Reunion Battle (2)

Shui had never told her what it was called, but he had given her enough details so that Kate could use her physique properly. With the Focused Heaven Physique, as long as she picked one path she was guaranteed to reach far on it. As it was one of the most powerful divine physiques, the path she could pick was only limited per system. Her life path was cultivation, her cultivation system path was energy, her elemental path was wind and her combat path was hand to hand. As long as she stuck to these paths, her talent would naturally bring her to higher stages, but Kate never allowed herself to solely rely on talent. There had been too many times when she lacked the strength to take action when she needed to, so she never stopped trying to refine her skills.

After their few confrontations, Kate was certain that getting through Shui's defense with physical power would be practically impossible. However, Shui always had an advantage against her in unarmed combat so she hadn't planned on winning this way either. In order to get into a better state of mind, she dropped a step back in resonance, losing the whiskers on her face and the tail of her aura. Now her mind was much clearer,  so she could properly grasp the flow of nature energy.

In her mind's eye, the visual world was replaced by shapes, concentrations and movement of nature energy. She could sense the nature energy in her environment and in the life around her including the superior energy within Shui. She almost clicked her tongue upon noticing that he still had a trump card like this, but she wasn't discouraged. This wasn't a technique she could use in battle because it took a while to prepare, but she had absolute confidence in it.

"Shui, I've never used this ability against anyone before so I can't be sure of its power, but if you think I still won't be able to break through your skin with it you'll be in for a painful time."

"Don't worry, I won't let you be disappointed."

As he sensed a hint of divinity from Kate in her current state, Shui knew that she was telling the truth, but just like her, this only increased his excitement. 

Kate's first move was strangely trivial. While her presence dropped, she slowly raised her arm and pointed her finger at Shui. At that moment, Shui received an instinctive warning and immediately raised his arms to block his face. There was almost no impact, but when he felt blood leak from the cuts on his arms, Shui couldn't help taking a peek at Kate with his Sage God Eyes.

'This is, ridiculous.'

Even as someone who had obtained divine inheritances, what Kate was doing stunned him. She had entered the flow of the surrounding nature energy and then influenced it to attack. It sounded simple, but spells were created exactly because mortals weren't able to directly control foundational energy. She wasn't truly controlling the nature energy, but if one considered energy cultivation as a means of getting more control over foundational energy, then Kate had already entered the Monarchy phase. 

"Ha, haha, hahaha!"

"He, hehehe!"

Shui lowered his guard and began laughing boisterously and Kate soon joined him. For these two who had transcended their peers, there was no greater joy than finding a rival who was on their level. 

While still laughing, Shui used Instant to attack Kate. Despite having joined him in laughter, Kate had maintained her nature energy connection so just by lifting a finger she created a barrier that blocked Shui's hand which had transformed into a blade. With another small movement of that finger, Shui was knocked back but he pulled Sui from his chest and stabbed it into the ground.

"Engulf."

The ground beneath Kate shook, but instead of opening up like Shui intended, the vibrations soon stopped. As he had grasped the nature of Kate's ability, he didn't have to think hard to figure out what happened. 

'So normal spells won't work either. Then how about this?'

Kate gestured to attack him so Shui retrieved Sui and got out of the way before mentally drawing 'Lightning'. The bolt of current was stopped by Kate's barrier, but that was enough for Shui to confirm that Kate wasn't able to interfere with attacks based on the natural laws. Kate's barrier wouldn't be easy for him to break with physical power unless he could move his divine force, but he had other means of overcoming it. 

Shui used Instant once again, but this time he poured his divine energy into Sui. His strike was still blocked, but this time the blade was only a few inches away from Kate. Although Kate's barrier was troublesome, it couldn't escape the suppression of divine energy. While pressuring her with Sui, Shui used 'Float' and 'Capture' on the ground at his feet. This way he was able to make the ground rise and grab Kate's feet. Although she was able to predict his movements well thanks to the flow of nature energy, she had to be aware of what she was blocking so Kate wasn't able to stop this. With a clap, a powerful force was created that pushed back everything around her, including the stone restraints. Nonetheless, there were side-effects of this move.

As he saw the sweat dripping from Kate's forehead, Shui knew that she was reaching her limit and that he could probably win simply by stalling for time, but that would be distasteful in a fight like this. With his grip tight on Sui, Shui charged once more. 

While watching this battle, only one thought occupied Reinhart's mind.

'Incomprehensible.'

Even Shui was already so invested in the battle that he forgot about his presence, meaning that neither of them were worried about revealing their abilities. Of course, if Reinhart wasn't trustworthy then Shui would have found some way of sending him away from the start, but Reinhart didn't have the composure to appreciate that he had been given so much trust. 

The battle wasn't particularly flashy, but anyone with the ability to use spiritual sense would have questioned reality once Kate revealed this new technique. Before that he was only impressed by the toughness of Shui's body and their martial prowess, but afterwards he was in disbelief. Moving nature energy itself to attack was a feat only seen in myths, and being able to withstand such power was also beyond what humans should be capable of. Reinhart had been worried about Kate because her enemies had a much higher cultivation, but if what he sensed was right then perhaps only someone on his master's level could have fought against her in her current state. This meant that Shui stood on that level despite having been a cripple a year ago. 

Reinhart had intended to share this scene with his master using a memory vault, but now he wondered if his master would believe it. Using a high quality memory vault would allow him to share his senses but even that didn't seem like enough. Wondering if he could still be considered a senior brother, Reinhart stopped using his spiritual sense and simply observed the battle on a surface level.