Cora was perplexed. She hadn’t seen what had happened. All she had heard was a whooshing sound, followed by loud punching sounds, and then a thud. She stopped activating the talisman, and looked at the slumped four-foot silhouette that was hidden by the dust.

“It still takes five steps, dammit! Are you okay?” asked a bright, low-pitched, angry-sounding voice.

As the dust settled, standing there was the person they were looking for, with a glowing fist. He looked as if what he had just accomplished was as easy as eating cake or pie. The glow on his hand dimmed, before going out completely. Cora sighed, putting the flame talisman in her backpack.

“...” Gonin tried to answer.

“Gonin, he’s hurt”, she spoke, and taking out the first aid kit from the same backpack, she had placed the talisman.

Ryan walked towards Cora, who was tending to Gonin’s wounds. He had a smug look on his face, which Cora did not notice because she was busy being useful. Gonin, after being dressed in Band-Aids and a lot of crisscrossing bandages, sat cross-legged and started performing breathing techniques.

“What’s he doing?” asked Ryan, curiously.

“Breathing techniques. Trying to accelerate the rate at which his body is healing itself”, replied Cora, who was now packing the first aid.

“Still think I need protection?” asked Ryan with a smirk.

“I get it; you’re strong, and fast. H--”

“Very fast”, interrupted Ryan.

“Whatever! If--”

“If I hadn’t shown up, you two would have been mincemeat, and food for whatever that creature was.”

“Don’t you suppose that it’s your fault this happened in the first place?” asked Cora, getting annoyed and a little angry.

“What do you mean? I saved you, didn’t I?”

“Look, even if you hadn’t intervened, I would have been fine. Only Gonin was caught unaware.”

“Yeah right! What I don’t get is, why would the middle-aged monk speak so highly of you? Why did he say you’re part of the future? You don’t look that strong to me, and you’re definitely not a cultivat--”

“What’s your problem? You’re the one who brought the tiger! It was following you! We just happened to be in the way! Anyways, if you think you can take me, bring it on!” she challenged, putting down her backpack and standing up.

“No offense, but I don’t fight girls”, he replied.

“Afraid of losing, are we?” asked Cora with a smile, as she walked towards Gonin, who was sitting there, eyes closed. She slipped off his spatial ring, and then put it on her own finger, in her right hand. “Come on then, show me what you got!”

“Are you sure about this?”

“Let’s up the stakes shall we? If I win, you will stop pestering me about any and all of your issues.”

“And if you lose?”

“I’ll answer your questions then,” she shrugged her shoulders.

“Fine. I will try to go easy on you though.”

“Don’t bother. I don’t want you to blame the fact that you lost on ‘holding back’”, she spoke, as a bright green paper talisman appeared in her right hand. She performed an incantation gesture, and the talisman glowed with a pale blue light, which then vanished.

Ryan took a stance, but to his surprise, Cora took out a blindfold. She covered her eyes, leaving only her ears. Ryan smirked, thinking it was all over, he had already won. How was she supposed to fight someone she couldn’t see?

He took a step and vanished. As he appeared right beside her, he threw a punch. He tried holding himself back to prevent hurting her. However, to his dismay, he missed! She was standing there, eyes blindfolded, motionless, peaceful, with a gleeful smile. He took a step back, retreating gracefully. However, he realized something was off! There was a blue flash, and then another Cora appeared next to the one he had tried to punch. And then another. Followed by another, until there were at least seven of them!

“You know the problem with people who depend so much on eye sight alone? They lose track of their main path, when multiple paths appear in front of them!” said all the Coras who were standing there, blindfolded.

“...” Ryan was shocked.

However, he calmed himself. There was no way the girl in front of him could hurt him, right? All of the Coras moved! Ryan took a step, vanished and then appeared in front of one of the Coras. He punched, but the punch went straight through, making him stumble forward. The Cora in front of him vanished, and was replaced by another who came up behind him.

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“Tell me what you see”, they spoke.

Ryan took another step, followed by another step, followed by a third step. When he finally took the fourth step, his right fist was glowing, with a bright dazzling golden hue. Afterwards, he vanished, appearing in front of another Cora, whom he punched! Again, the punch went through, and hit a tree behind the image of Cora. The tree shattered into bits, as the trunk exploded into chunks, which started raining down.

“Did you know that without external help, humans cannot cultivate?” said all the Coras, who started merging into one. Finally, only one Cora remained, and she was standing where she had been standing initially, as if she hadn’t moved an inch.

Ryan was now afraid. He might have bitten a lot more than he could chew. So much for not fighting girls! He decided that, standing there, she was now more vulnerable than ever! He activated his movement technique, first starting with stepping on threads, then streams. He was not strong enough to step on waves yet, but the threads were enough. If anyone were watching him, they’d be seeing after-images only, as he stepped and vanished.

WHOOOSHH! WHOOOSSH! WHOOOSH!!

He finally appeared right in front of Cora, and then swung the punch. Cora simply dodged, somehow, and then took the hand, twisted it and then sent the owner flying in the air.

THUD!

Ryan fell to the ground, embarrassingly. Cora remained standing there, with a smirk on her face. As he got up, Cora opened her hands, and in each palm was a soft blue glow.

“How is it then that the Sacred Abbot was able to hurt you, besides being a ‘human who cannot cultivate’?” asked Cora as she dashed towards him.

“...” Ryan was distracted by the question; he couldn’t come up with an answer! The open palm arrived and connected with his stomach!

PENG!!

He flew backwards, and he started feeling as if his insides were twisting and turning! What the hell was this chick? Most of all, what was her problem?

He got up slowly, grasping his stomach, which was in severe pain. ‘So much for holding back! Didn’t Myra say there was nobody who could hurt me on this planet? Why did this girl’s punch hurt so much? Is it that he didn’t know?’ he thought.

The voice that had given strength to him earlier played itself in his head again, ‘Do you want to know the secret to being more productive? FOCUS! If you want to complete the chores assigned by your mother, first forget about your distractions. Forget about the game you want to play, forget about the internet or your phone! Then FOCUS on whatever you are supposed to be doing!’

That’s when he remembered. He closed his eyes and then started breathing slowly, listening to the sound of his own heartbeat. The heartbeat started slowing down significantly. Cora, who was standing quite a distance away, heard the change in Ryan’s heartbeat and frowned. She had underestimated him, but not by much. He still appeared quite spoiled and too full of himself.

When Ryan opened his eyes, he was in a different space. This space was lush with vegetation, green grass and beautiful cherry blossom trees, while the sun was overhead. In front of him, was an illusory figure with a blindfold. The figure looked a lot like Cora. Ryan walked over, and he tried touching her, but his hand went through. ‘Why does this place look so familiar? Even that tree over there’, he thought, pointing to a large tree, which was a distance from where he was.

In the real world, Ryan was sleeping while standing up. Well, it’s safe to say he was unconscious. He then started sleepwalking, taking one-step at a time. With each step, his right fist glowed, with a golden light. The glow intensified, until his fist grew fiery red. Cora started feeling a little heat, despite standing a distance from Ryan. She knew something was up!

She looked around Gonin’s spatial ring, where she noticed a small sack. When she opened the sack, there was a letter along with a stack of talismans. She didn’t have time to read the letter, but she recognized the talismans! Without wasting time, she took a blue colored talisman with the symbol of a drop of water and activated it immediately.

The intensity of the heat rose up, so much that all around Ryan, the grass and the bushes caught fire! As he walked, he got nearer to Cora, and then without warning, he dashed at lightning speed! After activating the blue colored talisman, drops of water started to gather around her palms and each drop grew larger, until it was as large as an adult’s head.

Palm against fist!

In a voice that sounded neither angry nor sad, he shouted;

DIVINE BLAZING FIST!

However, before the fist and the palm connected, a soft wind blew and Gonin diverted each hand! Ryan missed, causing him to stumble and fall forwards, where his fist hit a rock. The rock melted upon contact with the fist! Cora on the other hand, hit a tree behind Gonin. Half of the tree trunk froze upon impact!

Gonin dashed towards Ryan, whom he knocked on the forehead. He woke up instantly, and was puzzled, seeing his hand on fire. Besides his fist, there was a little bit of vegetation on fire as well.

“Aw aww aww aww aww aww... Aaawwwwww...” he shook his hand, and tried to put out the fire by blowing on it. “I’m on fire .... aawwww aww ouch”, he ran around shaking his hand. It took about five minutes, before the fire went out. “What happened?”

Gonin, who was still in bandages, answered, “I think that would be enough. Each of you should be saving your strength! If we face a more serious enemy, how are we supposed to win against it, with you two fighting against each other every minute you get? As for you, would you please return my spatial ring?”

Cora took off her blindfold, and handed the ring back to Gonin. She was still in a state of near-shock. She hadn’t been anticipating that the fight would escalate to such proportions. All she wanted was to teach him a lesson; however, that’s clearly not what happened. She concentrated her earlier technique, and used some of the water drops to put out the fires that Ryan had started.

“Someone explain to me why I was on fire? And Cora how did you just do that?”

“I would like to know too”, replied Gonin, who sat down and tried to resume doing his breathing exercises.

“So did I win?”

“What do you think?” glared Cora.

“I think someone should start explaining! I mean, you failed to beat me.”

“And you failed to win as well”, she replied, “I’m not explaining anything!”

“I think I have heard enough! Rose, he deserves to know the truth. Try putting yourself in his shoes”, spoke Gonin, with a sigh.

“But--”

“No buts! Unless you explain yourself, and his put yourself in his position, this will not end at all!”

“Fine! What do you want to know?” she asked, with a fierce glare that would have blinded anyone staring at her.

“Wait, did you just call her Rose? Why did he call you Rose?”