Mother Alicia smiled at him knowingly. "Well, let us change opponents, for I believe that there is an opponent who you might find much more... appealing than myself."
Ruiās senses lit up as he sensed a very familiar presence approaching them.
He turned around to find her approaching them at high speed in the sky.
"Amare."
His tone was one of enthusiasm.
"Rui!" she waved at him from afar with excitement.
Her amber eyes brimmed with a bright alacrity to meet him as well as an intense drive for power.
STEP
She descended from the bright, morning skies, arriving some distance away from him as she took her open-palmed stance against him.
Her smile was playful as well as one of a challenging determination.
"I saw that she had nothing to do at the time, so I invited her here to the Forest of War to partake in your training," Mother Alicia remarked. "You will be training each other and against each other. Youāre both good enough for that."
Rui smiled with interest.
"Bring it on then. Letās see who has grown faster in the past five months."
Amare was one of the few Martial Artists who was as divergent from the norm as he himself was. Her growth was so absurd that she was passively training every moment of her life from the day she was born, utilizing every movement she had ever made as passive training and passive growth.
Back when he was traveling the first time around with her, she simply grew stronger by living life.
This was the consequence of being blessed with an extraordinary kinesthetic learning. However, what Rui was truly interested in was whether or not that kinesthetic learning could be applied to learning nature manipulation. Nature manipulation, as elves did it, was based on biological functions that humans did not have.
That was why Rui needed to create an entirely different interface and system of thought for it.
She didnāt have the ability to do that, so it begged the question of how she was communicating nature.
Rui wanted to understand.
He wanted to understand what she was capable of.
STEP
He took a neutral stance against her, his go-to classic stance, with her open palms.
"Begin," Mother Alicia commenced the battle.
WHOOSH
In the blink of an eye, Amare made her way to him.
Her palm was inches away from his head.
And yet, it couldnāt so much as touch him.
WHOOSH
Her attack crashed into empty air as Rui leaped away with a frown on his face.
"Nature manipulation," he insisted.
Amare smiled at him.
"This is nature manipulation."
WHOOSH
In the blink of an eye, she arrived before him, leveraging her immense mastery of nature to accelerate her forward with every step, as though she was walking on a moving platform rather than on a stationary ground.
Each step she took enhanced her speed and power even more, increasing her striking power.
It was very much an application of nature manipulation, applying it to enhance her Martial Art.
"In that case, then allow me to do the same."
Amareās eyes lit up as roots emerged from the ground before him, forming a shield before him connected to his guard, ready to intercept her open-palm blow.
BOOOM!
A tremendous impact emerged at the collision as a devastating shockwave rippled across that region of the Forest of War.
And yet, Ruiās guard was unperturbed.
Unscratched.
Amareās eyes widened at that sight. "You... you used nature alongside Flux Earther."
By using nature, Rui could enhance the technique using nature manipulation not only to disperse the energy more easily but also to soften and elasticize the impact, allowing him to better absorb the impact in the first place.
"Itās a pretty nifty combination once you get used to it."
Amareās presence, however, grew a little perilous.
"It wonāt be enough."
Her palm coiled back as the entirety of her body sprang back, unleashing a tremendously destructive attack that was simply far too strong.
BOOOM!!!
Ruiās eyes widened as he leaped back at the right moment.
The sheer power that she had outputted was so high that it utterly annihilated even his enhanced nature-amplified Flux Earther.
And yet, she didnāt give him even a moment of reprieve.
She shot forth with blinding speed, threatening to knock him out then and there as roots emerged to catch her every step and amplify her momentum to an immense degree.
Her palms flew forth in a blinding blur, threatening to ravage his wooden guard where he was.
Ruiās eyes sharpened as several blocks of wood shot up from the ground before him, covering his guard in the nick of time to intercept her destructive power.
BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!
Each of the attacks that she unleashed upon him was enough to ravage his wood-amplified defenses, destroying the treeās branches and roots that had come to Ruiās defense with a single attack.
And yet, Ruiās defense kept coming to his aid even as new wood replaced destroyed wood just slightly faster than she could destroy it even as she unleashed an onslaught of attacks on him.
Rui, on the other hand, was slightly content with being on the back foot if it meant that he could study her in a more in-depth manner than before.
What he saw when his senses reached out to her was stunning.
His eyes widened as a stunning realization dawned upon him.
āHer mind has been altered!ā
For a moment, he wasnāt even sure if he ought to continue fighting.
Her brain activity had changed, matching that of an elf than that of a Martial Artist or a human being.
She didnāt need a technique.
She simply internalized everything about elves and learned how to use their power.
"But how...?" Ruiās expression was bewildered. "How on earth did you do that?!"
A delightful and ecstatic smile emerged on her face at Ruiās aghast reaction as she laughed heartily.
"You havenāt even seen anything yet!"