The vision of this battle between Tavras and Arius became less painful to watch now that Val knew that everything would be okay. Tavras would crush Arius and put him in his rightful place as some random, young god. To be fair, he would also be more merciful than Arius and Urru had given him credit for earlier. His grace in sparing their lives would be the only reason that Arius was still alive today, nevertheless around to plague Tavras with his shenanigans. Val was certain that this was how history had played out.

For a god of war, Arius had gone into this fight without much of a strategy. His only plan seemed to rely on Urru to muscle his way through to Tavras. Dragons were strong, but just as Urru had said, Arius was massively overestimating the strength of a dragon.

In a game of chicken between Urru and Tavras's monstrous wave which blotted out the sun, Val would bet everything on the Sea Itself. To name a monetary amount, she would say that she would bet her entire life's savings, but it was a paltry sum of money that had gotten left behind on the ship. Instead, Val would be willing to bet Tavras's bank account of millions. Plus, in her hypothetical bet, at least Tavras would be the one to pay if he lost.

That was a big if, because there was no way that a millennia-old god would lose to some god that was less than a century old. Was Arius even considered a god at this point? Val was not certain when he had ascended to godhood, but that was beside the point. Either way, Arius was nothing but a little boy who should not play at war games in comparison to Tavras.

From where he perched on his dragon's head, Arius brushed away Urru's worries. "Don't worry! You're with me."

Over those words, the orb of red haze exploded outward to envelop Urru's wings. The magical energy spread out five times larger than his wingspan on top of that. The red hue glanced off of Urru's scales in a dull, menacing gleam. A savage light glinted in his ruby-cut eyes.

Urru leveled his neck and pounded his wings. Without any additional prodding from Arius, he flew at his top speed towards the tsunami that was fast approaching them. Even for a dragon, Urru seemed to move unbelievably fast. That red mist in which Urru had imbibed from Arius appeared to reinforce him so that he could achieve impossible speeds.

They came to meet the wave.

The uproar of the clashing waters was deafening. Urru's jaws parted in a roar, but not even the furious scream of a dragon could be heard. There was only the anger of Tavras and the sea as the wall of water slammed into their adversaries.

The water should have swatted Urru down from the sky. It should have swallowed up both the dragon and that pathetic god of war in one fell swoop. Then, the both of them should have been sucked under the surface never to be seen again, at least not until Tavras had decided to lend them his forgiveness.

Instead Urru's wings shot upward and fanned outward as he impacted with the crest of the wave. That red haze deepened in opacity for a moment like it transitioned into a solid object, much like how Arius had created a spear out of it before. The power that belonged to Arius became its own wall. Urru carried it as his bulwark.

The dragon and the water clashed. It was Tavras's wave which gave way. Harsh sheets of water and forceful sprays split in every direction, but they predominantly shot backward against the opposing force. The rest of the water collapsed downward to rejoin the bloodied waters of the sea. Meanwhile, Urru carried through the remaining depth of the wave, continued to break it in its path, and made it through unscathed.

A harsh panting sound fell from his throat and open mouth by the time that he was done. "I cannot believe that worked," Urru muttered.

More gleeful than ever, Arius shouted, "Nice one!" At the exact same time, he pulled a revolver from the holster at his belt. It would have been a modern gun for this time period, but an antique these days. With gun in hand, Arius tipped himself over and let himself drop off of Urru's back. More than a freefall, he shot down towards the ocean below.

Arius moved faster than both Urru and the tsunami. He became a blur of red heat with a long ray left in his wake. It was like a comet had instantaneously hurtled from the back of a dragon, and it went straight for the blue, glowing target that was Tavras.

The entire ocean rose and fell in rough waves that aspired to scrape the sky. The sheer amount of mass that had been dropped into this section of the ocean caused a violent ripple effect. From this, sweeping tendrils of water slithered out of the wreckage of the wave. The water rushed to engulf around Tavras in a shield and also swiped at Arius as he descended.

The rocking waves rushed up to ensnare Arius when the pattern had coincided with his location. Despite being more robust than any natural deluge of water, these waves were still weaker than the one that Arius had just crushed with his power and the help of Urru. In this form that was currently drunk on the red mist, Arius busted straight through, as expected.

The thinner whips of water held up even more pitifully against Arius's assault. With all of his supercharged momentum, the energy around him cut across water like obsidian would slice through butter. Arius arrived a foot away from Tavras, and he only had that final shield of water between himself and his intended victim.

The swirling waters completely shielded Tavras at this point, but they posed no greater a barrier for Arius than the rest of his waves. The shield of water popped at the spot in which Arius penetrated it—head on against Tavras.

Point blank, he leveled his gun at Tavras's chest and pulled the trigger.