Iris stood in an open field, his previous shoulder length black hair now longer than before fluttered in the wind with some sticking to his sweaty face and neck, he wore only trousers, his shirt was off. Sweat dripped from his chest down to his navel.
Levi stood a few meters to the side, he had his shirt off also, his short Black hair was a mess, he had a calm composure as he sat down on the green grass.
In front of Iris was Kara, she had her brown hair tied up in a ponytail, she wore a brown short open belly shirt and brown shorts, she was soaked in sweatl
Iris stretched his arms and spread his palms, two blobs of water twice as big as his palms formed, then they started to become smaller the condensed into smaller balls not bigger than a pebble, Iris aimed at Kara and released the water bullets, and they flew fast towards Kara. She held her sword in front of her and knocked the two water bullets away causing them to dissipate. More bullets came at her but with extreme precision she dodged and blocked every single one of them while standing in the same place.
"Brace yourself Kara, I'm going to make them faster." Iris shouted. And as soon as he said that, the bullets stated flying faster out of his hands. At first Kara was able to block them easily, but now she was slowly getting pushed back and then..... she missed one. One of the bullets flew fast and hit her slightly above her belly knocking the air out of her in the process. She was slightly lifted of her feet by the impact and fell on her back. Iris walked towards her and helped her up. They both sat on the ground sweating, grandpa Calydon, Lucas, and Kara walked over, Kara also looked to be sweating like she had been training too.
"Those..... uhh water bullets of yours are getting faster, and stronger. They're dangerous, you should be careful who you use them on. " Levi said with a serious expression. Iris chuckled and responded, "the ones I used on both of you are the weaker versions of the bullets." Levi's eyes widened at Iris' response. "Don't worry, I would never use those ones on you."
"And .. Kara has improved alot too" Levi said and turned to Kara, she clenched her fist, "it's still not enough, I have to get stronger."
"You have both improved" Lucas interjected, "Grandpa Calydon's qi training paid off."
"Yes, yes but I'm no teacher," Grandpa Calydon said while stroking his chin, "plus, I'm getting old. When you all get out of this place, find good teachers."
....
Iris cut his hair to make it shoulder length again and he tied it into a ponytail just like Kara. He wore his leather braces and a normal dark blue shirt and black trousers. He had his silver ring on his left index finger, which contained all their supplies, food, water, clothes and money. Levi stood beside him, he had a grey shirt on with a leather vest with his new sword tucked in a belt across his waist. Kara wore baggy black trousers and an open belly black sleeveless shirt, she also had sleeveless gloves on. Her sword was tucked in a sword belt on her waist.
They said their good byes to Lucas, his son Ajax, and his wife. They met with Grandpa Calydon and Pete and Nora who told them to be careful because their names were on posters and there would be dangerous people hunting them. Lucas give them a map that grandpa Calydon had made for them to be able to easily find their way to Daria. He had made it years ago when travelling around these lands, according to grandpa Calydon, it would take two weeks even with a horse at full speed to get to Daria from here. They were provided with two horses for the journey, Levi and Kara rode on one while Iris rode on one. They were escorted to the borders of the village where they said their good byes and parted ways.
They followed a cleared path, where traders and travellers passed. After travelling for a while, they'd take breaks in between for them and their horses to rest. A day and a half passed and they didn't have any troubles. In the middle of the second week, they encountered two other travellers in a carriage it was a man and a woman, they seemed to be farmers who came to Daria to trade. They had fresh vegetables in the carriage and rode steadily with the two horses pulling their carriage. They greeted each other and the man introduced the lady to be his daughter. They are farmers and they often came to Daria to sell their goods. Levi asked why he didn't hire any bodyguards..
"Bodyguards are expensive nowadays," the farmer replied "two good reliable bodyguards cost 20 to 50 silvers EACH. Besides these roads are usually safe,"
"What if bandits actually appeared?" Iris asked
The farmer chuckled, "Well what do I have to give, vegetables? I never travel with money. Except when I come back, but then with a a few silvers no more than 10 I could pay one or two friendly city guards at a check Point ahead to escort me down these parts a bit."
They rode for a while and not long after their little chat, four men stood ahead of them. They slowed down and observed them. The farmer stopped his carriage and told his daughter to go and hide inside it with the vegetables. She was about to obey but Iris said, "Wait," he slowly got down from the horse while stretching his arms. "Come Kara, you need to gain experience right?" Kara nodded, she came down and walked up to Iris. The farmer looked at Levi worry evident on his face, Levi smiled to reassure him, "Don't worry sir, we are ex soldiers." The man frowned, "but there are 4 of them p, won't you assist your friends." Levi laughed softly, "oooooh don't worry, Iris can handle himself,.."