Air Hero

Max vs Chloe II

What Max could do to destroy Chloe’s dominance is forcing her into a close-range battle where he knows that he is better than her. Right now, he is being toyed around by her due to her long-range ability utilization that is more optimized than him.

Any ability could bring you a victory as long as it is well-timed and hit the opponent weak spot. That is why, most of the time, one mistake could determine the outcome of the battle. Even if one side looked to be on the winning side, a carelessness could change everything.

Max knows about it as he thinks of a great idea. Max unsummoned the wind armour around his body, and he kneeled on the ground on one foot as if he is exhausted.

“Ugh, I know you are strong, Chloe, but I won’t give up without a fight.”

“Max, I think your energy is almost depleted. Not to mention in your desperate escape just now, you used up a lot of energy. It is only a matter of time before you got defeated.”

“I’ll struggle to the last minute then.”

“Hmph, if you insist.”

Right now, what Max is doing is feigning weakness. In fact, he is totally focused and won’t miss any small movements from Chloe’s body. He saw that Chloe swiped her hand, and it was a signal of her preparing for an attack.

He is now trying to feel where the attack will come from by pushing his sensitivity to the maximum.

“From the back!”

Max could sense a significant water element movement from his back with his high sensitivity, and he rolled forward to dodge the attack. A surge of water came out from behind Max and landed at his last spot. If he didn’t move forward, he would be under another water pressure attack just like before.

“Haha, desperate dodge.”

Max continue to dodge Chloe’s attack one after another, which makes her enraged. It seemed that Max was about to be attacked every time, but he miraculously avoided it by rolling or side-stepping. Chloe is even more furious when he looked at Max’s exhausted face.

“They say that cockroach is hard to kill, and it seemed you have a cockroach blood in you.”

Unkown by Chloe, Max is trying to get nearer to her by every dodge he does. Chloe also spent a lot of energy trying to attack him, which puts them on the same level once more.

“I hate using this since it cost a lot of energy, but there’s no other way.”

Chloe then used most of her power to use her next move. From behind her, a tall wave of water emerges just like a tsunami. It was the move that she showed when she carried the team on the first stage of the competition.

Facing the incoming wave, Max feels the overwhelming power, but he isn’t nervous at all. After all, he already thought of a way to dodge this when he saw her using it on the first stage. Max summoned the wind power at the sole of his foot. When the wave moves forward and about to swallow him, Max jumped to the sky as high as he could, boosted by the power of the wind.

Chloe believed that Max is on his last string and hanging on with sheer willpower. She is surprised to see Max dodged her attack. Little did she knows that it was all a ploy of Max. She just thought that he wouldn’t be able to roll or side-stepped to dodge. Never she imagines that Max is still able to jump that high and dodged her attack.

Max landed not far from Chloe, and this time, as the tidal water disappeared into the ground, Max arrived in front of her.

With another wind gauntlets on both of his hand, Max destroyed the water shield that Chloe deployed in a hurry. With Max’s fist five centimetres away from her face, Chloe has to admit defeat even if she is unwilling.

“I surrender.”

“Max vs Chloe. Max win.”

After hearing the announcement, only then Max could let out a breath of relief. He then looked at Chloe and smiled.

“Nice fight.”

Chloe’s eyes are teary right now as she put up a wronged expression.

“Hateful! i***t!”

After saying that, Chloe turned her body and ran away to leave the arena leaving Max dumbfounded at what has just happened.

“Why does it seemed as if I am the one bullying her? Just look at my body. It hurts all over. I couldn’t understand her. Maybe, she is disappointed that she lost the match. Anyway, I want to return to the medical pod again.”

To Max disappointment, there will be no treatment except for heavily wounded people. A good night rest will be able to recover a hero’s spent energy, and the top 32 matches are scheduled for tomorrow. It might be that the United Heroes association wanted to save money if they could. After all, the cost of operating the medical pod must be expensive.

Max battle wasn’t considered to be the fastest as when he looked at the screen showing the ongoing matches, one-third of the screen is already empty. He was trapped for quite a while under Chloe’s water pressure back there.

He saw that Giovanni, Iki, Elica, and Kieran battle have all finished. Because of that, his excitement died down a bit. He still watched the remaining matches and didn’t leave as everyone on the screen could be his opponent for tomorrow match. Only after all of the battles have been concluded did Max leave the area.

He didn’t meet with anyone else that he knows as Jhonny and Norton have left before him. However, they leave a message on Max’s phone, wishing for good luck in tomorrow fight. It seemed that they saw his win against Chloe.

Max also feels happy since Jhonny and Norton are new friends that increase his limited social circle. He also saw a text from Ken, asking how he is doing on the newcomer competition. Just when he was about to reply, a phone call comes in. He smiled very wide as he answered the call.

“Big sis!”

“Hearing from the tone of your voice, I bet you managed to win today and secure a spot for tomorrow.”

“You’re right, big sis. However, there’re a lot of strong people here. For example, Giovanni.”

“Oh, the rising star from the Goldlock family? His S-rank speed is causing an uproar on the United Heroes association the moment he passes his hero examination test. However, speed isn’t everything, as we have four criteria in ranking a hero. So, don’t lose hope.”

“Haha. What are you saying, big sis? It is rare for you to encourage me with sweet words like that. Usually, you are more direct and commanding.”

“Hmph. It’s just you that couldn’t see the kindness in my command.”

“Yes, yes. It was a mistake on my part. My big sis is the kindest person in the world.”

“Good thing you know that.”

“So, big sis, are you calling me just to check up on me?”

“Well, actually, I want to tease on you if you lose. However, this is a different story altogether since you succeed. The teasing can wait until you lose then.”

“Big sis!”

“Alright then, I’ll be hanging off. Still got a lot of things to do.”

“Take care. Bye.”

When he is about to close his phone and head home, he saw a new text message coming from Marie.