Hot and Cold

'Fuck! Is she going to punch me again?' Chad grimaced as held his arms up.

And indeed, a long perfectly tanned leg swept towards his head with domineering might that sent a chill down his spine. Not quite the punch he was expecting, but a brutal kick that was quite a few times worse. The 9 Flame Queen was really mad this time, she even dared to use those perverse kicks of hers!

Not even thinking for a second that he could block it, he swiftly leaned backwards and narrowly dodged it, his pupils constricting greatly as he watched the tantalising murder weapon flash across his view as if it was an executioner's blade. And for all intents and purposes, it might as well have been one.

He quickly regained his bearing and made 2 hops backwards, but as he did so, he caught sight of something that made his heart almost burst out of his chest.

Aliana, in all of her ethereal beauty, was swinging a punch at the 9 Flame Queen with a Mana enhanced fist and a very angry expression.

'No!' Chad's face paled.

Actually, despite his very real near-death scenario, he knew that the 9 Flame Queen wasn't actually out to kill him, no matter how angry she was. After all, not only was the 9 Flame Queen in 6th Stage Enlightened Beast (4th Realm), she was also quite accomplished in Anatomy Refinement, with her legs being the primary focus of that refinement. If she really wanted to kill him or at least cause him severe harm with that single kick, she could do it. But she didn't.

At the end of the day, they were definitely allies. She knew that he could dodge her kick at that speed and probably only wanted to frighten him, letting him know how angry and serious she was. If she wanted to hurt him, a simple punch that… wouldn't take his life, would suffice…

The 9 Flame Queen was in control of her actions.

But, seeing Aliana rush towards that unscrupulous menace with such hostile intent that would undoubtedly be returned in kind, he imagined the worse.

Gritting his teeth, he swivelled around, using his mana to assist him in the unnatural movement, and successfully redirected the velocity of body; so instead of moving backwards he was now moving forwards, however, his speed had been sacrificed by over 10 times. This manoeuvre of his had only given him the total value of a single step forwards. But it was enough. When his feet finally met contact with the ground he quickly sent a good portion of his mana into his legs (which inevitably doused them in golden flames) and immediately pushed off with all of his strength.

Was he trying to attack the 9 Flame Queen? No. That would be foolish and very counterproductive. Instead…

He flashed by Aliana's side before her fist could even land on the awaiting Vermillion Bird's contempt-filled face and grasped her by the waist, pulling her to his side and putting an end to the heart-attack inducing punch. But because he had sacrificed control in order to achieve maximum speed as soon as his legs had touched the ground, his body ended up helplessly speeding past the 9 Flame Queen, dragging Aliana along with him.

Fortunately, he was a bird and was very adept in the air. After travelling roughly 20 metres he regained some control of his body and was able to land on his feet, kicking up a cloud of dirt as he skidded to a stop.

And when he did come to a stop, he pushed Aliana behind him, no longer able to condone her desires for independence. Finally, he faced the 9 Flame Queen, his body tense despite the fact that his mind was telling him that none of them were in danger.

Like this, a tense moment passed as the cloud of dust gradually dispersed. 2 sets of glowing eyes, gold and blue, staring at a pair of red ones.

Eventually, the 9 Flame Queen was the one to break eye contact first and returned her attention back to the sky. But the 2 rulers of the Phoenix race continued to stare at her with uncanny focus, holding each other in a tense manner with their chests visibly heaving as if they were about to go feral.

Soon enough, the 9 Flame Queen couldn't take it anymore and looked back at them with a look of annoyance.

"Hmph, you should take a look at yourselves. Such wild eyes, you look like you've reverted back to the Magic Beast Realm and are going feral. If you don't stop looking at me like that I'll pluck out both of your eyes."

These words only caused the two of them to clutch each other even tighter.

9 Flame Queen's eyes narrowed. She had miscalculated. She didn't know what was up about the relationship between these 2 Phoenixes but it was absolutely not normal. It was especially strange because in the beginning, these 2 individuals could not hate each other any further.

One was an arrogant King, and the other was the daughter of that King's most hated enemy and his violated mate. The fact that she was alive was a miracle in on itself, so it wasn't surprising when she obtained information stating that the child born between that accursed union was living a very sorrowful life, along with all the other Ice Phoenixes, but perhaps even more so.

However, in later years, she had heard that the King had developed a somewhat unnatural obsession with the girl, so much so that it was beginning to affect his duties and people were beginning to find out. And it was indeed so.

When she travelled to his territory for a meeting, the girl had been there, working as a slave and cleaning the room with a spiteful face. When she stated that such a lowly girl wasn't worthy of listening to their conversation, he had growled at her and told her that what he did with his slaves and where he placed them was none of her concern.

Of course, she punched him for that. How dare he speak to her like that? But she didn't fail to notice the burning blue eyes that glared at her in response. Very strange. On top of that, Chad was adamant about the girl staying, so she gave him a few more punches. But not because she was all that angry, but because she wanted to test something.

And lo and behold, the girl, the slave! Started growling at her! What?! WHAT?! A mere creature in the Magic Beast Ream? 3 Realms below her?! She still remembered her shock back then.

So deciding that it was worthy of further investigation, she allowed the girl to stay, and during the entire meeting, the 2 Phoenixes kept taking peeks at each other, their innocent eyes turning into hate-filled glares when they caught each other staring.

…What kind of joke was this?