How many rounds could a battle to the death last?
The answer made clear by Aurelio was that one round was all he planned on giving them. As such, the man jumped off the large stone pillar he stood on and headed towards the girl who had hit her head on the ground after being pushed down.
"Tiva!" the boy named Nayavu screamed, rushing to strike down the general before that general could strike down a friend the boy cared for dearly.
Once again, 'he' was on the verge of losing somebody. Once again, 'he' had brought danger upon his loved ones.
For every step the boy took, magnetized stones would rise from the ground, trembling in his stead at the though of not making it in time.
Aurelio was in no rush, but Nayavu was giving it his all to reach first, and thanks to his magic prowess, his body took the shape of a lightning bolt and headed straight for the general.
Reaching Aurelio long before he reached Tiva, Nayavu pulled out his knife and aimed for the man's head. It was a bold strike—a desperate strike, and because it was desperate, it was doomed to fail against the arrogant general.
With a swift strike of his rapier, the man deflected the boy's blow, launching him high towards the clouds he himself had created, sending the Inyankaran away the very second he had appeared before his eyes. Once again, when control and concentration of the energy were far superior, elements proved to matter much less. That's why the general continued his march unbothered.
"Every single time…" the boy muttered, feeling as if his fate was once again catching up to him.
"Every single time. Every single time. Every single time. Every single time. Every single time. Every single time. Every single time." he went on and on, punching the clouds that should have been fluffy until his knuckles turned red.
In his mind, countless faces came into view. Faces of people he cared for, faces of people who had taken away from 'him', and the faces that 'his' loved ones showed before breathing their last.
Once again, the same events started taking shape. 'He' was birthed anew, got to live his younger days, got attached to people, and was now bound to see them die in front of his awakened eyes.
Helpless…
Up there in the clouds, he felt cold and helpless. Even if his master stood far away watching him, she wasn't planning to lift a finger to help the Inyankaran.
To top it all off, the only other friend who could have helped him suffered the same defeat as the boy, for Tahu also charged in blindly the next moment and was thrown much further than Nayavu.
With nobody to rely on, the boy did what he knew best. He tried to kill.
A lightning strike carried Nayavu back down just when Aurelio's rapier was lifted at the still dizzy girl.
With his weapon already up, the general had no trouble deflecting another blow, and another, and another, and another. Tahu struck but got flung away. Nayavu struck but got pushed back. Every failed strike gave them new wounds. Every hit of the blade coated in water seeped away at their stamina. Every failure tired their mind, and it wasn't long before they made a mistake.
Lacking coordination, both Tahu and Nayavu struck at once. Both of them got parried by the sword, yet this time something was off. This time, they couldn't get away from the weapon in time and their energy got entangled with it.
After so many attacks, they were tired—too tired to calculate their position well enough, and that's what Aurelio was waiting for.
"Took you long enough, I'll give you that much," the man said, before thrusting his blade into the ground.
Electricity yearns for the ground. The two had made a fatal mistake, and their tangled-together energy dispersed into the soil, giving the fight a silent conclusion.
That's when Nayavu's mind went blank, his consciousness splitting into every stone around.
Round two: Aurelio crushes the Inyankarans.
*****
Light left her eyes after her head hit the ground, and it was only now that her awareness came back to her. She saw the tip of a rapier, and the man holding it stared the girl in the eyes.
"Your last chance. Where did you learn that magic from?"
Slowly, memories flooded her mind, and the girl understood the situation she was in. For an answer, her dizzy expression turned into a smile—an awfully smug smile.
"What's wrong, General? What's with the long face?"
Powerless against the man, Tiva chose to fight with words, and judging by Aurelio's eyes—which turned round upon seeing her confidence—her words hit the spot.
"Who is your mother?" the man asked.
"Oh? Do you know Mom? Can it be that you're actually Daddy?"
Another hit landed and damaged the man's patience, so Aurelio gritted his teeth.
"Tell me!"
"Ah… nonono, no way I could be the daughter of such a man! Maybe you're the uncle? Or even worse… some weirdo Mom dumped long ago?"
Tiva—Gianna's half sister—truly shared the same eyes as her late sister. Neither of them ever got to meet the other, so she had no way of knowing what nerve she'd struck, but the smart girl's bluff got her where she wanted.
Above her, Aurelio was foaming at the corners of his mouth. In vain did the man try to keep his solemn expression, his mind was now scrambled, and that was clear from the puddles around, where ripples piled on top of one another endlessly.
A lie that, unbeknownst to anyone, was almost the bare truth gave Tiva what she lacked most. It gave her time.
It was while Aurelio did his best not to lose his cool that it struck him. With a loud screech, a small blue bird went right through the general, catching him off-guard and making his whole body tremble.
The man quickly regained his composure and jumped a few steps back. No, to say he had regained his composure would be an overstatement. Maybe it was the shock, or maybe it was thanks to Tiva's harsh words, but Aurelio's eyes were bloodshot red.
"I'd love to ask where on Earth have you been to, but I'll let it slide for saving me. Hihi!" Tiva said, raising her hand so that the thunderbird could help her up.
Now, with strong backup on her side she was ready for another round. Both she and the beast looked with pity at the man who tried to keep up appearances while trembling, his lips whispering the word "Mother" over and over again.
"Even like this, I don't see us winning, birdie." …"
Tiva lacked confidence, but the bird next to her didn't. With one look, the woman understood that the bird had not come unprepared.
But what could be her plan? Tiva asked herself, right before the ground started shaking.
"What is it now?" Aurelio and Tiva both asked at once.
It was then that a miracle occurred. The two warriors who should have been one with the ground by now rose out of it, taking a glorious pose worthy of commemorating. Riding on top of the stag with his chest puffed out and his hands holding imaginary reigns, Nayavu looked at the young lady.
"Missed me?" a boy's voice asked pridefully, but the only answer that came from Tiva was laughter.
"Dummy," she said. "If you're going to make a cool entrance, at least wait a bit more! I didn't have enough time to notice you were gone. "
Round three winner: none. The fight starts anew.
*****
It was dark not because he couldn't see. It was dark because he had no eyes.
One misstep was all it took, and Nayavu had become one with the ground. Not only that, but he had taken his comrade with him, adding one more death to the endless list weighing down on 'him.'
"This is death… right?" the boy asked himself, though he had no mouth to speak.
With every second that passed, he felt his consciousness growing thin. The same thing would happen whenever 'he'd' die. That should have been enough for Nayavu to convince himself, but this time he felt something more. It was an unfamiliar feeling, a feeling of belonging, a feeling of peace.
He felt as if his very being became one with the world around. He felt as if he was melting, his energy going back to the Earth.
If this was death, it was a death he had never before felt. It was a death that seemed final, a death that gave him hope.
It was warm, but also cool. It was scary, but also calming. So Nayavu started trembling, and the shaking became stronger and stronger.
Welcoming a final ending, the boy let himself fall into nothingness, and into nothingness he would drift to become a part of the world, ready to leave behind the struggles he had been put through.
Wait… shaking?
That's when common sense snapped him back to reality. He was now spread thin throughout the ground beneath a battlefield, and he felt everything throughout him shake.
"That would mean the ground is shaking," he said, and to his surprise, those words came out from somewhere.
Prompted by curiosity, Nayavu tried to feel for his energy, looking for something that could trigger those vibrations. There, he found it. He felt something giant, big enough to surround the whole battlefield with its long body, yet it kept slithering throughout the boy.
For a couple of seconds, Nayavu was dumbstruck. With his mind spread thin, forming thoughts felt like a chore. However, that state didn't last, and his mind slowly became clearer. So clear, in fact, that he soon felt himself whole once again, and next to him, he felt another heart beating.
"Tahu?"
With a puff resounding through the ground, the stag confirmed his presence, and the two heroes who were supposed to have dissipated through the energy were now whole again. Not only that, they themselves were stone now.
Would it have been their first time, the two would have questioned what had transpired, but that wasn't the case, for what they were feeling now was something familiar. With that feeling, an order also came. It wasn't a spoken order but one that resounded in their heads.
"Keep him away from the water," It commanded. It was a command that struck fear into Nayavu, for it felt like the boy had no choice but to obey it. It felt like the very world had ordered him to do something. He had been gifted power for a reason, and now that reason was clear.
The strength oozing out into the earth around was enough to let Nayavu know he was not in charge there. The one who gave him strength could have easily wiped out everyone above ground. It held enough power to end the war, but it couldn't be bothered to use it. It was a beast much stronger than what Nayavu had fought until now, stronger than even the defeated thunderbird—probably as strong as the blue beast in her prime. Compared to the sheer size of the monster, even representatives like Akira felt weak.
It wanted to protect the sacred waters, or maybe it wanted to keep them for itself, and it could have done so easily, yet there was also worry in the energy—worry towards somebody else, somebody Nayavu didn't know—and it was this worry that kept the beast from acting.
Now, with the sweet release of death taken away from him, Nayavu scoffed.
"That could have been my chance…" he said jokingly. It didn't matter, not anymore, for whatever chance at putting an end to 'his' hell he might have felt, it was now long gone, and Nayavu could do nothing but wave at it.
If there was one thing he'd learned, it was that transmutation was no joke. No, that was not all. Speaking of transmutation, both Tahu and Nayavu had learned something more.
"Let's go, buddy!"
And it was thanks to this new lesson that they felt they could try and fulfill their god-given mission.