Chapter 35

Ritsu POV

I gulped as I made my way to Hono's room; the last room before the champion. No, I need to be confident. I stood up straight and resisted the temptation to gulp again.

His room was very mountainous, just like where we fought when we trained with his parents. We would always choose a place with no people there because we didn't want Hono's secret getting out and we didn't want to accidentally kill someone…

Hono stood on top of one of the mountains and looked down at me as I tried to make my way up one across from him. He had a smile on his face. When I got to the top of mine I smiled back at him.

Hono's voice was full of confidence, "Looks like you made it all the way here, Ritsu."

I gave him a big grin, "I sure did."

Hono laughed happily, "I'm so glad you were chosen as the main player. I've been itching for another spar between us."

I smiled as I felt nostalgia overtake me, "Yeah, it's been awhile…"

Hono smirked at me, "You did challenge me when we got to High Rise. How about we carry it out?"

Despite the fear and excitement starting inside me, I smirked at him, "Sure, let's go!"

Like always I had the first move. Even though I know this won't affect him, it would make our fight more fun, so I did it anyway, "Dragon Slayer Secret Art! Fire Crystal!"

I aimed at the floor, creating a layer of fire crystal spreading across the entire battlefield. I had a strange feeling like someone else was watching us. Then I heard the narrator say something that was nothing like the actual game. I'm not going to let a fight like this go to waste. Both of you can use whatever moves you want.

Are you being serious?! I thought back once he or she stopped.

"Well this is a fun development," I heard Hono yell to me as he took his move.

"Transform…" I heard him mumble as he grew in height, gained dragon wings, and was covered in red and ice blue dragon scales.

So he's already going 2nd seal… Hono flapped his slightly larger dragon wings. I pushed fire out from my feet to lift myself into the air. I looked around for anything flammable. I saw a couple of valleys that had some plants, so I decided to aim towards those. I drew my breath into my cheeks,

My headache was starting to return, "Fire Dragon Roar!"

The valleys exploded, giving me flames to bend to my will. I rocketed over to where they valleys were. I could feel Hono catching me, he had the same idea I have, "That wasn't your smartest idea, Ritsu! I can use Passive just as well as you can, you know!"

Hono was almost on top of me! I frantically tried to steal fire to use before Hono took it from me. I moved all my fire to my right hand, amplified it, and balled my hand into a fist. I sighed, sorry Dad I'm stealing one of your moves for a second…

I uppercut right on Hono's jaw, "Fire Dragon Iron Fist!"

I heard a grunt of pain from Hono as he jerked backwards. He laughed a little as he scraped a little chipped scale, "I did not expect you to take one of your dad's moves… nor did I expect it to hurt so much!"

He smirked at me, "You've improved Ritsu."

Ahh, this brings back memories, "You sound like your parents, Hono. You are my age you know."

"Yeah, I'm glad you still remember how to steal fire though, you haven't used it in so long that I thought you'd forgotten…" Hono stood up straight.

We were back on the mountain tops now, "How could I forget? It's not that hard to do!" I smiled back at him as I could feel a flashback start in my head.

"Okay Ritsu, Hono! Today I'm going to teach you something very important and useful for a multi element Dragon Slayer," Leanna held her finger up as she began to explain.

She stood up straight, "There are two different types of Dragon Slayer Magic, Passive and Active. Most Dragon Slayer Magic is Active, Fire, Sky, Iron, Dark, Plasma, are just to name a few. There are only two so far that are considered Passive; they are Earth and Ice."

"What's the difference between the two then?" Hono asked innocently.

Leanna smiled confidently at her son, "Active means that you can make your element using your own body, but you can't bend outside sources of it. Passive is the opposite, you have the ability to bend and use outside sources of your element, but you can't make it yourself, save your breath attack of course."

Both five-year-old Hono and Ritsu's eyes lit up in amazement, "That's cool! I didn't know that existed!" Ritsu cheered happily.

Hono elbowed Ritsu in the side, "That's because all the Dragon Slayers you've met all use Active magic. I doubt they knew Passive even exists!"

Leanna laughed at her students' excitement for Passive magic, it is her type after all, "Here's the part that makes it so useful for you two. Because you have one element that is Active and another that is Passive, you can transfer one into another. It gives you the ability to control outside flames and create your own ice!"

Ritsu was fixing to jump and fist pump the air, "That's awesome!"

Leanna beckoned her two students to follow her, "How about we get started about learning it?"

"Yeah!" The two boys followed her into the mountains where that day's training was going to begin.

"Ritsu! Ristu!" Hono yelled at me and snapped his fingers.

I snapped out of my flashback, "What?!"

Hono giggled, "You completely spaced out!"

I scratched my head, "Sorry about that."

"It's fine, how about show me that new move you told me about earlier?" Hono sounded intrigued.

I smirked, "If you insist…"

I got into position and pulled my arms as high and as close to me as I could. Red and ice blue magic circles started to appear around us in a circle, and a huge one made up half of the center. I started to take fire from under the "earth" where the magic circles were and gathered it in a huge cloud of blue fire. The red fire from the earth changed to blue just before it reached the cloud. It took a few minutes, but I got as much fire as I could into the cloud, including my own.

I jerked my arms downward, "Dragon Slayer Secret Art! Exploding Blue Rain!"

Small raindrops of cold explosions started to rain down on Hono until the cloud ran out of fire. I panted from lack of magic power as the attack finished itself. I was already starting to get dizzy.

When the mountain debris around disappeared, I saw that Hono used the nearby fire crystal to make a tent-like structure to protect himself.

Disappointment flooded though me. I gave that everything I had…

The fire crystal crumbled away to reveal Hono's shocked face, "Wow, Ristu…. I would have never expected a move like that."

Hono stumbled once before regaining his balance. I could see that his scales were even more chipped off than before. He smiled at me,

"How about we finish this?"

I gave him nothing in response; I had very little power left…

Hono ran at supersonic speeds with blades of fire crystal that I had to match. I coped the same attack with similar speeds that I was surprised I could still do. We fought with blades of ice and punches that you could feel the air coming off of. Occasionally Hono would hit me though a couple of mountains, but I would always find some way to stay awake.

I kept telling myself, Just stay awake. Just stake awake. Just stay awake.

I refused to give up, just like I always did when we've fought many times before…

And when I finally couldn't take it anymore and I felt myself fall, I gasped,

"Nothing's changed…"

….

When I started to regain consciousness, I could feel someone carrying me. He was going upwards, like going up stairs. My dad's scarf was starting to stick to me because of my sweat. I naturally grabbed onto it, it was scaly yet soft…

Suddenly I fell to the ground, I rubbed my head to see Hono standing above me. I smiled sheepishly, "I guess I loose then? I fainted…"

Hono shook his head, "No, you're far from loosing. I gave you a revive to wake you up," Hono had a soft smile on his face, "if all of our parents saw that, they would have been amazed. You've come a long way Ritsu."

I rolled my eyes as I got up, "Enough with the mushy talk, you've improved as much as I have."

"That's true."

"We've all improved."

Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice, "Long time no see, Ritsu."

I turned around to see Gary coming towards us, I smiled playfully at him, "You just had to put us though this, didn't you?"

Gary shrugged, "I was just mad, I had no intention of making you guys go though all this. I thought I was going get kicked out of the game sooner than this, but the guys that play this are such weaklings…"

I laughed, "So, am I facing you now?"

Gary sighed, "No, sadly, I was beaten by someone just before you got here…"

"You'll be facing me…" I felt myself tense as I saw Leaem, my rival, walk towards me.

"No way!" I barked out.

He eluded confidence like usual, "Yes way. I've defeated everyone here with ease. Are you ready to face me, Ritsu?"

But his voice keeps getting more feminine, "I've been wanting to beat you for a while… I think it's about time," I growled at him, being serious in my words.

"Then bring it on."

"My pleasure."

Our fight didn't last long. Against the true story of the game, my rival beat me, with ease. He used that one, cheep move that could force someone out of the game long enough for it to count, and it felt weird.

It was such a horrible feeling to loose to him. He walked over to me and his voice sounded nothing short of a girl's at this point. He pulled a bag out of his pocket and started to brush his hair straight.

I stared at him blankly, having no idea why he's doing this…

Then I started to see it, Leaem was starting to look like…

Leah….

No way… "Leah?!"

She grinned at me with satisfaction, "Yep it's me. It's been me the whole time!"

Hono and Gary had their mouths open, Gary screeched,

"IT WAS YOU THE WHOLE TIME?!"

Leah giggled and nodded.

Gary looked physically ill now, "No way…. I did not expect that at all…"

Hono looked a little better, "No way…. How on earth did you get your hair to do that?..."

Leah blushed. Ohhh! She has to share the secret now! I giggled in brotherly satisfaction upon realizing that she had to share the secret she's been trying to hide her whole life.

She stumbled on her words, "I-I inherited it from my dad… My hair spikes out when it's wet…."

All of us burst out laughing and Leah yelled at us to stop,

"Come on, you guys! It's not that funny!"

That only made us laugh more. It was actually getting hard to breathe we were laughing so hard…

Our laughing stopped when we heard a crack in the ceiling. We looked up and saw an adult man with crazy blonde hair and bright blue eyes and a girl the same age with very dark green hair and almost black eyes fall from the ceiling. They both landed gracefully.

I assumed he was speaking to me,

"You've landed right in our trap…"