Hadrian glanced to his left and right, nothing but sand in both directions, his body was perspiring under the smoldering sun and the only things in sight were the two wreckages. Both of which wafted smoke towards him. The scent of the crash site burned his nostrils as he searched for any sign of the women.
She was nowhere to be seen so he sheathed his sword slowly and cautiously.
It's not uncommon for powerful cultivators to project their voices into someone's mind but since he had no idea where she was he couldn't return the favor.
"Who are you?" He shouted.
"That is unimportant since you'll probably be dead in a few seconds."
"Unlikely, so, I'm really dying to know, who are you?" Hadrian's situation wasn't as dire as he led the women to believe.
"You're not in a position to ask questions," The sound of another shot rang out and the sand at his feet was ruffled as the bullet burrowed into the ground, the red dot returned to its resting place at his heart. "That was a warning."
"Wasn't very intimidating." He pulled out his backup vial and downed a bit of whiskey before launching his assault. In firing that shot she had made a mistake.
He couldn't see her because she was still concealed by the smoke, but due to the bullet she fired, Kat was able to discern her location. Her vision must have been quite good to fire so accurately with such low visibility.
Impressive.
To Hadrian, everything was a blur as he moved, even the women's vision couldn't track him. His body ached and he kicked himself mentally for performing such a stunt against the juggernauts.
"You're not in a position to make demands anymore and my apologies, I'm not very good at staying still." He stared at the woman's back now. She still held her rifle but with only one hand. Her lengthy blonde hair fell over her back and her clothing was burned in places. Burns, cuts, and scrapes were all over her body yet her demeanor was as solid as a statue.
"So you're the legendary phantom?" The grin on her face was evident in her tone.
"The one and only."
"Not very impressive at all."
An odd pressure rested underneath his foot. He looked, only to realize he'd stepped into a trap. Underneath his foot was a single landmine.
"Now that," He said, referring to the knife "Is worthy of a drink." Hadrian removed the small vial from his back pocket.
She'd guessed he would do this? She even guessed exactly where he would stand, this woman… she was quite impressive. Not only was there a mine under his foot, but a knife pointed at his abdomen.
"Niceee," He said, dragging out the word. "Now I'd really like to know who you are." He was excited to have such an adversary. He replaced the vial and with a bit of sleight of hand, pulled out a minuscule sphere from his belt as he brought his hands away.
"It's unimportant."
Kats annoying voice popped up in his ear suddenly. "Her name is Aliviana Drogo, a former hunter of The Order, their best. She recently had a falling out and is currently wanted by them for treason."
Hadrian's was alight with joy. Hunters were his favorite.
"So, why are trying to kill me anyway, I just took down all of those baddies for you." He probably looked like a crazy man shouting into the desert like that but it was his only means of communication, how barbaric.
"and?"
"And some would say thank you for solving their problems, and not by trying to kill them."
"I'm not going to say thank you to a dead man."
"I don't feel dead." He dropped the device from his pocket which thumped into the sand.
"You could at least act dead? Do you ever stop talking?"
The small device glowed blue, disabling the mine and he stepped off of the explosive.
Nothing happened.
With the efficiency of a man who'd done it a thousand times, Hadrian wielded a knife from his belt and flung it. Where he expected a thump and a stream of blood he was met with the loud pang of metal and a blur as the woman's form was disturbed.
His knife ricocheted off the piece of debris he'd thought Aliviana's rifle had been leaning on. It was a hologram. The rifle was real but the body behind it was not.
"Twice, that's the most I've been bested in a long time." Hadrian did a quick clap and took out his drink once again. "This one's for you." He took a quick swig and drained the last of the vial's contents then tossed it into the sand behind him.
"Really? It wasn't very hard." Her smug voice had a tinge of superiority to it, he liked that.
"One more and it will be a record, let's see what you've got." He decided he was done playing around. "Do you like playing chess Aliviana?"
"What?" Her voice shuddered at the mention of her name.
"Do you like playing chess?"
"…"
"What? didn't think I would figure it out?"
"This doesn't change a thing."
"Wrong, this changes everything. tell me, why is it that The Order is chasing their most accomplished hunter?" Hadrian's playful tone was gone, replaced by that of the Phantom." How does it feel to have no life anymore? To live worrying about what's behind you instead of what lies ahead." His grin flattened into a straight line, this was no longer a game. "No, this changes everything Aliviana because now, you've just become the hunted."
Hadrian's gaze shot to the sun.
"I'll show you what true cultivation can do, The power of the heavens themselves. Something The Order hasn't replicated, couldn't, even if they wanted to." He stared at the glaring rays of New Sols sun, his vision was consumed with the shimmering light. "Do you know what a bloodline is?" Still no answer from the clever little hunter. "I'll just have to show you." Hadrian's arms were outstretched, his head tilted back as he screamed to the vast desert. "You are my gift from the heavens Aliviana, you've sentenced so many to death, for what? The gain of the selfish Order? This is your penance." His body began glowing red, then slowly turned to bright orange.
Three consecutive shots rang out in the empty desert.
Two in the chest, both of which melted upon impact with Hadrian's increasingly hot body.
The third melted without even touching him.
His body turned white and the air around him contorted, he couldn't be seen clearly anymore.
"This is the true power," He screamed with all the rage of his fallen brethren. "Of cultivation," The desert around him became an orange and yellow pool of molten sand. "Of the Sol bloodline!" A lake spread out around him and sand melted at an extreme rate and it was still spreading. "Celestial Affliction!" He screamed. Everything around him became bathed in light and heat. His body radiated the power of the sun.
***
Aliviana watched as Hadrian Sol, the most feared man outside The Orders ranks glowed like the very sun that shone upon her. It was odd a minute ago he seemed to be taking things so lightly only to change in an instant. No sense dwelling on that now. She couldn't move due to the injury to her leg. If she didn't figure something out soon it would be over.
She tried shooting him again but of course, that didn't work. The bullets either melted upon contact with the blaze that was Hadrian's body or simply didn't make it past the heat itself.
Her situation was dire but she had been through worse. The solution lay buried somewhere in her mind. There's always a way out, she just had to find it. She didn't escape the clutches of the order only to be killed so soon.
Aliviana was stubborn, an attack like that wasn't going to kill her. She wouldn't allow it. Her lips formed a straight line, her eyes shut. The problem lies not in the molten sand below. It was with the heatwave. Somehow she needed a way to avoid being cooked. Ideas came and went as Hadrian's body increased in temperature, it turned orange, and finally to white. She could no longer see him clearly due to the heat contorting the air that surrounded his body. Her time was running out, his white figure was beginning to shine like the sun, it was hard to look at. Only seconds remained when something finally clicked.
Her mind had drifted for a moment as it always did in situations like this. She dreamt of the life she'd wished to lead. A normal life, one without fighting, without war. She'd like to have a home and a family. instead of listening to the chaos of battle she'd like to hear her children scream as she vacuumed the floor while her husband had the television turned all the way up, failing to listen over the anarchy of having a family.
Her solution was a simple one, a vacuum, not one for cleaning floors obviously. she'd need to create a vacuum around herself. Heat can only travel through the means of conduction, through solid matter, or convection, through liquids or gases. If there is no medium for the heat to travel it would be rendered useless.
That would be impossible for some but Aliviana held dominion over the air, similar to Hadrian's affinity to the sun, hers was to the wind. Everyone was different and powerful in their own way. The limits lie only with that of their imagination.
Now that she had solved the problem it was on to the next. Getting off of the ground. This was the easy part. Just recently she had mastered a technique, it was, in its simplest terms, the ability to levitate. After she had formulated her plan all that was left was to enact it. So she waited. Her stomach was in knots but not because she was nervous, she was actually excited. She got to face the Phantom himself. The one man that defied the order at every turn. He and his two siblings were known as the holy trinity. Each one of them, outlaws on the run from the order but Hadrian by far eclipsed his siblings in terms of fame. If a hunter were to bring one of them in they would be set for life and probably regarded as the best ever. Unfortunately, she was no longer a hunter. It was very possible that she would be dead in a few minutes but to die at the hands of such an opponent would be fitting. Better than being brought in by The Order and far better than suffering at the mercy of their Alchemists. Small droplets of sweat began to wet the sands beneath her, one droplet, then two, then three until Aliviana realized she had become distracted by her thoughts. The air was heating up rapidly around her and Hadrian's body was pure white now, emanating light as if he were the sun. She had almost forgotten about the task at hand just because of her wandering mind.
The Phantom uttered two words and the world disappeared, being replaced by white light and heat. She quickly constructed the vacuum in a small radius around herself and manipulated the air beneath her. Her small frame lifted off the ground just as the heat wave came in the form of the sand transforming into molten orange and yellow liquid. Her plan worked perfectly. The ground beneath her was no longer solid, it looked as if she was hovering over lava but beyond that nothing was visible. For a moment it seemed that she may actually be dead, nothing could be seen but pure white light. A second later the light disappeared and a wave of nausea rolled in. The vacuum was gone, the heat came and the world had fled. Maybe she had died after all.
Everything went black.