“My name is Priya! Not, Miss Priya! Call me Priya, Val!” Priya told Valerian firmly with her hands on her hips with a stern look on her face.

“Y-Yes. Uh… Um… P… Pr… Pri…” struggled Storm Titan with a difficult look on his face.

Seeing him struggling so much, Priya decided to drop the subject by sighing and saying, “Fine. I suppose this is the best you can muster right now, but promise me that you will call me by my name soon. You will, won’t you?”

He blinked at her in surprise before meekly nodding and saying, “Yes. I will. I promise.”

Satisfied, she smiled and said, “Good. Now, What’s the second technique that you’ll show me?”

Her words caused him to make a thinking face before muttering, “I have quite a few but… which one? Hmm…! Oh! I got it”

He suddenly said out loud in excitement, and she eagerly asked, “Great. What is it?”

“I call it… Vardul,” he told her dramatically, and she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

“Vardul? What does it mean?” She asked curiously.

Valerian looked puzzled and asked, “Don’t you know?”

She shook her head and replied, “No. I don’t know what it means.”

He stared at her in amazement before realising something and saying, “Language difference? Wait. How are you able to converse with me in my language? I just noticed this but… how?”

“At the Astral Academy, they teach us the different languages used around the world,” she explained, and he nodded in understanding.

“It seems that I don’t know how to translate the technique name into a form that you can understand. Perhaps I should seek the Phoenix Titan’s help in regards to this,” he muttered and looked over his shoulder at where Lakshman was sitting at.

“Let’s do that later,” agreed Priya while moving on with their task. “Can you show this… Vardul technique to me right now?”

The Storm Titan nodded, but he looked serious as he said, “Please use barrier or cover yourself with something as it’s a dangerous technique.” As she leaned back in surprise at his seriousness, he looked over at the others and called to them, “Phoenix Titan! Please create a cover over your heads! I’m going to use my next technique!”

“Okay!” Lakshman replied and aimed his hand above his head before casting a barrier around them using Voiceless Incantation.

Valerian sensed the activation of the barrier and nodded in satisfaction before turning back to face Priya. She also activated a barrier on herself to surround her from all directions, to which he approved with a simple smile on his face. Then the smile was wiped from his face and was replaced with that of seriousness as he raised his right hand and aimed it up at the sky.

He began to exert his energy and at the same time, the sky started to change. Murky clouds began forming, the wind started to blow faster as a chilly air caused everyone to suddenly shiver. The wind was cold to the touch as the weather was constantly changing, becoming moody, murky, and dark. It was as if a storm was suddenly upon them.

The rain continued to fall down on them, but due to the barrier that each of them had placed around themselves, they were unaffected by it. However, getting wet was the least of their worries. They continued to watch Valerian as he formed his raised hand into a fist, causing the rain drops to suddenly come to a stop in mid-flight and hovered there was if gravity no longer affected them. A moment later, the droplets changed shape to that of slim needles.

In the next moment, he swung his arm down as if he was throwing something as hard as he could. With his movement, there was a sudden gush of wind that flowed randomly before the rain drops began to fall again. However, they were different; they were faster, sharper, and violent like a hail storm at an alarming rate.

“Kya!” The women cried out loud in shock and fear as the rain droplets smashed into their barrier like a hail storm.

The rapidity of the fall, the strong impact it had on the barrier as well as the increasing number of them made them react with fright. Lakshman looked up at the falling needles of water with an amazed look on his face. Priya, who had collapsed to her knees, her one eye closed as she glanced up at the sky to see the raining droplets of water needles.

“This is an insane attack!” She commented before turning to face Valerian and was amazed.

The raining droplets of water needles fell all around him and not once splashed on him. It was as if they were purposefully avoiding their caster by all means while falling everywhere else. Glancing down at the ground, she noted that the ground had small holes made from the strong impact of the needles, which grew larger and larger to the point of the ground cracking and caving in.

Realising the damage that was going to be done to the land, she quickly shouted, “Val! That’s enough! You can stop now!”

Hearing her shout, the Storm Titan blinked once as if he had come out of a trance before looking at her. Then he noticed what his attack was doing and realising he had gone into a state of seriousness while focusing solely on his attack. Clicking his tongue in irritation at himself, he quickly released his hand and waved it away in a casual manner. Following his hand movements, the raining droplets of water needles stopped and the murky clouds quickly vanished to bring the weather back to normal.

As Priya sighed and deactivated her barrier, Valerian walked over to her and apologised with, “Sorry. I got carried away.”

“It’s fine but… I’m amazed,” she said and smiled at him. “It’s a deadly attack and if it weren’t for the barriers or having something strong to block it, that attack could cause a lot of trouble.” As he nodded in agreement, she sighed and raised her hand towards him while asking him, “Please help me get up, Val.”

To this, he blinked twice in surprise and reacted in alarm. His eyes shifted to her extended hand while his own shook.

“What’s the matter?” She asked him curiously since he was motionless.

“N-Nothing,” he said nervously and doing his best, extended his hand out to her.

The moment that his hand was within reach, she grabbed his hand and pulled him towards her. He was startled by her suddenly grabbing him and pulling him towards her. She was only doing so to get to her feet and was a little startled by his strange reaction. But he quickly recovered and gritted his teeth from the shock of coming in contact with an opposite gender’s skin as he gripped her hand and easily pulled her to her feet.

“Thanks,” she said appreciatively with a smile.

He merely nodded at her in acceptance and glanced at the hand that came in contact with her hand, raising it to near his face to observe it with a curious look on his face.

Priya jotted down notes and any detail she could understand about the technique used before closing it and looking at him. It was then that she noticed him staring blankly at his hand and wondered what he was doing.

“What is it, Val? Did something happen?”

“Ah. No! It’s nothing!” He reacted in alarm, jumping back and dropping his hand while turning to look at her guiltily.

Seeing him looking guilty, she raised an eyebrow in confusion and asked, “You sure?”

“Positively!” He replied and did his best to fake a smile at her.

She did not understand what that was about but decided it was not worth digging deeper into. So, she focused on the task at hand and asked him to demonstrate his next technique for her.

He seemed to be in deep thought about the technique he could show her from the many that he possibly knew to use. Priya waited patiently for him to speak up first and wondered in anticipation of what he would show her. While thinking, Valerian glanced around at all the water generated by his previous attack and finally came to a decision.

He smiled and nodded his head and finally broke the silence with, “I got it.”

“Okay. What is it?”

“It’s called Nirnam.”

“Again, a name that I don’t know the meaning of,” she sighed with a wry smile.

“Sorry,” he apologised.

“Don’t apologise when you’re not at fault. It’s just the language barrier that’s the problem,” she said softly with a smile. As he nodded, she asked curiously, “So, should I activate a barrier around myself or step away?”

He raised an eyebrow in amusement to her question and asked, “There’s no need. This is actually a simple technique although a powerful one at that.”

The Storm Titan was confident in his technique, and Priya was surprised that he seemed to be taking it easy. She watched him walk towards the nearest water that had gathered enough for you to simply dance on it. As he reached it, he came to a stop and turned to look at her to check that she was watching. Satisfied that her full attention was on him, he smiled and placed his hand on his chest before saying the technique name out loud.

“Nirnam.”

In an instant, his entire body began glowing for a moment before the glow died and disappeared. Then he turned and looked down at the small puddle that was formed there. He raised his right leg and placed it firmly down on the puddle, causing it to splash but something else happened. The moment his feet touched the puddle, his entire body suddenly seemed to shake as if something was happening to him before he was covered in a watery liquid before his body turned into pure liquid and splashed down on the ground.

“Ah?!” Priya cried out in shock, her eyes wide, and her expression filled with a disbelief mixed with horror.

She had witnessed the Storm Titan’s body suddenly transform into water and splash down on the ground. There was not a single trace of him left there. No body, no bone, nothing to indicate that he was there other than the puddle that he stepped on and the water from his transformed body that fell to join it.

“W-What the heck?!” She exclaimed in a shocked voice, staring at the puddle in disbelief. “What… happened?! Where… is he…?”

With no sign of him anywhere, she began to worry that something terrible had happened without her notice. She quickly hurried to the puddle to check the scene to find out what happened. Unfortunately, there was nothing there for her to see other than the puddle that had formed from the rain attack he had unleashed on the area.

“Val! Val!” She began calling for him, fear creeping up inside of her as she was very worried for him.

Suddenly, she heard his voice say inside her mind, “Over here.”

Priya was unsure of where to turn when she suddenly heard the sound of water moving. She whirled around and saw a nearby puddle, where the water’s surface was going through an unknown disturbance. A moment later, to her surprise, Valerian soared out of it and landed on his feet facing her with a confident smile on his face.

“I’m over here, Miss Priya,” he called to her with a serene smile.

“Val…!” Priya said softly, relief washing over her previously concerned expression. She began heading towards him and on the way, her relief was exchanged for anger and once she reached him, she began speaking angrily to him with, “You! I was so worried about you! I thought something bad happened! What happened over there?! You suddenly disappeared and reappeared here! What the heck did you do, and how did you do that?!”

Valerian was a little taken aback at witnessing her angry outbursts because he did not expect this. In his mind, he had visioned her being impressed with his skill and praising him. Instead, it seemed to have had the opposite effect on her, and it looked like he made her very worried.

“Please forgive me,” he said apologetically with a sad look on his face. “I did not think that you would become so worried. Perhaps I should’ve explained what would happen beforehand to ease your worries.”

Priya was breathing a little quickly from having berated him in her anger and after cooling down from hearing his apology, she breathed a sigh and said, “It’s fine. I realise that I was silly for doubting your ability to use your technique.” As he continued to look at her with a worried look, she decided to shift the topic forward and asked, “So, what happened? Your body turned into water and then you disappeared.”

He nodded and explained, “You see, by utilising my magic, I was able to merge with the water nature.”

“Merge with the… water nature?” She asked slowly, unsure whether to believe what he was saying. “You’re saying that you… became water itself?!” When he nodded with a smile, she was riddled with doubts and asked her first question, “If so, how come you appeared from here when you disappeared over there?”

“I moved using the Elemental Channel,” he replied.

“The what now?” She asked uncertainly.

“Elemental Channel,” he stated clearly for her to not miss it without any doubt. Then he became worried about the language barrier and asked, “Wait. Is it perhaps that you don’t understand what I’m saying?”

“No. I understood this one without issues. It’s just that I was unsure if what you said was what I actually heard,” she said while looking at him with a wry smile. “So, let me get this straight. You using magic to turn yourself into merging with the water nature and shifted places through the Elemental Channel, which I’m guessing is like a spiritual link between the water sources in different places?”

“Yes. You are quite right,” he agreed with a smile. “You understood that so quickly.”

“Well, the phrase Elemental Channel kind of made me remember about the Phoenix Portal, and I that made it easier to understand what you did to go from there and end up being here,” she said and smiled at him. As he smiled, she opened her writing pad and wrote down several notes in it before she closed it and asked him, “So, what will be the fourth technique that you’ll show me?”

“It’ll be my strongest technique,” he told her automatically as if he was waiting for her to question him.

“Wait. Your strongest technique?” She asked him, concern slowly creeping into her face and voice. “Are you sure it’s wise to show it to me?”

He nodded and said, “Of course since only those with very specific capabilities are able to use it. So, I do not fear that it could be replicated if that’s what you’re worried about.”

She was surprised by how confident he was that his strongest technique would not be copied. It made her wonder what was the reason for his confidence and asked him about it. His answer shocked her very much.

“It would kill them if they did it wrong even on the first try,” he told her flatly with a smug look. “If they did survive, I’m positively sure the only things that would be working is their hearts while the rest of the body functions would be destroyed.”

Priya became very worried upon hearing it and wanted to know what kind of dangerous technique she was going to witness.

“What is it? What is this technique that is so dangerous that’s so difficult to copy?”

He smiled and simply stated, “To become lightning itself.”