"No one's allowed to use magic?"
Lin Yuan looked at Natsu's steaming fist.
"Of course!" Natsu immediately shook out the flames. "Fists only. Whoever gives up first loses."
"Getting knocked out of the training ground counts too."
Gray's voice came from the other side of the wall. At some point, he had climbed up too, with a bag of peanuts in his arms.
Natsu glared at him. "What are you doing here?"
"Watching you get beaten up."
Their bickering soon attracted the Guild members. Within minutes, people packed the top of the courtyard wall, and several heads poked out of the windows.
Makarov appeared last. He glanced at the two boys as they assumed their stances, but didn't stop them. He simply drew a circle ten meters across on the ground.
"No magic, and no attacks to the eyes or throat. Stay down for ten seconds, surrender, or step out of the circle, and you lose."
Natsu eagerly took his place at one end of the circle.
Lin Yuan took off his coat, revealing the silver-gray crest on the front of his left shoulder.
"Begin!"
Before the word had faded, Natsu was already charging at him.
No probing, no feints. He twisted at the waist and threw a punch at Lin Yuan's face with all his strength, far faster than any boy his age.
Lin Yuan tilted his head left, the wind from the punch brushing past his ear. Almost simultaneously, he stepped between Natsu's legs with his right foot, bumped his shoulder lightly against Natsu's chest, and lifted his elbow with an upward push of his palm.
Natsu lost his balance and flipped over Lin Yuan's shoulder.
But the expected thud never came.
Natsu twisted in midair, braced himself with one hand, and sprang back like a beast. A sweeping kick aimed straight at Lin Yuan's side forced him to retreat for the first time.
"Nice dodge!"
Natsu grinned and lunged at him again.
A straight punch, a knee strike, a headbutt.
His moves followed no pattern, but they were fast and heavy, and each flowed into the next from an incredible angle. Rather than fighting, he was more like a young dragon tearing at its prey on instinct.
Lin Yuan blocked one attack after another, and his arms soon began to ache.
In terms of sheer physique, he had no advantage at present.
Natsu had clearly noticed, and his attacks grew fiercer. He deliberately left an opening on his left, then suddenly spread his arms when Lin Yuan moved in close, intending to seize him by brute force and throw him out of the circle.
But in that instant, Lin Yuan's body reacted on its own.
Bend the knees, sink the shoulder, move into his center of gravity.
Instead of retreating, he moved in against Natsu's chest. He pressed an elbow against Natsu's sternum, hooked a foot around his ankle, and with one short burst of strength, flipped him over for the second time.
This time, Lin Yuan gave him no chance to recover.
He pinned Natsu's right arm with his knee, locked his shoulder with his left hand, and held his other hand at the back of Natsu's neck. A little pressure was all it would take to leave him unable to resist.
The practiced movements felt unfamiliar even to Lin Yuan himself.
It was as though, in the past he had forgotten, he had subdued countless enemies stronger than himself in the same way.
"One, two, three..."
Gray began to count.
"It's not over!"
Natsu let out a low growl and forced himself up despite having his joints locked. Lin Yuan's balance shifted with him, and Natsu seized the brief opening to roll free. Both of them got to their feet at the same time.
"That was close!" A chorus of shouts rose from the wall.
Natsu's right arm hung at his side, clearly hurt badly by the hold, but his eyes were brighter than they had been before the fight.
"You really are strong."
"You can take a beating too."
"What kind of compliment is that?!"
Natsu charged again.
This time, he didn't rush to throw a punch, instead changing direction repeatedly as he circled Lin Yuan. His footwork was still messy, but he had begun to imitate the way Lin Yuan had controlled the distance earlier.
Lin Yuan noticed the change.
Natsu was learning as he fought.
If the fight dragged on, he might be the first to lose, since he had less stamina.
He deliberately took two steps back toward the edge of the circle.
As expected, Natsu sped up, intending to knock him straight out of bounds. Just as the two were about to collide, Lin Yuan suddenly turned sideways, shifting half a body's width out of the way. He pressed his palm against Natsu's back and pushed him forward with the momentum of his charge.
Natsu stepped across the boundary line.
An instant before his foot landed outside the circle, he grabbed Lin Yuan's wrist and forcibly dragged them both toward the ground.
Lin Yuan braced one knee against the ground, his other foot still inside the circle. Natsu, however, fell clear out of it and rolled a long way across the grass.
"Out of bounds. Lin Yuan wins!" Makarov announced.
The spectators immediately broke into cheers. Gray laughed the loudest, not forgetting to pull a face at Natsu.
Natsu sat up, not angry, and vigorously brushed the blades of grass from his hair.
"I'll definitely win next time!"
"First learn how to stop."
Lin Yuan reached out and pulled him up.
The instant their hands clasped, a wisp of the fire magic power Natsu had suppressed inside his body inadvertently escaped. Its aura was scorching and ancient, carrying a certain majesty that belonged to dragons.
A sudden pain pierced Lin Yuan's chest.
It wasn't spatial magic power.
Deep within his soul, among the ten dormant seals, a throne seemed to tremble slightly, as if it had caught the scent of a powerful enemy.
Rumble-
A low peal of thunder came from within Lin Yuan.
At that same moment, a bolt of golden lightning lit up the clear night sky.