It was a weird sensation to be surrounded by her own fire. Since the ripe age of ten, when Hai first learned she could produce and control the fire from her hands, she never knew she could use it this way. She could not say she liked it, though.
It was taxing and demanding to keep her fire vibrant and firm for so long after conjuring it. And the fact the wild and unstable nature of her Sun Grow made her inclusion unwelcomed did not help to warm her to the situation. But she would not leave. Not when she held an advantage against Mac.
Hai was so proud of herself for coming out with this brand new idea in the heat of the battle and in the middle of her beating. She had created her own stronghold, with walls that she could easily shape at her will. And if she timed her control of the flames masterfully, she could even attack from within her improvised move. It was a perfect idea, if you ignore all the drawbacks, of course.
A cluster of harmless flames bathed her view, leaving no space for the outside world. Hai needed to constantly swipe the red away to find her opponent, which tired her mental strength. And there was also the fact that even though Mac was terrifying when he ran towards her, not knowing where he was at all times was even more nerve-breaking.
Luckily for Hai, her flames lacked heat as much as they lacked sound, and by keenly her senses, she could hear Mac's steadies steps on the soft sand. She was able to assert his general location with ease.
Even though Hai wished she had the time for a more efficient surprise attack, she had a gut feeling that Mac would not be fooled for much longer and would quickly guess her current location. Mac acted like a simpleton most of the time, but she had already seen how his mind does wonders in a fight.
Feeling threatened by what Mac could do alone, Hai decided that she might as well shoot him with quick balls of fire to see how things played out, but she started to regret it soon after.
Hai was happy that her attack seemed to go through Sun Grow with no issue and without losing its power. The real problem was that her spells apparently missed since only the sound of upraised sand came from her shots, which was weird as she did not hold back on the quantity.
She did not know how even Mac could have avoided so many surprise attacks so fast. The only thing she understood was that now Mac certainly knew where she was, which was only a little less frightening than the question if he knew or not.
Once again, Hai desperately pushed her audition to the maximum, trying to identify where Mac had landed after dodging her quick flames. The lack of sound or reaction made her shiver in place, and sweat went down her forehead. The fear that surged of not knowing what Mac was doing bombarded her again.
"Where are you?" She murmured. Everything was too quiet. She wondered if her fellow tribals were as tense watching them fight as she was now. But then, a loud THUD came from behind her, in the opposite direction of where Mac was previously. The scare was so big that Hai accidentally formed flames inside her mouth as an instantaneous reaction, almost making her gag before she dissipated them. She did not even know she could do that.
"Wh-WHAT!?" Hai coughed and turned her body. With her arms raised, she shot a rapid bomb of fireballs at where the sound came from, and she missed once again.
Hai wanted to cry when the dreadful silence returned. The good news to calm her mind was that the Sun Grow was fortified enough to stand Mac's blows, but the bad news was that the sound from his impacts severely shook her mentally.
Another THUD came to erect every fiber of hair in her body, but this time Hai controlled herself and remained still. She could not afford to waste her fire and energy like that. In her mind, Mac was probably joking around with her, just mindlessly hitting her fort to try it out. She slowly replaced her scrawly fear with frustrated fury. She needed to get back at him.
Breathing the faint air that somehow infiltrated her not-so-safe space, Hai barely reacted to the subsequent THUDS. She was growing anxious, fearing that Mac would somehow break her walls sooner or later, so she forced herself to think fast for a rebuke.
There was a tinge of trauma inside her that did not really see where Mac was. Hai imagined how terrified she would be if the first thing she saw when she looked outside her stronghold showed Mac's all-knowing eyes. No, her little heart could not take it. She needed to hit him without seeing and also without hearing since her audition proved to be unreliable.
"If you have the foresight to sidestep my every move," The answer finally came to her. "Then let's see how you behave when there is nowhere else to dodge!"
Hai wasted no time and proceeded to prepare for her next move. She swiftly clapped her hands, focusing her powers on her palms. The insides of the Sun Grow made it awkward for her, but not impossible. When she gradually opened her hands, a thick cord of fire connected them. After cutting the direct connection with her body, the line of fire expanded on its own, forming a circle around Hai's body. Ring Of Fire, she called when she sorrowfully could not think of a better name.
The moment another THUD surged, Hai activated her new move. The Ring Of Fire extended to her sides at a similar speed to her fireballs, successfully leaving the Sun Grow. And to her surprise and splendor, she actually hit him.
As a freshly awoken child on Christmas day, Hai excitedly tore the fire off her face like a gift wrapping to see her present. And what a present that was. Mac Key Kast: the man who juggled her disgust, worry, gratitude, and companionship so many times in a single night, finally brought down to his ass, knocked down by Hai-made flame. She did not know victories, even such small ones, could taste so sweet.
Hai was so overwhelmed with joy and pride that she almost dissolved her Sun Grow entirely, but luckily, she remembered what this fight was all about.
"WAIT!!! WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING!?" Hai screamed internally as Sun Grow reacted proportionally. "I am supposed to be fighting him because that was the only way he would hear me, not to massage my ego!" For a moment there, it was as if the thickened flames of the Sun Grow turned into materialized shame.
But, just as usual, Mac cleaned off her worries, or he at least changed them. "I didn't expect that from you, Hai." His laughter hooked Hai's attention. "Guess I need to get serious now."
Not even a cultivator could sound that threatening to Hai, even if Mac would not get up from the sand. His clean smile had a different effect on those who knew him.
Acting accordingly to her instincts, Hai refused to waste this one-in-a-million chance to attack Mac while he was down. Yes, it was disgraceful, but what could she do but create the best ball of fire she could in the shortest amount of time and launch it at him?
Well, even if that was the best she could come up with, it was still not enough for Mac. As if in top form, the fifteen-year-old expertly rolled backward to avoid the assault, and as for the style points, he used the shockwave from the impact to launch himself into the air and land flawlessly after a flip.
Hai watched Mac from her fire nest, gaping, half amazed and half horrified. But she went all horrified when Mac sprinted toward her, quickly closing the space he created with his little circus trick.
Displaying her evolution in battle, Hai avidly swung her left arm to close the opening in the Sun Grow and, at the same time, stuck her right arm to attack.
Even if her latter attempt proved fruitless, as Mac easily dodged with a twist of his body, her former move confirmed to be the right choice, as it had stopped Mac's counter.
More fireballs continually blasted as Hai was ready for a battle of attrition. But how naive she was to think she was safe if she stayed in her fortitude. To scare the flame down her throat, the moment one of her attacks left the Sun Grow, a hand followed after, grabbing for her head. Mac somehow had broken into her safe space.
She struggled, kicked, punched, and "fired," but the grip was too hard, and it seemed the bewilderment had momentarily scared her strength away. Hai was helpless as Mac dragged her by the head to the outside world. She felt so at the mercy of his opponent that Sun Grow finally faltered, together with a sizeable chunk of her hope. "How?" She muttered while Mac let her fall face first on the sand.
"Well, you know. I just used my brain a little bit." Mac crouched near her defeated body. His snaggy laughter sounded more annoying than ever. "I tried to figure out how I couldn't hit you inside your beach ball while you didn't need to hold back on the fireballs. So you can understand how I concluded that you softened the defense of your Sun Grow so your attack could go through. With that in mind, I tried fisting through the last place a fireball came from before you hardened it again."
Hai did not move from the ground. "Fair." She could only grunt in frustration. At least she lost because Mac found her weakness and not because he completely overpowered her every move.
"Oh c'mon, don't be like that." It seemed that Mac was trying to cheer her up. The condescending patting did not help, though. "You did really well for a kid."
"You are a kid too!" She stuck her head out of the sand. "We are the same!"
"Hehehe. No, we are not." Mac was even more condescending when he pinched her nose playfully. "I told you. I am on a completely different level."
Hai watched as Mac freed her nose and got back on his feet. When he turned his body toward her Crimson Coast, she genuinely considered that Mac would rush there and take a dive because he was just that annoying in her mind. But no. He just stood there, enjoying the salty breeze.
"Completely different level." She repeated through tired breaths. That was true. There was no way for her to deny him. If she couldn't defeat his broken and exhausted self while at her best, when could she? "Maybe he does have infinite experience." Hai found it much easier to accept her defeat that way.
And if Mac was truthfully a being that had lived infinite lives infinite times, who was she to think she knew better than him? Hai was just a tribe girl, ignorant of the outside world. How could she compare to someone perfect?
"Huh, perfect?" Hai suddenly awakened from her self-pity party. The concept of "Mac" and "Perfect" contrasted so violently in her mind that she could not physically or mentally entertain the idea that Mac was such a superior being.
How could he be, after all the damage and mistakes he accumulated in a single night, that different from her? Mac was flawed, dangerous to himself and others, and above all, beatable! And she was ready to beat him down if it meant she could force him to accept her help.
When Hai had steeled her vows, she realized she was already on her feet, facing Mac, who was now between her and the Crimson Coast.
"What? Do you seriously want more?" Mac said, watching her over his shoulder without a tinge of worry in his voice.
Ignoring Mac's taunts, Hai worried over her body, and energy still left. There was still power left for a couple more overwhelming moves like Sun Grow, but then that was it. She needed to make it count.
Hai thought hard about her next move while Mac patiently and arrogantly awaited. She was unusually calm, and the reward for it came almost instantly in a flash. Probably her best idea yet to make full use of Mac's weaknesses. She laughed maniacally with her arms to the sky. It was undeniable now: Mac's craziness had rubbed off on her, and she loved it!
As if her laughter was contagious and not worrying, Mac started laughing too. He wiped a tear from his eyes when he stopped moments after Hai did. "What?" He asked, genuinely clueless.
With a grin as a response, Hai thrust her palms into the soft sand. She was putting her last plan into motion. It was all or nothing now because she was sure she would be completely empty at the end.
Suddenly, consecutive posts of fire erupted from the sand. The pillars started from both Hai's sides, where she had previously buried her hand, and followed a straight line in Mac's direction. The fire went as high as a tree and worked as giant walls.
As expected, the ever-arrogant Mac did not move out of the way and blissfully left the pillars of fire to trap him as Hai's move went past him.
"Pretty neat." He said like a parent would say when their child showed them something entirely unimpressive they made. "What will you call it?"
"I have literally no idea!" Hai screamed while she was preparing the next step of her plan. She was tightly holding her hands close to her slightly tilted body while trembling, getting ready for the most challenging fire of her life. "Will you help me name it when we are both taking a swim in the Crimson Coast?" She smiled brightly with a red and sweaty face.
Mac laughed with his throat. He was about to make his version of a "clever" comeback when he realized what Hai was planning. He looked towards the sea, and as he anticipated, Hai's pillars of fire continued strong, even after meeting the red water.
"I see. You are not trying to knock me out anymore." Mac nodded in approval. "You are going to direct push me into the sea. I can respect that."
Hai smiled cheekily, proud of her scheme, even if Mac had figured it out. She would not say it, but being pushed to her limit by her opponent gave her ecstasy. "You can bet your ass I am gonna drown you, Mac!" Hai released her full power.
It wasn't a fireball that came out of Hai's extended hands but a continuous and monstrous blast of fire that completely filled the space between the pillars of fire. Hai wondered if such attack could take out a cultivator, but she was sure she would be killed a thousand times by one before she could actually cast one. Luckily her enemy now loved to be a sitting duck.
Mac completely disappeared from her view after she released her unnamed and most mighty flame. Hai could feel her conscience leaving her body alongside her energy with every moment she kept her fire, but she would be dammed if she forgot the smile Mac had before she lost sight of him. The fear motivated Hai to stand there, attacking until she passed out.
Merely five excruciating seconds had passed when Hai realized something. Her vision may have been blurred, but she could swear that she was seeing her flame fly high into the sky. It was no wonder that her control of the fire was flimsy now that she was so close to her edge, but it wasn't supposed to be by that much!
The so usual terror that Hai was so close to now returned. "He is doing something." She did not have the energy to say. She could only keep pouring the rest of her fire as she watched her attack redirected to the sky earlier and earlier. "He is getting closer."
And then she saw it, or at least she thought she did: Mac Key Kast, like a cockroach, crawling to her feet. She was not really sure how he did it, but he was pressing the side of his body against the sand and using his tilted back to divert her poorly controlled flames. "How much do you not want to be healed?!" Hai almost cried before receiving a clean uppercut.
The head jolted backward with a snap: Something had broken, but weirdly enough, Hai was keenly aware of her surroundings. Every spark of fire died out, both inside her and outside. She was completely dried out, in too many senses to quote.
Hai stubbornly lowered her head. Everything was so painless and quiet that she feared she was dead. Before her, she saw Mac's face, and she could not discern his features for some reason. His eyes, nose, lips, and imperfections did not register in her mind. It was all just a blur. But she knew it was Mac because his bright and bushy orange hair was still perfectly discernable. Her flames had disappeared, and Mac was still standing. It was her loss.
NO!!! A spark shined in her half-closed eyes. It was not a spark of flames but a spark of her will. Hai tried to strike with her hands, but they were held firmly by Mac's arms. She was so weak that she could not even overpower his broken arm.
A feature finally made itself discernable to her in Mac's face. His fucking annoying smile. "Enough?" She did not hear it, but she was sure that was what it meant.
"Never!" The spar in her eyes shined more as she screamed. Hai jolted her head back out of her volution this time, and when she went as far as she could, she returned with a headbutt. She had kindly delivered a new crack to Mac's skull.
Regretfully, Hai started to feel pain again as her head hurt with sharp pain, but she was sure Mac was worse, for she saw how his smile shaped into something else. But perhaps she was still delusional because the smile soon returned to his face. And that was not the only thing that had returned. Hai finally passed out from Mac's own headbutt.
Everything was extremely confusing as Hai phased in and out of reality constantly. At first, Hai thought it was a dream, a lovely and comfortable dream where someone carried her through the sands in the direction of her so dear Crimson Coast. But when the pain and the senses returned, Hai started to see the bigger picture.
She had lost. Completely and ultimately destroyed. She had done her best and more but still failed. And now, the one who had beaten her kindly dragged her through their battlefield to be healed, for she had lost.
"Oh, you are already awakened." She heard the always unperturbed voice. "That was really fast, damn. You must have some type of healing factor. Good for you."
They stopped less than a meter away from the water. "Well, this is it. You have lost."
No! Her weak body contorted faintly. She could not say anything, but her feeble arm cliched to Mac's, unwilling to let go.
"Hey, Hai. I am serious here. You lost." There was something special in his voice. A mysterious and controlling power she had experienced before. The Hidden Will.
But Hai was not the same girl Mac had met earlier last night. Not even a cultivator shared her resolve and stubbornness. Against all odds, she raised her head to look at Mac and proclaimed. "No!"
"Heh." His smile was showier than the sun. The next thing she knew, she was thrown high above the sea. "You will make a great Hevi!"
The conscious was scaping Hai once again, but she still had the willpower for a last thought, a request if you will. "Ira, are you there? Please, I beg of you. Finish what I could not. Help my friend and our savior!" The passed-out Hai fell into the soothing red sea.
And as such, the duel between the Hevi and the Bird ended. With the Hevi coming out on top.