[Chapter Size: 1800 Words.]
Third Person POV
Cintra, northern kingdoms.
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Madara didn't move an inch from his spot; he hadn't noticed the mage behind him until he heard his voice, and neither of them made a move for the next few seconds.
The next moment, Madara leaped up holding a kunai and turned to throw it at the mage, but before Madara could react, a force field threw him far away, making him fall at a distance.
Madara quickly got up, looking at the mage in front of him; he appeared to be a middle-aged man and quite tidy, he seemed to look at Madara with very intrigued eyes.
"So you're the one they call the monster boy? You look like a normal child, but your eyes, I've never seen anything like it... How interesting..." He commented, maintaining a slight smile.
"..." Madara remained silent, making his mind work on some way he could get out of the position because not even he thought he could win against this mage in a direct confrontation.
"You're strange at the same time, because I don't feel any chaos energy in you...?" The mage asked, looking at Madara, any monster or mage should have this energy, but the boy in front of him was clean of it, almost as if his powers didn't originate from him, as if he was different from everything that exists in this world.
"You can breathe fire, I'd like to see that!" He said again, waving his hands, sending another telekinetic wave straight at Madara, who tried to escape, but the range was too wide, and it hit him again, making him crash into the wall behind him.
'Damn...' Madara murmured internally, feeling some of his ribs breaking with the impact.
"You really intrigue me, child, I usually use children in my experiments, that's why I make the gangs work for me in exchange for favors and gold. You wiped out 2 of them, which caused me some loss, but I'm sure that when I dissect you completely, I will get great results from your strange body and abilities." The man spoke as he approached Madara.
The boy, who was in pain writhing on the floor, suddenly threw a kunai at the mage, who used a shield to stop it. "I've never seen this type of knife, you throw it like the bolt of a crossbow, using just your hands, it's incredible, although I'm not interested in physical fights." He commented, and Madara threw another Kunai, hitting his shield.
Madara threw a third one, but the mage, thinking the kunai was aimed at him, hit the lantern that was supporting the light in the place, making it fall to the floor while the light in the room dimmed.
'Smart...' The mage had to admit, but quickly sending another wave of telekinesis at Madara, or where he should have been, for the wave hit the empty wall, no longer finding the boy's body as the shadows reached, hiding his body with the lack of light.
'Where did he go?' For the first time, the mage felt that the situation was no longer under control. He quickly turned around to see the boy hanging from the ceiling making numerous seals, before blowing a large fireball at the mage, leaving him dazed at that moment.
Raising the shield, the flames hit it while the mage kept his hands raised to protect himself. "This boy, how can he spit so much fire without chaos energy?" The man murmured, quite intrigued after noticing that the child wasn't using magic, it was something else and had to do with those seals he made before launching the flames.
As soon as the flames exploded in the room and stopped, the mage tried to look for the child in the room, but only the flames covered the place. "Damn... I can't lose him..." He murmured while looking for Madara, a unique specimen for his current research.
He was still guarding the exit of the place, so the boy couldn't leave that flaming place, suddenly, black objects began flying in his direction again and he raised the shield, but still unable to see the child due to the light in the room.
"Are you going to keep hiding, child...?" He said, sending a wave of telekinesis to the place where the kunai had come from. It traveled through the fire, knocking down and breaking objects in flames, but he was sure he didn't hit the boy.
Another kunai came from his side, and the mage quickly raised the shield making the kunai hit it, he launched another wave of telekinesis, but without success, another kunai came from the opposite side.
'This brat, what is he doing?' The mage murmured, blocking all of Madara's attacks while he was running around the place throwing his kunais. He always ran through the mage's blind spots trying to create an opening.
"Do you think this will work!?" The mage exclaimed, unleashing his power differently from before, sending a shockwave in all directions, causing everything to fly, even Madara was hit and fell against one of the walls as the flames spread.
"You really thought you could beat me, brat, but no matter, now you are mine." The man spoke with a slight smile, walking through the burning room while approaching the fallen Madara.
But something happened, the mage felt dizzy and fell to his knees, Madara stood up at that moment and launched another kunai. The mage quickly made the shield, he was going to send another wave at the child, but Madara was already on top of him, kicking his chest.
The man fell backward and launched another wave of energy, but he got dizzy again and sent it late while Madara managed to dodge a bit clumsily, because he was injured as well.
"What?!" The man was baffled, not understanding what was happening, he was having nausea and dizziness hit him many times, making him look around to find the source.
"The fire, of course..." He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, his lungs are not made to breathe carbon gas created by the fire, this began to affect him.
During a fire, various dangerous gases can be released, besides carbon dioxide, including carbon monoxide (CO), which is colorless, odorless, and highly toxic, leading to severe effects such as dizziness, confusion, loss of consciousness, and even death by asphyxiation.
'But why does the boy seem unaffected?' the mage questioned himself, observing the young man from afar. For a moment, he thought the boy might possess some form of biological adaptation, a type of special lung that made him resistant to asphyxiation. However, this theory crumbled when he noticed Madara's cheeks, abnormally swollen, a sign that he was deliberately holding his breath. A simple, yet effective strategy, which the mage had regrettably overlooked.
'He's holding his breath... and I've been breathing this air the whole time, how can I be so foolish... the child had planned this, he knows that to cast my spells, I need to speak the incantation, however brief.' The mage murmured internally, he was casting various spells to protect himself from the boy, but the boy was doing this on purpose, even if it wasn't hurting him, Madara was forcing him to breathe the air with each shield he raised.
Madara didn't waste time seeing the weakened mage, launching another kunai, the mage was forced to launch another shield, and Madara launched another Kunai right after, the Mage tried to raise the shield, but dizziness hit him again, delaying him as the Kunai hit him squarely.
"AHHHHH!!!!" The mage screamed in pain with that blade hitting his stomach. Madara ran towards him trying to finish off the mage with his sword, since he had spent all his kunais.
"I have to kill!" The mage shouted and cast another spell in fury, he had underestimated this child and his anger had taken over his mind, he launched another telekinesis in a 360 spin while Madara jumped on him, which threw the boy far away again.
This telekinesis blast affected the room even more as the space began to collapse in various corners, even the exit started to crumble behind the mage.
'I need to get out of here!' The mage now seeing that he no longer had control of the situation, he had lost control after underestimating this strange child, he had blurred vision and could no longer catch the child, using his last energy reserves to make a portal and leave before he could faint.
Madara, seeing this, even more injured and a bit burned even with his natural resistance to fire, picked up a kunai on the ground that had fallen from the confrontation and with effort and pain, he threw the kunai at the mage as he was passing through the portal hitting his foot, he had inhaled carbon dioxide after being thrown the last time and could no longer hold his breath, so when he aimed at the mage's head, his dizziness hit, and hitting his leg when he threw the kunai.
The mage seemed to jump as the kunai hit him, but he passed through the portal and it closed, leaving only Madara in the burning room.
*Cough* *Cough* Choking and coughing violently, Madara's hands sought support as he struggled to rise from the ground.
'I need to get out of here, the exit is blocked...' Madara murmured with dizziness hitting him and looking at the collapse while the flames still burned the wood of the place, he quickly turned and headed to the side where there was a vault. He crossed the corridor and found what he was looking for, a hatch that he had seen before going to the vault.
He opened it with trembling hands, revealing the dark current of the city's sewer below. The pungent smell hit him immediately, but it was a small price to pay for the chance to escape from that hell. Still coughing and having no other choice, Madara jumped, landing in the dirty water without going into it, using his last reserves of chakra, he continued running to get out of there as the flames invaded everything in that room.