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 snack."
Maxi blinked. "A what—?"
She spun both wrecking balls wildly in place to keep him at bay, then turned around and spun the wrecking balls behind her as she walked towards the wall she made an indents in when she reached it she then seemingly did something to the metal wall putting her face into the metal wall. Maxi jumped back, the sheer velocity of the wrecking ball whipping by 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—she's consuming it for energy or maybe something else. So she can regenerate or power up. Gosh dang, i can't see clearly due to her back obscuring my vision but still?")
("Noted.")
("That's dangerous.")
From afar, Maxi could finally breathe. 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.
Then he charged straight at the spinning wrecking balls.
("Let's make this count.")
Hana didn't stop him. She was still chewing metal.
Maxi waited, timing the arc 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.")
He landed with bent knees, twisting mid-air to avoid the arrow. His land on her shoulder forced her to stager on her knees as he jumped off her shoulder, 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. As she bit into it easily as if it was fine white bread then she swallowed, the chains on 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… more power.")
("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.
A cheerful voice on-screen had 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's because not because even though i am it because when two metal balls collide, their kinetic energy becomes heat. If the impact's 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.