#28 True Master of Water

Beast saw how it's water attack was only futile attempt to harm Ren so it changed strategy and fired big fireball from it's mouth towards Ren.

When Ren saw this he was a bit surprised but then he immediately figured the mystery of the lake's temperature.

'So lake's temperature was because it can control fire too' Ren thought while forming a big ball of water and sending it towards the fireball.

Both of the attacks met and created a small explosion and the entire area was covered by mist but ultimately Ren's counter-attack was able to stop the fireball.

Ren's eyesight was blocked by mist but he was still able to sense any movements in mist since he already had mastery over water. He was able to detect few objects flying towards him at great speed, he decided to move to the right side dodging most of the objects then he performed horizontal slash with his ice saber at objects that he didn't dodge.

When he felt impact his hand went numb for the moment.

'Ice shards? Meaning it's mastery over ice is much better than mine.' Ren thought when he finally saw what kind of objects beast fired at him. It's not really surprising that beast who lived who knows how many years have better mastery over ice than Ren who just advanced recently.

'This is a really bad situation for me, it has better ice mastery, it has fire mastery.' Ren was thinking of what kind of strategy to use against it but the beast didn't want to leave Ren any time to think so it attacked him with it's claws.

When Ren saw how the beast was confident enough to attack him physically rather than using it's advantage he immediately changed his opinion about it. 'Beast is beast, even if it's clever, it's ego will grow in the fight.'

When claw was nearing Ren's head he used Flash step to appear right beside beast's head.

"If you will look down on me you won't live for long." Ren said in cold tone and thrust his saber towards the beast's eye. Beast knew that it can't do anything and decided to sacrifice it's eye for an attempt to attack Ren with it's claws.

Ren saw this and he had to pull out his saber from beast's eye and jump away but before he could fall on the solid ground, beast performed vertical slash in water form. Ren was planning to destroy it with his saber like the previous water wave attack. But just before the impact, entire slash in water form changed to ice.

'Shit! My arm was numb just from impact with ice shards, I can't block this attack' Ren thought while gritting his teeth. Just when it was few centimeters from him he used his Flash step to dodge the attack.

Ren appeared at a safe spot with something else than saber in his hand. When his companions saw what he was holding in his hand they immediately shout out in worry: "Ren!!"

Unfortunately, Flash step isn't without weakness and he was too close to the attack, therefore, he wasn't able to dodge it completely. Currently what was in Ren's right hand was his own left hand that got cut off.

But Ren wasn't worried about his hand right now because he already wrapped it in ice so it won't lose too much of blood. But the main thing is that he got enlightenment from that last attack. He was currently pondering over ice mastery. Beast already felt like it won so when it saw Ren standing still like a statue with his hand it thought that he was already feeling fear and despair.

------Some distance from the lake------

Esdeath was currently looking for Ren because ever since he went deeper to the forest yesterday, he didn't come back yet. She was worried because she had a feeling that something bad happened to Ren.

She had absolutely no idea where to go since Ren didn't leave any traces of where he went. When she had to choose which way to go, she heard sounds of fighting although they were quiet Esdeath was able to determine which way to go

'Hopefully, it is Ren!' Esdeath thought while sprinting in the right direction.

When she arrived near the lake she was finally able to see Ren and was excited but when she saw what happened to his arm she was shocked.

'Who could cause this? Ren isn't weak.' Esdeath thought while looking around until she saw an enormous beast. She didn't hesitate any moment and went towards Ren to help him but she was stopped by crow and eagle standing in her way. She wanted to ignore them but she stopped moving when she heard a voice say: "Don't go, this is a crucial time for Ren!"

Shadow was the one who said this and Esdeath was greatly surprised by this talking crow but she had no time for this and immediately narrowed her eyes and said in cold tone: "Why? You have 5 seconds to explain, I have no time for you."

"Calm down! We are Ren's companions and we ourselves want to help him but now is not a good time, plus knowing Ren he wouldn't appreciate the help." Hawke said to Esdeath in less than 4 seconds.

When Esdeath heard eagle talking she thought: 'Are they some kind of Teigu?'

"Alright, I will stand back for now." Esdeath answered after some time of considering but she was still ready to interfere anytime needed. She started to observe Ren's fight.

Ren who just completed his enlightenment opened his eyes. He was feeling like a totally different person. Currently, he was incredibly calm and his movements were slow. Ren destroyed ice around his cut-off hand and with the help of water energy he merged it with his body. Of course, he couldn't use it immediately because it would take some time for nerves to recover.

He started to slowly walk towards the beast that was in the middle of the lake. On his way, water that was near him immediately turned into ice unconsciously. When the beast saw this, it got a bad feeling and started to fully focus on Ren once again.

When Ren stepped onto the surface of the lake, water changed into ice on contact with Ren's body. Ren looked up towards the beast's eye and when the beast was his look in his eyes it sent shivers down it's spine.

Beast once again tried to attack with an enormous wave of water since Ren no longer had his saber to cut the wave in half. But when the wave was nearing Ren he slowly raised his right hand up and before water could make contact with him, entire water turned into an ice sculpture. He slowly formed a fist and the entire sculpture turned into tiniest parts of ice which made it look like it was snowing.

Esdeath who was watching the entire thing was engrossed in Ren's ice control but when she saw how Ren destroyed the sculpture she unconsciously said aloud: "...Beautiful..."

Of course, the beast wasn't thinking such things and was slowly panicking when it saw how Ren effortlessly destroyed it's attack.

It created an enormous fireball of violet color, it was definitely it's strongest trump card.

Ren who saw this just waved his hand and big amount of water flew out of the lake in front of Ren. Water got frozen and formed a thick wall.

When violet fireball met thick ice it made a big explosion but fireball was able to penetrate the wall and it continued to fly towards Ren, but he already anticipated that his wall will only weaken fireball so he fully focused and poured his entire energy into his right hand and made an extremely slow horizontal slash with his hand and created blue light which disappeared immediately.

Entire fireball disappeared which greatly surprised the beast but next moment the whole lake got frozen and the beast who still had shock visible in it's remaining eye got cut in half without even knowing how.

Ren was out of energy so he had to cancel his combination with Shell. He so exhausted that he couldn't even stand still and was falling down but before he could hit the ground someone caught him and placed his head onto their lap.

'Good work Ren.' Shell said with a sweet smile while caressing Ren's hair.

Shadow and Hawke already let Esdeath go since it was already over.

"Ren!" Esdeath shout out happily while running towards him but she was immediately enraged when she saw a naked random woman with long blue hair in a pigtail style, below average height and big breasts.

Esdeath couldn't care less about some random naked woman but she saw how she had Ren's head in her lap and how she was gently caressing his hair.

"Let Ren go you vile woman!!" Esdeath shout out in threatening tone while pointing her rapier in Shell's direction.

Shell was already aware of Esdeath watching fight, it was only Ren who was surprised by Esdeath presence, after all, he was fully focused on the fight. But he was simply too exhausted to even talk, he was retaining his consciousness with his will all alone.

"What do you mean by "vile" woman? I am simply taking care of my husband and who are you?" Shell said while giggling.

Shadow and Hawke just arrived and heard what Shell said. They were already sweating while swearing 'Why the hell are you saying such things to this dangerous woman!!!'

As they expected, Esdeath responded in cold tone: "I don't believe you and you have no right to know my name. I give you 10 seconds to leave."

"Or what? You can't expect me to leave my man with another woman, do you?" Shell answered while smiling.

Ren already had a headache from their arguing.

'If you need to fight then go to fight and don't bother me here! Still, I am quite surprised that Esdeath came looking for me, I guess she had no sparring partner but that doesn't explain why she doesn't want to leave me with Shell.' Ren thought while forming a subtle smile.