The two "sparring" on the sea surface were unaware that their battle already had an audience. At this moment, all their attention was focused on each other.
Bianka was not just responding to Shu's every move; she was concentrating on feeling every action he made, every fluctuation she could sense.
They hadn't communicated, but they had already reached a tacit understanding.
Shu was feeding her moves, and Bianka was finding the "non-existent" commonalities among the large number of moves Shu was throwing at her.
The battle was now completely one-sided. It could even be said that Shu was chasing Bianka the entire time, with many of his attacks just grazing past her.
After the brief pause from the frost, Shu came to his senses. His attitude towards Bianka was no longer purely that of a guide.
A full-powered Bianka was no longer someone he could handle casually. He had to show some real skill to push her to her limits, to force her to break through.
Bianka already had a feeling. Shu's strong [Hope] for Bianka happened to fill the only gap that neither of them was aware of.
It had been a while since Shu had lacked [Hope]. Ever since Vision, although he had maintained the habit of using [Hope] sparingly, he really hadn't been as concerned about its source as before.
And Bianka... she didn't even know where this power came from, let alone how to actively acquire it.
As it turned out, the "sea of questions" tactic did have some effect. A large number of "cases" were presented to Bianka for her to "respond and answer," and she really did find the pattern of its operation...
There was no pattern!
What kind of power was this! Besides the common point of the operation of Honkai energy, the rest of its manifestations were completely arbitrary! It was as if whatever Shu wanted, would appear!
What if that's the common point?
This was Bianka's first reaction when she realized this.
Disorder itself was also a kind of order. Since this was a possibility, she shouldn't ignore it just because of her common sense.
Mainly, Bianka never thought she was qualified to judge what she saw and heard by common sense. For everything she saw, Bianka would hold the most sincere respect.
She knew that everything she had obtained was a gift from the world, from others, so she held love and respect for everything. This was her way of life.
So even for such a naive idea, Bianka would conduct an experiment. As for the method of the experiment...
Abba abba...
Bianka simply emptied her mind, letting her thoughts develop and associate freely.
With the first thought that came to her as a seed...
What did I have for breakfast this morning? Rita made it... delicious... bacon sandwich... abba abba... I want some...
What did I have for lunch? Also a bento prepared by Rita, warm after heating... delicious, I want some...
Dinner... I had dinner at the cafeteria... I was very full... I want some...
Speaking of which... I am a little hungry...
Shu, who had already noticed the change in Bianka's movements, had just slowed down his attack speed when a fluctuation suddenly emanated from her.
The surprise came so suddenly that Shu was even stunned for a moment and couldn't react...
To the giant, chicken-drumstick-shaped block of ice that was rushing towards him...?!
The smile on Shu's face froze slightly. He looked at the giant block of ice that was smashing towards him like a small iceberg. A mixture of amusement and confusion appeared in his eyes.
This wasn't what he had imagined...
Shu had thought that Bianka's epiphany would be to use an attack similar or even identical to his. It wasn't out of the question that she had her own style and would use an ability he hadn't used before.
But... wasn't this style a bit too strange?
You're Durandal, not Kiana...
Hiss... wait...
In that brief moment of distraction, the giant, chicken-drumstick-shaped iceberg had already crashed onto Shu, and its unexpected weight directly smashed him into the sea.
The feedback from the successful attack brought Bianka back to her senses. Shu also floated up from the water, holding the giant, chicken-drumstick-shaped iceberg.
The two looked at each other. Bianka was also stunned when she noticed the giant chicken drumstick ice block in Shu's hand, but she immediately realized that this was the move she had just used subconsciously.
In the dark night, Bianka's small face turned red. The chicken drumstick was so large and lifelike that she couldn't even argue that it was a club.
"Why is it a..." the darkness was a good cover for Bianka's blushing, although Shu could still see it clearly. But the voice that sounded in Shu's mind was even more attention-grabbing.
Bianka's flustered thoughts were still being broadcast. Although they seemed to be staring at each other in silence in the darkness, in Shu's mind, Bianka had already revealed all her shame.
He really didn't expect Bianka to have so much inner drama... although a lot of it was just repeated emotions, her inner expression and her calm, almost dazed, outer appearance were seriously inconsistent.
It was like...
She was deliberately suppressing the expression of her emotions.
Shu looked up at the "chicken drumstick" he was holding above his head with one hand.
Undoubtedly, this lifelike chicken drumstick ice sculpture contained the power of [Hope]. Although the method of use was a style Shu had never seen before, Bianka had indeed used [Hope].
The main component of this chicken drumstick ice sculpture was still the power of a MANTIS. [Hope] should have only played a shaping role in it. Shu had never tried this kind of usage before.
But Shu just thought about it and gave up on Bianka's method. Instead, he gave her an appreciative look.
As expected of Bianka... this kind of usage could only be used by someone with a strong foundation like Bianka. Without [Hope], he was just a physically weak ordinary person, but without [Hope], Bianka was still a MANTIS who could stand up to a Herrscher.
For him, [Hope] was the foundation of his existence. For Bianka, it was just adding wings to a tiger. Even without wings to fly, she was still the king of beasts.
And using [Hope] to assist her original abilities to take her to the next level was the answer Bianka had given.
He had been thinking of letting Bianka abandon her MANTIS abilities and specialize in [Hope] like him. Had he really been misleading a student?
Shu felt a little disappointed, but his excitement for Bianka's "growth" quickly suppressed this unhappiness. Shu threw the giant chicken drumstick ice sculpture on his head into the sea and once again mobilized [Hope].
Bianka had only just begun to master it... looking at this chicken drumstick ice sculpture, it was clear that Bianka still needed further training.