With smoke rising from its back, the king growled at the beast before him.

It stood in place, raising itself on its hind legs, keeping its arms close to the ground. The beast could barely match the king in terms of height, but the king's senses could tell that this creature was dangerous.

"YHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

The monster screeched, a cry that caused even the king to flinch. Lightning began to cackle as it yelled. It then slammed its hands into the rock, looking like it was about to pounce. The king braced itself, the white hair on its hide stood on edge.

The lightning crackled then burst in a line of lightning. Suddenly, blood erupted from its left front leg. Startled, the king glanced towards the new wound. So fast it couldn't even sense it coming.

What was more was the beast repapered, its talons into the base of a nearby plateau, the lightning dying down.

"YHAAAAAA!!!"

The beast screeched as the lightning began to cackle again. With a furious roar, the king turned and slammed its right front paw into the plateau where the beast was, the forces strong enough to shatter the entire rock.

As the king watched the rubble fall into the lake below, it saw no trace of its prey. Its senses then picked up something directly above it. In the sky, the beast overhead in the air, holding out its long arms. Lightning crackled in both, forming into spears. With another screech, the monster threw them towards the king, who leaped back, just missing the spears as they smashed into the water, discharging in an intense burst of electricity.

The king just missed the attack, witnessing the beast rematerialize on one of the rocks, holding the same stance as before with its long arms digging into the rocks.

"YHAAAAAA!!!!!"

Throw caution to the wind

Rodger slammed his hands to the ground, sending out pillars towards Robin.

"This again?" Robin said as a thorny arrow appeared on his bow. "You're getting really predictable." He fired off the arrow, which disappeared, slicing the pillars apart.

Rodger suddenly came from above, holding his hammer that had rocks gathered around it to increase its size. Bet ya didn't see this comin'!

Robin suddenly teleported out of sight-

"Wrong."

- reappearing behind Rodger dropkicking him to the ground. He then twirled around as a silver arrow formed.

"C-Crap," Rodger saw his opponent above him.

Robin let loose the arrow, which slammed into the ground with a loud crash, sending debris into the air.

"No surviving that I guess- OHHF!" Robin was interrupted when a small rock suddenly shot past him, catching him in the forehead. More small rocks then shot from the ground, peppering Robin as he braced himself from the short storm.

He actually survived that? Even if he put up a barrier it wouldn't.... hold on...

The dust began to settle, showing a single wall that had curved around, with a large crack in the center. Around it was three others that had been obliterated.

He must have put up four walls before I loosed the arrow.

Another arrow materialized on his bow, and he pulled it back, aiming at the demolished rock wall.

Knowing that idiot, he's probably gonna jump using a pillar to try and squash me from behind. He thought, hearing the sound of a pillar launching up from behind him.

"Like I said," Robin span around, "Your predictabl-huh?" Only to find he wasn't there.

"Hehe. Got ya now."

With his eyes wide, Robin spun around only seconds late. From the position of the walls, a giant, rock fist fired from the ground, slamming into the boy launching him higher into the air. In its shadow was Rodger with a satisfied grin on his face.

"That little-" Robin turned around, a green cylinder materializing on the bow. Rodger then launched himself on a pillar into the air, holding his hammer out. Without a word, he fired the arrow towards Rodger, who leaped out of the way just in time before the arrow struck. The resulting winds obliterated the pillar. "That was pointless,"

Robin said as he materialized another silver arrow. Rodger grinned as he turned, swinging his hand out. "Rock Shot!" A rock shot past him, firing up towards Robin, who managed to dodge by a small margin.

Rodger landed on the ground forming walls to block the incoming arrow Robin fired, stumbling out of the way as the resulting impact carried him away, stumbling across the ground before recovering, skidding to a halt.

With his hand on the ground, four more earth spears jutted from the earth, launching themselves towards Robin. With a thorny arrow materialized, he fired it off, cutting through the rocks.

Rodger couldn't help but put his arms up as the remaining winds passed him by. "Damn it-"

Looking up, he came face to face with Robin who had teleported up to his position, drawing back a silver arrow.

Rodger rolled quickly out of the way, just as the arrow fired past him, breaking apart the ground as it passed. Gritting his teeth and clenching his hammer, Rodger swung towards Robin who vanished from sight, reappearing up in the air, pulling back his bow as four arrows materialized. He fired them all at once, the arrows breaking apart into ten fragments each.

With no time to form any walls, Rodger did his best to dodge the coming shower, each peppering the ground with enough force to penetrate it, two scraping his helmet.

"This really has gone on long enough," Robin said, his emotionless voice sounding more menacing than before. Another arrow materialized and he fired it towards the still stumbling Rodger who just put up two barriers. The arrow broke apart into five pieces, flying around the barriers. Oh crap!

Rodger rolled out of the way as the pieces pierced into the wall behind him. Looking up, he saw Robin just before him, pulling back a thorny and two-cylinder arrow.

Not good!

The winds tore through the entire plateau, destroying the rock structures, leaving deep grooves in the surface of the rock. The injured Steve had to put his arms up, trying to shield himself from the resulting winds blasted around as he rested against one of the ruined huts.

When the winds died down, he glanced to see Rodger lying on his belly in the center. He had lost both his helmet and hammer. His clothes were ruined, with now serious gashes covering his body.

"Oh no, Rodger!"

".....D-Damn it....." Rodger groaned as he tried to push himself off the ground, ignoring the agonizing pain he was in. He barely made it off the ground before Robin appeared and stepped on the back of his head, pushing him into the ground.

"I can't believe you actually survived that," He said as he kept his foot fastened down on the samiet boy. "No matter. You're done."

"N-Not... yet...." Rodger muttered as he tried to push back.

With his eyes narrowed, Robin pulled back his bow while placing a hand to his hip. "Why are you so desperate to keep fighting? You know you've lost so why bother at this point?"

"C-Cause if I don't... you bastards will destroy the village..."

"Hate to break it to you but this village is already destroyed. Just look around. Even if you guys win it doesn't change the fact many of these people have lost their homes and everything they own." Robin continued, rubbing his foot. "It's not to save your friends either. If that were the case, all you had to do was stay here while they got away, and then you could make your escape.

"It makes sense if two brats like you were to team up to try and take me down. In fact, that's what that other kind proposed at the start. And you said no."

Robin leaned forwards, pushing his foot down. "I bet your only doing this, cause you want to feel like a hero, just like that dumb blond you follow."

Rodger's eyes widened with anger. "Th-That's not true you bastard!"

"On no? Then why are you here fighting me? IS it to save your friends or this village? I'm not suggesting that isn't the case, but I'm sure those concerns are secondary right?" Robin looked down on the boy under his foot. "I've seen a lot of weirdos and losers in my time, but I don't think I've ever met someone as pathetic as you."

****

"R-Rod...ger....." Steve gritted his teeth, seeing Rodger being pinned to the ground. "G-Get up..... You cant.... Let it end like this...."

He and Rodger had grown up constantly at odds with each other. Steve was the son of Dorian, a high member of the village council and the next in position to be the village chief. Rodger was the grandson of the current chief and the adventure Graham. As much as he was told to despise him, Steve secretly looked up to Graham as a hero who ventured into the 'evil' world of humans and survived.

Steve was always better at Rodger at pretty much everything. Mana channeling, magic. Strength and endurance. Everything Rodger couldn't do, he could do better.

Yet Rodger would always try to show him up. Training out in the forest, telling everyone how he was going to leave the village one day and be an adventurer like his father, and get scolded by his grandmother for blurting it out. Without rime or reason, when an idea took root in his head, he'd act on it.

"From this day forth, we're rivals, ya got that!"

"You? My rival? Please, you're not in the same league as me."

"I'll show you! I'll be an adventure like my pa and leave this place! Just you watch!"

"HEY LOSER!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!!" Steve yelled at the top of his lungs, attracting Rodger and Robin's attention.

"Oh, you're still here? I completely forgot."

"S-Steve...."

"And you!!" Steve continued, pointing at Robin. "Don't you dare talk about him that way? He's better then you'd ever dream of being!!"

"Oh..." Robin crocked his head while Rodger looked bewildered. "Even when I have my boot to his head?"

Steve coughed before continuing, "You understand.... He's a loser.... A hopeless... the reckless asshole that can't even beat me in a battle..... He's..... he's...." Tears rolling down his eyes, Steve swallowed his stubborn pride, casting it away just this once. "HE'S MY RIVAL YOU GOT THAT!!!!"

In disbelief, Rodger could barely utter a word. Steve was the one Samiet besides his father he looked up to (Which he'd never admitted out loud). Everything he could do, Steve would somehow do it better. Everything he hoped to be, Steve was always a step ahead of him. And now, here and now, the one Samiet he looked up to, just called him his rival.

"Your rival?" Robin said uninterested. "Hate to break it to you, but your rival is about to die and you'll be next if you keep this up. I'm in a pretty bad mood as is."

Suddenly, Rodger's left hand grasped ahold of Robin's foot, holding it tight.

"Still?" Robin said as Rodger pushed upwards, keeping his grip on Robin's leg. "You need to learn when to give up."

"T-That teleporting thing..... Allisa can do it too?" Rodger said weakly.

"So?" Robin asked.

"When we fought that Lion.... I saw her teleporting Nel.... Outta the way just by touching her..... Bet if you teleported now..... I'll go with ya too..... right?"

".... Where are you going with this?" Robin asked, raising his eyebrows as he tried to guess what Rodger had in mind. "Wait...." Light dawned as he put what Rodger had told him in mind. His eyes widened as he brought around his bow as fast as possible.

Unfortunately for him, a rock fist shot up from Rodger's right, slamming into Robin hard enough to cause him to cough blood, launching him up in the air again. Robin recovered in the air, clutching his gut, feeling as though one of his ribs had cracked.

"Ok...." Robin glanced to Rodger, who was once again getting back to his feet. His brows had furrowed the first time in the entire exchange. "Now I'm pissed....."

Rodger waddled over to where his helmet was laying on the ground, picking it up from the ground and placing it back on his head, flashing another cocky grin at his opponent.

The Daathhund

The king slammed its front for leg into the remnants of the plateau, attempting to crush the beast in question. Sparks of lightning escaped, indicating the prey had escaped again.

With a growl, the king turned to see the beast resting on one of the debris in the lake, doing nothing but gazing at the king with the black pits where its eyes should be.

"YHAAAAAA!!!"

It screeched again, raising its arms as lighting began to cackle in the palms. Sensing an attack, the king slammed its front paw down hard into it, splashing the water high into the air.

The king's feeling of satisfaction was short-lived as a sharp pain came from its back. Two lightning spears had embedded itself into its back.

The beast was above the king, using its lightning to escape again. With a front flip, the beast descended towards its prey, its talons ready to penetrate the snow-white hide. And that careless move was what the king needed.

It leaped forwards, dodging the falling beast, raising itself on its forelegs before swatting the beast with its left hind leg, launching it into one of the plateaus nearby hard enough to destabilize it, sending the homes above falling to the lake below.

The king turned about to the destroyed plateau where it launched the beast. Due to how hard it hit and how fragile the body looked, the king predicted that the monster should be dead, or suffered serious damage.

As though answering its question, a discharge of lightning blasted the rubble away. The beast rose up, its arm dangling uselessly from several broken bones in its long arm, its leg was bent backward, its spine was crooked and the head was on upside down. With such visible injuries, it was beyond rational thought.

However, the beast rose followed by a very uncomfortable clicking sound as its arm and leg began to repair itself along with its spine. With its arm recovered, it grasped its head and spun it around until it clicked back into place.

Just like that, the beast was back to normal as though the damage it sustained meant nothing, lighting gathering on its black fur.

"YHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

The beast screeched again, a yell that caused the king's blood to run cold. It then vanished from sight. The king flinched as its flesh was parted just left of its head. The beast reappeared on rock and disappeared again, followed by another scratch running along its body. Then again and again.

The king stood while its blood ran from ten new wounds. The king tried to react, but the beast was too fast. All it could do was stand by and take the hits. After the eleventh strike, the beast reappeared before the king on one of the rocks in the lake, unstable enough for part of the water to rise touching its foot.

"YHAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

The beast howled in pain as lightning discharged from the water, immediately retreating to more solid ground.

With this moment of respite, the king charged forwards to destroy its pray when it was halted as a blue beam shot from the mouth of the beast's mouth, piercing the beasts left side. As the king reeled from its new wound, the beast disappeared again, this time repapering on the king's back, digging its claws into its hide as its fur began to cackle.

"YHAAAAAAA!!!"

Lightning burst from the beast, traveling down through the king before discharging in the lake. The king howled in pain as its skin burned from the electrical discharge.

The beast retreated again, hanging on a plateau, watching the smoldering king collapse into the lake. Its strength began to fade from its body.

The 'king of the forest' seemed like a joke. A king must be strong. A king must be powerful. For a king to suffer such a hideous defeat at the hands of one so small, no, at the hands of one with no real emotion or drive, nothing more than a rabid beast, was unfitting of a king.

If it could not destroy such an abomination, then it did not deserve the title of 'King.' Then it should deserve to die here in this lake.

"We're gonna be going now, so it's up to you to keep this place safe, ya here Dug."

In that moment, the king remembered. It was not a king anymore. One who deserved the title more took its crown. A strange two-legged creature with the strength to rival it. One that took its left horn.

"And when I come back we can have a rematch after hair dew guy, ok?"

The king found the strength to stand once again. It promised the one who deserves the title 'king.' To fall to such an abomination was unbecoming of it. With all its strength, it got back to its feet and let out a powerful roar, challenging the beast once again.

The beast screeched as lightning began to cackle once again, letting out another blood-chilling screech.

The king braced itself as another claw mark scraped past its right side. It reappeared just feet away resting on another rock in the lake behind the king, just as it predicted.

The king turned its body to the rock just as it was cut, raising its paw just as the beast rematerialized and slammed it into the beast, right into the water.

The beast screeched in pain as the lightning discharged into the water, clawing at the king's paw as it tried to free itself. The king endured, keeping its paw pressing down on the beast even as the lightning burned its paw. After five agonizing minutes of the beasts wailing, the lightning finally began to die down. As a final resort, the beast fired off the last of its lightning at the king, who moved its head to the right. The beam scraped through the left side of its face, clamming the king's eye. Yet it was a price it was willing to pay.

With its last resort failed, the beast cried as it raised its right front paw, trying to grasp something invisible before it. The black fur began to dissolve as cracks formed in the beast. Its body then disintegrated into nothingness, the ash scattering in the winds and the lake's water.

The ordeal over, the king collapsed into the lake, the last of its strength depleted. The battle had been hard-fought, more so then any it had fought before.

But not before it let out one final roar of triumph, proving it was without a shadow of a doubt, the true king.

Recklessness over planning; Rodger vs. Robin

Robin materialized two silver arrows on his bow, aiming them at Rodger. "This has gone on long enough." He said as he loosed both.

Rodger managed to dodge by a narrow margin, just as the arrows took out a large chunk of the plateau. Using the momentum of the backlash, Rodger rolled on the ground before coming to a halt, firing off more earth spears towards the floating elf.

Gritting his teeth, Robin moved floated left and right, avoiding each attack as he materialized two cylinder arrows along with a thorny arrow.

Slamming his hammer to the ground, a large rock hand fired from the ground propelling itself towards Robin. On reflex, he fired his projectiles towards the hand that curled together as though catching both projectiles. In a burst of air, the hand was shredded apart in a violent hurricane, dangerously close to Robin.

He made sure that was close enough so I could be affected by the blast... Robin evaluated as he recovered from the backlash of his own attack. I can't tell if this kid’s a generous or a total idiot!

"Come forth!" Rodger slammed his hammer on the ground again. "Ga-Ga golem! Arm cannon!"

Behind him, his golem with the cannon attached.

"Ok, FIRE!!"

The cannon launched a bolder towards Robin, who dodged while materializing a silver arrow. "That won't work!" He fired at the golem, the arrow shattering the golem in one devastating hit, running through the ground, blowing away another large chunk of the plateau. Rodger was sent hurtling away from the backlash, skidding across the ground on his back with a large grin, waving his hand down.

"He's smiling?" Robin said. He then glanced up and saw rocks gathered directly above him, falling far too close for him to dodge. That rock!

The bolder fired by the golem wasn't a complete bolder, but a collection of smaller rocks gathered together that brock apart. Using his levitation magic, Rodger stopped it, moved it above his opponent and broke the rocks apart before sending them towards his opponent.

The rocks slammed Robin into the ground in a hail of meteors.

Rodger came to a halt after skidding for several meters. His wounds were beginning to ache from all the damage he sustained. If he was honest with himself, it was his stubbornness that kept him from keeling over in pain. Even so, he had to keep fighting.

"You..... little....."

Cause he knew his opponent was far from finished. Indeed, his opponent was getting back up from taking all those hits, just barely picking himself off the ground.

"A.... Real man... always settles the score," Rodger said with a grin. "I told ya that before this begin... didn't I?"

Robin began to float in the air again, holding out his bow. I don't think he has an actual plan. He's just doing whatever comes first into his head. Two thorny arrows materialized on the bow. No doubt about it. This kid is a complete idiot.

Rodger slammed his hand on the ground, sprouting up ten rectangular walls, all of which bore the brunt of the scything wings that sliced through each one like butter.

"That was clo-"

Suddenly, a hand slammed on Rodger's face.

"Your ability is earth mold, meaning for it to work you need to be touching the ground."

Robin, with his right hand firmly grasping Rodger by the face, pushed the samiet boy to the ground, skidding him along as he raced to the edge.

"Not sure if that water's deep or not, but I'd imagine it would slow you down enough for me to get a solid shot to finish you off," Robin said as he raced to the edge of the water. "I honestly can't believe you survived for this long against me. But let's face it, you and your rival didn't have a damn pray against me."

Rodger's left hand suddenly grabbed ahold of Robin's right hand, twirling his silver hammer with his right. "Didn't think ya'd come this close."

Robin's eyes widened as he spotted Rodger holding his hammer out. Don't tell me..... he got caught on purpose?

"More pissed off you get, the more you seem to get as reckless as me, huh floating bastard!"

He then slammed it into Robin's left flank as hard as he could, cracking one of his ribs in the process.

"URG!!" Grunting, Robin let go of Rodger, holding on to his left side. Rodger continued sliding, coming to a halt near the new edge of the plateau. As Robin looked up, Rodger shot him another grin, holding out his left hand.

No.... He's just improvising.

A shadow then began to loom over the elf, getting wider and wider. Robin glanced up to see the parts of the wall his thorny arrow slice apart hovering just above him, earth with a sharpened spike on the bottom, all of them descending towards him, leaving him no time to dodge.

He really is just a lucky idiot!!

The rocks slammed into the ground, each one piling on top of the other. The very impact cracked the ground around him as a total of twenty slabs crashed one after the other. When all fell, and the dust settled, all that remained was a large mess of broken slabs piled one on top of the other.

From his position, Steve couldn't help but crack a smile, seeing the battle that had ruined the entire plateau come to an end. "That's.... my rival for ya...."

Battered and bleeding, Rodger collapsed to the ground, grinning through his teeth, holding up his silver hammer with the bare charm attached. "I did it..... Allisa....." He said in a strained voice. "A real man.... has totally settled the score....."