Live For The Future

Another water arrow was conjured. But true to Renji’s words, it was much stronger than all of his previous attempts. The overall power might have been the same, but the torque from its spin was tens of times stronger than before.

However, this time, Hava was prepared. The man steadied his shield and raised it forward, while from behind him, gusts of wind blew in support, giving a sense of a sturdy wall that spanned all the way to the horizon.

At the same time, Renji released his water arrow. It was truly like a drill — the arrow not only flew forward, but also spun by itself upon impact, sacrificing its wide-area explosiveness for maximum piercing damage.

Hava could feel the weight on his shield. But this time, in this state, he knew that he could do it.

“I… will not yield!”

“No,” Arja, having recovered from the sudden pull, placed his hand on his comrade’s back. “We will not yield.”

“Your Highness…” the verdant warrior paused for a moment, emotions running all over him. “Don’t worry. No matter what happens, I won’t let that villain harm anyone anymore. Stay behind me!”

The two then put all of their strength into their defense. With Hava’s shield as the base, the dragon head in Arja’s other hand also flew forward, setting itself ablaze and grew into a full-fledged fire dragon once more. It coiled itself around the two men, setting up another protective layer of blazing flame. Hava’s shield reflected this also — once the dragon came into contact with his wind, his shield grew a bright red, and one of the circles on the shield’s surface replaced its water droplet with a symbol of a flickering flame.

The water arrow drilled itself in, but as time passed, it only grew smaller and smaller, while the wind and fire shield still stood without so much of a dent. In the end, the water had completely evaporated, there was no explosion to occur, and the two warriors were perfectly fine.

Arja retracted his dragon head with a big sigh of relief. Meanwhile, Hava was ecstatic at their first victory clash, clutching his other hand in victory:

“See that, Renji!” The man pumped a fist towards his opponent. “Don’t think you can push us like before! It’s time for our counter, Your Highness!”

“Yeah!” Arja went along with Hava’s flow, but the young prince still held a sliver of doubt in his mind. Hava’s new form was impressive indeed, and its defensive capabilities were proven to be nothing to scoff at, but defense was still all that they could do. In order to press further against Renji, they needed an explosive offense as well.

But the latter would never give them the time for that.

“Hmmm… Looks like ranged attacks aren’t working against you anymore, huh?” Meanwhile, the villain in question still hadn’t shown any signs of worry. “Time for plan B, then.”

Renji broke his bow into twin swords once more. But this time, before any of them could react, he had already disappeared from their sight.

“Where did he go?” asked Hava. Immediately, he realized the predicament that the two of them were in.

“Watch out for our—”

“Blind spots, right?”

It was a direct hit aimed at both of their necks. Renji had taken Indra’s power of lightning, and so, it was only natural for him to also be able to utilize the latter’s moves should he so please. And if there was anything to be considered a natural trait for lightning, there was only one that applied.

It could strike in a blink of an eye.

Renji’s lightning control had even surpassed Kana’s. Not only could he disappear into thin air and strike at blistering speed, he didn’t even need to decelerate for a moment to deliver his blows. Throughout the whole time, he was completely invisible, only occasionally revealing his voice for his opponents to have a chance to hit.

But even if they could hear his voice, a regular human’s reaction time never stood a chance.

With each flash, there was a hit. With each sound, there was a scream in pain. Renji’s attacks didn’t just carry strength, but they were also packed with the highest voltage electricity. So much that there wasn’t just a spark upon landing a hit onto Arja or Hava — it was a full-blown explosion. The two warriors were put into a blender of intense heat, shock and even ice-cold water, all hammering down on their bodies with no end.

However, both of them also realized that none of these strikes were enough to actually put them down. Renji wasn’t like Kana in this sense — he didn’t have the sword techniques to actually strip their armor or pierce through their shields. And if it was a war of attrition, even if he was many times stronger than them, there was still a chance that they would prevail.

“Keep it together, Hava!” Arja tried to shout as he was struck by another one of Renji’s swords. “He’ll get tired eventually!”

“Damn it, he doesn’t even let me have time to put up my shield!” Hava grunted. He had been the one to take most of the brunt of the damage. With his new armor, he was considerably tougher than Arja, but even he had his limits.

They needed to counter, and both of them knew this. But there was a need for a defense, and in the situation, both of them had the same plan.

“Your Highness!” Hava leaned his body forward, holding his shield in front of Arja, who immediately kneeled down to minimize the enemy’s attacking space. “Aim behind me!”

The tactic was simple: Hava, with his large build, would be the meatshield. By covering Arja’s blind spots, Renji would have no choice but to attack Hava himself. And with that, Arja could pinpoint the location of the next attack with relative ease.

And so, he did. The dragon head in his hand glowed a bright crimson and released a burst of flame aimed straight behind the man in green. If the attack hit, that would seal their victory.

… Nothing happened. Renji was nowhere to be found.

And to make matters worse, from afar, there was a voice so calm, it almost sounded mocking.

“So you two had finally learned to use your eyes,” said Renji, now with bow in hand once more. “Unfortunately, your sense of strategy still leaves much to be desired.”

It was all going according to Renji’s calculations. His plan had already started since Hava blocked his arrow — Renji also realized that his current attacks couldn’t pierce it. However, for him to actually use an attack that could, he needed the extra time to prepare, and doing so would leave him vulnerable to Arja’s attacks; such was the nature of their current battle.

So he never let them find out he was charging. The flurry of lightning-fast movements and strikes weren’t meant to take down any of them, they were merely used to shave away their stamina. All the while, little by little, Renji accumulated some of his water powers within his other hand. Now, it was finally ready to be released.

“Assemble, great scales that covered the heavens, great fangs that devoured the earth! I am Vritra, the gluttonous dragon that held the world in its hand! Heed—”

“Like I’d let you!”

Arja had completely been drained of his strength. Hava hadn’t, but he was also considerably tired from taking the brunt of those assaults. He knew that they likely wouldn’t survive if Renji were able to unleash his most powerful attack, whatever that might be. But without a way to hit from afar, they had no chance to interrupt his preparations.

And so, Hava made a gamble of his lifetime. Throwing away his shield — their lifeline and only means of defense, the man aimed to stop Renji before he could shoot his arrows. It wasn’t just the shield, of course — it was armed with all of Hava’s remaining wind, which could all be seen clear as day as the shield spun, making it more similar to a saw than merely a throwing disc. The aim was Renji’s neck; either the shield made it to their target and ended the villain’s life once and for all, or it was stopped and they would be the ones to pay the price.

It was that moment that Hava learned how cruel reality could be.

Renji merely stopped his chant. In a way, the shield had done its job. But the way he deflected it looked so simple, so paltry, it might as well be an ant trying to slay a god. With just a simple swing of his bare arm, the shield was swatted away like a fly. And to make matters worse, Renji had purposely swatted it upward, so when it lost all momentum and returned to the ground, it was already in his hand.

Taking a look at the shield, Renji let out a sigh.

“Here.” He threw it back to Hava.

“W-What is this farce?” roared the warrior.

“You gambled your chances, right? And clearly you lost. So I’m giving you another chance. Pick your fights carefully from now on.”

“We don’t need mercy from you!”

“... Let me say it again, so it can finally go through your thick skulls,” Renji clicked his tongue in annoyance. “I don’t want to indiscriminately kill or anything, nor do I want to rule this world. All I wanted to see is how far humanity can go; if you made a mistake, fine, I can wait for another chance. But my patience has its limits. Pick your fights carefully, lest you want your precious prince to die in your stead. You’ve overcome my expectations once, haven’t you?”

Hava turned around. The sight of Arja on his knees ripped through his heart like a thousand knives.

He turned to his shield. The newfound strength that he had been bestowed. It was something that he never meant to unlock by himself, nor he expected to. It just came to be for his one desire.

Kana was gone. Duna was gone. His aspirations were no more. But one figure remained — his liege, his best friend, and his only remaining companion. Hava knew; Arja was the nation’s future. Arja was to be its hero, if not now, then later in the future.

Hava’s power was born out of his desire to protect. And now, he’d use it for its intended purposes once more.

Readying his shield, he stood firm before Arja.

“... Hava…” the prince weakly uttered. He wanted to stop his friend so bad, but his body wouldn’t let him. After all those hits from Renji, as well as exhausting his strength over that last dragon fire, he was completely gassed out. Right now, he could only curse his own incompetency and entrusted their future to his friend’s shield.

“Don’t worry, Your… No, Arja,” with a smile of confidence, Hava answered. “I now know what I must do. And I want you to put your trust in me, one more time.”

“... Don’t die for my sake, you hear me?”

“Pff, you? If it was Kana, I’d consider it.”

“Hey, lay off the man’s future wife for once. Both you and Master Duna, always with the most inopportune jokes.”

“He did teach me all he knew. And the most important lesson has always been…”

With one final deep breath, Hava raised his shield.

“To keep you safe, no matter what.”

“... Good job, Hava,” on the other side, Renji gave a nod of understanding. “You’ve made the right choice. Now…”

As the former readied his shield, the latter raised his bow towards the sky.

“Heed my call, demons of the world! Arise and become one with me, as we plunder everything! Asurashresta!”

From Renji’s bow appeared five spheres of pure water. However, these were bigger than anything else he had made — each sphere in the air was the size of his whole body, while the forceful spins that they made were enough to rip through steel even in their orb form. As the water flowed, the spheres elongated, once again coiling and rising like living creatures of their own. Familiar sharp fangs and defined scales appeared, but this time, instead of a deep crimson, the eyes were a bright golden flash — a mix of Indra’s lightning inside each orb of water.

The five spheres turned into five great serpents, and this time aptly named — each of them were as tall as a mountain in length, and as large as a river in width. With incredible energy, each serpent even crackled the sound of thunder as they came crashing down the area, bearing the full might of the term “divine retribution”.

“Hey, Arja…” Hava, standing before what could only be described as a calamity, spoke with calmness. “Live. For this world’s future.”

The ground was struck with a massive torrent of water and lightning, yet it only happened in a flash. When everything came to be, the entire mountain range that once held Drizzle’s water in place had been reduced to dust, and with it, all of millennia’s worth of water had escaped the nation of perpetual rain, and finally flooded the land that was once promised water. On the other hand, the battlefield had been completely leveled — there were only three left standing.

On one side, Renji was unscathed. On the other side, Arja almost choked in water, but other than that, he was relatively fine.

Hava still stood firm. His shield was intact… But the warrior himself had long drawn his last breath. His contracted muscles, what had kept him in this position, was the last gift that he could have given towards his liege and friend.

Once Arja was able to stand, all he could do was shakenly touch his friend’s shield, for one last time.

“Hava… I’ll do it. I’ll live, and bring us, bring humanity to a future.”

The air around Arja twisted once more. But this time, it was more vibrant than any other instance. As the young man, the last hero of the world, lifted the shield from his now dead companion, his armor glowed a blazing gold.

“... Let’s finish this, Ren!”

“Now that’s what I want to hear! ARJA!”