Hey babe, do you need help?

Gen then followed in the direction Stanley had pointed, and after a few minutes of walking, he saw two huge frejars and a person in the distance.

He then thought, 'That must be Lina.', and then sped towards them.

...

Lina was advancing towards one of the frejars. She had in her hand a giant sword that was almost her size, yet despite this, she held it easily with one of her hands as if it weighed nothing.

When she got close enough, she swung her sword towards the frejar, but it dodged the blow and let out a blast of wind in Lina's direction. She then quickly raised her sword and blocked the blow with it. However, just as this happened, behind her, another frejar appeared and headbutted her, throwing her a few meters to the side.

Lina, before falling to the ground, leaned her sword on it and stabilized herself, falling on her feet. Although she received the blow, she wasn't expressing pain as expected.

She then looked at the frejar that hit her and said, "Is that all you have?"

Hearing this, it growled and advanced again towards Lina.

She then got into position, and when it had come close enough, she struck it with her sword, but the frejar easily dodged the blow with a step to the side, causing Lina's sword to hit the ground.

It then advanced toward her with its mouth open, and Lina took this chance, used her sword as a shovel, and threw a large amount of sand into his mouth.

As this happened, the frejar slowed down a bit and started spitting sand and then coughing. Lina took advantage of this to pass it and go towards the other frejar.

She then advanced towards it, and as it saw her coming, the frejar let out a blast of air in her direction. Lina then used her sword to cut the blast of air and kept going toward it.

When it saw that she had stopped its blast of air, the frejar stepped back and released another blast of air. Lina then again cut it off and kept going towards it.

This continued for some time, and with each time this happened, Lina got closer to the wind frejar, but when she was only a few feet away, the frejar she had sandblasted appeared at her side and again headed her off.

Lina then steadied herself again before falling and then thought, 'There's no way to go on like this. This fast frejar keeps winding me up, while the frejar with the wind essence keeps attacking me with air blows, making me waste energy to defend myself. I have to think of a way to finish them off soon. Otherwise, it will be too risky, and I'll have to run away, or at least I wish I could.'

'There are too many people on this expedition. If I run away, these two will surely attack the others. Ahh! If only I had already understood the beauty part of my essence, I wouldn't be having so many problems. My mother said that a joint essence only shows its true power after understanding all its parts.'

The fast frejar came again towards Lina, and she positioned her sword, waiting for it to get close enough, and the moment it came within range, she struck it.

Lina was already thinking about what to do after she missed it when she suddenly realized that the frejar wasn't moving, and she thought, 'What happened to it? I can't lose this chance.'

She then took the sword with her other hand and put more force into the blow. The frejar was about to be hit when suddenly, a gust of wind came and deflected the blow a little, which caused the sword to hit it lightly.

She then thought, 'Damn, I almost finished it off.', and then she heard, "Hey babe, do you need help?"

Lina then turned in the direction of the voice and saw Gen. She was in shock to see him and couldn't say anything, and seeing this, Gen said, tossing his hair in the air, "What is it, Lina? Haven't you ever seen a man this handsome? Hahaha."

And she said, "Gen, you're alive! That's good, Gen. You don't know how worried I was-"

"Don't even try, Lina. I met with Joru and Stanley before I got here."

"That's too bad, but if you already knew, what did you come here for? Did you come to give yourself up to see if I would go easy on you?"

"Lina, Lina, a year has passed, but you're still the same as always, beautiful and thinking you're superior to everyone."

"Well, aren't I?", said Lina with a smile.

"Well, beautiful, I can't deny, but as far as being superior goes, you couldn't be more wrong."

Lina then frowned and said, "Oh yeah? Then why don't you prove me wrong?"

Gen then looked in the direction of the frejars and said, "Well, we can work this out, but we better deal with those two first.", but then suddenly, a sword came flying at him.

Gen didn't even bother to move and just waited for it to arrive, and seeing this, Lina said, "What happened, Gen? You're in shock that I attacked you? You better dodge it, or you might get seriously hurt, hahaha."

Gen continued without moving, and then Lina said, "Hey, Gen! Just dodge it! I put a lot of force into this blow.", but he stood still.

When the sword came within a certain distance of him, it started to advance very slowly, to the point where it stopped and then fell to the ground.

Gen then said to Lina, "Who told you that I need to dodge?"

Lina was silent for a while and then said, "Look at this. It seems you got an essence this past year."

"Yeah."

"That's why you're all brave now."

"Hahaha, let's talk later, Lina. We have to deal with these two frejars."

"Ok, give me my sword then."

Gen then took Lina's sword and threw it towards her.

She picked it up and then said, "Let's go. What does your essence do?"

"Don't worry about it. Just attack normally, and I'll assist you in the same way I did just now."

"Oh, so it was you who stopped the frejar at that time."

"Yes."

"From the way you stopped my sword and the frejar, it looks like your essence has something to do with limiting the movement of things."

Gen then gave a small smile and said, "You'll see."

"Trying to be mysterious, hm. All right, when this is over, I'll forcibly get the information out of you."

"Haha, you're free to try."

"I'll up the pace. Don't fall behind, big guy."

"You don't have to worry."

The two of them started to run towards the frejars, and on the way, Lina noticed that Gen was keeping up with her without any problem.

She then looked at him and thought, 'How strange. The way he is keeping up with me is weird. He takes one step, but he crosses a lot more space than usual. It seems that his essence has something to do with movement.'

Gen then said, "Hey, I know you must be missing me terribly after not seeing me this year, but you don't have to look at me all the time. We'll have plenty of time to talk after we're done here."

And Lina said, "That's right, I can't wait to have a conversation with you."

"Me too."

The two then arrived in front of the frejars, and Lina said, "Our focus has to be the frejar that has the essence of wind. It always gets in the way when I try to finish the other one, and besides, the other one is very fast, so if it wants to run away, it will be hard to stop it."

Gen then said, "Don't worry about that. Just attack it. I won't let it get away."

"Are you sure? I hope I don't waste my energy for nothing."

"You bet you won't."

Lina then advanced towards the fast frejar, and it also came towards her. When they were facing each other, Lina hit it with her sword, and as expected, it started to dodge again, but it again stopped in the middle of the way.

Lina saw this and thought, 'Gen's essence really has something to do with movement. Maybe dealing with him will be more difficult than I expected.', and so she struck the frejar in front of her, but again, just as her blow was about to hit it, a gust of air hit the sword, deflecting the attack, which because of this, only managed to cut it superficially.

She then said, "There's no way I can fight like this. Gen, can't you deal with this blast of air?"

And Gen said, "Unfortunately not, but don't worry, I already know what to do. Attack it again. This time, you won't miss."

"Bold words, but I like it. Let's start round two, then."