Chapter 354
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As the Gale Snipers rubbed their cheeks, they felt chills on their skin where the ice needles flew past. They now clearly understood that if the weird-looking trespassers wanted to slay them, they could. Why did they not do it, though?
Was it a warning? Was it to make fun of them?
With solemn expressions on their faces, the two Gale Snipers could only think, 'We still have little advantage.' It was clear that one of the soul armatures was just as skilled at archery as they were; furthermore, both soul armatures were strong enough and fast enough to catch their arrows with bare hands. Although an average pair of eyes may not have been able to catch the soul armatures' actions leading up to that feat, the Gale Snipers' eyes clearly could. They understood how difficult a foe they had in the soul armatures.
Hence, they clearly understood that, if they wanted to overpower their enemies, they would need to cut the theatrics and aim for critical hits. Both Gale Snipers pulled out two arrows each, but at that exact moment, a graceful voice resounded from the more decrepit-looking soul armature in front of them, saying, "Hello, bairns of the Alderglot clan! Those are some smooth skills you got there."
Not only did their opponent suddenly identify their clan, but she also seemed to have discarded all hostilities. The Gale Snipers watched the soul armature raise her hands to her chest, striking a pose that made her seem as though she was gently pulling an invisible bowstring. It was a gesture in ancient Fairy tradition that symbolized camaraderie between the victor and the loser of a friendly match. It was a sign of encouragement to the loser signifying that the victor considered them really skilled and a huge challenge despite coming out victorious.
Not many fairies remembered traditions like this anymore, but Eom Village did.
Upon realizing that they had been facing one of their own kin all along, the Gale Snipers lowered their bows, put away their arrows, and walked out from underneath the shrubs they had been hiding. As the Gale Snipers approached the soul armatures, Baiyi beckoned his students over. The students did not know what had just transpired.
As the archers walked towards them, Baiyi quietly whispered to the Fairy Walker, "Two shots were all you needed to tell which clan they were from?"
"Why, of course, my dear! After every bairn ha completed tutelage underneath their elders, the clan's trademark quirks in their archery would be passed down to the new generation. Even our Zephyr's Sigh contains our clan's trademark quirk. Do you know what that means? It means that our children's archery skill would inherit our quirks, and fairies like these guys would be able to detect them!" She replied quietly.
Baiyi himself was not able to detect anything substantive from their quirk exchange. It was more obvious that the kind of archery the fairies practiced exceeded the limits of dynamic theories, becoming a sort of metaphysical concept; this was something he had no interest in, neither was he willing to make any effort to learn it.
If he ever had kids with the Fairy Walker, Baiyi was sure that the kids would adopt his family name and not practicing the heretical gale-sniping archery, which he believed had no future. His kids would have to practice magic or programming!
The archery that these fairies practiced had long since escaped the confines of physics, and this made Baiyi — and practically anyone else born a human — feel quite unsure of it. Unlike humans who practiced archery using combat chi, these fairies practiced archery using an ethereal power they called Zephyr's Sigh.
In the Fairy Walker's memory, this power was all about 'listening to the voice of the gale', losing oneself in the ebbs of the air, and borrowing strength from the wind. This system eschewed analytical theories and empirical dissections, relying instead on supermundane tactile instinct. In summary, one could use the wind to lock onto their targets, no matter how far off they are, before firing off arrows that defy thermodynamics, thereby frustrating Isaac Newton.
Unfortunately, this power could only be used to shoot arrows. Hence, the Gale Snipers had no choice but to focus on archery and forgo other forms of combat. As a result of this, no form of standardized assessment could determine their upper and lower limits, so the power ranking system could not be applied to them.
Focusing on a single form of combat was not something that appealed to humans, who, in fact, were fond of polymaths. If one majored in long-range attacks, they had to remember to bring a turtle, crane, and a doggo with them, all whilst they rode atop a monster. While they were at it, they could also add status buffs to everyone with them. One could equally decide to become a master at melee attacks, possessing the capability to use a heavy crouching sweep to negate an aerial hurricane kick. If one was too weak to do any of the above, they could, at least, learn to operate a gun turret. The days of people being contented in their abilities to fire multiple arrows in a short period of time while standing still or running, were long since over!
One could take the courageous archer Orrin of the Walthart Empire, whose arrows cleared a path for the empire's conquest, as an example. He was skilled in archery, and he was a proficient Immortal level fighter; both made him a truly impressive soldier. On the other hand, the first commander of the Fairy Empire, General Gru the hairy-human hybrid, was exceptionally gifted in archery and good at magic.
To humans, these types of archers were considered true paragons of archery. In front of beings like General Gru, the Gale Snipers could only be considered inferior; after all, should they ever be cornered into close combat by their enemies, or assassins — who are considered the bane of their existence — they would be at a massive disadvantage. Even the Fairy Walker, someone who had created maelstroms back then in Isythre, was only considered a Legendary-level fighter.
However, this begged a question: how did a Legendary-level fairy defeat a Demigod Lich?
This question was the reason why the Voidwalkers assessed her power level more objectively. If they had not, they would have asked Baiyi to look for a more qualified archery teacher from amongst the fairies still living today because, from the fight between the Fairy Walker and the Lich Walker, they had realized the potential of an archer to use an unbelievable amount of power. As for the disadvantages archers had with hand-to-hand combat and weak defensive measures, they were easily resolved: before a battle, archers would need to equip better gears and secure a good vantage point. If these did not work, they could try using a Black King Bar or a Hurricane Pike.
"What do you think? Do these two lads meet my requirements?" Baiyi asked quietly.
After watching Baiyi's memories of recent developments, the Fairy Walker knew the other reason Baiyi had chosen to visit this place, and because she also agreed that her role as the living embodiment of Murphy's Law would not be helpful for teaching, she did not volunteer herself to take the academy's archery class.
When she heard Baiyi's question, the Fairy Walker shook her head sideways. "Nah. The Alderglot clan's archery isn't the best amongst fairies; trust me. If you want a teacher for archery, then not only should that person have had the title of Zephyr before, but they should also be from the Sidhe clan."
'Isn't that the name of your own clan? You're just blowing your own trumpet, aren't you?' Baiyi sighed.
It was at that point that the two Gale Snipers reached Baiyi and his crew. Their armor was humbly made from rattan, and their longbows, which were slung on their backs, were made out of backwood. Overall, the Gale Snipers looked pretty normal, but when they pulled back their hoods, the students, especially the girls — who were not graced with the opportunity to interact with many boys daily — could not help but let their mouths open wide.
Compared to these two Gale Snipers, the pretty boys who visited the Aegis mansion in the past, with the purpose of wooing the girls, resembled badly drawn cartoons. The two Gale Snipers, on the other hand, resembled perfect anime husbands.
"Who are you?" One of them asked the Fairy Walker. His voice was cool and composed — an indication that he was the cool, regal type.
"A returning vagabond," the Fairy Walker replied, as though she was a bourgeoisie.
"We felt the wind in your arrows, so may we know…" The second Gale Sniper urged, more respectfully than his counterpart.
"Just bring us home to see the Elders, and you'll know." the Fairy Walker replied, without giving a direct answer. She knew that the rumors that had spread about her, before and after her demise, had not done justice to her reputation. However, after saying that, she pointed at Baiyi first, then at the students, before saying, "This is my boyfriend, and these are our students."
Mixed emotions crossed the faces of the Gale Snipers, closely followed by some thoughts. 'You speak our language perfectly, but you look nothing like us. This boyfriend of yours looks so weird; he resembles a highwayman! Well, unlike the greedy bastards who come here for the treasure, these students look pretty normal, at least, especially that fox! What a handsome being… It looks almost like a strong dog.
After mulling over their options for a while, the two Gale Snipers gave each other a meaningful glance and nodded, albeit hesitantly. Then, they led Baiyi's group through a detour in the woods, completely ignoring the road that Baiyi's group had originally been on. After a while, the Fairy Walker realized that they were not headed in the direction of Eom Village. Although she had not been here for a very long time, she still remembered the route to the village.
"This isn't the way to my home," whispered the Fairy Walker, and at that moment, her hands moved as fast as lightning to stop Baiyi from raising his arm. "But it's still alright. We should visit Tree Gramps instead. That way, they will feel more secure."
She was right. The Gale Snipers wanted first to bring the group to see the Legendary Grandfather tree; this was a decision Baiyi had no reason to object to.
A while later, the group arrived at a patch of woods that looked no different from where they began their journey. The Gale Snipers stopped at this point and glanced at each other before stepping aside, making way for the group to walk forward. However, before they could say anything, the Fairy Walker suddenly cried out, with the innocent voice of a little girl, saying, "Tree Gramps! I'm baaaaaack to see ya!"
She had deliberately chosen to sound like a cute eight-year-old girl. This was how she spoke back in the day when she pranked the Grandfather Tree into digging holes for moles.
Her cry made a part of the woods shiver visibly, then a tree suddenly jerked, as though someone had stomped hard on its root, and an ancient voice permeated the surrounding, "This voice… And here I was, thinking that I will never see this little nightmare again…"
Then, the tree turned around like a human, and a face appeared on its darkened bark.
Grandfather Tree was neither a tree spirit nor the hybrid of a human and a tree; he was a great druid who had long since learned the Gnosis of Nature, which made him become one with nature. After his enlightenment, Grandfather Tree discarded his fairy body and became a spirit-like being which flowed within this forest. Every blade of grass, leaf, and tree here were part of his body. One could say that he was the forest itself.
No one knew how long this great druid had lived, for even his name had been lost in the rivers of time. It was possible for him to be as old as Baiyi was, and wield powers and abilities just as incredible.
As soon as the great druid heard the Fairy Walker's voice, he chose to inhabit a tree at random and looked at the group, but he realized that the tree made him too tall to look properly at them, so he chose to possess a young, short sapling, causing a new shoot to emerge from the earth; he continued his observation from this newly-born shoot.
No one spoke, including Baiyi, who dearly wished to ask the tree if its name rhymed with 'root'.
After a period of observation, Grandfather Tree sighed, and the sapling shook its leaves helplessly before saying, "It really is you, child. You really have returned. But, why do you look like this? What misfortune did you encounter, my poor child?"
"Well, a lot has happened to me, but lookie! I'm doing pretty fine. My sweetheart here loves me a lot; he dotes on me constantly, or I wouldn't have been able to see you again!" The Fairy Walker continued, in her little girl voice, then she wrapped her hands around Baiyi. "Tree Gramps, meet my precious dear."
The sapling eyed Baiyi from head to toe and mumbled, "Oh 'dear', that's a hideous one. There is something about him that makes me feel at ease… hmm. Could it be…"
The sapling bent forward and stared at Baiyi from even closer. "I sense the Gnosis in you, child."
'Stop calling me a child! We don't even know who is older between the both of us!' Baiyi retorted in his mind, but outwardly he shook his head affirmatively. "In the past, I spent some time with another great druid who had also realized the Gnosis. Maybe its scent was smeared on me?"
"It?" The sapling took note of that word, and after carefully pondering something, it replied, "Then it must have been a very generous, selfless, and gentle; just like a mother. It gifted you its complete understanding of the Gnosis, but you have failed to grasp it."
Baiyi was not surprised by its words. Another Great Druid had now affirmed something Baiyi had suspected for a long time; the Eight Walker really had passed him the Gnosis of Nature. This realization made Baiyi feel moved at its generosity.
However, what good could that do? Could it help him summon a jade golem, or insta-kill someone before summoning a whole bunch of little tree people?
The sapling, however, did not answer Baiyi; instead, it said, "You're a qualified druid, mm… Yes, the two of you do complement each other nicely. I hereby, in the name of nature, give the both of you my blessing."
Saying so, the sapling shook its branches, and green light encased Baiyi and the Fairy Walker.
Grandfather Tree spoke again, saying, "Child, you'll probably suffer a little while you're with this little miss, so be careful."
'Before all that, just tell me why you had to bless someone with the color of infidelity?!'Yo, you're quite a traditionalist there, mate!So in other words, these fairies are… Air Nomads, right? Airbenders? "Like a leaf, y'all!"Author showing off his DoTA 2 knowledge again. I'm in the dark about how these work, though.Gee, colored me surprised.
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
As the Gale Snipers rubbed their cheeks, they felt chills on their skin where the ice needles flew past. They now clearly understood that if the weird-looking trespassers wanted to slay them, they could. Why did they not do it, though?
Was it a warning? Was it to make fun of them?
With solemn expressions on their faces, the two Gale Snipers could only think, 'We still have little advantage.' It was clear that one of the soul armatures was just as skilled at archery as they were; furthermore, both soul armatures were strong enough and fast enough to catch their arrows with bare hands. Although an average pair of eyes may not have been able to catch the soul armatures' actions leading up to that feat, the Gale Snipers' eyes clearly could. They understood how difficult a foe they had in the soul armatures.
Hence, they clearly understood that, if they wanted to overpower their enemies, they would need to cut the theatrics and aim for critical hits. Both Gale Snipers pulled out two arrows each, but at that exact moment, a graceful voice resounded from the more decrepit-looking soul armature in front of them, saying, "Hello, bairns of the Alderglot clan! Those are some smooth skills you got there."
Not only did their opponent suddenly identify their clan, but she also seemed to have discarded all hostilities. The Gale Snipers watched the soul armature raise her hands to her chest, striking a pose that made her seem as though she was gently pulling an invisible bowstring. It was a gesture in ancient Fairy tradition that symbolized camaraderie between the victor and the loser of a friendly match. It was a sign of encouragement to the loser signifying that the victor considered them really skilled and a huge challenge despite coming out victorious.
Not many fairies remembered traditions like this anymore, but Eom Village did.
Upon realizing that they had been facing one of their own kin all along, the Gale Snipers lowered their bows, put away their arrows, and walked out from underneath the shrubs they had been hiding. As the Gale Snipers approached the soul armatures, Baiyi beckoned his students over. The students did not know what had just transpired.
As the archers walked towards them, Baiyi quietly whispered to the Fairy Walker, "Two shots were all you needed to tell which clan they were from?"
"Why, of course, my dear! After every bairn ha completed tutelage underneath their elders, the clan's trademark quirks in their archery would be passed down to the new generation. Even our Zephyr's Sigh contains our clan's trademark quirk. Do you know what that means? It means that our children's archery skill would inherit our quirks, and fairies like these guys would be able to detect them!" She replied quietly.
Baiyi himself was not able to detect anything substantive from their quirk exchange. It was more obvious that the kind of archery the fairies practiced exceeded the limits of dynamic theories, becoming a sort of metaphysical concept; this was something he had no interest in, neither was he willing to make any effort to learn it.
If he ever had kids with the Fairy Walker, Baiyi was sure that the kids would adopt his family name and not practicing the heretical gale-sniping archery, which he believed had no future. His kids would have to practice magic or programming!
The archery that these fairies practiced had long since escaped the confines of physics, and this made Baiyi — and practically anyone else born a human — feel quite unsure of it. Unlike humans who practiced archery using combat chi, these fairies practiced archery using an ethereal power they called Zephyr's Sigh.
In the Fairy Walker's memory, this power was all about 'listening to the voice of the gale', losing oneself in the ebbs of the air, and borrowing strength from the wind. This system eschewed analytical theories and empirical dissections, relying instead on supermundane tactile instinct. In summary, one could use the wind to lock onto their targets, no matter how far off they are, before firing off arrows that defy thermodynamics, thereby frustrating Isaac Newton.
Unfortunately, this power could only be used to shoot arrows. Hence, the Gale Snipers had no choice but to focus on archery and forgo other forms of combat. As a result of this, no form of standardized assessment could determine their upper and lower limits, so the power ranking system could not be applied to them.
Focusing on a single form of combat was not something that appealed to humans, who, in fact, were fond of polymaths. If one majored in long-range attacks, they had to remember to bring a turtle, crane, and a doggo with them, all whilst they rode atop a monster. While they were at it, they could also add status buffs to everyone with them. One could equally decide to become a master at melee attacks, possessing the capability to use a heavy crouching sweep to negate an aerial hurricane kick. If one was too weak to do any of the above, they could, at least, learn to operate a gun turret. The days of people being contented in their abilities to fire multiple arrows in a short period of time while standing still or running, were long since over!
One could take the courageous archer Orrin of the Walthart Empire, whose arrows cleared a path for the empire's conquest, as an example. He was skilled in archery, and he was a proficient Immortal level fighter; both made him a truly impressive soldier. On the other hand, the first commander of the Fairy Empire, General Gru the hairy-human hybrid, was exceptionally gifted in archery and good at magic.
To humans, these types of archers were considered true paragons of archery. In front of beings like General Gru, the Gale Snipers could only be considered inferior; after all, should they ever be cornered into close combat by their enemies, or assassins — who are considered the bane of their existence — they would be at a massive disadvantage. Even the Fairy Walker, someone who had created maelstroms back then in Isythre, was only considered a Legendary-level fighter.
However, this begged a question: how did a Legendary-level fairy defeat a Demigod Lich?
This question was the reason why the Voidwalkers assessed her power level more objectively. If they had not, they would have asked Baiyi to look for a more qualified archery teacher from amongst the fairies still living today because, from the fight between the Fairy Walker and the Lich Walker, they had realized the potential of an archer to use an unbelievable amount of power. As for the disadvantages archers had with hand-to-hand combat and weak defensive measures, they were easily resolved: before a battle, archers would need to equip better gears and secure a good vantage point. If these did not work, they could try using a Black King Bar or a Hurricane Pike.
"What do you think? Do these two lads meet my requirements?" Baiyi asked quietly.
After watching Baiyi's memories of recent developments, the Fairy Walker knew the other reason Baiyi had chosen to visit this place, and because she also agreed that her role as the living embodiment of Murphy's Law would not be helpful for teaching, she did not volunteer herself to take the academy's archery class.
When she heard Baiyi's question, the Fairy Walker shook her head sideways. "Nah. The Alderglot clan's archery isn't the best amongst fairies; trust me. If you want a teacher for archery, then not only should that person have had the title of Zephyr before, but they should also be from the Sidhe clan."
'Isn't that the name of your own clan? You're just blowing your own trumpet, aren't you?' Baiyi sighed.
It was at that point that the two Gale Snipers reached Baiyi and his crew. Their armor was humbly made from rattan, and their longbows, which were slung on their backs, were made out of backwood. Overall, the Gale Snipers looked pretty normal, but when they pulled back their hoods, the students, especially the girls — who were not graced with the opportunity to interact with many boys daily — could not help but let their mouths open wide.
Compared to these two Gale Snipers, the pretty boys who visited the Aegis mansion in the past, with the purpose of wooing the girls, resembled badly drawn cartoons. The two Gale Snipers, on the other hand, resembled perfect anime husbands.
"Who are you?" One of them asked the Fairy Walker. His voice was cool and composed — an indication that he was the cool, regal type.
"A returning vagabond," the Fairy Walker replied, as though she was a bourgeoisie.
"We felt the wind in your arrows, so may we know…" The second Gale Sniper urged, more respectfully than his counterpart.
"Just bring us home to see the Elders, and you'll know." the Fairy Walker replied, without giving a direct answer. She knew that the rumors that had spread about her, before and after her demise, had not done justice to her reputation. However, after saying that, she pointed at Baiyi first, then at the students, before saying, "This is my boyfriend, and these are our students."
Mixed emotions crossed the faces of the Gale Snipers, closely followed by some thoughts. 'You speak our language perfectly, but you look nothing like us. This boyfriend of yours looks so weird; he resembles a highwayman! Well, unlike the greedy bastards who come here for the treasure, these students look pretty normal, at least, especially that fox! What a handsome being… It looks almost like a strong dog.
After mulling over their options for a while, the two Gale Snipers gave each other a meaningful glance and nodded, albeit hesitantly. Then, they led Baiyi's group through a detour in the woods, completely ignoring the road that Baiyi's group had originally been on. After a while, the Fairy Walker realized that they were not headed in the direction of Eom Village. Although she had not been here for a very long time, she still remembered the route to the village.
"This isn't the way to my home," whispered the Fairy Walker, and at that moment, her hands moved as fast as lightning to stop Baiyi from raising his arm. "But it's still alright. We should visit Tree Gramps instead. That way, they will feel more secure."
She was right. The Gale Snipers wanted first to bring the group to see the Legendary Grandfather tree; this was a decision Baiyi had no reason to object to.
A while later, the group arrived at a patch of woods that looked no different from where they began their journey. The Gale Snipers stopped at this point and glanced at each other before stepping aside, making way for the group to walk forward. However, before they could say anything, the Fairy Walker suddenly cried out, with the innocent voice of a little girl, saying, "Tree Gramps! I'm baaaaaack to see ya!"
She had deliberately chosen to sound like a cute eight-year-old girl. This was how she spoke back in the day when she pranked the Grandfather Tree into digging holes for moles.
Her cry made a part of the woods shiver visibly, then a tree suddenly jerked, as though someone had stomped hard on its root, and an ancient voice permeated the surrounding, "This voice… And here I was, thinking that I will never see this little nightmare again…"
Then, the tree turned around like a human, and a face appeared on its darkened bark.
Grandfather Tree was neither a tree spirit nor the hybrid of a human and a tree; he was a great druid who had long since learned the Gnosis of Nature, which made him become one with nature. After his enlightenment, Grandfather Tree discarded his fairy body and became a spirit-like being which flowed within this forest. Every blade of grass, leaf, and tree here were part of his body. One could say that he was the forest itself.
No one knew how long this great druid had lived, for even his name had been lost in the rivers of time. It was possible for him to be as old as Baiyi was, and wield powers and abilities just as incredible.
As soon as the great druid heard the Fairy Walker's voice, he chose to inhabit a tree at random and looked at the group, but he realized that the tree made him too tall to look properly at them, so he chose to possess a young, short sapling, causing a new shoot to emerge from the earth; he continued his observation from this newly-born shoot.
No one spoke, including Baiyi, who dearly wished to ask the tree if its name rhymed with 'root'.
After a period of observation, Grandfather Tree sighed, and the sapling shook its leaves helplessly before saying, "It really is you, child. You really have returned. But, why do you look like this? What misfortune did you encounter, my poor child?"
"Well, a lot has happened to me, but lookie! I'm doing pretty fine. My sweetheart here loves me a lot; he dotes on me constantly, or I wouldn't have been able to see you again!" The Fairy Walker continued, in her little girl voice, then she wrapped her hands around Baiyi. "Tree Gramps, meet my precious dear."
The sapling eyed Baiyi from head to toe and mumbled, "Oh 'dear', that's a hideous one. There is something about him that makes me feel at ease… hmm. Could it be…"
The sapling bent forward and stared at Baiyi from even closer. "I sense the Gnosis in you, child."
'Stop calling me a child! We don't even know who is older between the both of us!' Baiyi retorted in his mind, but outwardly he shook his head affirmatively. "In the past, I spent some time with another great druid who had also realized the Gnosis. Maybe its scent was smeared on me?"
"It?" The sapling took note of that word, and after carefully pondering something, it replied, "Then it must have been a very generous, selfless, and gentle; just like a mother. It gifted you its complete understanding of the Gnosis, but you have failed to grasp it."
Baiyi was not surprised by its words. Another Great Druid had now affirmed something Baiyi had suspected for a long time; the Eight Walker really had passed him the Gnosis of Nature. This realization made Baiyi feel moved at its generosity.
However, what good could that do? Could it help him summon a jade golem, or insta-kill someone before summoning a whole bunch of little tree people?
The sapling, however, did not answer Baiyi; instead, it said, "You're a qualified druid, mm… Yes, the two of you do complement each other nicely. I hereby, in the name of nature, give the both of you my blessing."
Saying so, the sapling shook its branches, and green light encased Baiyi and the Fairy Walker.
Grandfather Tree spoke again, saying, "Child, you'll probably suffer a little while you're with this little miss, so be careful."
'Before all that, just tell me why you had to bless someone with the color of infidelity?!'Yo, you're quite a traditionalist there, mate!So in other words, these fairies are… Air Nomads, right? Airbenders? "Like a leaf, y'all!"Author showing off his DoTA 2 knowledge again. I'm in the dark about how these work, though.Gee, colored me surprised.
As the Gale Snipers rubbed their cheeks, they felt chills on their skin where the ice needles flew past. They now clearly understood that if the weird-looking trespassers wanted to slay them, they could. Why did they not do it, though?Was it a warning? Was it to make fun of them?With solemn expressions on their faces, the two Gale Snipers could only think, 'We still have little advantage.' It was clear that one of the soul armatures was just as skilled at archery as they were; furthermore, both soul armatures were strong enough and fast enough to catch their arrows with bare hands. Although an average pair of eyes may not have been able to catch the soul armatures' actions leading up to that feat, the Gale Snipers' eyes clearly could. They understood how difficult a foe they had in the soul armatures.Hence, they clearly understood that, if they wanted to overpower their enemies, they would need to cut the theatrics and aim for critical hits. Both Gale Snipers pulled out two arrows each, but at that exact moment, a graceful voice resounded from the more decrepit-looking soul armature in front of them, saying, "Hello, bairns of the Alderglot clan! Those are some smooth skills you got there."Not only did their opponent suddenly identify their clan, but she also seemed to have discarded all hostilities. The Gale Snipers watched the soul armature raise her hands to her chest, striking a pose that made her seem as though she was gently pulling an invisible bowstring. It was a gesture in ancient Fairy tradition that symbolized camaraderie between the victor and the loser of a friendly match. It was a sign of encouragement to the loser signifying that the victor considered them really skilled and a huge challenge despite coming out victorious.Not many fairies remembered traditions like this anymore, but Eom Village did.Upon realizing that they had been facing one of their own kin all along, the Gale Snipers lowered their bows, put away their arrows, and walked out from underneath the shrubs they had been hiding. As the Gale Snipers approached the soul armatures, Baiyi beckoned his students over. The students did not know what had just transpired.As the archers walked towards them, Baiyi quietly whispered to the Fairy Walker, "Two shots were all you needed to tell which clan they were from?""Why, of course, my dear! After every bairn ha completed tutelage underneath their elders, the clan's trademark quirks in their archery would be passed down to the new generation. Even our Zephyr's Sigh contains our clan's trademark quirk. Do you know what that means? It means that our children's archery skill would inherit our quirks, and fairies like these guys would be able to detect them!" She replied quietly.Baiyi himself was not able to detect anything substantive from their quirk exchange. It was more obvious that the kind of archery the fairies practiced exceeded the limits of dynamic theories, becoming a sort of metaphysical concept; this was something he had no interest in, neither was he willing to make any effort to learn it.If he ever had kids with the Fairy Walker, Baiyi was sure that the kids would adopt his family name and not practicing the heretical gale-sniping archery, which he believed had no future. His kids would have to practice magic or programming!The archery that these fairies practiced had long since escaped the confines of physics, and this made Baiyi and practically anyone else born a human feel quite unsure of it. Unlike humans who practiced archery using combat chi, these fairies practiced archery using an ethereal power they called Zephyr's Sigh.In the Fairy Walker's memory, this power was all about 'listening to the voice of the gale', losing oneself in the ebbs of the air, and borrowing strength from the wind. This system eschewed analytical theories and empirical dissections, relying instead on supermundane tactile instinct. In summary, one could use the wind to lock onto their targets, no matter how far off they are, before firing off arrows that defy thermodynamics, thereby frustrating Isaac Newton.Unfortunately, this power could only be used to shoot arrows. Hence, the Gale Snipers had no choice but to focus on archery and forgo other forms of combat. As a result of this, no form of standardized assessment could determine their upper and lower limits, so the power ranking system could not be applied to them.Focusing on a single form of combat was not something that appealed to humans, who, in fact, were fond of polymaths. If one majored in long-range attacks, they had to remember to bring a turtle, crane, and a doggo with them, all whilst they rode atop a monster. While they were at it, they could also add status buffs to everyone with them. One could equally decide to become a master at melee attacks, possessing the capability to use a heavy crouching sweep to negate an aerial hurricane kick. If one was too weak to do any of the above, they could, at least, learn to operate a gun turret.The days of people being contented in their abilities to fire multiple arrows in a short period of time while standing still or running, were long since over!One could take the courageous archer Orrin of the Walthart Empire, whose arrows cleared a path for the empire's conquest, as an example. He was skilled in archery, and he was a proficient Immortal level fighter; both made him a truly impressive soldier. On the other hand, the first commander of the Fairy Empire, General Gru the hairy-human hybrid, was exceptionally gifted in archery and good at magic.To humans, these types of archers were considered true paragons of archery. In front of beings like General Gru, the Gale Snipers could only be considered inferior; after all, should they ever be cornered into close combat by their enemies, or assassins who are considered the bane of their existence they would be at a massive disadvantage.Even the Fairy Walker, someone who had created maelstroms back then in Isythre, was only considered a Legendary-level fighter.However, this begged a question: how did a Legendary-level fairy defeat a Demigod Lich?This question was the reason why the Voidwalkers assessed her power level more objectively. If they had not, they would have asked Baiyi to look for a more qualified archery teacher from amongst the fairies still living today because, from the fight between the Fairy Walker and the Lich Walker, they had realized the potential of an archer to use an unbelievable amount of power. As for the disadvantages archers had with hand-to-hand combat and weak defensive measures, they were easily resolved: before a battle, archers would need to equip better gears and secure a good vantage point. If these did not work, they could try using a Black King Bar or a Hurricane Pike."What do you think? Do these two lads meet my requirements?" Baiyi asked quietly.After watching Baiyi's memories of recent developments, the Fairy Walker knew the other reason Baiyi had chosen to visit this place, and because she also agreed that her role as the living embodiment of Murphy's Law would not be helpful for teaching, she did not volunteer herself to take the academy's archery class.When she heard Baiyi's question, the Fairy Walker shook her head sideways. "Nah. The Alderglot clan's archery isn't the best amongst fairies; trust me. If you want a teacher for archery, then not only should that person have had the title of Zephyr before, but they should also be from the Sidhe clan."'Isn't that the name of your own clan? You're just blowing your own trumpet, aren't you?' Baiyi sighed.It was at that point that the two Gale Snipers reached Baiyi and his crew. Their armor was humbly made from rattan, and their longbows, which were slung on their backs, were made out of backwood. Overall, the Gale Snipers looked pretty normal, but when they pulled back their hoods, the students, especially the girls who were not graced with the opportunity to interact with many boys daily could not help but let their mouths open wide.Compared to these two Gale Snipers, the pretty boys who visited the Aegis mansion in the past, with the purpose of wooing the girls, resembled badly drawn cartoons. The two Gale Snipers, on the other hand, resembled perfect anime husbands."Who are you?" One of them asked the Fairy Walker. His voice was cool and composed an indication that he was the cool, regal type."A returning vagabond," the Fairy Walker replied, as though she was a bourgeoisie."We felt the wind in your arrows, so may we know" The second Gale Sniper urged, more respectfully than his counterpart."Just bring us home to see the Elders, and you'll know." the Fairy Walker replied, without giving a direct answer. She knew that the rumors that had spread about her, before and after her demise, had not done justice to her reputation. However, after saying that, she pointed at Baiyi first, then at the students, before saying, "This is my boyfriend, and these are our students."Mixed emotions crossed the faces of the Gale Snipers, closely followed by some thoughts. 'You speak our language perfectly, but you look nothing like us. This boyfriend of yours looks so weird; he resembles a highwayman! Well, unlike the greedy bastards who come here for the treasure, these students look pretty normal, at least, especially that fox! What a handsome being It looks almost like a strong dog.After mulling over their options for a while, the two Gale Snipers gave each other a meaningful glance and nodded, albeit hesitantly. Then, they led Baiyi's group through a detour in the woods, completely ignoring the road that Baiyi's group had originally been on. After a while, the Fairy Walker realized that they were not headed in the direction of Eom Village. Although she had not been here for a very long time, she still remembered the route to the village."This isn't the way to my home," whispered the Fairy Walker, and at that moment, her hands moved as fast as lightning to stop Baiyi from raising his arm. "But it's still alright. We should visit Tree Gramps instead. That way, they will feel more secure."She was right. The Gale Snipers wanted first to bring the group to see the Legendary Grandfather tree; this was a decision Baiyi had no reason to object to.A while later, the group arrived at a patch of woods that looked no different from where they began their journey. The Gale Snipers stopped at this point and glanced at each other before stepping aside, making way for the group to walk forward. However, before they could say anything, the Fairy Walker suddenly cried out, with the innocent voice of a little girl, saying,"Tree Gramps! I'm baaaaaack to see ya!"She had deliberately chosen to sound like a cute eight-year-old girl. This was how she spoke back in the day when she pranked the Grandfather Tree into digging holes for moles.Her cry made a part of the woods shiver visibly, then a tree suddenly jerked, as though someone had stomped hard on its root, and an ancient voice permeated the surrounding, "This voice And here I was, thinking that I will never see this little nightmare again"Then, the tree turned around like a human, and a face appeared on its darkened bark.Grandfather Tree was neither a tree spirit nor the hybrid of a human and a tree; he was a great druid who had long since learned the Gnosis of Nature, which made him become one with nature. After his enlightenment, Grandfather Tree discarded his fairy body and became a spirit-like being which flowed within this forest. Every blade of grass, leaf, and tree here were part of his body. One could say that he was the forest itself.No one knew how long this great druid had lived, for even his name had been lost in the rivers of time. It was possible for him to be as old as Baiyi was, and wield powers and abilities just as incredible.As soon as the great druid heard the Fairy Walker's voice, he chose to inhabit a tree at random and looked at the group, but he realized that the tree made him too tall to look properly at them, so he chose to possess a young, short sapling, causing a new shoot to emerge from the earth; he continued his observation from this newly-born shoot.No one spoke, including Baiyi, who dearly wished to ask the tree if its name rhymed with 'root'.After a period of observation, Grandfather Tree sighed, and the sapling shook its leaves helplessly before saying, "It really is you, child. You really have returned. But, why do you look like this? What misfortune did you encounter, my poor child?""Well, a lot has happened to me, but lookie! I'm doing pretty fine. My sweetheart here loves me a lot; he dotes on me constantly, or I wouldn't have been able to see you again!" The Fairy Walker continued, in her little girl voice, then she wrapped her hands around Baiyi. "Tree Gramps, meet my precious dear."The sapling eyed Baiyi from head to toe and mumbled, "Oh 'dear', that's a hideous one.There is something about him that makes me feel at ease hmm. Could it be"The sapling bent forward and stared at Baiyi from even closer. "I sense the Gnosis in you, child."'Stop calling me a child! We don't even know who is older between the both of us!' Baiyi retorted in his mind, but outwardly he shook his head affirmatively. "In the past, I spent some time with another great druid who had also realized the Gnosis.Maybe its scent was smeared on me?""It?" The sapling took note of that word, and after carefully pondering something, it replied, "Then it must have been a very generous, selfless, and gentle; just like amother. It gifted you its complete understanding of the Gnosis, but you have failed to grasp it."Baiyi was not surprised by its words. Another Great Druid had now affirmed something Baiyi had suspected for a long time; the Eight Walker really had passed him the Gnosis of Nature. This realization made Baiyi feel moved at its generosity.However, what good could that do? Could it help him summon a jade golem, or insta-kill someone before summoning a whole bunch of little tree people?The sapling, however, did not answer Baiyi; instead, it said, "You're a qualified druid, mm Yes, the two of you do complement each other nicely. I hereby, in the name of nature, give the both of you my blessing."Saying so, the sapling shook its branches, and green light encased Baiyi and the Fairy Walker.Grandfather Tree spoke again, saying, "Child, you'll probably suffer a little while you're with this little miss, so be careful."'Before all that, just tell me why you had to bless someone with the color of infidelity?!'Yo, you're quite a traditionalist there, mate!So in other words, these fairies are Air Nomads, right? Airbenders? "Like a leaf, y'all!"Author showing off his DoTA 2 knowledge again. I'm in the dark about how these work, though.Gee, colored me surprised.
