He has had mixed feelings about this... He wrestled the idea in his head when he first met Lera, when the aqueduct was completed, and now with Ver in front of her with blood flooding out of her right eye. But now, he knew. He doesn't know all of the answers. No, not even close. But he finally knew THE answer. The answer to why he was chosen, why he is here, and how he will save the world. In some strange ways, it's all thanks to Ver. If not for what she has done, Wu would have never come to this conclusion. Why me? What's special about what I know? What I can do? Initially, he had thought that he was chosen because of his study of the history of Science and Engineering in the human world, and how perhaps he can bring over technology and science into this world.It makes perfect sense, right? Not only is this not the most original of premises, this world is also one without the technology and science of the Earth's. But that line of thought is inherently critically flawed. And that's because this world runs on different sets of rules. This world runs on the Wave. One of the first lessons he received is that science is about understanding reality not as how we perceived it, but rather as how it actually is. That means instead of trying to cling to the perception of the human science of Earth, he instead needs to develop the science of this world. The Science of the Wave. And to do that, he has the wisdom and lessons learned from the thousands of years of human exploration and experimentation. The principles of the scientific method, the philosophy of science, logic, and deduction. those are the framework through which he shall express his true power. Not just knowledge, but the means to obtain it. There are still similarities in the environments of the two worlds, and there are certain elements that are shared between the two. But if he let himself be bound to the knowledge of the past, instead of the reality of the present, then he will perish before he could do anything more than the aqueducts for the Dwellers. Now.....this is exhilarating. As Wu ran through the settlement with a backpack on his back and a dark hood over his face, he couldn't help but smile about this realization. With the science of this world, he will make himself stronger, help Ver fix her eye, and save the world. But for now, he will have to use both the science of this world and the last to defeat Aya, the One-Shotter. A massive explosion went off on top of an empty tent right beside him, and the massive flash of light from the condensed shot of the Wave lit up the night sky, dwarfing the piercing moonlight overhead. In the meanwhile, mercenary soldiers appeared from all around like ghosts, shouting out and attacking from all directions as the Dweller's tribe's fighters rose up and fought back. Their clash continues to rock the entire forest and provided the perfect cover for Wu to ran straight into the woods. Memorizing the locations of Aya based on the information Ver gave and the direction of the shots, Wu sprinted through the woods, jumping from root to root and avoiding the leaves and branches from cracking and alerting Aya of his approach. By tracking the trajectory of the individual blasts as he ran, Wu was able to narrow down her exact location, and he rapidly slowed down as the distance rapidly closes between them. His heart is racing, and his feet felt light and strong. However, this time, it is because of his epiphany, rather than of Lera's Strengthening Cast. As he maneuvered through the woods, he spotted dark lines of Casts all around a singular tree nearby, seeming like traps, yet ironically too obvious. That must have been what Ver said about Aya's traps. However, instead of trying to catch others off-guard, it strived to scare off the attackers instead. A light flashed from the treetops overhead, and another explosion went off around the camp. Aya's here all right, and she isn't exactly subtle about her current position. To be honest, why would she? She is the Great Archer, the owner of the Legendary Bow, One-Shotter, and she's also one of the strongest Channellers around. She should be scared of no one in the entire forest, apart from Skylar Jay himself. Wu noted down the perimeters from which the Trap Cast was set up, and then he picked up a branch and poked it forward. As expected, there was no response. So he reached his hand forward instead, entering the range of the Casts and staying there for a moment. Wu waited, and there were again neither transient nor long-term effects from the Cast itself. In fact, it reacted as if he was nothing more than a branch, which Wu expected and accepted. Moving his feet lightly and repositioning underneath the tree that Aya's sniping from, he laid down his backpack and took out a single clay pot before undoing its cap. A strong smell of alcohol arose from within, and Wu slowly poured it all around the base of the tree and over the tree trunk. This was the same time of potion that was used to knock Wu and Lera out initially, and he has learned that a far weaker version of that is used to make their drinks. A Dweller's special, if you will. Then, he waited for the alcohol to evaporate and for its vapor to gradually rise through the air. As Aya continued blasting away, Wu then reached for the sets of fire-setting tools and slid them against one another. A piece of spark was ejected off the iron rod, and it glided through the air before plunging into the cloud of alcohol vapor. A low whoosh sent a blasting of heat into Wu's face before a massive flame rose up from the ground like a dragon, swallowing the entirety of the tree Aya's staying over. "SHIT!" Aya cursed as she covered her face and the fire surrounded her. She has thought that something smelled weird in the air, but she chalked it up to the rotting fruits on the branches nearby, "What kind of Cast is this?!" Channeling the Wave around her body, Aya endured the pain of the burns as she turned over on the branch, leaped off this tree towards the next, her body flying through the column of fire and crashing headfirst into the next tree. Then, she fell back and landed hard on the ground right as Wu ran out of the area of the Trap Cast. The traps sensed the use of the Wave within Aya, and it immediately sprung to life with thick vine-like binds shooting out from all of the individual segments of the cast on the trees all around her. "TSK!" Aya grunted loudly, her muscles being pushed to their limits as a bright light flashed from her body and lit up the forest briefly, "SHOW YOURSELF!" A blast wave flattened the trees in the small radius around Aya, and she tore through the remainders of her Trap Cast with brute force. By channeling the Wave explosively and suddenly throughout her entire body, she was capable of sending massive jolts of energy to her hands, giving her an unreasonable amount of power in a short span. However, she should have never been pushed to this point. There was only one question on her mind, and her eyes desperately searched the darkness for the answer. As the smoke rose from all around her and the fires finally started to burnaway, Aya ignored the searing pain from all around her body when she spotted a figure emerging from behind the trees and the smoke. "Hehehe..." Wu said, his face becoming clearer and clearer as he held a small jar in his hand by his side, "All of you Wave users are just too scary with your superpowers." "You?! How?" Aya asked, "Why didn't my Trap spot you out?" "Well, it's because I don't really interact with the Wave," Wu shrugged, tossing the jar back and forth in his hand like a basketball, "I mean, if it's specifically targeted towards me, or made for me, it can still hit me. But I might as well be a piece of branch or a slab of rock otherwise. You know, whatever summoned me is really stingy with the powers." "You are powerless?" Aya was taken aback by the realization. In her mind, she had painted Wu as being an other-worldly powerful and dangerous man, but the one in front of her seemed just.....flat out ordinary. Reaching for her bow, she then drew it back and pointed towards Wu, "Don't move." "Not so fast." Wu said, putting both hands in the air, "You know I am powerless, and that I can't do anything against you, right? So what don't we talk for a bit?" "Oh we will get plenty of time once I get you back to the camp-" Aya said when suddenly, a strange thought arose within her mind. Why is he here? Why is he all the way out from the Dweller's settlement and facing her alone? Isn't this just suicide, if he has no means of defeating her? Is he just there to buy time, to set a counter trap, to divert her attention...SHIT! Aya activated a Communication Cast tied around her wrist, and just when she was about to report to Skylar Jay, Wu threw the jar in his hand towards Aya. "Pointless resistance!" Aya declared, tilted the arrow slightly and launched a blast towards the flying and spinning jar. The condensed blasts of Wave penetrated through the surface of the jar, cracking it and sending the pieces flying out in all directions. Then, the contents of the Jar were revealed, and countless tiny shiny granules of crystal flew towards Aya like a cloud of glitter as the water surrounding them became evaporated by the blast of the Wave moving through it. It was the same granules that were left behind in the dried-up river, and the same crystals that nearly killed Wu, Lera, and Ver not that long ago. Only a crazy bastard like Wu would have collected it and store it away in a jar. Fortunately, he knew that the crystals are inactive when soaked in water, and that's exactly what he was counting on. If Aya's shots are strong enough to literally blow up tents and leave behind craters, it will contain enough energy to vaporize a small jar worth of water and ignite those granules alongside it! Wu rolled out of the way behind a massive tree, and Aya shielded herself with her arm as the remaining energy in her Wave blast ignited the cloud of the crystal, setting it ablaze right as consecutive explosions went off right in front of her face! KA-BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM! The blast continued for about half a minute, and the trees that Wu was hiding behind screeched and bent as the blast waves peeled away layers of the ground and dirt, sending it bouncing off the surfaces of the trees. The ground quaked as the bright red flashes continued to decorate the darkness of the night like fireworks. It felt as if the doors to hell and been opened, and Wu stuff his fingers in his ear though the sounds of the explosions were still too loud to bear. Aya may have been screaming, and she may have resisted. But eventually, the sheer amount of energy released by the interaction of her Wave and the granules overwhelmed her defenses. Then, as the chain reaction of explosions continued, parts of her body became completely disintegrated, returning to nature as smoke particles. It felt like at least an hour had passed when the relentless explosions finally stopped, and Wu poked his head around the corner to see a massive crater being carved deep into the ground with Aya nowhere to be seen. His heart now dominated his auditory system and he quickly spotted her legendary bow on the ground. Somehow, that weapon has survived the explosion, but its wielder didn't. Wu swallowed hard and tried not to think about the woman she just killed, and he reached forward to hold onto that piece of the weapon. Well...this isn't exactly a crafting LitRPG, but having a weapon in hand won't be a bad idea. With the bow in hand, Wu then scanned around him when he finally spotted out bits and pieces of Aya's bloody clothes, completely charred and torn up. She really is dead and he was the killer...Self-defense or not, he just took a life... Wu lowered his head and let out a sigh. In a way, he wishes that this world would be different from the last, but he is not so naive to think it really is. Everyone has a right to fight for their survival, and he simply did what he had to do. He hoped. He's glad that he didn't have to face the bodies of those that he has hurt so far, but eventually, he will have to. For now, he must move forward, and carry the memories in his backpack. Now.....Wu wondered what Ver's up to.