Kyle went back to focusing on comprehending wind yet again.
Luckily, he wasn't disturbed for several weeks.
It seemed like whoever was disturbing him had run out of people to send to their deaths.
Eventually, Kyle opened his eyes again and looked at his hand.
He gathered some Ether in his hand and transformed it into Wind Ether.
Of course, Kyle had been able to do that ever since he had been in the First Realm, but this kind of Wind Ether generation was different.
It was about twice as efficient.
He could essentially turn one bit of internal Wind Ether into two bits of external Wind Ether.
His power didn't work on outside Wind Ether, which was why he couldn't just keep doubling the Wind Ether.
'The Fragment of Wind's Composition,' Kyle thought with a smirk. 'One step closer to the Law of Wind.'
'Let's continue. The Fragment of Wind's Focus also doesn't seem very difficult to comprehend.'
Kyle focused on the Fragment of Wind's Focus from now on.
Surprisingly, nobody disturbed him during the three weeks he needed.
Kyle pointed at the wall of his tunnel, and Wind Ether started to gather on his finger.
A moment later, the Wind Ether compressed into a tiny bit of chaotic energy.
Then, he released it.
CRK!
A focused beam of Wind Ether shot out of Kyle's finger, and within a second, the beam created a hole in the hard wall.
'Interesting,' he thought as he looked at the hole. 'It's kind of like a focused shockwave.'
An instant later, Kyle created a sword out of metal.
Concentrated Wind Ether gathered on its edge, and Kyle swung.
BANG!
A long line appeared in the walls of the tunnel as the shockwave from the focused wind cut through it.
That was when Kyle got an idea.
He changed the shape of his sword into that of a katana and also created a sheath.
He instantly moved forward while unleashing a quick strike.
Nothing happened.
Then, he slowly put the katana back in its sheath.
CRK!
Another long cut appeared in the tunnel.
'I can do Anime moves now,' Kyle thought with a snort as he looked at the sheathed katana.
'You know, that's one way to make this cheesy kind of attack a reality.'
In order to achieve this effect, Kyle had simply released the Wind Ether in a shockwave.
Yet, he had stopped it in its tracks with his Fragment of Wind Movement.
Finally, when he sheathed his sword, he released the hold of the Fragment of Wind Movement, and the shockwave hit the wall.
The next moment, Kyle dispersed the sword again.
'But what's the point of that attack?' he thought. 'Why would you want your attack to hit later? A real enemy wouldn't just stand there and do nothing. That one second of extra posing would lead them to turn around and hit you in the back of the head as you slowly move the sword back in its sheath.'
'It just looks cool, and that's everything it's good for.'
'I mean, sure, if the enemy can't see your paused wind blades, you could probably place traps.'
Kyle imagined himself swinging his sword ten times and then just waiting.
His opponent would be confused since nothing happened.
Then, they charged right towards him, and Kyle released all ten strikes at the same time.
This would lead to the enemy being attacked by ten strikes at once.
'Except that Ether Sense is a thing,' he thought. 'If I were in the opponent's shoes, I would just move around. Every single strike needs Ether, and my opponent would have launched ten techniques without hitting anything.'
'But it's not all bad. Somebody can probably make use of that.'
Kyle took out his hammer and looked at its pick.
It was almost imperceivable, but the Ether around the pick was shaking.
That was because it was loaded with an incredible amount of Wind Ether.
The next moment, Kyle summoned pieces of his armor.
He swung his hammer and hit the chest plate with his full power.
CRACK!
The surroundings exploded, collapsing the entire latter half of the tunnel.
Yet, Kyle just looked with interest at the chest plate.
There was a circular hole in the chest plate.
'Huh, that's better than I expected,' he thought. 'Either this Fragment is stronger than I initially believed, or my armor is just shit.'
He saw how the pick had fully sunk into the chest plate.
A moment later, Kyle repaired his chest plate and struck it again, but without the Wind Ether.
CREAK!
Kyle's brows rose in surprise when he saw the damage he had caused.
His pick had still gone through the armor, but he had essentially just bent it out of the way.
His pick was surrounded by bent metal plates that were making it harder for it to continue without unleashing another strike.
This would still injure the wearer, but the difference from the strike before was clear.
Not even half of Kyle's pick was buried in the chest plate.
Even more, the surroundings had not been as devastated as before.
During the first strike, the Wind Ether had gotten rid of a big part of the chest plate's defenses, which meant that the power of Kyle's attack had mostly gone through it and hit the tunnel beneath the chest plate.
Yet, during the second strike, all the power had been absorbed by the chest plate, and its powerful vibrations got rid of most of it.
Not as much power had reached the tunnel.
'That's crazy,' Kyle thought. 'This is not a flat increase in damage but a percentual one. It's almost like the Fragment doubles my penetrative power or something.'
'Although it's also important to note that my armor wasn't completely strengthened by my Law of Metal since it wasn't touching my body at the point.'
Kyle looked at his destroyed chest plate.
'Still crazy, though. The two Fragments I've learned are not super useful for the flat side of my hammer, but damn, they sure make a difference with the pick.'
'Anyway, I should try to find a way to learn the last Fragment, the Fragment of Wind's Expansion.'
'If our logic is sound, this should be the hardest one by far.'
Kyle scratched the back of his head.
'I just don't know a good place to learn about that Fragment. Sure, I have to go really high to learn about it, but that might lead to the Winterfire Empire finding me. After all, I will literally be in the middle of the sky.'
'Maybe Sebastian has an idea.'
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