Chapter 280: The Ultra Series Must Taste: Energy Depleted, About to Lose? (Patreon)

Hinako Shimizu swung her right fist, gathering what little energy remained to slam it into the Water Dragon's vital spot, while her left palm chopped down in an Ultra Chop, cutting hard into the serpent's scales.

The scales were hard as iron. Her fist and blade-hand struck them with nothing but a dull, muffled thud. The Water Dragon endured the blow and coiled its scalding body around her waist, tightening loop after loop as it climbed higher.

Hinako fought with everything she had to pry apart that lethal coil, but the dragon's strength never let up, its body cinching tighter and tighter. Her energy drained away rapidly, and the beam light atop her head flickered green in increasingly urgent pulses — the signal of danger.

Sensing the Giant of Light beneath it growing weaker, the Water Dragon suddenly reared its massive head, its jaws gaping wide to reveal row upon row of jagged fangs. A rank, yellow-green cloud of venomous breath washed over her as it lunged straight for Hinako Shimizu's throat!

Hinako tried to turn her head aside, but the serpent's coils pinned her neck fast, leaving no room even to twist away. She managed only the faintest turn, and still it wasn't enough.

In the next instant, the Water Dragon's fangs tore savagely into her neck and clamped down, refusing to let go. Venom-laced saliva seeped into the wound, spreading a creeping numbness through her whole body until she could no longer muster the strength to resist.

This is bad! My energy's almost gone!

Hinako's body slowly went slack, a thick wave of helplessness and guilt welling up inside her.

She understood clearly — she was still too inexperienced. In her rush to suppress the seismic activity and protect the villagers, she'd burned through far too much energy too soon, and in doing so, lost her best chance to crush the Water Dragon for good.

But she understood something else even more clearly: the Water Dragon was an enemy that had to be defeated.

If it wasn't destroyed completely, the seismic activity would never truly settle. Even if she managed to hold it back for now with Ultra willpower, that was only a temporary fix, not a cure — her hometown and its people would remain forever trapped in danger.

"Ultraseven… I'm sorry… I think… I'm really going to lose…"

Hinako's heart was flooded with guilt and self-reproach.

In this moment, she and Ultraseven were of one mind and body. If she fell in defeat here, lost her life, she would drag Ultraseven down with her — they would die together.

"Are you planning to give up, Hinako?"

Just as despair threatened to swallow her whole, a calm, steady voice rose slowly from the depths of her heart, carrying the Giant of Light's singular gentleness and strength, smoothing away the panic inside her.

"Of course not!"

Hinako shot back the answer almost without hesitation, the last traces of stubborn defiance still burning in her eyes. However drained she felt, she had never once truly considered giving up.

"But… I've reached my limit."

Her voice caught with a faint sob. However much she refused to give up, the reality was brutally clear.

Her energy was spent, her body bound fast, without even the strength left to fight back. There was nothing she could do — she was utterly helpless.

"Then tell me — do you have any regrets? About spending your strength to hold back the seismic activity, to protect your village?"

"No!"

Hinako's eyes hardened instantly, resolute, without a trace of hesitation.

"This is still my home, the place I want to protect. Protecting your own hometown — that should be a law as unchanging as the universe itself. I have absolutely no regrets!"

She had hated this village. Hated so many of the people in it, so many things about it.

Backward, superstitious, closed-minded — men as brutal as her father, women as timid as her mother, everywhere she looked in this village. Since childhood she had longed to escape it and never come back.

But this was still her home. The dirt path along the rice paddies where she'd fallen countless times. The old tree at the village entrance she'd climbed over and over. The low wall by the schoolyard she'd scrambled over more times than she could count.

All of it was her memory. All of it was part of her life.

Yes, there were plenty of people she despised — but just as many she was close to, friends and elders alike.

And even the people she disliked were the neighbors who had watched her grow up, who cared for her in their own way. Even her brutal father had once carried her three miles to the hospital on his back through a fevered night. Even her timid mother had nursed her without rest, tending to her with quiet care.

However narrow-minded they might be, they cared for her in the only way they knew how.

So no — she had no regrets. Even given the chance to do it all over again, she would still choose to suppress the seismic activity first.

"Then that settles it! Keep fighting! Fighting alone is hard, I know. But you must not give up. You have to keep fighting until the very last moment. Understand this — an Ultraman is a being who chooses to fight even knowing defeat is certain!"

The voice in her heart shed its gentleness, hardening into something forceful and resolute, tempered by countless hard-fought battles, carrying Amamiya Rin's absolute trust in her. It cracked through Hinako's fogged mind like a peal of thunder, scattering the bone-deep helplessness that had settled over her.

This wasn't an order. It was the inheritance of the will of light.

"If you refuse to give up until the very last moment, a miracle will surely happen!"

The words struck hard against Hinako's heart. Her unfocused eyes sharpened at once, and it felt as though some invisible strength had been poured into her numbed body.

That's right — she couldn't give up yet. Ultraseven hadn't given up on her. The people still needed her. How could she be the first to admit defeat?

Down at the foot of the mountain, the villagers had finally made out the full situation unfolding in the valley.

Ultraseven, who had held the upper hand only moments before, was now bound tight by the Water Dragon's coils, the green light atop its head flickering wildly, nearly guttering out. Its body trembled faintly within the serpent's grip — teetering on the edge of collapse.

The earlier cheers cut off abruptly, replaced by a swelling tide of anxiety and dread. No one believed victory was within reach anymore.

They watched the Giant of Light fighting with everything it had to protect their village, and a storm of emotions — panic, worry, confusion — surged through the crowd.

"How is this happening? Is Ultraseven going to lose?"

"No way! That's an Ultraman!"

"But… even Ultramen have lost before. Even Ultramen have died before!"

Those words fell like a bucket of icy meltwater, instantly dousing the last flicker of hope in the villagers' hearts.

The noise of the crowd died away completely, replaced by a suffocating, oppressive dread and despair.

Faces blank, eyes hollow, they stared up at the silver-and-red figure swaying on the edge of collapse in the valley below, overwhelmed by a crushing sense of helplessness.

They had always taken it for granted that the Giant of Light was an all-powerful guardian.

But now, watching Ultraseven strangled in the Water Dragon's grip, the green light atop its head fading like a candle guttering in the wind, they were forced to admit — even this giant who protected them could run out of strength, could be trapped on the edge of life and death.

But faced with this, what could they possibly do?

Wait to die? Aside from waiting to die, there seemed to be nothing else left to do.

"Ultraseven!"

Just as everyone sank into helpless despair, on the verge of giving up hope, a young, high voice — small but fiercely resolute — suddenly split through the dead-silent night.

"Don't lose! Ultraseven!"

It was a boy from the village, maybe ten years old. He clenched his small fists, tilted his flushed face upward, eyes locked unblinking on Ultraseven in the valley below, and screamed at the top of his lungs with every ounce of strength he had.