Maxi locked eyes with Hana as he stretched. His broken arms snapped and cracked with each motion, releasing a series of disturbing, bone-grinding sounds that made anyone nearby flinch in discomfort.
But Maxi? He just smirked.
Then, like a wild animal ready to pounce, he dropped into a stance and bared his teeth—a beast showing off its fangs.
Hana's eyes sparkled with excitement. She bounced in place, then glanced at a jagged shard of metal on the floor—the one Maxi had bitten off earlier. She shrugged with a wider grin.
And then she dashed forward.
Maxi shifted his upper body to the side. His broken arm swung like the limp sleeve of an oversized jersey.
"Feels useless anyway… might as well use it like one," he thought with a savage grin.
He read Hana's punch and leaned into her path, biting down on her iron-armored arm. The taste of cold, dirty metal filled his mouth, but he didn't stop.
Using the momentum, he flipped and drove his heel into Hana's face with a sharp crack.
He landed hard, then leapt backward, ripping off another piece of her armor with his teeth. He chewed the metal like gum, never breaking eye contact.
Hana blinked—blood trickling from her lip. But she only laughed.
Another punch came at him. Maxi dodged.
Then another.
As she struck again, Maxi clenched the metal shard in his mouth and shifted—clang! Her punch struck the metal between his teeth, stopping it cold. In the same motion, he delivered a powerful kick to her stomach, knocking the wind out of her.
Still chewing, he spat the metal out onto the floor with a clink, then scoffed.
He looked at her—not as the bastard son of the Bloodheart family, but as something truer.
A pure-blood.
Hana's grin widened. She giggled.
"You crack me up every time, Maxi," she said. "From the way you ran in fear in the beginning… to how you dodge like you've got no control of your body… to that pathetic facial expression you make when I pull out a new move."
She stepped forward while smiling. "I think it's time I acted like a proper Bloodheart—and took my prey out in the most mocking, degrading way possible."
Maxi's gaze narrowed. But just as he caught a strange flicker of movement in her eyes—it was already too late.
The two metal shards he had bitten off from her armor flew at him from behind.
Maxi managed to get one leg off the ground and used all his strength to force his broken arm to grab and throw something into the air—but it didn't help.
The two metal pieces struck at opposite sides of his right leg, colliding with terrifying force. Heat exploded inside his thigh.
An eruption of pain shot through him.
As the two forces of the metals collided in Maxi's his leg
Hana then clapped her hands as they ignited—then, suddenly, Maxi's entire body caught fire.
The flames vanished just as fast, but the damage was done. Maxi dropped to one knee, his right leg a charred, smoldering mess it had taken the full brunt of the damage. The rest of him, miraculously, mostly was untouched, just slightly more singed then before.
Hana approached slowly.
Maxi's golden glow faded from his eyes—replaced by the deep, cold red of a true Bloodheart.
Hana tilted her head and spoke casually, "Sorry. But did you seriously not notice? When you spin kicked me. My blood doesn't need to stay attached to my wounds, or to myself at all to move. i can still control it while it's not attached to my body, no matter where it is. You blink and you missed it, so let me tell what happened since i am trying to be nicer" she laughed "trying such a nice word. For a split second my blood disconnected from my wound."
She smiled darkly.
"Guess that's the downside of planning while fighting. Can't have eyes everywhere, right?"
Then, with a wave of her hand, all the scattered metal melted into blood and reshaped—into slender chains with small, spiked balls at the ends. They wrapped around her fingers like dancing pets.
"Hey, let's play dodgeball. I love this game. It will be the perfect game to tire you out then knock you out"
Maxi's eyes widened slightly.
Hana flung the chains. They spun through the air in a beautiful, deadly pattern. The spiked balls danced like meteors, targeting his head. Maxi dodged—but barely. He was forced to use only his upper body and head to evade the strikes, his legs failing him. Trapping him in a kneeling position, unable to move from the spot he was at.
"All this time, you tried to use my wrecking balls against me," Hana sang as she danced with her chains. "But you never realized… or should i say noted, that I can see through them."
She giggled.
"To you, it's metal. To me, it's like transparent ruby glass. Pretty, right?"
Her smile turned devilish.
"I could've ended this ages ago, Maxi. But I figured I'd let you dance a little first. You'll break eventually."
Then, out of nowhere, Maxi shouted, "Heads up, sis."
"What?" Hana blinked.
An arrow flopped down from the sky, lazily tumbling through the air. It wasn't drawn—just thrown.
Hana stepped back instinctively.
Maxi took the chance.
He planted his left leg, pushed through the agony in his burnt right leg, and launched himself forward with all his strength.
Spinning, he delivered a flaming kick to Hana's chin.
CRACK!
The thing Maxi threw up in the air was that arrow it wasn't supposed to help immediately, it was supposed to help later. And unlucky for Hana. NOW was that LATER
She flew back, flipping through the air and slamming into the ground.
Maxi crashed down too, collapsing on his stomach, panting.
Hana groaned, rubbing her chin. She stood up slowly, dusted herself off, then walked over to Maxi and grabbed him by the hair.
She pulled him up.
"Auntie Ray once told me—never play with your food. Especially if the food is as tricky is as feral as a mystical trickster weasel."
She looked over at the stands. "I'm done. Announce the end. Brother Colen?"
Colen cleared his throat, raising the mimic-stone microphone.
"The winner of this battle is—"
Before he could finish, Hana smirked.
She fused all her chains together—lengthening them, thickening them, the ball at the end swelling to the size of a head.
She reeled it back…
Then—
BOOM!
She launched the chain like a missile.
The spiked ball struck Maxi directly in the chin, sending him flying to the top of the arena.
Maxi glasses shattered into millions of peaces as Maxi saw his mom, his siblings, and then his father he thought
(I may have not won the battle, but I won my pride)
And from a place both infinitely far and now closer then ever, he felt a ripple go through his shadow and connect to him as he felt the joyfully prideful scream of a certain god, and that made Maxi smile despite the pain. despite how stranger it was.
Maxi still smiled
Colen finished with a calm voice as Maxi disappeared into the lights of the round roof top:
"—Hana BloodHeart"