Chapter 6 - Fire Fist (2)

The fight was going well for May, even though he wasn't able to keep the birds down, they were too wary of him to go for all out attacks. One of the birds tried to get closer again trying to test out his defenses. He pointed his wand towards the bird and shouted "Bombarda Maxima" as a yellow light shot out of the wand, through the fire surrounding him, and in a straight line towards the bird. 

As this wasn't the first time he had used this move the bird dodged the spell easily but didn't get far enough away to escape the shockblast from the ensuing explosion. The bird had dodged downwards and was now hurling towards the ground in an insane speed. A loud bang was heard as a huge cloud of dust rose up from the spot where the bird had dropped.

The other birds seemed to be enraged by this but also seemed cautious of attacking him. He pointed his wand at the spot where the bird had fallen and called out "Serpensortia" summoning a King cobra on the floor but that alone would probably not be able to stop the giant bird from recovering. "Engorgio" he said while pointing his wand at the snake, which now started to grow larger, only stopping after reaching a length of about 40 meters (131 ft.). The snake spotted the bird at the ground and started to make its way over. The birds in the air started screeching out as they saw an actual predator their size coming for their fallen comrade. 

The dust around the injured bird had settled and it tried to get up, clearly injured. One of its feet was missing but he slowly got in position to take off and the cobra was still a 50 meters away. The bird slowly started to take off and started to fly away, when the cobra sped up and raised its head higher and higher into the sky. With a quick movement its fangs found their prey and the bird and snake went down together. The bird still trying to claw themselves out of the deadly embrace of the snake but the poison soon started to take effect as it slowed down and stopped moving.

Deuce POV

It had take a while but he had finally reached the top of the volcano. In the distance he could see the tree that May had told them about. He just had to walk over the ridge of the mountain and then he could take the fruit. He started walking over but as he looked down on one side of the ridge he realized how close he was to being burned by magma. Just one wrong step and he would fall down into the pool of magma. 

As he peered down into the crater he saw something peculiar. At the point where the roots of the tree stuck out of the inner crater walls, sat a birds nest with a single 'little' chick. The fruit dangling a few meters above it. 

He had to hurry up as long as the mother bird was gone. He started to pick up pace, still worried about possibly falling into his death but more so about encountering an angry mama bird. He was close to reaching the tree when he heard the screech coming from behind him. He turned around but it was already too late. The bird had almost reached him and the next thing he noticed was something piercing his upper body and throwing him to the ground. His head hit the stony floor and made his head spin for a few seconds. As he recovered his vision he directed his eyes on his upper body where he felt an intense pain. Dark red blood was flowing from his wound, mixing with the dark grey dust from the floor. "It hit a vein. Fuck." he stated and fell unconscious.

Ace POV

Ace felt like the way up was not the adventure he had hoped it would be. He heard the noises of the fight taking place in the distance but his way up seemed almost serene. No giant birds that tried to attack him, no rivers of magma he had to dodge, not even a difficult ascent.

But all of that changed when he reached the top, right next to the tree, just in time to see a giant bird diving down towards Deuce, piercing him with its beak. His eyes widened in shock. Even though they hadn't known each other for long he had take Deuce into his heart. His body screamed at him to do something but his mind didn't know what to do. Safe Deuce? No he couldn't do anything against that monster. Run away and get May? No Deuce would die until then. The only viable choice he had was to eat the mysterious fruit and hope that fortune was on his side. He ran the few meters to the tree and picked the fruit from the tree. It was a big red/orange fruit fitting perfectly into his hand. The outside looked like flames were licking up the sides of the fruits and it even felt warm to the touch. But Ace didn't have forever to inspect this fruit.

He took a big bite from the fruit, at first it felt like it was burning away his mouth but within a few seconds the heat became comfortable. Ace could tell that the temperature didn't even decrease it just felt...Nice.

His eyes moved over to Deuce who was lying on the floor slowly bleeding on the stone. He started to sprint over to his friend when he heard the screeching again. As he looked up he could the monster that had tried to kill his friend flying towards him, planning to skewer him as well. 

"You will not stand in my way!" Ace shouted "You won't stand in between me and my friends!"

The bird now only a few meters away couldn't change its course as Ace's figure caught fire. The fire still increased in size as the bird approached. Its beak pierced Ace's stomach without much resistance, resulting in the bird rejoicing for a second until it felt Ace's hands around their neck. It didn't even take five seconds for the bird to die in the fire body of Ace. He let the bird drop down to the ground and made the last few steps towards Deuce, who was still bleeding on the ground. He put his hands over the wound and concentrated on the powers he felt swelling inside of him. A small flame started to cover his right palm as he carefully swiped it over the fresh wound, trying to cauterize it.