Chapter 6: Tempest Rising

The wind was alive.

It didn't just blow—it crushed, coiled, struck with the precision of a blade. Every gust, every shift in pressure, every current that twisted through the battlefield was an extension of Kazehime Retsu's will.

Kaminari had fought air manipulators before. He had faced trained warriors, soldiers who bent the wind to their advantage.

This was different.

Retsu was the storm.

Kaminari barely had time to move before the next attack came. The wind snapped like a whip, a violent gust catching his chest and sending him skidding backward.

He dug his heels in, sparks flaring around him, but the air was relentless.

It was like trying to fight the sky itself.

"Kaminari!" Akari's voice cut through the chaos, but he couldn't afford to look her way.

Retsu didn't give openings.

Her movements were effortless, precise. One flick of her wrist, and the wind bent to her command.

A razor-thin current sliced through the air—Kaminari barely dodged in time, the tip of his cloak shredded to ribbons in the process.

"I can't get close to her."

Lightning flickered at his fingertips. His instincts screamed at him to strike, to send a blast of raw power straight at her—

But the air swallowed his electricity before it could even form.

The wind around Retsu wasn't just a shield.

It was a prison.

And Kaminari was locked inside.

Retsu exhaled, adjusting her stance. She looked down at him—not with arrogance, but with the quiet, detached certainty of a ruler.

"You should not be here, Lightning Child," she said.

Her voice was soft. Steady. Like the calm before devastation.

"You are an outsider. Your storms have no place in Sorakaze's skies."

Kaminari growled, electricity crackling across his body. "I don't care what you think—I'm not leaving."

Retsu tilted her head, as if considering his words.

Then she vanished.

No, not vanished—moved.

The air bent around her, pulling her forward with inhuman speed. Kaminari barely saw the motion before—

A fist slammed into his gut.

Air exploded from his lungs. The force of the hit wasn't just physical—the wind compressed, striking him with the weight of a collapsing storm.

Before he could react, Retsu twisted the air again.

A gale wrapped around his wrist—and yanked.

Kaminari was hurled sideways, smashing into the stone courtyard hard enough to crack the surface.

He gasped for breath, pain lancing through his ribs.

"She's faster than me. She's stronger than me. And I can't even touch her."

Retsu wasn't just powerful. She was overwhelming.

And she wasn't done.

Retsu stepped forward, calm as ever, and lifted a single hand.

The air shifted.

The battlefield changed.

A vortex began to swirl around her—a slow, steady rotation, pulling dust and debris into a controlled cyclone.

Then, without a word, she released it.

The tornado erupted outward.

Everything became wind and force and raw destruction.

Kaminari felt himself being pulled, his body dragged toward the spiraling currents. The force was immense, unstoppable, crushing—

Then suddenly—Akari was there.

She landed beside him, arms outstretched.

And the wind obeyed her.

Her air currents wrapped around them, twisting against the force of Retsu's attack. The tornado raged, but Akari held her ground, redirecting the storm just enough to keep them standing.

"You're not facing her alone," Akari said, her voice firm.

Kaminari grinned despite the pain. "About time you joined in."

Akari exhaled sharply. "We need to combine our attacks. Your lightning can't get through on its own. But if we channel it through the wind…"

Kaminari's mind raced. Lightning alone was grounded. But if he let Akari's air carry it…

The realization hit like thunder.

He nodded. "Let's give her a storm she won't forget."

The tornado around Retsu still swirled, an unstoppable force of controlled chaos.

Kaminari took a deep breath.

He let go.

Electricity surged—not as a blast, not as a single attack, but as a charge, a pulse, a current carried by the air itself.

Akari guided it.

The wind became a conduit, a storm of its own.

Lightning danced through the currents, turning the battlefield into a thunderous, electrified cyclone.

For the first time—Retsu's expression changed.

Surprise.

She raised a hand to counter—but Kaminari was already moving.

Faster than before, faster than she expected.

The wind wasn't against him anymore.

It was carrying him forward.

He saw the moment Retsu realized she couldn't deflect it all.

And Kaminari struck.

His fist connected with her stomach—a direct hit, electricity surging through her robes, sending shockwaves of lightning through her very core.

Retsu staggered.

The cyclone around them wavered.

For the first time, she was thrown off balance.

But Retsu was not defeated.

She exhaled sharply, regaining control, and with a final flick of her wrist—she vanished.

A burst of wind lifted her skyward, carrying her to the highest platform of the outpost.

She didn't look angry.

She looked… intrigued.

"You are not as foolish as I thought," she said.

Kaminari's breathing was ragged, his body aching from the fight. Akari steadied herself beside him, watching Retsu carefully.

"This battle is over," Retsu announced. "For now."

Then, with a final burst of wind, she was gone.

The storm died with her.

The outpost was theirs.

The rebellion had won its first real battle.

But Kaminari knew the war was far from over.