Wu's head was still hurting from Lily's hit by the time Lera and the rest of his squad dragged their feet towards the wooden house situated in the middle of the island. After their initial clash on the ground, Lily was able to knock him aside and make a run for it.

However, Wu didn't expect Lily to stop and ambush him right around the corner, as she slammed a tree right into his face. Her boosted physical power and the swing of the tree tore through Bubble bubble with shocking ease before Wu's hurled onto the ground as if he's on one of those fake wrestling shows.

As stars orbitted over his eyes and the trees danced around him, Lily took away his communication Cast and declared the end of the battle.

"Damn..." Wu rolled over as Lily helped him sit up along the stairs, "Was it even close?"

"Not really." Lily smiled, "You are individually impressive, but you haven't really learned to fight as a team, as expected."

"Is that why you invited us?" Wu asked, "To also help us?"

"Perhaps." Lily slid the door open as a cool gust rushed out from within, "Perhaps not."

At least the luggage is all in one piece, and that’s far better than what could be said for anyone on Wu’s squad.

Lera came to see Wu, and she noticed the streak of a bruise over his face right away. She mouthed a question of concern towards him, but Wu gave her a thumbs up instead.

"Alright, now that you are all here, here’s your punishment." Lily said, leaning out of the door in her swimsuit, "While we enjoy the beach and the sea, you go ahead and clean up this beach house!"

"Haha! Let's goooo!" Yuna yelled, dropping her bag on the ground before she took out her own swimsuits and got changed right behind the trees, "Hurry up! Braka!"

"I am coming!" Matty said, running past the trees with slight disappointment when Yuna kicked him across the body and threw him into the trees, "Damn, you change quickly."

"Because of that exactly!" Yuna said, dragging Matty through the sand as Braka followed after them. Shin, on the other hand, bowed slightly towards Wu's group before he slowly took off his clothes, revealing his slender yet athletic physique underneath, and a swim trunk already at the ready.

Hold on...all of them already had swim suits ready underneath their usual battle uniform?!

"Hey..." Wu said, standing up stiffly as Lera stood in front of him with Ver just behind. Fatera was walking way at the back uncharacteristically, and Augen accompanied her, "You all...okay?"

"I am fine." Lera said, "But Fatera seemed a little pissed off."

"Of course I am." Fatera growled, "Because ya ruined my fight against Braka! Did ya not know wounding him only makes him stronger?!"

Wu looked towards Lera, and she lowered her head slightly. At that moment, Lera's instinctive response is to help Fatera out by attacking one of the two Wave users that were going down on her, but Fatera was right in this case, regardless of how she communicated it. In the heat of the moment, Lera made a rushed call.

"It didn’t matter that much what Lera did." Ver said, drawing Fatera's attention, "Compared to them, we fought with little organization. They engaged in layers, and they knew what they wanted to do, and what each of the roles are."

"Our plan was shit." Wu admitted, "It was way too one-dimensional."

"Damn right." Fatera said, before pointing at Augen, "He didn't even get to step in!"

"It's...okay." Augen waved his hands and tried to make this less of a deal than Fatera made it out to be, "Shin and I were deterrents for one another for this specific battle because we knew you had some history together."

"That was so unfun!" Fatera shouted, stomping her feet down, "Let's get the chores out of the way, then, I need to train!"

Lera and Wu shared a glance before he nodded and turned towards the sets of cleaning tools Lily pulled out from the closet.

The tropical island they are on is akin to paradise when it comes to the temperature and weather, and the beach house took advantage of the prime location as its built using the wood from the island's trees while elevating off the floor. It only had two main sleeping rooms, with an outdoor shower and kitchen, and Wu's team's job was to wipe down the sleeping areas and clean out the common areas.

Fatera went ahead and took the responsibility for cleaning the kitchens with Augen beside her, and Ver returned to her element by washing away the showers and toilets with her Whirlpool Red. And that leaves Wu and Lera together dealing with the sleeping areas.

"How bad does the bruise really look?" Wu asked, as Lera stood up to look at him closely. A slight chuckle arose on her face, and she put the tool down before getting in close in the shadows of the room and activated one of her healing Casts from her Book of Casts.

"Does it feel...a little better?" Lera asked, her breathe brushing against Wu's face as he closed his eyes. A warm fuzzy feeling rubbed past his bruised areas, slowly stimulating blood flow and warming it up. His physiology doesn't run on the wave as much as anyone in this world does, so all Lera could do is warming up the area like a hot towel and get some blood flowing in that area.

"Yes. Or maybe it’s just that you are here." Wu said, opening his eyes despite the slight sting on his face, and he looked into Lera's eyes grey like gemstones before finding himself lost in time and space.

When was the last time the two of them are spending time alone together?

Lera blinked a few times before she rolled strands of her hair behind her ear and turned, "We should...get cleaning."

Wu nodded, and his eyes followed Lera briefly before he continued working with his share of the chores.

Thankfully, the place was kept in decent condition thanks to a weak shield Cast built into the house's walls that keeps out the insects and dust. In a matter of hours, the cleaning was complete, and Lily's group still haven't returned from their beach holiday.

"So..." Wu started as Ver and Augen returned to drop the tools back into the closet, "Let's do some training ogether then."

"Together?" Fatera said, "No, I want to train on my own."

"We can't fight together if we never knew how to fight together." Wu said, turning to look at Fatera who glared at him with her crimson eyes and crossed her arms over her white crop top, "It was fine when there were only three of us, but now there is five, we actually have to put effort into training together."

"No no no..." Fatera shook her head, "I just need to get stronger, and then be able to carry ya to victory. That's exactly why I needed to train by myself."

"Our incoordination was why we lost!" Lera said, and Fatera tsked before turning to look at Lera, her eyes opened up wide with fire of frustration burning within.

"No. You are the reason we lost." Fatera said, "If you hadn't stepped in..."

"That was not fair." Ver interrupted, "It was a spur of the moment call made by Lera. If you didn't put yourself in a position to be attacked by both Braka and Yuna, knowing they are both melee types-"

"That's exactly why I need to train!" Fatera said, throwing her hands out in an exaggerated fashion, "If I am strong enough, it doesn't matter if it's one on one, one on two, or one om five!"

"Fatera. We could still fight with you as the vanguard." Wu said, reaching his hand towards her and trying to smooth out the impending conflict, "We just need to learn how. Before, it was fine for us to just stay out of your way, but now, we need to learn the way you fight, and fight around you."

"You can do...that another time." Fatera said, turning around and walking away, "Just get stronger individually for now! You are all too weak!"

"That's what we have all been doing!" Lera shouted, "Training individually! That's why we don't know how to work with one another!"

"Take it easy..." Augen said, his voice immediately drowned out by Fatera's retort.

"Like I said. It’s because you are too weak." Fatera said, her head half-turning around and her eyes wide, "Even after all of your effort, ya are just a glorified babysitter."

"That's going too far." Wu said, stepping towards Fatera when she coated her body with the red-tinted Wave, "Fatera."

"Is Lera ever going to speak for herself? Or is she only good att...messing things up for everyone else?" Fatera doubled down, clenching her fist and looking up into the sky.

"Lera..." Ver said, looking at Lera who's chest rose and fell rapidly as her Book of Casts roared to life. She bit hard into her lips and her face half-covered with her black hair as more silver strands seemed to have appeared in mere seconds.

"You take that back." Lera said, marching towards Fatera as her foot dug into the sand.

"What?" Fatera said stubbornly, "You are useless without Wu. And he is already useless enough."

"Fatera, you didn't really mean that." Augen said, intervening, "Let's all just calm down a bit..."

"Shut it, rookie!" Fatera shot back, "How could ya accept something like this? Why didn't you see with your future vision how shit we all are?"

"That's enough-" Wu said, when Lera launched herself through space and charged towards Fatera's backside. With her body lightened and strength enhanced, Lera closed the distance between the two of them in an instant before releasing a massive orb of Wave right over Fatera's body.

Fatera took the impact head-on, spinning around and kicking through five stacks of Bubble bubble using a single Kicky Kick before knocking Lera back.

However, Lera commanded the thick vines and used them to support her body instead, absorbing her kinetic energy before push back towards Fatera when she suddenly activated her Void Domain and frozeFatera in place briefly.

Her fist landed squarely on Fatera's jaw, and the latter didn't even budge. Instead, she pressed her head into Lera's fist and watched as Lera's frustrated tears welled up inside of her eyes.

"See? That's what I said." Fatera said, gripping onto Lera's wrists and tossing her hand aside, "Weak and useless. Even right now, you are still using his Cast."

Then, Fatera turned and marched into the woods with Lera standing in place in silence.

"Yo! Lunch's ready!" Lily's voice came through the layers of trees before she turned up with buckets of fish and freshly picked vegetables in hand, "Oh...what the fuck happened here?"