“. . . .” Staying silent, Shiro drank her juice in the command centre while hugging her knees on the chair.
She still couldn’t let go of Nan Tian’s sleeve but she was now comfortable enough to walk around for a bit.
However, she had more serious worries right now.
‘Ahhhhh I totally cried in front of him! What the f*ck do I mean ‘I’m finally out???’ Shiro shouted in her mind as her mental self was currently rolling around in agony.
She would occasionally glance up to see Nan Tian’s expression only to see that he would smile at her whenever she did this.
Naturally, this caused her to blush in embarrassment since she was a complete mess when she left the med bay.
“Erm so how long was I out of commission for?” Shiro asked, wanting to think about something else for now.
“Hmm… you’ve been out for three and a half months. There has been two events with the first victor being the Beast Queen and the second victor being surprisingly, the Ice Queen.” Nan Tian said as he projected the information on a second screen.
“Mn… seems like the system is giving out events every… one and a half months give or take. So I’d say there’s probably going to be a third event in a month’s time then.” Shiro muttered as Nan Tian raised an eyebrow.
“Are you planning to participate?” He asked curiously.
However, the moment he mentioned her participation, Shiro’s body tensed up.
Forcing a smile, she shook her head.
“I don’t know. It depends. If my body stops freezing up in the middle of a fight, maybe.” Shiro sighed, glancing down at her hand, she shook her head.
“Setting that aside for now, can you show me everything that’s happened in Asharia? I can’t use mana or divine energy just yet but I still want to know what’s been happening.” Shiro asked as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Sending her the information, he organised it so that the minor problems that he could solve easily didn’t need to be looked at. Most of them were the major changes such as the decreasing power output of the anchors due to Isilia’s absence.
“Mn…. We’re quite behind in development huh?” Shiro smiled sadly since they could be in a much better position had she not been stuck in the med bay for almost four months.
The mechs were barely running since most of the power was needed for the city so the soldiers were training physically instead. Li Jian was currently teaching them so she didn’t need to worry about their martial prowess.
As she was reading through the notes, she saw that her father had started to train in order to prepare himself for reaching tier 6. But the problem with what he’s doing right now was that he was clawing away at the chance tirelessly. For something like inspiration to reach tier 6, you need to have a calm mind and comprehend what you want to focus on. If he continued at this pace, he’ll never reach tier 6.
‘Hmm… I’ll go talk to dad. As for mum… seems like she left like Lyrica.’ Shiro’s gaze flickered after seeing Mio being absent from the city for quite a while now. Her last message was that she was returning to the reaper realm for a while so they didn’t need to worry about her safety.
‘Keiko’s doing fine and Keomi is training herself with dad. Yin and Lisandra are out searching for the artefacts so they’re preoccupied.’
As she continued to flip through the notes, she realised that most of them didn’t need her intervention as everyone had things covered. Aarim was practically running the second city all by herself at this point since the power generated there was much smaller than the main city.
‘I suppose my main goal for now is to make a full recovery and regain the use of my mana and divine energy. Researching my condition with Aarim and Silvia should be fine. Maybe I should try moving my body a little for some light sparring…’ Shiro thought to herself.
“Erm do you want to do a bit of sparring? I want to move my body a little since I haven’t done anything.” Shiro asked as Nan Tian nodded his head.
“Of course. What kind of sparring are we talking about? Just hand to hand or are weapons and magic involved?”
“Just hand to hand. Nothing too serious.” Shiro waved her hand dismissively.
She couldn’t even reinforce her body with mana right now so sparring with weapons or magic wouldn’t really work.
Plus, she just wanted to see if she can still fight like how she used to.
“Mn but just a question from me. How will you spar with me if you continue to hold me sleeve without letting go?” Nan Tian asked, pointing at her hand that was holding onto his sleeve.
“Ah…. *Cough* I think just a little while should be fine.” Shiro blushed as she felt a little embarrassed. After being stuck in the med bay all this time, Nan Tian had kind of become her emotional pillar.
She would be a little stressed out and restless if she didn’t grab his sleeve to make sure he was around.
But as long as she kept him within her sight, it should be ok.
Making their way to the training hall, Shiro saw that all the halls were free since it’s still early.
Picking the first one they could find, she took a deep breath and let go of Nan Tian.
Closing her eyes, she took a few deep breaths before opening her eyes and saw that Nan Tian was looking at her with concern.
“Erm we can start?” Shiro said as she raised her hands awkwardly.
“You can make the first move.”
Hearing this, Shiro furrowed her brows but nodded her head.
Thinking back to how she fought, Shiro took a step forward and dashed towards Nan Tian. Her movements were a lot slower than her usual speed but her eyes were focused.
Stomping down, she changed her attack direction at the last moment before launching a kick towards Nan Tian’s head.
Catching the leg with ease, Nan Tian took a step back as Shiro would normally follow this up with a second kick using her spare foot. Her first kick would never be at full power unless she was sure there’s an opportunity.
So as long as he took a step back to forcefully disperse the power gathered, her second kick should be just as weak as her first.
Seeing this, Shiro furrowed her brows as launching her follow up kick would just be going into a trap.
But with her left foot caught in his hand, her movements were a little restrained.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro shifted her body as she practically bent herself in half.
Elbowing towards Nan Tian’s head, she could see that he was going to guard his face when she changed her attack and converted it to a grapple instead.
However, the moment she did this, her joints cracked as her shoulder was dislocated for a moment.
Furrowing her brows, she halted the spar and gripped her shoulder.
“Mn… The stress is a bit too much for a non reinforced body huh?” Shiro sighed.
“Do you need a healing spell?” Nan Tian asked but Shiro shook her head.
“I won’t need healing for an injury like this.” Shiro laughed.
Popping her shoulder back in, she moved her arm around to make sure that everything was fine.
“Well I guess we know my current combat standards. My body can’t keep up. If I don’t reinforce it with mana, I suppose I won’t be able to fight properly. Though if you think about it, it’s exactly because of my destructive fighting style and choices that led up to what had happened.” Shiro smiled thinking back to the watchman.
Holding Nan Tian’s sleeves to calm her nerves, she sighed.
“I think I might have been able to fair better and maybe even prevent Isilia from being taken if I wasn’t riddled with injuries. The fight didn’t even last 10 seconds. Even if he didn’t attack me, I would have self destructed from the damage I was causing to myself.” Shiro muttered.
“Perhaps. So why don’t we see if we can develop a non destructive style for you to use right now?” Nan Tian suggested as Shiro thought about it for a moment before nodding.
“I suppose I’ll work more on my ice magic. Big sis did say that my magic had a lot of potential but I focused on the martial skills along with my nano tech.” Shiro smiled.
“Mn but we’ll need you to regain your use of magic first no? Setting that aside, are you hungry? You haven’t eaten anything at all yet. Yin should be coming back soon so she’ll be able to cook you something.” Nan Tian chuckled.
“Mn I can finally eat some proper meals rather than the light stuff she’s been making.” Shiro agreed as they made their way towards the Food Hall.
