WildFire Emerges

Fire is hot, and fire is fast. A warrior as swift as a raging fire is a formidable foe. A raging wild fire is a force to be reckoned with.

Hunter faced his opponent bravely.

He was brutally powerful, stronger than anyone Hunter had ever imagined. When they’d been given the task of assassinating this warrior, Hunter hadn’t envisioned a head on fight. The clients wanted Sulubara dead, not beaten. But every covert attempt had failed, and the Eighth Power had been reluctantly drawn into a head on assault.

Hunter materialized his battle aura and stood ready.

He and his team had been training hard; they had all reached gold level auras. Hunter was the strongest without question, but even he wasn’t sure he could take on a brute like Sulubara.

They had brought the system of auras and energy down to a science, assigning numbers and complex mathematical equations to the raw power that bound the universe together. They could rate an aura, or power level, with a simple number.

One was normal; everyone was naturally at level one. A battle aura materialized at ten, appearing as the barest sheen of white fire. At about level one thousand the aura became truly visible, and caused a shift in the light spectrum around the fighter materializing it. Hair and eyes started to glow around fifteen hundred.

Colors varied from person to person, but a gold battle aura was attained by a power level of fifty thousand. That was the exact lowest point anyone could sustain a golden aura.

As Sulubara approached them, his own aura sprang up around him with practiced ease. Hunter still had to work hard to get an aura up, but this guy brought his out without so much as raising an eyebrow. He was strong; there was no questioning that.

“Hunter,” Robin whispered fearfully. “His power—”

“Is a lot,” Hunter grunted as he began calling fourth more energy from his own aura. “I can tell.”

“No, Hunter,” Robin was almost hyperventilating as she looked down at the hand scanner she held. “It’s over one million.”

That changed things.

Hunter was the strongest among them by far, but even he could only claim a power level of four hundred thousand at his absolute best.

“Come on guys,” Sulubara rasped. “What’cha all standing around for?”

“We were just discussing the terms of your surrender,” Hunter said confidently. “Which we would be willing to accept at any time.”

Sulubara threw his head back and laughed.

“You got balls kid,” he shouted. “Big ones, to challenge me openly like this, and then demand my surrender. I like you kid.”

“Enough to surrender peacefully?” Hunter asked hopefully.

“No,” Sulubara shook his head.

“Ok then,” Hunter shrugged. “How about this, ever here of a Power Duel?”

“I’m a major fan of dueling,” Sulubara said cautiously. “I take it a ‘Power Duel’ is a specific style?”

“Yup,” Hunter nodded. “In a Power Duel, the combatants flip a coin. The winner of the flip throws their strongest attack, and the opponent tries to block it. That way we prove who is the strongest, not just the most cunning.”

“A true test of power!” Sulubara roared enthusiastically. “Let’s GO!”

“All right,” Hunter said and scoped a coin out of his pocket. “I’ll call—”

“Forget it!” Sulubara spat. “You give me your best attack!”

“Ok, give us a sec,” Hunter said and called his team into a huddle. “You want our strongest right?”

“Yeah,” Sulubara grinned. “I like this Power Duel thing.”

The other members of the Eighth Power quickly gathered together and spoke in low voices out of Sulubara’s earshot.

“What the hell is a ‘Power Duel’?” Jason snarled.

“I dunno, I made it up,” Hunter shrugged. “Guys we need a plan or he’ll kick or little golden butts.”

“None of us is strong enough to even put a dent in him,” J’nall said. “We need a good plan.”

“Well, my strongest attack is four hundred thousand,” Hunter said. “We’ll need at least a million to knock him down.”

“So we do what only teams can do,” Jason shrugged. “We work together. I’m not as strong as Hunter, but my attack is a hundred and twenty thousand.”

“Great, I’m good for a hundred thousand,” J’nall said confidently. “We’re over halfway there.”

“I can only do seventy-five thousand,” Kendrick said apologetically. “But I have other qualities!”

“That’s ok, I can do one ten,” Robin said.

“I’m at a cool one hundred,” Cindy quipped.

“I guess I have to save all you guys,” Carra smiled. “With my two hundred thousand power, we’re at just over one million.”

“To bad Rian’s late,” Hunter gowned. “He’d give us a slightly higher margin for error. Ok guys, line up lowest to highest on my signal and chain-attack!”

The team broke apart and formed a line accordingly, and as one made their golden aura’s burn.

“Ready?” Hunter asked and took his stance.

“Ready,” Sulubara grinned.

“Now!” Hunter shouted.

Kendrick raised his arms and formed a ball of golden light, passing it immediately to Cindy. His aura vanished as the ball of light moved, and he dropped to his knees.

The ball grew as Cindy roared and poured her might into it, then passed the attack to Robin.

Robin screamed a battle cry and sent the attack to Jason.

Jason’s legs buckled as he silently added his own power to the attack.

Carra leaned over and took it from him, threw her head back and screamed, and pushed the now enormous ball of energy towards Hunter.

Hunter’s hair stood on end as the sheer mass of a six hundred thousand-power attack came towards him.

“What are you doing?” Sulubara shouted. “This was supposed to be one-on-one!”

“It is one on one!” Hunter screamed back as he raised the massive ball up over his head. “One Gudersnipe team against one stupid ugly jerk!”

Hunter gave every last ounce of himself over to the attack, committing his being to Sulubara’s destruction.

His world went into slow motion as his muscles strained to push the attack forwards.

He knew he was moving fast, but he felt like he was submerged in motor oil.

When the power finally left his hands he knew there was no turning back. This was it, this was there shot, everything they had.

Hunter had a lot.

He was sure his power level had gone up with the sheer need to defeat Sulubara. He’s probably added at least another hundred thousand to the energy mass over what he’d said.

He watched the attack move towards their enemy.

Sulubara was ruthless, he would kill all of them if this failed. It had been a gambit, but it was the only way Hunter could find to defeat him.

With a smile of cool cunning, Sulubara sidestepped the attack.

The Eighth Power team’s attack sailed past Sulubara and destroyed part of a mountain range behind him. The ruthless warrior watched it go, then turned fiercely on them.

“If you can cheat, I can cheat,” he snarled. “I don’t have to play be your rules. I won’t let you beat me unfairly, I’ll beat you unfairly first!”

“Not if I have anything to say about it!”

The Eighth Power turned rapidly and looked back to the small rise behind them. Rian was standing on top of it heroically with his arms folded and his head turned. He glared fiercely at Sulubara and leapt down, flipping over and somersaulting in the air.

He landed in front of the warrior and attacked him ferociously, his battle aura springing up almost instantly.