Air Hero

Max vs Iki III

“Good! It’s working!”

Max, who saw that his wild idea is yielding such a result, feels elated. Not to mention that he manages to put out the fireball that Iki shoot towards him.

Iki, in his disbelieve, launches fireballs one after another in Max’s direction.

“Since you’re offering yourself to become my sparring partner, I won’t be polite then.”

Max right now has gotten the hang of it, and the fireballs that Iki shoot towards him all disintegrates midway. Seeing what happened just now, Iki realizes that it wasn’t because he is getting tired but because of Max.

“It seemed that you’re not escaping in a panic earlier. I guess the disappearance of my fireball has something to do with you. You have planned this very well.”

In this situation, Max couldn’t admit that he just got lucky and made it through his instantaneous thinking.

“of course! Knowing that I am as a wind elemental hero, have to face a fire elemental hero like you; I need to have a few tricks up my sleeve.”

“Good! Now, can you stop running? My hands are already itching for some action.”

Of course, this is another ploy of Iki to drag Max into direct battle. If Iki managed to get close, Max isn’t confident that he could put out the white particle on his fire armour. That is because the fireball success is the case where Iki isn’t controlling it directly. What if Iki is aware of what he is doing and could counter it?

After all, Max still isn’t sure of what that white particle is. He also doesn’t know how effective it is to be used on someone else’s power directly.

The stalemate still continues, yet nobody jeered on Max’s action of being cautious. They all know that the moment Max slip up, he will lose the match.

Iki, on the other hand, couldn’t be patient anymore as he unleashes the move he used to defeat Rocky. Iki’s right hand is now covered completely in fire, and it burns even bigger than before.

“Flame cannon!”

Iki then directed his fist towards Max’s direction. After that, a large amount of fire came out from the tip of his fist and headed to Max.

Max knows that Yuna can unleash such moves, and looking at Iki’s attack, it is inferior to hers. After all, Yuna is a full-fledged C-rank hero. Max, however, couldn’t look down on this attack since it could defeat him directly if he is hit by it.

Max is still looking at the grey world and could see many white particles gathered on Iki’s hand before he unleashes his move. This makes him think of something before he tried his best to dodge the flamethrower attack.

“Is the white particle the energy needed to unleash the move? Since I could control it, what will happen if I ordered all of the white particles to move away from Iki when he wanted to attack. will it put out his attack?”

Max couldn’t wait to try his theory, but first, he needs to dodge the flamethrower coming towards him.

“I think this Air Hero is interesting. Despite earlier on he is running away from the opponent, he is trying to face him head-on right now. Considering the differences in their elements, one would immediately surrender if they are the one in his position. It seemed that he is full of surprise.”

Kieran, who will become their next opponent, is watching the match closely. He doesn’t look down on either Iki and Max. He knows that nobody is weak as they have managed to come so far in the competition.

Max dodges the flamethrower attack by summoning the wind at the sole of his foot and sidestepped a few meters. After that, he ordered the white particles within two meters radius from Iki to spread out and run away. Makes the area around Iki completely devoid of white particle aside from the white particles that are already inside of his body.

This time, Iki’s expression turned to a strange one. Iki is trying to make a similar move, but whatever he tried to do, he doesn’t think that the fire could be lit, although he has the energy. The fire around his body also started to flickers as they are getting weaker as time goes by.

“Just what is happening here? What kind of trick he has done to make me feel this way?”

Iki never experienced it before. Like swimming in a sea of oil, he feels that the fire elements around him has become a bit sluggish. He still has abundant energy, yet he thinks that it becomes even harder to execute a skill.

Also, no matter how much he tried, a new fire can’t be created as the fire around his body diminishes. Not long after, Iki’s original body is revealed without any fire around him. Iki also started to feel dizzy as the number of the white particle around his body is minuscule.

“You! What have you done?”

By the time Iki asked that, Max is already moving towards him. What Max did is like turning Iki’s power to be nonexistent.

“I don’t understand what is happening, but I know that this is advantageous for me. I should ask big sis Kalina to know more about this. Whatever at least I have a chance to win on this match now.”

Iki feels powerless as he couldn’t summon his fire anymore. He has to accept that the best thing to do right now is facing Max in close combat and winning it fair and square.

Since Iki is already powerless, Max never thinks of defeating from afar by using his wind bullet. He wanted to face Iki in close combat to hone his ability. If he couldn’t even win against Iki without relying on external factors, he will have a hard time proceeding further on this competition.

Iki also realizes Maax’s intention. Although he already rendered his fire ability useless somehow, he doesn’t want to take the win unfairly. Another form of fair play that is to be expected from a hero. A hero is a role model for everyone else. It seemed hypocritical for Max to work hard getting an advantage over Iki when Iki couldn’t use his power anymore, only to return it to square one in close combat without power. However, that’s what a hero is all about. Sometimes, a hero will make a silly choice. Not because it is the best course of action, but they are just following their conscience.