Chapter 114: Sometimes it’s nice to relax by a lake
The lake was ten minutes east of the camp.
Urgo had mentioned it on the third day. None of them had gone until today.
---
"She faked everything," Lira said.
"Yes."
"The bandage. The elbow. The posture. All calculated."
"You still learned."
"That’s not the point." Lira stared at the water. "What I can’t get out of my head is that she’s that strong without a drop of magic. No system. No magical ability. Just her body."
Kai coughed.
Lira looked at him.
"You don’t count."
"I’m also very strong without magic."
"You’re absolutely broken and you’re not even from Aethon." She turned back to the lake. "You don’t fit the category."
---
[DraconicLegacy]: "you don’t fit the category" 💀 the most accurate diagnosis on the stream
[Stephen_Summers]: Kai claiming his merit and Lira disqualifying him in one sentence. medicine without anesthesia.
[Warwolf]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ KAI EXISTS AND COUNTS!!
[Martin_Wiersmar]: eight hundred years of experience to arrive at "you’re absolutely broken"
[Leo_Willis]: the guy coughed so they’d include him and they sent him to the unexplainable phenomenon category
[ShonqezThomas22]: Lira still indignant with Mara but still recognizing her level. that’s maturity.
[DraconicLegacy]: "you’re not even from Aethon" as if that says it all. and it does say it all.
---
Serah wasn’t listening.
She was looking at the lake.
She took off her outer layer. Then the next one.
"Serah. The stream is active."
"I don’t care." Last layer.
The underwear was black — two pieces, functional, unadorned. Her silver markings gleaming on her shoulders and the curve of her hips. Her E-cup completely evident without the layers on top.
"I need a bath." She walked into the water without stopping.
---
[Stephen_Summers]: viewers climbing. climbing FAST.
[Warwolf]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ
[Martin_Wiersmar]: "I don’t care" and she got in. Serah made the most important decision of the day.
[Leo_Willis]: the markings in the water. they’re GLOWING. (☉_☉)
[ShonqezThomas22]: Kai with a face like "the stream..." and Serah already at the bottom of the lake
[DraconicLegacy]: someone tell Kai he no longer has authority over Serah in these matters
---
Lira looked at her own hands.
The grime from two days of combat. The mountain dust. The marks from her exchanges with Mara still visible on her knuckles.
"You know what. Screw it."
She took off the black leather jacket. The red blouse. The gloves, last to come off. The pants.
Lira in white underwear, lace along the edges, chosen with aesthetic criteria. Her pale vampiric skin with the SS-rank engravings on her right side.
She took a running start.
She jumped straight into the center of the lake.
---
The water splashed in a full radius.
Serah caught half of it directly in the face.
One second pause.
Serah scooped up lake water with both hands and returned double the amount.
Lira caught the whole wave.
She returned it.
---
[DraconicLegacy]: HAHAHAHA THEY’RE SPLASHING EACH OTHER!!
[Stephen_Summers]: this didn’t exist ten days ago. Mara did what weeks of cohabitation couldn’t.
[Warwolf]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ BOTH OF THEM!! TOGETHER!! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ
[Martin_Wiersmar]: Lira deliberately jumped close to Serah. deliberately. she planned it mid-air.
[Leo_Willis]: Serah returned it without hesitation. that’s a relationship that works now.
[ShonqezThomas22]: viewers: 18,400,000. no combat. no system. just two girls splashing each other.
[DraconicLegacy]: Lira’s hair completely soaked. composure: gone. I’m glad.
---
Kai watched them from the shore.
Serah’s markings gleaming in the water. Lira’s white hair completely plastered down. Both of them splashing and laughing.
Kai laughed.
Short. Genuine.
Serah and Lira stopped at the same time.
They looked at him.
"What?" Serah said.
"What do you find so funny?" Lira said.
"Nothing. I just never imagined seeing you like this. Getting along."
Both looked at each other.
Then looked at Kai.
Each scooped up lake water with both hands.
---
The water from an SSS and an SS arrived at the same time.
Forehead. Chest. Hair.
Kai was completely drenched.
He stayed still.
Looked at the lake.
Looked straight ahead.
---
[DraconicLegacy]: THE FACE. WE’RE SAVING IT FOREVER.
[Stephen_Summers]: first time on the stream. historic. frame that.
[Warwolf]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ BITTER FACE!! KAI BITTER FACE!! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ
[Martin_Wiersmar]: "I never imagined seeing you getting along" and he paid for it with the whole lake on top of him. fair.
[Leo_Willis]: Serah and Lira unified on the only truly important objective of the day.
[ShonqezThomas22]: the man who survived an A_D_M labyrinth defeated by two hands full of water.
[DraconicLegacy]: deserved. no nuance. deserved.
---
"Deserved," Lira said.
"Yes," Serah said.
Kai looked at his dripping hair.
"Yes."
---
Mara arrived from the camp path.
She looked at Kai drenched on the shore.
Looked at the lake.
"What happened to you?"
"The two of them."
Mara sat down beside him.
"I wanted to tell you all something." She watched the water. "It was the best fight I’ve had in two years. All three of you. I learned styles I didn’t have. Ways to counter them that I also didn’t have."
"We did too."
"I know." Pause. "But you coordinated without planning. Serah built up the elbow damage. Lira finished the job. You used the Qi on the inside. Three different styles that added up on their own." Another pause. "You can’t train that."
Kai looked at her.
"Whenever you want, we’ll fight again."
"Really?"
"I want to learn how you developed the gray aura. The process. Not the result."
---
Something in Mara changed.
Her eyes with a different warmth than in the previous ten days. A second where she looked at Kai too long.
She stood up.
She grabbed him by the shirt.
She threw him into the lake.
---
[DraconicLegacy]: (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ INTO THE LAKE!!
[Stephen_Summers]: he asked about the training process with that calm and that smile. Mara had no defense.
[Warwolf]: ＼(°o°)／ MARA!! ＼(°o°)／
[Martin_Wiersmar]: Mara’s eyes during that second. I saw it too. we all saw it.
[Leo_Willis]: valid tactic to avoid having to answer. efficient. signature move.
[ShonqezThomas22]: "I want to learn the process" said by Kai. Mara throwing him into the water said by Mara. perfect communication.
[DraconicLegacy]: Kai asked something innocent and Mara immediately panicked. I’ve seen this before.
---
Mara stood looking at the lake.
The hands that had grabbed Kai’s shirt now not knowing where to go.
Serah was in the water staring at her.
She inhaled slowly. Her primordial senses processing the air. The frequency of Mara’s pheromones vibrating on the same signal she recognized from Kai’s resonance Qi when something unsettled him in a certain way.
She sighed.
Lira stared at Mara from the water.
She didn’t need primordial senses. The face was enough.
"My romantic arc just started," Lira said in a completely flat voice, "and the next protagonist already showed up. What the hell."
---
[DraconicLegacy]: (╥﹏╥)(╥﹏╥) LIRA
[Stephen_Summers]: the most honest comment on the stream. someone give her an award.
[Warwolf]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ MARA TO THE HAREM CONFIRMED!! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ
[Martin_Wiersmar]: Serah sniffed Mara and sighed. that sigh said more than a whole paragraph.
[Leo_Willis]: "what the hell" — Lira being the spokesperson for all of our emotional processes.
[ShonqezThomas22]: Lira saw Mara’s face and processed it in two seconds. eight hundred years of reading people.
[DraconicLegacy]: the harem growing while Kai is still at the bottom of the lake not finding out about any of it
---
Mara looked at all of them.
At the lake. At the camp behind where several Orcs had followed to the edge of the path and were watching with their arms crossed.
She looked at her combat clothes.
She took off her light armor. The leather straps. The combat pants.
Her underwear was olive green — exactly the shade of her skin but a nuance darker, with golden embroidery shaped like leaves on the top and the side laces of the bottom ending in tiny leaves of the same metal.
And then her body changed.
Her combat musculature settled. Her shoulders lighter. Her waist narrower. The lines curvier where before there had been angles and planes.
Her chest, which in combat form was considerable, in resting form was something else entirely.
Kai had climbed out of the lake.
He looked at her.
Mara’s pointed ears dipped slightly.
"If it looks bad, I understand." She looked to the side. "This isn’t my perfect form. The combat one is the functional one. But this is how I feel more relaxed."
"It doesn’t look bad."
"Really?"
"You look just as good as in the other one." He said it simply as a fact.
Her ears rose two centimeters.
Her cheeks, on green skin, darkened slightly.
She opened her mouth.
Lira appeared from behind.
She pushed her into the lake.
---
[DraconicLegacy]: ＼(°o°)／ LIRA PUSHED MARA!! ＼(°o°)／
[Stephen_Summers]: Mara in the middle of an emotional process. Lira resolving it with physics. efficient.
[Warwolf]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ LIRA!! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ
[Martin_Wiersmar]: ears dropping. cheeks darkening. three hundred forty years of SSS Warlord and "it doesn’t look bad" melts her.
[Leo_Willis]: Lira pushed Mara to save her from continuing to process out loud. or to sink them both. valid.
[ShonqezThomas22]: "looks just as good" said with no extra intention. that’s why it works. Kai without calculating it.
[DraconicLegacy]: Kai doesn’t know what he did. Kai never knows what he does. and so he keeps accumulating.
---
On the edge of the path, the Orcs watched the lake.
Urgo with his arms crossed.
Brek beside him.
Keth behind.
Gorm to the side.
Mara’s ears that had dropped.
The cheeks that had changed color.
Urgo and Brek exchanged a look.
Keth looked at Mount Heiguers.
Gorm looked at the ground.
---
[System — notification]
[Current viewers: 19,800,000]
[The system notes that Mara threw Kai into the lake]
[The system notes that Lira pushed Mara into the lake]
[The system notes that Serah detected Mara’s pheromones and sighed]
[The system notes that the veterans observe from the edge of the path]
[The system notes that Mara’s ears dropped]
