The soothing breeze from the Eternal Sea, the faint but enriching smell of salt, and her also dear Crimson Coast under her delicate hanging feet. Ira wished she could have taken the day off to enjoy the true wonders of life. It was not very often she could take control of Hai's body, after all. Alas, her moral obligations had other plans for her.
Mac Key Kast. This curious, dangerous man Hai's age. Ira watched how the little hero blazed his way through the battle against the invaders and illuminated Hai's world the way she could never. And now, there they were, mid a hazardous battle.
Ira observed from the safety of a distance while Mac struggled from the beach. "Oh, how sad." She thought as she realized her new friend's predicament. "He desires for battle so much, but instead, with his powers, many and great as they can be, can not reach me."
How unfair and unpredictable the world could be, Ira wondered, somehow more innocent than Hai ever was. But so she heard Mac calling for her. "Hey hey hey, my dear friend Ira. My gal." He sounded weirdly funny to her. "What do you think about coming closer? This fight is gonna get stale real fast if you keep attacking me far away from my reach."
"I see." Ira understood a little more about the world through Mac's words. She could comply the same way the whole tribe did under the control of the invaders. Life demanded small sacrifices in every way, it seemed. "Very well, Mac Key Kast. I shall comply."
Ira moved ethereally like a ghost. It was like her fire wings were only decoration, for the flapping of her wings did not match her pace or stability.
Quickly she reached the space above the shore, where she had aimed for an even higher altitude when Ira realized she was getting too close to Mac. Through Hai's eyes, she remembered how Mac dealt in battles and how a true warrior fought. Ira's innate fears stopped her from complying that much.
What surprised her, though, was the constant buzzing coming from the trees edged with the beach. It was Hai's fellow tribe folks, incessantly voicing their complaints. At first, for no reason but her flaws, Ira believed they were talking about her but quickly figured out the truth when she listened to what they were saying.
"How shameless of you to trick her." Someone cried.
"Please, don't do that, savior." Another begged.
Ira felt a warm feeling in her heart when she felt the care of those people, although she also felt a conflicting weight on her mind hearing her first friend beside Hai bashed that way.
With her bare defenseless back turned to Mac, Ira descended to speak with the spectators of their battle. "Please, do not treat Mac Key Kast that way." She said. "I already am abusing so much of him for wishing to continue this fight. It is only fair that I oblige to his requests."
The people from the tribe did not dare to utter a word when Ira came closer to them, but their eyes filled with adoration after their new "goddess" finished speaking. Her sincerity and kindness washed away any complaints they could ever have at that moment.
Seeing the enthusiastic nods and bows her way, Ira felt this matter had been properly settled. She turned to face Mac once again.
His figure would always come to her mind when she thought of heroes. Despite his cracked skull, bulging left arm, and clothes covered in sand, there was a type of energy emanating from him. The mixture of mighty ego and earth-shattering will forged together made her breathless. It was a different type of adoration Ira felt for him. She would have loved to one day sit alongside him around the bonfire and hear the stories of his fabled infinite experiences, as she was sure Mac himself would love to share.
"I am sorry for taking your time." Ira set to the air, hovering dozens of meters above Mac. "And thank you for waiting for me to finish."
"Don't mention it." He shrugged and balanced his warhammer from one side to the other. "Can we resume the fight now?"
"Yes, we shall, right away!" Ira swallowed dry. No matter how highly she thought of Mac, she needed to win this fight. "I hope you can forgive me for keeping my distance, Mac Key Kast."
"Oh, Ira. You are too kind." Mac chuckled with his body. He allowed his warhammer to serve gravity with its head turned toward the ground. "I am probably not gonna enjoy hitting you..." and just like thunder, Mac slammed his weapon downward, causing an explosion way too big, and in the next instant, he skyrocketed straight up. "... much." He completed right in front of her, a little higher even, with his warhammer in his hands and ready to bash her."
The fright of a lifetime! Ira had not lived long enough to have experienced a change of tides so drastic as this one. With a broken and out-of-character scream, she instinctively closed her eyes and crossed her arms while shooting backward with unmatchable speed. She did not even see the mighty swing of the warhammer since she was too scared to look, and Ira preferred it that way.
She did eventually open her eyes, though, just in time to catch Mac landing back on the ground as his straitened legs pierced the sand like butter. He had submerged half of his body.
Ira once again had the chance to strike Mac down, and once again she did not. Her breathing was erratic and her face scalding red as she held her chest and felt her heart furiously beating to the rhythm of excitement and life. For once, Ira had not a bit of her natural charm that came from her purity and innocence. Instead, she now radiated a raw energy displaying frustration and weakness. And she loved it.
"Wow!" Ira was speechless, saved a word. "Wow!" She could not stay like though. "WOOOW!!!" She needed to work with what she had.
"Yes, I know." Mac forcefully plucked his body out of the ground while laughing. "I am amazing!"
She could not agree more. "Wow! You- I- Wow!" Her vocabulary was returning, but at incredibly slow pacing.
"So... Let's continue?" Mac, now free, put his weapon in the same position it was before he catapulted himself to the sky.
Ira sucked a mouthful of cold air and repeatedly slapped her face with both hands. There was no time to waste! Mac was about to do the same thing again, and it would probably still be terrifying, she believed.
With both hands closed in front of her, Ira prepared her own counter-attack. "...Burn time and space away!" She hurried the chant. The wall of fire came in response, but there was something different about it this time. It was smaller and relatively slower, even on the downfall. The density of the flames was also so frail that she could see the Mac through it, and he always confident smile.
In fact, she was almost glad her flames were weak enough to be see-through, for she was permitted to observe Mac in action and how he dealt with it.
Firstly, he jumped! Not away from the fire but toward it. And while still in the air, Mac branded his warhammer and swung it against her flames. The head of the weapon emanating the muddy purple aura washed everything on its path away, completely erasing the blaze it touched and its surroundings, giving Mac enough space to pass through the attack unscathed.
Ira almost left another "Wow," but she would need to hold onto it for a little longer, for Mac was only beginning with his juggling.
While the flames continued and melted the sand on contact, Mac, amidst his first jump, rolled his body into a front flip and smashed the glassy ground with his weapon before his own fall.
Another explosion formed, and the ground arose with it. Thousands of little sparks floated in the air, reflecting the light and creating a spectacle to behold. Although anyone who did that would miss Mac, launched at high speed.
He had not gone straight up this time; Ira noticed. Instead, he had deftly hit the floor at a broader angle, changing his trajectory to cover more ground than height. Mac probably did that because Ira had moved when she barely dodged his attack, so he needed to move too. And in just a few instants, Mac was already under her.
Ira wanted to move away in fear, but curiosity won her over. She was appalled as Mac was still not done showing off.
The explosion had sent him in an arch above the sand, barely one meter over it. When Mac noticed he was already under his destination, he forcefully kicked the ground with both feet, making a complete stop but also sending him in multiple spirals on the air. And before he landed again, Mac used the momentum from the spins and the weight of his body to force his warhammer against the sand with increased power. And straight up, he followed Ira for another confrontation.
She would not allow it, however, as she, like many, could not afford to trade direct blows with Mac. Ira tried to go for a higher altitude and barely dodged the swing of his hammer when Mac reached the highest point of that one trip. The weapon had come close to her feet. Not enough to tear them off, but just enough for Ira to experience the effects of the purple aura directly against her body.
It was a horrible and disgusting feeling. Ira could not exactly use the word painful to describe it, but dreadful worked adequately. It was as if her own feet had dried up, not only from blood but from energy and her own control. She worried her legs would rot and feel off at that rate. Luckily, it did not come to that: As her condition did not worsen or spread to the rest of her body.
Ira could not help but look at Mac as he lost the fight against gravity, wingless but never helpless. Her respect and fear for him grew as she understood little by little the powers he had and the mastery to utilize them at maximum capacity. It felt presumptuous how she and Hai thought they could help him, especially against his will.
But Ira knew they needed to do it. If not only for their moral code but so for the bond they build with him. They would answer Mac's stubbornness with their own!
In a revitalized spirit, Ira turned to the falling Mac and, with both hands side by side, flipped him off again. "Screw you too!" She reused this "chant" as a trigger to recreate the two ropes of fire, which descended upon Mac.
She heard him laughing maniacally in response, as he was in a free fall with hell plunged after him. Ira then saw Mac twisting and rolling as if amidst a hurricane. The speed of his wild rotation increased until Ira's attack came close enough for him to use the momentum to continuously bash the long snakes of fire with his warhammer to the point where they could not close on him. By the time Mac crashed on the sand, Ira's fire was completely obliterated.
The fall was far greater than the last one, and because Mac did not have the luxury to prepare for the landing, ending up buried deep enough to cover his entire body. From the heights, Ira only saw the head of his warhammer sticking out from the messy crater. She allowed herself to hope the battle had reached its conclusion there, but any trace of hope evaporated just like her flames when Mac hulked his way out of the ground laughing and coughing.
"Now, this is what I call a climax, Ira!" He drunkenly stumbled his way out of the hole, dragging his oversized hammer. "I hope you still have it in you to continue. It seems your flames are losing their sparkle, after all."
"Of course someone of his level would notice it." Ira felt Mac's flex deeply.
That was the true weakness of her powers. Ira's flames were severely limited when compared to Hai's. They may be more deadly, but they also exhausted much faster. Ira feared she only had a few more shots before her wings collapsed and her powers quenched.
"You are often correct, Mac Key Kast!" Ira's statement forced him out of character and to stare at her like she was crazy. "I am sorry that I may not be able to entertain you much longer. I will need to seal our fate soon enough!" She had not lost all hope yet.
"Well, that is too bad that I always have to be right," Mac returned to his frenzy state as he laughed. "Don't tell Hai, but you were relatively more fun to face. So let's go and fight until one of us drops-." His words halted, and his eyes lost focus, and then he dropped. Face first. Buried into the sand.