17 A Spar with Buccaneer

Burne was woken up very early by the clanking sound of metal. He slept late the previous night as he spent most of the time testing out multiple conversions while the guards looked at him like he was a madman. 

He walked out of the room and went towards the training hall where he saw the soldiers getting owned by the Major General. He heard from the guards that her name was Olivier Mira Armstrong. 

'Apparently, the Armstrong family is one of the richest and most politically powerful families in all of Amestris.' He thought.

At first, Burne thought that her position was because of her family background. But upon remembering her insane sword reflexes from the previous day and also looking at her destroying the soldiers in the training hall, he instantly got rid of that thought. 

He leaned on the railing and looked at the woman beating down the men one after another without breaking a sweat. Even the man, Buccaneer didn't seem to be her match as he was defeated by her in mere three moves. 

'She is good.' He thought as he saw her taking down the last man with a stab straight to his heart. If they would have been using real weapons, the man would have been a goner.

As she struck down the last man, Burne clapped. Both instinctively and because he was impressed by the grand show of swordsmanship.

Mira looked up and found him standing in the stairway with a smile on his face. She didn't react and kept her usual emotionless face. 

"That was a great show." Burne said but Buccaneer decided to refute his words like always. 

"You think it was a show?" He asked, frowning. "But then again… how would an alchemist know about swordsmanship."

Burne felt his eyebrows twitching at his taunt but he wasn't wrong. Burne had no knowledge of swords, all he thought was that the duel looked cool. 

"You are right… I don't." Burne said with a smirk. "But then again— I never had to use one as my alchemy was more than enough to take care of a few ruffians."

Mira frowned as she heard Burne's statement. What Burne didn't know was that Mira had a very poor opinion of alchemists. 

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Mira looked at Buccaneer and then at Burne. She knew that Buccaneer was a very prideful man but he was one of her men and she couldn't dismiss his claim either. She found the boy referring to the training match as a show— offensive.

"You are right… I don't." She heard him reply with a smirk. "But then again— I never had to use one as my alchemy was more than enough to take care of a few ruffians."

This made her frown. She never had a good opinion on alchemists. She found that they always got what they wanted very easily and they barely trained.

She saw Buccaneer gritting his teeth. "Then why don't you show us what you are capable of?" He said, surprising everyone in the room.

Thomas, one of Buccaneer's men— tried to stop him. "Sir, I don't think that it's a good idea."

Mira nodded. "Indeed. We don't know whether the boy is innocent or not. If he is innocent and gets hurt, it will ruin the military's name." She said. "And neither do I want you or the boy to destroy the training hall."

As she finished speaking, she saw the boy thinking something.

'What is he planning?' She thought as she looked at Burne. 

Burne smiled and looked at her. 

"If you don't mind… I agree to fight him. As for the damage, I am an alchemist. I can easily repair the room." He claimed. 

Mira frowned at the boy's words. 'He is proud.' She thought. 'But he is young so it makes sense.' 

Her frown grew slightly deeper as she remembered a certain alchemist with black hair just like the boy in front of her. She didn't like that guy much either as he was very prideful. But he had the ability to back up his pride but she didn't know much about the boy who was challenging Buccaneer. And so she barely had any opinion about him.  

She looked at the two and sighed. "Fine. But remember that if you damage this place and fail to repair it using your alchemy. Both you and Buccaneer will be repairing this place manually."

Buccaneer froze and looked a little unsure but Burne nodded. "No problem."

Looking at Burne's confidence, Buccaneer agreed. "Fine by me."

"Alright then." Mira said. "Get in position." 

Saying that she looked at Burne. "Do you need a sword?" She asked but Burne shook his head. 

"No. Alchemists rarely use weapons." He said.

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'After all… Anything can be a weapon for us." Burne thought.

"Very well then. Get ready… both of you." Mira said and the two men nodded.

They took position and faced each other. Buccaneer had a grin on his face as bumped his automail arm with his normal one. Whereas Burne stood in front of him with hands inside his pocket. He wasn't worried about the fight in the least.

This made Buccaneer angry.

"You seem to be taking this fight a little too casually." He said as Burne shrugged. 

"I am not. But you don't seem to be using any weapons either." He said which made Buccaneer grin.

"Oh, don't worry about that. I will use a weapon if I deem it necessary." He said but was instantly scolded by Mira.

"Do not go overboard,  Buccaneer." She said. "This is merely a friendly spar." 

"Don't worry about it, Major General." He said. "My fists are more than enough to deal with a little boy."

His statement made Mira frown. 'The boy was too confident in his abilities but now it looks like the boy is not the only one.' She sighed. 'If I keep frowning like this I will have wrinkles even before I turn thirty.'

Mira went to the side to judge the fight.

"Begin." She said and Buccaneer steadied his stance.

"There is still time to give up." Buccaneer taunted. 

"Likewise." Burne said as he sprouted a spike from the ground. Buccaneer jumped to the right— avoiding being hit. "The battle started and not focusing on your opponent is a rookie mistake." Burne taunted back. 

Buccaneer didn't argue. "Not bad." He said. "But you will need more than that to defeat me."

As he said that, the automail arm in his hand changed into a sword which surprised Burne. 

'Damascus steel.' Burne muttered. 

Damascus steel was a very strong steel with beautiful patterns, as it was made by compressing many steel pieces. And the sharpness of weapons made from this variant of steel was unbelievable. 

"This is the answer to your previous question." Buccaneer said, grinning at the boy. "I always carry my weapon with me."

Saying that, he rushed towards Burne. But Burne knew that he couldn't afford to let the man near him. His advantage was maintaining as much distance as possible and he wasn't planning to lose that advantage.

'Is he even allowed to use a real weapon in a test match?'

He instantly transmuted the floor into a rocky surface and elevated the ground below him. 

Buccaneer slowed down his pace as the surface made it difficult for him to run without tripping. But he was not an average human.

He was one of Briggs' strongest.

He jumped up, using the structure erected by Burne as a footing and rushed towards Burne.

Burne immediately jumped down as Buccaneer chopped the pillar in half. Burne was impressed by the man's strength and he dared to say that Buccaneer was far better than those ruffians that he met in Ishval combined.

'Then again… he is a soldier of Briggs.'

"You are fast." Buccaneer said before copping a piece of rock from the pillar and throwing it towards Burne with immense force. 

Burne transmuted the ground creating a wall that protected him from being hit by the speeding piece of rock. The hit wouldn't have killed him, but it would have been enough to knock him out— cold.

Mira was impressed by Burne's skills yet it made her a bit annoyed. He felt more and more like the guy from the state. And while she still considered that guy to be better than Burne, she thought that Burne wasn't too bad either.

She saw Burne creating spikes upon spikes from the ground as Buccaneer went slashing through them one after the other.

'He is used to fighting fast opponents.' Mira thought. 'His physical strength and speed are far inferior to Buccaneer but his alchemy makes up for it.' 

But looking at his movements she felt like the boy wasn't taking the fight seriously. 

'Is he toying with Buccaneer?' She thought. 'He is a lot similar to Mustang… And I don't want to deal with another Mustang.'

While she was analysing the fight, Burne was getting bored. 

'While it's nice to train and improve my skills, this guy is not enough. I need someone whose skill is at least equal to mine if I want to improve my skills.' He sighed. 'I should end this fast.'

He stopped dodging Buccaneer and stood still— confusing Buccaneer.

"Giving up?" Buccaneer asked.

"Not really." Burne smiled but Buccaneer wasn't planning on wasting time and immediately swung his sword towards him.

Buccaneer was a trained soldier and he could stop the sword close enough to Burne without hurting him. 

'Creating earthen spikes won't help considering his brute strength and the sharpness of the sword are enormous.' He grinned. 'But the new mass conversion theory helps me to transmute elements with very little effort. And that's what I am going to use now as well.'

Buccaneer realised that Burne wasn't dodging so he rushed in, ready to strike at him. He was certain that he would be able to land a hit close to Burne which would count as a point for him— without actually harming Burne.

But what he didn't know was that Burne wanted him to be close.

The moment Buccaneer was within a three meter radius from Burne. Burne used his alchemy.

He tapped on the ground with his foot erecting a cage around Buccaneer. Buccaneer immediately tried to cut through the cage with his sword but the moment his sword hit the bars of the cage, he felt strong vibrations run through his body.

"*Arghh*" He groaned in pain.

As he was about to steady his posture, he found a spike near his neck.

"You lose." Burne announced. "The cage is made of tungsten and Damascus steel cannot cut through it. And the spike would have killed you if I wanted to."

As he said that, Mira clapped her hands. 

"Match!" She announced. "The boy wins."

Burne grinned. 'This was more satisfying than I expected.' 

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[A/N: Burne is strong. How strong? Eh, I would say he can fight Lust and end in a draw. He will grow stronger soon enough. As he unravels the secrets of the seven wonders, his strength would reach a level that is beyond the level of canon FMAB. But this will take a little time.

And Burne is not 'exactly' a prisoner, they could have let him leave after an identity check but there will be an important meeting in 4 weeks and no one is allowed to leave within that time. Plot convenience move? (Obviously). But it's a fanfic not an og, I don't have to go out of my way to write 10 chaps just for him to be trapped in Briggs using another reason. 

There will be something major in those 4 weeks (no not romance) 🙃🙃. So, I need him here. I have like 2 advance chaps but I will store them in case of emergency.

Like always, leave paragraph comments next to errors and mistakes for me to fix them later.]

[Discord Link: https://discord.gg/DXwDzxSAED]