Ryo's aura doubled.
It wasn't just an increase in density, but an internal explosion; as if the wind itself had found a new reason to exist. The air around him compressed, shaped, and then opened in the form of two wide wings of pure wind, their edges sharp as knives, and their center pulsing with restless energy.
ryo stood heavily, blood streaming from his forehead and arm, his breath shallow... but he did not look at his wounds.
His eyes were fixed on shimoro lying on the sand, his body trembling, blood staining the white beneath his coat.
"If you die... you won't let me achieve my goal...."
The grinding of his teeth was audible amidst the roar of the sea.
The red scale fish raised its head, its lone crimson eye staring at him, and the EIU began to flow around its body violently. Water rose from the sea, wrapping around it like multi-layered vortexes, turning into dozens of water spears that were launched all at once.
ryo lunged.
He didn't run, he didn't dodge backward—instead, he pierced through the storm.
His wings sliced through water and air together, every flap suddenly changing his direction, as if his position in the sky was being redrawn. The water spears missed him with insane difficulty, some scratching his shoulder and back, and some exploding behind him like projectiles.
ryo shouted in a hoarse but steady voice:
"Enough! Vacuum Air Strike!"
He swung his sword, and air blades surged forward, mixing water with wind, turning the sea before him into blue chaos. The fish retaliated with a more violent attack; it raised its giant body and struck the water's surface, and a massive wave rose, attempting to swallow him.
ryo pierced through it.
He emerged from the heart of the wave like a white specter, his aura burning, and his sword began to change its color…
The ice that shimoro had previously created in the sword responded.
And the winds carried by ryo embraced it.
A biting cold… then a sharp whistling.
The air froze around the sword, not as a crust, but as a rotating aura of fine ice crystals, and inside it, a compressed wind current swirled violently.
ryo opened his mouth and screamed, a scream that came from a chest that was about to explode:
"Ice and Wind Harmony!"
He lunged upward, then suddenly changed his path, descending like an inverted meteor toward the neck of the fish—
That spot…
Where the flesh is.
Where the scales do not protect.
The fish sensed the danger, tried to turn its head, to strike him with its gills, to drown the place in water… but time had run out.
He struck.
It wasn't just one strike—
It was an extended cutting, a massive pressure of wind pushing the sword, and ice piercing the flesh and tearing it from the inside.
The sound of deep tearing split the night.
The flesh at the neck split open, blood flowed profusely, the fish's aura suddenly vanished, and a final moan escaped it… low… faint… then silence.
But the sword…
It couldn't endure.
The icy aura cracked, the winds exploded from around the blade, and the metal began to crumble from the middle, blue cracks crawling over it rapidly, and then…
Crack!
The sword shattered into fragments that scattered in the air with blood and water.
The giant fish's body fell into the sea with a thunderous sound, the tide receded, and the night grew still.
ryo fell with it.
He hit the ground on his knees, then on his palm, his body shaking violently. He tried to catch his breath, but the air refused to enter easily.
He raised his head with difficulty…
He looked at shimoro.
"…No…"
He crawled.
Every movement tore at his muscles, every breath was like knives in his chest, but he did not stop. He finally reached him, placed his trembling hand on his chest, and felt his breath.
Weak…
But present.
ryo smiled a tired, broken smile.
"I told you… no one would die."
He tried to stand.
He failed.
He fell again beside shimoro, shoulder touching shoulder, his eye half-open, his body not responding to him.
Yet despite that…
He extended his arm with difficulty and placed it over shimoro's chest, as if protecting him.
"…Just sleep… I am here..."
Then ryo spat blood from his mouth once more...
"I will find... the way."
And in the silence of the Sea of Fireflies, under the full moon,
The two remained lying there…
Alive…
At a price that had almost cost them everything.
To be continued...