"Alright, start!"
The battle began.
"Hehehe…" Nara chuckled, a wicked grin spreading across his face as fire erupted from his palms, coating his arms in flickering red flames.
Code, on the other hand, stood perfectly still. Eyes shut. Calm.
"Feel the flow…" he whispered to himself.
"Crimson Burst!" Nara shouted.
A blazing projectile flew toward Code, tearing through the air, trailing fire like a comet.
Still, Code didn't move.
Nara smirked, rushing in behind the blast. "Here I come!"
His hands glowed, red-hot, ready to strike—
Snap.
Code's eyes shot open.
"Suuuu…"
A slow exhale escaped his lips.
Then—
Boom!
The fireball struck—but Code had already ducked, slipping beneath the explosion with perfect timing. Flames roared behind him.
"Wha?!" Nara's eyes widened.
Before he could process it, Code was already underneath him.
"Gotcha," Code muttered, launching an uppercut toward Nara's chin with deadly precision.
But just as the punch was about to land—
"No, you don't!" Nara yelled, unleashing a fiery burst from his palm.
Fwoosh!
The blast sent Nara spinning mid-air, flipping away from danger and landing on his feet a few meters back.
"Phew… that was close," he muttered, catching his breath and resetting his stance.
"I almost had him," Code whispered to himself, eyes still sharp.
"How about this!" Nara called out, aiming both flaming palms at Code.
Hina's eyes went wide. She recognized that stance.
"Oi! Nara! That's going too far!" she shouted, but her voice was drowned out by the roaring flames.
"Inferno Burst!!" Nara bellowed.
Twin fireballs surged from his hands, blazing across the ground at terrifying speed.
"Oh no, I forgot how crazy he gets when he trains," Hina groaned. "Why didn't I stop him earlier?!"
She bolted toward Code.
The fireballs ripped through the mountaintop, burning grass and tearing up soil as they closed in.
Code didn't flinch.
He shifted slightly—his right leg slid forward, his left fist clenched, right arm raised like a shield. His eyes locked on the incoming fire.
"Mmm…"
He inhaled deeply. Exhaled slowly. Felt the wind. The trees. The fire. His heartbeat. The Tenzen inside and all around him.
It all converged.
Tenzen surged through every cell of his body, flowing to his core, then his fist.
"…Is this it?" he whispered.
Then—
Crack!
Code threw a punch—not at the fireball, but into the air.
Swoooooch!
A mighty gust exploded from his strike, ripping through the mountaintop like a cannon of wind. Even Hina was blown back, barely clinging to a branch to avoid being launched off the cliff.
Boom!
The Tenzen wind collided with the incoming fireballs in a blinding shockwave.
Burst! Boom!
An earth-shattering explosion rang out. Fire and wind clashed, neutralizing each other in a thunderous blast that left a massive crater at the center of the summit. Smoke rose in tendrils.
"Ah… ah…" Code gasped, bent over, hands on knees. "I'm beat…"
Nara stared in disbelief. "Did… did he just neutralize my fireballs?"
"Whoooa!" Hina shouted, dropping from the tree branch. "That impact almost took me out!"
"Oi! Wasn't that emission phase?!" Nara turned to Hina, almost excited.
"Hm…" Hina tapped her chin thoughtfully.
"Nope," she said flatly.
Both Code and Nara deflated.
"Could you be any nicer?" Nara muttered.
"At first it looks like an emission phase technique, but it was still flow phase," Hina explained. "Code didn't shoot energy from his fist—he just punched the air and collided with external Tenzen. And you know what they say: Tenzen attracts Tenzen."
"So it pulled in more Tenzen from the atmosphere," Nara said, eyes lighting up.
"Exactly. That surge formed a wind-based Tenzen burst," Hina nodded. "What you saw was a Tenzen Wind."
"Whoa… I actually made something new?" Code said, surprised.
"You did," Hina smiled. "It's not emission, but it's still incredible."
"I guess the training wasn't a waste after all," Code said with a tired smile. "I discovered a new technique."
Suddenly, Hina's eyes narrowed. She turned to Nara.
"Wait a second—you threw fireballs at him?! That could've roasted us all!"
"Hahaha! As a strong man, I find it hard to hold back my power," Nara declared dramatically, posing like a deity.
"Tch… idiot!" Hina shouted, chasing after him.
"Waaah! Don't hit me, I'm fragile!" Nara laughed as he ran.
Code watched them for a moment, then glanced down at his clenched fist.
"…What should I name it?" he wondered aloud.
"God's Breath!" he declared, striking a dramatic pose.
"Nah, that's lame."
"Air Thrust?"
"Nope."
"Devastating Earth-Shattering Wind Impact!" he shouted, then immediately burst into laughter. "What even is that?!"
After a few more awful names, he gave up.
"I'll think about it later," he sighed, patting his growling stomach.
Grrrrr…
The sun had dipped low in the sky. Hina finally caught Nara and gave him a well-deserved smack on the head. Eventually, Code got them to calm down, and the three of them started making their way back home.
***
TBC