A/N: Good news! I think this story might be able to resume 2ch/day tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, at the latest. Thank you for your patience~

...

___

Linlin, Hans, and the others couldn’t pull their eyes away from the newcomer.

So handsome!

He was tall and had a languid air around him that made them think he was some kind of royalty.

He had sharp features that made people’s hearts skip a beat at first sight, while his eyes were sharp as if they could see through people. However, at this time, those eyes did not have the same sharpness, only softness! And they were fixed on their cousin!

The family looked at Naia, then at the newcomer again, and their hearts couldn’t help but pound, feeling as if their eyes had been blessed.

What is this? What is this?!

Naia and Kael had no idea what kind of filter was currently covering their friends’ eyes. Kael’s eyes were warm as he traced over Naia, while Naia’s eyes were sparkling with excitement as she approached him.

Kael, on the other hand, directly teleported in front of her and pulled her into his embrace.

She smiled, wrapping her frozen arms around his neck to return the hug.

"Nice to see you again," she said, her voice gentle and meaningful. Kael didn’t answer immediately, just burying his face deeper into her neck.

"Hmm."

...

"Shall we start?"

"Hmm."

Five minutes after they reunited, the two of them wordlessly separated and stood on opposite sides of their makeshift sparring arena.

The two of them, in a sense, had always been like this.

Comrades. They had always been brothers-in-arms first; even when they entered an ambiguous state, they could still prioritise things related to the war.

Without a word, the two took out real, sharp, and deadly weapons.

The others: !!!

They were not ready for this!

Kael took out a very meticulously honed thin sword, while Naia took out her favorite rope dart made of shimmering stainless steel.

Naia attacked first. With a teasing smile, she shot the rope dart straight at the man’s face. Kael’s eyebrows rose, and he brought his sword up just in time to block the attack.

Clank! Steel met steel with a sharp crack.

He rotated his sword in an attempt to capture the rope, but she pulled it back just in time, using the momentum of the pull, to swing it around her body, the sharp edge once again targeting the man.

"Not bad," Kael said, and Naia shifted her body so the rope would redirect the dart head, forcing the man to jump back.

"Not the same to you," she retorted, teasing him for his defensiveness as the dart snapped towards his ankle. This was just the beginning of continuous attacks.

Crack! Slam! Pak! Clank!

Naia’s feet barely seemed to touch the ground as she pivoted, with one arm extending while the other guided the rope through her practiced fingers. The weighted line flowed around her body as if it were another arm.

"You’ve gotten slow," she couldn’t help but add, looking at him. She had naturally considered their current ’weakened’ physique as they hadn’t fully awakened yet, but his current state was definitely below average in his standard, which was a bit surprising to her.

"You’re not holding back, are you?" Naia asked, all while continuously barraging him with attacks as she performed a deadly dance with her weapon.

Kael’s eyes flickered, though he didn’t tell her he had been bedridden not too long ago, so naturally his movements were still stiff. "This body’s in need of training."

She smiled, the rope going around her. With a twist of her wrist, she sent the dart curving over his blind side. However, Kael looked like he had eyes behind him, and the sword blocked it away, swung in a way that would kill its momentum, preventing it from wrapping around its blade.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

They kept the first round of their fight on ground level as a warm-up, but also so their teammates could actually watch their fight.

At the side, the audience’s mouths were agape the whole time. They looked so stupid that one could say it was a miracle that there were no mosquitoes that went in.

Grandma, Linlin, and the others stared and gaped. They were amazed, but they also had complex emotions in their hearts.

It wasn’t that they didn’t have questions regarding the things Naia knew or what she could do. On the contrary, there were countless questions.

She had told them she had a friend with precognitive dreams. This was already amazing. She showed them her space, and this was already mind-blowing.

Now they find out she could do much more and was incredibly skilled as well, and one would wonder when and where she learned to be so proficient in these things.

It was simply so inconsistent with what they knew about it.

In the end, they just formed their own ideas, some closer to the truth than others, but no one thought to question Naia at all. They believed if she wanted to say it, or if it were relevant for them to know, she would not hide it from them, no matter what.

All they knew and needed to know was that she was safe, striving for survival, and would go home safe and sound by the end of the day.

However, they were glad for Kael’s existence. They reckoned he must be that friend with the precognitive dreams. He was very handsome, skilled, and most of all, he was reliable.

This way, Naia didn’t have to bear so much on her own anymore and that she had a trustworthy confidante who could truly understand her.

Because they, her family, definitely wouldn’t be able to be her anchor—no matter how much they hoped to.

...

An hour later, the fight was still ongoing. Even the audience themselves were exhausted. Of course, they hadn’t left and continued to watch the exchange of hits. Many of them found themselves under some sort of mental upgrade.

"We can use teleportation," Naia said. She has been itching to try out the differences.

Without waiting for his answers, she blinked away and appeared on the opposite side of Kael. The crack of the rope when she accelerated it carried enough force to make him almost lose hold of his sword.

Sadly, he kept holding on, even appearing right behind her. She instinctively blinked to the other side, and he followed closely after her again.

She knew her teleportation wouldn’t triumph over him, but she wanted to see the differences, and maybe she could find more innovative ways to maximize the skills that he had inexplicably triggered in her.

Her teleportation stemmed from her space, which was powered by her own abilities. Kael’s was done by bending space itself.

It was like he had access to the fabric of time and space and was given the tickets to treat it like a playground.

Naia was limited to the scope of her space, which has fortunately expanded a lot now. Meanwhile, he could have borderline omnipotence, and he could see vast lands with his mind’s eye.

The scope was much farther than hers, and it would depend on how much information he could take in his head at a time.

It so happened that Kael was a genius and had a good mind, even sharper than Naia’s. The power could be said to be a tiger growing wings with him.

He could go even farther, and land more accurately with less effort if he had an anchor—that is to say, a specific item embedded with his ability.

She couldn’t help but look down at her wrist, holding a beautifully carved jade bracelet sent anonymously a week ago. There were bullion of gold and other things there, too, including the land title for a villa in the capital suburbs.

She and the others arrived from their training session, and she realized she actually received a very valuable delivery.

There was no name attached, but she already knew who it was from and what it was for.

It had a similar ’scent’ to the external essence stone in her chest, after all.

As for why the essence stone itself wasn’t counted as an anchor, it was something of the past, not yet existing in this world. How could it be an anchor that worked in this time and space?Crack!

Crack!

Naia watched as Kael showed off his teleportation skills. His transitions were smooth and he remained completely balanced every time he landed.

The fight continued, and the sword and dart continued to exchange blows.

Suddenly, Kael even threw her his sword, which she avoided, but he appeared behind her and caught the blade, and he swung it in her direction. She blocked it with the rope.

This rope dart (she had a few) fortunately had ropes made of steel. Using this material had its advantages and disadvantages compared to the standard designs, but this time it was fortunate since it helped her block the attack. The usual cord might’ve been cut by Kael’s blade instead.

Naia added tension to the rope while using her own legs to kick Kael. He shielded his body with his arms, actively pushed back while holding his ground through everything.

Naia threw the dart, snapping her weapon forward at an awkward angle. Kael was slapped by the momentum.

Naia then appeared right behind him, catching the rope dart, using the centrifugal force to add strength to it.

The rope wrapped around Kael, and she grinned, pulling him over to her.

"Thanks for the lesson."