Weak To Fire

4

It felt like it took an eternity until it was the next day. Y/N would have liked it if spirits could sleep and then wake up again after eight hours, just like humans. But sleeping wasn't something spirits did. Well, technically Y/N wasn't sure whether that was true for all spirits, but she definitely didn't sleep. She didn't need to. She needed to rest, make sure her mana replenished, but that was about it. The closest thing to sleep she got was some sort of trance and it wasn't really like sleep.

Y/N had always been a little jealous of humans just being able to skip that much time when nothing was happening, but she was forced to be in her trance where she could still feel just how much time was passing. Sure, sometimes it was nice to be able to stay awake as long as she wanted without ever getting tired, but most of the time it was just getting boring. Especially out here.

Y/N loved her little patch of forest and she loved her lake, too, but if she was honest... there was never really anything happening around here. All she did was swim in her lake and wait for the time to pass. It was really boring. Y/N had no idea how she had survived in here for so long. She hadn't always lived here and she wasn't really bound to this place in any weird way, but moving somewhere else would be an absolute hassle and Y/N wanted to avoid that for the sake of her own sanity.

If she was planning to move, it meant that she'd have to get herself out of the water, somehow find something that resembled human clothes (because she couldn't hold onto her water dress forever and walking around naked was a good way to get arrested), and then finding a new body of water that she could live in. The whole water part was what was a bit of a hindrance. Y/N didn't constantly need to be in the water to survive, but she did need to have a body of water nearby to recharge and replenish her energy. If she didn't have that, she'd wither away and eventually turn into dust after a while. Y/N had no idea how long it took and she didn't want to find out either.

The good thing for her was that almost anything counted as a body of water. If she wanted to head into a city and live the life for a while, all Y/N needed was enough money to rent a room with a bathtub to return to. A full bathtub of water thankfully counted as a body of water and it worked wonders whenever she did have the time and energy to go away for a while. But no matter what, she always returned here. She enjoyed spending some time somewhere else, but eventually the buzz of the towns and cities always ended up wearing her down until she longed for some solitude.

And that's what always brought her back home. She wanted her peace and quiet. She wanted to be alone and relax and enjoy time by herself. That was probably why she was getting so annoyed with Mereoleona. Y/N had been watching her while she was asleep and she had to admit that she was an attractive woman. And there was something about her being a fire magic user that was drawing Y/N to her. Maybe because she was so different from her, but at the same time not... It was weird. And Y/N didn't want to think about it, because she had to fight her.

She didn't just have to fight her, she had to go and absolutely hand her ass to her, because otherwise Mereoleona would never let her hear the end of it. She was the kind of person to gloat in a case like this and Y/N knew that she planned to stay for a while. If Mereoleona won this, then she'd have to go and leave this place for a while, because she wouldn't be able to put up with her being proud of winning. But that wouldn't be happening, since Y/N was definitely going to win.

"Hey. Hey, fire user. Wake the fuck up." she shouted across the shore, as she was getting out of the water. Mereoleona wasn't asleep anymore and Y/N knew it. She had seen her tossing and turning for a good while now. All she was doing at this point was just napping, when it was time to get up.

"Leave me alone, Y/N, I literally am not even awake." she heard Mereoleona grumbling. Y/N chuckled. Yeah, as if. She raised her arm, gathering some water that was floating over her face, before releasing it right above her head and splashing her face with cold water. She was expecting to hear a loud shriek from Mereoleona, but all she got was an annoyed groan, before she was sitting up and grinning at her, canines sharp and prominent. It seemed like she was not going to mess around and actually fight her seriously. Good. Y/N liked that. She didn't want to be treated as a frail, dainty little girl, even though that was what she looked like in her human form.

"You're really serious about fighting me, huh?" Mereoleona asked and got up. She didn't even wait for an answer before attacking her with an astonishing amount of force. She really had a lot of mana and incredible control over it, as well. Y/N was quite impressed, but she didn't waste any time to counter the attack. Both Mereoleona's fire and Y/N's water met in the middle between them. It was taking a lot out of Y/N to keep her magic up, because Mereoleona was stronger than she had expected. But she was doing well. They slowly got closer to each other, their magic increasing more and more, making the attacks stronger and stronger.

"Not bad for a water user..." Mereoleona muttered with an arrogant grin as soon as Y/N was close enough to hear her. She scoffed and put more power behind her attack, getting Mereoleona to step back. That was a point for Y/N, but she was still far from winning this whole thing.

"Not bad for a fire user, either." Y/N said with a grin and was almost hit by a fireball. Damn it. She hadn't been paying attention to what was going on... this was bad. Mereoleona was merciless with her attacks and now Y/N was stuck defending herself without getting any opening to attack. Plus, it almost seemed as if the attacks were getting stronger and faster over time.

She had to concede and take a few steps back, as Mereoleona was getting closer and closer. She was absolutely closing in on her, until she was so close that Y/N could smell the typical fire magic user smell off her. It wasn't unpleasant, a bit like a bonfire - smoke, burned wood, sulphur. And the heat coming off her was amazing. Y/N wished she could just close her eyes and bask in that natural heat coming off Mereoleona, but she still had to win this. Maybe they could be friends after this fight, but for now Y/N had to prove a point and she wasn't going to lose.

Except that everything right now looked like she was losing. She wasn't doing well with her attacks and even her defence was getting weaker and then she stumbled over some branch or some rock and lost her balance and fell. Before she realised what was happening she hit the ground and then there was a weight on top of her. Y/N opened one of her eyes and looked directly at Mereoleona who had stumbled on top of her, fire magic still at the ready in the form of a flame dancing in her hand.

"Sorry, I tried to catch you, but you just pulled me down with you." she mumbled. Y/N didn't know what to say. She was so close and she was so warm and... she hadn't thought that she'd be so attracted to this woman that had arrived in her forest yesterday. But here she was.

"It's... it's okay." Y/N replied.

"Does that mean that I've won?" Mereoleona wanted to know with a big grin on her face. Y/N sighed and looked to the side for a few seconds, before making eye contact with her again. Mereoleona thought that she had won? That was cute. Really cute. But wrong. She grinned at her.

"Like hell you have. This isn't over yet." she answered, as she felt the magic that she was gathering in the palm of her hand reaching a peak.