I let my guard down. That alone felt off the mont I realized it, like sothing in the back of my head quietly pointing out that I shouldn’t have let it happen in the first place. It wasn’t sothing I did often, and definitely not sothing I did casually.
Still, it happened.
Maybe it was just one of those rare slip-ups. Or maybe it was because I wasn’t really worried about dying here. That thought had been sitting sowhere in the entire ti, dulling my edge without noticing. Most of the people standing in front of were my won, after all. Sowhere along the way, I must have relaxed, just a little. Turns out, a little was already too much.
That tiny opening was all they needed.
The mont I saw the fist coming straight at , I raised Guardian without hesitation.
The barrier ford instantly, like sothing I had relied on so many tis that I didn’t even think twice about it anymore. It had always been enough. More than enough, actually.
That was what I believed.
It wasn’t.
Zes’s punch didn’t just collide with Guardian. It pushed into it. The impact felt different from anything before, heavier, sharper, like her fist carried sothing extra behind it. There was resistance for a brief mont, just enough to register, and then sothing gave.
A crack.
It wasn’t loud, but it was clear. Way too clear.
Guardian didn’t hold.
For a split second, the thought crossed my mind that calling it the strongest barrier I had might have been an exaggeration. That almost made laugh, if the situation wasn’t proving the opposite in such a direct way. It was still strong, no doubt about that, but Zes had reached a level where even that strength wasn’t untouchable anymore.
"You were underestimating us earlier, weren’t you?!" she shouted, her voice filled with energy, almost like she had been waiting for this exact mont. "Unfortunately for you, you underestimated us so badly that now you’re going to feel the full force of it."
There wasn’t much ti to react after that.
Her fist broke through what was left of Guardian and slamd straight into my face.
The impact hit harder than I expected.
Sara was still holding onto at that mont, and that made things worse. My body couldn’t move the way it needed to. There was nowhere for the force to go. My neck snapped backward from the blow, the motion so sudden and violent that for a split second, it felt like it might actually break.
That punch connected clean.
There was no exaggerating it. It felt like my entire body took the hit, not just my face. The force traveled through , rattling everything in its path. For a brief mont, it genuinely felt like my soul had been knocked loose, like it had slipped out and then slamd back in place.
What the hell was that?
That was the closest thing I could co up with, and even that didn’t fully explain it.
I moved away from Sara, pulling myself free and creating so distance. My footing steadied after a second, and I lifted my head, looking at all of them properly this ti.
They had gotten stronger.
That much was obvious now.
But strength alone didn’t explain what just happened. There was coordination in their movents, timing that felt deliberate, not accidental. They had planned this. Put thought into it. Took the ti to figure out how to actually land sothing like that.
And then there was Sara as well.
"I’m surprised Sara is with you," I said, my voice coming out calm despite everything. "I really thought she wouldn’t be getting close to any of you this early."
Sandra smiled slightly, like she expected that reaction.
"Well, you’re underestimating the power of won, Master," she said. "Sotis, it just takes the right motivation."
"We told her you’d love her more if she joined," Zes added, like it was the simplest explanation in the world.
Ah.
Yeah, that would do it.
"Looks like I really underestimated all of you," I admitted, letting out a quiet breath as I rolled my shoulders. "Zes, that punch earlier... it honestly felt like my whole body divorced my spirit." I paused for a second, letting that sink in. "You even cracked Guardian. That shouldn’t have been possible with just your bare fists."
There was sothing different about her now. That much was clear.
"I learned how to infuse mana into my arms," she said, flexing her fingers slightly, like she was still getting used to the feeling. "It made stronger. Honestly, it feels good having mana flowing all around your body and being able to control it." A small grin showed on her face. "Makes want to get even stronger."
So that was it.
She wasn’t just throwing punches anymore. She was reinforcing them, wrapping them in mana, turning sothing already dangerous into sothing that could break through defenses I had relied on for a long ti.
I didn’t expect her to pick that up this fast.
There had always been mana in the air in her original world, sothing she could’ve used if she figured it out. Still, it seed like she never fully got the hang of it there. Here, though, sothing clicked.
If she had stayed in her world, she probably would have improved eventually, but not like this. Definitely not this quickly.
"Enough about that," I said, cutting the conversation short.
Right after that, sothing else caught my attention.
The pain.
It lingered more than I expected. Sharp, real, and impossible to ignore. It had been a while since I felt sothing like that.
And with it ca sothing else.
A pull.
It wasn’t physical. It wasn’t sothing I could see. It felt deeper than that, like sothing reaching into my chest and tightening.
Ayuru.
I felt her presence.
It was like she had been asleep sowhere far away, completely silent until now. Then that pain reached her, shook her awake, and she responded imdiately. There was sothing in that response that felt urgent, almost like concern.
Honestly, it felt like getting sothing back that I didn’t realize I had been missing.
Calling it a reunion wouldn’t be completely accurate, but it wasn’t far off either.
My empty hand moved without thinking about it. My fingers closed around nothing, gripping the air like there was sothing there.
And then there was.
The hilt of Ayuru appeared in my grasp.
Solid. Familiar. Right where it should be.
"Look who’s back," I said, a small smile forming without trying.
"Oh? Looks like he’s finally getting serious now," Zes said, that sa smirk returning to her face.
"I’ve been serious this whole ti," I replied. "But I guess it’s ti to go beyond that."
I took a slow breath, letting it settle , then tightened my grip around Ayuru. It felt natural, like it had always belonged in my hand, like there had never been a mont where it wasn’t there.
Sothing about her felt different.
There was a faint sheen along the blade. It caught the light in a way that made it feel sharper, almost alive in a sense. That hadn’t been there before she went into that month-long sleep.
Her aura had changed too.
Before, it had been a deep purple. Now, it carried sothing darker. There was a weight to it that wasn’t there before, sothing that made it feel more dangerous without needing to prove it.
And then there was the mana.
Usually, it flowed one way. I gave, she took. That was how it always worked.
Now, it wasn’t just that.
She was giving sothing back.
It wasn’t overwhelming, but it was steady, like a constant stream feeding into , syncing with my own energy. It felt strange at first, but not in a bad way. If anything, it felt right.
Like sothing had finally clicked into place.
Ayuru wasn’t the sa anymore.
It felt like she had awakened into sothing new.
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