Chapter 421:Figuring it out.
The beast survived.
Atheline smiled.
"Good."
The fight lasted nearly an hour. He deliberately avoided overwhelming it with his Peak Mystic strength; instead he watched how it used water.
Every attack changed as he got used to his power. A wave became a whip, the whip became hundreds of droplets and the droplets became needles.
When Atheline cut through one attack, the water simply rejoined. Nothing was wasted or insisted on remaining what it had previously been.
Atheline suddenly understood. With adaptation, water yielded.
That wasn’t weakness.
Water accepted the shape of whatever contained it while never ceasing to be water; block its path and it flowed around, give it time and it carved through stone, heat it and it became vapor, cool it and it became ice, also destroy its form and it simply took another.
Atheline lowered his bow.
The beast attacked.
An enormous wave approached; instead of opposing it, he raised one hand and his Water Aether entered the wave.
He didn’t stop it but changed it. The enormous mass divided around him. Water rushed past both sides of his body before reconnecting behind him.
The beast froze.
Atheline smiled.
"I think I understand."
Water gathered around his arm. It changed continuously from liquid,mist and liquid again. A rotating stream formed around an arrow.
Atheline drew his bow.
The beast roared and charged. He released the arrow. It entered the lake, but; instead of losing momentum, it adapted.
Its trajectory changed beneath the water. The projectile curved upward and struck beneath the creature’s jaw.
The battle ended.
Atheline stood beside the lake afterward, wind moving around him and water flowing beneath his feet.
Two Laws.
They were neither complete nor mastered. He had barely even begun, yet unmistakably there.
Atheline looked at his reflection and smiled. Almost most two months had passed.
"Four more."
Deep inside his body, the mysterious presence left by the Unaspected Ruin pulsed once.
He immediately stopped smiling and placed a hand against his chest. It was still there refusing to reveal itself, but stronger than before.
Atheline looked deeper into the Forbidden Forest. Wind moved around him and water flowed past his boots. Somewhere beyond the mountains ahead waited regions he had deliberately avoided during his first month.
He picked up his bow.
If surface comprehension of two Laws had already changed the way he understood his elements, he wanted to know what would happen when all six began responding to him that way.
Atheline stepped across the river, the wind carrying him toward the opposite bank.
He didn’t look back, cause the first part of his training was over.
.
.
.
By the beginning of the third month, Atheline stopped counting his progress in days.
The Forbidden Forest had settled into a rhythm around him, or perhaps he had finally settled into the rhythm of the forest. He no longer maintained one permanent camp, choosing instead to move whenever the surrounding region became too familiar.
He would spend several days meditating, another few days fighting anything powerful enough to challenge him, then disappear deeper into the ancient woodland before repeating the process somewhere entirely different.
Occasionally he returned toward the outer regions to collect supplies left for him by Dark Elven patrols, and every few days he contacted Lilith, partly to exchange information and partly because she’d made it very clear that disappearing for six months without regular communication would result in consequences far more frightening than anything living in the forest.
His appearance had changed slightly as well.
His white hair had grown noticeably longer, usually tied behind his head whenever he trained, and several sets of clothing had already been destroyed badly enough that he’d stopped caring about minor tears.
His bow remained meticulously maintained, however, as did his sword. His collection of ordinary arrows had decreased considerably, forcing him to retrieve ammunition whenever possible instead of casually abandoning arrows after battles.
The greatest change was less visible.
Wind and Water no longer felt the way they had when he entered.
Atheline hadn’t mastered either Law, he wasn’t foolish enough to believe that. What he’d obtained was something closer to opening a door and looking through the gap.
Wind responded to his understanding of Freedom and Movement. Water responded to Adaptation and Flow.
He could feel entire depths beyond those concepts that he hadn’t begun touching, but even surface comprehension had changed the way he fought.
His Aether consumption had fallen noticeably. His attacks had become simpler which surprised him most.
He’d always assumed greater understanding would create increasingly complicated techniques; instead, it removed unnecessary ones.
Why construct five layers of Wind Aether around an arrow when a single current could accomplish the same result?
Why directly oppose an incoming Water technique when its flow could be altered?
Why force an element to obey when understanding its nature made obedience almost unnecessary?
Atheline discovered that lesson repeatedly during the weeks that followed.
His third element began with an accident. He was crossing a mountainous region during the middle of the third month when the temperature suddenly dropped.
He noticed immediately.
Snow wasn’t unusual at that elevation, but the change happened too quickly. One moment the mountain air was merely cold and the next, frost spread across the rocks.
Atheline stopped and his Sense expanded.
He noticed something moving beneath the snow and immediately jumped as the ground exploded. A massive white creature erupted from beneath him.
He twisted in midair and drew his bow, an arrow appearing between his fingers.
Wind gathered around it and he fired. The creature turned and ice formed. The arrow struck an enormous crystalline barrier and shattered it.
He landed several dozen meters away.
"That’s interesting."
The beast emerged fully.
It resembled a wolf, although calling something nearly ten meters long a wolf felt somewhat inadequate. Thick white fur covered most of its body, while translucent ice-like growths extended from its shoulders and spine. Two pale blue eyes fixed themselves on Atheline.
It was a peak SSS.
Atheline smiled.
"You’ll do."
The wolf roared and ice erupted everywhere.