That was not to say that she didn't catch him, coming down with the fury of a winter storm and battering the spirit he wore like a suit with song and ice, and she could feel the mud beast growing weaker with every blow, until at last it crumbled, fading back into his dantian… but he had learned from her it seemed.
Every time she found him and struck, he would just sink back into the earth, an infuriating grin on his face as her mist washed over him like water on a ducks feathers. Even the loss of his spirit beast came too late, as the boy proved absurdly resilient, a slate grey slab of polished stone as large as a grown man that seemed to be his domain weapon flashing out to absorb her attacks, before vanishing back into his dantian.
