Flash Out!

——— Minho ———

Mira was right. 

I shook my head for the thousandth time today trying to shake off the remnant of the dream I had earlier.

The past is in the past. Just look forward.

This fight was all I needed to think about now…

I looked sideways and saw Mira and her brave and determined expression gave me some strength. 

Funny that I get inspired by this little brat. 

I chuckled to myself. 

In the morning breeze, Mira and I stood facing the other way from Sevasti and her Petrocanavar.

Focus on the fight - I told myself again, but I could hear spectators murmuring about the fact that we did not use blindfolds.

They said it was foolish, stupid, a suicide. 

Truth be told, we accepted that with Mira's currently usable strength being her Illusion Magic, there was no way we could have a strategy of defeating it while having her blindfolded, and deprived of her vision. 

Another factor that surprised the people surrounding the battlefield was that we stood very close to the halfway line mark. Considering that Petrocanavar was a rather slow monster, we could easily run circles around it to find some clever ways to defeat it if that was what was needed. It probably looked like starting close to it was just asking for a quick defeat. 

There were more disappointments in the air than excitement. 

Did the Human already admit defeat?

Is it just Mira's pride that's stopping them from outright forfeiting?

They were wrong.

We had a plan. 

Although it was not guaranteed that it would work, it was a plan nevertheless. 

"Are you ready?" Sir Tel, the referee for this match, asked. 

"Yes, Sir," Mira answered, resolutely. 

"You can give up now, Mira. Even with the best Healing Magic, coming back from petrification is a painful process." Sevasti warned, not so gloatingly, but with a coldness in her voice based on simple - and correct - rational. 

"Will never happen," Mira responded.

"Are you sure?" Just double checking, no irritation in the cool-headed Sevasti's voice. 

"Let's just get this started, shall we?" Mira gave an impression of being calm, although I knew she was probably nervous inside too. 

"Fair enough. Sir Tel, I am ready."

With Sevasti also confirming, the match began. 

Without even looking at it, I could 'hear' the Petrocanavar stand up on its long legs with a rumbling sound, and the slow but rhythmic sound of a big thud told me that it was starting to approach us. 

I immediately puked out a piece of fire-resistant cloth and put it around my mouth. This was going to get hot and I didn't want to get burnt too badly. 

"Go, go, go!!!"

I gave the signal to Mira, and with a very controlled side glance at me without turning too much and risking eye contact with the petrification monster, she made a fire spew out of my mouth like a baby dragon. 

"Hahaha, what is that?!"

"How is that going to fight Petrocanavar?"

"Fire's not gonna work against a ROCK monster."

I could hear people mock us. 

Watch and learn, children. 

Watch and learn. 

Once the fire was set, I tilted my head behind, pointed my mouth toward the sky, and started to spit out firework shells and canisters as fast as I could. They got lit almost immediately and shot up high into the air one by one.

"Huh? What's he doing?"

"Why is he shooting things into the air? Shouldn't he be attacking the monster?"

Just as I heard this, the first fireworks went off with a big boom and there was a collective gasp among the spectators, but as the second, third, fourth, and so on started to go off, people started to cheer and clap in awe and entertainment. 

I managed to shoot about 10 more into the air.

The loud thud of the Petrocanavar's steps stopped and I knew our plan was working. 

This monster was distracted by the firework, something it had certainly never seen in its life. 

Now that our plan was in full swing, I spat out a dozen canisters of flash bangs. I have used those in the training before during my national service, and I knew how effective they can be. 

"Ready?" 

"Yup!"

I checked with Mira and she enthusiastically responded, and tossed the first one into the air over her shoulders, toward the Petrocanavar's direction. 

"Flash out!" She shouted as rehearsed. 

We then both closed our eyes and blocked our ears, but still could hear a loud bang as it went off. 

"Good luck!" Mira shouted.

I tapped on Mira's shoulder in appreciation, turned, and ran toward the stone monster. This was the trickiest part as there was no absolute guarantee that the monster would be blinded, but it seemed to have worked and it just stood still. Between the fireworks in the air and being flash-banged, its eyes weren't so effective - albeit temporarily. 

As I reached closer to it I could see that its eyes were moving again, trying to find where I was.

"GO AGAIN!"

"FLASH OUT!"

Mira threw another one in the air and I closed my eyes again, and after another loud bang, I opened my eyes and ran toward the monster, which was rooted to the spot this time. 

Heh, it's working.

When I got to its leg I rubbed my hands dry on my jeans and started to get to work.

Luckily I did some rock climbing as an after school activity before and the stone monster's surface was bumpy enough, so it wasn't that hard to find grips and start climbing up. 

"GO AGAIN!"

"FLASH OUT!"

I couldn't block my ears this time as I had to continue to hang on to the monster. It sounded loud as fuck but it was a little price to pay compared to getting petrified in another world. 

After another two throws of flash bangs, I was sitting at the 'head' of the monster and its eyes were less than a meter away from my face. I could tell they were completely disorientated though and wandering around, not exactly seeing where I was - if they could see anything at all. The monster's stone surface also probably meant that it didn't 'feel' me very well.

I wasn't quite sure if it could hear me, so from here on we planned that Mira would throw the flash bangs every 10 seconds. 

"FLASH OUT!"

OK, Mira has eight left. 

I closed my eyes and regurgitated the ultimate human tools that have been used for millennia to achieve the impossible - good, honest, working man's tools that allowed human civilizations to build incredible things. 

Chisel and hammer. 

I chipped away on the roots of Petrocanavar's eyes. No sword could have cut it, but no rock beats a man with a chisel, a hammer, and patience. 

The root area of its eyes was not as hard as the other body parts. Exactly what I hoped and expected. After all, in order to be able to move flexibly in different directions, there had to be either joints or the rocks on this part of his anatomy had to be somewhat malleable. It seemed to be a combination of both for Petrocanavar's protruding eyes. 

"FLASH OUT!"

Mina had seven left and I started to hammer frantically. My only concern was that it would take too long to break his eyes, but we were in luck as these rocks felt almost like sandstone. 

"FLASH OUT!"

With five more flash bangs to go, I managed to completely break off one of its two eyes. There was a loud cheer in the crowd. 

Yup, watch and learn, kids. Hard work pays off. 

I kinda regretted only summoning 12 flash bangs as I felt like I was racing against time, but considering I managed to break its eye in about four or five flash bangs I thought I could just about manage it if I banged hard enough. 

The crowd started to clap to the beat - each strike of my hammer. Amidst the loud cheer, I could hear Sevasti frantically ordering the Petrocanavar to do something, but ironically, the blinded monster stood still like it was petrified itself. 

"FLASH OUT!"

Just after the final flash bang went off, the Stone Monster's reaming eye fell to the ground. I felt kinda sorry for it, but if any creature didn't feel pain, it would be a monster made out of rocks. 

"IT'S OVER!!!" 

I stood on top of the defeated monster's head and yelled out. Mira finally turned to look at me and the Petrocanavar to confirm the victory and jumped up and down in joy. The crowd roared and so did I. I truly felt like someone who just climbed up and conquered an impossible mountain. 

"Sevasti's Monster is incapable of fighting any further. The winner is Mira!!!"

With Sir Tel's announcement, I slid down the curve of the monster. My hands and shoulder hurt like hell with all the hammering but I felt it was all worth it when Mira ran over to me and gave me a high five. 

Yeah.

My past wasn't great, to say the least. 

But even in this weird new world, there probably was something I could look forward to. 

And in the drunken haze of victory, the future didn't look too bad.