Time flowed, like a waterfall that kept on falling. One wouldn't even get to see the end of its cycle if one were just to enjoy it in their lifetime...
The innocence of my childhood helped shaped my personality growing up.
At this time, those of the kids born in the same generation as me would all be fussing about magic, after all who wouldn't be? this was the time when they first discover their magical affinity and talents.
Around this time is also when the other kids teased me about my looks and my almost endless magical affinity but miniscule mana. But of course, I didn't just take their insults lying down, and instead I put them right back in their place where they belonged.
-----------------------------------------
"Oyy, Philip you red-eyed freak, we've come here to duel with you" As the three little brats approached Philip with a smug look on their faces.
'Hehehe, you've always beaten as at races and wrestling, but this time it'll be different, there's three of us now.' The first brat thought.
'Kukuku I've heard that he hasn't been able to develop his magic talent, and he's been struggling to even cough up not even an ounce of mana, there's no way we'll lose.' The second brat thought.
And the finally, the last brat who seemed to be their leader thought, 'It's finally time to him in his place, although he beat us up mercilessly when we were younger. We're different now, with my magic talent I can surely beat him.'
Philip then closed the book that he was reading, stood up, looked at them with serious eyes, and nonchalantly asked, "Alright, but what do I gain from accepting?"
The brats felt scared by his intimidating aura and took a step back second, thinking that "Does he still have something up his sleeve?"
The trauma from losing horribly to Philip without him even trying resurfaced, that's just how badly he beat them.
But at this point they had already resolved themselves...
So, they swallowed their own saliva and replied to Philip with, "T-Then let's make a bet, whoever loses has to follow what the winner says for a week."
But then Philip had a thought, so he smirked at them and in an arrogant tone said, "Why don't we make it inviolable? Let's end this rivalry once and for all. How about it?"
Although with a bit of hesitation the brats agreed, not knowing of the future that awaits them under Philip's commands, "A-alright, y-you're on!"
...
The rules of a magic duel that they saw the adults perform, was that they had to at least put a distance of twenty meters between them before duking it out. So, as if they've come to an unspoken agreement, imitating the actions of the adults, they've all turned their backs on each other and walked gallantly-
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Thinking that they've finally become like the adults and that they were so cool...
"I'll be the one starting the countdown, I'll count from one to three—Let's begin!" The leader of the brats said, trying to gain a competitive advantage over Philip.
"Wait! Before we start, why don't you all just come together at me...
"Y-You!" The leader of the brat felt infuriated, seeing as Philip was still looking down at them.
However, after calming down the leader of the brats agreed, because he thought that, 'Hehehe, your arrogance will be your undoing"
"F-Fine..."
"1!"
"2!!"
"3!!!"
The three brats then used the elemental affinity that they are most comfortable with, and started chanting the strongest magical spell they are capable of.
But as if this is within Philip's expectation, before they could even utter a single word, Philip punched their leader directly on his face and bitched slapped the remaining two.
Pow! Pow! Kapow!
The force of Philip's attack was enough to send all three of them flying...
"W-What are you doing?! Purely physical attacks are against the rules! Yo-You've lost!!!" The leader of the brats claimed while still bleeding from his nose.
Philip with a stone-cold expression, trying to act innocent replied with, "No, I used lightning magic combined with my physical attack, weren't you guys able to catch it?"
The other two brats then started to recall their memories-
As if time had frozen down, they returned to the moment right as they got hit. Their blinks moved ever so slowly, but right as they were about to close their eyes as an instinctive reaction, there was indeed a tiny yellow magic circle that emitted a miniscule lightning spark, which hit their faces right alongside with the slap.
"C-Come to think of it? I did saw something like a spark before I got hit"
"Now that I think about it, you're right"
"See? even your friends confirmed i-" Philip retorted smugly.
But before Philip could even finish his sentence, the leader of the brats in an angry tone said, "Shut up! are you two idiots?!!"
The leader of the brats then further exclaimed that, "T-Then what about your attack on mine, can you prove that your attack wasn't purely physical?"
"Well, I punched you so you might have just missed it since I closed my hands." Philip smiled as if the argument was going to the direction that he wanted, as if everything was going according to his plan.
"..." The leader of the brats overwhelmed by Philip's tone and logic, wasn't able to think of any rebuttal at the moment.
Then for the final nail in the coffin, Philip further supported his logic with, "Well, if you want to argue technicalities, none of you even stated that this duel was a magic duel, you've all just assumed that this was a magic duel.
"Still! I can't accept it! I can't accept the results of this duel!!" The leader of the brats exclaimed.
"let's fight another round, I don't care whether it's a duel a magic duel or whatever type of duel!! As long as there are no more tricks, and you fight fair!" The leader of the brats complained, as there were just too much on the line.
Philip to not give away that he orchestrated everything leading up to this very moment was all part of his plan, spoke in a friendly but competitive manner, as if he had gained a newfound respect for the other kids, "Fine, but no matter what the result of this duel is, you're gonna have to accept it."
...
"Then, to give you guys more handicap, I'm gonna double the distance between us" As Philip hid his dubious smile, knowing that he has won.
"Since you've been so kind to us by giving us a handicap, I'm gonna let you start the countdown." The leader of the brats smiled at him, feeling proud of himself.
Philip couldn't help but think that, 'Honestly, what a simple-minded fool'
"1!"
The leader of the brats started instructing his subordinates, "Both of you! stop him from coming near us!"
"H-How!"
"H-How!"
Both of the subordinates said synchronously, because that feat was impossible to begin with seeing the results of the previous round.
"I don't care Just use lower tiered spells, like those first-tier spells to distract him-Just stop him at any costs!!"
"2..."
"I'll be the one casting the strongest spell" The leader of the brats said his final instruction, confident of his win.
"3!!"
Brown and light blue magic circles with letters started to manifest in the right hand of both of the subordinates, meanwhile their leader at the back where only starting to gather dark blue letters to form a bigger magic circle compared to the other two.
On the other hand, Philip almost in no time covered half of the distance between them, but they were ready.
"Icicle Spear!" The kid with the light blue magic circle shouted and a single spear made of ice appeared to precisely hit Philip.
Swoosh!
The spear was fast enough to pose a threat to Philip, so he jumped over it.
However, the other kid with the brown colored magic circle was also ready to cast his spell-
"Earth wall!" and with that a sturdy wall made of clay in front of Philip emerged from the ground before he could even land from his jump.
But Philip moved smoothly like an acrobat and used his arms to propel himself upwards on the obstacle near him.
"Hap!"
Swooosh!
The wall, which was supposed to stop Philip's momentum, instead became a helpful obstacle that served to help lunge himself forward and even close the distance on the two brats that already casted a spell.
Now that move surprised them-
'W-What the hell' The two subordinates both thought at the same time.
However, amidst of it all, the two of them didn't panic and immediately abandoned casting their spells on their right hand. But instead, just ran towards Philip to stop him using their bodies.
"You're not getting close on our boss!"
"Stop!"
Meanwhile in the perspective of the leader of the brats, he saw that both of his subordinates were about to catch Philip, which made him hurry and finish the spell quickly, as he thought that this would be the perfect timing to cast it.
"Waterball—Barrage!"
And a flurry of water balls in different directions came out of his magic circle aiming to hit Philip.
However, right as they were about to grab hold of Philip using their left hand, he vanished-
"Huh? Where did he go?" All of the brats thought.
He then instantly reappeared behind the leader of the brats, like a shadow that had somehow gained eyes and a mouth of a devil, almost as if he was threatening to kill all of them.
"Nothing personal kids" Philip whispered to all of the brats.
'I-I messed up' the leader of the brats thought, before absolutely being pummeled to the ground by Philip.
"Guh"
"Guh"
"Guh"
As it turns out Philip still wasn't at his top speed, it only looked like as if Philip teleported to the eyes of the brats, but it was just him closing the gap between them.
"From now on, your names will be Underling Number One, Underling Number Two, and Underling Number Three, keep in mind that your rankings may change depending on your usefulness." Philip declared in victory as he was stepping on the back of the leader of the brats.
"Y-Yes Sir!"
"Y-Yes Sir!"
"I've got a name you know, Tony!"
"Oh! Should I step harder? or Should I just call you Brat Number One!" Philip said in an irritated tone.
"Y-Yes Sir! I've understood sir!" The leader of the brats hurriedly said, just so everything would be over.
But even after saying all that, the leader of the brats still thought that, 'This is bad, I'm sure the surveyor wouldn't pick to recommend me now if he heard of my lose.'
From then on, the brats respected Philip as their leader since their feud ended in a somewhat acceptable conclusion. They've thought that the battle was close and they had a slight hope of winning.
But maybe this was also all part of Philip's plan from the start, holding back his strength to gain something more from them,
if so, what a smart and cunning kid Philip is...
-----------------------------------------
Honestly, even if the kids sinned, I can't blame those kids for acting that way at the time, but someone needed to straighten them out. But I also can't say that it wasn't due to my pride at the time, that I chose to do such things.
However,
this is the part of their life is where the ember of their youth begins to ignite, where they can still be hopeful to achieve great things. But whether that flame serves to ignite the passion of the next generations that will come after them, or serves to burn them and those around them, will all be up to what choice they will making moving forward.
-----------------------------------------
Then as our generation grew older and started to assume the roles of the adults, two rival factions formed and somehow, I became the leader of one.
But I wasn't interested none the least, even to the leader of the other faction, I only cared that I had someone whom I can boss around at my beck and call, which would actually come to bite me in the back later.
"B-Boss! Please help us." The trio cried while kneeling in front of me.
"What trouble did you guys cause now? Huh?!" I replied tired of their bullshit.
"Shut up Tony! You know what you did!" The bratty girl shouted as she slowly walked towards our territory.
"You guys can't even handle cleaning your own mess? Why should I help you troublemakers?" I asked clearly, confused with the situation at hand.
"I knew you would get in the way Philip! That's why I called our leader Ada!"
'H-Hey don't just instantly include me in this, I didn't even remotely say anything that could make you think that. Seriously?! just how did you come to that conclusion that I would help them?!!' Philip thought bewildered by this woman's way of formulating thoughts.
"Hey, so you were the one they call Philip! Nice to meet you, I'm the leader of the other faction HAHAHA!" As the red-haired rowdy girl greeted me.
'Finally, someone I can easily communicate with' I thought to myself happily as we shaked hands.
"Honestly I don't care whatever you did, or your lackeys did or who's at fault. I just wanted to fight you to see who's stronger!" The girl said to me in a cheery tone while still shaking my hand with both of hers and even tilting her head slightly, to show how polite she is.
"L-Leader?!" one of the girls said in a shocked tone, feeling betrayed by their leader's words.
'Another troublemaker!!' I thought to myself.
"Then why didn't you just challenge me back then? Why now?" I asked curiously.
"Well, I needed justification to challenge you, because I just felt bad just challenging you out of nowhere." The girl said proudly.
"W-What?!! You seriously don't see anything wrong with that line of thinking?!!!" I was bewildered, perplexed, befuddled even, by how this woman's brain worked.