I AM EXTRA IN A SHONEN MANGA

The harbor no longer resembled Pearlbay. It was a battlefield carved by gods and monsters. Broken ships lay half-swallowed by the tide, houses sagged like ribs torn from a carcass, and the air was a fever of salt, ash, and lightning.

Thal'ryx writhed in the shallows, a mass of obsidian flesh and bleeding fissures. Its body dwarfed mountains, yet its roars carried something new pain. For the first time in centuries, the abyssal tyrant bled.

Still, the beast did not fall. Its tail rose, trembling yet monstrous, each scale glistening with black-crimson Shinrei. The strike it prepared could erase the entire village in one sweep.

Khael stood at the center, sword in hand, boots buried in cracked stone. His aura burned like a second sun, shadowed by the outline of colossal wings unfurling behind him.

"This ends now." His voice carried like judgment, not merely words.

Rael staggered beside him, armor cracked, shoulder split, yet his grip never wavered. He raised his blade, eyes gleaming with defiance.

"Then let's carve it together."

Kaen stepped forward, flame still licking his arms, sweat streaking through soot and blood. His grin was sharp, almost reckless.

"He's too big for one man's sword. But for all of ours…"

Juno's chest heaved like a war drum, veins bulging, the aura of his open gate tearing his muscles strand by strand. He cracked his knuckles, smirking despite the agony.

"Fine by me. One last round. If it costs me every bone, I'll make sure it stays down."

Ceyla lifted her spear of lightning once more, hair whipping with stormwind. Her voice was steady, though her arms trembled.

"I'll strike the pulse. Just give me the opening."

The Guardians on the seawall fell silent, their cries replaced with reverent dread. Captain Roan whispered, broken and hoarse,

"They're not just fighting it. They're sentencing it."

Thal'ryx moved first. Its tail descended like a guillotine, enough force to split the bay in half.

Rael dashed in front, sword raised. The impact crashed against him like a world falling. His knees buckled, bones screaming.

"(Hold… damn it, HOLD!)"

The blade bent, sparks of Shinrei sputtering across the clash.

Khael appeared behind him, pressing his sword to Rael's. The combined force threw the monster's tail back, creating the sliver of an opening.

Kaen leapt through. Flames erupted from his heels, carrying him skyward. He flipped once, channeling all his remaining Shinrei into his palm.

"ECHO ART: SECOND IGNITION!"

He slammed it into the open wound Rael had carved earlier. Fire rushed into the beast's flesh, detonating from within. Chunks of molten scale flew skyward. Thal'ryx shrieked, shaking the ocean itself.

Before the roar could fade, Juno struck. He launched himself with a kick so violent the stone beneath him exploded. His fist slammed into the monster's jaw, snapping it sideways with the echo of a thunderclap.

"STAY DOWN!"

But the recoil shattered his arm instantly. He gritted his teeth, refusing to scream, even as blood sprayed.

"(Not yet… I can still throw one more… one more!)"

He pivoted, driving his other fist into the already broken scales, deepening the crater Kaen had burned. The beast's face smashed into the tide, waves towering like fortresses before collapsing across Pearlbay.

And above it all, Ceyla.

She hovered at the apex of the storm she commanded, hair plastered to her skin, spear raised high. Lightning coiled into the weapon, thicker, brighter, more furious than any she had conjured before. The sky itself dimmed, as if the heavens bent their will to her hand.

Her voice tore across the clouds.

"RAEL! KHAEL! HOLD IT STILL!"

Rael surged, ignoring the fracture in his ribs, stabbing his sword into the beast's fin-joint, pinning it. He twisted, locking the blade into cartilage.

"It's pinned! Strike NOW!"

Khael inhaled. His aura flared into blinding radiance. The dragon's blood within him awakened fully, wrapping his blade in incandescent fire and shimmering scales of pure Shinrei. His eyes reflected not just light, but eternity.

"All of you, lend it here!"

Kaen's fire coiled around Khael's sword, roaring hotter, brighter, until it was no longer flame but molten essence.

Rael's will channeled through the steel, sharpening the edge beyond mortal limits.

Juno slammed his palm to the hilt, pouring the last of his gate's destructive force into the blade, his body tearing further with every heartbeat.

Ceyla hurled the storm's full wrath downward, lightning weaving into the weapon like veins of the cosmos.

Khael roared, lifting the blade.

"ECHO ART: FINAL EXECUTION, DRAGON'S JUDGMENT!"

The strike fell.

It was not a sword swing.

It was a verdict.

The combined might of five warriors cascaded into Thal'ryx's skull, splitting scale, bone, and abyssal core. The ocean itself parted, dragged aside by the weight of their Shinrei. For a heartbeat, Pearlbay saw the seafloor a canyon of shells and wreckage before the sea crashed back.

Thal'ryx's roar twisted into a death-cry, then shattered into silence. Its massive body convulsed once, twice, then collapsed into the waves. The tide turned red.

The Guardians collapsed where they stood, staring at the horizon. One whispered through trembling lips,

"They… they killed it."

Elder Moe fell to his knees, laughing and sobbing.

"The Calamity of Seventy Years… ended by them…"

On the fractured dock, the five stood together, scorched, bloodied, trembling. None had strength left to cheer. They only breathed, staring at the carcass drifting in the tide.

Rael lowered his blade with shaking hands.

"It's over… right?"

Kaen let out a ragged laugh, wiping soot from his face.

"If that thing gets back up, someone else can deal with it."

Juno slumped to his knees, his ruined arm dangling uselessly.

"Worth it." His lips twisted into a grin, even as his vision blurred.

"Totally worth it."

Ceyla landed last, her storm dispersing into thin, broken clouds. She stared at her spear cracked, charred, but still intact and exhaled a shuddering breath.

"We actually… did it."

Khael alone remained upright, sword still glowing faintly. He looked at the horizon, at the fading shadow of Thal'ryx beneath the tide, and spoke softly.

"No more seals. No more waiting. The era of running from monsters is over."

His eyes narrowed, not in triumph, but in solemn promise.

"We will not endure another Thal'ryx. Not while I carry this blood."

The people of Pearlbay rose from hiding, voices breaking, tears falling. Some shouted their names, others simply wept.

But for the five who stood in the wreckage, it was not victory they felt. It was exhaustion, burden, and the knowledge that one battle, however grand, was only the beginning.

As the tide had finally stilled. No more thunder, no more mountains of water clawing at the sky. Only the broken groans of wood and stone, the sigh of waves carrying fragments of what was once a village.

The carcass of Thal'ryx floated in the distance, black-crimson blood staining the horizon like a wound the sea would never forget. Its silence was proof, it was gone.

But the battlefield was not quiet. It was alive with pain.

Lira knelt among the wreckage, sleeves torn, hands raw and trembling from overuse of her Shinrei. She pressed her palms to a guardian's chest, light blooming from her fingers. His shattered ribs knitted faintly, his breathing steadied.

She sagged but did not stop. Her voice cracked like someone praying through exhaustion.

"Breathe… stay with me. Don't you dare stop here. We fought too hard for you to die in silence."

Another body was dragged to her, this one missing half an arm, his armor melted into flesh. Lira flinched, bile rising in her throat, but she forced herself to focus. Her aura flared again, weaving light through blood and ruin.

Rael approached slowly, leaning on his sword like a cane. His face was pale, lips split, yet his gaze on Lira was soft.

"You'll kill yourself if you keep pouring like that."

Lira's eyes snapped up, blazing with stubborn fire.

"Then let it kill me. What use is my life if they don't rise?"

For a moment, Rael almost laughed not mockery, but awe. He shook his head and lowered himself beside her, applying pressure to a wound with his bare hands.

"Fine. Then I'll bleed with you. Faster this way."

Kaen staggered close, flames long gone, only soot and cracked skin remaining. He collapsed on a piece of rubble, chest heaving.

"She's right, Rael. Don't stop her. She's the only reason half of us are still breathing."

He tilted his head toward Lira, his grin weary but sincere.

"Keep it up, healer. You're the real MVP here."

Lira's lips quivered not from pride, but from the weight of hearing words she didn't think she deserved. She said nothing, only worked faster.

Juno sat nearby, arm dangling uselessly, his body barely holding together after the gates. He chuckled, grim and bloody.

"Look at her go. Stronger than all of us… she fights with her heart."

Ceyla, who had been silent since the strike, placed a trembling hand on Lira's shoulder. Her voice was a whisper, almost afraid to break the fragile calm.

"Thank you."

Lira shook her head, still bent over the wounded.

"Don't thank me. Not yet. Thank me when none of them die."

Khael stood apart, staring at the horizon where Thal'ryx's corpse bled into the tide. His sword no longer glowed, but the weight of it seemed eternal. He finally turned, walking toward them.

His gaze softened when it landed on Lira.

"You've done enough."

She looked up, meeting his eyes, her voice hoarse but fierce.

"Not until every guardian opens their eyes."

Khael nodded once, not in dismissal, but in respect.

"Then I will keep watch while you heal. No monster will touch them again."

The Guardians who could still stand helped gather the wounded around her, some whispering prayers, others simply staring in disbelief at the five who had felled the Calamity. One soldier, tears streaming down his scarred face, muttered,

"They killed it… and she's saving us. Is this what hope looks like?"

Another knelt beside Lira, clutching her sleeve.

"Please… my brother—"

She pressed her hands to his brother's chest before he could finish.

"He'll live."

By the time the sun tilted west, the battlefield was quiet. Not silent with death, but calm with survival. Lanterns were lit among the ruins, and Pearlbay's people began to emerge, voices trembling with gratitude, fear, disbelief.

Children peeked from shattered homes. Old men wept openly. Families clutched each other as though the world itself had been saved.

But at the center of it all was Lira, her body slumped, eyes glazed with exhaustion, hands still glowing faintly as she forced one last pulse of Shinrei into a dying man's heart. His chest rose. He lived.

Only then did she collapse, falling sideways into Rael's waiting arms.

Her whisper barely carried, but everyone near heard it.

"I'm… just glad… we didn't lose them all."

Khael looked at the horizon one last time. His voice carried not to one person, but to everyone, the Guardians, the children, the broken survivors, the sea itself.

"Pearlbay still stands. And as long as we draw breath, so will the world."

To be continue