After half a day of… excitent, Mira and Maria lay on the bed covered in a thin layer of sweat. Both had pleased, content smiles on their faces as the latter snuggled up against Mira's side.
She had wrapped her tails around them like a protective blanket while Maria drew small circles on Mira's chest.
"...You were pretty intense this ti around."
"..." Mira's expression remained as impassive as ever, but Maria could read the hidden aning behind her eyes.
'As if you didn't like it.' Was what she was saying.
Maria chuckled playfully, "I even went in with a plan, yet it still turned out like this."
"..."
"Well, that's okay. I'm more than satisfied with beating you once. It'd be greedy of to want more."
Mira's jaws clenched, but she remained silent.
'...A loss… is a loss…'
No matter how badly she wanted to use her Scythe Manifestation, she held back. However, when that thought ca, she cooled down as if realizing sothing important.
'That's all I had left, huh?'
Then, considering how Maria limited her strengths and capitalized on her weaknesses, she couldn't even guarantee a win with that. Of course, she wasn't going to try. Getting caught up in her Scythe Manifestation was equivalent to a death sentence.
The core of her desire, the essence of her Scythe Intent and Manifestation, was 'death is inescapable'. There was no way she'd use sothing like that against Maria just to eke out a win.
All of this pointed toward the fact that her repertoire was severely limited. Sure, she had other 'techniques' she could use, such as [Frozen Terrain Change] and [100 Glacial Warriors], [Paragon Wings] and [Calamity's Embrace], but the forr two wouldn't be of much use, and the latter two weren't fast enough to hit Maria.
They were moving at such speeds that unless she nuked the surrounding hundred kiloters or so, such large-scale attacks were useless. However, doing sothing like that was not only incredibly wasteful but took too long to charge up.
On the other hand, [Glacial Mirage Steps] were faster than any speed [Paragon Wings] could ever achieve.
By now, Mira had almost entirely put the matter of their bedti battle behind her and focused on reviewing their duel.
'The three techniques I made played their role perfectly. The only problem is they lack synergy.' She imdiately concluded. '[Explosive Ice Fist] is hard to use in the midst of both the movent and scythe techniques. At the sa ti, [Cyclone of the Frozen Moon] is more focused on fluidity and montum, while [Glacial Mirage Steps] is more about deception and speed.'
By themselves, they were all great techniques, but together, they were a bit incompatible.
"What are you thinking about?" Maria finally interrupted, seeing Mira had reached a lull in her thinking.
"...That you've beco quite strong."
"Hehe~ Is that so?" Maria blushed a little, not used to the unexpected praise. "...But, you're not entirely right."
"Hm?" Mira tilted her head, staring down at Maria.
"Well…" The blonde scratched her cheek. "Like you said, I have beco much stronger. My control and understanding of the Light Elent had taken a substantial leap. However, almost everything I've worked on since we separated, and even more so after the beast Secret Realm, was created for the sole purpose of defeating you.
While that battle art would certainly be useful against others, it was created to counter you."
"I see…" Mira nodded. That made sense. Thinking about it now, it did seem like Maria was more focused on exploiting her weaknesses than exploding with strength. However, that didn't an she wasn't strong. "...But what about this Battle Art?"
"It's not really anything special. Battle Art is just a term used to describe a series of techniques that either synergize well or are part of a bigger whole. Think of a set of sword techniques where each move, each technique leads to the next."
"Hmmm…" Mira humd thoughtfully. "And how would you go about developing a 'Battle Art'?"
Maria took a mont to think about her answer before she said, "It differs for everyone, but… the way I ca up with mine was understanding my needs, what I have to work with, and the limits of my capabilities. From there, it was all about using my findings to create ways to counter you."
"..." It sounded simple, but Mira could only imagine the amount of ti Maria spent researching and theory crafting while simultaneously pushing herself to the limits.
What she displayed during their fight wasn't sothing the 'before-her-parents-died' Maria could display.
'Seems like the key here is understanding one's limits.'
If she didn't know what she could do, how could she create the most suitable technique?
However, those thoughts begged the question:
"How do you think I should develop my own Battle Art?"
"..."
Maria paused. That… was truly a difficult question.
The two were fundantally different. The process she went through likely wouldn't help Mira. It wasn't just a matter of different affinities, either. Though, that did play a part.
Mira was simply an entirely different being compared to her and almost every other human.
"This… I'm not sure," Maria answered, but when she saw Mira frown, she hurriedly explained. You're simply too versatile. You can use all eight major elents, with so even being variants. Your physical and soul strengths are off the charts. Your Qi reserves are beyond normal. You have both martial and Scythe Manifestations.
And you can even transform into a beast!"
'Ah!' That reminded Mira of sothing. She could've transford into her Progenitor Form! 'Dammit! I completely forgot about that!'
In fact, she thought that wasn't the only thing she had forgotten, but she decided to put that on hold as Maria continued.
"Your limits… I can't see them. Rather, do you even have limits?" Maria asked, but Mira shrugged.
"Right… Anyways… Normally, this isn't a problem, but a Battle Art is all about narrowing down what you can do and maximizing it. In a sense, it's a way to compensate. However, you don't need to do that. If your ice lacks sothing, you can make up for it with another elent. If it's not strong enough, just swing harder or add more Qi. If you need more destruction, you can literally add more.
Battle Arts are supposed to be about synergy and adding complentary elents, but you can simply brute force your way through everything."
"...You're not wrong," Mira muttered.
The entire point of using techniques was to make one's power output higher. However, it was difficult to strengthen sothing that already seed maxed out.
'Though, weapon and movent techniques are a bit different.' They were more fundantal, requiring finesse, control, and experience to improve; there was only so much brute forcing could do in a battle between equals.
After a long mont of silence, with both of them wondering how to proceed, Maria hesitantly spoke up. "....I don't know if this'll help, but I think you should just focus on what you're good at and expand from there."
"So, ignore everything but ice?"
"Mm, let rephrase that… I think, instead of seeing your other affinities as separate, you should try to incorporate them into a singular whole."
"What do you an?" Mira's brows furrowed slightly.
"I don't know. It just feels like you have a predisposition toward all your elents. Earth is for defense, Fire is for explosions, and ice can do everything with enough Qi. Sothing like that."
"..."
"You're pursuing the Absolute Ice Dao, right?"
Mira nodded.
"And from what I've seen and heard, you can 'dominate' the other elents via ice, right?"
That wasn't exactly correct. It was more like they were interconnected, with Ice as their ruler, but Mira nodded nonetheless.
"Then, why view them as separate? With your capabilities, shouldn't you be able to make it so that earth is ice, fire is ice, light is ice, and so on?"
"..."
Toward the end even Maria didn't know what she was saying. What did sothing like 'earth is ice' an? Not to ntion, viewing the elents not as separate concepts, but a singular one under the banner of Ice?
To any rational thinker, that was nonsense. The elents were different for a reason. They had different properties, interacted with the world differently, and played separate roles. So could do similar things, such as Wind and Light being able to increase one's speed. However, the process was fundantally different.
But Mira was an irrational being. She couldn't be viewed through a normal lens, and Maria didn't intend to do so.
"That's why, instead of jumping straight into creating a Battle Art, you should sit down and experint with what you really can and can't do with your ice. Stop trying to shift your focus between ten different things and focus on one. Because that's all you really need."
"..."
Mira's face scrunched up as she fell deep into thought. The more she listened, the more things seed to click.
'Right. Why haven't I thought of that?'
When she evolved, her connection to the elents changed, but on the surface, it remained the sa. Rather than it being a certain inclination–an affinity–it was more akin to using ice as a dium to access the other elents.
She didn't know if that was the correct description, but she knew that her ice affinity was at the center of everything.
"Mm. Good." Mira's face lit up with a light smile as her eyes shone with intensity. "Let's go see if your words are true."
"Wh-What?! Now? Can't we stay in be–and she's gone."
With a sigh, Maria put on her clothes and walked outside.
'Tch. and my big mouth.' She grumbled, but a smile blood on her face.
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