Later in the afternoon
At the castle, inside a large training hall,
Dola and Chiva had been fighting non-stop for more than four days.
Both were out of breath, yet they stared straight into each other's eyes.
"What's wrong, princess? Are you exhausted?" provoked Chiva.
Smiling, Dola replied,
"We'll keep going until one of us falls to the ground."
Compressed water spheres covered her hands — Dola could increase the pressure of the water.
"Get ready, Chiva, you'll be the first to taste this attack," said Dola.
"So we're dropping the swords?" she let her blade fall, then continued, "Fine by me," said Chiva.
But…
Two flaming swords appeared in her hands.
"To reach me, you'll have to come close. While I…"
Chiva swung her swords several times toward Dola, and from them blades of fire and waves of flames rushed forward.
"I can strike you from a distance!" shouted Chiva.
Dola didn't waste time and charged at her.
She easily dodged the fire blades, and when faced with the waves of flame,
the compressed water spheres on her hands transformed into a sword, sweeping the flames aside in an instant.
Seeing this, Chiva kept attacking, but her flames were already losing intensity.
Dola decided to throw her water sword toward Chiva.
"What the—" Before Chiva could finish, the water sword exploded, canceling all her flames.
She had lost sight of Dola amidst the explosion.
Expecting a surprise attack, she looked around, but instead saw only steam,
growing thicker until it filled the entire room.
"So that was your plan, princess…"
A sudden pain struck her in the stomach.
"That's the plan," said Dola, driving her fist — surrounded by a denser, heavier sphere of compressed water than before — deep into Chiva's abdomen.
From the impact, Chiva spat blood.
"How… can your fist be so heavy?" she groaned, collapsing to the ground.
Sitting down beside her, Dola spoke:
"Well, I condensed and compressed the water around my fists with my aura.
That's why you're in this state. To do what I just did, you need to master your aura — otherwise it's impossible.
If all you have is the water affinity card but not your aura, you can't compress water," declared Dola.
"But… then what is aura?" asked Chiva.
"Before you can have an aura, you must first awaken the ather within you," said Dola.
"I'll give you some advice: you must feel the ather, but not directly. See it as a color, absorb it, and the ather will come to you on its own. You will feel saturated with energy, and when your body is full, you must concentrate all of it in the lower part of your belly. After a few minutes, you'll sense orbs that have always been there. Then you'll have to eject them from your body — or you'll die. You must do this at the right moment, or else start over from the beginning. And unless you're a genius, you'll need to do everything I just said with absolute focus, without distraction, for at least three months. Even with your eyes closed, you'll have to make it flow through your body," explained Dola.
"Hmm… I didn't quite get it," said Chiva.
...
She was interrupted by Hirina entering the dojo.
"What do we owe your visit, Hirina?" asked Dola.
"Well, I heard that you're trying to find a group that's hiding in the city," said Hirina.
Dola's mouth widened into a smile.
"You know where they are?" she asked eagerly.
"I think so. But I'll come with you. They killed half of my unit, and their families keep harassing me to know who the culprits are. At least this way, I'll have peace," said Hirina.
"No problem. You can even bring your brother with you — after all, there are eight of them," replied Dola.
"Yes, but princess, we won't leave until tomorrow or the day after, to give you time to recover," said Hirina.
"That's impossible… Though it's true, right now I'm not even at forty percent of my strength," admitted Dola.
"Two days… In two days, the hunt will begin," she declared.