Hana gleefully spun the wrecking ball in wide, sweeping arcs, like a child playing with a toy tied to a string. Her laughter echoed through the training ground, light and carefree—completely at odds with the lethal weapon in her hands.
Maxi stared, drenched in sweat and dread.
("What am I even supposed to do? There's no way out of this. I'm going to die.")
Panic pushed his legs into motion. He dashed backward, trying to create distance. But Hana, ever unpredictable, simply raised her other arm and dragged her second chain into the arrow wound on her stomach. With a grunt and a gleeful exhale, she pulled out a second wrecking ball just as massive, just as deadly.
She panted, finally showing a hint of exertion. "Whew! Still not used to how much energy that sucks out of me..."
Then she blinked at Maxi with a sweet, terrifying smile. "Hold on, Maxi! I need a little snack to regain my energy."
Maxi blinked. "A what—?"
She spun both wrecking balls wildly in place to keep him at bay, then turned around and tryed to spin them behind her but she failed then wrecking balls then fell to the ground
"Dang it i always was bad at this but hy maxi you don't mind if I keep on trying right?" Hana asked with sharp smile
Maxi steped back as he annualized her as he thought (I mean what other choice do I have getting a free shout off would be useful but I think letting her do this since she bad at this she could be proun to mistakes which could let to more opportunities to take advantage"
Maxi sigh "what other choice do i have"
Hana laughed "zero good see you know"
She smiled and tried spinning the twrecking balls behind her again, but she kept on failing.
It kinda gave Maxi some time to breathe, so he took a deep breath to calm himself, but he only took one deep breath so he could calm his mind and not calm his adrenaline. He still needed that.
After a few more tries, Hana finally managed to spin the wrecking ball behind her, but it wasn't perfect. Every few seconds. The wrecking ball left an opening, but it wasn't enough for him to run in guns blazing. In fact, it was enough for him to take any opportunity at all.
Well, at least at the angle that maxi was at
As Hana finally managed to spin the wrecking ball behind her, restricting the way Maxi could, so with her safety mostly assured, she walked towards the wall and she made an indent. When she reached it, she then seemingly did something to the metal wall, putting her face into the metal wall.
"Now for my snack, " she said
Maxi jumped back even more as he seemed to have underestimated the sheer velocity and rang of the wrecking ball.
They whipped him with a whooshing hum—cold death brushing against his cheek.
She wasn't joking. She was eating the wall.
("She's… absorbing the metal? No wait she said snack right so she's probably consuming it for energy or maybe something else like healing or powering up. Gosh dang, i can't see clearly due to her back obscuring my vision but still all logic points towards 3 options so?")
("Noted.")
("That's could be dangerous.")
The spinning balls kept her rooted in one spot—safe for the moment. He took the chance to breathe, then to think.
("If she recharges, I'm done for. I need to do something now—something big. I have to draw more of her abilities out. That's the only way I'll know how to even start forming a real plan.")
He closed his eyes and took one long, deliberate breath, then opened them—calm but wild. A broken, crooked smile tugged at his lips.
As a plan had formed in his head
(If I can't take advantage of this angle, then I will just have to look at it from a different one from a different perspective completely and what better perspective gives more advantages than a bird's-eye perspective?)
Then he charged straight at the spinning wrecking balls.
("Let's make this count.")
Hana didn't stop him. She was still chewing and chopping down on the metal wall.
Maxi waited, timing the archer of the wrecking ball perfectly. At the exact moment it swung toward him, he leapt—landing on top of it—and used its momentum to launch himself upward.
High into the air, he pulled out an arrow and drew it taut.
Then he saw her clearly—eating a chunk of wall, completely distracted.
He released.
Thwip—THUNK!
The arrow struck her in the shoulder, forcing her to stumble. One wrecking ball slipped from rhythm. The spinning stopped.
Maxi began falling, aimed directly at her. He tensed.
("I could stomp on her shoulder for more impact… but no. She's still a child. A cute, demon child, sure… but a child nonetheless.")
That was all we'd go in though, as Maxi had to rely on the fact that Hana was bad at spinning her wrecking balls back and the hope that Hana hadn't recovered enough energy yet.
But who was to say she was going to spin them back? Words? She could spin them in the air directly from where he was falling? Or who was to say she hadn't already recovered her energy and would just swat him out of the air like he was flying, so all Maxis could do was pray to his gods that none of those situations were a case.
Luckily for him, his prayers were seemingly answered.
Hana did not recover in time nor did she have enough time to anticipate where maxi was to center attack, and even if she did have all these advantages, the arrow that was on her shoulder would make it significantly more difficult for her to perform a counter-attack.
So, with the god's luck on his side, Maxi twisted midair to avoid the arrow in Hana's shoulder. He kicked off her back instead. The tear force of the kick's impact, perpetuated by the momentum, forced her to stager on her knees as he jumped off her back, and he rolled to safety.
Behind him, Hana laughed.
She yanked the arrow from her shoulder, then ripped off a piece of the wall with her bare hand.
"Nice shot, Maxi!" she said through a grin, blood trickling down her arm. "If I'm this impressed, imagine how big brother Techxin or even Colen feel right now!"
She ate the chunk of metal in her hand.
She bit into it easily as if, it was made of fine white bread. Then she swallowed, the chains connected to her arms thickened. The wrecking balls grew—now each one nearly the size of a full-grown man.
Maxi stared, heart racing.
("She can inject whatever metal she eats into her weapons. She's feeding her chains more mass to make it more powerful.")
("Noted.")
Then she tilted her head and smiled. "Hey Maxi, you might want to jump."
His eyes widened. "Wait, what—?"
She spun both wrecking balls into the air—not toward him, but toward each other.
In that moment, he saw something strange: the chains that connected to her arms began to ripple with orange and red, like veins of molten lava. The color surged from her hands to the wrecking balls.
Maxi's eyes locked on the scene. Then suddenly, memory overlaid with reality.
A flashback struck him like lightning.
He was just a kid, watching a fun science video in his past life.
Bang
The breaking of glass could be heard in the background, but then something interrupted it
A cheerful voice draged his Focus towards a screen
The man said, "Hey V sauce here! Watch this—"
The man placed a sheet of paper between two heavy steel balls. Then—
Clang!
When the balls struck together, the camera zoomed in.
The paper between them had a burned hole.
The man had explained, "That didn't happen because i am strong. Even though I am. It's because when two metal balls collide, their kinetic energy becomes heat and If the impact is strong enough, it can burn whatever's caught in the middle."
Maxi's mind snapped back to the present.
The glowing wrecking balls.
The red-orange energy in the chains.
Her words.
("…Her second ability is fire. Or heat. Isn't it?")
Then they collided.
A shattering roar echoed through the arena—metal thunder, slamming together. And at the point of contact—
A violent wave of flame erupted in every direction.
The air rippled. The ground cracked. The shockwave screamed through the air like a sonic boom.
And from within the inferno, Hana's silhouette stood tall—arms extended, chains in hand, eyes burning with wild, childlike joy.