Fire Lightning

Fire Lightning1 / 4

"I'm nothing but a crane, so how can you force a crane to do what it can't? That's just plain unreasonable!"

• The above is a line Yu Xiaomei made up on Fire Lightning's behalf.

The immortal crane raised by Yu Xiaomei of the Kongtong Sect's Flying Heaven Gate. A crane of rare spirit, it spends all day trying to talk like a human, and its cry is truly awful to hear.

Xiaomei is forever grabbing it to and practice dancing. One can only wonder what sins it committed in a past life to end up in her hands.

Spirit and Intellect

• It cannot speak human language, but it understands it.
• It knows how to swing a blade and throw Hidden Weapons.
• It will shove people to avoid Yu Xiaomei.
• It throws a tantrum if you beat it. Event image: Since When Was Mei's Fire Lightning This Cute!

Martial Arts

• Blades are glued to its wings.
• Though a crane, its intellect is exceptional, and it knows how to throw Hidden Weapons.
• Its Verbal Attack has a piercing effect and deals physical damage on top.
• Equipment - Claw Blades: claw blades from the Soul-Stealing Gate are fitted to its legs.
• Special Passive - Flying Heaven: a variant of Brace; once used, it launches a Sudden Raid.
  • Special Passive - Sudden Raid: for this Round it is immune to Stab and Ultimate, and deals damage to the enemy.
• Yu Xiaomei wants Fire Lightning to teach Zhao Huo Immortal Crane's Elusive Fist, but it seems it hasn't learned it yet.

Xiaomei

• often dresses it in her own clothes, sometimes for a prank, sometimes to fake an alibi.
• Because promised that if it could just kill she would never force it to learn martial arts again, it has set its sights on Zhao Huo and wants him dead.
• Whenever Zhao Huo visits Crane Cliff it attacks him, sometimes bringing a blade or along.
• When spars with Zhao Huo at the Tang Clan, she drags Fire Lightning in to fight too. Xiaomei has no martial honor.
• is both strict and kind to it, and especially respects Fire Lightning's independence, which is why she gives it pocket money.^[1] How does a crane spend pocket money?
  • She also pays out of her own pocket to buy Fire Lightning equipment.
• Hearing the code word "silence them" sends it into a savage rage.

Beloved Fire Lightning

• "Beloved Fire Lightning" is a well-known community meme. At the time there was a flood of bizarre fan works, with the furry players leading the charge in championing Fire Lightning for her cute portrait and plentiful screen time.
• One article mentioned a real-life case of a female crane falling in love with a human, and writer Bear confirmed that Fire Lightning is female.^[2]
  • The red patch on a red-crowned crane's head becomes more prominent when it is excited or courting.
    • And Fire Lightning's head patch is prominently displayed over a large area all year round. Players joke that she's been in heat for ten thousand years.
  • Red-crowned cranes perform a courtship dance when courting, and the female will actively invite a dance too.
    • Fire Lightning danced the moment she first saw Zhao Huo.
  • On these grounds, players reasonably interpreted Fire Lightning as being in heat and courting Zhao Huo.
  • Once that article came out, Fire Lightning's popularity shot up.
    • At the same time, influenced by the classical tale of the crane's repayment, fan works of Fire Lightning taking human form caused a stir in the community. The spirit of Strange Tales lives on.
• Because the clamor for a Fire Lightning romance route was so loud it stuffed the interview questionnaire, writer Bear stated plainly in a live interview that Fire Lightning only likes cranes of her own kind^[3]:

  You can't romance Fire Lightning, because what Fire Lightning likes is cranes.
  Humans and cranes walk different paths; love is letting go, and you can't force it on someone.

• During the Kongtong imprisonment event, a character says outright that he wants to forcibly marry the immortal crane of the Flying Heaven Direct Disciple, a nod to this bizarre community meme.

  I've also taken a fancy to that crane raised by the Flying Heaven Gate's Direct Disciple! I'm going to steal it and make it my second wife!

References & Homages

• The name is a reference to Harry Potter, to Harry's flying broomstick, the Firebolt.
  • After the Japanese translation team and the dev team confirmed the character's reading, Fire Lightning's Japanese reading was explicitly ファイアボルト^[4], the same as the broom Firebolt.
    • This was the Japanese translation team's first translation of an English-style reading. But that reading was dropped in version 2.5.
  • appears as a witch in the 2025 Halloween illustration^[5] and the Bahamut 30th anniversary collaboration illustration^[6], and rides a broom in the 2026 Halloween illustration^[7].
• The pairing of and Fire Lightning may come from "plum wife and crane son" in the Northern Song Dynasty's Dream Pool Essays.
• is shown riding Fire Lightning in official promotional art and in a certain ending, possibly a reference to the idiom "the crane rides west".
• Martial arts: Flying Heaven and Sudden Raid may be homages to the classic Flying-type move Fly from Pokémon; the immunity to damage and the surprise-attack effect match.
• The Story and a certain death often deliberately call Fire Lightning a bird rather than a crane, possibly a nod to one of the producers, Programmer Bird.

Notes

• Changes to Fire Lightning's Japanese reading:
  • Fire Lightning (v2.3) → ファイアボルト (v2.4) → Fire Lightning (v2.5)

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1. PTT C_Chat - [Legend of Mortal] Strange trivia ↩︎

2. Bahamut - 【Review】Fire Lightning is the most waifu. Come in, I'll tell you why ↩︎

3. The 8/5/2024 Taiwan PTS Legend of Mortal live interview video, compiled article ↩︎

4. X - Fire Lightning's Japanese reading ↩︎

5. FaceBook - Legend of Mortal 2025 Halloween illustration ↩︎

6. FaceBook - Legend of Mortal Bahamut 30th anniversary collaboration illustration ↩︎

7. FaceBook - Legend of Mortal 2026 Halloween illustration ↩︎