Almost as if he had met yet another personality of Giovanni's, the boy clashed blades with a polished fighter, one whom he couldn't take down as swiftly as he had hoped.
A gunshot had been the sign for them to engage, and another rang out when they parted their weapons. Parrying a lightning strike with only his sword, Giovanni looked more intimidating than ever now that he had regained his humanity.
"That's some tricky magic…" Leo said, referring to the wind magic that coated the lieutenant's sword.
Parrying a magic attack with a blade made of metal should have been impossible, but not if energy was used on both sides. That's what had saved Giovanni over and over again. Coating his sword in wind currents meant that every clash was actually energy on energy, and as long as the control was good on both sides, sheer firepower was useless.
"You've taken out a lot of our guys with you flashy tricks, but I see finesse isn't your forte~" said Giovanni, a taunting smugness blooming on his face. It was obvious that his attitude towards the boy had completely changed, although his goals stayed the same.
The first strike was served to measure one another, but it was now time for the true fight to begin.
Opening with a new move, Giovanni gathered water from every corner of the glade and directed it towards his sword. Then, by pointing the tip of the blade at Leo, the man released wind energy, giving the water a complementary boost.
In response, Leo put up a stone wall—a basic defense that failed quickly, as the concentrated water jet was far stronger than expected.
"That's something I'll have to try myself!" the boy said, using electricity to vaporize the water that punched a hole through the boulder.
"Fortunately, your water isn't getting past this!" he shouted, transmuting more and more of the air around him into electricity. Slowly but surely, the water Giovanni had gathered was turning to steam.
"You better find something else, or your army will be left with nothing to use!"
"Oh? Is that so?" Giovanni asked with a smile, a smile that should have faded when he saw the bad matchup of elements.
Leo's expression clouded over, his mind not comprehending whether the man had gone crazy again or that smile was genuine. Squinting his eyes, Leo tried to take a better look, but he couldn't see the man clearly. He used a bit of light magic to help his vision, but Giovanni's silhouette was still grew faint.
No, it wasn't that he was growing faint. Something had built up around the boy's head, something that kept him from seeing clearly.
"Fog?"
With a swift gale, he tried to clear the area around, yet the stubborn fog refused to dissipate.
It was at a moment's notice that Leo sensed somebody approaching him, and with no margin for error, he was barely able to dodge the blade attempting to cut his torso.
"How can you see through all of this?" the boy shouted, but no answer came back. Only the sounds of everyone else's fights resounded, but nothing from Giovanni. His adversary had disappeared.
*Slash*
Cutting the air, another strike came in even swifter, and although Leo managed to dodge the blade just barely, the wind coating stretched further, cutting the boy on his arm.
Another one on his neck.
Another one on his neck.
Another one on his back—the most shameful of them.
Soon, Leo's—no, Nayavu's body was full of shallow wounds, left blind in the dense fog while Giovanni had his sight set on him.
"I'm lucky I know a couple more tricks!" the boy shouted, stopping all light reflecting off of his body. In doing such, he became invisible to the world. That did nothing do get back his sight, but it was a break from the fight—one he couldn't prolong too much.
"Huff, huff…" the boy breathed heavily. Only now that the attacks had stopped was he able to feel the wounds on his body. They ached. They were nothing to scoff at. At that pace, he would lose the fight soon enough.
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Fog… Vapors… Water… It makes sense that lightning and water would create vapors, but why coulnd't my winds dissipate them? How can Giovanni move so swiftly in this foggy mess?
Questions scrambled the boy's thoughts. However he looked at it, there was no way the man should be able to pull off any tricks that Leo wasn't aware of, not as long as he only had two types of magic at his disposal.
As wounds burned his skin, and fog made it difficult to breathe, Leo fell to his knees. Once down, everything around the boy cleared up, as if there had never been any thick fog to cloud his view.
But before he could think about why that had happened, Leo saw Giovanni launching water jets his way, reacting to the sounds made by the boy's fall.
Fortunately, the blind attack didn't carry enough force or speed to catch Leo off guard, and upon jumping a couple of steps back to dodge the attack, the answer regarding the mysterious vapors came to him—all from a simple coincidence.
Water and wind were two elements that at first glance seemed like polar opposites, but combining them offered one many more hands to play. Controlling vapors was one of those hands, and Giovanni didn't waste any time when he saw his chance.
With his shaky memory playing tricks on Leo again, the boy forgot about this one trick used by Giovanni. Thus, he assumed that the whole battlefield became foggy for some reason.
Now, looking at it from another angle, Leo could see both Giovanni and a foggy ball next to him clearly.
Did he… Did he really put that on my head!?
It was ridiculous. It was silly even for a sparring match, yet that was the one trick that almost worked against Leo. If anything, the boy found it stunning.
And he would have stayed stunned, were it not for the lieutenant turning his attention on Tiva, ready to use his combination of wind and water magic to take away the girl's sight too.
"Pfft—hahahahaha!"
Leo couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous their fight had become. As he laughed, he gave up on trying to hide himself. Now, clearly visible to Giovanni, the man wasted no time in trying to place his ball of fog on the boy's head again, but now that Leo knew the trick, he simply swiped a gale and got rid of the troublesome mist.
"That's not your fight, mercenary."
"And I never intended to butt in. I just thought it would be a good way to make you show yourself. It seems I was right," Giovanni said, smiling at the boy.
"Also… 'mercenary'?" He pointed out the weird way Leonard Leopold had called him.
"Don't mind it too much," Leo said.
As such, the battle began anew.
*****
Now more serious than ever, the two clashed blades. Earth shattered. Water flew around. Purple lightning struck the ground. Winds cut the grass under their feet, yet neither Giovanni nor Leo gave up.
Every attack got parried, every slash dodged, and every gap was closed before the other one could take advantage of it.
They had played all of their cards. It was now a clash of strength, a clash of knowledge, and a clash of determination.
One was determined to destroy anyone who had wronged him. The other was determined to do everything he could for the Inyankarans, knowing well enough they were fighting on the losing side of the war.
Still, neither gave any room. Both kept their heads high and struck the adversary with everything they had, for one of those attacks was bound to bring an end to the fight.
The library of spells in 'his' head was larger than 'he' could even remember, but every element Leo used proved useless.
"Still not enough," the boy said, angry at his own inability to tap into everything he had learned in his many lives.
It was then that the boy saw somebody floating in the distance. That somebody was a tanned lady, keeping herself afloat with pure energy. It was his master—Ayanda—watching her student fight a battle she once had to stop herself.
"Of course, …"
It was not about how many spells he could remember; 'he' had come to finally understand that. The representative floating in the distance had spent the past months of her life training the boy not out of boredom, but because she had something important to teach 'him.'
Striking at Giovanni with lightning alone wasn't enough to defeat him. His control of energy was too good. The boy knew that well.
"But that doesn't mean raw power is useless," the woman's eyes spoke to Leo.
"But this seems like a big demand…" the boy spoke upon figuring out the right way to defeat the man.
Nevertheless, despite his unwillingness to do it, the boy took a deep breath, and started modifying the battlefield. Far enough so that Giovanni wouldn't notice, he started calling clouds together; vaporizing water on the ground; and stirring everything up with winds.
He had to move slowly, otherwise he would lose concentration, but he knew his adversary wasn't going anywhere.
One cloud. Two clouds. Three clouds.
One by one, new clouds appeared in the sky, all of them seemingly ready to rain down on the people.
It took Leo a long time. He was tired and was now on the losing foot against the lieutenant., having split his focus on two highly demanding tasks.
They were now both flying high above the forest, so Leo could see the battlefield clearly.
"That looks nasty…" he said, not pleased by how much Tiva and the others seemed to struggle in their individual hurdles.
"So let's test if it works," the boy continued, and after a simple gesture, he made one of the clouds pour lightning down on a Reman soldier with high precision, leaving the Inyankarans that were fighting him unscratched, although a bit confused.
"That's an awfully confident smile. Mind sharing what's so funny?" Giovanni pointed out, talking about the boy's facial expression.
"I hope you won't forget to laugh after I show you!"
Leo transformed his body into electricity and lunged at Giovanni.
"This is getting old…" Giovanni replied unbothered, placing his rapier in front of his body to block the strike, but the strike this time was much stronger, pushing the lieutenant back right where Leo wanted him to be.
With every piece of the puzzle in place, it was time for the final act of their play, and the boy had gathered all of his clouds above Giovanni just for that.