#27 Master of Water

Ren just finished his training with Esdeath and needed little push to completely comprehend everything he learned about water energy. He went deeper to the forest and when he wanted to sit down and meditate, he saw a relatively big lake from the corner of his eye.

'What is the best place to completely master water energy...' Ren thought with a smile on his face.

He took down his robe and jumped into the lake, when he was in, he felt that water had quite an interesting temperature. It wasn't cold neither warm even though the sun was shining on the surface of the lake for almost all day. Ren knew that something was wrong with this lake but he still dived down. When he reached the bottom of the lake he started to feel a chilling sensation.

At the bottom of the lake water was extremely cold yet sometimes temperature changed into blazing hot.

'What the hell is this? This kind of situation can only happen because of Danger beast or item of Teigu level. I can't feel any beast this deep down in the water with my death energy and since I didn't master water energy yet I can't use it for searching, well more like I never bothered trying to do it so I am not good at it. Fuck it, this environment is best to be used for my advancement and I am not going to miss the chance.'

Ren decided to sit down on the ground at the deepest spot in the lake. He didn't even have to bother about oxygen because thanks to his water energy he was able to absorb oxygen directly from the water.

Ren closed his eyes and started to fish out images out of his head of his fights with Esdeath and times when he used water energy in the mist form. He was correcting everything in his head what he could have done better at those fights. Of course, he wasn't off guard, he was keeping his senses on all around him in case something ambushes him.

He spent almost 1 whole day in that lake without moving, only thinking of his fights until he was done. When Ren finally mastered water energy he could feel everything around him in the water, he could also pick up a pretty strong ominous aura not far away from him. Although it wasn't far away, he couldn't see anything this deep down in the water. But if he was to compare this aura with the aura of the previous beast he had to kill to help Hawke, he would say that this one was a bit stronger but most importantly it was calm and not chaotic.

'I don't want to fight something this strong in the water, I need to get back on the surface.' Ren thought while swimming back.

Beast knew about Ren intruding it's home but it simply didn't care for small human however when it saw how Ren was meditating without the need of oxygen it was interested in him and kept observing him. When Ren was done with his meditation beast felt like part of it's home got stolen. When Ren started swimming back to the surface it became a bit angry and swam behind Ren.

Ren was already in halfway to the surface but he felt something following him.

'Fuck, it noticed me after all.' Ren thought while increasing his speed.

Thanks to his new mastery of water energy he was able to swim much faster than before but the beast was still getting closer and closer to him.

Ren could feel how their distance was shortening so he bit his tongue and increased his speed even more and it was enough for him to keep a safe distance from the beast. After around half a minute he was finally on the surface of the lake and with the help of water energy, he stepped on the water and jumped out of the lake on the solid ground.

Ren sighed when he was finally on solid ground but the beast wasn't very happy about Ren escaping and it decided to go on the surface after numerous years of solitude in the lake.

When Ren wanted to go grab his robe but he was interrupted by the sound of dragon's roar and an enormous amount of water that was splashing all around from the lake. He was finally able to see what kind of beast pursued him. It had a dragon-like head, body of the eel with four limbs with sharp claws.

It didn't waste any time and created a big wave of water to attack Ren. He on the other side narrowed his eyes and said: 'Shell!'

'YES, let's become one Ren!' Shell replied in teasing and sweet voice.

'Ok, that sounded really lewd.' Hawke said aloud

'...' Shadow chose to rather say nothing at all.

Ren didn't have any time to pay attention to Shell's comments so he combined with Shell in instant and cut the wave of water in half with his new ice-blue saber. What surprised Ren was that beast didn't get enraged due to it's attack being unsuccessful. Beast became more cautious when it saw Ren's transformation and how he was able to cut through it's attack that easily.

'This beast isn't stupid like every other I fought with. Fighting a smart opponent is always more annoying than fighting a stronger one. This fight will take some time.' Ren thought calmly while observing the beast with his ice-blue eyes.

'Don't worry Ren, when you are in me...I mean when I am in you no one can stop us' Shell was still teasing.

'How is she able to have fun in this kind of situation?' Hawke asked Shadow who was on the safe spot from the fight

'She just wants to ease this tense atmosphere. In the end, she is more nervous than you, she is just good at hiding it.' Shadow replied while observing the fight.