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CHAPTER START---
Following his pack of hunting dogs, Oberon races through the forests for nearly an hour before they come to a stop, not moving past the treeline into the clearing ahead.
Beyond the treeline is a small river, hosting a man sitting at the edge with his feet in the water. He leans against a large wooden crate with his back to Oberon, twirling a gold coin between his raised hand.
Without looking at the boy, he speaks in a shaky, uncertain voice. "Next time you sneak up on someone with Nature Magic, hide from the animals."
A small bird descends and lands on the man's shaggy brown hair, looking directly at Oberon while chirping aggressively.
"Master Makarov's golden boy. Did they know it was me?"
Oberon steps beyond the treeline, closing the gate to send his hounds back to the Celestial Spirit World. "No. They called for me because I can fly, and we're close to Magnolia. We didn't know it was you, or your partner…"
The man gets up, turning for Oberon to see his tear-stained face. He was barely taller than the ten-year-old boy, with a head of shaggy brown hair and a slim figure, wearing simple green and blue clothes. "Steal some gold, go to Guiltina, start over."
"I saw her body. Did you do that to her afterward?"
"I guess an impromptu burning wasn't enough to hide our identities from you."
"You're both famous, could have still made a lot of money under the new laws."
"Freedom is priceless."
"So is life," Oberon stores his S-Class coat with Requip Magic as the man takes a combat stance. "And here I was hoping to avoid any more fighting today."
"You could have let me grieve in peace."
"You killed a convoy of Rune Knights who were just transporting cargo, you can grieve in prison. Just surrender and you'll be taken there without harm."
"I'm never letting anyone put me in a damned box, even if I have to stand against you, King of The Fairies."
The man charges forward, and Oberon mutters to himself. "It's just my name…"
The man glows bright green for a moment while closing in on Oberon, and the boy immediately flies above and around him, turning to see his Beast Takeover Magic in action.
The man transformed his entire body into an eight-foot-tall hulking Minotaur, using his humanoid body type with bovine legs and head to gore the tree behind Oberon, splitting it in two. He then grabs the pieces, easily uprooting the lower half, and spins, throwing it at Oberon.
The boy doesn't move, merely deflecting them with a mental command of Gravity Magic, keeping his eyes on the Minotaur. 'That's his famous Beast Takeover Magic, but what did he use for the fire. I'll keep my distance and force him to reveal that…'
The man digs his large hand in the ground and tears a rock from the earth, throwing it at Oberon, who merely floats to the side.
"Is that all you can do?" Oberon points a finger at the man and fires a Light Shot through his left shoulder, causing the Minotaur form to deactivate. "Got you!"
Oberon makes a grabbing motion and tosses the man into the air with Gravity Magic, liberating a scream from his victim's lungs before another green glow envelops him.
In mid-air, the man transforms into a large frog and fires his tongue at the boy, who easily sidesteps it in the air.
But the tongue sticks to the ground and pulls the man toward it, moving right past Oberon. As the man rushes past him, he shifts from one Takeover form to the next, skipping the human phase, becoming a purple blob of living slime and covering Oberon.
The blob encapsulates him and begins hardening, and Oberon immediately holds his breath as the man's laughter echoes all around him.
"Gross," he mutters, and the laughter instantly stops.
"How aren't you melted?!"
Oberon raises a hand, fingers balled into a fist, then opens it. The blob expands and thins in every direction as his Cosmic Armor leaves his skin and grows into a sphere around him.
"A Barrier!" the man's distorted voice echoes from every direction. "Impressive activation time, but let's test it!"
The acidic blob glows green, and Oberon is suddenly in the shadow of a large monkey-like creature with green fur and glowing red fists.
"Primate Impact!" the beast yells before swinging its fist toward the Cosmic Barrier, but before it can make contact, Oberon instantly shrinks his barrier, taking away its footing and causing it to spin like a top from the momentum.
He flies upward and lands a devastating uppercut to its gut, forcing the man to revert to his human form before making him lighter and throwing him high into the air. "You can't out-brawl me. Gildarts hits way harder!"
The man catches his breath while spinning in the air, fishes in his pocket, and pulls out a ring. He places it on his finger and focuses his Magic Energy into it.
"Then try this!" he yells while aiming the ring at Oberon, forming a glowing red Magic Circle in front of it.
Oberon smiles, relieved that the man's Fire Magic is from an item and not something dangerous to him. "The problem with relying on Magic Items for combat is that your control over the phenomenon generated is limited."
The man ignores him, focusing on Oberon's serious expression as he puts enough Magic Energy into the ring to create a flamethrower's worth of fire.
And the instant the first flames flicker to life, Oberon waves his hand.
He twists Gravity, forcing the man to fire the stream of flames upward to the sky, while simultaneously increasing his gravity a few times over.
The man propels himself even faster into the river below, crashing into the water hard enough to shatter rocks on the river floor.
Oberon releases his Gravity Magic while descending to stand on the grass beside the river. "Where did you get that ring? I've never seen a Magic Ring that can handle that much without breaking."
A small geyser of water erupts as a green glow overtakes the water, then four hands reach out and grip the riverbank.
A hulking, twelve-foot-tall, muscular creature with four arms and one large eye in the middle of its head. A maw that splits in four ways and is filled with needle teeth, and a body of rock-hard grey skin, pulls itself out of the water.
Oberon takes a few steps back, soaking in every detail of this new Magic Beast. "What is that?"
His curiosity in the presence of the man's strongest form causes anger to rise. "Now I get it. I was the Ace of my Guild. S-Class, but Fairy Tail's S-Class really are on another level. But not out of reach. There is no reason I shouldn't have been one when I was there."
"Yeah, I've read about you. But even if you were someone who followed the rules and worked well with others, you wouldn't have made it anyway."
"And why is that? Because I'm not beloved by Magic like you?"
"You don't have to be anything like me. You just can't be this weak."
The man's one eye glares at Oberon as he rushes forward, moving faster than a bullet and raining a storm of punches from his four arms down onto the boy.
Oberon's eyes widen in surprise, not realizing the insult he has spoken. But in the same instant, he reared back both fists and clashed against the man's four.
Within seconds, they clash dozens of times, sending bits of bone and blood flying in every direction. The man's mind races, searching for any opening, any opportunity to land a decisive strike.
But as his fingers shatter and wrists break, he realizes what's happening. 'This boy is stronger than even my toughest form. And faster, fast enough that he could have landed a few body blows on me by now…is this a game to him?'
This single instance of true self-doubt caused the man to falter, and Oberon seized the moment to use Gravity Magic and pull him down, crashing his tiny fist into the man's head.
He makes the man lighter after the impact, sending him flying into the air, then makes him a dozen times heavier, slamming him down into the dirt.
The man's Takeover Magic deactivates as he wheezes in pain, lying in the crushed dirt as searing pain flows from his shattered hands.
He hears footsteps beside him and turns to see Oberon casually walking over with a bored expression on his face.
"So, what was the name of that form?"
CHAPTER END---
Discord: discord .gg /eHuxNeZfyS [Come chat with me]
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
You.tube: @KeanuEugene [Giving away all my writing knowledge]