"I didn't have enough time to notice you were gone. "
Those words hurt the boy who came back from the dead just to save his friend. They would have hurt more if coming back was more of a hurdle, but since that wasn't the case, the boy answered with a bright smile himself.
Still, not everyone around smiled like the two. There was a man who didn't. Instead, his left eye twitched as a question left his lips through a whisper.
"How…" Aurelio asked, looking at the boy who respawned out of the ground with his body still half made of stone.
The answer to the general's question came soon after in the form of a beast showing off. What came into view was the back of a giant snake. It only took a glance for Aurelio to figure out who that snake was, and the moment it clicked for him, the man jumped on a water jet and rushed to slay the beast.
The one to stop his blade was Nayavu, with a blade made of fine ivory that took the place of his hand. The boy himself couldn't explain why stone magic gave him the ability to control ivory, but with the cool-looking hand-blade he had made for himself, there was no reason to complain.
Pushing the man back, Nayavu took a moment to analyze the surroundings. Everything seemed fine, and he also noticed a friend who had escaped the battle in the early stages.
"Thunderbird!? Where have you been until now?" the boy scolded the beast, but the proud blue bird didn't even glance at him. Instead, she spread her wings and parted the clouds above, revealing what had kept her busy for most of the fight.
There, above the clouds, there were three giant blue balls of electricity floating in wait for the boy to use them. If Nayavu had to give it his all for just one ball, then what the thunderbird had done now served as her answer.
"Don't get too cocky, boy," was the statement brought together with the giant source of electricity that could turn the tide of battle.
Their mouths gaping, both Tiva and Nayavu looked at the thunderbird, whose body had become see-through by now.
Maybe it was hard for the others to understand, but that statement would be the bird's last, for her time to go had come. As a final gift, she went somewhere far away, gathering what little energy she had left to give the Inyankarans the winning card.
Nayavu understood that, so he smiled at the bird, his lips contouring a thank you to the beast that would never let her pride go.
The other one who understood what had happened was Ayanda. From somewhere far away, she looked at the energy that should have become hers by the rules of this world.
"Hah!" the woman solemnly exclaimed.
"A rascal until the end. All of this for that boy?"
In the noise of the battle, the little bird with no power left could do nothing but fade. Of course, her pride wouldn't let anyone see that, so the bird flew away the next moment. Tiva's "wait up" resounded behind the beast, but the thunderbird's final job was done. She could return to nothingness, passing on the burden of thunder to the next one.
Because of her beak, nobody could tell if the bird was smiling in her last moment.
No, were it another animal, it surely could. There was another who understood what the thunderbird had done. That somebody was the stag who could have taken her place were he to will it. It had refused to continue the cycle of energy, but it didn't forget to thank the beast for the offer.
The last bit of energy reached Ayanda soon after, confirming the end of the thunderbird. As she wished, nobody had witnessed it, and the thunderbird got her last point on the scoreboard, leaving this world as the elemental beast who dominated her element with pride.
*****
Cards were played one after another. The thunderbird's sacrifice, the serpent's help, and Tiva's hidden abilities.
Just like how the sun will shine even after the longest night, so did luck smile upon the Inyankarans in this decisive battle.
"Hah…"
And because someone's luck is somebody else's misfortune, someone had to pay the price for all of those miracles to occur, and that someone was now laughing his heart out.
"Haha… HAHAHAHAHA!"
Before Nayavu's worried yet determined eyes, the general of the Reman Army—Aurelio Marcelli—laughed at the misfortune that befell him.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
And he kept laughing, for what had transpired before him was truly incredible—so incredible that he could do nothing but laugh.
"That serpent! That damn serpent! It's been here all along!" he shouted, looking at the immensely powerful beast whose tail had just left the battlefield proudly.
"You see this? Giovanni… I didn't even need you," he said, lifting his hands towards the sky.
Even the toughest minds will one day crack, and Nayavu knew this better than anyone, for 'he' had cracked many times before. If anything, it would have been scary if Aurelio didn't crack. If he had stayed calm, that would have meant the battle was lost to the boy.
Yet, Nayavu knew what happens to people when they get desperate.
"Get ready," he whispered to his friends, preparing for a frenzied attack, and it was a frenzied attack that came their way when Aurelio threw his hands to the sides. From behind the man, a giant wave came surging forth, ready to wipe out the entire battlefield.
Last time, Tatanka had given his everything to deal with such a wave, but Tatanka was not with them now. They had to do something themselves.
Nayavu looked at Tiva, and Tiva looked back at him, her white teeth shining in the sun as her smile brightened the mood. With a wink that said "trust me," the girl faced the giant wave and placed her hands on the ground. In front of them, a stone wall rose towards the sky, facing the giant mass of water meant to end the battle.
It was a race. Will the wave reach the wall before it is tall enough, or will the wall block the entire wave? The answer was the latter, as the wall got to rise to only half the size of the wave before they clashed, yet Tiva didn't seem bothered by it.
Just when Nayavu was about to try and give a hand, the girl shouted at him to wait, and with a loud "Hya!" she used the other type of magic she was good at. As such, when the wave went over the wall, it started freezing from the bottom up, and it wasn't long before it had turned from a life-threatening crisis to a sculpture of stone and ice, so beautiful that the entire battlefield had to stop and take a look as the sun shone on its icy tips.
However, the general didn't stay put during all this, and his second attack comprised of many water jets was now passing through the piece of art, aiming straight at the young woman.
That's where Nayavu's turn came, as he zapped from one jet to another, blocking each of them with stones as sturdy as diamond.
With their current placing, Aurelio had the advantage, and they all knew this already. They had to reach him.
"Go!" the playful voice of the heroine resounded as she lifted one of her palms and slapped Nayavu on the back. The two exchanged glances and a wink meant to say "see you later," and the boy jumped on Tahu as they both melted into the ground.
While it wasn't really teleportation, having ground beneath their feet gave elite stone mages an incredible advantage. With it, the two appeared right behind Aurelio, landing the first proper hit on the man in so many rounds.
The first hit was enough to send the man flying into the nearby stone pillar, but it was far from enough to take him down. That's why Nayavu reached with his hands for the sky, calling down the first gigantic blue ball made of electric energy and dropping it on the man.
In Giovanni's case, such an attack had been enough to take him down, but the adversary this time was on another level, and by the time the ball had reached him, he had created a water shield that discharged it into the ground. Out of carelessness, Nayavu had lost one of his three charges. Or did he?
"See? That's why you need to learn multiple elements~" he said, winking at the confused general. The next moment, electricity came rushing back from the ground, making Aurelio shake from every joint.
To escape before it was too late, the man took to the skies, riding on a water disc he had transmuted from thin air.
"I wouldn't try that either!" Nayavu warned the general, pointing at the stag who was waiting for him with another ball of lightning.
"Enough!" Aurelio shouted in return. The next moment, he let out a loud scream, and every drop of water from the battlefield gathered around him.
"That's bad," Nayavu admitted, watching as the ball of fast-spinning water grew around the man.
Yet even so, the boy didn't lose his confidence and called the last floating electric star to him.
"Don't worry, Master!" he added. "Lightning still feels so much better!"
When elements clash together, physics is the first to take action, but when power defies even physics, it all comes down to who uses energy better.
"Tahu, ready?"
And when it came down to sheer energetic power, the two were truly at a disadvantage. If Aurelio wouldn't have lost his cool, that is.
"Now!" Nayavu shouted, and both of them let their bodies unite with the electric stars, forming two gigantic arrows. One would fall from the sky, and the other would rise from the ground up. Both of them clashed with the water sphere, and the two heroes had their screams muffled by the cheers of the Inyankarans, who had stopped fighting to watch the final exchange.
That's where Aurelio's negligence came into play, and the gigantic sphere failed to serve as a strong enough shield against the concentrated energy carrying the weight of a nation with it. Thus, both arrows pierced, hiding themselves from the view of those around.
It was inside the sphere where the action took place. Holding strong against the water currents, the two arrows became one, Nayavu and Tahu's faint silhouette showing at the tip of the arrow.
The boy locked gazes with Aurelio, but the general wasn't present in those eyes—not anymore. All that was left was a screaming man—a lone wolf—who had lost everything and had reached the end of the road.
In a desperate final attempt, Aurelio directed all of the water currents towards the arrow, but it was already too late.
"Thank you, Master! Thank you, Tiva! Thank you, Tatanka! Thank you, Inyankara! Thank you, Tahu! And thank you—"
It was when the boy readied himself to thank the only one who had departed that the lightning played a trick on his eyes. The blue and purple light slowly changed its shape, growing wings and a sharp beak.
"Yeah! Thank you, thunderbird!" the boy shouted, the giant bird-looking attack piercing the general and pushing him out of the water sphere and into the ground.
Thus, a single round was enough to bring the victory that mattered.
Round four: Won by Inyankara.
*****
The day he was given his name, he was held and caressed in his mother's arms.
Growing up, Aurelio Marcelli's future looked bright, brighter than most kids in this world.
But something was missing, for even if the world loves you, it means nothing if the ones around you don't. He had maids, taken from their homes and forced to serve the lady, but such maids never saw him as anything more than a burden.
He had a mother, but his mother cared little about him. He was a byproduct of love that had wilted, and wilted love could never bloom a new one.
Yet he struggled again and again to learn how to live, breaking out of his shell later than the others, yet being welcomed nevertheless by his friends. It was with these friends that he had spent his time. He had learned to laugh, to joke, to play, and to love.
No, he already knew how to love, because he loved his mother. Loving your mother is an instinct, an instinct that Aurelio wasn't free of.
Still, he learned to share his love, and sharing a part of his heart meant he could also lose it. That's what had happened, and little by little, everyone he cared about parted from his side, leaving the lone wolf to run away.
He ran for two reasons, both of which led to the same thing. He chased eternal youth, for that's what his mother wanted, and he chased immortality, for death was what took everything away from him.
The day he was given his name, he was held and caressed in his mother's arms. Now, long after those arms had let him go, it was a cold embrace that caressed him—the scary embrace of death. The one thing he had been running for had now caught up with the wolf, and would never again let this one go, claiming Aurelio Marcelli for herself.