Wind VS Lightning

A few moments ago…

Hava wiped the sweat from his forehead, cupping his hand over his brows to block the sunlight from obstructing his vision. He had been circling the streets for ages, but there were no signs of the serpentine young man that he was looking for. Asking the locals didn’t help either — for one, someone with that kind of appearance would be so striking to them that they could never have missed him, while if he was hidden beneath a hood, then everyone would wear that kind of clothing walking under the scorching sunlight of Drought.

“Sir!” A nearby soldier reported. “No signs of the Serpent in this area!”

“Got it,” Hava nodded. Taking out a mangosteen from his pouch, the man gave it to the reporting subordinate. “Here, find some shade and have a rest. We can’t afford to lose any more men, especially not to something as trivial as heatstroke.”

“Thank you, Sir,” the soldier took the fruit and retreated, leaving Hava alone on the roads again. Unlike his troops, he didn’t need the rest — Hava had undergone far worse training sessions under the sun when he was a mere child.

But even he could feel the tiredness creeping in. Of course, a search like this would normally be trivial, but this was no ordinary search. The weight of losing an important tactical piece as Renji was a big toll on his mental state, and not to mention the worry he had on his liege as well.

Clutching his fists in frustration, Hava mumbled:

“This is useless! I know that the kid ditched us! But…”

Arja did say it. That there was a possibility that he was kidnapped, rather than him betraying them. However, even if it was the case, then finding him in this vast land was almost impossible. Not to mention the potential case that he was kidnapped, but the perpetrator had also already left the nation entirely.

And if he wanted to place his trust onto something, it was Arja’s prediction. The young prince had never planned wrong in their entire lifetime together, and Hava wanted to honor that trust.

If Arja had guessed that Renji was kidnapped, then Renji was kidnapped. That was the simple thing that Hava had in mind.

“Has anyone told you that you space out too much?”

Before he knew it, there was a chill behind him. In a blink of an eye, from his back, a hand circled in front of him, carrying a blade just inches away from his neck.

“K-Kana? Impossible!” The man sounded. “How?”

“Do you honestly think that there’s anyone in this nation that can stop me from going in?”

“... What do you want?”

“If you value your life, then give me that boy.”

Her words were clear. But the content was not what Hava had expected at all.

“What? Are you insane, woman?”

“Answer me, Hava!” Kana’s blade grew closer to his neck, lightly grazing enough for a trickle of crimson to flow out.

“What do you think I’m here for? We don’t know where the kid went! Hell, I thought that he joined your side!”

Immediately, the blade on his neck lightly shook. Taking advantage of the situation, Hava quickly pushed his elbow behind as hard as he could, hitting the woman dead straight on her stomach. The impact was enough to loosen Kana’s chokehold on him, as Hava safely broke free from the hold and finally faced his adversary.

To his expectation, Kana was already in her armor form. But this time, she was different — gone was her black and gold armor that he had familiarized himself with, Kana’s armor this time around was a pure, vivid violet color, shortened to mostly her torso while the rest of her body was covered by a pure black jumpsuit. Her mask had shortened to only cover half of her face, leaving her mouth open, while the skeletal features that once were on her armor had now disappeared, leaving only a few bands of grey on the shoulder and knee joints.

“What’s that form?” Hava asked.

“I’ll be the one asking the questions here. Where’s Renji?”

“I told you, I don’t know.”

“You’re still being stubborn?”

“You’re the stubborn one! Listen to yourself, Kana! What happened to the admirable warrior that once fought on our side? What gives you the right to just waltz in here and ask for unreasonable demands like this?”

“Shut up,” the woman spat. “I don’t have time… not anymore.”

“Then I guess I don’t have time to convince you, either,” raising his arm to reveal his tattoo — a dragonfly spreading its wings. “My penetrating stream goes forth unto…”

Before he could finish his chant, however, a flash of lightning had already ensued. In a blink of an eye, Kana had already appeared mere inches close to Hava, and her sword had already thrust forward, ready to lodge through his heart.

“Damn it!” Hava could only react. He was unarmed, so blocking the sword was impossible. Instead, by lowering his arm below the sword, Hava struck Kana’s arm with a well-timed uppercut, diverging the stab from its original path. Utilizing this chance, the warrior swiftly followed with a kick to the stomach, pushing back the woman a few steps back. However, even if he hadn’t touched the armor, the kick’s force was still nothing compared to the suit that Kana wore — there was virtually no damage on her.

And soon enough, she struck again.

Not letting Hava chant at all, Kana flashed around him repeatedly like a dance of lightning steps. With each time she blinked, the woman threw a slash of her sword onto the mighty warrior. But Hava wasn’t the type to die so easily — even without his power, the man had seen enough battles involving Stigma wielders, let alone his former comrade. He knew where she would strike, and how she would choose to strike him.

Right elbow. Right arm, thoughts ran through his mind like an electric current. Left leg. Left shoulder. Right knee…

“Right torso!” He shouted just as Kana was about to thrust her sword forward, to the exact spot that he voiced. Slipping his body away from the thrust, Hava delivered yet another punch, this time towards her unguarded right side. However, Kana had already seen this coming — ripping the air with a crackling dash, she moved towards Hava’s attacking left punch, and threw a counter slash of her own towards the underside of his arm.

This time, the attack was successful. Blood gushed out from the blade as Hava backed away in pain. He was still fast enough to avoid a completely clean hit, but the wound he received was no joke. If not treated, he could very well die of blood lost.

“Kana… Let me ask you again… why?” Clutching his wound, the warrior asked in his ragged breaths.

“I told you. I don’t have time.”

Hava couldn’t help but let out a bitter grin. For someone constantly saying that she didn’t have time, Kana wasn’t letting him have any time to transform either. If he was in his armor, he could match her, but her lightning strikes were indeed as fast as it was called.

For him to level the competition, he needed something more. Something unconventional… blasphemous, even.

“Shit… I have to try.”

Even Hava didn’t know if it would succeed, but at this point. It was his only hope.

As Kana’s blade drew close to his body, the moment of the uninvited foreign guest transforming before his eyes replayed in Hava’s mind.

“Unleashed!”

His verdant armor came just in time to block the strike, pushing Kana’s blade back while letting him counter with a slash with his own chakrams. Now with the armor protecting his wound, Hava was more confident than ever.

“It ends here, Kana!”

Dashing forward, the man spun around with his arms out, forming a tornado using his own body. As he stopped, the tornado had come alive on its own, raging and gliding towards Kana with all its might. But that wasn’t all — Hava’s blades were also shining a bright green hue.

“And this too! Vayu Slicing Gale!”

As the words came out of his mouth, however, Kana had already moved. With her vajra, the woman sliced through the rampaging cyclone with a thunderous slash, causing crackles of electricity to fly in the air. And as soon as the tornado had dispersed, Kana had also thrown out another slash to break off the slicing gales completely, neutralizing Hava’s attacks in a simple move.

“It can’t be…” Hava muttered. However, he wasn’t surprised at the attack not working. He had known Kana all his life, after all. She had always been the most capable warrior among the three of them. And while he attacked with the intent to kill, it wasn’t too surprising to see the prodigy fighter solve her way out of the situation.

Instead, his surprise lay in something very different.

It only took him until now to notice. But when Kana struck him, every time, as well as went she was dodging and countering his moves, Kana had only used her left hand.

At first, Hava didn’t notice. She was left-handed, after all. Attacking from the left was just a natural occurrence. However, as memories of the exchange returned to him, the man in green had seen the missing pieces.

Even as she countered his strike on the right side, Kana had twisted her body to attack with her left. Usually, someone with that sharp of a warrior’s intuition would just use their non-dominant hand easily enough.

And now, it was clear. He was sure that he hadn’t hit her on that side once, but Hava was looking at it right now.

Kana’s right arm was shivering as she clutched onto it with her dear life, even to the point of dropping her vajra to the side.

“Kana, answer me… That thing about not having time left… What exactly is wrong with you?”

Kana was still clutching her right arm. There was no damage, but she was clearly in pain — the only thing left missing would be some screams of agony. However, she gritted and hung on, for reasons that Hava couldn’t understand.

“... Shut up,” the woman brushed off his question.

“That brash personality again,” Hava clicked his tongue in annoyance. “You always do this, burdening yourself with everything. And for what?”

“And you’re showing mercy to the enemy because?”

“If it’s possible, I don’t wish for us to be enemies.”

There was silence after Hava’s answer. However, it was only for a moment.

Kana’s body soon crackled with electricity once more, and before the verdant warrior could even blink, she had already disappeared from his sight. The next thing he knew, there was already a burning shock on his back, causing the man to kneel in pain as sparks flew in the air and the scent of iron choked the area. Kana, meanwhile, had already changed her course — blinking from Hava’s views once more, she raised her sword from his right side.

However, her opponent still had some fight left in him. Even with an injured back, Hava still had enough strength to react to this strike, even if just barely. Their blades crossed just in the nick of time, and while his was flung away like swatting a fly, he himself was safe… for now.

But not for long, as Kana’s assault continued. Utilizing her lightning to the fullest, the woman blinked from time to time, disappearing and reappearing in close proximity with an absurd tempo, almost too much for the human eye to keep track of. Sword slashes came from all directions, repeatedly hitting on Hava’s armor like a drum, echoing sounds of clanking metal as well as the latter’s screams of pain, creating a harmony of human suffering.

Just as Hava had prepared to defeat, however, something was amiss.

It was faint, but he could vaguely see Kana. She had slowed down by just a fraction of a second. It wasn’t much, but it was worth it for him to bet his life on.

The woman before him still blinked to no end, approaching him and slashing through his defenses like strutting in an empty place. But Hava’s intuition was right.

One… Two… Three… He started counting in his head.

“Now!”

As the word came out of his mouth, Hava aimed his blade right at the perfect timing as Kana reappeared in his vision. However, he was still one step short — the latter had realized the counter, and with a swift strike of her own, knocked away his only other blade.

Kana followed with a kick right on Hava’s chest, sending the man rolling on dirt a couple meters away. But she didn’t continue her assault — instead, it was as if she purposely slowed down the tempo as she clutched her right side once more, seemingly in even greater pain than before.

“You…” she muttered — even her voice had grown weaker. “Why did you not attack my weakness? You clearly saw it, didn’t you?”

“And what?” Hava raised his voice in return. “I hate the fact that you betrayed us more than anyone, but it doesn’t mean that our bond over all those years have disappeared! And sure, maybe I would be fine in the end, but you know who else wouldn’t be?”

Kana was silent. She knew exactly who her former comrade was referring to.

“... Always like that, are you? Caring about others more than yourself.”

“It’s better than just taking every problem for yourself.”

“It’s why you’ve never been able to match me or Arja. You’re too merciful to your friends.” Kana took a step forward, finally ready to finish the fight once and for all.

“What are friends even for if you can’t have a place in your heart to spare them in their toughest times?”

“I assume those are your last words. Repent on your weakness… in the next life.”

Kana’s vajra gleamed in the blazing sun, ready to land and sunder her foe. However, when all was lost, and Hava was ready to accept his fate, something unthinkable ensued.

Her blade never made its way to the target. Instead, it stopped mid-swing, but in the most surprising manner.

Kana, for some reason, had her right hand holding back her left hand from striking. And it wasn’t a purposeful stop, even — her arms were still shaking, as if fighting with herself. Her left tried to push down with all its might, while her right was doing all it could to keep the blade at bay.

“... Kana?” Hava asked.

“Shut up. Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Kana screamed. However, it wasn’t directed at Hava — she wasn’t even looking at him. Her left hand had let go of the blade, and was holding her head as if she was in excruciating pain.

And the scene was shown just in time for a certain crimson silhouette to make his way to the scene.

“Kana…” Arja, finally arriving, muttered. “What’s wrong with ya?”