There were sixteen repetitions.
Serah held the human guard for two full seconds before instinct took over.
"There it is," said Kai.
Serah was looking at her own hands with an expression that wasn't exactly frustration. It was closer to surprise — 2,300 years without finding anything her body didn't know how to do automatically.
"It's harder than it looks," she said.
"You're fighting against two thousand years of instinct," said Kai. "It's normal that it takes time."
"How long did it take you?"
"Three months for the basic guard. I was twelve."
Serah processed that.
"You took three months as a human," she said slowly. "With a body designed for this."
"Yes."
"And I did it in sixteen tries."
"Yes."
Serah's silver markings glowed a little brighter than before.
[Allied beast — technique synchronization: 0.3%]
[The system notes that 0.3% in one session is, for a primordial SSS entity, unprecedented progress.]
[The system does not know how to contextualize this without sounding exaggerated.]
---
[NocheEterna99: 'you took three months as a human and I did it in sixteen tries' — SERAH NOTICED IT HERSELF]
[GarcíaFTW: the system had a moment of modesty. Rare.]
[StreamerHunter: 100-coin gift. This training session is worth more than the bear fight.]
---
"Now you attack me," said Kai, "and I defend using only technique. No full dodging."
Serah looked at him.
"You want me to attack you for real?"
"At thirty percent."
"Humans consider me an SSS beast."
"I know. That's why it's thirty percent. I'm not an idiot."
Serah considered this briefly.
"Alright."
What came next wasn't exactly what the chat expected.
Serah didn't throw another ice spear. She charged straight in at an SSS's thirty-percent speed, which was still roughly three times the speed of an A-rank Hunter at full power.
Kai didn't dodge.
He deflected Serah's arm outward with his forearm, absorbed the momentum by turning with the movement, and used the energy of her strike to push her forward two steps.
Serah stopped. Turned. Looked at him.
"You used my strength against me."
"Yes."
"You didn't push. You just… redirected me."
"Yes."
Serah looked at her own arm. Then at Kai.
"Again."
---
There were eight more exchanges.
On the fifth, Serah changed tactics. Instead of charging physically, she summoned a wave of primordial aura pressure — invisible but real — that normally made A-rank and lower entities freeze from prey instinct.
Kai felt the pressure.
He registered it as data.
And continued with the defensive movement he was completing.
Serah stopped.
"Why didn't you freeze?"
"Why should I?"
"My aura pressure. Any entity below SSS gets paralyzed."
"I'm not an entity."
Pause.
"I'm human. I don't have prey instinct."
Serah looked at him for three full seconds.
"That's an advantage I hadn't considered," she said finally.
---
[GarcíaFTW: 'I don't have prey instinct' — the only creature in Aethon immune to SSS aura pressure because he's HUMAN]
[NocheEterna99: Serah just discovered that being human has advantages in a world of beasts]
[StreamerHunter: this is changing my entire view of the novel]
---
On the eighth exchange, Serah launched simultaneously: aura pressure, ice spear from the left, and a physical charge down the center.
Triple attack. Coordinated. Instinctive.
The chat stopped typing.
Kai saw all three vectors in the second he had.
Spear: deflect upward with his right elbow… let it stick in the ground, not in him.
Charge: don't meet it head-on, use the door frame as a reference point… lateral step, let Serah's momentum carry past.
Aura pressure: no defense. Just ignore it.
All in 0.8 seconds.
The ice spear stuck into the ground. Serah passed through where Kai had been and hit the back wall softly — softly for her, which still left a crack in the stone.
Kai had scraped knuckles on his right elbow. The spear had grazed his hand.
Serah turned from the wall.
She was looking at him differently than at the start of the session.
"Enough for today," said Kai.
"One more round."
"No. The guild masters arrive at noon, and it's eleven."
Serah looked at the sun. Calculated.
"One more."
"No."
Serah closed her mouth.
[The system observes that this is the second time Serah has accepted a 'no' from Kai.]
[The system considers this statistically notable for an SSS entity.]
---
[NocheEterna99: TRIPLE SSS ATTACK AND KAI SURVIVED WITH PURE TECHNIQUE]
[GarcíaFTW: 'enough for today' / 'one more round' / 'no' — Serah accepted the no again]
[StreamerHunter: viewers: 142,000. We break records every day.]
---
The three guild masters arrived exactly at noon.
The Valdris guild's meeting hall had a long table, eight chairs, and a window facing the main street. The three guild masters arrived together — Valdris, Merrath, and Dunholt, the three cities of the northern sector.
Kai arrived two minutes late because he was finishing his meal.
Serah arrived with him.
The three guild masters watched her enter, and the tension in the room rose noticeably. Two of them gripped their chair armrests without realizing it. The third — from Dunholt, a large man in his fifties with the kind of mustache that suggested he took himself very seriously — didn't change his expression.
Kai sat down.
Serah stood behind his chair, arms crossed. She didn't sit. No one offered her a chair.
"Thanks for coming," said Kai.
"We're the ones who requested the meeting," said the Merrath guildmaster.
"Yeah, but still. Thanks."
---
The meeting lasted ten minutes before someone said something inconvenient.
The first two guild masters wanted information — how he had dissolved the corruption, whether he could replicate it, whether he was available for quests in their cities. Reasonable questions, professional tone.
The one from Dunholt hadn't said anything in ten minutes.
Then he spoke.
"With all due respect," he said, in the specific tone of someone who has no respect at all, "what the report describes doesn't make sense. An F-rank doesn't defeat a corrupted A-rank. And certainly doesn't dissolve the corruption of an entire area."
"I did," said Kai.
"I don't doubt you personally," said the Dunholt guildmaster, with a smile that was almost condescending, "but an F-rank is… well. It's the minimum classifiable. There was probably another factor the report didn't capture. Perhaps the young lady…" He glanced at Serah briefly… "intervened in some way the scouts didn't see."
Silence in the room.
Serah didn't change her expression. She just slowly turned her head toward Kai.
"Do you want me to eat him?"
She said it in a completely normal voice. No anger. Like she was offering to pass the salt.
The Dunholt guildmaster paled three shades.
Kai looked at him.
Then he looked at the Dunholt guildmaster.
And smiled — something he hadn't done much since arriving in Aethon.
"That won't be necessary," he said. "But since the question is on the table…" He stood up. "Do you want me to demonstrate directly? Use all the magic you want. I'll just use my fists."
The Dunholt guildmaster opened his mouth.
Closed it.
"That would be…" he began.
"Inappropriate?" said Kai. "Or just inconvenient for the theory you just proposed?"
---
[NocheEterna99: 'do you want me to eat him?' SERAH SAID IT IN A COMPLETELY NORMAL VOICE]
[GarcíaFTW: the man paled ON LIVE STREAM]
[StreamerHunter: KAI SMILED. FIRST TIME. AND HE CHALLENGED HIM TO A FIGHT.]
[Current viewers: 158,000]
---
They ended up in the backyard of the inn.
The Dunholt guildmaster was, to his credit, a man with some dignity. Instead of backing down, he chose to accept.
He carried two magical combat items with him — a channeling gauntlet that amplified offensive magic, and an A-rank personal barrier amulet. Expensive gear. Serious gear.
Kai took off his jacket.
The other two guild masters watched from a prudent distance. The Valdris guildmaster had a notebook. He was taking notes.
"Rules," said Kai. "You stop when you want. I stop when you stop."
"That's it?"
"Yes."
The Dunholt guildmaster activated the gauntlet. The magic he channeled was lightning-type — blue, noisy, with the specific smell of burnt ozone. He launched the first bolt before Kai even finished getting into stance.
Kai dove forward — under the bolt's trajectory, not away from it — and closed the three meters between them in the time it took the bolt to pass over his head.
The Dunholt guildmaster hadn't expected someone to charge toward a lightning bolt.
He didn't have time to launch a second one.
Kai placed his open palm on the man's chest — no force, just contact — and pushed him three centimeters back.
It was enough to prove the point.
The Dunholt guildmaster looked at Kai's hand on his chest.
He looked at the personal barrier that had done absolutely nothing.
"The barrier is for magic," said Kai, lowering his hand. "Not for direct physical contact."
Silence.
"Next bolt whenever you're ready."
The Dunholt guildmaster did not launch another bolt.
---
[GarcíaFTW: HE CHARGED TOWARD THE LIGHTNING. TOWARD THE LIGHTNING.]
[NocheEterna99: 'the barrier is for magic, not for direct physical contact' — he analyzed the gear before it even started]
[StreamerHunter: the Dunholt guildmaster is not going to sleep well tonight]
---
The meeting ended twenty minutes later.
The three guild masters left with preliminary quest contracts and many more questions than they'd arrived with.
The one from Dunholt left last. At the door, he paused for a moment.
"Your combat technique," he said, not turning all the way around. "Does it have a name?"
"Martial arts," said Kai.
"Where is it taught?"
"In another world."
The Dunholt guildmaster nodded once and left.
---
That night, Kai shut down the stream at ten o'clock.
"Good night."
[Stream deactivated]
[Viewers at close: 135,000]
[The system notes that today was the longest day since the user's arrival in Aethon.]
[The system also notes that the user does not seem to notice.]
---
The room was dark when Kai lay down.
Serah was already there.
She hadn't asked. She hadn't requested permission. She was simply there, like the night before, with the silver markings on her skin emitting that faint glow that Kai had already learned to ignore in order to sleep.
Except tonight they were glowing brighter.
Kai noticed.
"Is that normal?"
Serah looked at her own hands. The markings pulsed faintly to the rhythm of something that wasn't entirely her own pulse.
"No," she said.
"What does it mean?"
Serah took a moment to answer.
"Your aura," she said finally, "is imprinting itself on mine."
"Is that a problem?"
"I don't know." Pause. "It's never happened before."
Kai looked at the ceiling.
"Let me know if it becomes a problem."
"Alright."
Silence.
The markings kept glowing.
Serah took off her clothes and lay down on Kai's bed next to him. She moved a little closer — the heat of her body closing the space between them with the same naturalness with which a wolf occupies its own territory.
"My body temperature is more stable than yours," she said. "You'll sleep better."
"I slept fine yesterday."
"Even better."
Kai didn't argue.
Serah's silver markings glowed once more, intense, and then stabilized into that constant, low radiance that was already starting to feel like something permanent.
[Stream deactivated]
[The system does not record what happens when the stream is off.]
[The system considers this appropriate.]