As the sun rose the next morning, guards made their daily rounds, signaling their presence with a piercing whistle.
"Another day, another chance for you savages to make yourselves useful," said a soldier with a scar on his left cheek.
Again, like any other day, the prisoners got up and slowly walked out of the cell.
"Not you. I've spoken with the general. He said one less slave didn't make much of a difference. From now on, you're my personal property," the man said to Nayavu with a grin on his face. "Fitting for me to brand you, after what you've done to my face."
With the guard's hand grabbing his shoulder, the boy couldn't help but scoff amused.
"Anything funny about it? Don't tell me you've grown to like your evenings spent with the boys."
"Far from it, Colonel. If anything, I came to hate you more and more with each passing day. You are high up on my naughty list, and that says a lot."
"High up on the naughty list of a savage? Are the other entries rabbits and wolves or something? It seems we have much more bonding to do—"
While keeping the Colonel distracted, Nayavu made sure that everyone had left the cell.
"Sorry to break it to you, but bonding takes time. And worms like you live on borrowed lifespans," Nayavu proclaimed with his own arrogant smile.
The colonel's pupils shrank. He couldn't believe his ears. To be spoken to like that by the very man he was holding prisoner was beyond absurd.
"It seems you've broken way faster than I anticipated," the man said as he smacked Nayavu across the face. "But tell me, how exactly is our time 'borrowed'? Who was so kind to lend it to us?"
Before answering, Nayavu cleared his throat and spat out the blood in his mouth.
"You know? Were you a bit more humble, you could have used your standing to get away first."
"Ha?"
The colonel raised his hand to smack the boy again, but as he swung down, there was no palm left to reach him.
It took only a moment for the colonel to go from confused to scared, and it took another second for him to let out a scream carried on waves of pain.
"AHHHHHHH!"
The colonel fell to the ground, his legs numb from the shock. Meanwhile, the soldier behind had just enough time to reach for his whistle and blow into it, rendering everyone he wished immobile.
Or that's what was supposed to happen. Instead, no sound came from the whistle.
With wide eyes, the soldier looked at the only man left around. Nayavu smiled at him for a moment, only to plant his fist in the soldier's face next.
After making sure everyone in the dungeon was out cold, the young man went back to the screaming colonel, anger bleeding from his eyes the same way blood was gushing out of his wound.
"How? What did you do? Help me!"
"Help? The only thing trash like you deserves is to rot here!" Nayavu said with a cold look in his eyes while lifting his hands to the side. The next second, the walls of the dungeon started to tremble.
"You were asking about your kind benefactor. Well, now you have two reasons to thank me. With this, I'm finally putting an end to your worthless lives."
Just before Nayavu could make the dungeon collapse, another piercing noise came from outside.
"Tsk, talk about getting lucky," the boy muttered. He kicked the colonel, making him whine like a sick dog, took the whistle of the nearby soldier, and ran to the surface.
*****
He promised he would get everyone out, yet he gave in to his anger.
Having his mind painted with hate, Nayavu left the weakened prisoners unguarded on the surface, where many other soldiers were deployed.
Now was the time for him to face the consequences. Nayavu ran to the surface, expecting to see everyone fallen to the ground.
"I'd be lucky if I found anyone still alive," the boy said to himself as he was running up the stairs.
When he finally got to the surface, another surprise was waiting for him. While the prisoners were barely able to crawl away from danger because of the noise, a muscular man covered their retreat with his massive body.
"Tatanka!"
"Nayavu! This sound, how do you make it stop?"
Once his surroundings became clear, Nayavu slapped his cheeks and faced the direction the sound was coming from, looking for the source.
"Found it! What about now!" he asked after silencing the whistle just like he did in the dungeon.
"Much better! Thank you!"
Upon clearing his thoughts, Tatanka seemed to get stronger and stronger. After all, body enhancement was the field he specialized in. It was one of the few types of magic that could be used with less brain power—not that Tatanka lacked in smarts.
"Nayavu! Take them away! I'll hold those guys back!"
"But, Tatanka! The general is here! They may be way stronger than we think!"
"I said go!"
Tatanka didn't give his words a second thought. He clad his body in stone and ran towards the soldiers who were readying their guns.
*Bang*
Shots were being fired at the giant, but none of them hit him. He just kept running from one soldier to another, using his enhanced strength and a tomahawk to smash their heads as he ran past them.
The fleeing Nayavu stared back in wonder. It took him a second to understand the tricks Tatanka was using, but once he did, he looked at him with proud eyes.
"That's my master for you! He can always come up with something! In all my years I've never thought of that!" Nayavu said in admiration as he watched Tatanka throw his tomahawk and call it back with basic yet efficient stone magic.
"You see that? That's my mentor!" Nayavu said to the prisoners struggling to run.
"He truly is a great man. No wonder you grew up to be such a fine lad," Makala answered between heavy breaths. "But I have to ask, how did you manage to resist and even stop that noise?"
"You've just said it: I'm a fine lad—a prodigy, as some would call me!" the young man said with no shame.
"I meditated. Every single minute in the cell, I've spent it focusing on that sound—"
Out of nowhere, Nayavu's explanation was interrupted by a water jet coming right at him. The boy barely had time to dodge and focus on the attacker, and what he saw left him stunned for a second.
"I must say, I've underestimated you, Colonel!"
But the wounded colonel didn't answer the boy. No, something seemed to be wrong with him, and only upon closer inspection did Nayavu understand what.
"AHHHHH!"
The colonel gave up on human speech and traded it for a roar of anger—no, the roar was closer to a cry of pain.
From his wounds, blood started seeping and forming small spheres around. With a single gesture, the man transformed those spheres into darts and launched them all at Nayavu.
The young man answered with a click of his tongue—unclear whether it was directed at the man or the magic he was using.
As dangerous as blood magic was, its devastating power could only be unleashed on one condition—more blood had to be supplied from the opponents.
"That's where you failed!" Nayavu said after managing to deflect every attack by using the same magic attribute.
Next to the two, the wounds of the prisoners remained untouched.
"How?"
"No time for questions now! Run! Get outside of his range!"
The prisoners looked at Nayavu confused, but after seeing the boy's palm open towards them and the struggle on his face, they came to understand. At that moment, it was not their heart that kept blood running through their veins, but the Inyankaran in front of them.
Once the prisoners ran far enough, the colonel and Nayavu stared each other down, getting ready for their duel.
"Don't look at me like that! You've just had some bad luck, that's all!"
But Nayavu's taunts generated only more screams, and with those screams came something hard to watch for the young man.
"Hey… You'll kill yourself if you do that…"
But to a man who can't be touched by reason, words hold even less meaning than his own blood—which he kept draining in preparation for his next attack.
Hit after hit, Nayavu kept deflecting while the crazed man kept draining himself. He was already way past the limit, but he kept going.
"You know, I really wanted to see you suffer…" Nayavu spoke between strikes. "But this is too much even for someone like you!"
Not waiting for another strike, the young man flew behind the colonel.
"Have you ever taken a break to hear the birdsong around?"
Upon asking his question, Nayavu gently touched the back of the man. A moment later, the colonel went limp, and his lifeless body collapsed to the ground.
*****
After making sure the prisoners had gotten away, Nayavu went to check on his mentor. There, he saw the man just as he had left him, fighting by himself against an army.
That was the case until a strong jet of boiling water hit Tatanka, piercing through both his stone armor and his arm.
But the man didn't scream in pain. He screamed in anger—everyone around him freezing up upon hearing those screams.
"I must say, you and your boy have caused me quite some trouble…" a man dressed in a fancy uniform said as he appeared on the balcony of his wooden mansion with his hand raised and fingers pointed at the wounded Tatanka.
"No, trouble may be a bit much… but it certainly is a huge loss of… assets."
Tatanka was in no mood to listen to the man, so he raised his tomahawk, only for his other arm to be shot down in an instant.
"Now… I would love it if you didn't force me to shoot you down. After taking away all of my dear little helpers, I need a replacement. With that strength of yours, I think you can make up for it just fine."
The guards surrounded the man at the order of the general going by the name of Aurelio, pushing him with the sharp tips of their bayonets towards the now empty dungeon.
Tatanka didn't fight back. He decided on staying silent, only taking a glance at the small forest he had used as cover for his ambush and for the escape of the prisoners.
There, in that forest, a small flicker of light shone brighter and brighter. Tatanka's eyes widened at the sight, noticing that the light was in fact not getting brighter but approaching them.
Before he could gather his thoughts, a screaming young man clad in shining light burst from the forest, blinding everyone around except for Tatanka and the general, who had already raised a shield of water to deflect the rays while wearing an unimpressed look.
It all happened in a moment, so it was hard for Tatanka to understand what he saw. In a flash, soldiers around him fell cut in two, and the large man was taken up by strong gales and carried to the other edge of the forest.
As he looked behind, he saw the general still standing tall and proud.
Without sparing a glance at his fallen soldiers, Aurelio turned away and leapt from his crumbling mansion, landing on the ground and calmly walking deeper into the Reman-conquered territories, as if he wasn't retreating, but going on a walk.
*****
"Sound magic. That's all!"
Nayavu answered before Makala could even ask the question.
Now in the open plains, the two groups were getting ready to part ways, for each of them had their own place to be.
Still, they were in no rush that wouldn't allow Nayavu to boast a little.
"I just had to use all my spare time on meditation, and I was able to pick up the frequencies, slowly learning how to bend them. That's how I managed to protect us all from the noise."
"Stone, blood, and now sound magic? Boy, you really are a rare treasure for us Inyankarans."
By a stroke of luck, blood magic had never been banned among the tribes, so there were no consequences for Nayavu, but the fact he had to show his powers remained troublesome.
"And that crazed colonel? What made him act like that?"
"Ah, that was also sound magic. He probably had that guard with the flute tune the frequency in a way to drive himself mad. By the time I fixed it, there was nothing left to save of him…" Nayavu explained, with his fist balled.
"Listen here, boy."
Makala gently placed his hand on the young man's shoulder.
"Not everyone can be saved, nor does everyone deserve salvation. The decision was his to make, so there's no point in you losing yourself in sorrow."
The kind words of the weakened man were like a warm breeze brushing the chilly plains. Although Nayavu should have been used to such tragedies, his young mind still needed such words every now and then. That was enough for the boy to turn that frown upside down.
"Ok, you take care of yourselves!"
Nayavu waved his hand, saying goodbye to the remains of the tribe, for they decided to move on swiftly and try to rebuild what they had lost. He didn't let his hand down until they were lost to the edge of the horizon.
"Ah… Now, do I get a passing grade for—"
The young man's words were interrupted by a loud smack placed on his cheek.
"Never again leave the weak ones behind."
Those words were spoken in a calm but firm manner by the giant who had hit Nayavu.
With a palm placed on his cheek and looking baffled, the boy lowered his head.
"Yes. That was my mistake. I swear to never repeat it!"
"Good."
That's where the conversation was supposed to end, but Tatanka did something unusual and spoke again.
"Those powers. They were impressive."
"Ah… That…"
Ah… now I've messed up… Nayavu thought.
"You should have shown them to me earlier. You pass. From tomorrow, we walk back to the village."
The first reaction of the boy would be best described as a dumb face, but he soon followed with a nervous laugh.
"Ahahaha… Yes, Sir!"
After all, Tatanka was never one to pry too much.