"So we meet again."

Wu said as Lera stood right across from him with a basket full of fruits and vegetables in hand. Her beautiful grey eyes were as wide and round as the berranges in the basket, and her open mouth was big enough to fit a handful of fruits in there.

"H...have you finally lost it...my dear Wu..." Lera dropped the basket on the ground and slowly approached him as he puffed his chest out with patch works of paper and leather dangled over his body like scales on a dead fish, "Are you okay...You said everything's fine yesterday..."

Now, he looked truly homeless as it seemed he couldn't even piece together an outfit that will shield him from the morning gust of the Infinite Academy.

"Wha-No?! Don't judge a book by its cover!" Wu said, pointing a finger at Lera before he lightly twisted his right wrist as a wave of light rippled through his entire body, waking up the individual pieces as they chained together. Then, Wu surged right past Lera, his finger gently brushing against the side of her cheeks before a gust of wind stirred up her dress.

"WU!" Lera protested angrily and turned around with her hands at the ready. She was planning to just show him her new powerset during a proper demonstration, but now that he has fired the first shot, the battle has officially begun.

Thinking back, she hasn't actually picked a fight with Wu ever before.

"You started this, Wu! Remember that!" Lera said, instantly activating her strengthening and lightening before layering out the Cast array around Wu's body, "Sweeping Darkness!"

A dark curtain obscured the sight around Wu before Lera's figures and her basket of fruits were all swallowed up by darkness. Wu had seen this before, though the intensity of the black and the suffocating closeness is more apparent here.

Even if her basic skill sets looked the same, Lera had already gone ahead refined the details of her Casts within the array with edits that makes the flow of the way from node to node more fluid, stable, and powerful. Then, she also revamped the incorporation of the Casts into the array that makes controls even more reactive.

If she was spamming Casts before, then she is letting it rain now.

"Trapping, Bouldering, Release, Release, Release, Carpet Bomb!" Lera said, her hands overhead as a network of vines formed overhead with countless orbs of light attached to it like lights of decoration on Christmas Eve. Then, it all collapsed down, freefalling towards Wu as she slashed her hand down.

Wu looked up through the mask he's wearing, and he swiftly activated all of the bubble bubble Casts attached all throughout his body before propelling himself forward, aiming both hands towards Lera.

Massive orbs of Wave shot out from both of his hands before it tore through the network of vines and Wu followed up from within like a jet fighter. Spinning around in the air to avoid Lera's next attacks, Wu then wrapped his arms around Lera and tackled her to the ground.

"Ah...Wu..." Lera groaned slightly as Wu accidentally buried his face in between her breasts, "What are you..."

"I win~" Wu giggled before he pressed both of his hands over Lera's shoulders and leaned in close, "Look at my iron man armor! How cool is that?!"

"Iron?" Lera blinked a few times and focused down Wu's body. The suit was a tight fit, and it showed Wu's well-built physique as the pieces wrapped seamlessly around his waist, chest, and shoulders. However, as she focused in closer, she realized that each of the individual scales actually had Casts written all over it, though it is only the last component of each Cast that she visually recognized.

Reaching forward, Lera ran her fingers over Wu's chest from one scale to the next as her eyes were focused on trying to read the lines of writing over it. Then, she started to hear Wu's breathing became more and more irregular and his chest started to rise and fall quicker and quicker.

"Lera..." Wu murmured, his face red and heart racing as her touch seemed to have brought him back to life again. However, Lera's full concentration seemed to be on the miniaturized Casts more than anything else. Wu and Lera stared into each other's soul for a moment before her face also turned red and she looked to the side.

Wu seemed rather disappointed for a moment, and he pressed himself off Lera's body before sitting down besides her.

"How...how did you make the Casts so small?" Lera asked, pointing to one of the scales over Wu's shoulder, "I recognize the end effector part of the Casts, but nothing else..."

"That's because I made it smaller. A lot smaller." Wu said, a light smile forming over his face, "the printing press for Casts worked so well that I was able to also shrink the size of a few other commonly used Casts for the other college-less people."

Then, in exchange, they became free labor for him, and over a week, they have fabricated the very first suit made fully from miniaturized Casts and powered by the embedded gemstone of the One-Shotter gauntlet that is now positioned over Wu's chest in between layers of containment Casts and specially designed Wave circuits.

So now, Wu is able to channel the power of the One-Shotter throughout all parts of his body, and based on which Casts are positioned where, he is able to generate shields, fly, and fire off blasts in all directions.

"You know, like ironman." Wu said, and Lera crossed her arms.

"But there is no iron anywhere on you!" She protested, and Wu squeezed both of his lips into one another before giving up.

She's right though, and there is no way in hell that she can understand how a flying tin man will become one of the most popular fictional characters on his world.

The Casters had been using some principles of electronic engineering for years, but before now, they never had the means of properly miniaturizing their Casts. Therefore, the limitation to the Casts had always been its size. So far, it is still the case with the end effector part, the part that actually interacts with the environment, needing to be in its appropriate size.

It's not exactly surprising. Massive towering wind turbines on his world can be powered by electronics that can fit into the palm of his hands.

So this is only the first step of true Wave science for them. Once Wu and Lera make a Cast for printing Casts, then it's game over. Supposedly.

"So yeah..." Wu said, activating the Lightening and Strengthening cast before slowly turning on the jets near his feet as a surge of Wave slowly propelled him off the ground. However, Wu immediately lost his balance and slammed himself into the ground, "Shit...flying is hard..."

"I mean...if you wanted to fly, you could have used a chariot..." Lera said, helping Wu up as he rubbed his head while looking dazed from the fall.

"It's not the same!" Wu said quickly, "Argh...it's fine! Just takes practice!"

Lera looked at him strange briefly before nodding. Every time Wu underwent a period of intense engineering and experimentation, he always came back looking completely different. In comparison, she's just building off the same basis of power...

"You have gotten a lot stronger too." Wu said, suddenly drawing Lera's attention back to the present, "Even I can tell. You are moving much faster and more fluidly. You are more confident, aren't you?"

"I hope so...Lily's been helping me a lot." Lera said before Wu bent down and helped pick up her basket of fruits. In all fairness, Lera hadn't shown Wu her true trump card against the other Wave users. Because of Wu's powerless nature, her specific counters based on the way Casters, Manifesters, and Channelers fight are actually utterly useless against him.

But if she's facing off against anybody else, it will be a totally different story.

After Wu put the basket down in his bedroom, he slowly rose up and stood tall as Lera stood by the entrance into his tent.

"Did you find anything about PORA?" Wu asked, turning around and picking up a piece of paper from his desk, "The college-less had not a single hint of PORA, but a few of them mentioned about how they were approached by a group of people with blood-red rose tattoos over their wrists. They were trying to recruit them to interfere with the official Academy events in exchange for a chance to be re-admitted..."

"I...I didn't see anything about PORA in particular." Lera shook her head before she reached into her bag and took out a single book, "But I have found this interesting article. It's almost as if Jiyu Satoru had written it himself."

Now that's a name Wu hadn't heard in a long time. Being the very first adversary that he encountered, Jiyu marked the start of his crazy long journey.

"Who actually did?" Wu asked, and Lera pointed to the scribbled-out names on the cover. The names of the author were completely obscured, yet the content was left untouched. It was almost as if the author wanted to hide from plain sight, yet encourage people to learn of a conspiratorial truth.

Then, at the very last page, a Cast was printed over the backside of the cover within, and a tiny symbol of a blood-red rose decorated the corner of the page.

Wu and Lera shared an uneasy glance, and Lera closed the book as the sounds of footsteps came from outside the camp.

"Get ya ass out from there!" A fierce feminine voice rumbled through the thin cover of the tent, "I need ya right now!"

"Fatera?!"