Chapter 611 Tiana’s flashing spear & Nerissa’s flowing sword (part 7)
Chapter 611 Tiana’s flashing spear & Nerissa’s flowing sword (part 7)
Seeing Tiana's slightly smug smile at the fact that she had made him retreat, Aster chuckled, if only she knew that if her attack connected not only, she wouldn't have caused him any pain, but she would have ended up touching his thing, she would have probably dug a hole to hide in embarrassment.
Still, now that the gap between her mind and her body has shortened, Aster decided to go all out, Aster was one to lead by example, ever since he got a soul constitution, his soul cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds, even if his body kept growing stronger despite him not being a body cultivator, he had lost the capacity of perfectly synchronizing his body and mind to the maximum like before.
Think of it like this, average unexperienced newbie cultivators could bring out around a pathetic 10-20% of the total power contained in their bodies, after obtaining techniques and weapons that adapted to their needs that would normally go up to 40%, those numbers were already considered above the average cultivators.
The next 20% is divided in two categories, those who are innately talented, in other words those with lineages, constitutions or other special means, can rely on that to automatically transform that 20% of their power in battle prowess, those without the previous mentioned gifts simply have to train harder or find opportunities to achieve that, and now we are at 60% in total.
The next part is both the easiest but at the same time the hardest to obtain, since it is when experience and mentality take the major role, resulting on intent, aura and the like.
Those in that category can reach 70-80% of battle prowess; additional to that this last part offers a bigger increase in strength than the previous ones, the result are people who can be called geniuses, those at 70% who can cross minor realms to fight would be geniuses and then there is people like Iris or Nerissa who are at 80% and can cross major realms, Alice and the others are or more accurately used to be in this category as well, it's worth noticing that even an extra one percent at that level is like a big chasm in terms of battle prowess.
The previous numbers are a generalization based on what Aster learned from Lilia, but they should be pretty much accurate, 80% might sound too far from 100% but it's not because of lack of talent or slacking, but a natural barrier of some kind.
After the "golden reaper" event, Aster had a moment of inspiration, back then he integrated Annihilation to the manifestation of the golden armor, in other words he combined aspects of two paths producing an exponential increase in power, in a rough calculation Aster considered it to be able to reach around 90% percent
Of course it wasn't just using two techniques at the same time, a lot of people should be able to do that, no, it had to be a perfect integration, that's what led to the current shared goal in his family which is to incorporate aspects of the three paths to reach a 100% of strength output.
He had it easier than others in that aspect, because he was a collective gathering of different powers thanks to the Star Maidens, But then there was an accidental discovery when he mastered "Lightning Trail" not too long before he went to Zartia, by perfectly synchronizing his mind and body he could also go above 80% of strength output!
In other words, if he could combine aspects of three paths and also have his body and mind perfectly synchronized, he should be able to go past a 100% of strength output.
The previous ninety-something already made him invincible among his peers and the sole moment when he reached a 100% in other words when he created "Sky Rendering" his strongest technique, he temporarily went past the limits of what even the most talented geniuses within the same major realm could achieve.
Depending on how much he put into Sky Rendering, he could fight someone a whole major realm above him, in theory if he added Annihilation, Aster should be able to kill real Void Manipulation realm cultivators not like those yin spirit beasts that couldn't move through space, but proper ones.
Unfortunately as of current he couldn't pour both Rigel's flames and Annihilation into it, he could only add spirit energy, physical energy and one the previous two, in other words there was room for improvement, he hadn't managed to add soul energy as well, such was the potential of a technique created to exert Aster's strength at a 100% output.
The previous was marvelous and all but there was one problem, perfect synchronization between body and mind disappeared after that, Aster returned to be on ninety-something of maximum output, thanks to the fact that he had learned to perfectly combine aspects of body and energy paths.
'Well, at least I think I went from 90% to around 91% since soul cultivation is slowly being added to the mix', thought Aster as he inwardly sighed, the increase in his soul cultivation eliminated the extra boost he got due to the perfect mind and body synchronization but also brought him a though smaller, permanent increase, it couldn't be helped it hasn't been long since he became a soul cultivator.
In comparison he has been an energy cultivator for more than eight years and while he isn't a body cultivator, he obtained the Paragon Body not too long after he became an energy cultivator, so his body has been trained for not less time, not to mention Lilia's preparation training was mostly physical too.
'This also brings me closer to them', mentally added Aster as he stole a gaze to Tiana, now that Alice and the others had started to incorporate aspects of the three paths, they had managed to integrate two of them good enough to surpass the 80% mark, slowly but surely, they will become monstrous, Aster had no doubt that they will reach the same level he is currently at, in the future.
Also, it's not like he didn't want to teach the perfect synchronization between body and mind to the girls, but he couldn't, because he didn't know how it worked for him, he just trained his body and sharpened his senses as much as he could until he managed to proficiently use Lightning Trail and then he achieved this state, which improved the more he trained. But there was of course more to it behind it, otherwise someone would have managed to achieve the same thing before for sure and according to Lilia that wasn't the case, at least not in the four Heavenly Quadrants or there would be records of it for sure.
In any case, now that he found a way to even surpass a 100%, he wanted to recover the perfect synchronization between his mind and body, to the same level he achieved before, which added a whole 10% to his strength output, so even if he couldn't integrate the soul path to his techniques perfectly in a short period of time, if he reached the same level as when he was inside Esmeralda's realm, he'll reach 101% output.
Back to the date, Aster could see Tiana learning the basics of mind and body synchronization after he teased her and he couldn't help but nod in approbation, though he was sure she couldn't reach the point where just synchronization would increase her strength output like him, there was no need for that. She just needed to use those basics to obtain the real benefit he wanted to "gift" her, she just needed a little push on the right direction and for the sake of that he was going to tease the hell out of her, well he also enjoyed seeing her reactions but that's beside the point.
With a "swoosh" Aster turned into a current of wind in front of Tiana's eyes, she immediately increased her attention on her surroundings, so far, she had learned four things thanks to this game.
First of all, she shouldn't only focus on "danger", but on everything, otherwise she won't be able to fend off Aster's lewd dragon claws, second, she had to keep her cool no matter how annoying she found that pervert dragon youth, third not everything was what it appeared to be since Aster could "touch" her without being in contact with her directly and last but not least if she wanted to last a whole without Aster managing to land his lewd hands on her, she had to use her soul energy wisely, she needed quite a bit of it to produce a repelling force enough to push Aster back after all.
Those sole four conditions already put a lot of pressure on Tiana's mind and she till had one last one she needed to comprehend, which was both the most obvious but the hardest to realize for the same reason, which is why Aster had decided to spice things up a bit more.
"H-Hey no kyaaa!", Tiana managed to see from where Aster was attacking this time, she even managed to speak before the "attack" landed on her, but it was too fast for her to cast her innate ability to prevent it, so she could only let out a cute startled sound when Aster's index finger poked her right outer thigh through her clothes, then when she was about to send Aster flying, she felt a gentle rub on her right cheek.
Naturally Aster only had one pair of hands and it was impossible for him who was crouching next to Tiana "evaluating" her thigh's muscles to reach her face, so the cheek caressing was done using his soul energy of course.
Of course, while the previous took her by surprise she managed to suppress her emotions and she immediately turned around to face Aster directly and use her shin covered with her innate ability to kick him away.
Unfortunately for her, Aster used his soul energy to roll his body so that he was now standing behind of her, while nodding with a fake complimenting expression as he looked over her shoulder.
"Mm, all that workout surely pays off", he didn't need to use any sharp words to get his message, and this way he also made Tiana angrier because she knew he was referring to her thigh's firmness.
'Don't fall for it, Tiana, he is just trying to get into your head', she inwardly thought, there was a tacit understanding that Aster wasn't going to cross a certain line so she wasn't being touched anywhere too extreme, but that didn't make it less embarrassing for her, not to mention that since Aster's voice and breath were too close to her, her face had gained a cute reddish tone.
"Humph, of course it is, I'm training so that I can use my bare hands to rip lewd dragons to shreds", she answered with a soft snort to then shoot her elbow backwards aiming at Aster's abdomen.
Aster smiled both at her amusing answer and at the fact that she took a fraction of a second less to gather her innate ability around her elbow to push him aside.
Still, he had stopped playing around so with his serious speed she was unable to land the hit on him and so with a nimble step he jumped sidewards avoiding her attack, at the same time Tiana had put too much force on her arm and it actually backfired making her lose her balance.
For Aster everything was happening in slow motion so just as he was about to move and hold her so that she didn't fall and also to be in contact with her to follow up with the game, his eyes shone as she saw a thin layer of soul energy appear on the air behind Tiana, the next was quite a comical scene.
Returning to normal speed, Tiana who was tripping backwards was suddenly flown frontwards, making her land face-first on Aster's chest, it took her a moment to process what just happened.
Obviously, she didn't activate her ability on purpose to prevent her fall, it was done automatically, in other words her mind and body cooperated without the need for her to intervene!
'What just happened!', she inwardly screamed, but then she realized there was much more urging thing to deal with, she was once again "assaulted" by that soothing calming sensation, which she hadn't forgot about.
Surprisingly she didn't pull away on the spot, instead a soft voice came from her as she asked.
"Was that your doing?", she mumbled referring to her body being thrown frontwards all of a sudden, it happened too fast for her to even realize it was her doing so it's normal that she asked that, also since she "casually" landed right on Aster's embrace she thought he was messing with her like usual.
"Nope, I'm able to bypass your reaction time for sure but you would notice if I'm in contact with you, like before, so it was your own ability preventing you from falling due to your own attack", said Aster with a serious voice since this was an important hint for Tiana… to then add with a playful voice.
"As for the direction of your landing, who knows, a hidden wish perhaps", he jokingly said. "Humph, as if I wouldn't know you put yourself on the way", said Tiana as she pushed her hands against Aster's chest to put some distance between them, not without slightly gritting her teeth at the fact that every cell of her body urged her to keep the close contact with Aster.
Of course, that wasn't because she suddenly fell in love with Aster, it was that her instincts knew that close contact with him was beneficial for her in the change that she was going through, that being said it is also true that she had started to get along better with him.
After all, even if she didn't know how she ended up being flown frontwards earlier, she reacted in time to know that she was going to land face straight against the ground, which might have not caused serious harm but it would have been for sure embarrassing not to mention that her clothes and face would have been stained with dirt, so she did feel thankful that Aster interfered even if she would never admit it out loud.
Tiana saw the playful smile on Aster's face and she inwardly sighed, earlier it was only one attack at the time, but now she had to deal with two of them, which posed a major obstacle for her, right now she could barely manage to gather her innate ability around one of her extremities to produce enough force to push Aster backwards.
The problem is that she still was too slow to land a proper hit and now she had another trouble, Aster had doubled the attacks.
"Don't look at me like that, I won't go above two attacks at the time, I only have two hands after all", said Aster with a comforting voice as he felt Tiana's aggrieved gaze.
'Any more than this and it wouldn't be training but torture, we'll limit it to two for now', thought Aster, he wasn't here to bully Tiana but to help her after all.
Tiana softly nodded happy that Aster wasn't taking it too far, but then her right eyebrow twitched when she felt a pair of invisible hands holding her sides right above her waist, Aster sneakily used his soul energy to get to her while he was comforting her.
'And here I was thinking this bastard was acting decent for a second!', she inwardly thought as she slightly stomped her right foot. 𝚏r𝐞𝗲𝚠eb𝚗o𝐯el.com
"Booom!".
"Ahhh!", a cute startled scream escaped from Tiana's mouth, before her foot could touch the ground the thing exploded and she was sent flying upwards, luckily while once again she didn't act on purpose, this time she could react in time to use make a beautiful roll on the air before graciously land fifty meters away from her previous position.
"W-What the hell", she mumbled seeing the large crater left behind, she reviewed her reserves of soul energy and her mouth cutely widened in surprise, to create such a strong repelling force she would have had to use practically the same amount needed to push Aster away, after all the ground of this place was quite sturdy.
But she only used around a half part of that, Aster smiled at her surprised expression, unknown to Tiana she just experienced one of the advantages of synchronization between mind and body, diminishing the energy loss incurred when executing techniques, innate abilities, movements, anything that used energy which for cultivators was everything.
Of course, halving the energy cost was the best she could achieve with knowing the basics and she couldn't do it at will yet, but that was still a major benefit and she was fully aware of it as her sparkling eyes suggested.
After a moment of contemplation, Tiana gazed at Aster who actually left her alone for a whole thirty seconds, allowing her to digest her realization, somehow his smile made it obvious that he expected this result from the very beginning.
'So, it wasn't a joke when he said that he was going to gift me two things that would make me stronger', she bitterly thought, to then slightly shake her head.
She felt Aster's soul energy coming at her but unlike the previous times, she didn't try to put distance between them, instead of that the ground below her feet exploded and the next second her free hand was punching Aster's chest.
Her fist passed through Aster, or more accurately his afterimage, before a playful voice came from behind.
"Now that's more Tiana like".
Tiana immediately turned around to aim her forearm against Aster's face, once again she didn't manage to hit him but instead of getting away, she continued this time with a kick, which Aster naturally dodged as well.
Despite the previous looking as if Aster was dominating her just like before, it had been a whole five seconds without she being touched by Aster!
But then while her leg was on the air after failing to connect her kick, Aster's soul energy grabbed her ankle, making her bit her lip.
"Again!", with a determined shout, she charged against Aster who limited to dodge once again, her punch failed and this time Aster himself crouched down to touch her shins but then Tiana who knew she couldn't reach on time suddenly realized something, she was holding a spear.
Don't look down on her for such an obvious realization, Aster had set her up so that she would unconsciously ignore it, after all she was forbidden from using anything but her innate ability and when she tried to use her spear, her intent ended up leaking out which made her attract the buried spears, in other words using her spear brought her two problems.
But that was before, to her surprise when she slashed her spear against the ground in front of her to prevent Aster from reaching her, her intent wasn't what came out but her innate ability!
The result indeed prevented Aster from reaching her, but it also raised a thick curtain of dust since her spear slashed the ground, which made her both lose her focus and cough and before she realized Aster was holding her hand allowing her agitated mind to focus once again.