We Must Cut The Wings of This Snake

My name is Anesidora, Dora for short. I'm a young emissary of the Avatar branch and a former member of the Shining Sword party, but today I'm mostly...

"Free!!! I'm finally free!!!"

I was spinning in a field, a dozen pieces of bread I had just bought floating around me, then snapping my fingers. 3 slices of bread flew off into the infinity of the village and landed in the hands of a peasant, a child, an animal, or perhaps even a plant.

"Enjoy, the king invites you to the feast! To the glory of freedom!"

I waved another hand, raising my right arm, thumbs up. A whirlwind then formed, lifting the flowers around me, these mixed and formed crowns of flowers.

"Today is a day of celebration, you are all invited to the fool's farewell ceremony!"

I snapped my fingers and the wreaths also flew out, except for one bigger one, that looked like a funeral wreath.

"Let me save this one, for Dora's funeral from Shining Sword."

I fell on my back laughing heartily, had I ever felt such joy? Is that why some people commit crimes? Just for the euphoria of escape? Maybe I will too, I never get tired of this pleasure.

"No more missions, no more meetings, no more girlfriends, and no more morals."

I took a coin out of my pocket, the last survivor of my generosity.

"And no more economic problem."

I tossed the coin in the air, but when it fell, I received a shower of gold coins. This surreal scene would intrigue anyone, but the meaning was very simple. I'm a magic trick fanatic and I've amassed all kinds of wacky powers. I can turn a gold coin into 10000, I can turn water into wine, I can teleport to a mirror or make an object disappear, and I might be an emissary but my main hobby is collecting and playing with that kind of power.

My old comrades often criticized me for wasting time with this kind of technique, indeed, I don't risk killing a monster by doing a magic trick, but that's the goal. It's my hobby, my passion, I do it because I want to and no one will stop me.

"Should I sleep here tonight? It's comfy… Huh?"

Suddenly, a bright point in the distance swooped down on me with unimaginable speed and crashed down in a terrible explosion. A large cloud of smoke had formed at the place where the object had just fallen, but as it dissipated, it took on a human form: short black hair, blue eyes, and a fist sunk in the crater it had just created, Hope, another Hero.

He wore a furious face but widened his eyes to meet a gold coin in place of my body.

"Hopy ~ what a surprise."

He looked up and saw me lying on a bed of flowers several feet above him.

"You... Get down here!"

"Hmm... Don't feel like it."

A vein appeared on his forehead.

"Get your ass back here, you coward!" How could you run away like that? Come here!

"But the air is cooler here, you should come here instead, you look like you need some meditation."

I snapped my fingers and flower petals flew around him. He took out a wooden sword and turned around, dispelling the flowers.

"I'm not here to play! I considered you my rival, I admired you, and you promised that one day we would become the best rivals in the world... But I heard that you left your party to stay in the village."

Hope is a young emissary from the Hero branch, like Leon, but also my friend and rival. We often trained together and had even done a few missions together. I knew him as a proud person, and a friend, sometimes annoying but not hateful, I had also tried a few times to recruit him to replace me in our team but he always refused, considering that rivals should always be in teams different. But honestly, I had only recognized him as a rival so that he would leave me alone.

"If you give up on your dream of being the best fighter in the world, then I don't want to sit on a losing streak against you! I'm going to defeat you and end this stupid rivalry!"

He pointed his weapon at me. Suddenly, my eyes sparkled.

" Oh? You? Defeat me? How would you do something you could never have done before? Just thanks to your determination?"

" Shut up! My determination is bigger than your dreams! I will knock you down!

"Then go ahead."

He gritted his teeth and a faint aura covered him, then swung his sword in my direction. The blow formed a blade of light that quickly rushed at me but only destroyed my flowerbed, scattering the petals.

"You won't run away this time, show yourself!"

Petals were falling everywhere but I was nowhere in sight. Hope grew angry and focused his energy.

(Focus your energy and feel the universe... Yes like that... I can see... I can... What?!)

He jumped when he realized that the petals weren't falling but were floating around him before turning into balls of flowers.

"Shit! *Acceleration*"

He rushed at very high speed into a tiny space and dodged the balls around him as best he could, when...

"!!!"

A ball appeared right in front of his face and exploded when he touched it, behind him the other flower balls exploded. I reappeared several meters away.

"Well, since you dodged the center, I was going to say you got better, but... You still ended up getting one shot by a single bomb so..."

Suddenly, a blade of light lightly brushed my face, to my amazement. Opposite me, Hope was emerging from the cloud of smoke, his clothes slightly burned.

"Aah... So? Aaah... Have I improved enough?"

I put a hand on my cheek and pulled it back noting the red dye it had just taken, Hope was smiling.

"I love that new expression on your face, now if you'll excuse me, it's my turn."

"... You boring kid."

We were throwing at each other, Hope's wooden sword clashing with a wind sword I had just created, an explosive clash ensued, Hope with his boost ability and his sword covered in his powers dominated hand-to-hand combat, but against it, the opponent was one with the environment.

I dodged a multitude of blades of light with a leap backward, Hope following me, sword pointed at me and its tip glinting.

"Thunder Sp... Shit!!!"

He narrowly dodged a flowery javelin coming from behind him, I intercepted the object which took the form of a halberd, spun it around, and landed a powerful blow on Hope who dodged it barely. This acceleration technique was so boring.

Hope made several jumps back and took a defensive pose, around me the flowers grew at high speed and rose in the form of various weapons, spears, swords, axes... The field of flowers was a weapon and I was the one with the button to activate it. Hope was breathing heavily.

"Aaah... It's not... So easy... Aah... Is it?"

"It's not easy, but we know how it will end, I will laugh, and you will crawl like a worm."

I pointed my hand in his direction and all weapons rushed at him. He lowered his sword, face down. Was this the end? I had some doubts, but at that moment I wanted more than anything to end it, Hope seemed to be at the end of his efforts but the excessive use of my powers was tiring me more and more, so here is the ultimate fault of an avatar, excessive consumption of my energy reserves, I hid it much better than Hope, but I quickly reached my limit.

Everything seemed to be slowing down, the weapons were inches away from Hope and he couldn't seem to use Accelerate anymore, yet a bad feeling came over me. An explosion of light occurred.

"W... What?"

Before my eyes, covered in an aura so bright it was hard to watch, Hope raised his sword.

"Are you done attacking now? That means it's my turn."

"Stop saying that bullshit... What the hell is that?"

"The ultimate Hero Class Skill: Hero Time."

The aura covering him shone brighter, for the very first time since I knew him, Hope made me doubt victory.

"Hero Time is a technique that boosts the user's abilities tenfold for a few minutes, so at that moment, I'm the most powerful in the whole village!"

"But... It doesn't make sense, Hero time is a technique accessible only to the advanced Hero class, you shouldn't be able to use it, it's impossible, you're impossible!"

He smiled, delighted with my astonishment.

"It's true, a normal Hero wouldn't make it, but what about a transcendental Hero?"

I remained silent in the face of this statement, understanding the true meaning.

"Are you... An Avatar too?"