The next day, Jamal woke up early to a loud knock on his door. He checked the time, as it said 3 a.m. Who's waking me up now, and why? He got out of bed, still aching from yesterday's fight and called out, asking who it was.
"It's Boom and get out here as soon as possible." he told him through the door.
This early already? He and Boom haven't really talked much since the altercation about Youden. Of course, they had to discuss about other subjects while training but after that, Jamal avoided saying as much as possible to him. The thought of hurting an innocent man was sick, but if what Ula had told him was true, then it might be understandable.
He cleaned himself up once again, and choose something that would be comfortable to wear in the fall. When he opened the door, Boom glared at him from the side.
"Change into your training clothes. We aren't going to have fun." he stated to him.
Almost rolling his eyes, he went back and put on the new set of the training clothes after the old one was too messed up.
Once he came out, Boom was already walking towards the entrance of the Academy, not slowing down for Jamal to catch up. He hurryingly chased after him, and was quick to reach his side. Boom and Jamal went around the building and traveled deep into the woods behind it. That was when Jamal realized that they were soon going to be near where he trained at sometimes. They walked for a few more minutes until they were in a small clearing.
"Didn't think I haven't noticed what you've been doing all along?" he asked him.
Jamal couldn't say anything.
"Were you spying on me?" he questioned back to him.
"Oh no, I simply saw that you were trying to improve your skills. That's why we're here today. Cause now after all this time, let's see how much stronger you are." Boom announced to him, getting into a stance, "And I'll make sure I don't injury you too much, maybe ten percent of my power will do. Nothing but a light spar."
Jamal didn't answer back, almost complaining mentally, but focused on staying on fire. Both his arms lit up instantly and he got in his own stance. Concentrating as quickly as possible, he felt his arms condense into the shapes of a blade from a sword.
"You know, if you were in a fight, you would have to be quicke-" Boom attempted to explain to him.
Jamal used that to his advantage and rushed at him. Boom simply sighed and dodged his slashes before punching him back to where he just standing. Jamal rolled across the ground and quickly got back up on his feet. Sucking in a deep breath, he attempted to try to do the trick he had done earlier, Compressing his hands close together, he slowly began making a large fireball, but since he had a bit more time, he could actually create it to it's strongest potential.
"You know, I could blow it away right, or dodge the attack, or just simply do nothing at all and just let someone else jump you."
"Okay then." Jamal replied back to him, "Well, let's see about this!"
The fireball was now at it's full strength and he blasted it straight towards him. It's speed surprised Boom a bit, but he calmly took a deep breath and flicked it into the sky. The move created a decent amount of wind and he watched as it blew up from above.
"Now, like I was say-" he started to say, until Jamal was right in his face, fist raised, using the blast to his advantage once again, to give him enough time to land at least one blow on him.
Jamal's punch hurt a whole lot more then the last time Boom got hit by him in the woods months ago, and he almost dropped down in pain.
"Okay, if we're playing like this, then let's play like this." Boom yelled out.
Soon, they were both launching punches and kicks whenever they could get the chance. Jamal hopped back a bit and fired multiple fireballs at him rapidly. Boom simply deflected them as quick as possible barely breaking a sweat.
"Alright, I'm stealing Ula's idea here, but now let's see what you're going to do about it."
Focused, Boom watched as Jamal unlit himself and closed his eyes. What is this man doing, he pondered. If he did this in an actual battle, he would have died by now. Boom rushed at him, only to see small fires attempting to light up around his body, causing him to slow down a bit. So, this is what Hops referred to as him "sparking". Jamal opened his eyes, but they weren't orange like before. Boom simply watched as Jamal aimed both of his hands at him and watched another fireball be created.
"Not this trick again. You got to better than that." he yelled at him, still running towards him.
But the fireball expanded much faster than before, and was definitely larger. Boom continued to rush and to stop him before releasing the attack.
"This fight's over!" Jamal finally exclaimed as the fireball became a blast rushing towards Boom.
"Wait, what!" Boom yelled in confusion.
Even though he could of dodged it easily, Boom stood his ground, and took a deep breath himself. Suddenly, once again, as if time slowed down, he walked towards the blast and punched just in front of it. Then, as if it wasn't frozen anymore, everything began to move normally and he watched his punch began to dissipate the blast. But the blast didn't dissipate like he hoped it would and it began to reform and accelerate towards him again .
"How!" Boom shrieked as the blast began to swallow him up.
But as soon as he was inside that blast, it dissipated as quickly as it was formed. He saw Jamal grinning at him in the distance, his "sparking" disappeared.
"I told you, I would end this fight. Thanks for the morning training, as I now know what I could do better, but I think I'm gonna get some sleep. The building is west from where we are if you can't find your way back." Jamal causally announced to him, walking away.
Once he was out of sight, Boom got up and smiled. He could have easily finished the man, but decided to hold back to make things more interesting. He's definitely improved, but overall has a lot of work ahead of him, but at least I know I found the one at last to defeat Youden if no one else can.