Severing the telepathic link between us was the signal for Hestia to start fighting. Still hiding under her [Sanctuary] barrier, she shot out one [Flame Spear] as a gesture of respect for my challenge to her.
Dodging it, I cast [Haste] on myself. Despite the high mana cost and my relatively low mana pool, I still found the effects of the spell good enough to warrant using it. Speeding up my movements might be the only way for me to dodge Hestia's "firework show" if I couldn't cast [Shadow Dash] in time.
Like Hestia, with [Chant Revocation Lv. 10], I didn't have to ever do the Incantation part of spell casting ever again, which meant I could cast spells nearly instantaneously. Of course, it depended on the spell itself, as every spell had a different set of time to materialize. Fortunately for me, shadow spells were fast to activate.
Once my spell was finished, Tasianna started casting and shooting [Ice Spike] around the arena, piercing the ice spells into the rock.
These ice projectiles were freezing to the touch and lethal, as they were large enough to drill a hole through somebody’s stomach. Once she was finished, the arena was littered with shadows usable for me to dash and conjure shadow attacks from.
The arena Hestia made for us was just an empty field of rock and earth. Most of the trees had to be cut down or bulldozed away just so we had enough space to fight in. Hestia was also quite worried we would cause another forest fire, so there was barely any vegetation in this baseball stadium-sized area. Which indirectly weakened me, as shadow-based spells like [Shadow Dash], [Dark Tendrils], and [Shadow Snake] couldn’t be cast without them.
["You didn't have to do this, guys,"] Hestia called us out while scratching her head. ["If you had asked, I would have gladly made some rocks for shadows."]
Knowing we wouldn't respond, Hestia simply activated all her buff spells without waiting for us to answer.
Heh, all those buffing spells are really unfair. Her stats are skyrocketing.
Giving Hestia liberal use of her spells and skills meant having to fight against a fully buffed dragon girl. Those buffing spells helped me compete with the trolls, and now I had to fight against all of that.
Relying on Hestia so much meant I was missing them quite a bit right now, but to become stronger, I had to learn how to handle myself even without all her help. Learning how to fight, even without all her buffs, you could say. As such, I had my own surprises now.
Shadow Armament, on!
My mana oozed out of my body, completely black like a shadow before it wrapped itself around my torso like a dark coat. However, it didn’t stop there, as it continued moving around me, covering my whole body like armor, only leaving my eyes exposed. It felt flimsy as a defensive option, but for some reason, using it made me feel extremely safe.
["Madam Saori, the red mist around your eyes has just gotten larger,"] Tasianna stated.
Another addition to my body after my evolution was how my eyes could exude mana mist with the same color as my irises. They would only activate when my heart began to start beating faster and served no value for my combative power, despite sharing the same color as Hestia’s fire elemental magic circles. Thankfully, it only used up a miniscule amount of mana and could be useful for intimidation purposes.
["You guys are thinking too much, starting fighting! Enjoy the suppressive fire!”] Noticing how we were taking our time assessing a proper action plan, Hestia decided to shoot out multiple [Flame Spear] at us.
Using [Haste]'s effects, I slipped through the gaps between them, barely traversing around this firework and heat of the moment.
Hestia showed a thumbs up and smiled. ["I wish you could show some of those moves when we dance together, Saori! I'll turn up the difficulty of this bullet hell, ok?"]
My face tensed up when a wall of earth erupted from the ground and sent me up into the air before I could react to it. Wind, earth, holy, and fire projectiles were shot at me like a machine gun, aiming to take advantage of my lack of aerial movements. Unlike before, I couldn’t see a way to escape this with my own power.
Nevertheless, I wasn’t alone here. Knowing this could have happened, Tasianna had already prepared the level two [Ice Magic] spell [Frozen Shield] beforehand. Casting the spell, a large tower shield made of ice froze the air before us the moment the shots began bombarding it.
["Ahh! It's melting! My shield is melting too fast!"] Tasianna cried in panic as I was quickly falling towards the ground.
That's all the time I need, Tasianna! I said internally. One string; grab my arm and pull me down! Dark Tendrils!
Locking my eyes on one of the shadows created by Tasianna's spells, a dark tendril shot out of the ground, towards my direction.
["As if I will let you, Saori!"] shouting those words, a [Sacred Smite] flew out of Hestia's hand and dispersed my spell upon contact.
Yet, that was exactly what I needed her to do. As she used [Sacred Smite] instead of [Holy Smite], the shining projectile didn’t stop after destroying my spells but continued flying, all while shining a brilliant light bright enough to project a shadow of myself onto the ice shield.
Turning my head around, I immediately shrouded Tasianna with [Shadow Armament] and then used [Shadow Dash] to enter the realm of darkness with her through this small window of opportunity, escaping the bombardment before it destroyed the shield.
["Stay calm like always, Miss Tasianna,"] I comforted my fairy companion sitting in one of my dress's pockets.
["Yes, it's like the other times. I just need to stay put and let you guide us out of here,"] Tasianna meekly responded.
The world of shadow wasn’t pleasant to me, but it was even worse for anybody who came with me. They could neither see nor were they able to move without me. While it was convenient to use this to transport everybody to a new location, it was also unclear what would happen if they accidentally let go of me.
Shaking those thoughts away, I swiftly swam through the dark sea and jumped out of a hole to re-enter the world of light. Taking a deep breath, the first thing I did was to release an ear-throbbing roar.
“Eek!” The first thing I heard after I roared was a cute yelp from Hestia, followed by an immediate attack from her sharp-scaled tail.
Kuek! Close! Now!
Still only half-way out of the shadow, her reflexive attack nearly gouged out a chunk from my chest. If I hadn’t dodged that, the fight probably would have ended right there. Her fighting instincts were sending a shiver down my spine, especially since she didn’t hold back with that attack.
However, I wasn’t green around my ears anymore. Any second wasted would lead to death. WIth [Haste], I grabbed her tail as it swung wide, using it as leverage to pull myself out of the shadow world and into the air before she kicked me in my stomach.
Hestia, her brilliant crimson hair fluttering around as she turned her body, locked onto me and snapped her fingers, wrapping her claws in fire before she [Air Step]ped herself into the sky and swiped at me. I kicked her arm away, giving Tasianna enough time to shoot out [Ice Spike] to counter, but she didn’t. She hesitated!
Tsk!
[“Tasianna!”] I called out for her to snap out of her anxiousness.
[“Bwuah!”] she yelped. [“S-Sor—”]
But we didn’t have any time to talk here, as Hestia used [Wind Blast] to launch her body forward, ruthlessly double kicking me right onto the ground. I managed to avoid the fall damage by diving into my shadow at the last second, but the moment I jumped out of the shadow world, Hestia was already right in front of me, having readied a karate chop.
Kuek!
Her cold, wide eyes glared at me. She wasn’t in [Battle Frenzy], but she was focused on this fight like a wolf hunting a rabbit.
Guess, I need to do this now. Grrrk!
The moment our eyes met, I activated [Bloodlust] and [Terror Aura] at the same time. While I couldn’t activate [Bloodlust]'s secondary effect, as I wasn't actually trying to kill Hestia, it still projected the raw bloodlust that my race [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo] could freely emit.
"Kyiik!" Hestia retreated from the shocking power of my aura, but that little bit of confidence was immediately kicked down as Hestia recovered from her astonishment in the span of a second. With a perfect pirouette, Hestia twisted her body and kicked right into my blocking right arm.
“Uuuurgh!” I heard the sound of my bones creaking from that impact, followed by numbness around my right shoulder.
[“Duck!”] Without replying to that familiar voice, I did exactly as she wanted and kneeled down. In the next moment, shards of ice shot above, forcing Hestia to dodge back and make room for me to recover.
However, I wasn’t fighting only Hestia here, I was fighting against multiple of her at once. Her parallel minds gave her an insane advantage as even while her body was moving, spells could shoot out at any time. The time I got to rest was about three seconds before an [Earth Wall] shot me right into the sky.
Not again! Dark Tendrils!
I couldn’t afford the same situation as before! This time, I was inside her [Sanctuary], I wouldn’t fly up very high! So, before I crashed against her holy barrier, I conjured [Dark Tendrils] from Hestia’s shadow, grabbing her arms and legs, immobilizing her and keeping her on the ground.
“Urgh!”
“Kuek!”
Both of us groaned. Hestia was weak against dark elemental attacks, while I was mildly weak to holy, due to my evolution choice. We were on the opposite spectrum of our natural elements, and we could feel the pain of the damage, even if it was being dulled by our skills.
However, all of that meant nothing, since Hestia was a mage. She couldn’t reach me to get back into melee combat, but her spells didn’t need something like that. The fact she launched me back into the sky meant she was planning on taking me out when I couldn’t move up here.
Unfortunately for her, I could watch her fight and learn her moves. I couldn’t copy them all, but with Tasianna around, I could at least replicate her most used movement method. It was time for Tasianna to show her growth.
[“Tasianna!”]
[“Yes! Sorry for before, it’s ready! Wind Bullet!”] Multiple small wind blasts blew us away from Hestia’s incoming spells, allowing me to flank her.
Tasianna hesitated to hurt Hestia, but at least outside of that, she was quite reliable. Still, I had to make sure to lecture her about that one mistake before, as it cost us a chance to get her bracelet. And to make up for her mistake, I couldn’t let this chance go.
[“Get ready!”] I told Tasianna before ordering one of the [Dark Tendril]s holding Hestia back to grab my arm, pulling me towards the crimson dragon girl.
On my way down, I cast [Dark Bolt]. Conjuring up a dark elemental missile, instead of shooting it at Hestia, I grabbed it with my shadow covered hand. Using [Shadow Armament] once more, I molded the spell to transform it into a dagger. As long as I had [Shadow Armament] on, any shadows were mine to command!
With this dagger in my head, I allowed Tasianna to use wind magic to guide my body through the storm of spells Hestia shot at me, before striking at her!
“Urgh!”
… Was what I wanted to happen, but the moment I almost connected my attack, a bright light burst from her fingertips, engulfing my sight and dissipating all my dark spells. I had miscalculated. She tricked me.
[“Haha! You aren’t the only one who can use tricks, Saori!”] Her smug face was projected into my mind as I was blinded by her [Shine]. I should have known something was up when she didn’t break out of them!
Tch, my fault for being arrogant before a more experienced fighter!
However, even she could act confident. I couldn’t see right now, but I could hear. I could smell her. I could detect her with [Enhanced Enemy Sense]. And as I pinpointed her position, I extended the shadow armor around my fingers into claws, and struck at her.
“Woah!” She let her voice out. [“H-Hey!”]
Hand is coming from the left! I parried her claw attack, far too slow to be an actual attack. And because of that, I grabbed her arm.
Once more, grrrk!
“Graaak!”
Snapping my eyelids open, I roared in her face and released my [Bloodlust] as I attempted to twist and dislocate Hestia’s arm. However, not only did I not even scare her, she went with the flow, letting a loud crack from her shoulder. It broke!
But without letting a cry out she elbowed the sides of my stomach using her unharmed arm. I didn’t let go, as I could see her bracelet right in front of me, but the moment I heard the sound of flames and sparks flying around me, I pushed Hestia away and ran as far as I could.
“Urgh…” I grimaced after creating from distance from Hestia, expecting her surrounding to explode from her spark fire.
[“Whew, nice reaction! Haha, that actually would have worked if I didn’t have a personal space defense, yeah?”] Hestia smirked as she fixed her broken arm before using [Moderate Heal] to fix the wound. [“But it’s still not enough to defeat me, Saori. Not enough~”]
She was gloating, but she had all rights to do so. Whether it was close-range or from afar, fighting Hestia felt unfair. It was like trying to go up against a fighting specialist, right now, where they had more options and knowledge how to use their abilities, compared to me.
[“Honestly, really fun, but let’s end this, you two. Sparring is fun, but if you can’t show me more of your growth, I don’t have a reason to continue this! Dodge it as best as you two can!”]
Having said that, Hestia gnashed her teeth together, creating a large spark.
["Princess Hestia, please wait! I'm here, too!"] The desperate plea from Tasianna was left unheard.
["Quickly! Tasianna. Left. Now!"] I shouted.
Dodging backward, Hestia closed her mouth, allowing the spark to build up unperturbed.
Realizing she was about to roast us like grilled meat, I conjured and shot multiple [Dark Bolt]s at her, only for Hestia to conjure a miniature [Sanctuary] around herself to block them.
Meanwhile, Tasianna materialized a giant [Ice Spike] and shot it to my left as I ordered. Since my [Shadow Armament] counted as shadows, it was possible for me to cast [Dark Tendril]s from them. And using these appendages, I grabbed the ice block Tasianna created and had it dragged us out of Hestia's dragon breath.
“Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuh!”
A breath attack, large enough to be called a flame rocket, smoothly burst out of Hestia's mouth and narrowly caught me by the tail, singeing off a few hairs. Once it passed me, it flew through the [Sanctuary] barrier and then destroyed a part of the arena’s wall, causing the forest to once again catch on fire because of my companion's irresponsible usage of fire.
This pyromaniac!!!
["Oi, Hestia. I told you this was a spar!"] I reconnected my telepathic link to scold her for her reckless attacks. ["A bit slower and I would have lost my tail! Were you trying to kill me there?!"]
["Eh, maybe, maybe not. Maybe using a jump scare wasn’t so cool as you thought, right?”] she spoke with a dissatisfied face. ["Besides, I could have thrown that inferno blast out the moment Tasianna cast her spell. Why would I ever try to deliberately kill you guys? You two never were in danger in the first place!"]
["So that was revenge for that scare?!"] I spat out, befuddled. ["Wasn't that too extreme?! You destroyed a section of the wall and the forest is on fire… again!"]
["The forest will live. Ever heard of slash-and-burn agriculture? The trees will regrow stronger and mightier,"] she dismissed my environmental concerns with a wave of a hand. ["Call it payback, hope you liked that fright. Enough of that, tell me how did you do it? How did you escape that bombardment and entered my barrier?"]
I raised a brow, mumbled to Tasianna "shield," before answering Hestia's question. ["It was thanks to you, of course."]
She tilted her head at my answer, brows frowned in a questioning look, so I had to continue, ["It was your [Sacred Smite], Hestia. Once it dispersed my [Dark Tendrils], it projected my shadow onto the shield. I used it to [Shadow Dash] to the shadow under your feet, which is being cast by the sun."]
Hestia looked under herself, noticing her shadow with a shocked expression, ["That's stupid. Your shadow wasn't even connected to the ground and you can still do that?"]
I shrugged, ["The shadow world doesn't follow the rules of the light world, after all."]
Simply saying "I guess," Hestia readied herself back into a fighting stance.
Compared to her more carefree pose during that firework show, her current one suggested she had no intentions of dispelling [Sanctuary], willing to fight me up-close and personal. Claws ready to defend herself up close, her legs postured to jump at me at any time, and her right wing was spread out with multiple magic circles ready to activate.
She’s getting more serious. This is hard. Think.
["Make sure to avoid getting mauled by my claws. I can heal you up, even your heart, if your Health doesn't drop to zero."] Her eyes were razor-sharp and her smirk seemed to have disappeared. ["Just make sure to dodge anything that comes to your head. I don't know if I can heal memories."]
["If you could, you would have healed yours a long time ago,"] I shot back, going along her banter.
["..."] Hestia's mouth was agape, as she slowly recovered from my words. ["That will probably be the only time you will be able to hurt me today. I thought you were the adult here."]
["I once overheard from my students that you should banter a bit when you fight against each other in video games."] From my memories, I could remember Nagata-kun and Ishigami-kun continuously throwing slurs at each other after they played together the day before. It sounded pretty rough, but they were best friends.
Obviously, as a teacher, I had to warn them not to do that when their studies were that much more important. Still, it was amusing to watch them being so competitive with each other, so much so I questioned why they were playing together when they were being toxic with each other while playing. Video gamers.
["You have interesting students, Segawa-sensei. Never heard you talk about them much until now though, hehe."] Letting her guard down from my joke, I was able to buy some time for Tasianna and myself from Hestia.
["There was never a need to do so, Atsuko-chan."] This was the first time I had addressed Hestia as "Atsuko," even though I was the one to give her that name. Her confusion about being addressed in that way was clear for everybody to see. ["Maybe I'll talk about them some other time. Today? We need to end the fight, agreed?"]
["Well, I guess you are right."] Hestia bent her legs, readying a large green magic circle behind her.
Noticing the large magic circle behind her back, I quickly shouted, ["Tasianna!"]
Tasianna popped out of my pocket and answered, ["Already done! The shield is ready!"]
Having bought Tasianna enough time to fully chant the spell, her [Frozen Shield] began materializing before me. Meanwhile, Hestia's [Wind Blast]activated, launching her body like a rocket towards us. Before the shield fully blocked my sight, I could see some fire in her mouth.
["No use!"] Hestia took in a deep breath before spit out a fire ball from her mouth.
Shadow Dash!
Before the shield fully broke, beads of melted ice were slowly falling while Tasianna and I merged into a shadow. I barely saw Hestia breaking through the shield as my head was about to be submerged.
Once we were back in the world of shadows, I realized the shadow we entered, the shield's, was splintered into pieces. Some of them were too small for me but one was just perfect.
Jumping out of the shadow, I immediately grabbed Hestia's tail and pulled her backward. Due to my high Strength and her low weight, I effortlessly pulled Hestia's entire body with my right hand. Once her party bracelet was in my sight, my left-hand darted towards it, ready to win me this match.
However, before my hand reached it, my [Prediction] warned me of an incoming claw, clad in fire. Giving up this opportunity, I cartwheeled backwards and used my legs to counterattack, kicking her fiery claws up to the sky.
Once I was back on my feet, I rushed back into Hestia's face. While it was also dangerous for me due to her claws, it was far easier for me to do something here where she couldn't blow me up with spells at her leisure. With my [Shadow Armament] covered body, I began mounting the counterattack on Hestia.
["Droplet Torrent!"] Tasianna also began shooting out bullets made out of water at Hestia, calling their names out for some reason.
Rushing her down with overwhelming attacks coming from my hands and feet, I used both Tasianna's support and my now dark elemental enchanted body to force her into defense. Reflecting on what I did before, it seemed being on the defensive myself would be the worst thing to do against her.
As we learned from the battle against the trolls, Hestia's [Draconic Barrier] was also susceptible against the elements she was weak to. Instead of blocking, she had to dodge all my attacks otherwise her Mana and Stamina would take chip damage.
"Wind Blast!" Not wanting to stay on the defense any longer, she blew me away from her. With distance created, she then shot out [Petal Flames] at me and began terraforming our arena with giant [Bedrock Blades] made from the ground.
Trying to stabilize myself after landing back on the ground, my [Prediction] went wild, warning me of them. Looking up, I saw multiple flames in the forms of petals dancing in the air, awaiting to dive towards me. There were also multiple sharp-looking earth blades, tall enough to dwarf the trolls, swimming through earth and rock to slice me up.
Dark Tendrils!
Noticing my [Haste] has finally worn out, my confidence in dodging all these attacks dropped. Instead of relying on my Agility, I chose to use [Dark Tendrils] to dodge around them. Choosing the shadow of the approaching [Bedrock Blades], I had the tendrils grab my hand and pull me towards them.
Releasing myself mid-flight and then recasting [Dark Tendrils] elsewhere, I was able to avoid all the descending blades by maneuvering myself through the air as deftly as I could. Sliding through the hail of fire with the help of these black tendrils, my plan was to find an opening to re-enter the world of shadows.
As I was about to cast [Shadow Dash], a [Terra Wall] suddenly burst from the ground, sending me tumbling into the air… again.
"Oooof!" Gasping for air, I pulled myself back to the ground with [Dark Tendrils] before all the petal flames crashed into me. Still, it was impossible for me to dodge all of them, considering how numerous they were.
"Urrrghh..." My left leg received most of the damage. The smell of burned hair and skin invaded my nostrils as my burned nerves were telling me to stop despite having [Absolute Pain Tolerance].
Nausea caused by the smell was even more intense, as had both [Primal Senses] and a wolf monster's nose. It was revolting.
["Go to sleep, Saori,"] Hestia said, readying her fingers in a coin toss gesture.
From here, I could see a colorless liquid secreting from underneath her claws. Before flinging whatever toxin she created with [Toxin Secretion], multiple additional [Wind Bullet] came flying out at me. It would do little damage to me, nonetheless, its role wasn’t to harm me but to slow me down, enough to get hit by her toxin.
["Tasianna!"]
There weren’t any shadows large enough for me nearby and those spells were too fast for me to dodge. With [Absolute Pain Tolerance], I could still move even under nerve-wracking pain but where was I supposed to run to? [Sanctuary] was still active and the area we were fighting in was only as large as a concert stage. I trapped myself… I had nowhere to hide… which meant, I had to make my own opening!
Burrowing my fingers into the ground, I used my entire Strength to lift a patch of ground up to create my own earth wall to block the incoming wind spells.
["No time for another [Frozen Shield]? Well too bad but it's checkmate, I guess."] under the loud plopping of wind against my wall, I could hear Hestia breathing deeply.
["Close your ears, Tasianna!"] I shouted, predicting something loud to happen.
"Will you grant me,
Will you grant me,
Will you grant me your eternal love,
My Heart is yours, so stand with me,
Let's celebrate until we fall!
Will you grant me,
Will you grant me,
Will you grant me your eternal love,
Trust in me,
Let me hear your voice, so tell me that you love me! "
While the lyrics of her song were pleasant, her singing couldn't be called romantic at all.
Using [Draconic Voice] and amplifying her voice with [Aerokinesis], her voice shattered the ground around me. My eardrums were shaking uncontrollably despite my best efforts to shield them from this ear busting shout. Hestia knew she could heal us without any issues even if we were turned deaf from her attacks.
Once her voice destroyed the wall, I was blown away and crashed onto the ground, tumbling. Although my ears were rattling painfully, I was still able to hear my moaning and groaning.
No! How did my Stamina drop that quickly?! Damn… did I mismanage it?
["Have a good nap you two!"] Now holding the toxin in a wind capsule, she flicked it at us.
Once it landed, the air ball exploded and released a white gas. For some reason what came out wasn't the toxin, but gas? What was Hestia trying to… d… do!
T-This was sleeping gas!
Shit, I miscalculated, again!
I forgot she could heat up the toxins with her body temperature, turning them into gas. With the amount of heat her body could produce by simply breathing, it should have been obvious that was possible. The gas was spreading too fast and I had already breathed some in! We've been had!
["Madam Sa-ori, I have an idea,"] Tasianna sluggishly said.
Tasianna told me her plan and that it all depended on how good my stealth abilities were.
Realizing I had no other ideas, I agreed to Tasianna, ["We can only hope, right? Ok, let us do it!"]
With that, the white smoke slowly covered us up. We didn't make a move yet. I just stood there, silently focusing, giving it my all to concentrate under the effects of the sleeping gas.
The seconds counted down. One, two, three, four… and so on. I waited for the perfect time while being surrounded in a veil of gas, completely obstructing everybody’s vision of me. Once I opened my eyes, I was behind the dragon girl and saw her hands on her hips. However, I also noticed she sensed my presence before I made a move.
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Like a predator finding her prey, Hestia snapped her body towards me, searing hot claws ready to slice me into pieces. "Fool me thrice, then go to hell! Spark Claws!"
My reflexes responded to it perfectly but the speed difference between her fully buffed body and my unbuffed one was too large. Even with [Humanization (Moderate)] she equalized any disadvantages she had with magic. This was the power of the magic prodigy.
Her claws tore through my stomach, gouging out a large piece of muscles and organs.
["Just Blink..."] Despite an obvious wound in my stomach, I decided to stay on the offensive instead of backing off.
[Just Blink] was an [Unarmed Technique] ability I learned after Tasianna lectured us on how to obtain weapon and martial abilities in this world. To gain a weapon ability, the most common method was to perform the same move 100 times. Once you did, the System would personally ask you if you wanted to acquire the ability.
The number of abilities you may have depended entirely on the [Technique] skill of the weapon. I only had [Unarmed Technique Lv. 2] so I was only able to learn two abilities until my capacity was full. The [Mastery] skills, on the other hand, handled how much damage you did with weapon abilities and your preferred weapon.
It was possible to delete weapon ability, but Tasianna explained how extremely tedious it was, similar to learning them in the first place. She couldn't remember the full details, as she rarely talked with fairy or elven warriors.
I couldn’t catch up with Hestia with magic, so the next best option was to focus on my physical prowess.
Calling out my own custom-made ability, my fist clad in shadow turned invisible for a split second to everybody’s consciousness. Before she could remember the effects of [Just Blink], my shadow fist punched her in her face.
"Owwwww!" Recoiling back from the attack, Hestia was holding her nose. It shouldn't have hurt that much but I believed it was her human nature prompting her.
[Just Blink] was an ability I could only use when my arms were covered with [Shadow Armament]. Using the dark misty mantle, it turned my arm undetectable to the naked eye for a single second like a blind spot. This was how I became “invisible.”
Activating [Stealth] and [Presence Killer] at this very second enabled my attack to bypass any detection skills. Of course, if the recipient of the attack were to be completely focused, the effects would be easily neutralized as skills like [Prediction] or [Danger Perception] would immediately warn you to dodge my attack.
While a normal fist wouldn’t be very dangerous, if I had used my claws, I could have very likely torn a hole into Hestia's [Draconic Barrier] due to the [Shadow Armament]. I would have been able to morph my shadow into razor-sharp claws or pointy spears.
I was confident in Hestia’s ability to heal herself, but it still felt wrong to do it. If [Shadow Armament] were able to pierce her personal barrier, then what would happen if it pierced her skull?
This was a spar, not a duel to the death. Maybe I was worrying for nothing and underestimated her ability to protect herself. She might be able to defend herself completely against my skills.
However, to risk it was to be irresponsible. We could always try it out at a later time.
In the time Hestia backed away, I activated another ability of mine.
Shadow Descent!
Focusing on the coat of darkness in my right leg, I jumped and somersault with my right leg extended. [Shadow Armament] extended itself, doubling the length of my leg.
While Hestia managed to dodge out of it at the last second, the ground, on the other hand, had to bear the full brunt of the explosive mana from this ability. At the center of my kick, it cracked open.
Like Hestia's dragon abilities, my abilities required me to have [Shadow Armament] activated to work, which meant I had to spend Mana and Stamina on them. Seeing how many spells I used today, I should be careful of arcane corruption, but I had to keep moving now that I had [Exhaustion (Minor)]. If I stop moving now, then I would lose!
Using the momentum of my dropkick, I launched my body back up and used another [Shadow Descent].
["You're annoying me now! Go away!"] Hestia activated the sparks around her, using [Spark Flame Veil].
With the activation of that skill, sparks of flame began to surround Hestia. Even covered in [Shadow Armament], the intense heat created around Hestia instantly sent my feet on fire. As the flames grew, so did the damage. It continued eating up my leg, then my torso, then my head, until all I could see was black.
"...Your garm mother did the exact same thing, Saori…" A shiver ran down my spine as the burned body slowly dispersed into tiny particles of mana. "Sorry, but I can’t be fooled by you!"
Get the bracelet, now!
Jumping out of the shadow, I had my arm reach out for Hestia’s bracelet, however, at the very last second, I saw a white magic circle appear on her hand as she pointed it at my eyes calling out, ["Shine!"]
"Arrrrrrghhhhhh.... wrooouuh? Arghhh!" With a hard bump, my head crashed on the hard ground.
"That was a nice strategy but it’s your loss through submission." Trying to open my eyes was burning torture. Even if I fought through the pain, I could only barely recognize a face staring down on me. "Using a [Shadow Clones] to bait me into thinking it was you so I would fight it while holding back, giving you enough time to sneak behind me with [Stealth] and [Shadow Dash]. I must admit, I wasn't able to detect you until you used that last [Shadow Descent]. Arcane corruption is a real problem, you dummy. And my body felt the tingles when you came too close."
She found me out just because I was this close to my arcane corruption limit? Another miscalculation it seems…
"I still wasn't sure about your exact location, but I just needed an approximation for [Shine] to blind you," she continued her explanation. "Once you lost your eyesight, taking you down even with our small Strength difference was easy enough, hehe."
["Tch, urgh, I thought that [Shadow Clones] plan was perfect,"] I complained. ["Your gas bomb surprised me, but thankfully Miss Tasianna made these ice masks with her [Frozen Shield]."]
With her quick thinking, we were able to avoid going to sleep under the effects of the sleeping gas with the help of these masks. Her idea really saved me from using my own mana on making masks or taking them out of my storage.
"Shhh, no more talking. [Telepathy] uses mana so it's dangerous to use it at this stage, Saori," Hestia worriedly said. "Wait a minute… where is Tasianna anyways?"
["Hehe, I might have lost...but my team will not! Now, Tasianna!"]
Shadow Snake!
With that signal, a black snake made out of mana slithered out of the shadow and attacked Hestia's neck. She caught it in her hand, but it continued to wiggle around.
"What the hell! Saori, stop using mana to control it! You're gonna gain more arcane corruption with this!" Hestia shouted.
However, I wasn't the one controlling it. [Shadow Armament]'s description said that anything clad in it could control my dark spells!
"Haaaa!" Jumping out of the shadow snake, Tasianna yelled a war cry before grabbing Hestia’s party bracelet.
"What?!" As if her hand teleported, Hestia stopped Tasianna from taking off her bracelet at the nick of time by grabbing her.
"Ow! Shadow Snake dive and attack!" Tasianna yelled in Hestia's fist.
Upon command, the snake shrunk down and escaped Hestia's clutches, before grabbing the now dangling party bracelet.
"No! Shine!" In desperation, Hestia once again cast [Shine] from her left hand, killing the snake instantly. ["... That was close… that was toooooooo close. Tasianna, you lost through submission."]
["It- No, we nearly won..."] Tasianna groaned, crestfallen.
Hearing those words, my fist slammed on the ground. My tongue could taste iron as a thick fluid was flowing down my throat as I bit my lips.
It was so close. Just a bit more and the snake would have gotten it. If I wasn't detected after my clone died. If I had only considered the chance of Hestia turning her toxin into gas. If I had not gotten hit by her [Petal Flames]. Dammit!
I was THIS close to proving myself.
["Ahhhhhhhh,"] Hestia sighed in relief. ["That was so exhausting, but it really was an awesome match. I held back but I really didn't believe you guys could deceive me that much. I hate fighting against garms and their tricks."]
"Ooof!" Something hard fell onto my chest.
Touching it, I could feel tangled but still smooth hair flowing on my hand. Moving my hand, a bit closer to my chest, my fingers felt something soft and elastic. Pulling on them was fun and satisfying. Once I released them, the object started adjusting itself until it found a good place to set itself on my chest.
["But fighting with and against you is fun, Saori."] A voice came from atop my chest. The object was Hestia's head. ["You guys did a fantastic job. Saori, Tasianna, I humbly give my thanks for fulfilling my request."]
["It is a great honor to have served you, Princess Hestia. I have also learned much from this."] Tasianna's voice came from above, sitting relaxed on my forehead.
["It was my pleasure, Hestia,"] I said with my lips curled up. [" I was not able to beat you, but it was close enough for me."]
It was a bit uncomfortable, considering her horns were poking my breasts but it was calming how I could stroke her head like this. It had the same effects as petting a cat while spending a day in a cat hotel.
["Too close, indeed,"] my friend laughed. ["Major Heal."]
With those words, a holy light basked us and healed us from all our wounds from this fight. If it weren't for the arena where we were fighting in, it would have looked like three young women taking a nice break under the noon sun.
I might not have been able to beat Hestia today, but the time will come. I just have to keep up with her pace on my own path.
AbyssRaven Extra long chapter today. Hope it wasn't too much!
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Thank you for reading this chapter.
Severing the telepathic link between us was the signal for Hestia to start fighting. Still hiding under her [Sanctuary] barrier, she shot out one [Flame Spear] as a gesture of respect for my challenge to her.
Dodging it, I cast [Haste] on myself. Despite the high mana cost and my relatively low mana pool, I still found the effects of the spell good enough to warrant using it. Speeding up my movements might be the only way for me to dodge Hestia's "firework show" if I couldn't cast [Shadow Dash] in time.
Like Hestia, with [Chant Revocation Lv. 10], I didn't have to ever do the Incantation part of spell casting ever again, which meant I could cast spells nearly instantaneously. Of course, it depended on the spell itself, as every spell had a different set of time to materialize. Fortunately for me, shadow spells were fast to activate.
Once my spell was finished, Tasianna started casting and shooting [Ice Spike] around the arena, piercing the ice spells into the rock.
These ice projectiles were freezing to the touch and lethal, as they were large enough to drill a hole through somebody’s stomach. Once she was finished, the arena was littered with shadows usable for me to dash and conjure shadow attacks from.
The arena Hestia made for us was just an empty field of rock and earth. Most of the trees had to be cut down or bulldozed away just so we had enough space to fight in. Hestia was also quite worried we would cause another forest fire, so there was barely any vegetation in this baseball stadium-sized area. Which indirectly weakened me, as shadow-based spells like [Shadow Dash], [Dark Tendrils], and [Shadow Snake] couldn’t be cast without them.
["You didn't have to do this, guys,"] Hestia called us out while scratching her head. ["If you had asked, I would have gladly made some rocks for shadows."]
Knowing we wouldn't respond, Hestia simply activated all her buff spells without waiting for us to answer.
Heh, all those buffing spells are really unfair. Her stats are skyrocketing.
Giving Hestia liberal use of her spells and skills meant having to fight against a fully buffed dragon girl. Those buffing spells helped me compete with the trolls, and now I had to fight against all of that.
Relying on Hestia so much meant I was missing them quite a bit right now, but to become stronger, I had to learn how to handle myself even without all her help. Learning how to fight, even without all her buffs, you could say. As such, I had my own surprises now.
Shadow Armament, on!
My mana oozed out of my body, completely black like a shadow before it wrapped itself around my torso like a dark coat. However, it didn’t stop there, as it continued moving around me, covering my whole body like armor, only leaving my eyes exposed. It felt flimsy as a defensive option, but for some reason, using it made me feel extremely safe.
["Madam Saori, the red mist around your eyes has just gotten larger,"] Tasianna stated.
Another addition to my body after my evolution was how my eyes could exude mana mist with the same color as my irises. They would only activate when my heart began to start beating faster and served no value for my combative power, despite sharing the same color as Hestia’s fire elemental magic circles. Thankfully, it only used up a miniscule amount of mana and could be useful for intimidation purposes.
["You guys are thinking too much, starting fighting! Enjoy the suppressive fire!”] Noticing how we were taking our time assessing a proper action plan, Hestia decided to shoot out multiple [Flame Spear] at us.
Using [Haste]'s effects, I slipped through the gaps between them, barely traversing around this firework and heat of the moment.
Hestia showed a thumbs up and smiled. ["I wish you could show some of those moves when we dance together, Saori! I'll turn up the difficulty of this bullet hell, ok?"]
My face tensed up when a wall of earth erupted from the ground and sent me up into the air before I could react to it. Wind, earth, holy, and fire projectiles were shot at me like a machine gun, aiming to take advantage of my lack of aerial movements. Unlike before, I couldn’t see a way to escape this with my own power.
Nevertheless, I wasn’t alone here. Knowing this could have happened, Tasianna had already prepared the level two [Ice Magic] spell [Frozen Shield] beforehand. Casting the spell, a large tower shield made of ice froze the air before us the moment the shots began bombarding it.
["Ahh! It's melting! My shield is melting too fast!"] Tasianna cried in panic as I was quickly falling towards the ground.
That's all the time I need, Tasianna! I said internally. One string; grab my arm and pull me down! Dark Tendrils!
Locking my eyes on one of the shadows created by Tasianna's spells, a dark tendril shot out of the ground, towards my direction.
["As if I will let you, Saori!"] shouting those words, a [Sacred Smite] flew out of Hestia's hand and dispersed my spell upon contact.
Yet, that was exactly what I needed her to do. As she used [Sacred Smite] instead of [Holy Smite], the shining projectile didn’t stop after destroying my spells but continued flying, all while shining a brilliant light bright enough to project a shadow of myself onto the ice shield.
Turning my head around, I immediately shrouded Tasianna with [Shadow Armament] and then used [Shadow Dash] to enter the realm of darkness with her through this small window of opportunity, escaping the bombardment before it destroyed the shield.
["Stay calm like always, Miss Tasianna,"] I comforted my fairy companion sitting in one of my dress's pockets.
["Yes, it's like the other times. I just need to stay put and let you guide us out of here,"] Tasianna meekly responded.
The world of shadow wasn’t pleasant to me, but it was even worse for anybody who came with me. They could neither see nor were they able to move without me. While it was convenient to use this to transport everybody to a new location, it was also unclear what would happen if they accidentally let go of me.
Shaking those thoughts away, I swiftly swam through the dark sea and jumped out of a hole to re-enter the world of light. Taking a deep breath, the first thing I did was to release an ear-throbbing roar.
“Eek!” The first thing I heard after I roared was a cute yelp from Hestia, followed by an immediate attack from her sharp-scaled tail.
Kuek! Close! Now!
Still only half-way out of the shadow, her reflexive attack nearly gouged out a chunk from my chest. If I hadn’t dodged that, the fight probably would have ended right there. Her fighting instincts were sending a shiver down my spine, especially since she didn’t hold back with that attack.
However, I wasn’t green around my ears anymore. Any second wasted would lead to death. WIth [Haste], I grabbed her tail as it swung wide, using it as leverage to pull myself out of the shadow world and into the air before she kicked me in my stomach.
Hestia, her brilliant crimson hair fluttering around as she turned her body, locked onto me and snapped her fingers, wrapping her claws in fire before she [Air Step]ped herself into the sky and swiped at me. I kicked her arm away, giving Tasianna enough time to shoot out [Ice Spike] to counter, but she didn’t. She hesitated!
Tsk!
[“Tasianna!”] I called out for her to snap out of her anxiousness.
[“Bwuah!”] she yelped. [“S-Sor—”]
But we didn’t have any time to talk here, as Hestia used [Wind Blast] to launch her body forward, ruthlessly double kicking me right onto the ground. I managed to avoid the fall damage by diving into my shadow at the last second, but the moment I jumped out of the shadow world, Hestia was already right in front of me, having readied a karate chop.
Kuek!
Her cold, wide eyes glared at me. She wasn’t in [Battle Frenzy], but she was focused on this fight like a wolf hunting a rabbit.
Guess, I need to do this now. Grrrk!
The moment our eyes met, I activated [Bloodlust] and [Terror Aura] at the same time. While I couldn’t activate [Bloodlust]'s secondary effect, as I wasn't actually trying to kill Hestia, it still projected the raw bloodlust that my race [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo] could freely emit.
"Kyiik!" Hestia retreated from the shocking power of my aura, but that little bit of confidence was immediately kicked down as Hestia recovered from her astonishment in the span of a second. With a perfect pirouette, Hestia twisted her body and kicked right into my blocking right arm.
“Uuuurgh!” I heard the sound of my bones creaking from that impact, followed by numbness around my right shoulder.
[“Duck!”] Without replying to that familiar voice, I did exactly as she wanted and kneeled down. In the next moment, shards of ice shot above, forcing Hestia to dodge back and make room for me to recover.
However, I wasn’t fighting only Hestia here, I was fighting against multiple of her at once. Her parallel minds gave her an insane advantage as even while her body was moving, spells could shoot out at any time. The time I got to rest was about three seconds before an [Earth Wall] shot me right into the sky.
Not again! Dark Tendrils!
I couldn’t afford the same situation as before! This time, I was inside her [Sanctuary], I wouldn’t fly up very high! So, before I crashed against her holy barrier, I conjured [Dark Tendrils] from Hestia’s shadow, grabbing her arms and legs, immobilizing her and keeping her on the ground.
“Urgh!”
“Kuek!”
Both of us groaned. Hestia was weak against dark elemental attacks, while I was mildly weak to holy, due to my evolution choice. We were on the opposite spectrum of our natural elements, and we could feel the pain of the damage, even if it was being dulled by our skills.
However, all of that meant nothing, since Hestia was a mage. She couldn’t reach me to get back into melee combat, but her spells didn’t need something like that. The fact she launched me back into the sky meant she was planning on taking me out when I couldn’t move up here.
Unfortunately for her, I could watch her fight and learn her moves. I couldn’t copy them all, but with Tasianna around, I could at least replicate her most used movement method. It was time for Tasianna to show her growth.
[“Tasianna!”]
[“Yes! Sorry for before, it’s ready! Wind Bullet!”] Multiple small wind blasts blew us away from Hestia’s incoming spells, allowing me to flank her.
Tasianna hesitated to hurt Hestia, but at least outside of that, she was quite reliable. Still, I had to make sure to lecture her about that one mistake before, as it cost us a chance to get her bracelet. And to make up for her mistake, I couldn’t let this chance go.
[“Get ready!”] I told Tasianna before ordering one of the [Dark Tendril]s holding Hestia back to grab my arm, pulling me towards the crimson dragon girl.
On my way down, I cast [Dark Bolt]. Conjuring up a dark elemental missile, instead of shooting it at Hestia, I grabbed it with my shadow covered hand. Using [Shadow Armament] once more, I molded the spell to transform it into a dagger. As long as I had [Shadow Armament] on, any shadows were mine to command!
With this dagger in my head, I allowed Tasianna to use wind magic to guide my body through the storm of spells Hestia shot at me, before striking at her!
“Urgh!”
… Was what I wanted to happen, but the moment I almost connected my attack, a bright light burst from her fingertips, engulfing my sight and dissipating all my dark spells. I had miscalculated. She tricked me.
[“Haha! You aren’t the only one who can use tricks, Saori!”] Her smug face was projected into my mind as I was blinded by her [Shine]. I should have known something was up when she didn’t break out of them!
Tch, my fault for being arrogant before a more experienced fighter!
However, even she could act confident. I couldn’t see right now, but I could hear. I could smell her. I could detect her with [Enhanced Enemy Sense]. And as I pinpointed her position, I extended the shadow armor around my fingers into claws, and struck at her.
“Woah!” She let her voice out. [“H-Hey!”]
Hand is coming from the left! I parried her claw attack, far too slow to be an actual attack. And because of that, I grabbed her arm.
Once more, grrrk!
“Graaak!”
Snapping my eyelids open, I roared in her face and released my [Bloodlust] as I attempted to twist and dislocate Hestia’s arm. However, not only did I not even scare her, she went with the flow, letting a loud crack from her shoulder. It broke!
But without letting a cry out she elbowed the sides of my stomach using her unharmed arm. I didn’t let go, as I could see her bracelet right in front of me, but the moment I heard the sound of flames and sparks flying around me, I pushed Hestia away and ran as far as I could.
“Urgh…” I grimaced after creating from distance from Hestia, expecting her surrounding to explode from her spark fire.
[“Whew, nice reaction! Haha, that actually would have worked if I didn’t have a personal space defense, yeah?”] Hestia smirked as she fixed her broken arm before using [Moderate Heal] to fix the wound. [“But it’s still not enough to defeat me, Saori. Not enough~”]
She was gloating, but she had all rights to do so. Whether it was close-range or from afar, fighting Hestia felt unfair. It was like trying to go up against a fighting specialist, right now, where they had more options and knowledge how to use their abilities, compared to me.
[“Honestly, really fun, but let’s end this, you two. Sparring is fun, but if you can’t show me more of your growth, I don’t have a reason to continue this! Dodge it as best as you two can!”]
Having said that, Hestia gnashed her teeth together, creating a large spark.
["Princess Hestia, please wait! I'm here, too!"] The desperate plea from Tasianna was left unheard.
["Quickly! Tasianna. Left. Now!"] I shouted.
Dodging backward, Hestia closed her mouth, allowing the spark to build up unperturbed.
Realizing she was about to roast us like grilled meat, I conjured and shot multiple [Dark Bolt]s at her, only for Hestia to conjure a miniature [Sanctuary] around herself to block them.
Meanwhile, Tasianna materialized a giant [Ice Spike] and shot it to my left as I ordered. Since my [Shadow Armament] counted as shadows, it was possible for me to cast [Dark Tendril]s from them. And using these appendages, I grabbed the ice block Tasianna created and had it dragged us out of Hestia's dragon breath.
“Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuh!”
A breath attack, large enough to be called a flame rocket, smoothly burst out of Hestia's mouth and narrowly caught me by the tail, singeing off a few hairs. Once it passed me, it flew through the [Sanctuary] barrier and then destroyed a part of the arena’s wall, causing the forest to once again catch on fire because of my companion's irresponsible usage of fire.
This pyromaniac!!!
["Oi, Hestia. I told you this was a spar!"] I reconnected my telepathic link to scold her for her reckless attacks. ["A bit slower and I would have lost my tail! Were you trying to kill me there?!"]
["Eh, maybe, maybe not. Maybe using a jump scare wasn’t so cool as you thought, right?”] she spoke with a dissatisfied face. ["Besides, I could have thrown that inferno blast out the moment Tasianna cast her spell. Why would I ever try to deliberately kill you guys? You two never were in danger in the first place!"]
["So that was revenge for that scare?!"] I spat out, befuddled. ["Wasn't that too extreme?! You destroyed a section of the wall and the forest is on fire… again!"]
["The forest will live. Ever heard of slash-and-burn agriculture? The trees will regrow stronger and mightier,"] she dismissed my environmental concerns with a wave of a hand. ["Call it payback, hope you liked that fright. Enough of that, tell me how did you do it? How did you escape that bombardment and entered my barrier?"]
I raised a brow, mumbled to Tasianna "shield," before answering Hestia's question. ["It was thanks to you, of course."]
She tilted her head at my answer, brows frowned in a questioning look, so I had to continue, ["It was your [Sacred Smite], Hestia. Once it dispersed my [Dark Tendrils], it projected my shadow onto the shield. I used it to [Shadow Dash] to the shadow under your feet, which is being cast by the sun."]
Hestia looked under herself, noticing her shadow with a shocked expression, ["That's stupid. Your shadow wasn't even connected to the ground and you can still do that?"]
I shrugged, ["The shadow world doesn't follow the rules of the light world, after all."]
Simply saying "I guess," Hestia readied herself back into a fighting stance.
Compared to her more carefree pose during that firework show, her current one suggested she had no intentions of dispelling [Sanctuary], willing to fight me up-close and personal. Claws ready to defend herself up close, her legs postured to jump at me at any time, and her right wing was spread out with multiple magic circles ready to activate.
She’s getting more serious. This is hard. Think.
["Make sure to avoid getting mauled by my claws. I can heal you up, even your heart, if your Health doesn't drop to zero."] Her eyes were razor-sharp and her smirk seemed to have disappeared. ["Just make sure to dodge anything that comes to your head. I don't know if I can heal memories."]
["If you could, you would have healed yours a long time ago,"] I shot back, going along her banter.
["..."] Hestia's mouth was agape, as she slowly recovered from my words. ["That will probably be the only time you will be able to hurt me today. I thought you were the adult here."]
["I once overheard from my students that you should banter a bit when you fight against each other in video games."] From my memories, I could remember Nagata-kun and Ishigami-kun continuously throwing slurs at each other after they played together the day before. It sounded pretty rough, but they were best friends.
Obviously, as a teacher, I had to warn them not to do that when their studies were that much more important. Still, it was amusing to watch them being so competitive with each other, so much so I questioned why they were playing together when they were being toxic with each other while playing. Video gamers.
["You have interesting students, Segawa-sensei. Never heard you talk about them much until now though, hehe."] Letting her guard down from my joke, I was able to buy some time for Tasianna and myself from Hestia.
["There was never a need to do so, Atsuko-chan."] This was the first time I had addressed Hestia as "Atsuko," even though I was the one to give her that name. Her confusion about being addressed in that way was clear for everybody to see. ["Maybe I'll talk about them some other time. Today? We need to end the fight, agreed?"]
["Well, I guess you are right."] Hestia bent her legs, readying a large green magic circle behind her.
Noticing the large magic circle behind her back, I quickly shouted, ["Tasianna!"]
Tasianna popped out of my pocket and answered, ["Already done! The shield is ready!"]
Having bought Tasianna enough time to fully chant the spell, her [Frozen Shield] began materializing before me. Meanwhile, Hestia's [Wind Blast]activated, launching her body like a rocket towards us. Before the shield fully blocked my sight, I could see some fire in her mouth.
["No use!"] Hestia took in a deep breath before spit out a fire ball from her mouth.
Shadow Dash!
Before the shield fully broke, beads of melted ice were slowly falling while Tasianna and I merged into a shadow. I barely saw Hestia breaking through the shield as my head was about to be submerged.
Once we were back in the world of shadows, I realized the shadow we entered, the shield's, was splintered into pieces. Some of them were too small for me but one was just perfect.
Jumping out of the shadow, I immediately grabbed Hestia's tail and pulled her backward. Due to my high Strength and her low weight, I effortlessly pulled Hestia's entire body with my right hand. Once her party bracelet was in my sight, my left-hand darted towards it, ready to win me this match.
However, before my hand reached it, my [Prediction] warned me of an incoming claw, clad in fire. Giving up this opportunity, I cartwheeled backwards and used my legs to counterattack, kicking her fiery claws up to the sky.
Once I was back on my feet, I rushed back into Hestia's face. While it was also dangerous for me due to her claws, it was far easier for me to do something here where she couldn't blow me up with spells at her leisure. With my [Shadow Armament] covered body, I began mounting the counterattack on Hestia.
["Droplet Torrent!"] Tasianna also began shooting out bullets made out of water at Hestia, calling their names out for some reason.
Rushing her down with overwhelming attacks coming from my hands and feet, I used both Tasianna's support and my now dark elemental enchanted body to force her into defense. Reflecting on what I did before, it seemed being on the defensive myself would be the worst thing to do against her.
As we learned from the battle against the trolls, Hestia's [Draconic Barrier] was also susceptible against the elements she was weak to. Instead of blocking, she had to dodge all my attacks otherwise her Mana and Stamina would take chip damage.
"Wind Blast!" Not wanting to stay on the defense any longer, she blew me away from her. With distance created, she then shot out [Petal Flames] at me and began terraforming our arena with giant [Bedrock Blades] made from the ground.
Trying to stabilize myself after landing back on the ground, my [Prediction] went wild, warning me of them. Looking up, I saw multiple flames in the forms of petals dancing in the air, awaiting to dive towards me. There were also multiple sharp-looking earth blades, tall enough to dwarf the trolls, swimming through earth and rock to slice me up.
Dark Tendrils!
Noticing my [Haste] has finally worn out, my confidence in dodging all these attacks dropped. Instead of relying on my Agility, I chose to use [Dark Tendrils] to dodge around them. Choosing the shadow of the approaching [Bedrock Blades], I had the tendrils grab my hand and pull me towards them.
Releasing myself mid-flight and then recasting [Dark Tendrils] elsewhere, I was able to avoid all the descending blades by maneuvering myself through the air as deftly as I could. Sliding through the hail of fire with the help of these black tendrils, my plan was to find an opening to re-enter the world of shadows.
As I was about to cast [Shadow Dash], a [Terra Wall] suddenly burst from the ground, sending me tumbling into the air… again.
"Oooof!" Gasping for air, I pulled myself back to the ground with [Dark Tendrils] before all the petal flames crashed into me. Still, it was impossible for me to dodge all of them, considering how numerous they were.
"Urrrghh..." My left leg received most of the damage. The smell of burned hair and skin invaded my nostrils as my burned nerves were telling me to stop despite having [Absolute Pain Tolerance].
Nausea caused by the smell was even more intense, as had both [Primal Senses] and a wolf monster's nose. It was revolting.
["Go to sleep, Saori,"] Hestia said, readying her fingers in a coin toss gesture.
From here, I could see a colorless liquid secreting from underneath her claws. Before flinging whatever toxin she created with [Toxin Secretion], multiple additional [Wind Bullet] came flying out at me. It would do little damage to me, nonetheless, its role wasn’t to harm me but to slow me down, enough to get hit by her toxin.
["Tasianna!"]
There weren’t any shadows large enough for me nearby and those spells were too fast for me to dodge. With [Absolute Pain Tolerance], I could still move even under nerve-wracking pain but where was I supposed to run to? [Sanctuary] was still active and the area we were fighting in was only as large as a concert stage. I trapped myself… I had nowhere to hide… which meant, I had to make my own opening!
Burrowing my fingers into the ground, I used my entire Strength to lift a patch of ground up to create my own earth wall to block the incoming wind spells.
["No time for another [Frozen Shield]? Well too bad but it's checkmate, I guess."] under the loud plopping of wind against my wall, I could hear Hestia breathing deeply.
["Close your ears, Tasianna!"] I shouted, predicting something loud to happen.
"Will you grant me,
Will you grant me,
Will you grant me your eternal love,
My Heart is yours, so stand with me,
Let's celebrate until we fall!
Will you grant me,
Will you grant me,
Will you grant me your eternal love,
Trust in me,
Let me hear your voice, so tell me that you love me! "
While the lyrics of her song were pleasant, her singing couldn't be called romantic at all.
Using [Draconic Voice] and amplifying her voice with [Aerokinesis], her voice shattered the ground around me. My eardrums were shaking uncontrollably despite my best efforts to shield them from this ear busting shout. Hestia knew she could heal us without any issues even if we were turned deaf from her attacks.
Once her voice destroyed the wall, I was blown away and crashed onto the ground, tumbling. Although my ears were rattling painfully, I was still able to hear my moaning and groaning.
No! How did my Stamina drop that quickly?! Damn… did I mismanage it?
["Have a good nap you two!"] Now holding the toxin in a wind capsule, she flicked it at us.
Once it landed, the air ball exploded and released a white gas. For some reason what came out wasn't the toxin, but gas? What was Hestia trying to… d… do!
T-This was sleeping gas!
Shit, I miscalculated, again!
I forgot she could heat up the toxins with her body temperature, turning them into gas. With the amount of heat her body could produce by simply breathing, it should have been obvious that was possible. The gas was spreading too fast and I had already breathed some in! We've been had!
["Madam Sa-ori, I have an idea,"] Tasianna sluggishly said.
Tasianna told me her plan and that it all depended on how good my stealth abilities were.
Realizing I had no other ideas, I agreed to Tasianna, ["We can only hope, right? Ok, let us do it!"]
With that, the white smoke slowly covered us up. We didn't make a move yet. I just stood there, silently focusing, giving it my all to concentrate under the effects of the sleeping gas.
The seconds counted down. One, two, three, four… and so on. I waited for the perfect time while being surrounded in a veil of gas, completely obstructing everybody’s vision of me. Once I opened my eyes, I was behind the dragon girl and saw her hands on her hips. However, I also noticed she sensed my presence before I made a move.
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Like a predator finding her prey, Hestia snapped her body towards me, searing hot claws ready to slice me into pieces. "Fool me thrice, then go to hell! Spark Claws!"
My reflexes responded to it perfectly but the speed difference between her fully buffed body and my unbuffed one was too large. Even with [Humanization (Moderate)] she equalized any disadvantages she had with magic. This was the power of the magic prodigy.
Her claws tore through my stomach, gouging out a large piece of muscles and organs.
["Just Blink..."] Despite an obvious wound in my stomach, I decided to stay on the offensive instead of backing off.
[Just Blink] was an [Unarmed Technique] ability I learned after Tasianna lectured us on how to obtain weapon and martial abilities in this world. To gain a weapon ability, the most common method was to perform the same move 100 times. Once you did, the System would personally ask you if you wanted to acquire the ability.
The number of abilities you may have depended entirely on the [Technique] skill of the weapon. I only had [Unarmed Technique Lv. 2] so I was only able to learn two abilities until my capacity was full. The [Mastery] skills, on the other hand, handled how much damage you did with weapon abilities and your preferred weapon.
It was possible to delete weapon ability, but Tasianna explained how extremely tedious it was, similar to learning them in the first place. She couldn't remember the full details, as she rarely talked with fairy or elven warriors.
I couldn’t catch up with Hestia with magic, so the next best option was to focus on my physical prowess.
Calling out my own custom-made ability, my fist clad in shadow turned invisible for a split second to everybody’s consciousness. Before she could remember the effects of [Just Blink], my shadow fist punched her in her face.
"Owwwww!" Recoiling back from the attack, Hestia was holding her nose. It shouldn't have hurt that much but I believed it was her human nature prompting her.
[Just Blink] was an ability I could only use when my arms were covered with [Shadow Armament]. Using the dark misty mantle, it turned my arm undetectable to the naked eye for a single second like a blind spot. This was how I became “invisible.”
Activating [Stealth] and [Presence Killer] at this very second enabled my attack to bypass any detection skills. Of course, if the recipient of the attack were to be completely focused, the effects would be easily neutralized as skills like [Prediction] or [Danger Perception] would immediately warn you to dodge my attack.
While a normal fist wouldn’t be very dangerous, if I had used my claws, I could have very likely torn a hole into Hestia's [Draconic Barrier] due to the [Shadow Armament]. I would have been able to morph my shadow into razor-sharp claws or pointy spears.
I was confident in Hestia’s ability to heal herself, but it still felt wrong to do it. If [Shadow Armament] were able to pierce her personal barrier, then what would happen if it pierced her skull?
This was a spar, not a duel to the death. Maybe I was worrying for nothing and underestimated her ability to protect herself. She might be able to defend herself completely against my skills.
However, to risk it was to be irresponsible. We could always try it out at a later time.
In the time Hestia backed away, I activated another ability of mine.
Shadow Descent!
Focusing on the coat of darkness in my right leg, I jumped and somersault with my right leg extended. [Shadow Armament] extended itself, doubling the length of my leg.
While Hestia managed to dodge out of it at the last second, the ground, on the other hand, had to bear the full brunt of the explosive mana from this ability. At the center of my kick, it cracked open.
Like Hestia's dragon abilities, my abilities required me to have [Shadow Armament] activated to work, which meant I had to spend Mana and Stamina on them. Seeing how many spells I used today, I should be careful of arcane corruption, but I had to keep moving now that I had [Exhaustion (Minor)]. If I stop moving now, then I would lose!
Using the momentum of my dropkick, I launched my body back up and used another [Shadow Descent].
["You're annoying me now! Go away!"] Hestia activated the sparks around her, using [Spark Flame Veil].
With the activation of that skill, sparks of flame began to surround Hestia. Even covered in [Shadow Armament], the intense heat created around Hestia instantly sent my feet on fire. As the flames grew, so did the damage. It continued eating up my leg, then my torso, then my head, until all I could see was black.
"...Your garm mother did the exact same thing, Saori…" A shiver ran down my spine as the burned body slowly dispersed into tiny particles of mana. "Sorry, but I can’t be fooled by you!"
Get the bracelet, now!
Jumping out of the shadow, I had my arm reach out for Hestia’s bracelet, however, at the very last second, I saw a white magic circle appear on her hand as she pointed it at my eyes calling out, ["Shine!"]
"Arrrrrrghhhhhh.... wrooouuh? Arghhh!" With a hard bump, my head crashed on the hard ground.
"That was a nice strategy but it’s your loss through submission." Trying to open my eyes was burning torture. Even if I fought through the pain, I could only barely recognize a face staring down on me. "Using a [Shadow Clones] to bait me into thinking it was you so I would fight it while holding back, giving you enough time to sneak behind me with [Stealth] and [Shadow Dash]. I must admit, I wasn't able to detect you until you used that last [Shadow Descent]. Arcane corruption is a real problem, you dummy. And my body felt the tingles when you came too close."
She found me out just because I was this close to my arcane corruption limit? Another miscalculation it seems…
"I still wasn't sure about your exact location, but I just needed an approximation for [Shine] to blind you," she continued her explanation. "Once you lost your eyesight, taking you down even with our small Strength difference was easy enough, hehe."
["Tch, urgh, I thought that [Shadow Clones] plan was perfect,"] I complained. ["Your gas bomb surprised me, but thankfully Miss Tasianna made these ice masks with her [Frozen Shield]."]
With her quick thinking, we were able to avoid going to sleep under the effects of the sleeping gas with the help of these masks. Her idea really saved me from using my own mana on making masks or taking them out of my storage.
"Shhh, no more talking. [Telepathy] uses mana so it's dangerous to use it at this stage, Saori," Hestia worriedly said. "Wait a minute… where is Tasianna anyways?"
["Hehe, I might have lost...but my team will not! Now, Tasianna!"]
Shadow Snake!
With that signal, a black snake made out of mana slithered out of the shadow and attacked Hestia's neck. She caught it in her hand, but it continued to wiggle around.
"What the hell! Saori, stop using mana to control it! You're gonna gain more arcane corruption with this!" Hestia shouted.
However, I wasn't the one controlling it. [Shadow Armament]'s description said that anything clad in it could control my dark spells!
"Haaaa!" Jumping out of the shadow snake, Tasianna yelled a war cry before grabbing Hestia’s party bracelet.
"What?!" As if her hand teleported, Hestia stopped Tasianna from taking off her bracelet at the nick of time by grabbing her.
"Ow! Shadow Snake dive and attack!" Tasianna yelled in Hestia's fist.
Upon command, the snake shrunk down and escaped Hestia's clutches, before grabbing the now dangling party bracelet.
"No! Shine!" In desperation, Hestia once again cast [Shine] from her left hand, killing the snake instantly. ["... That was close… that was toooooooo close. Tasianna, you lost through submission."]
["It- No, we nearly won..."] Tasianna groaned, crestfallen.
Hearing those words, my fist slammed on the ground. My tongue could taste iron as a thick fluid was flowing down my throat as I bit my lips.
It was so close. Just a bit more and the snake would have gotten it. If I wasn't detected after my clone died. If I had only considered the chance of Hestia turning her toxin into gas. If I had not gotten hit by her [Petal Flames]. Dammit!
I was THIS close to proving myself.
["Ahhhhhhhh,"] Hestia sighed in relief. ["That was so exhausting, but it really was an awesome match. I held back but I really didn't believe you guys could deceive me that much. I hate fighting against garms and their tricks."]
"Ooof!" Something hard fell onto my chest.
Touching it, I could feel tangled but still smooth hair flowing on my hand. Moving my hand, a bit closer to my chest, my fingers felt something soft and elastic. Pulling on them was fun and satisfying. Once I released them, the object started adjusting itself until it found a good place to set itself on my chest.
["But fighting with and against you is fun, Saori."] A voice came from atop my chest. The object was Hestia's head. ["You guys did a fantastic job. Saori, Tasianna, I humbly give my thanks for fulfilling my request."]
["It is a great honor to have served you, Princess Hestia. I have also learned much from this."] Tasianna's voice came from above, sitting relaxed on my forehead.
["It was my pleasure, Hestia,"] I said with my lips curled up. [" I was not able to beat you, but it was close enough for me."]
It was a bit uncomfortable, considering her horns were poking my breasts but it was calming how I could stroke her head like this. It had the same effects as petting a cat while spending a day in a cat hotel.
["Too close, indeed,"] my friend laughed. ["Major Heal."]
With those words, a holy light basked us and healed us from all our wounds from this fight. If it weren't for the arena where we were fighting in, it would have looked like three young women taking a nice break under the noon sun.
I might not have been able to beat Hestia today, but the time will come. I just have to keep up with her pace on my own path.
AbyssRaven Extra long chapter today. Hope it wasn't too much!
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