Chapter 117-Flint vs Sol, Part Four

"Sand Charge, Level Four: Sandstorm!" Flint shouts as he resumes his Charge Stance. 

A sandstorm then begins to form around Flint, which enshrouds the entire area.

Sol brings his arms up to block as he's pelted by Flint's sharp sand grains.

"Shit, I can't see him through all this sand."

"Sand Charge, Level One: Sand Clone!" Flint shouts as he reappears before Sol and slams a mighty jab into his gut, one strong enough that Sol doubles over and spits up a glob of blood.

"Lava Charge, Level Three: Golden Rend!" Sol roars as he swings his boiling hot golden hammer into Flint, but as Sol's hammer makes contact with Flint, Flint's body turns into sand, and Sol's hammer effortlessly passes through Flint.

Flint's sand body turns to glass due to the heat of Sol's hammer, then shatters, and falls to the ground.

Before Sol can prepare another spell, he grunts in pain as he's sent stumbling forwards after feeling a sharp pain course throughout his back.

"Sand Charge, Level One: Sand Clone!" Flint shouts as he rematerializes his body, begins Sol, and lands a powerful snap kick to his opponent's back.

"DAMN YOU!" Sol roars as he spins around and swings his hammer outwards, "Lava Charge, Level Three: Golden Rend."

But just as before, Flint's body turns into sand once Sol's hammer makes contact with it, then turns to glass, shatters, and falls to the ground.

"You said that this battlefield is YOUR domain?" Flint taunts, his voice echoing all throughout the volcanic cavern as if the entire sandstorm is emanating his voice, "You are LITERALLY within my body."

Sol looks around the sandstorm, searching for his opponent, until Sol spots movement out of the corner of his eye.

"There!" Sol exclaims as he whips around and swings his hammer towards Flint, only to realize that nothing more than a pillar of sand was there.

"I'm everywhere!" Flint cackles.

Sol growls.

"It's time to heat it up!"

"Lava Charge, Level One: Heat Geyser!" Sol shouts as he slams his hammer into the ground, causing cracks to spread across the ground, which pillars of lava shoot out of.

"Thanks to my Devil Eye my strength has been multiplied. JUST TRY TO HIT ME NOW!"

Sol's lava geysers shoot into the air, radiating pure heat across the battlefield which turns Flint's sandstorm into glass. All except for Flint, that is.

As the sandstorm begins to turn into glass, Sol smirks when he notices a lone pillar of sand standing off in the distance.

"Shit, I can't turn into glass!" Flint cries.

"THERE!" Sol roars as he resumes his Charge Stance, before slamming his hammer into the ground, "LAVA CHARGE, LEVEL TWO: MAGMA TSUNAMI!"

A giant tidal wave of lava bursts from the ground before Sol, melting Flint's glass as it makes its way towards Flint, who resumes his Charge Stance.

"Glass Charge, Level Three: Crystal Prism!" Flint shouts as he holds a hand out to one of his glass shards then drags his hand downwards, telekinetically pulling the shard of glass alongside it, and creating a wall of glass in between Flint and his opponent.

However, Flint's fragile glass is powerless to do anything as Sol's lava tsunami crashes through it, then continues making its way towards Flint.

"Shit," Flint grunts, "My Glass Charge…just has TERRIBLE defensive properties…"

***

A few days ago, on top of a volcano in the Land of Fire, where Flint sits with his eyes closed and his legs crossed…

A bead of sweat begins trickling down Flint's forehead and dripping onto his nose, causing the old man to flinch as he begins wiggling his now itchy nose.

Flint sighs as he opens his eyes and itches his nose.

"This is impossible…I've been meditating up here for days yet I still haven't thought of a way to better wield my Glass Charge…"

Flint sighs again.

"The lava just keeps on melting my glass, and everytime I try to use my Sand, it just melts as well. If we're going to be fighting the Children of Fire, then I NEED my sand and my glass to be able to resist higher amounts of heat."

Flint's eyes then widen.

"No, that's not it…I shouldn't be FIGHTING the heat, I should be USING it. That's how I awakened in the first place, that's what it MEANS to awaken: using the natural reaction of your element in conjunction with itself and others in order to create a whole new weapon!"

***

"To create…a whole new weapon…"

Flint holds a hand into the air, and a tornado of sand EXPLODES out of it.

"I JUST COUNTERED THAT SPELL, DIDN'T I?!" Sol cackles as his lava tsunami begins to crash down upon Flint.

But Flint ignores Sol's taunts.

He just keeps packing on more and more sand until Flint is holding a dense cube of sand in his hand, over five feet long and wide.

Flint roars as he swings his giant cube of sand downwards, and as he does, the heat of Sol's lava begins to transform Flint's sand into glass, but that doesn't stop him.

Flint slams his cube of glass in the ground, completely blocking Sol's lava tsunami, and causing his eyes to widen.

"H-how did you-?" Sol stammers.

"During my training, I kept thinking of how to BEAT your heart," Flint smirks as he stands up to face Sol, "Heat STRENGTHENED glass and sand, it makes them harder, STRONGER! So…rather than trying to counter your heat, I decided to make it my own."

Flint then resumes his Charge Stance.

"So come on. Show me how hot you can get."

Sol twitches.

"Damn you…" Sol growls as he resumes his Charge Stance, "DAMN YOU!"

Sol then slams his hammer into the ground.

"LAVA CHARGE, LEVEL FOUR: ERUPTION!"

The ground beneath the two men begins to tremble, knocking Flint off balance.

"THIS VOLCANO IS ABOUT TO EXPLODE!" Sol booms, "SO TRY AND DEFEAT ME BEFORE IT DOES, SAND CHARGER!"

"Are you crazy?!" Flint cries.

But then, cracks begin forming in the wall next to him, and a wave of lava shoots out of it, which Flint has to jump out of the way of.

When Flint looks back towards his opponent Sol is already in front of him, and wielding his boiling hot hammer.

"LAVA CHARGE, LEVEL THREE: GOLDEN REND!"

But before Sol can finish Flint off, Flint throws a hand into the air, summoning a tendril of sand. Meanwhile, lava bursts from the crack in the cavern ceiling above Flint, and showers him. Using this heat, Flint's sand tendril begins to pack together and harden, forming a cube of glass that mimics Khione's ice.

"Sand-Glass Charge, Level One…" Flint softly says to himself.

"SOLID HAMMER!"

With all of his might, Flint SLAMS his hammer downwards, SMASHING Sol on the top of his head, causing the ground below Sol to crack, revealing a pool of lava beneath him, which sends Sol falling into the boiling abyss below.

Flint's eyes widen as he leaps over to the hole in the floor, only to hear Sol's screams muffled by the scalding lava.