Kate vs Shui

When he felt the tremor, Shui was also confused since he could tell that this wasn't caused by the natural laws, but by an individual's will.

"Who, or what, was that?"

Shui considered taking a look with his Sage Eyes despite the hidden risk in doing so, but a sound from the cave tore his attention away from the tremor.

"You're out, huh. I guess I don't need to ask how it went."

Kate gave a confident smirk in response before looking around.

"Did anything happen?"

"You could say that but no one should be able to tell that it was connected to you."

Since he wasn't sure what would happen this time, Shui told Kate about the fact that her breakthrough would be accompanied by a natural phenomenon. Shui thought that she would want to ask what the natural phenomenon was, but it seemed she had something else on her mind.

"That's good. Thanks."

"It's fine. I'm glad to help."

Once they exchanged platitudes, Kate exhaled and faced Shui with a serious expression.

"Shui, I want you to fight me."

"Huh? Oh, you want to get used to your new power."

"No, I want a serious fight between you and me."

Shui was taken aback by Kate's request, but he knew that he had to respond appropriately to her resolve.

"...I hope you don't think reaching Earth Realm will be enough to close the gap between us."

Kate shook her head and replied, "No, but that's only if you use the power of your body."

"Hohoh, so you think you can beat me if I don't fight with my body cultivation."

The firm determination in Kate's eyes told Shui that she wasn't joking, she was confident. Considering his worries it might seem better for him to subtly throw this match, but that was something he couldn't consider. Both as her friend and as a cultivator, he couldn't do such a dishonest thing.

"Fine then, let's change the venue."

Shui led Kate to a desolate region of the Spirit Nest where it was hard to find both natives and fellow disciples. Though this place was on the map he had, he was sure that they could go all-out without worry since there was nothing of note that would cause anyone to be here. Just a barren wasteland that bordered a lush forest.

"This place should do."

Kate was only focused on their fight so she had no complaints about the location. The two stayed about two cales away from each other, waiting for some sort of a sign to act as the trigger to start their battle. This sign came in the form of a steady wind that blew a couple of leaves between them.

"!"

Kate made the first move. She jumped high into the sky and summoned a spear made of tyrannical sharp winds to strike at Shui. There was no time for anyone else with his cultivation, but Shui made it out of the way with time to spare. Even the gust caused by the impact the spear made as it reached the ground, was easily blocked by his barrier.

"My turn."

Shui attacked with his strongest possible 'Thunder', but it couldn't reach Kate who was carried away by the wind. It wasn't to the level of flight, but for someone with a strong affinity for the wind element, it was possible to stay afloat in the air once they reached Earth Realm.

Using this to her advantage, Kate summoned multiple tornadoes on the ground to rip Shui apart. Naturally he wouldn't be grievously wounded by these spells even without his barrier, but both of them had silently agreed that if he bled a single time it would be his loss. It seemed ridiculous, but an attack that could scratch him would be more than enough to kill any average cultivator. Furthermore, although Kate was the one who asked for this fight, she was well-aware of how difficult an opponent Shui would be.

'He's the only person besides me that I can call a true genius after all.'

In the midst of tornadoes that would mean instant death to anyone else with his cultivation, Shui stood firm with walls of earth protecting him. This was the first time he used anything besides fire from the Four Element Technique against an opponent, but with Kate as his opponent he saw this as the best chance to see the full extent of what he could do.

"Don't you think it's time for you to come down?"

Just like she used tornadoes to corner him, Shui fired enough spikes of earth at her to cover the sky. Kate felt that she could defend against these spikes with her barrier, but instead she tightly clenched her glove-covered fists and destroyed them directly. Since some of the spikes tried to evade her blows, she confirmed her guess that Shui could still control them and blew them apart with fierce gusts caused by her punches.

"She mastered it, huh."

The same 'Fierce Cyclone Fist' that she had to focus to use last time was now being blasted without restraint. However, Shui knew he couldn't keep admiring her so he gathered all of the broken bits of earth that he threw at her into a single boulder that he dropped on her.

"Hmph, don't tell me this is all you can do."

As expected, Kate easily smashed through the boulder and then taunted Shui, but at the same time as she noticed the smirk on his face, her senses also picked up the multitude of 'Lightning' talismans that had surrounded her. After a blinding flash of light, though Kate was unharmed she could no longer float in the air and had to land. In order to take advantage of this vulnerable state, Shui attacked with a barrage of yellow flaming birds. To him, this spell wasn't perfect yet, but it was at least at the level of being practical in battle.

Although the fiery creatures didn't seem too dangerous, Kate's instincts warned her against defending against them so she used the wind to evade as she fell. But after dodging all of them, she was surprised to see them fly back at her.

'So their shape wasn't just for show. Not bad.'

This time Kate tried to block them with a wall-like barrier that was built right in front of them.

"Yes!" she exclaimed as they collided with the barrier, but she gasped in disbelief as the fiery birds sprouted fangs and bit through it.

'They eat nature energy! That's troublesome.'

Kate quickly tried to formulate a plan to deal with these incoming yellow birds, but a chill down her spine made her roll to her left. She managed to escape a direct hit but the explosion caused by the sudden lightning strike still blew her away.

"Remember to watch your opponent."

As Kate regained her balance, she took Shui's advice and stared at both him and the flaming birds that were still coming after her. Since these birds could eat energy she threw out the idea of putting up another barrier and instead decided to give up defence. The Dual Tiger Paws lit up, followed by the appearance of silver fur and red and blue tiger spots that decorated her forearms.

'She's already gotten this close to resonance?!'

Even as someone who admired Kate's talents, Shui nearly couldn't believe what he was seeing. She hadn't reached the full resonance state yet, but getting this close in less than a month was still impossible for most, even if it was made with her previous artifact.

"Damn, looks like your confidence wasn't without reason."