Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 129. The Battle of Four Elements.
On the way to the half-open training grounds, many conversations started between the members of the large group. However, there was one talk in particular to which Laien, Yin, and Raphael were paying attention and it was none other than the chat Mikaela was having with his father, with Elder Samuel, while walking alongside him.
“I’ve got around four hours I think?” Elder Samuel said with a smile, answering the question Mikaela threw at him just now.
“Just four hours,” Mikaela said, seeming to be unsatisfied. When his father came back home, he would always stay for at least three days and at most for a week. However, since his father had been busy lately, the two of them hadn’t had an opportunity to spend some time together in what by this point was a little more than two months. “Better than nothing I guess,” he said energetically, the cheerful look returning to his face. Since his father was busy, there was nothing that could be done. He just had to make the most out of the time he was given.
“Sorry that I can’t stay longer,” Elder Samuel said apologetically, but seeing the agreeable look on his son’s face, he laughed a little and changed the subject. “I’ve heard you are having fun with your friends here, but is that true?” he inquired, curious to hear more about the last days not just from the reports of his subordinates, but from Mikaela’s own mouth.
“Yeah, it’s super fun,” Mikaela replied without a second thought. “It’s great that I can play with Raphael a lot and I’m even learning a lot from Laien, you know? I’m a lot stronger than I was! I will show you later okay? I guess Laien will be tired, so this time I can spar with Raphael,” he said with a broad smile, wondering what kind of reaction his father would have when he saw how much he had improved. He had specially asked those four guards not to tell his father too much about his progress just for the sake of an occasion like this one; he really wanted to impress his father and see the look on his face and be praised by him a lot!
“I’ll be looking forward to it,” Elder Samuel assured with a merry laugh, enjoying the brief time he could spend with Mikaela thoroughly. Just talking like this was bringing his stress level down by several levels, so he couldn’t be feeling better at the moment. “What else than training with Laien were you guys doing these past few days? Was there anything interesting or especially fun?” he asked away, curious to hear about the way Mikaela was spending his time with his friends.
“A lot of them,” Mikaela said merrily, not even sure where to begin. There was nothing he didn’t enjoy in the past four days, so he could literally tell his father about each of those days from beginning to end and he would still be answering the question his father asked him. “I guess that the two best things are my training with Laien and that I’m again getting along with Raphael super well. It was a bit lonely when he did nothing but train and study, but now it’s all so much fun! I even wish I didn’t need to sleep so we had more time in the day and we do play during the night too,” he answered in a somewhat chaotic manner and chuckled after saying the last sentence.
“I’m happy you are having a good time,” Elder Samuel said with a smile. “But you need to sleep properly too. You won’t grow up if you don’t sleep in the night, so don’t play for too long,” he reminded gently, remaining completely unaware that the mere subject of ‘playing during the night’ was causing Raphael to sweat anxiously as he worried whether Mikaela wasn’t about to allow his tongue to slip. He had no idea how Elder Samuel would react to the revelation that Mikaela was doing naughty stuff with him every night and certainly enough, he didn’t want to learn it.
“Don’t worry, we still sleep enough,” Mikaela explained with a playful smile and glanced in Raphael’s direction. He laughed in his heart when he saw the nervous expression on his best friend’s face; really, he wasn’t going to tell his father about those things! It was a secret between them, after all. On the other hand, however, it was also quite fun to see Raphael fidget around so much, so he was planning to make use of this opportunity to tease him thoroughly.
As such, the half an hour of leisure walk passed more or less in this manner, with everyone talking in their own small groups.
“Let’s get straight to it, shall we?” Reian proposed the moment they entered the secluded training grounds. Having been poke at by Jasmine and annoyed by Julien a few more time during this half an hour, he was more than ready to get into action. He recognized the strength of those two, but at the same time, he was planning to show them that they weren’t yet at the level where they could wound him in any significant manner, even when fighting two against one. “Don’t hold back and come at me with everything you have, else you will regret it,” he advised, already moving further into the rocky area and away from the numerous group of spectators.
“Got it,” Laien said with a laugh and exchanged a glance with Yin. Were they underestimating Reian because he had only been able to almost kill one marital master of the fifth rank in their clash against Yimar Furi’s men? Definitely not. The two of them had enough battle experience to know how restricting it was to fight while being unable to move from one spot or allow enemies to pass by. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that fighting in this manner was twice as hard as normally! And Reian had not only held back a martial master of the fifth rank alone but then almost killed him and wounded a large number of martial masters of the fourth and third ranks with his attack!
“His only weak point seems to be that he doesn’t have all that much real-battle experience,” Laien mused once again. He had chatted with Yin for a bit and they had prepared a few tactics to use against Reian, but as far as they were confident in being able to put some wounds on him, they weren’t sure whether they would be able to defeat him or even match up with him for a prolonged period of time. In the end, the prime candidate for the future Captain Commander of Makarash’s White Guard couldn’t be someone without a great talent an considerable amount of combat prowess, not to mention that Reian wasn’t yet thirty years old, unlike Julien who was over fifty. In terms of pure potential, Reian was definitely at the very top of his generation.
“We’ll be in your care,” Yin said with a smile the moment they stopped, having decided that they had walked far enough to be able to move and fight freely.
“I’ll try not to go overboard,” Reian responded with a confident smirk. All those times he had been teased or annoyed by those two brats, and by Laien in particular, it would feel good to beat some sense into them regardless of the other circumstances surrounding this sparring of theirs.
“Now, now,” Laien laughed in amusement and took out his white spear. “If you underestimate us too much, you’re going to be the one who goes down immediately,” he said playfully and with a smile on his face, though with a very much serious look in his eyes. Then, all at once, he employed the full strength of all the insights he had, from essences the six Aspects, through the many Profound Mysteries of Water, to the power he derived from of the five golden runes of the Principle of Energy. He mixed all those insights and added them into his Qi and spiritual energy, then poured the enhanced energy over his white spear, transforming it into a mass of flowing water and ice, one that came to emanate an absolutely frightening and mysterious aura of strength.
“…!” Sensing the strength of Laien’s spiritual energy and Qi, Reian couldn’t help but immediately rouse his Qi as he hurriedly took his own sword out. He could sparsely believe it, but Laien had gotten way stronger than he had been not even a full week ago, during the clash with Yimar Furi’s forces! He couldn’t imagine how Laien could have made such rapid improvements so quickly, but before he could think about this shocking matter for too long, he ended up stunned once again.
“I can finally use my Qi freely too,” Yin said with a playful smile and right after Laien finished showing his strength off, he went ahead and did the same thing. He used the essence of the seven Aspects he had insights into along with the Profound Mysteries of Lightning and the five golden runes of the Principle of Energy to fill his Qi, which he soon transformed into lively and yet terrifyingly-dangerous sparks of white lightning which came to dance all over the sharp blades of his twin swords. It was needless to be said, but in terms of threatening aura alone, his purely offensive-oriented lightning-element far surpassed the mixture of water and ice Laien was displaying!
“!!!” Feeling shivers run down his spine, Reian took a step back, assumed a proper battle stance and gripped the hilt of his sword tighter. “What a pair of monsters. They really are Devils, just like those guys were saying back then,” he thought with a mixture of amazement, nervousness, and excitement. He had thought that it would be a spar in which he would need to hold back, but now that he was exposed to the full force of the auras of those two, he had no choice but to discard those old assumptions. With those two cooperating against him, even he would be given a run for his money.
Moreover… breaking through to the fourth Realm of Heroes? Forget it! That much seemed to be given by this point. Instead, he would focus on making as many improvements on his own! He strongly desired to grow stronger quickly so he could protect Arslan better and be useful to him, and this appeared to be the perfect opportunity to make considerable progress towards this goal of his.
“Let’s see who wins,” he said with an eager smile on his face and released his Qi, pouring all the insights he had into it without holding back anything at all. The Aspects, the Profound Mysteries, the Principle of Energy… he was slightly annoyed to see that he couldn’t match these two kids in any of those aspects, but he had something that easily made up for this difference and then added a lot more on the top of the pile of chips, and it was the fact that he was an incredibly rare dual-element cultivator!
Not planning to give up the initiative, he kicked the ground and dashed forward, swinging the sword of fire and wind straight at Laien. The red and orange flames converged at the forefront of his sword’s blade, supported and enhanced by the wind that supported them from behind, both of the elements increasing one another’s prowess many times over. Although he was just slashing from above, at an angle, and not using a martial technique of any kind, this attack was enough to be absolutely lethal to all weaker martial masters!
“Too soft,” Laien mused, readying his spear to defend as he employed his Water Flow Spear Art. The mixture of water and ice streamed along with his movements, creating an additional layer of defense that just like the spear itself, aimed to swallow up and deflect the incoming attack to the side. Split-seconds later, the two of their weapons collided, the clash of fire and water releasing a burst of steam that splashed sideways alongside the course of Reian’s sword, which in turn had been completely diverted from its original course by Laien’s defensive maneuver.
“So easily?” Reian felt rather surprised to see his probing attack be invalidated in such an effortless manner, but his instincts warned him that it wasn’t the right time to be impressed. And indeed, in the briefest of timeframes in which he couldn’t quickly follow up with another attack due to the way Laien deflected his slash and due to the stream of water and ice flowing alongside his spear and guarding him from the side and from below, he saw Laien twist his body and chain a back-end retaliatory swipe with the perfect timing.
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With the counterattack instantly forcing him on the defensive, Reian’s smile only grew more excited. Was it his imagination or had this naughty brat’s spear arts grown sharper in this past week? Not to mention that their defensive prowess appeared to have grown considerably. It was amazing, but if that was all, then he was still the one with upper hand!
Making use of his superior physical abilities, Reian stepped back far and fast enough to avoid the relatively shorter-ranged back-swipe of Laien’s. Then, he aided himself with a gust of wind and created a foothold below one of his feet in order to instantly propel himself forward, once again. This time around it was him who used the gap shown by attacking to counterattack! Rotating his body from left to right as he leaped forward, he slashed with his sword from below, at a slight angle.
He wasn’t surprised to see that Laien met his counterattack with firm defense, though he had made it hard enough for him not to be able to easily deflect the blow. “Don’t get overconfident,” the brief and honest advice for Laien passed through Reian’s mind. Then, a split-second later, his slash and Laien’s swipe met and clashed almost head-on, bringing forth a far bigger outburst of steam than previously, which was accompanied by the sounds of explosion and of steel clashing.
The results of this exchange showed instantaneously as Laien was blown away and out of the cloud of steam, his feet sliding and digging into the rocky ground for over a dozen of meters before he managed to stop himself. His spear still ringing from the force of the clash and his hands trembling slightly from cushioning too much force at once, Laien showed his teeth, smiling in an overly-excited and eager way. Someone who didn’t pay close attention wouldn’t notice, but the wound that Reian’s rippling wind carved alongside the lower part of his right forearm was just disappearing, having been healed by him in virtually an instant.
“Yeah, he is strong, as expected,” Laien laughed in his heart. “There’s no way I can take him head-on by myself and win,” he recognized, affirming what he was quite sure to begin with. The most efficient way would have admittedly been for him and Yin to fight together from the first second, but he just needed to find out how he matched up against Reian in a brief one-on-one exchange… and he was totally outclassed. As far as strength went, Reian was definitely considerably more powerful than any of those martial masters of the fifth rank who had worked under Yimar Furi.
During the few-seconds-long pause in the fight that happened after Laien was blown away by Reian’s attack, most of the spectators merely continued to stare at the scene in a daze. Even those like the four guards of Elder Samuel’s who had seen quite some of Laien’s potential before were heavily shocked by the degree to which Laien’s strength rose when he truly went all-out, but what shocked them the most were two different things; the fact that Laien managed to successfully defend against a full-strength blow from Reian with minimal injuries and the fact that there was the second monster on the field that was yet to act, one whose aura was even more terrifying than Laien’s!
“What a ridiculously powerful energy,” Elder Samuel said in amazement. He had heard about Laien’s spar with Raphael and obviously knew about his display of strength against Yimar Furi’s people, but actually experiencing the level Laien was at with his own senses and hearing about it were two very different things. “That other boy too…” he murmured, watching closely how Laien and Yin were preparing themselves to attack Reian now that the first exchange of their spar was over.
“I told you Laien’s super strong,” Mikaela said happily, without taking his eyes off Laien as he watched him with sparkly eyes. He knew how strong Laien was since the two of them were training together and Laien was teaching him about everything, but it was the first time he was seeing Laien truly use all his insights to fight. Even when Laien fought Raphael, he wasn’t serious until the final little bit and when it came to it, Raphael couldn’t quite keep up. Now, however, he very much hoped to see a real fight where Laien would hold nothing back the whole time!
“Yeah,” Elder Samuel nodded slightly. His thoughts briefly wandered towards how happily Mikaela had been describing the time he spent training with Laien, but before his mind started guessing whether Laien could have taught Mikaela much more than he had given him credit for, the battle began once again, thus pushing those wonders of his for later.
“That’s...!” Be it Elder Samuel, Elder Simon or Victoria, all three of them opened their eyes wider when they saw Laien’s black hair turn white with the exception of but a few strands and when they noticed how his skin grew jade-like. The three of them had good eyesight as high-level practitioners, so they even noticed Laien’s eyes change as their pupils turned from entirely black into a mystifying and beautiful and starry-sky-like compound of white, black and silver colors.
“Ice Body,” Mikaela said jealously. He was yet to become a martial practitioner of the sixth rank, so even though Laien explained to him how this technique works, he wouldn’t be able to imitate it with the little degree of control he had over his Qi. He really couldn’t wait to advance this one step further in his martial cultivation so he could also try mastering the Ice Body technique, just like Laien.
“With that, it won’t be easy to wound him anymore.” At the same time, Reian mused to himself as he watched Laien’s transformation occur. Seeing how effortlessly Laien was doing something no other water-element practitioner known to the world could imitate, at least as far as he himself was aware, Reian couldn’t help but grumble a bit. “That cheat-like omnipotent defensive technique, does it at least use up ridiculous amounts of energy to keep active? It sure doesn’t seem like it does, damn,” he complained, wondering if he would still be stronger than Laien if ten more years passed.
And yet, despite allowing his thoughts to wander, he didn’t fail to notice when Yin suddenly employed his movement technique, Lightning Steps, and approached him from behind at great speed. “Eh?” However, he did heavily miscalculate the actual speed at which Yin approached him! What was up with this speed anyway?! Those Lightning Steps were so much more terrifying than the ones he had seen Yin display in the battle a week ago! Sensing serious danger, he both covered himself with a layer of protective flame and wind and hastened his movements.
Alas, before he could fully turn around he sensed his Qi being sliced through and just as he was mid-movement, just about to fully turn around, he had the left side of his back and his left shoulder slashed by the blade of Yin’s sword. The blow in turn caused as much as one-third of his body to momentarily grow numb as lightning entered it and started rampaging through his muscles. Thankfully, he did manage to reduce the strength of the blow with his own Qi, so the wound was pretty shallow and the amount of lightning that got past his defenses wasn’t too big. Else, it wouldn’t have been only muscles, but also his internal organs that suffered.
With drops of his blood still flying through the air, he raised his own sword and met the follow-up attack of the second of Yin’s twin swords. Their weapons clashed and this time, he not only fended the attack off but managed to put enough strength into his sword to force Yin a dozen steps away, what Yin needed to allow to happen unless he wanted to have his guard fully blown off and end up getting directly cut down by Reian. After all, even Laien’s nigh-impregnable spear arts only allowed him to partially defend against a head-on attack from Reian. Without making good use of his speed and agility, Yin understood that he had no chance of overpowering Reian directly.
“Hmph,” Reian snorted angrily, not too pleased about the first wound he had received. He could feel the annoying stinging on his back and left shoulder and he could feel blood slowly oozing out of the wound; to think that he would get injured by Yin alone! He had really underestimated the kid’s speed! “Again?” The thought passed through his mind as he saw Yin employ Lightning Steps for the second time. However, unlike the first time, he already adjusted himself to the increased speed and turned his body to the side in time.
“Eh?” However, what he was met with was first Yin simply stopping for a split-second around two meters away from him and second, an intense sense of danger coming from behind him! Those kids, they really were good at throwing one off his rhythm and chaining their attacks in the most annoying of perfect manners!
With the only one choice left, Reian hurriedly jumped to the side, attempting to get both Laien and Yin to be at the very least to his sides instead of having one in front and the second one behind him. He wasn’t quite sure in what way Laien was planning to attack him, but as he jumped, he finally saw and not only sensed what was going on; and he finally, he felt a sense of fear, unlike during those first exchanges of this fight.
“Elemental Spear of Water, Wave!” Laien shouted out within his mind and propelled himself forward, leading with his left shoulder as he moved in the position ready to deliver a single-handed thrust. More important than that, however, was perhaps the fact that with the tip of his spear as the focus, his whole body was covered in a cone of water and ice which served as both a means of offense and defense. As he attacked in this overly straightforward way, which wouldn’t have had a chance to land had it not been for his cooperation with Yin, the power of the spear art he was employing seemed to be rising with every meter he crossed with the goal of reaching the point of culmination as he struck at Reian, almost akin to… no, exactly like a rising, unstoppable wave!
“Not enough time,” Reian cursed in his heart. Even if he wanted to use a martial technique to counteract Laien’s attack, he wouldn’t have enough time to gather enough Qi! And even if he did, using a forceful martial technique to deal with Laien would have left him fully exposed to Yin’s lightning-fast attack that would have been certain to come! “Damn it!” Reian grit his teeth and poured as much of his Qi as he could over his sword.
He was already mid-jump, but all the while splitting his attention between Laien and Yin, he judged the correct timing and at the very last second, just as Laien thrust his spear forward and pressed the majority of the full force of his technique into one small area, he used a foothold of wind to once again leap sideways in a forceful manner. Still, he was in no position to dodge the thrust completely, but this wasn’t the goal of this dodge of his to begin with. Without hesitation, he slashed at Laien’s spear with his sword and as expected, was met with so much force that had he tried to meet it head-on, then this time around it would have been him who was blown away and wounded; and it wouldn’t have ended with a mild injury like the one Laien sustained.
Thankfully, he wasn’t meeting that wave-like technique head-on. As such, he found the strength to stabilize his sword and slashed out alongside the cone of water and ice, deflecting the main part of Laien’s attack past him and evaporating the part of the cone that would have hit him had he just dodged. “It’s definitely a powerful one-point-attack, but it’s too straightforward,” the half-conscious judgment of Laien’s technique passed through his mind, but it was just that. There was no way he would lose focus at this point, not when the follow-up was sure to come!
And as he predicted, he sensed Yin approach with Lightning Steps at the very instant he finished defending against Laien’s technique. He had been slightly worried what he was going to do if Yin also used a powerful martial art to assault him, but when he saw that Yin was once again just using one of his twin swords to attack, he breathed with relief… and this momentarily feeling of safety was what ended up costing him the price of sustaining a second wound in this fight.
“Elemental Sword of Lightning, Thunder!” Yin called out within his thoughts, the lightning covering his sword instantly becoming more intense. The blade sped up significantly as it moved in the well-practiced non-linear and hard to predict trajectory, then found its way past Reian’s guard and left another mild wound on Reian’s body, this time on his stomach.
“Those kids…!” Reian swallowed nervously as he retreated away from Laien and Yin. Had he not desperately twisted his torso just now, Yin’s slash would have spilled all his innards on the ground! He should have known it, but those two were taking this fight absolutely seriously! Could it be that he had been unconsciously assuming that regardless of everything, it would still be just a spar? If so, then he could see himself as nothing short of a fool! If he didn’t do his best, then one of those two could very well end his life with one of those damned attacks!
“I apologize,” he said quietly as he stopped retreating and stopped a few dozen meters away from Laien and Yin, though he was sure that those two heard him say so regardless of the distance. “I thought I could take you on with pure strength, but it seems like I was the one underestimating you,” he said with a self-mocking smile and began releasing large amounts of his Qi. Instantly, the air around him was stirred by the countless gusts of wind and a second later, the flames that used to cover the blade of his sword retreated downwards, allowing themselves to be covered by the wind.
“I couldn’t afford to do that back then… but now, allow me to face you with all I’ve got,” he said with a smile as the massive amounts wind-element Qi flowed and swirled around him at a rapid pace.