"I can't say that I know everything about this subject, but one of the..."
"Wait, wait, wait!" Hai interrupted Mac. "What do you think you are doing? We are literally fighting right now! Why did you suddenly start talking?"
Hai was giving her best, trying to keep herself focused. But the man in front of her kept changing the mood of the battle and confusing her.
Mac, in turn, did not take offense to the interruption. "Yes, I do that." He said. "So anyway, moving on. 15 years ago, the year that you and I were born, around the four main realms, hundred and hundreds of a very special type of people were born."
Hai did not care about what Mac was talking about anymore. She attentively observed Mac leisurely talking, and she made a decision. She would defeat him this instant as his guard was down.
Mac continued. "You may be asking how I know of such things..."
She was not. Instead, she stealthily formed a small ball of fire and launched it at him, aiming for his head. Sadly, Mac easily avoided and continued talking, seemly unbothered. He must have been in a really good mood.
"Let's just say that I have a knack for getting myself into some very specific situations..." He said, starting to get nostalgic.
Hai didn't bother holding back. She attacked with multiple balls of fire. But Mac avoided them masterfully. He did get hit by some, though. After all, there were dozens of those things flying around. But he just brushed them off. They were too small to do considerable damage in small numbers.
Hai did not give up and prepared another round of attacks. But what she failed to realize was that when Mac was dancing around her fireballs, he was actually getting closer to her.
Mac took his chance and dashed towards her, kicking her in the stomach just like before.
Hai stumbled backward once more but did not fall to her knees. She stood proudly and prepared another attack.
"That is quite irresponsible of you, you know?" Mac was directly calling her out. "Using so much of your fire powers, I mean. With this show of lights that you are providing, I wouldn't be surprised if we were noticed by some... undesired guests."
Those words did have an effect on Hai, and she hesitated. He was right (She felt disgusted thinking that). At some point, her main objective changed from stopping Mac from bothering the invaders to just beating him up in a fight. She wouldn't take the risk of alerting the invaders herself, so she stopped using her fire powers.
But how could she defeat Mac without her fire powers?
That question did not cross her mind, as she immediately attacked Mac with punches and kicks.
"Great, now I don't have to worry about your long-range attacks." Mac was completely unaffected by Hai's moves. If they hit him, perhaps, he could go down in 10 or 20 punches. But to Hai's surprise, Mac was dodging and redirecting her blows with perfection. She had trouble telling because of the darkness of the night, but she could swear Mac's eyes were closed.
"Now, where were we? Oh yeah! I was talking about how I always somehow end up in complicated situations." There was a bitter tone in his voice. "I mean, I literally just found one Chosen as I was going to the beach. I think that my luck has only gotten worse with time."
Hai was getting tired from her continuous movements, so she stepped back and started to think. An idea came to mind. "Perhaps I can lower his guard if I go along with his talk." She thought. "Yes! I am sure I can fool him that I am actually interested. I could use the time to rest too."
"Ok then, intruder." She said amidst heavy breathing. "Why don't you talk about some of the adventures that you have because of your luck."
Hai never learned how to be subtle.
Mac could not help but laugh out loud before such an obvious tactic. "Well, it's just the usual." He said. "Ghost hunter, delivery quest through mystical lands and being forced to travel around to help/recruit random Chosen ones. But that is not really what I want to talk about."
"... Wait, what did I really want to talk about again?"
"What being a Chosen one meant," Hai answered.
"Ah, that is right! So anyway, being a Chosen one means that you will have to fight others like you." He said it just like that.
"Hm!? Wait, why do I have to fight other people?" She said. "And how are you so confident that I am a Chosen anyway? You looked at me and just assumed that I was one of those Chosen."
Hai was ready to attack again. She just needed to find an opening to strike.
"Oh geez! I wonder why someone would think that you are special." Mac said while crossing his arms and looking her up and down. "Have you ever looked at a mirror (Do you guys have mirrors here?)? In what type of village, at the fricking corner of the world, would someone find someone as weird as you?"
"Well, you are one to talk!" For some reason, Hai felt compelled to antagonize Mac. " You are way weirder than me. Are you a Chosen one then?"
"Ha, I do look like one, don't I?."Mac seemed to enjoy being confronted. "I am aware that I can be very weird, thank you very much, but I can assure you that I am not a Chosen. I am, in fact, a Challenger."
"What!? There are more?" Hai was becoming more confrontational. "You are making this story up, arent you?"
"Nope, it is just that there are a lot of things to explain." He got tired just thinking about it. "But let's leave that for later. I mean, what the heck are you? From my experience, the Chosen ones always have something odd about them, as if they were the protagonists of a wuxia story with an unfair advantage."
"What kind of advantages are you talking about?"
"Waaaay too much for my liking. It is, like, everyone has some weird gimmick that you have to watch out for. And from what I can tell, yours are related to fire. I mean, your usual cultivator wouldn't be able to do what you do."
Hai hesitated. She did not want to talk about her powers with someone like Mac. She tried once again to find openings on his guard, but after Mac overpowered her last time, she was not confident of it. She tried to control the course of the conversation.
"Have you met other cultivators?" She tried.
"A lot of them, actually. But anyway..." He did not take the bait. "The origin of your powers... Don't tell me it has something to do with the Crimson Coast!"
Hai's whole body shook. She covered her face trying to hide her expression. "N-no... Of course not. You are wrong!"
"Hahaha, that is cool, that is cool. We all have our own secrets, so I won't bother you if you don't want to talk about it." Mac suddenly remembered why he was here. "Yeah, we all have our secrets." He subconsciously reached for his dantian area. He sometimes liked to forget and ignore his own secrets.
That was it! That was the time for Hai to attack. Mac weakly lowered his arms and seemed to be lost in his thoughts. She wouldn't find a better chance.
But...
Was it ok for her to attack him now? After talking with Mac for a while, he was not what she was expecting, and besides, he was probably able to defeat her in an instant, but he did not. Perhaps they could talk it out.
"Hey, Mac, are you ok?" She said his name for the first time.
Mac looked at Hai and was happily surprised. He was expecting that she was going to attack him. Perhaps she was only stupid and missed her chance, but Mac chose to believe that she was being friendly. And so, he answered accordingly.
"Yeah, I am ok I guess. It is just that my Small Orbis is broken, you see." Mac felt no shame in talking about it. "I don't know if you know what a Small Orbis is, but..."
"No. I know what a Small Orbis is." Hai looked at Mac with pity. She was faintly aware of how important the Small Orbis was to humans. If she wasn't mistaken, the lack of one may actually shorten the lifespan of an individual. She was not sure by how much, though. "I was... told about it. Is that why you came here? Did you want to see if the beach could heal you?"
"Yeah, pretty much." Mac had a lot more to say, but he did not.
Hearing his answer, Hai entered into a dilemma. Should she help him? She did not need to. She didn't owe him anything. In fact, she should be doing her best to stop him. He was too dangerous. But there was something inside of her telling her that it would be ok if she helped him. She did not know what to do.
Mac did not move. He only waited for Hai to talk. He could run away from her towards the beach and just escalate the wall before she reached him if he wanted to. Perhaps Mac wanted to know what Hai was going to do now. Or maybe he did not want to see if he could be healed or not by the beach. Who knows? He certainly didn't.
"OK!" Hai clapped her hands to her cheeks. She had made a decision. "I will help you reach the Crimson Coast. But you have to promise me, that at any sign of trouble, we will immediately turn around and go back. Alright?"
She extended her hand. Hai felt that she was being responsible enough and that she wasn't betraying her true character.
Mac looked at Hai's hand and nodded. "I would rather resolve this conflict through violence, but what the hell?" He grabbed her hand and shook it. "This way is fine too."
Mac followed Hai's lead through the forest. She did not take a different path than him, but they still took longer to reach the wall. That was because Hai was being way more careful than Mac. Every once in a while, she would stop on her track and check her surroundings. She was so tense that she even got scared by a firefly.
On their way, Mac found his warhammer and unceremonially stored it on his back while Hai watched warily.
"We are here." She touched the wall and whispered. Her heartbeats were louder than her voice. "Now, what do we do?" Hai was too apprehensive to think.
"Well, I can break the wall with my weapon..."
"No breaking the wall with your weapon!" She squeaked. Hai could only see that idea going terribly wrong.
"Or we can escalate the wall and see if there is someone on the other side."
Hai pondered the idea for a moment while crouched and finally nodded. That was probably the best idea. She couldn't hear anything through the wall, and going up a 10-meter wall was no problem for people like Mac and her.
"But we need to go carefully." She said. "And only till we see the other side. No getting over the wall. Ok?"
"Ok." Mac was holding his laugh back. He thought that Hai was being way too cute. She would probably have a heart attack if he disobeyed her in this situation, though.
Silently, side by side, they escalated the wall. It wasn't hard, as the wall was poorly constructed, and there were many places where they could hold. But sometimes, there were some loose rocks on the way, and Hai would almost fall out of shock.
"We are almost there," Mac assured her. "Just a little more and... there it is!"
Mac lifted his head first, and he was greeted with salty air and a magnificent scene. He finally saw the sea and all its glory. And even through the night, he could see that the water was indeed red. It was a few tones lighter than Hai's hair, but it was still strong enough to own its name of Crimson Coast. Mac had seen his share of spectacular scenarios, but this one was still breathtaking
Hai finally managed to raise herself, and when she received the same reception that Mac got, tears started to flow out of her eyes.
"Oh... So it is still here." Her grasp on the edge of the wall weakened, and she almost fell. But luckily, Mac was fast enough to hold her back. "Thank y-."
But Mac signed for her to quiet down and pointed, not at the striking red water, but at the not-so-desert beach.
There, she saw four people. Three adults and one child that looked around ten years old.
Hai entered in panic at the sight of them. They were obviously part of the group that overtook their beach a few months back. She hastily grabbed Mac by the shoulders and said. "Let's go back."
"But we just..."
"Please, Mac." She pleaded with new tears in her eyes formed out of fear. "You promised!"
"Ok, ok. I am sorry." He said, going down the wall without sparing the group on the beach a second glance.
Hai was not satisfied just getting down the wall. She grabbed Mac's hand and ran into the forest, as far away as she could get.
Mac let her take him to wherever she was going. He was not behaving like a ragdoll this time. He was going with her out of his own will.
Soon enough, they reached the Sun Grow Tribe. It was already very late at night, so there was no one outside to be surprised by two running kids with weird hair that seemed to gleam in the dark. Hai led Mac into a particularly large tent, where she finally let go of his hand. She couldn't stop trembling.
"This was a mistake, this was a mistake..." She mumbled.
"You..." Mac tried to think of the right words to calm her down. "You did nothing wrong. It was my fault. I am sorry." Seeing Hai in that state, Mac felt genuinely bad. "They were a bit far away, so it is impossible that they actually saw anything." Mac also watched out for his body language. He wouldn't want her to think that he was taking the situation lightly.
"B-but... but..." Hai tried to talk. "Our hair. They may have noticed because our hair is too damn shiny."
Mac secretly sucked his tongue. She did have a point, but he was trying to assure her that everything was going to be ok. He didn't want to fuel her fears.
So then Mac kneeled in front of Hai, grabbed her by the shoulders, and looked directly into her eyes. "I am sure they did not see us." He said. "They have the whole red sea to gaze at after all."
Hai stared back at Mac's eyes, and her doubts and fears started to subside a little. "Are you sure?"
"Yes!" He said with a confident and calm smile. But internally, Mac wanted to joke about how their hair would make them look like a giant orange and a giant apple if they happened to be seen. But Mac decided to guard the joke to himself, to spare Hai's mental health.