Chapter 9: Chapter 9 – Fighting Malice
"No one told me that the Supernatural disaster is a monster," Kai smiled wryly as he looked at the shadow called Malice. Its body was black with no other color, but its face was hideous and could only be described as grotesque.
"I was about to explain it tonight. But it's a perfect chance. I will tell you how to deal with it, so burn him, Kai! You don't need to fuse with me to beat that small thing."
"Hey, that's a 3 meters big monster, you know? It's in no way as small as you said!" He retorted, pointing at Malice.
Thankfully, its movement was slow. So Kai was still able to take his time to retort and calm himself down.
"That's still a small Malice. It's not called a Supernatural disaster for no reason, you know?" Amber asked. "More importantly, it's coming." She warned.
True to her word, the Malice was already close to them and swung one of its big ones toward Kai. For some reason, it targeted him instead of Amber. Maybe it felt her power?
"Woah!" Kai leaped back instantly. Thanks to his hobby, he trained a little bit in martial arts, so he had great reflexes. He had never competed with the others before, but everyone who knew him understood not to mess with him.
Malice's hand hit the ground, cracking it. If that hit landed, he was sure he would be left with fractured ribs and broken limbs. The force itself was maybe greater than being hit by a truck.
He landed a bit away and stared at Malice. Indeed, he wanted to meet a Supernatural creature. But who would've thought he would meet a disaster before that? And then, Amber told him to beat Malice by himself.
"You can do it, Kai!" Amber cheered from afar. He didn't notice it, but she was already away from him, standing under a street light. "I have set up the barrier, so you can use Phoenix fire now!"
As he looked around, he noticed the dark sky had some purple hue, a sign that the barrier preventing people from entering and keeping the world unaffected had been activated.
"Great, just great." He muttered. His gaze changed as he dropped the plastic bag to the ground. He took off the rubber band he used to tie his hair and let it fall.
In his life, he had two interests. One was about Supernatural; then the other was about his idol, an actor. He followed that actor's way of life and even imitated his hairstyle. All the combat technique in the movie he was a part of was ingrained inside Kai's head.
Of course, he trained hard to get those fictional techniques to use in actual combat. An agent. Then a man lived in a world where the world wasn't real and was part of a system. He learned from those movies that he needed to keep calm in combat.
He had done this before, against a human. Even if the enemy was slightly different in size, just a bit bigger, had more arms, and was way scarier, it didn't change anything.
Without fusing with Amber, he had a hard time activating the Phoenix fire he had. But he managed to do it just fine. Also, because he had absorbed Spirit Power last night with Amber's help, the passage in his body was opened, and he was able to break a normal human's limit.
Absorbing Spirit Power unlocked his true potential and awakened his hidden strength. True, his Spirit Power had yet to be replenished to the maximum capacity, but he had recovered enough in a day to beat the Malice.
His body was stronger. His senses were sharper. Everything about him was better than before. That was why Amber was confident and let him fight Malice by himself.
Besides, it would be a good experience for Kai if he really wanted to enter the Supernatural world.
"Roaarr!!" The Malice roared as it looked at Kai. The deafening sound made him flinch for a second, but he quickly moved as he noticed an arm was swung toward him.
He stepped to the side with his newfound reflexes, called out the Phoenix fire, and shot it from his palm. Unlike before, the fire wasn't as hot and wasn't as big. But it was enough.
When the fire hit Malice's body, it burst into a small explosion. A part of its body turned to ash, leaving a nasty gash as black smoke came out from its burned part.
"Aha!" He smirked, knowing that his attack worked. 'This should be easy–'
"Not yet!"
Amber's shout interrupted his monologue. He quickly snapped out of it as he noticed the wound he had just made on the Malice's body began to heal at a rapid speed with a bubbling movement.
Then the giant turned to him, stomping the ground with its gigantic leg. The ground shook, and Kai braced himself to keep his balance. It was quickly followed by an attack with its massive arm, forcing him to jump back again and send three fireballs toward the Malice.
Controlling the fireballs were rather easy for him.
All of them hit its body, but the wound was quickly closed up again.
"Hey, hey. It can regenerate?!" He growled. "How can I even take it down if it can regenerate?!"
"Just burn his whole body!" Amber suggested. "That will solve all the problems!"
"You make it sound easy." Kai landed on his feet; then fire began to dance around his body according to his will. It was orange-colored, but the temperature was still lower than Amber's fire. "It's hard controlling this fire without fusing with you."
"You can do it. I trust you."
"If you insist. At least I will try it."
Because he felt that his control over the fire wasn't enough to take it down, then he would need to improvise a little bit. Using the fire to accelerate, Kai lowered his stance and rocketed toward Malice.
It swung its arm to stop him, but then he used the fire again to propel himself to the side, dodging the attack. Close combat was more suited to him than a long-range one without any kind of reliability. If he couldn't control the fire to make a firestorm or a big attack from afar, that meant…
"I just need to get close and just let it go loose."
He stopped right beside the Malice, facing upward. It looked down on him and was about to strike again, but it was too late.
Kai extended his hands toward its body and let the Phoenix fire go wild, burning the area around him.
Swoosh!
Before he got caught in the fire, he leaped back and looked at the spectacle in front of him. The fire he let loose burned the whole of Malice's body and extended to the sky, illuminating the area around him.
Because of his constitution, he didn't feel hot but warm instead.
"It's a nice and big bonfire." He muttered, putting his hand above his eyes. Just like Amber said, burning Malice's whole prevented it from regenerating. Even if it tried to, the fire would burn it again and reduce it to ashes.
A loud screeching pain came from its direction. It became smaller and smaller inside the fire until Kai noticed a small ball appear from its body. The ball was also burned, and the fire disappeared once nothing was left.
"That's?" Kai muttered as he focused his gaze on the area where Malice had been burned before.
"That's Malice's core, a condensed waste of Nature power that couldn't be absorbed if I need to explain it. Slayers targeted that core to slay Malice. It is really troublesome. We just need to burn it without trying to find it."
"Amber." He looked at his side and noticed Amber standing beside him.
'When did she?'
Asking that question would be pointless, as he knew that Amber was actually powerful and fast. Trying to fight without fusing with him greatly decreased his strength. And he had access to all her power if he fused with her.
From that, he knew how powerful the lovely girl beside him was.
"Good job on your first fight, Kai." She said, smiling innocently at him, raising her fist.
Yes, it was his first fight alone. He realized he needed to fix some area before he actually entered the Supernatural world.
For now, he would like to savor this victory. He responded with the same smile and bumped his fist against Amber.
"Thanks. Want to head back now?"
"Sure, let's head back!"
Picking up the plastic bag he had thrown to the ground, both of them began to head back through the dimly lit street as the barrier slowly disappeared.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone