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] to show that she acknowledged my challenge.

Dodging it, I cast [Haste] on myself. Despite the high mana cost and my relatively low mana pool, I still found the effects of that 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 can't cast [Shadow Dash] in time.

Like Hestia, with [Chant Revocation Lv. 10], I don't have to do ever do the Incantation part of spell casting ever again, which means that I can cast spells nearly instantaneously. Of course, once it was ready 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 that I could use my spells on.

Previously, the area where we are currently fighting at 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. Without any trees in the vicinity, the chance of a forest fire was lowered but it also took away locations that I could use [Shadow Dash], [Dark Tendrils], and [Shadow Snake] at.

["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 that we weren't willing to talk, 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 have to fight against it.

Only when your own tools are directed at you, will you recognize how powerful they are. However, I planned for that.

Activating [Shadow Armament], I shrouded my whole body in a misty dark cloak.

[Shadow Armament (Full Body)] inflicted on [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo, Saori Segawa]

["Madam Saori, the red mist around your eyes has just gotten larger,"] Tasianna stated.

It seems the mana around my eyes tended to turn red whenever I fight; visible enough that you could even see it in the darkness. The cloud of red mana might have grown larger due to fusing with [Shadow Armament].

["I don't know what you guys are thinking about but try doing that under suppressive fire!"] noticing that we were slowing the battle down, Hestia began shooting out multiple [Flame Spear] at us.

Using [Haste]'s effects, I slipped through each spell's trajectory, dancing around this firework.

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?"]

With that said, a wall of earth erupted from the ground and sent me up into the air before I could react to it. Multiple different projectiles were then shot at me like a machinegun, aiming to take advantage of my lack of aerial movements.

However, knowing this would have been possible, Tasianna already prepared a [Frozen Shield] spell beforehand. Casting the spell, a large tower shield made of ice began blocking some of the shots.

["Ahh! It's melting! My shield is melting too fast!"] Tasianna cried in panic.

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 is 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, 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' 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 dark world wasn't pleasant for anybody joining me for the ride. They could neither see nor were they able to move without me. While it is 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.

"Bwah?!" the first thing I heard was a cute yelp.

Still only half-way out of the shadow, the person who gave off that surprised cry immediately used her tail to attack me, probably having noticed me with [Prediction] or [Detection Sensor].

Still, under the effect from [Haste], my reflexes responded by grabbing her tail, using it as leverage to pull myself out of the shadow world. Now fully outside, I jumped over the kick that was aimed at my stomach.

Turning her body around for the kick, the girl with brilliant crimson hair dressed in a blue dress finally noticed me.

As our eyes collided with each other, I activated my [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.

"Kyaaaaa!" Hestia unconsciously let out a loud shout in a panic, enough that her shivering body forced her to jump backward instead of attacking me.

A good thing to know when you fight Hestia is that when something doesn’t go according to her plan, then she will panic. Although, with all those parallel minds, she can quickly recover from it in a millisecond by having them pilot her body.

It must be infuriating to know that she can even react to a surprise attack if the ambusher gives her even a tiny fraction of time to react to it.

Fortunately for me, I also knew that the girl can be a bit of a scaredy-cat.

Her first instinct when she's confronted with something she's scared of isn't to attack but to dodge backward and assess the situation. Her defensive skills and her parallel minds are enough to respond to any attacks during this window of vulnerability, though, so she's rarely in danger.

This, of course, doesn't work against her phobia, though.

During the time that Hestia needed to readjust herself, I was already finished with my next spell [Dark Bolt]. Conjuring up a dark elemental missile, instead of shooting it at my opponent, I grabbed it with my shadow covered hand.

Using [Shadow Armament] once more, I ordered the spell to transform into a dagger and then jumped at Hestia to continue the attack.

Hestia’s crippling weakness to dark magic helped me with my attack. Her [Draconic Barrier] would protect her body from most attacks, but it couldn’t stop the burning sensation on her skin inflicted by dark magic spells.

She might have bought [Dark Resistance Lv. 1] but it only made her a bit more resistant to my dark spells. It frustrated her that despite enduring so many of my spells, she wasn’t able to get that skill naturally.

Well, it was inconvenient outside a battle, but it was very good to know when I have to fight her. The bracelet is close enough to be grabbed!

"What the hell! Why are you taking this so seriously, huh, Saori?!" evading all my sword strikes, the girl called me out for my actions. "This is supposed to be a spar! If you're gonna be like this, then don't blame me for having you smell like burned hair for a week!"

Having said that, Hestia gnashed her teeth together, creating a 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, allowed the spark to build up unperturbed.

Realizing that my attempt was thwarted, I threw the [Dark Bolt] dagger at her. She caught it before it hit her head but immediately dropped it like a hot rod.

Meanwhile, Tasianna shot an [Ice Spike] to my left as I ordered. Using the flying projectile’s shadow, I cast [Dark Tendrils] on it and let then grab me, dragging me out of Hestia's dragon breath.

["Spark Inferno Blast!"]

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.

I also would like to note that she can burst up into flame when she's angry or annoyed...literally.

["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?!"]

["Then tell me what that [Bloodlust] activation was supposed to be, huh?"] she spoke while stomping the ground and shaking her fist. ["Besides, I could have thrown that inferno blast out the moment Tasianna cast her spell. I deliberately waited for you two to figure something out. You guys 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. ["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 and sighed in exasperation, ["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 that 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.

["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 said.

["..."] Hestia's mouth was agape, as she slowly recovered from my words. ["That will probably be the only time that you will be able to hurt me today, Saori. I thought you were the adult here."]

["I once overheard from my students that you should banter a bit when you fight against each in video games,"] from my memories, I could remember Nagata-kun and Mikami-kun continuously bantering with each other after they played together the last night.

Obviously, as a teacher, I had to warn them not to do that when their studies are that much more important. Still, it was amusing to watch them being so competitive with each other, so much so, that I questioned why they were playing together when they obviously didn't like it.

["You have interesting students, Segawa-sensei. Never heard you talk about them much until now though, he he,"] letting her guard down from my joke, I was able to buy me and Tasianna a bit more time.

["There was never a need to do so, Atsuko-chan,"] this was the first time that I addressed Hestia as "Atsuko", even though I was the one to give her that name. Her confusion about being addressed 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. ["Wind Blast!"]

Noticing the large magic circle behind her back, I quickly shouted, ["Tasianna!"]

Tasianna popped out of my pocket and answered, ["Already done, Frozen Shield!"]

Having bought Tasianna enough time to fully chant the spell, a shield of ice began materializing before me. Meanwhile, Hestia's spell 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! Flame Blast!"]

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 that 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 to 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.

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.

As we learned from the battle against the trolls, Hestia's [Draconic Barrier] was also susceptible against the elements that 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. "Petal Flames! Bedrock Blades!"

Trying to stabilize myself after landing back on the ground, my [Prediction] went wild, warning me that attacks had me surrounded.

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 that 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 grabs 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 causing smell was even more intense, as I both had [Primal Senses] and a wolf monsters 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.

This spell would do virtually zero damage to me, nonetheless, their role wasn't to hurt me but to slow me down, so she could hit me with that 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 was only as large as a concert stage. I trapped myself…I had nowhere to hide...which means I have to make it myself!

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 in 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 that 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.

[Exhaustion (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo, Saori Segawa]

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 is Hestia trying to...d...do!

Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Torpor Resistance Lv. 2] evolved into [Torpor Resistance Lv. 3]

T-This was sleeping gas!

Shit, I miscalculated!

I forgot that 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 that was possible. The gas was spreading too fast and I've 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 that I had no other ideas, I agreed to Tasianna, ["We can only hope, huh? Ok, let's 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.

Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Concentration Lv. 1] evolved into [Concentration Lv. 2]

The seconds counted down. One, two, three, four...and so on. I waited for the perfect time while being surrounding 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 that 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 and the reason why trying to catch up with her was futile!

Her claws tore through my stomach, chunking off 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 that I learned after Tasianna lectured us on how to obtain weapon and martial abilities in this world.

To gain these abilities you had to practice the same movements over 100 times and all of them had to be the same. After you finished the necessary number of moves, you would ask the System, "System I would like to acquire [Just Blink] as an 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 are the ones that improved the strength of your weapon's attacks.

You may delete your abilities but Tasianna explained that it was extremely tedious to do so, just like with learning them. She couldn't remember the full details of it as it rarely happened among the fairy warriors and the elf warriors that came were usually elite that had their ability list perfected, she said.

However, that method only worked well when it's an ability that has already been established by the System...

Calling out my own custom-made ability, my fist clad in shadow turned invisible for a moment, attracting Hestia's attention. 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 believe it's her human nature that made her do so.

[Just Blink] was an ability that I could only use when my arms are covered with [Shadow Armament]. Using the dark misty mantle, it turned my arm undetectable to the naked eye for a single second.

Activating [Stealth] and [Prescence 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’ve 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 can 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, creating cracks from the epicenter of my kick.

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 it.

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 stopped moving now, then I will 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! 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.

"...You 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 I 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, he he."

["Tch, urgh, I thought that [Shadow Clones] plan was perfect,"] I complained. ["Your gas bomb surprised me, but thankful Miss Tasianna made these ice mask with her [Cryokinesis]."]

These masks were actually formally [Ice Spike] as I had a plan to use them to distract Hestia. She still had them ready to use as there wasn’t an opportunity to shoot them at her.

However, 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?"

["He he, I might have lost...but my team won't! Now, Tasianna! Shadow Snake!"]

With that signal, a 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.

"Fuck!" 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.

"Shit! 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 Fan]. 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 are poking my breasts but it was calming that 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 that 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.

Multiple proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Shadow Armament Lv. 2] [Mana Efficiency Lv. 2] [Mana Control Lv. 6] [Dark Magic Lv. 7] [Mental Warfare Lv. 3] [Terrain Maneuvering Lv. 5] [Fire Resistance Lv. 3] [Wind Resistance Lv. 2] [Battle Mind Lv. 2] gained Skill requirement fulfilled. [Dark Amp] gained