BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM x100

Father and son had finally clashed. There was a mass explosion as obsidian palms met with condensed water drills. While their respective attacks clashed with each other, Volkarin was pushed back by the strength of his son. With the enhanced strength Uehara had, Volkarin lost their fist exchange and was forced to shift into a cross-block while his son pushed him towards the ground like an unyielding missile.

Piercing into the water, Uehara cursed in his mind when he felt the familiar wetness. Before he could fly off, he saw his father’s smirk.

It was then that he felt the water swirl around him in an attempt to crush him into a bloody paste. He tried to fly off but Volkarin manipulated the water remnants in the air from the clash to barrel down on him.

With thousands of tons of water boring (drilling) down on him, his flight was cut off by the sheer weight. Resisting the urge to scream under the crushing force of the water, he manipulated the obsidian dust in the air to form into giant pikes and shoot into the water.

Unfortunately, the water was so tightly woven around him that none of the pikes managed to stab through. But it was enough to slightly disrupt the water and in extension, slightly decrease the pressure. This was enough for Uehara to finally deploy bone spikes from his body.They emerged from his back, chest ribs, legs and arms.

Keeping up the barrage of obsidian earth pikes, one of his bone spikes managed to pierce the surface of the water.

[This better work!]

Pushing as much chakra as he could into the bone spike so that it could harden, he focused the majority of the obsidian pikes around the area where the bone spike penetrated.

Creak!

[Argh!]

Feeling one of his ribs begin to break under the heavy pressure, he made the bone armour underneath the surface of his skin move forward above it like a shell. Pumping it with as much chakra as he could, he then detached it from his skin so that it wouldn’t be linked to his body any longer.

With all the preparations made, Uehara then turned his body into dust. Now in particle form, he travelled through the tiny hollow channel he opened through the bone spike that had penetrated the surface.

He made sure to be quick as well. Without his bone constructs receiving his chakra anymore and the obsidian pikes falling wantonly without him guiding them, the water pressure would destroy the bones very soon.

It took every single amount of brain power Uehara had to keep track of every single particle that made up his being. It also didn’t help that his sage transformation caused his particles to behave like rabbits in heat. All it would take is one single moment of loss of concentration before they would spread all over.

Fortunately enough, he managed to reign in the bucking particles once he emerged from the small opening on the tip of the bone spike. It was just in time too since his bone armour was the first thing to break, followed by the spikes a few moments later.

During this time, Uehara was already reforming. Already having complete knowledge of his body, it was easy to know what must go where.

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Slowly looking like a pixel puzzle being put together, Volkarin decided not to interrupt his son’s reformation.

[Although his plan was commendable, there were better ways to escape. With his enhanced power over earth, he could’ve done many things.]

After five or so seconds, Uehara finally reformed. But compared to how he was before, he now looked like a lad that grew up starved. Forming such dense bones had taken a lot of his already low energy. Although entering the earth-sage transformation had allowed him to recover some of his spent energy, it wasn’t enough.

With having lost most of his power with that risky manoeuvre, Uehara’s pupils reformed again. They were a glistening gold but there was an observable lack of vibrance.

Volkarin just calmly stood atop the now gentle waters, watching his son with a smile of amusement as said son tried their hardest not to breathe heavily.

“Go on son. Recover first and then I’ll tell you where you went wrong because right now…I don’t have to elaborate about your current state do I?”

Uehara took that as a chance to fall atop the water’s surface. And then slowly, he let himself fall into the water until he began to float. The nature energy was working overtime to replenish the energy he had consumed creating those bones.

Right now, there were multiple holes on Uehara’s coat, shirt and pants due to the places where the bone spikes tore through. But he didn’t care about that right now. All he wanted to do was sleep and recover.

[I’m never doing that again.]

…

Shikibu was currently nourishing Uehara’s body with her sage chakra. In the midst of healing him, she giggled at the thought of how Chizuki nearly killed the titan overlord after finding her master’s unconscious form on its forehead.

[If I hadn’t followed her, Aoki-sama’s summon would’ve been destroyed at that very moment.]

It was quite an amusing sight if she should say so herself. It was only on the threat of being on Uehara’s bad side did Chizuki finally give up on destroying the titan. The overlord was terrified to the point that Shikibu had even saw it release a tear of joy once Chizuki left.

Still though, Shikibu still found it awe-inspiring at how this child- no, this man could inspire such fierce loyalty from Chizuki. Power can’t beget such fierce loyalty. That much Shikibu knew. So she was still a bit unclear on how Uehara could make a noble woman from a top clan into a…

[I believe my cute little Sakura-chan called her a ‘yandere’? Fufufu~]

Either way, this level of devotion had already far surpassed the realm of gratitude. And it isn’t only Chizuki. Shikibu could also see that the teenage infatuation Sakura had for Uehara was already blossoming into something more.

But looking at the culprit who’s face was still cold even in unconsciousness, Shikibu could understand why those two girls were infatuated with him.

[You’re strong, Aoki-sama. Not just in body but in heart and mind. I’ve barely known you for more than two months but even I have to admit that I feel a certain amount of security in your vicinity. I have to admit that although it is entertaining to watch those two girls fall over themselves at your presence, even I am starting to get more than a little curious~]

Although her instincts as a fox were screaming at her to mark him, she still appealed to her more rationale side. Although she would still jump at the chance to merge with him, this time, it would lean more on the side of wanting to instead of her needing to.

While she was healing Uehara, she listened to the continued sobs from Sakura. It hurt her more than she cared to admit at what happened to the girl she saw as a granddaughter of sorts. An irrational part of her had wanted to blame Uehara for what Sakura went through but she could still remember how much guilt hidden between that lifeless gaze of his he had when he had returned with Sakura.

Even though he had tried to hide it behind an impassive exterior, Shikibu could feel the emotions of anger and guilt coming from him that day. That event had just served to further afirm that he didn’t see these two girls as mere servants or slaves. She was no stranger to self-conscious demons that looked down on humans and a part of her had doubts that Uehara saw them that way.

He does but atleast not to Chizuki and Sakura. Although he doesn’t like humans, he’s mostly impassive to them unless they do something.

And they’ve done something.

[I’m really curious as to what you’ll do Aoki-sama~ Fufufufu~ Even going as far as to defeat a titan for revenge. I wonder how far you’d go if it was me?]

She cupped his face while her eyes turned red.

“I’m getting more and more interested in you Aoki-sama~”