Not every one of 'his' lives ended in tragedy.
While it was true that 'he' would always die, many times it was for unknown reasons.
After collapsing on the street one life, with half of 'his' torso staying behind the other, 'he' even refused to go out of the house for a couple of lives. Not even that saved him.
By now, even being killed out of nowhere was nothing new for 'him'. 'He' had spent many lives developing his perception so 'he' could defend himself from those unseen strikes.
Some lives were lost in battle, some were lost due to sickness, and some due to disaster.
'He' was used to dying. What 'he' couldn't overcome was the fear of losing and the fear of causing loss.
'He' had people 'he' loved. 'He' had things 'he' cared for. Those were 'his' weaknesses.
How could I forget…?
One of those lives, one 'he' had lived for 14 years almost fully in darkness, now came back to bite him.
"Giovanni… Giulia…"
Another failed life not because he'd died, but because he'd lost someone important.
"Merlobasso…"
Nayavu was stunned. His head felt like it would split open, excruciating pain overwhelming his mind. A young Giovanni was there, right in front of his eyes. That fact alone couldn't possibly make sense.
"Nayavu… Are you okay?" Tiva asked, worried about the unfamiliar names he kept repeating.
A cold sweat ran down the boy's back, mixing with the blood of his tribe.
Images of a fight resurfaced in his mind. Blood, men, a young girl screaming, and a giant lizard popped up in his head. Everything was hazy—his memories still faded—but the one thing that didn't waver was a new feeling of deep hatred.
"Oh? He seems to be getting a little too excited…" said Aurelio. "Lieutenant Giovanni, are you sure you don't have a history with the boy?"
That was the last piece of confirmation needed. Once Nayavu heard his name from the mouth of the general, his trembling came to a halt, and he fixed his gaze on the man who was to answer.
"Sir! I've never met this man before," the lieutenant answered, his tone not leaving any room for doubt.
Upon hearing this, Nayavu let his hands fall to his sides. With them, the stone armor he was wearing also crumbled to the ground.
He took a deep breath, as if trying to find peace in front of this sick twist of fate.
*Inhale*
*Exhale*
*Inhale*
*Exhale*
*Inhale*
*Exhale*
*Inhale*
*Inhale*
*Inhale*
"GIOVANNIIIIIIIIIIII!"
With a scream, Nayavu marked the start of the battle. The next moment, some of the moon's pale light was caught by the boy and directed at the standing water.
Nayavu, with his weak control of light magic, had to find a way to improvise. There was no way he could use light to strike someone, so he used the water to reflect everything he could control towards the Reman army.
Together with the blinding attack, the young man let out a scream for his next move, waiting for the others to join him.
The first one to put his trust in him and scream back was Tatanka. Once he had done so, the rest of the village followed suit. As more and more noise was being made, Nayavu was forced to split his focus. He amplified the noise, had it propagate within walls he had imagined, and attacked another of the Remans' senses.
"Now! Run away people!"
The difference in numbers and strength made it clear that the Inyankarans had no choice but to flee, so once the enemy was both blind and deaf, everyone turned around and started running.
Tatanka was the one to lead the retreat. He led the villagers between gunshots and piercing water droplets, yet they weren't being followed.
With no risk of being caught up to, Tiva slowed down, and once she was out behind the crowd, she started toying with the ground, leaving behind cracks, bumps, and boulders for extra protection.
What they had to run through was pure horror. Bodies of the ones they loved lay on the ground in pools of blood, making the ones left alive want to lie next to them and cry together. Fortunately, the Inyankaran spirit is strong, so they kept going. They ran further and further, their sandals red with blood and tears. None of them looked back, for all that was left behind them was pain. All that they had known would bring sorrow, and they knew better than to look at it.
Only when they got to dry land did the villagers take one more look behind, stopping only when they confirmed nobody was on their trail.
Behind the horizon, the pinkish light of the sun started peeking. The assault that lasted a whole night was over, for now.
Some breathed a sigh of relief, happy that they managed to get out of there alive. However, as they turned around looking for their loved ones, the air turned grim.
Under the rays of a new day, one by one, people fell to their knees. Some started crying uncontrollably, while a few did their best to comfort them.
Others were already planning what to do next. Among the most rational ones were the elders and Tatanka. This was not the right time to cry for the fallen, and they knew that.
"The disaster isn't over!" one of the elders said. "We don't have time to cry now!"
"May those grounds forgive us and give our heroes the burial we can't…" Tatanka's mother prayed, attempting to give the ones who had passed on the bare minimum.
For the people of the village, it was an unprecedented disaster. In a single night, everything they held dear came down crumbling, flooded by the greed of the wolf they used to laugh at.
Mothers left without children cried at the chest of their husband. Children left without parents held on to one another. Wounded people stood on the ground, looking at the sky and wondering how their life could go on without a limb.
All of this happened under the new light of a cruel sun, shining on what was left of a once proud village, as if reminding them that this is their life now.
Looking at them, Tatanka's heart filled with sorrow. Nobody, not even the elders, were truly able to keep calm and think of a plan. Their talks soon turned into one big argument, so the man stepped out, focusing instead on lending a hand to the people.
"Tiva, thank you for your hard work… How many are still with us?" the man asked the lady who had bumped into him while running around in a daze.
Tiva had kept herself busy with treating the wounded and comforting the kids, yet something about her seemed wrong since seconds ago, after she intercepted a scout coming back with some news.
"Tatanka!" the girl screamed, hoping that the capable man could help her.
"All of the survivors managed to keep up! That means half the village is still with us! Except one!"
The girl found it hard to break the final piece of news to Tatanka, so she made a short pause. She gave the man a chance to figure out for himself what was going on, and a quick glance around was enough for him to guess what the problem was.
"Nayavu! Where is he?" he asked the young lady.
"The scout said he stayed behind with the Remans!"
*****
Back on the battlefield, a single boy was doing the work of an army.
Nayavu—or maybe a more fitting name would be Leo—pushed aside row after row of Reman soldiers by smashing his target into them.
His target, the most important man on the battlefield, was not Aurelio. The one Nayavu grabbed was a lieutenant going by the name of Giovanni. He was the one who managed to knock the boy unconscious around a month ago, but that was not why he was singled out. He was attacked because that's what Leo wanted.
By the time he managed to free himself, Giovanni was at the back end of the crowd. He saw a man with bloodshot eyes approach him with nothing but a knife in his hand.
"Now!" Giovanni shouted, and the soldiers of Rema suddenly turned towards the two and readied their guns.
Nayavu prioritized his survival at that moment.
He rode the wind, jumping above the soldiers who had a hard time following him.
While up in the air, the boy finally noticed the rising sun. It was another card for him to play.
With stronger rays, Nayavu tried something new. He concentrated them on a single row of Remans. Soon, they were left screaming in agony as they fell to the ground.
Together with the light attack, Nayavu—no, Leo remembered another trick, but with no bleeding soldier in sight, he had to improvise.
Blood flows within all living beings, but using that blood was rarely an option, as it was nigh impossible to guess the exact flow within said beings.
Yet, there was a simple, brutal trick to fix this problem.
Out of nowhere, a Reman soldier, busy trying to take aim at the boy, fell to the ground. His body went limp for a second before it started spasming erratically. A scream was all the struggling soldier could let out under the gaze of the boy. Shortly after, his body imploded seemingly out of nowhere.
Making a mistake in handling energy could lead to it becoming unstable. Such acts were avoided by mages, as the results were always unpredictable. When it comes to blood magic, while there were times when someone could get away with just an explosion, there were other times when the unstable energy would be transmitted to the magic user—another vessel reliant on blood.
Many mages ended up suffering from simple mistakes. They bit off more than they could chew and ended up with permanent damage or a shortened life. Nayavu knew that, but he decided to try regardless. Needless to say, he was lucky to get the desired result.
Or so he thought, yet the blood flowing out of his nose told a different story.
Regardless, his goal had been reached. With a swift move of his hand, he took out the nearby soldiers, piercing each of them with the blood of their colleagues.
Such an attack could domino all the way to the general, but Leo wasn't concerned about him. Instead, he soon directed all the blood he had gathered towards the man standing alone behind him.
"Giovanniiiiiiii!" he screamed, his eyes bloodshot and blinded by rage.
Yet the lieutenant was anything but defenseless. During Nayavu's moments of mindless killing, Giovanni shifted his focus far away, to the ruined village, calling the water back to him. Such range was out of the question for average mages, but Giovanni's high level of control gave him the chance to fight.
Blood and water mixed as the two were shooting at one another. Nayavu's multiple strikes were barely deflected by Giovanni's agile maneuvers.
At the same time, the boy had to make sure the soldiers behind them couldn't intervene, so he continued using his light and sound magic just enough to keep their aim shaky.
It was only a matter of time until Nayavu Leo would overwhelm Giovanni's simple defense. Or so he thought, but the boy didn't have much more left in him. His vision was getting blurry. His mind was in overdrive. The attacks he was using all at once were way above what Nayavu could handle, and his body was starting to give in.
To top it all off, Giovanni switched tactics before the boy could seal the deal. Thanks to the strength received from the sacred waters, the lieutenant was able to close the distance, changing the flow of their fight.
As both pulled out their knives, the clash between them became a dance. On one side, the dance was filled with anger. On the other, the moves were made mechanically, as if taking on the raging boy was just another mission. Rage and indifference clashed, only one of them to come out victorious.
It seemed like Nayavu had finally found an opening when he saw the chance to cut at the lieutenant's hand. It would have been nothing more than a scratch, not worth taking the risk for in a normal fight. But for the blood mage, a scratch was all he needed, so with a flick of his wrist, he went for it.
In Nayavu's mind, everything slowed down as he saw his ivory knife approaching the back of Giovanni's palm. Once Giovanni noticed it, he went for the boy's chest—a strike Nayavu had to block with the open palm of his other hand, having it pierced by the lieutenant's bayonet.
For Leo, no wound mattered. He would get his win and avenge the girl in his memories.
When his knife finally pierced the man's skin, a metallic taste filled the boy's mouth—a sign that this was his final strike.
Together with the taste, a pungent smell of ozone also overwhelmed his nostrils, the boy's hair stood on end, and a flash of light blinded him.
Of course, this wasn't part of the plan, and when the light dissipated, what was left were the two mages, fallen at the feet of an unknown third.