The attacks became faster and more complex.
Lady Arrowstrife's arrows were curving in the air unpredictably, and Kyle had to react accordingly.
The times he got hit increased, but he kept at it.
Kyle could still perceive the attacks, but his body was simply not reacting fast enough.
Fortunately, he grew better and better at reacting to the attacks.
The attacks became more intense and complex yet again, and Kyle had to keep defending.
One time, when he got hit, Kyle readied himself for another attack.
Yet, before he could step away from the wall, another arrow shot at him.
This completely took him off guard, and he just watched as the arrow flew right towards his face.
While Kyle's mind was frozen, his body moved on its own.
He dropped his hammer, and his hand grabbed the arrow with unreal speed.
Yet, the power of the arrow was so great that Kyle's hand only barely slowed it down.
CRACK!
The arrow hit the wall, just where Kyle's head had been.
While he had only managed to slow the arrow down, it had bought Kyle enough time to bend his neck to the side, pulling his head out of the way.
For a moment, Kyle just looked at the arrow beside him in shock.
Then, no more attacks appeared.
"The last attack has to be genuine," Lady Arrowstrife said. "Law Comprehension includes accumulation and incorporation. Over the past two years, you have accumulated experience, but most of the time, you need a push to incorporate everything you have learned."
Kyle took a deep breath, still shocked by his brush with death.
"That… came as a surprise," he said.
After that, he looked at Lady Arrowstrife. "That really felt dangerous."
"It was dangerous," she answered. "This was an attack aimed to kill you with just enough power."
"But you would've stopped it if I had failed, right?" Kyle asked.
"No," she said.
Kyle blinked a couple of times.
"Wait, if I had failed to deal with this, you would have killed me?" Kyle asked.
"Correct," Lady Arrowstrife answered evenly.
"Why?" he asked.
"50% to 70% of Transcendents would have died in your situation," she said. "The reason is that their affinity for the Law of Body isn't sufficient. You know several Body Fragments already and are still quite young. Your affinity is naturally very high."
"I was expecting you to succeed."
Cold sweat ran down Kyle's back.
That was… a bit.
"Your persona is free to use the Fragment of Nerves," Lady Arrowstrife said. "Hiding this Fragment is much more difficult than the others, and your persona knows that. Because of that, it is better to not hide it. Having one Fragment of the Body is not too outstanding to make you a target."
Kyle was still reeling a bit because of his sudden brush with death, but he still listened.
'Well, at least I have the Fragment of Nerves now. Two more to go.'
Kyle took a deep breath to calm down.
"So, what now?" he asked.
"Next, I need to know what Complex Law you are searching for," she said. "I have noticed that you were surrounded by Yin-Fire for over a century. Have you made any headway?"
"I know the Law of Yin-Fire, yes," Kyle said.
Lady Arrowstrife raised an eyebrow. "You condense the Full Level Two Pure Law of Yin-Fire?"
"Yep," Kyle said, summoning a bit of Yin-Fire on his hand.
Lady Arrowstrife narrowed her eyes when she saw that.
"Show me your Momentum," she ordered.
"Sure," Kyle said before activating his Momentum.
The surroundings turned bleak, and Lady Arrowstrife looked at Kyle with an evaluating expression.
"Which battles have you fought after becoming a Transcendent?" she asked.
"Eh, no real battles," Kyle said. "I was the Overseer for about a century, and then, I immediately got here. The last True Battle was against a lobster when I was in the Third Realm."
"You are saying you've had your current Momentum before you became a Transcendent?" she asked.
Kyle just nodded.
Lady Arrowstrife looked at Kyle for a while without saying anything.
She could tell that Kyle was quite talented, but he was supposed to be talented. Otherwise, he wouldn't have received the position of Parasite.
The fact that Kyle knew so many different Fragments of the Body was unusual, but nothing too unusual for a Parasite.
Yet, his significant Momentum was definitely not normal.
When it came to Momentum, there was no real talent.
It was simply an accumulation of True Battles.
In a way, a powerful Momentum showed that someone had won more bets than others.
One could call it luck.
However, that was also only true to a certain degree.
If a surgeon performed a surgery with a survival rate of 50% on 20 people, and all 20 patients survived, was it truly only luck?
Or was the surgeon just very good at performing that surgery?
While a True Battle was always a gamble, a certain affinity for adaptability and growth during such a battle could definitely affect the odds.
During the start of such a battle, there might be a 50% chance of survival, but the combatants were not just dead objects.
Both of them adapted to the other one and grew stronger during such a battle.
It was possible that one opponent learned how to deal with the opponent during the battle, while the other opponent remained relatively the same.
Being able to grow under pressure was one of the most important skills one could have.
Lady Arrowstrife evaluated Kyle while planning his future mission.
"You haven't answered my question yet," she said. "What Complex Law are you chasing?"
"I want to understand Yin-Metal, Yin-Fire, and Yin-Wind," he said. "Then, I want to create a Mixed-Elemental Complex Law out of the three of them. Afterwards, I want to take its Essence and infuse it into the Law of Body."
Lady Arrowstrife furrowed her brows. "That will take a long time. The reason why Unique Transcendents are so unique is that they only remain Unique Transcendents for a very short moment. Creating such powerful Laws consumes the vast majority of their life."
"I think I have enough time," Kyle said. "I think I have a bit less than 800 years of longevity left. I already know eight out of ten Body Fragments, and I already know Yin-Fire and Yin-Metal."
"You already know the Law of Yin-Metal?" she asked.
"Yep, learned it in the Tertiary World," Kyle said as he summoned a bit of Yin-Metal on his hand.
Lady Arrowstrife looked at Kyle.
She remained silent for several seconds, not saying anything.
Kyle felt a bit awkward under her gaze.
"Wait here," she said before vanishing from the building.
Kyle just blinked a couple of times.
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