44 vs 301

The vibration of flesh smashing against each other ripples through the air as Zane and Apollo trade blows. Each attack showed something fundamental about each combatant that Red could clearly see.

Each step revealed who clearly dominated the battle. That combatant was Apollo.

His footwork was beautiful. He glided around Zane like an air current itself. To Zane, it was like trying to punch a leaf flowing freely within the wind.

“Shit!” Zane cursed under his breath.

Of course Apollo caught this and smirked.

“Do you understand now, monkey!”

His words were covered by his constant jabs.

“Do you get why people like you need to know their place?”

Jab.

“This is why you were born with the trash!”

Jab. Jab. Jab.

“Because you’ll get hurt otherwise!”

Each Jab was filled with hatred that wasn’t necessarily directed at Zane, but at people like Zane. People who weren’t born in Spirit Hunter families, People who weren’t born into money, People who weren’t born into luck.

He stepped forward as his jabs began to blur together with speed, little sparkles of gold aura spritzed in between each attack. This was the power of the Spiderlily Family. This is the power of Apollo.

His red hair swayed with each jab. His golden rings left deep, dark red marks as he quickly jabbed Zane's body.

“Say it! Say that you’ll succumb to the Spiderlily family!”

The sound was unnatural, like a barrage of thunderclaps that never seemed to stop even when you thought it should.

“Say it!”

Zane’s eyes went dark as he gave up blocking the attacks and just took the blows. His chest tightened to at least put up some defense; even if it helped a little, it did wonders.

“Say it!”

Apollo slammed his leading right foot against Zane's right foot, digging them both deeper into the ground. He smirked as he saw blood gently laid on Zane's lips. But what kept fueling his anger, his rage, was the fact that the damn bastard was still standing.

“Say it, you fuck!”

Red watched; that's all he did and all he would be doing. He watched as Apollo turned the bored boy into a punching bag. He watched as life seemed to leave Zane's eyes. He watched a flicker of red emitted from Zane's left hand.

…

..

.

It was a Fall afternoon. Zane was watching his cousin goofing around with the young girl. Mari was off at work as Zane and Annie played.

“No way that's true!” Annie exclaimed. She was pulling at her older cousin's hair as they had her on his shoulders.

“I’m afraid it is. Santa does have a list of naughty and nice kids.”

“That–that doesn’t make sense. First you tell me he can go to everybody's house at the same time at midnight, and now you're telling me I'm being watched! Seems to me like Santa’s a creep!”

Zane giggled at Annie's observations.

“I don’t know what to tell ya; it’s the truth. That’s why you gotta be good for your mother or no presents.”

“You’re such a bad liar, Zane!”

She pouted and lightly jabbed at his head. Her bright red hair swayed in the wind as it shifted. She turned towards the whistling winds and smiled.

“Look! Look! It’s Company Zero!”

Zane turned with his cousin; they looked past a vast river and into the neighing city. The city was large and shone in the sunlight like a twenty-four-seven disco party.

Above the city, a giant Eye with crab legs fell towards that very city. The color of the eye was a dark brown; the crab legs a disgusting shade of mossy green.

There was one man charging towards the eye, a man engulfed in a bright red-orange flame.

“Look, look! Captain Sengoku is gonna do his super move!” Annie exclaimed, pointing and slightly bouncing as the flames forming around Captain Sengoku grew brighter.

“Zane, let’s say it when he does it!”

She sounded so excited. Zane knew how much she loved to watch Spirit Hunting. They waited for Sengoku to draw out his blade, then—

A bright crescent flaming light cut the eye-crab spirit.

A clean cut straight in the middle; the clouds behind and around the spirit parted by the force of the slash.

“Morning Bringer!”

The two shouted at the same time, bright smiles on both of their faces.

…

..

.

He stood there. Why? Why was he remembering that now? Why now?

“Say it!”

Apollo charged up a huge golden glow that emitted from his right fist. It began to approach Zane's nose rapidly.

It needed to land. It had to, because if it didn’t, then this lowlife troglodyte monkey wouldn’t learn his place.

Apollo's thoughts began to flood his mind: “Just die already, you waste of fucking space!”

But something odd happened, something that Apollo couldn’t process.

Before the attack that would put down the low-class Spirit Hunter wannabe could land, Zane swiftly moved out of the way.

His eyes snapped back to life form there previous near-grey, dry-like state. The gold hue of the bubble shifted to a dark red. With a step forward and the shifting of his hips like a tornado whipping a car around, his right fist crashed into Apollo's face; the crackle and crackle of his nose filled his ear.

“Shut the fuck up!”

The annoyance practically crawled out of Zane's throat as he used all the force he could muster to fling Apollo away by a few meters.

Red’s eyes shifted for just a second as Zane caught his breath and got back into his fighting stance. He kept his arms up- well, the best he could, at least. He slowly moved towards Apollo as he slowly got up.

“All you do is yap. It’s getting really boring to listen to.”

“Then shut me up, you damn trash humper.”

The distance between them slowly closed. It was like a window slowly lowering so that the cold may not enter a warm home. But there was nothing warm or homely about what was happening.

These two people took a basic evolution of skill and turned it into a sick game. A game of ego.

Ego, self-worth, pride it was all something Zane had never thought of when it regarded himself. Yet he stood here, his leading right foot nearing Apollo's. He stood there, getting ready to defend this new sense of ego.

In that moment, Zane realized something: “This asshole doesn’t know anything about me. Who is he to call me a trash eater or some dumbshit like that? I know his type; people like him judge solely on class. So if he’s gonna call me worthless, then he’s calling my class of people worthless…he’s calling Annie worthless…he’s calling Mari worthless.”

The first attack was swift. Apollo stepped in for a front right jab, his arm blurred with speed but redirected with a parry by Zane's right forearm.

Another second scrolled past the two combatants when the entire area bathed in a golden hue once more. The color clung to Apollo's left fist as it wound back, then shot towards Zane's right rib.

The wind guided Apollo's attack; the hook was clean and clear. His fist nuzzled into Zane's right rib.

“Ack!”

The pain ran across Zane's entire body. Dust kicked up as the bored boy's body lifted from the ground.

His body folded towards the spear that was Apollo's right hook. A crack rung threw Zanes bones.

“Shit!”

Moving through the pain, Zane whipped back his left arm and swung it against Apollo's left cheek. The two stumbled backwards away from each other. Blood lazily lay on both of their lips.

They both took a breath.

Then another.

And another.

The ground beneath the two shifted as they charged towards each other once more.

The hue of the area constantly shifted between Gold and Red. Apollo and Zane.

Always quick to the gun, Apollo shot his fist forward first, the knuckles aiming for Zane's nose. Noticing this, the bored boy ducked under that attack, cocking back his right fist.

With the motion of his winding fist, the hue of Gold and Red shifted towards his knuckles. The area came back to its normal color as the thick light of gold and red clung to Zane's arm.

“Ahhh!”

All that built-up frustration that boiled into Zane's body escaped and flew from his fist.

The uppercut was clean; the crescent motion slammed into Apollo's chin and shot outward, cracking the bubble.

Red hair whipped forwards then backwards as Apollo's head snapped back with the uppercut.

His feet fluttered, his body backwards, away from Zane by about a few meters. Try their best to catch the poor boy before he fell. His pride couldn’t allow him to fall onto the dirt.

So he stood tall, his fist going back into a fighting stance; his eyes opened and locked onto Zane's.

The two got into their fighting stances once more. They again moved closer towards each other, their leading fist nuzzled into each other.

Blood crawled out of their lips and fell onto the ground.

With the blood slamming into the dirt beneath them, something hit the two.

“Wait…um…Red? Hasn’t it been three minutes yet?”

“I hate to agree with this trash-humping lowlife, but… actually, yeah… It’s definitely been three minutes. Explain yourself!”

For the second time since Zane has seen him, Red smiled. He took a step forward, looking at the two of them.

“I’m impressed. So far, you two picked up on it the fastest. You’re right; it hasn’t been three minutes, it’s been three seconds.”

“Huh!?”

The two combatants looked toward each other, then toward Red. His smile shook the two.

“There are two sources of energy that Spirit Hunters use to fight spirits. One is Spiritual Energy, or Ki, and the other–”

He walked up to the two, making sure he was close enough to make things crystal clear. As if his words were afraid that someone but them could hear.

“— is Mystical energy. Ki and Magic are the two foundations of Spirit Hunters. Every Spirit Hunter knows how to manipulate at least one of those two, and sometimes we get a rare breed who can manage both.”

Taking another few steps, Red looked deeply into Zane's eyes. The closeness was choking the young man. The pressure left Zane and wrapped around Apollo's throat as Red shifted from Zane to Apollo.

“But you time-grasped Ki just like that. It should’ve taken you two about a year's worth of training and meditation to get to this level. Apollo’s ability to focus his Ki into his fist and Zane’s ability to shift the surrounding Ki in his favor. Both of the techniques are too advanced for you two. Yet here we are.”

The way he spoke gave the two of them this tingle that just felt wrong. It felt incorrect, like they were getting in trouble for doing something right.

“Normally I would have you two keep fighting, but…you both are free to go back to your dorms and clean up.”

With that, Red threw up a hand sign, popping the bubble.

Both Zane and Apollo took a breath.

And with a huff, Apollo straightened his posture and walked away. While Zane almost dragged himself towards the waiting area to head back.

…

..

.

It was late at night. Zane’s body felt refreshed and anew as he looked at a letter he had gotten.

By this time, everyone was done with evolution. Some people were sent home early; apparently, they were told, “We’re good enough,” or “They don’t have potential.” But Zane felt safe. After all, Red himself said he was ahead of the pack along with Apollo.

But the note said otherwise.

Dear Zane Kugel,

Based on the performance of your evaluation, we’ll have to let you go early. Pack your things and head home.

-Red.

“Huh?”