(Jamie)

I'm… significantly stronger than I was when we met. It took us around four minutes to reach the fields outside of town, as we weren't too far from the gates already, and by the time we reached there, I was both Orange Rating and significantly stronger. My physical aspects are pretty much double what they were, which, in hindsight, is actually odd. A Fairy has a low base, regardless of what form they're in, which means that even with his immense values, our physical aspects were actually probably similar.

But Limitless Adaptation's Adaptive Choice and Overbuff didn't care. Or rather… the Skill itself. Overbuff didn't trigger, which means that it's only adapted me to handle him, though the Adaptive Choice did end.

The thing I'm concerned most about is the fact that Ironskin and Tough Skin both went up several Levels, with Tough Skin going from Level 8 to Level 10. That's a huge difference in resistance. None of my attack Skills went up, either. Pain Resistances and Adaptive Resistance also went up a couple of Levels as we walked.

My Health now exceeds his, and while my Mana doesn't exceed his, it does exceed his Health, now. Limitless Adaptation must suspect I'll need to use some of my Mana-related Skills for this.

Light waits, watching me. We're both waiting, as a crowd's forming around fifty feet away from us.

People are probably hoping I get my ass kicked, because of how I am and my stance on the inhumans here.

To be honest, I'm not all that confident. Limitless Adaptation might be able to adapt me to things, but even it has its limits, and I doubt it could truly adapt me to him at its current Level. It didn't even go up to Level 4 from all that buffing, and it's still probably not enough.

"Are you ready?" Light asks after a few minutes, when we feel the crowd's pretty much formed.

"I am," I state.

"Good," he says, extending a hand out.

Vines burst from the ground, wrapping around me tightly. The crowd cheers as I struggle against them. He doesn't fall prey to the habit people have of binding arms and legs together, against each other or the body. His vines wrapped around each one individually, spreading them out to keep me from being able to get a proper leverage.

Normally.

The other way, with enough STR, I could twist my way out of it by shifting my body's weight around. This way makes it much harder to do that because of having several points of origin for the binds coming from multiple directions.

After a quick assessment of the situation, I shift all of my weight onto my left foot, because this binding is still susceptible to it.

"Huh?" Light looks confused. So he can sense the shifts within his magic. "You do realize you can't escape, right?"

This is just a physical thing. You'll need a lot more power than this to take me down, dude.

"Iron Grip!" I trigger the Skill.

Its intent is to increase the power of my grip, but one upside to that is that it means I've got a bit more strength in my hands, thus allowing me to actually grip while my hands are being forced out by vines.

The vines on my hands snap under the sudden change, and I grip them tightly, pulling with my right arm towards my chest with all of my might, then I pull with my left arm, shifting the full weight of my body towards that side.

My right foot lifts up, and Light reinforces his vines, but not fast enough for me to break out of them. Now that I'm aware of his vines, I'm able to skip around them.

The Fairy slams his hands downward, palms facing the ground, and pillars of stone burst up from the ground. I jump, landing on one and jumping off of it, charging towards him as I draw my sword, feeling it bite into my hand.

He doesn't try to stop me as I drive the sword through his chest. Nothing fatal, but it should take him out.

I draw the blade out, feeling the Health that depleted from his vines' power restoring, and watch as his chest heals.

The Fairy smiles at me.

"This is actually," he says. "An ideal battleground for me."

He punches out with this fist, a blast of air slamming into me and throwing me back. I lose grip of my sword, and it flies out somewhere, landing out of my sight. I stand shakily, gathering my bearings. The Fairy hits hard, and that wasn't with a fist.

I turn to face him just in time to see him performing a series of punches and kicks worthy of a martial arts master, blasts of air exploding out of each strike. I do my best to dodge each one, though I do get hit by a few.

They hit hard. This fucking hurts! And that's with my Pain Resistance Skill!

He puts his right index and middle fingers together, the others curled up as his extends his arm out to the side, then he slashes the air.

"Arc Slash!'

A wave of magical energy flies at me at a high speed, and I duck under it as I reassess the fight. Arc Slash requires at least Knight to obtain. This Fairy isn't just a magic-based one, like most should be – he's magic and melee.

As expected of something seven fucking centuries old!

He's rounded himself out to cover his faults.

The Arc Slash passes over me, the crowd running away from it and ducking under it. By the time it reached me, it was over fifty feet in length.

As I stand up, I realize the Fairy's out of sight, though Threat Detection – going up a Level – alerts me to a presence descending from above.

I roll out of the way, watching as Light slams into the ground. Or rather, slams his spear into the ground, the Fairy himself holding onto it towards the back end of it, facing the ground with his feet touching, pointing up into the air, almost as if his body is just an extension of his spear.

He's in his true form, now. If I remember what Caleb told me properly, it takes immense concentration to hold another form, and I suppose this fight has broken that concentration of his.

The moment the spear's tip slams into the ground, it sends out an electricity-charged shockwave as the land beneath it craters and ripples. I manage to avoid being thrown about by the ground's own shockwave, but the air-based one slams into me, throwing me several yards.

You have been Stunned for 3 Seconds

My body locks up, and I can't move.

New Skill! Stun Resistance Passive Increases your resistance to stuns and paralysis. You are No Longer Stunned

I manage to roll out of the way just in time to avoid being skewered by the spear, which the Fairy had thrown at me. I get a good look at it as I back off. It's long and slender, with a dark blue shaft with silver and green runes etched into it, the head of the spear with four spikes coming to a single point, forged of a golden material and etched with something white.

When it slams into the ground, it sounds out another shockwave, throwing me twenty yards.

You have been Stunned for 5 Seconds

My body locks up again, and the Fairy moves at a high speed, running towards the spear as another message forms in my vision. I manage to avoid being skewered again, jumping up and managing to avoid the spear's shockwave this time.

I aim a kick at the Fairy's head as I come back down, though he deflects it easily, grabbing me by the ankle and swinging me around, then throwing me. I manage to recover as I tumble against the ground, much to the boos of those around me.

They really want me to get my ass kicked. By something that isn't Human.

They really need to get their minds sorted out.

I sense the shift as it happens, but can't react fast enough to avoid being thrown up into the air by more stone pillars bursting from the ground, though I do manage to avoid the vines and icicles he launched at me.

As I hit the ground, I realized he's performed another high jump with that spear, and I take off, running just before his shockwave hits me, managing to avoid it as I gain a Skill for High Jumps, allowing me to jump higher than normal.

When I look back at him, I notice that the grass where the spear hit died. All of it.

That… attack seems more like one meant to kill, Light. Thought you said you were going to hold back?

Unless this is him holding back.

"Tch," he pulls the spear out of the ground, then spins it, before holding it behind him, the tip pointing at the ground to his right, the butt of it sticking up past the left side of his head. The spear is taller than his true form, and if he hadn't nearly killed me, I'd probably laugh at the image. "Didn't mean to use that."

The Fairy looks at me.

"You're a slippery fellow."

The spear vanishes, and he charges at me faster than I can catch, his body glowing blue as he strikes me, throwing me back, a crimson-and-violet aura surrounding his fists as he begins to launch a flurry of attacks at me. They hit hard, and deal a decent amount of damage with each one that connects – even hurting me when I block.

The Fairy continues to focus on this intense attack as I do my best to avoid being hit. Limitless Adaptation isn't reacting right now, which means that it's probably burned-out from Adaptive Choice at the moment.

Whatever this Skill is, it's powerful, and even my toughed-up body with Tough Skin and Ironskin is taking a decent amount of damage from it. That blue-aura charge he did was a heavy-hit, too.

What the fuck is this guy?

I manage to put some distance between us when he takes a small breather, the auras around his fists fading, and he thrusts a hand up towards the sky, likely to use another powerful Skill.

I'm not going to let him.

"Die of Mystery!" I catch the falling die.

"Oh, shit!" He exclaims, locking his eyes with me for a moment, panic filling them. "NO! CHEATING!"

I toss the die outward with the intent that my opponent cannot use his stronger Skills temporarily.

The Die of Mystery has decided… Anyone within 100 yards of you cannot use their Skills for 60 seconds! You are exempt!

"Shit!" He exclaims, looking at me in a panic.

I'm already charging at him, and deliver a solid uppercut to his jaw. He flips up and back, landing on his ass, but quickly recovers, beginning to fight me. Even without his Skills, something like Martial Arts Mastery is still there, and there are still the bonuses to fighting that come from the related Classes.

In the end, though he may be faster, I'm much stronger and more durable at the base, and my now-higher Stats allow me to quickly overpower him. I pin the Fairy to the ground.

"Die of Mystery," I summon the die again. "Do you yield?"

"Fine!" He exclaims. "I yield!"

I get off the Fairy, then hold out a hand for him to take, helping him up. He's still bruised.

"How come you didn't heal from my strikes?" I ask. "You healed from the other one immediately. Wouldn't your VIT-"

"That's not VIT," he sighs. "It's the Ultimate Fa-it's an Ultimate Skill I hold."

The Ultimate Fairy Skill did that? So when I disabled his Skills with the Die of Mystery, he lost access to that regeneration ability of his. At least he'll recover shortly, then.

"You're good," he says. "I declare this a draw."

"You yielded," I say. "That means I win."

"I demand a rematch."

"How about," I say. "No? You were definitely kicking my ass until I decided to take a risk."

"Did someone tell you how it worked?" He asks.

"The die?" I ask, and he nods. "Trial and error taught me."

"Who are they?" He asks. "I'd like to meet them."

"How long have you been speaking Common?"

"About eight hours."

"You used the Die of Mystery, didn't you?"

"Yes."

He looks down at himself, then sighs, and I realize that he's not actually standing on the ground, but hovering just above it.

"I reverted," he sighs again, then his body shifts, changing and becoming larger, returning to the form I had helped him make earlier, though with a little bit more fat than he had on. "I'm hungry, now. Do you know any good places to eat?"

"I need to find my sword," I say, and a moment later, my sword's flying through the air, then hovering in front of me. "Uh… thanks? Why are you naked?"

"All Fairies are," he answers as I take my sword and sheathe it. "We are born naked, and we will die naked. Why cover that which is ours? We are not ashamed of our bodies, like you Humans are. Like we Humans are."

Everyone here knows you're not a Human…

"Do not Humans, Elves, and Dwarfs hate those that aren't them?" He asks me as footsteps approach behind me, a tail swishing in tune with the steps. "How come this settlement allows a Beastborn? He is the only one I could detect."

"No one screws with my team," I say. "And Cole here is a member of my team. They tried to kick him out. This particular city only likes Humans."

"It is a good thing I am a Human, then."

"We'll need to work on your acting."

"What do you mean?"

"If you want to blend in with Humans," I say. "You can't keep calling yourself a Human."

"But I am Human."

"Or stating that you are," I say. "It becomes a bit obvious you aren't by that. That, or messed-up in the head."

"Perhaps I am that."

"How are you able to sustain your Formshift so easily?" I ask. "Doesn't it take a lot of concentration?"

"Sort of," he answers. "It mostly depends on the Species. Fairies only need to expend the Mana when they cast it. As long as we're not doing anything too extreme, we can maintain it. So the Beastborn is part of your harem? Do you have any other members in it?"

"Yes," I sigh. "I do. One is a Demon, and the other is a half-dragon, half-human. They're currently away on quests."

Quests which aren't really needed anymore.

"Don't forget the Demigod."

"You've fucked a Demigod?" The Fairy looks excited by that news. "Which god was he a child of? I've always wanted to sleep with one! Or did he fuck you?"

"He's a son of Itimar," I answer. "And because I became a Paladin of Hope, I can't exactly do stuff with him anymore."

"That sucks," he looks sad for a moment, then smiles. "Thanks for the fight, Jamie! Can I join your harem?"