035 Riding Waves

The fight continued, Olivia's bright red haired fluttered in the wind, while she remained in combat with nick. Liam was not surprised why so many people came to watch her fight. Her unique looks and interesting fighting style made her look like an important figure, a star made to attracts the crowd's attention.

Everyone's eyes were focused on Olivia, who was graciously staying still, blocking all attack coming her way. While Nick's average looks and short brown hair almost made him invisible in the eyes of the crowd. When one watched the fight, it felt as if there was a constant spotlight looming over Olivia, while nick remained in the shadows.

Despite their interesting fighting strategies, their fight did not progress much.

"Liam was getting a bit bored, yes it was interesting seeing the water movement technique and the attacks he could perform, but no matter what either side did, they got nowhere.

"It's time to finish this!" Olivia called out, she was slightly panting and everyone could see that Nick was in a dire situation as well. Olivia jumped in the air, jumping yet again from the flower bud of a flower she just made. Then she elegantly spun her body around and landed on the ground where Nick was, but he was faster than her and had already moved to the other side of the arena.

When Olivia landed on the ground, she placed her hand on the ground as well, then she remained unmoving. Nick noticed this and instantly threw a few attacks towards her way, thinking that this was his chance. Just before he began laughing to himself, about his victory, a small stem appeared beneath Nick's feet and just a millisecond later, it grew in an enormous rose that engulfed Nick's whole body.

little bulges and muffled screams could be heard coming from inside the rose as Nick was frantically trying to escape.

"You have won, now release him at once. You are not allowed to purposefully heavily injure or kill a fellow disciple." The elder instantly rushed in the arena, as he had no Idea what was happening to nick inside the closed of rose flower. He wasn't an expert in botany, but he knew many plants had poisonous or even acidic properties, so he did not want to risk it.

"Don't worry, he's fine. It's only used to trap him." Olivia said before she released Nick, who fell to the ground on all knees, panting heavily. "I am a genius. Challenging someone claustrophobic and getting this reaction from the elder, my reputation is sure to skyrocket in the sect." Olivia laughed at her own thoughts, other not knowing, assumed she was happy about her victory and they continued to admire her beautiful laugh.

Liam watched the fight finish.

"I have enough ideas for now, I want to try a few things. Let's head to an open field." Liam left the arena and headed towards the giant lake where he used to cultivate because of the dense water qi. Now, he wasn't there to cultivate, he wanted to practice his new movement technique and creating water all the time would deplete his energy to quickly. By manipulating the already existing water, Liam would be able to practice for a lot longer.

"I don't really like his movement technique, but I don't know a lot of other options as a water element cultivator. Riding a wave seems to be the best so far. But it doesn't offer me versatility, I'll be fast but can only travel in a straight direction." Liam began to ponder the details of Nick's movement ability, that he had observed throughout the whole fight.

"I like Kyle's lava skates a lot more, he was able to move fast and in a very controlled manner. Can I combine the two somehow?" Liam's question was not meant to be met with an answer, he himself thought that it was impossible to combine the two movement techniques, he just wished it was possible.

"Wait, what if I ride two separate waves instead of one big one. Nick had to stop his wave and make a new one, of he wanted to change direction, he could do this pretty fast but it wasn't instant in any way. What if you had two waves, one on each foot. For example, I am traveling forward and I need to move slightly to the right, I make a wave beneath my other foot and remove the other one. Effectively I have changed directions. And no matter how small or big the turn is, I will be able to do it without ever stopping my movement." Liam felt like a genius.

"Only that, I don't know if this is even possible. Traveling by having little waves under my feet, that just seems amazing." Liam said as he pulled out a bottle with the last 4 pills he had from Peter. And one of them was at 97% purity.

"There is no use keeping it. Peter can always make more if I need them and this is my last skill, I need to have a basic fighting stance. If I can't manage to make this skill with this pill, there is no hope and I'll just try and learn what Nick was doing." Liam thought before he ate the Pristine quality pill. The difference in effect of the pill, increased drastically with every quality level. And a pill at the top, it can't compare with the pills Liam and Ralph used at the beginning.

Liam instantly felt everything in front of him becoming brighter and more detailed, and it also looked to be moving in slow motion, but Liam did not know if he was just imagining things. He felt that he could perceive and focus on the slightest details and movements, a small bug that moved between the blades of grass that were flowing gently in the wind. It gave Liam a different outlook on life.

He heard his heartbeat, his blood flowing in his veins. He could feel every part of his body pulsating with his heart beat.

"I would think I would go crazy if I had to endure so much stimulation and such override of all of my senses, yet I feel so calm as if everything is under control." Liam said in a calm voice. Then he closed his eyes, his focused vision was no more, he calmed his heartbeat and tried to isolate all of the sound and with that his incredible hearing was gone. Slowly, Liam took back control over every sense he had, now he was ready to attempt the creation of his new movement technique.

Liam went to the shoreline, where the lake stood with the sun slowly setting behind it.

"If I bring enough water qi at the bottom of my feet, I should be able to walk on water just as Nick stood on the wave that he had made. Just as fire element cultivators don't get burnt by their own flames and how metal element cultivators seem to be able to avoid the sturdiness of the metal, they play with it as if it were fresh dough." Liam spoke as he put his first foot on the water. It was able to stay afloat on it, with no problem. Then Liam put his other foot on the water, now his whole weight was pressing on the surface of the water, but Liam did not sink.

The slight waves caused by the winds ever so often made Liam wobble, but he did not find it difficult to keep his balance. Then Liam commanded the water under his right foot to form a little wave, his right foot rode the wave on which it stood on and he took a step forward without moving his legs. The small wave dissipated under his foot.

"It works! At least in small steps and when I am on water, but it works. Let's get used to taking small steps by riding small waves I create." Liam said in happiness.

He slowly began to move across the lake, one little wave at a time. Each wave he created would transport one of his legs forward, from the side, it almost looked as if Liam was walking.

"I am getting good at this." Liam thought.

"Let's try riding one bigger wave at the same time."

Liam created a bigger wave, but he did not expect its fast movement and size, so he fell into the water, the wave continuing to move forward for a few more meters.

"Let's try that again." Liam said before he tried again and again, falling into the water. There wasn't enough time for his clothes and hair to dry, as he was falling over and over again.

After an hour and a half of constantly falling, he managed to do it.

"I don't have a lot of time left with this pristine quality tiger eye pill, it's now or never." Liam tried to hype himself up, for the preparation of the movement skill. He only had about an hour and a half or until the sun set, after that, the effects of the pill will be gone.

"Let's do this." Liam said.