Firefight Agreement

Zane flew into the distance, bouncing off trees and breaking through branches and leaves before finally landing in a small clearing. He lay on the grass, covered in dirt and leaves.

Firenze appeared, having followed him. He approached Zane on the floor, 4 mini books floating behind him. 

"Get up. If my punch actually hurt you that badly, your master would have saved you."

"And here I thought I could stall you for a bit."

Zane stood up and patted himself off, completely unharmed by the attack. He stretched as his own red spellbook started floating behind him. 

"I'd reckon we have about a few minutes before we win this round." Zane smiled at Firenze. "Let's play around!"

'I'll take it easy on him.' Zane thought as he cast his spell. 'Mana Spear.'

In the air above Zane, mana instantly accumulated in 3 different spots, creating what looked more like large, thick blue spiked rather than spears. Seeing the mana spears, Firenze turned serious. He could feel the pressure the spears emitted even with the distance between them.

"You shouldn't be able to cast spells of this caliber." He looked at Zane, who only shrugged.

"Is that so?"

Without warning, the mana spears flew at Firenze, crossing the distance in a second. Alarmed, Firenze quickly dodged to the side, the spear piercing the dirt next to him. He thought he had avoided the threat until the spear detonated, the mana hitting him point blank.

"Agh!" 

Firenze flew away and crashed into a tree. His left side was slightly burnt as well as his back hurting, but he had no time to relax. Looking up, he saw the remaining two spears about to hit him. With no time to dodge, Firenze cast a defensive spell. 

"Mana Armor! Flame Shield!"

Two of his spellbooks flipped through the pages as his body was enveloped with a blue hue, a circle made of fire appearing in front of him before the spears made contact. Firenze started to run away as the shield was able to stall the spears for a moment before shattering.

He was around a meter or two away when the spears detonated, knocking him down. His Mana Armor protected him from most of the blast before disappearing. Getting back up, holding him arm, Firenze looked at Zane, who just stood in the middle casually, with shock.

"That was a lethal spell." He spoke as he breathed heavily. "Where are our masters?"

Zane smiled at him and shrugged. "Not sure, it's almost as if they're distracted or something. Anyway, we got another minute or so."

As Zane raised a hand to cast another spell, Firenze rushed towards him, fire appearing beneath his feet. He wouldn't be able to take more Mana Spears!

'Fire Boost!'

Firenze quickly reached Zane, and cast his strongest spell in an attempt to stop Zane.

"Fire Domain!"

All 4 of Firenze's spellbooks opened, and suddenly the clearing they were in was covered in flames with Firenze at the center. Firenze pushed Zane away from him as his body released even more flames, watching him disappear in the midst of the raging inferno he created.

Firenze quickly focused, sending more fire at where he pushed Zane. Firenze's spell, Fire Domain, was a spell that constantly spewed flames out of Firenze only up to a certain radius, but he had total control over the fire and it could not be put out until the spell ends or is canceled.

"Damn It…" Firenze fell to one knee, breathing heavily. This spell had always strained him, and this time he had used it after casting other spells beforehand. He could only keep it up a bit more before he ran out of mana.

He didn't think about how he just killed Zane, as far as he was concerned it was self-defense after those spears that nearly blew him up. He would just have to explain the situation to his master once she finally showed up.

"That was a fun spell."

Hearing Zane's voice, Firenze looked up in fear as he sensed an energy that just felt wrong to him, as if his body was rejecting the energy.

"No…"

Firenze watched as he heard Zane laugh, echoing around him. Slowly, he came into view. A substance that looked like liquid darkness was all over his body, dripping onto the ground. Firenze saw that Zane was unharmed, his flames being extinguished or outright avoiding the dark substance Zane was covered in.

"Surprised?" Zane chuckled, his purple right eye glowing brightly.

As Zane stopped in front of Firenze, the fire dissipated as the boy had run out of mana. They were now in a normal clearing again, save for the fact that the grass was now burnt black as well as the surrounding trees missing their leaves.

"Please don't kill me…" Now defenseless, Firenze looked at the ground. By now, he could tell that Zane had been hiding his true strength, and that the black substance on his body was some sort of Dark Magic by the way he just felt so revolted by it.

"There's something I gotta live to do…"

Hearing Firenze beg, Zane tilted his head in confusion, the black substance disappearing as well as the glow from his purple eye.

"Dude, what are you talking about?"

"Huh?"

Firenze looked up, seeing that Zane was back to his normal look, and had his eyebrows raised. He slowly stood up as his body ached.

"Wait, you're not going to kill me?"

"Uh, no? I said we were just going to play around, didn't I? It's just a game of capture the flag, man." 

'Besides, I won't be able to kill the ones I want to if I kill you now.' Zane thought, but he didn't share it.

Hearing his response, Firenze was flabbergasted.

"B-But why were we throwing all those crazy spells at each other then?"

"Because it's fun?" Zane looked at him weirdly. "Also this round is about to end already."

"Aren't you scared that I'm going to tell the others you're a Dark Mage?"

"Oh right, I nearly forgot." Zane smacked his forehead. "I know you were sneaking around the restricted areas of the academy last week, so I could tell the others that too."

Firenze's eyes widened. "How do you know about that?"

"I have my ways." Zane grinned. "Look, I won't tell if you won't."

"..." Firenze paused. It seemed that Zane had some secrets as well, and now that he knew he wasn't going to die, he was in no way willing to jeopardize his own. "...Alright. I guess I'll keep your secret since you know something about mine, and since you didn't kill me."

"Neat, now let's go before our masters get here." 

The two boys nodded in agreement before leaving the clearing, trying to get back to their respective bases.