Mac heard Hai's words and shook his head sadly. For someone like her to tell him something like that, Hai really had changed a lot since they met. And it has only been one night!
Mac watched around the Sun Grow Tribe in flames. "This is a good place for a fight." He thought. Mac was trying to calm his enraged mind by thinking about useless things. But he then looked at the two invaders that he had killed. They were both on the ground with their heads deconfigured. "Oh well!" he said as a creepy smile formed on his lips. At that moment, Mac was not filled with guilty or rage but with pure bliss.
That side of his that found pleasure in the demise of his enemies was a side that he was not ashamed of. It had been a long time since he was fazed by the gruesome deaths that he bought to his enemies.
Hai bid farewell to Miss Florinda and promised she would return to take the old lady and everyone to the Crimson Coast. They still had a chance to survive. But she had made a decision. She may have asked for Mac's help in dealing with the invaders, but she was not going to let him carry the burden alone. She wanted to fight by his side, and she would kill if needed.
Hai walked towards Mac but flinched in fear on the spot when she noticed Mac's expression. His smile was not that different from the ones he had when he made a dumb joke, but there was something different about his eyes. They were hardly looking forward as if ready to spot and analyze the next enemy for slaughter. Hai realized that was not the stare of a predator or a cornered animal. It was a stare only humans could have, as they were the only ones who could enjoy killing.
Mac saw how Hai had stopped walking and then touched his own face. It was like his expression was unlikely to change until he had his fun. "Creepy, isn't it?" He said. His words combined with his face sent a shiver down Hai's spine. "But this is what I do! So, what are you gonna do now?"
Hai forced herself to push her fear away and asked with determination. "Are you enjoying this?"
"Well, I guess one could say..." Mac said with a hyena laugh. "I am enjoying destroying them just as much as they are enjoying destroying your tribe. Is that perhaps too evil for you?"
Hai looked at the two pulverized invaders on the ground and turned to Mac again. The fate and demise of her village forced her to make a decision. She walked past Mac and said. "Fine by me! Just focus your killing on the enemy!"
Those words seemed to spark an even greater monster inside of him. "I will have to take you one on that!" He said with the same smile and ran alongside Hai, with his war hammer threateningly resting on one of his shoulders. They were looking for their next target.
It was not easy to move through the village. The heat emanating from the tents would harm one's sense of direction, and as every tent looked the same under the flames, it was hard for them to discover where they were.
"How can we even know where they are?!" Hai asked.
"It looks like the houses here are less burned than the ones we saw before!" Mac said. "That probably means that they came from the beach and that they destroyed everything as they passed! We are likely to find them if we keep going in the opposite direction of the Crimson Coast!" Mac could make reasonable suppositions even when he was out for blood. "But I had no idea where we are, so I will have to be depending on you to guide me to them!"
Hai promptly took the task. The heat barely bothered her, and she had lived in the Sun Grow Tribe for way too long to not notice where she was, even if the tents were showered in blazes. She carefully but rapidly paved her way as she led Mac.
They silently went their way, trying to notice something different among the crackles from the fire and the moans of pain from the tribals that they encountered.
It didn't take long. Mac finally glimpsed something odd and dashed towards it. He swiftly walked around a tent, and there he found more three invaders laughing.
Mac did not waste any time with introductions or planning. He jumped on them, and, with his war hammer, he smashed the face of the one closest to him. He died on the spot as Mac's weapon broke every bone in his way.
The other two noticed Mac right away. They hastily grabbed their spear and prepared to impale Mac. But unfortunately for them, they were greeted by a giant ball of fire. Hai did not react as fast as Mac, but she was still quick enough to save him.
Hai's attack may have looked powerful for an outsider, but it only momentarily knocked the two invaders down. They tried to get up to fight once again, but Mac did not waste his chance. With his war hammer over his head, he bought his oversized weapon down and smashed the chest of one of the invaders. He died just as fast as many before him.
Mac raised his war hammer again, but before he smashed the last invader, he flinched. The invader fell for his bluff and rolled out of the way. But when he noticed his final and fatal mistake, Mac had already cracked his skull with his weapon.
In just a few seconds, Mac took three lives. Throughout this whole ordeal, his smile grew bigger and creepier. He was only getting started.
Meanwhile, Hai's whole body shook as she realized that she had helped Mac with his killing. She could have stopped him. She could have made him not use lethal force, but she didn't! And as she looked at the body of the three invaders, the ones that were terrorizing and destroying her village with an even uglier smile than Mac's, she realized that she was not going to stop Mac next time either.
"If we can keep this pace..." Mac laughed. "We can deal with all of them. Even if there are more than one hundred of them!"
"Let's just end this might once and for-" But Hai was interrupted when she saw an invader hidden by flames.
"HEY! SOME OF US HAVE BEEN SNATCHED!" The man screamed. "COME HERE, EVERYONE!"
Hai twitched as she realized that they could not use surprise attacks anymore, but Mac, in turn, ran up to him and prepared to crack another skull. But something happened that made him stop. Nine other men appeared from the flames, not only with spears in their hands but also tribals. They were holding hostages!
"Well, isn't this great!?" Mac looked furiously at the invaders. "Is this some type of karma because I did that thing with Olito?"
Hai did not even move. She was too afraid of getting her neighbors killed.
Both Mac and Hai found themselves in a pitch. They not only were severely outnumbered, but the enemy also had hostages while they had left their bargaining chip behind.
"What the fuck is this?!" The tallest invader said. "Two kids killed three of our men?! How could this happen?!" He then took a good look at Mac. His eyes stopped at his orange curly hair. It was hard for him to see because of the flames, but he was sure he recognized him. "You... You are Mac Key Kast, aren't you?!" He took a step back. "What in the world are you doing here!?"
"What?! That is Mac Key Kast?! But he is just a kid!" Another invader said.
"You fool! Look at his hair! Have you ever seen someone who looks like that?!" The tallest invader said, pointing at Mac. "Besides, he just killed three of our members. He obviously isn't normal."
Hai looked at Mac's back as she heard the invaders talking. "Even them recognized you..." She muttered. "Mac, who are you?"
"Well, so what do we do then?!" Another invader started talking. "If he is here, doesn't that mean that the Hevies are with him?! Because if that is the case, we are all doomed!"
The ten invaders were all grown up men with years of experience who had killed and rampaged more times than they could count. But just the mention of "Hevies" was enough to dishearten their will to fight.
"No! That is not right!" The tallest invader mustered the courage to speak. "He is alone right now, look!" He was giving his best to encourage his companions, and he somehow managed to miss Hai. It was maybe because she camouflaged well while surrounded by flames. "We can take him alone! And then we can use him to get the other Hevies!"
"Yeah! That is right!"
"And don't forget that we also have hostages with us!"
"Do you think that he will stop for that?! I heard he was a monster!"
"So what if he doesn't stop?! He is just a kid, and we are ten! We can kill him instantly!"
The ten invaders cheered up in an instant. They had somehow managed to fool themselves that the situation was under control. But what they did not know was that Mac had his ways to deal with them.
Mac attentively examined his enemies. He did not care that he was outnumbered, as that was, in fact, good for him. The biggest problem, though, was that his enemies were motivated. But he quickly found his answer. His smile somehow grew wider. "This will not be hard." He muttered to himself.
"Quick, let's go get him!" The tallest invader spoke, at least.
They were preparing to attack, but they froze on the spot when Mac started to move. Just his existence was enough to impact their resolve.
Mac got himself in a weird stance. He turned sideways to the invaders and raised his war hammer. It was like he was playing golf, and his weapon was a golf club.
Hai looked at Mac with confusion. "There is no way he can deal with them all, right?" Hai scarcely dared to hope.
"Hey, what are you doing there?!" The tallest invader screamed as he tried to hide his fear. "If you dare to attack us, we will kill these savages here!"
The invaders, with their spears in one hand, pressed the tip of their weapons in the knecks of their victims. They were already harmed before Mac and Hai arrived, so they barely had the strength to muster resistance.
"Mac, do something!" Hai cried. At that moment, she realized that even though she had the strength to take the life of her enemies, she did not have the power to stop them from killing her companions.
Hai was about to fall into despair again, but something changed when she looked at Mac. Because of how he was holding his weapon, his arm covered his eyes from her view. She could only see his big and broad smile. For an instant, she thought everything was going to end up fine.
Before ten enemies armed that were way older than him, Mac did not falter. He strengthened the grip on the handle and swang it with all his might. "The moment that I move, they will kill the tribal." He thought. "So that means that I will have to be extra fast with my moves and connect them perfectly." The head of his weapon scraped the ground mid-swing. "I need to startle them a little first." His swing continued as strong as ever, but at some point, before everyone's eyes, the head of his war hammer broke up from the handle.
The tallest invader was about to pierce the neck of his hostage when Mac swung his weapon. He was too late to realize the head of the war hammer arriving for his face. Before anyone could react, the head of the war hammer made contact, and in an instant, the tallest invader was decapitated. As in, his head exploded with the impact.
For way too long, the other invaders watched the headless body dropping his trusty weapon on the ground. At that moment, a fifty-six old man, who had done and experienced thousand of different things in his long life, mercilessly had a horrific death. It was like nothing he ever did in his whole life meant anything.
But then again, it had been a long time since Mac was fazed by the gruesome deaths that he bought to his enemies. While the other invaders were watching their fallen friend, Mac raised the handle of his war hammer. There was no one to notice, as the invaders were distracted and Hai was still processing what happened, but Mac was not only holding the handle of a war hammer anymore. In the place where the head was supposed to be, was a spearhead. That spearhead was not the same as the invaders had in their spear. While theirs were made of flint, Mac's was made of a strange metal that shined in the flaming darkness.
No one had the chance to admire the beauty of the spearhead, as Mac, using the strength of his arms and back, threw the spear at one of the invaders. The spear traveled like lightning and hit the neck of one of them. The spear did not bother leaving a hole on the neck, as the weapon took the whole thing with it. Another invader was decapitated just like that.
The invaders screamed in terror. Many of them had seen their comrades fall in battle, but the way Mac had killed them was too much. One would need to only look at the neckless head Mac's spear had left behind. Some invaders could swear that they saw the eyes moving, helplessly looking around, unaware of the sudden death.
Hai looked in shock. The sudden casualties made her sick in the stomach. But if Mac could save the hostages, then she could live with it.
As the invaders froze in space, Mac's maniacal laughter woke them up. He may have been weaponless and defenseless at that moment, but the fear in the invader's heart was overflowing. Mac's plan worked. He had "startled" them. Now was the perfect moment for him to use his Hidden Will in their weakened minds. His maniacal laughter was just another tactic to scare them.
"You fools claim to have heard of me," Mac started to walk towards them slowly. Every move of his was planned to traumatize his enemies. "But I highly doubt that, as neither of you bowed to me and begged for your life!" Mac's head was slightly tilted, so then his bushy hair covered their view of his eyes. "Or perhaps, my deeds did not find their way to your ears. That would be, unfortunately." Mac looked up at them. If either of them survived this night, Mac's expression would torment even their nightmares for the rest of their lives. "But I am in a good mood, so I will give you guys that still have a head one last chance. Kneel before me, Third Hevi Mac Key Kast!"
And just like that, like many men before death, the invaders succumbed to despair.