Meeting a Familiar Face

After a few more clashes, Fatty found the timing to cast a barrier spell to deflect Serina's attack. She lost her balance for a moment so he immediately took the opportunity to swing his hammer. Even if she managed to react it should have been a guarantee that she would be knocked back, but when the hammer approached her Fatty suddenly felt its weight increase so it went towards her legs instead of her side. While Fatty struggled to fix its trajectory, Serina slammed the dagger in her left hand down on the hammer head and then used that as the pivot to hit his head with a kick.

Fatty fell back two steps with his barrier spell hastily created. Not much damage had been done, but he was still wary as he couldn't figure out what she did to his hammer. Unfortunately, Serina had no intention of allowing him to leisurely ponder. It would be too difficult to destroy his barrier even with her increased power, so instead she cast a wind spell that stole air from his vicinity to create a vacuum. Fatty quickly picked up on her intention so he rushed towards her to attack with his barrier. 

He was almost in reach, but then he felt his foot slam into something hard and tripped. It should have been impossible for an attack to reach him through his barrier, but Serina took advantage of one of the flaws of the basic barrier spell, the fact that it provided little protection against activity directly below the user. For the user to walk properly, the barrier spell didn't cover the feet while the user was in motion. And so, Serina used the Revolving Metals Art to raise a piece of metal that had been buried in the ground right as Fatty passed over it. 

Before he had time to cry out in pain, Fatty pushed off the ground and frantically evaded the dagger which Serina swung down. The pain of stubing his toes was irrationally great, but he gritted his teeth and regained his composure. However, it was too late as he had lowered his barrier while falling. When he got off the ground and was ready to get back into the fight, there was a dagger less than an inch from his throat. Serina's hand wasn't attached to it, but he didn't doubt that if she wanted to it could immediately pierce his neck.

"I, surrender."

"Thank you for your guidance."

Serina retrieved her dagger with the Revolving Metals Art and then gave Fatty a polite bow with a smile on her face.

"No, you taught me a lot too."

"That's for sure."

Although there was no anger in his tone, Fatty still flinched at the sound of Shui's voice. Serina was able to control metals better thanks to Double Lightning, which also guided her in how to use this ability. As this was like being taught by the natural laws it seemed like an unfair advantage, but Shui knew that Fatty still could've won.

"Uh, should we spar again?" Fatty nervously asked.

"Before you think about that, do you know why you lost?"

"If I had to say, it's because I wasn't paying enough attention to my surroundings."

"That's right. Serina performed well, but she wouldn't have been able to beat you if you hadn't been careless. Now, run around the camp at full speed until I tell you to stop."

"...Yes."

Since he knew where he went wrong, Shui decided to go easy on Fatty for the time being. While Fatty ran, Shui told Serina to start refining the twin daggers. It would only be a surface refinement, but it would be enough for the artifact to be bound to her.

"Okay."

Shui wanted to wait on Serina so he made Fatty keep running for the rest of the day. He also healed Sef so once Serina was done they could head towards Henon without worry. The next day, there was another commotion when Double Lightning became a blue mark on the back of Serina's hands, but even Fatty wasn't aware of the significance of Double Lightning being a soul-bound artifact despite its low rank, so they stopped talking about it by the time they were ready to leave.

Sef could walk, but he wouldn't be able to keep up with their running speed so Fatty carried him. Originally Serina was going to take on the role as she had been doing before, but now that he was conscious Shui figured that would be too embarrassing.

Stonefield was smaller than the five cities region, so it took less than a week for them to reach the eastern border. Henon didn't have any extraordinary features, but the border between it and Stonefield was obvious because of the flower field there. Unfortunately, a battle was occurring in that flower field that disturbed the serene beauty it normally possessed. 

A young man with few injuries but showing obvious signs of fatigue, was fighting off three assailants. They were all in the early Earth Realm, and the only reason why the young man was able to hold on was because the three were purposefully making him waste his energy so that they could defeat him without suffering much damage in return. As he had noticed this, the young man tried to escape their encirclement several times, but they never allowed him to pass. Knowing that their victory was certain, the three teased the young man as he glared with caution and irritation. 

"Feeling tired, aren't you?"

"You're welcome to give up any time."

"I'll make it quick and painless, I promise. Hehehe."

When he first sensed this battle, Shui had considered ignoring them since there was no reason to interfere, but as he got closer there were two things that caught his interest. First, was that the young man wore the black coat of a direct disciple of Storm Sky Manor, but Shui wasn't very loyal to the manor so that wouldn't be enough for him to get involved. It was the second observation that made him change his mind. 

"Everyone, my friend seems to be in danger up ahead so I'm gonna go ahead and help him."

"Okay. Be safe."

"I'll protect these two while you're gone, Boss."

For a moment, the thought to bring up Fatty's loss to Serina came to mind, but Shui dismissed it and increased his speed. Since they weren't seriously attacking, he judged that he would be able to intervene with time to spare, but Shui wanted to test something along the way. He activated the Sage God Eyes and looked for the cores of the three assailants. 

A creature's core wasn't necessarily the same as its life, nor did it exist in a physical sense though it appeared to be in the shape of a white sphere. Even when someone died, their core wouldn't necessarily disappear, especially if there was a system for reincarnation. However, if the core was destroyed then that person would be erased from existence without any chance of revival, not even a god was an exception. Legendary figures with a high enough cultivation could target the core directly, but Shui had to rely on his special eyes to do the same.

After finding their cores, Shui tried to use the unraveling technique on assailants, but it failed. Although his soul was strong enough to kill them with a spiritual attack, he needed even more overwhelming power and comprehension in order to break through their natural defenses. As he couldn't find anything specific about Nature's Eternity either, it seemed that the Library wouldn't provide information on abilities of the divine, so he would just have to figure out this technique by himself.