Max took Aria to the destroyed dome. The place was still warm and the smell of the ashes were still very fresh.

"It seems there was a big fight here…" Aria looked around in surprise. She could somehow feel that the scale of the fight was terrifying. It didn't seem like students had fought but more like some beasts.

Even the Swamp Lord couldn't cause this much destruction.

A second later, Aria froze as a scorched corpse came into her view.

"H-Human Faced Spider!!" Aria was shocked. She obviously had more knowledge about the level of creatures here since Orca was the one organizing the competition.

'This is a Peak Savage Beast!!'

'Just what kind of horrific creature could kill it?'

She didn't believe that students had done this….it was only the second day. Most of the students weren't even here and it would need cooperation of two Academies and a lot of planning to kill it.

If it was not students then, could it be...the Horde Commander?

The Mystic Tier, Blood Eating Bat?

"Don't worry, it's dead and there is no strong beast in the vicinity…." Max said seeing that she was nervously staring at the corpse.

"En." Aria nodded.

Max then looked at her and brought out his spear, "Let's begin then…"

Aria frowned. She didn't see clearly where the guy had taken his spear out from. He clearly wasn't carrying it.

Seeing Max looking at her, she took her rapier out and pointed it at him.

The next instant, she moved and stabbed it towards Max's chest.

Max slightly moved his spear and the blade of the rapier was deflected passing by his side.

"Are you hesitating? You better strike with all you have if you want to break through.." Max said with a smile as he looked at her.

Aria looked at him and her initial hesitation was gone seeing that her attack hadn't even made him budge a bit.

She drew her sword in an arc above her and several shining crystals formed in mid air.

"Whoosh!"

When Aria hacked her sword in Max's direction, the crystal flew towards Max like bullets.

Max calmly rotated his spear and smashed every piece of crystal that came his way.

"Weak! Is this all you got?" Max suddenly closed in on Aria and swung his spear down. He had adjusted his capabilities to the early stage of Advance Tier or else there wouldn't even be a fight.

"Bang!"

Aria desperately pulled herself away and somehow managed to get out of the way at the last moment.

Aria looked at Max and drew her sword upwards.

The ground beneath Max cracked and a pointed tip of a crystal emerged from below.

Max had only one thought after looking at her attack.

Vicious!

He immediately smashed the bottom tip of his spear into the crystal, shattering it into pieces before it could even completely emerge.

Max then looked above only to see that Aria had casted her true spell summoning a huge crystal sword in the air.

"Overlord's Thrust!"

The sword came down on Max and kicked up a fierce moment.

Max immediately pushed his spear upwards and took a head-on collision.

"Bang!"

Max's feet sank in the group as web-like cracks appeared around him pushing him deeper into the ground.

Aria frowned when Max managed to stop her attack.

Seeing that the sword hadn't disintegrated yet, Aria released all her mana and the giant sword began to further crystalize.

Max felt the pressure increase slightly and his legs slowly began to sink onto the ground again.

Max snorted and began to exert force and push the sword upwards.

Aria's delicate brows twitched and she tried even harder. Her mana began to chrun faster and faster in the desperate situation. She wanted to pushing back, wipe that east going expression in his face and make him recognise her strength.

At this moment, she felt the thin barrier to the higher level collapsing under the pressure.

"Boom!"

With a burst of mana from her body, the crystal sword which was being pushed above suddenly sank half the way into the ground.

Aria felt dizzy but she still ran towards the pit with worry. She was afraid of accidentally hurting Max. She didn't want this, she only wanted recognition...it wasn't her intention to hurt...

"Uh…" But her steps faltered mid way and her body began to sway.

"Shatter!"

At this moment, the crystal sword shattered into pieces and a figure rushed out from the hole catching Aria into his arms.

"T..hank..g..od…" Aria raised her hand to touch Max's cheek. She seemed relieved and finally passed out from exhaustion.

Max looked at her with a complicated expression. He still remembered the time when Lisa had said that Aria liked him….

Could it be true?

Max sighed. He had a feeling for some reason that it was not entirely false….there was no smoke without fire…

'I better keep my distance with girls in the future. I can't afford any misunderstandings this time…" Max decided inwardly.

He picked Aria up and then began to move towards the place they were spending the night.

"What happened to her?" Lisa was up with Mark on guard duty and ran up to them.

"She is just exhausted…" Max said as he tried to pass Aria to Lisa.

But Aria seemed to have tightly held onto Max's shirt before fainting.

"Hmmn...what were you two doing?" Lisa asked with raised brows.

"I already told you before leaving….didn't you hear it?" Max asked as he looked at her with a helpless smile on his face.

"I did..but I think I might have misheard…." Lisa said with a smile as she looked at the two of them.

"You know people will call you an idiot if our relationship got out…" Max said as he looked at her. "Someone in your position shouldn't en doing this..."

"Hmph! It's not like we have got anything, I wouldn't mind if you add another 100 to your harem…" Lisa snorted.

"Now that hurts me...I thought we were not strangers at least.." Max looked at her with a sad face.

But Lisa wasn't falling for it, she gave him a look and said sarcastically, "Then what do you want me to call you….honey?''

"Of course, dear…"

"Get lost!" Lisa said as she took Aria and removed her hand from his shirt.

Lisa walked away while still murmuring complaints about him. Max smiled as he looked at her.

…

Lisa laid Aria beside Venice and covered her with a blanket before going out.

A second later, Aria's eyes opened. She had a complex look on her face. She didn't know what to feel about it.

What was going on?

The conversation seemed like teasing and flirting….but that may be because they were close friends….but what were they talking about their relationship being out? What harem? Nothing between them? Then what relationships?

It was very confusing....

But why did they call each other like that…..like couples...

Could it be those two?

Aria suddenly felt a loss in her heart. But she shook her head, if it really was like that...then….she was happy….Lisa found someone…

Aria nodded while trying to smile but she was surprised the next instant when tears started to roll out of her eyes.

'What's wrong with me? Why am I crying? I am really happy for her…'

Aria wiped her face and hurriedly pulled up the blanket over her face, no one could know what was going through her mind right now.

Aria had realised a few things in the test conducted by the old spirit. Her feelings towards Max had become clearer to her…

She wouldn't admit it was love but maybe after a bit of leeway, she was willing to call it a crush and yet she couldn't control her tears now because of her crush...