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The second he’d heard that Riev was here in Vantalay, he’d known that this would happen. He’d even gotten word, multiple times over the years, that Riev was itching for a rematch.

And if that was truly the case, then Zeff had to assume that the guy had gotten considerably stronger since then. No one would want to fight the same person a second time after having barely escaped with their life unless something had drastically changed.

Sure, the man could’ve just been a completely insane idiot--which was fairly likely, even--but the fact remained that Zeff still had to assume the worst.

He was not about to underestimate his enemy and be caught off guard as a result.

So he didn’t hold back in the slightest. When he sensed Riev making a beeline for him, Zeff did two things: he sealed Riev in a giant block of ice, and he began cooking up one of his most powerful techniques, the Drillburst.

That was the name he’d finally settled on for it, despite Axiolis’ insistence that it be called the “Water Bomb Drill.”

It was the first time he’d bothered naming a technique in many years. All the ones he’d named previously had long since become trivially simple to perform, and so using their names was a needless extra step.

The Drillburst, however, would likely require a very long time before that was the case. It was a technique that previously needed to brew in his mind for several seconds before it could be used, but with the name, that time was cut in half. And by using his hands to create a concentrated orb of howling steam in front of him, the wait could be shortened further still.

And of course, pan-forma helped, as well.

That was the real reason why he considered this one of his most powerful techniques, now. The speed of it. While he could almost certainly pull off something even stronger with enough time, being able to fire off the Drillburst in less than two seconds meant that he could almost turn it into a barrage, already.

Which was what he did now.

Riev broke out of the ice block with obvious ease, but that was perfectly fine, because the Drillburst finished charging. The ball of steam in Zeff’s hands vanished in an instant, and in the next, the thick, watery boom arrived right on top of Riev.