction Sweep stepped up next, a bit of a clearer contender for the martial prowess master. As she passed over the dimmed fire ring, she swung up her matchstick esc nunchucks, striking them up to whip their flames into a fiery dance. Proceeding to carry them out into a self-contained routine upon her side of the circle. Over her right shoulder, under her right arm, across to the left and repeat. Till a sudden pop stuck them out ahead of her, embers snuffed by the force and smoldering into the twirling air around her.
“Prowess comes in many forms little boy!”
“And yadda yadda flowing nonsense! Let’s get this over with!”
“Then show them what yours looks like!!”
Just as suddenly she whipped her chucks back up to speed. Across her dress to relight and around to incite. Swings increasing with every rotation, flaming ends steadily becoming a solid glowing blur. Even her hands becoming too quick to see normal. And yet not even loosing a single spark in the flurry. The wind force subjected to them increasing their heat, more air equals more oxygen to burn. And the steady roar coming from them signaled it was all being sucked in toward her.
Kabar kept his position, probably thinking better of getting knocked across the face. He waited for her to make the first move, a loosened line subtly heating up in his right hand. But, out of nowhere, an arc of flame blasted out of Friction’s display, careening out at his right. He dodged, more than expecting it as his expression read like that was definitely not the only attack coming. Because more began blasting out. Every time she dragged the tail end of a nunchuck out and let it swing free, a blast of flame was shot away in a burning congealed wake. Crescents of fire holding their shape and shooting away.
Like a fiery rhythm game, Kabar was forced to dodge every which way. Two on his left, one high across the top, another two on the right. A set pattern, easy to-
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
‘Oh shit they just doubled up!’
Now the pattern jumped the cross over and put two sides out at near the same time, her speed increasing even more. Kabar was doing everything he could to dodge, but it was only a matter of time. A duck left dodged the right and top shots, a quick right dodge to avoid the left, then back to the left… straight into the second left that trailed the first. The congealed embers washed over him, his thermal cord lighting up as heat pressed him back. His arm blocking most of it and holding his footing, but one hit led to another. And another. And another!
Kabar was stuck as Friction gave up the game and began aiming straight at him, pattern be damned. He was battered by blast after blast of swirling spark filled air. Losing inch by inch of standing and who knows how much damage. His left stuck in block and his body gritting against the waves, he had few options left. So he chose now to do whatever he had planned. His right shot back the line in his hand spooling free out of the fire ring. Friction could see this and advanced, the fire at her back getting pulled along as she drew away. She was practically sucking up all the air in the ring. And it was having an effect.
Kabar’s breathing was haggard, what moves he could do slowing. But the end of the line outside the ring was burning white hot. The cord igniting, taking up the ring’s heat and drooping it low. Weakening it just enough.
Before Friction could close the distance and turn form into beating, Kabar suddenly whipped his right hand hard. Swirling the whip and causing a chain reaction along it. Small explosions along its length added more force as the line twisted over itself several times, picking up speed as the twist reached the ring. Hit at Mach force and-
‘Holy Shit!! The ring parted!’
A howling tunnel of air cracked in from the outside, and Kabar took a deep breath of it. As the fires that were beating into him were blasted out, like a backdraft. All of Friction’s built up glow and air current were pulled away as a gout of fire shot out of the parted ring. Her routine put out and stopped dead by the sheer force of fire finding a better source of air. She panicked, tried to strike up her matchsticks again, but Kabar was already whipping that right back over. And pulling his superheated line back in. To whip her right in the face.
The glowing end cracked her on the forehead and exploded, sending her flipping back out of the ring. Kabar collapsed forward with his own inertia, gasping at fresh air again as Friction skidded to a stop outside the full circle. Knocked out… well.
‘Cold isn’t the word I would use.’
Hothead took another step closer.
“2 down, 2 to go! Keep it up!”
Kabar groaned back up as Dr. Kallinikos entered the ring, without even waiting for it to dim. He was definitely the odd one of this group, not just because he was basically a fire elemental living in a suit.
“Saturation is a simple concept, a balancing act between having enough fuel to-”
“I already know!! Seriously you’re all broken records!!”
Kabar looked exacerbated, and this was definitely not the first time. The doctor didn’t seem put off by the interruption, but rather ominously pulled up the flamethrower at his side.
“Very well then. Let the test commence!”
There's something really horrifying about someone calmly using a flamethrower, so watching a gout of blue flame come from someone who talked like a lecturing professor was only going to make this feeling worse. Kabar stood his ground as the blue gout whooshed over the entire condensed ring. It didn’t seem to be anything worse than Friction’s flames, but Kabar wasn’t about to just sit back and bake again.
Off the spray he charged forward, blue fire stuck to bits of his thermal cord. The doctor let his thrower drop, still with a really unnerving calm about his reflective baggy suit, as he slowly raised his free hand up... In a locked snap? Kabar skidded to a halt before crossing the center of the ring, he knew what this was. Franticly looking around, looking at the spaced out spots of flame on the ground. The very evenly patterned spots of flame. He froze, he looked down at the spot he was in, no fire, just the bits he brought in to it. Looking up just in time for the doctor to snap.
And for those patterned flames to flare and roar, along with the small ones stuck on his cords. But that flare spread out like a wave, slow enough catch on to, as Kabar focused and those flares dimmed. Just in time for the mass conflagration. A checker pattern of blue fire pillars shot up over the ring, the heat turned up to bracing levels, with only a single pillar left below the rest.
The pillars died down, the flames in their spots burned out and empty. Kabar hunched over and obviously toasted a little. But still pulling himself back up, worse for wear and conscious of it. And Dr. Kallinikos still not reacting to a serious degree.
“Very good, you diminished my flames before they could gorge upon the air. But remember, saturation is-”
“SHUT THE HELL UP!!!”
Kabar threw his arms out but forcefully pulled them back in, a distortion blurring the air in front of him. A mass of disembodied heat getting balled together too tight to stay. The doctor releveled his flamethrower, but Kabar was quicker. With a hard grab and a massive pull back he spiked that metaphysical ball down into the ground, loosing all that heat as an overpressure shockwave. The ring and the remaining blue fire were buffeted by a wave of blasted up sand. As was the doctor, as Kabar took his chance and charged.
Knocked off his original attack but was undeterred, he raised his flamethrower again. Kabar reached him just as he put finger to trigger. With a quick spin, Kabar stole the thrower just as it spurted a blue puff, pushing him away with his momentum and a back shove. The connecting hose stretched as he was knocked to the ground, but Kabar wasn’t done. He whipped the thrower back around toward him, but pointed it over at the fire ring. And pulled the trigger to let loose every bit of fuel this aged doctor had on him.
A geyser of blue spraying out and arcing over. The doctor tried to get up, but seeming to sag as he did. Because he was that fuel, and Kabar was shooting him out of the arena. The roaring cacophony of flowering blue and white flames becoming a drip trail nearly to the wall. After a few torrential seconds of spraying, the suit he inhabited finally fell empty.
Kabar dropped the thrower on the suit and kicked the lot of it out the ring. And with a severely exacerbated sigh, he slumped with his hand on his knees. This was definitely getting taxing, but he managed to pull himself up to prepare for his next fight. Only to come face to face with an articulating blue fire sticking itself through the ring.
“There is no need to be rude. Everyone needs a refresher sometimes.”
Kabar started to pull at his singed hair.
“THIS WAS THE 18th TIME THIS WEEK!!!”
“…Well you still don’t need to be rude.”
“AAAhhh!!”
Kabar turned away from the fire wall, not wanting to deal with the sentient yet repetitive fire monster trying to teach him the fundamentals of his own power set. He was definitely haggard now, cords burned, mentally exhausted, and no doubt with some degree of soot in his lungs. Hothead took another step, practically touching the fire ring he was maintaining, and failing hard at holding back quite the prideful smile.
“Only 1 to go Kabar! Finish strong!!”
Kabar took back up his position at the other side of the ring, wheezing heavy breaths to try and get back to set. The ring did not dim though, in fact it increased in intensity. Vision in and out blocked as the walls towered higher. Right up to level with the stands. Over the roaring breathing of the fires though came an intensifying whir, like a jet engine starting up. Seth fought the heat and focused, but the Garkah had beat him to it and coopted a camera in the stands to see what was going on. It was Phoenix Tech charging up, gaining altitude over a technicolor explosion of exhaust.
“What took ya so long?”
‘Eh you know… the usual.’
“We’re still here for you brother. Don’t you worry.”
‘Never did…’
Phoenix was steadied himself with his hands as Seth and Threat watched along. Short bursts to maintain his orientation, while the ports on his legs gained him momentum and built up force. Finally, like a rocket lifting off, he gained purchase against gravity and shot away from the ground. Flying up above the ring, a rainbow of flames in his wake, and staring down on the landlocked Kabar.
“Don’t sah- say it!!”
“Haha! You’ve gotta utilize Kabar!! How else are you gonna end this show with your best?!”
He back flipped casually away, cutting his jets and falling past the firewall, intent on striking in the blind. Kabar sighed and readied himself, pulled heat from his cords to harden them up and listened for Phoenix’s jets to light up again. The whoosh of throttling up came from his right and he ducked just as Phoenix shot through the fire surrounding him. It was high, probably a scouting shot, but Phoenix wasn’t one to ever sit idle. Immediately as he exited the wall he folded and flared his jets to stop and shot back in. Lower this time, buzzing him by a few feet.
He repeated, changed sides, increased his speed, pinballing through the ring so as to not give Kabar a chance to lock down where he was going to strike from. One more pass, but this time he entered almost at his level, palms down and throttle surging. A massive jet of multicolored fire spewing forth, chewing through the sand and igniting it in rainbow fire. Kabar dodged back, avoiding the new wall of fire cutting through the center of the ring. Another pass, another line. He was cutting his room to maneuver. But Kabar didn’t look worried, and Seth could see he had seen a chance. If he was looking to cut his space up then Phoenix had to pass right over him eventually.
As he crossed again Kabar ducked down in feigned fear. But really he was drawing his cords and soles both into focus, heated them up to white hot levels again. Spreading spots along lengths and baking already glassy sand. Phoenix circled the ring, lined up opposite with his only position left. Just as Kabar loosened his lines and let them spool out beside him.
Finally Phoenix blasted forward, flying low with his arms out in an effort to grab Kabar and throw him out of the ring. But as he broke in, Kabar loosed his trap. The soles of his boots exploded, jettisoned him into the air with lines running at his sides as he ascended. Drag lines like an old barrage balloon. But Phoenix wasn’t some hapless greenhorn. Speed too much to change course, he turned sideways to pass right between them, avoiding the obvious superheated spots meant to blow as he made contact as if they were midair mines. But this wasn’t so simple a trap. When Phoenix was too close to avoid, Kabar sprung it for real.
Select spots on the lines exploded, propelling them inward as Phoenix crossed between them. They wrapped around him and hardened, heat sapped in intervals to lock them in place. But just being locked on to him wasn’t enough, he could drag Kabar out with this jet set momentum alone. So the rest burst and redirected it all, as he yanked with everything he had overhead. And set off the spots all alone his back. All at once.
A counter force to Phoenix’s velocity, a subversion of momentum. He was caught, but his jets were still firing. He was just suddenly pointed up now, and under Kabar’s control. A few more explosions, more one shot retrorockets to steady and align for the massive hammer down coming into focus. Phoenix cut his thrust, but it was too late. The human shaped rocket hammer was left with nothing but to hurtle himself down into the middle of the ring with all the momentum he had built up turned against him. Sand and dust exploded out, dousing most of the rainbow fire he had spread.
As Kabar landed back down, hard.
Joints sounding like cracklers even beneath the flames. Crumbling back up, he wobbled over the crater he made. Phoenix was out of it, but not defeated yet. Kabar grabbed the collar of his suit and dragged him over to the wall of fire one nearly broken step at a time. He struggled, but had enough strength left to toss Phoenix out of the ring alongside the other fighters. And so as he passed through, the ring extinguished, Hothead on the ball and beaming that stored up pride at him. At the truly haggard and burned mess he was. As everyone watched Hot whip around to Para’s podium and point, the message loud and clear.
“Ladies and Gentlemen…! I give you… THERMODYNAMIC!!!”
Kabar shakily smiled and raised his fist, a loose line still trailing as the audience erupted. But before he could raise it all the way he collapsed, right into the arms of Hothead and Cauterizer, the only two trainers that still had consciousness or corporeal to even catch him. The trainees, the audience, even Seth fought back up to applaud him as he was carried off the floor. He earned a rest after all that. Seth was even feeling better now, a little second hand catharsis and a few intense fights clearing at least some of his slump away. At least enough to start filling in that emotional crater.
‘Heh… Uggghh, I still need a name. When the hell did they even tell Para what they wanted anyway?’
“Y-you’re good at titles. You got this.”
‘That’s not helping.’