(MC POV)
Frightening.
Absolutely frightening.
Lian Li and Eris managed to swim to me within the next hour with Eris being the winner, Lian Li reaching me just a second later than she did.
Granted, their forms weren't perfect, but they could at least keep themselves afloat for a good enough distance by themselves.
That's not the frightening thing, no.
The first thing was that Lian Li showed absolutely perfect control over her Divine Lightning form. Her blast did not disintegrate anything around her and neither did it harm Eris who was beside her in any way.
That was testament to her supreme control over her element which I suspect was already close to or already at Master level.
No wonder Guiying had improved so much in just a short amount of time with Lian Li as her teacher.
The next thing was Eris's body strengthening.
I had only been teaching her how to infuse Quarks into other objects all this while and she had already shown incredible proficiency in it.
But for her to figure out how to imbue her own body with Quarks despite not having a Cultivation Point is entirely unprecedented.
What Eris had done was to draw in the latent Elemental Quarks in the air to charge her physical body and increase her strength, allowing her to imbue her own body with the Element that she had manifested.
This had been something that researchers had marked as only feasible in theory while practically impossible in reality.
Most had agreed that imbuing non-living things with Quarks was the most possible extent that anyone could achieve. This isn't due to a lack of trying but it's because non-Practitioners can't handle the power within the Quarks and would usually explode in a gory mess if they tried.
As much as I wanted to be furious at Eris for trying it on herself without telling me, I was more impressed that she had managed to do it even if her motivations for doing so are questionable.
I did give Eris a good spank on her behind for it, reminding her not to do such dangerous things on her own again. The cake reward was still hers to take though, I didn't want to dampen the vacation mood any further than it needs to be.
Both of them wanted to start playing in the water right away but I made them take a break first. It was obvious they were still winded from the impromptu lesson I gave and it's good for them to at least have some rest first.
I herded them back to the place where we had set up on the beach, Brendan still out cold and laying on his back on one of the mats a short distance away from us.
Summoning three glasses of water, I passed two of them to the girls.
"Drink, it's easy to get dehydrated while in the sea."
Lian Li and Eris took the glasses and drank obediently.
"Onii-sama!" a voice called out from the side.
I turned just as Elaria flung herself towards my chest, her arms reaching out for me.
I slowed her speed in midair before catching her, only for her to start frantically sniffing my chest.
"Ahhh~~ Onii-sama's beach chest! All lotioned up and hot and firm and tight and hot… And… And so hot!!"
I smacked her on her head, instantly bringing her back to reality.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Odriana hunched over what I assume to be her sketchbook while drawing something with a trail of blood dripping down her nose.
"Eheh eheh eheh~ The little brother pushing down his older sister on the beach… This will be an instant hit!"
So distracted I was with my two sisters' actions, I almost didn't notice Diao Chan standing a short distance away from them.
Her swimsuit had changed the most drastically out of everyone else's as it's now literally just some strings across her chest and waist with her most intimate parts covered by the ornaments hanging on said string.
If Manami's was revealing, Diao Chan's was downright scandalous.
Our witch was currently staring at me with a quite wistful expression on her face. Her mouth was partially opened and a clear line of drool was trailing past the corner of her lips.
I noticed the white coloured ball she was holding under her arms.
"Diao Chan? What's that?" I asked, pointing at the ball.
She jerked in response, looking down at her side in confusion as though she wasn't sure how the ball got there in the first place.
"Ah! That's right!" Elaria jumped away from me to pick up the ball from her before thrusting it at me. "When we are at the beach, we've got to play some beach games! Beach volleyball!"
"Beach volleyball?" Lian Li asked.
Elaria puffed her chest proudly, "It's one of the important things of a beach arc! I remember it!"
I raised an eyebrow, "Well… That's fine, but we don't have a net, do we?"
"Yes we do!" Elaria giggled, pointing back towards the villa.
I followed her gaze to see Gamma trotting down towards us and carrying two metallic poles over her shoulder. In between said poles was a net that was wrapped around the top, seems like Elaria really came prepared.
Gamma bowed to me, "Master, where would you like the net?"
"Well… Just that open space will do, I guess?" I pointed to the flat area of sand in front of the sand castles I had been building with Cai Hong.
The centauress bowed again before moving to set the net, just as Cai Hong returned with Manami and Kiyomi in tow.
"Papa! Papa! Cai Hong found 'sea shwells'!" The loli dragon rushed up to me, proudly showing a giant clam the size of her head.
No way I can tell her that it's not a sea shell with how happy she looks so I just patted her head instead.
"Ara, ara? Nice of you to join us finally girls," Manami giggled, catching up to us. "What is Gamma doing there?"
"We're playing beach volleyball!" Elaria announced again.
Kiyomi tilted her head, "Beach volleyball?"
I smiled, "Why don't you help Gamma set up the net while explaining the rules to the rest, Elaria? I'll go wake Brendan up. He shouldn't be missing out on this."
Cai Hong ran up and grasped my hand, "Cai Hong follow Papa!"
While Elaria was enthusiastically telling the other girls on how to play beach volleyball, Cai Hong and I went to the still comatose Brendan and squatted down beside him.
Cai Hong pouted, "Muuu… Big brother Brendan likes to sleep."
Before I could stop her, the loli dragon had tossed the clam onto the poor guy's stomach, the shell hitting him with a loud smack.
Brendan eyes snapped open as air blew out of his lungs, his arms cradling his stomach while he rolled over to his side in pain.
"Bad Cai Hong," I admonished. "Don't toss seashells on your big brother like that."
"Muuu… Sowwy Papa…"
I gave her a pat on her head, before turning back to the still groaning Brendan.
"You ok there?"
"Y… Yeah…" He groaned, sitting up. "What did I miss?"
"Not much, but the girls want to play volleyball, so you're in too."
"Volleyball?" He repeated, just like the other girls.
I shrugged, healing his abdomen of the pain with a wave, "I'm not absolutely sure of it myself but just go help Elaria set it up, she'll explain the rules."
"Ugh… Understood, Master."
Well then, this goes without saying but I'm obviously looking forward to playing beach volleyball with everyone!