The four seasons. The most well known cycle of all.
It begins in the spring, where flowers bloom and trees get their leaves back to sprout flowers.
Then comes summer, which brings heat to the plants, nourishing them with sunlight until their fruit becomes ripe.
Afterwards comes autumn, the season where brown is everywhere, the leaves start falling and the branches become bare.
Finally, winter comes and with it the cold. Heavy rains might turn to snowfall, and rivers and lakes become frozen.
And then, it is spring again, restarting the cycle.
All in all, the cycle is balanced showing that the balance of nature remains throughout the year.
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The battle raged on, the seasons changed over and over again. Tapio knew that the fight was going to take longer, for as much power as he was using, Adam was standing his ground.
Now, it was a rainy spring.
Adam was catching his breath after the seasons turned back to spring.
"huff... huff... Tsara... huff... Can you... Keep going? huff..."
"Of course, but are you sure you can keep up for much longer, you are already struggling quite a lot?"
"No matter what, I won't lose!"
A vine crept behind Adam, trying to get ahold of his right foot, but before even touching Adam, he'd cut the vine.
"Tsara!"
"Got it!"
Tsara quickly turned into a spear, with Adam using her to get of the ground, which had completely turned to mud.
The mud turned into many hands, all trying to reach Adam, but to no avail.
"Summer"
The temperature got high, and Adam was getting worn out., sweat dripping from his forehead. Tsara was not in great shape either, having to switch between forms constantly.
They readied another big attack, only for it to be blocked again.
Finally, they decided to make a smokescreen and then attack Tapio from the side. But just as they deployed the smoke grenade.
"Autumn"
The winds swept away the smoke while the rain made Adam's position easier to track.
Adam was then sent flying by the falling leaves, which were surprisingly soft while falling afterwards.
There were many things Adam understood about war, especially about wars of attrition. He was the one who created the concept of war, after all.
But even then, against the sheer power his opponent held, Adam was having a really hard time finding weaknesses, weak spots or even as little as a simple opening.
While the rain barely annoyed him after his fights with Adamastor and especially Yumud, the constantly changing temperatures were hard to deal with.
He needed to adapt, to find a way to break through the cycle. But his ideas were always flawed, making his mindset become as dark as the clouds in the sky.
"Tsara, we need to formulate a better plan. This isn't a war we can win with a direct confrontation right out the gate."
"Don't worry Adam, while it might seem impossible to even hold out long enough to make a plan, I'm sure we can last long enough to prepare one."
"Doesn't it feel like it will be a hard task to achieve."
"If it wasn't, it would not be worth it."
"Thanks, but for now, let's get some distance from Tapio."
And so they did. They gained distance on the concept of nature, and started to plan.
The winter soon came and with it the cold came back in full throttle.
The rain turned to snow, and the contrast between the white ground and the black clouds made it seem like the earth was fighting back against the infinite sky.
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Nature runs in cycles, for every yin there is also a yang to balance it out, for every evil demon from the nine layers of hell that causes chaos, there is an angel in heaven spreading the good and restoring order to the world.
This balance is, of course, a very fragile ordeal, as even the smallest of changes to one side could spell doom.
Nature is a being whose entire existence is inherently tied to balance, hence, when a being that had the ability to shatter said balance came along, it was inevitable to stop the being and make it so the scales become even once more.
Removing the root of the problem before it can infect anything else, even if said being was also part of nature.
Unlike nature, humanity is chaotic, all over the place. We are capable of destroying habitats, displace animals and plants to where they should never have been.
This is why Tapio harbors such deep hatred towards Adam.
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The winter's rain was falling as hard as ever, Adam and Tsara were resting a little, until mud hands started sprouting from the ground.
Adam jumped high in the air, though that made him vulnerable to the mud shots that came out of the hands. Hundreds no, thousands of mud balls thrown at Adam, only for them to all be blocked by Tsara in shield form.
They knew what came next, he was gonna appear, therefore, as they hit the ground, they immediately got into a defensive stance.
The silence of the trees was hard to bear, and the ground was uneven, since the mud had settled and was now just a sign of an impending attack.
The mud started moving, forming back a dark shape behind Adam and Tsara.
The two red ruby-like glowing eyes staring at them from the back.
Adam wielded Tsara in the form of a grenade launcher, throwing a flash grenade at the giant's face. He appeared to be unaffected, but even the split second that the grenade gave to Adam and Tsara was enough for them to have gotten away.
Tapio just stood there, in the shade that the few trees that still had leaves created, though it was so dark it almost felt like it was just darkness. Then he looked up, at the dark clouds in the sky, he put his arms upwards in such a manner that he could catch the rain droplets.
Even then, the rain simply fell.