-Aizawa Maria(3)-

“Duel?!” Kenshin had a funny look on his face.

“Yes.” the woman, Maria nodded her head in acceptance. She had a sharp look on her face, as her eyes radiating fighting spirit.

“Why?” Kenshin couldn't understand why she had suddenly proposed a duel with him. Has he done something to make her mad just now?! More importantly, why should he fight her?

“No reason. Just wanted a good fight, that’s all.” Her reason was so direct that Kenshin had an impulse to tackle her on that. Her reasons were contrary to what he had expected.

Now, Kenshin was very mature for a 23 years old man. Although he had some mellow feelings for this woman, he wasn’t that enthusiastic to obey all her whims. Not only he didn’t know her at all except for her name and her alliance but also she was too direct with her whims.

Dealing with such women; though easy but a real pain in the ass.

“No.” Kenshin too was direct with her. He then turned around and made way towards the teleportation gate.

It was better for him to weed out that mellow feelings in his heart during its budding stage.

BOOM!! Crack!!

The sound of something exploding behind him was heard as dust and debris flowed around with the wind that had suddenly picked up out of nowhere. Startled, he looked back only to find a large chunk of concrete from the wall near the teleportation bubble was missing. There was a white cloud of smoke coming out of the destroyed remains.

Kenshin’s pupils narrowed to a needlepoint.

‘Explosion Magic! Shit!! She is crazy’ Kenshin shouted in his head and increased his guard. As the dust cloud settled, Maria was revealed. She had her left hand extended towards the exploded wall.

With narrowed eyes and a face devoid of all emotions, she was looking towards Kenshin, as if daring him to disregard her any further.

Kenshin was sweating bullets as he saw her face. From this he found out the most important shortcoming of his life;

‘I have a bad eye for women!’

The first woman, with whom he had a case of love-at-first-sight turned out to be an unreasonable and crazy person.

“Ugh! What do you want?” Kenshin was starting to have a headache.

“You. Me. Fight. Now.” Her eyes narrowed even further as she said with small pauses.

Now Kenshin was left with no way out. Its either he accepts the duel willingly or forced to accept it.

“You crazy lady, what have I done wrong with you?” Kenshin shouted while readying himself for the battle. He was really feeling wronged here.

“Hmph! Ask those lewd eyes of yours” in the end she was not mature enough to let that go. She, who was angry at Kenshin, disguised her intentions of teaching him a lesson in the name of duel.

“When?! Woman, you are discrediting my gentlemanly behaviors here” Kenshin became angry for suspecting his character.

“Hmph! Not admitting your mistake”

Hearing her made Kenshin give up on convincing her to stop this useless charade. He narrowed his eyes towards her and activated identification function of his system.

[Aizawa Maria][Lv 25]

[HP 450/450][MP 210/210]

[ATK: 40; DEF: 30]

[Skills]

Explosive Ring Lv 4[MATK: 400; MP: 40]

creates a ring of diameter 2 meters, inside which everything explodes according to her wish.

Limited to inanimate objects only.

Explosive Touch Lv 5[MATK: 50; MP: 5]

everything the user touches explodes.

Limited to inanimate objects only.

Have a stacking effect.

Strong!!!

She’s way too strong for him right now. He nearly had a heart attack seeing her absurd magic related stats. And let's not start on her skills; although she had only two, they packed a real punch.

If he had a direct head-on fight with her, Kenshin was sure he would lose before even the fight begins.

Seeing her pitiful defense, Kenshin realized that she had invested all her time to her magic improvements. Unlike him, nobody could see their stats in this detail; as a result, they couldn’t balance out their stats like what he had done until now.

Only Kenshin had that kind of advantage over everyone else in this world.

Since not everyone could see their status, their improvements depend solely on their instincts. This woman had followed her instincts and increased all her magic-related status.

Even then Kenshin has the confidence that he would be the winner if they duel right now. That confidence had stemmed from this one fact;

[Titles: Bane of Spectres(Active)(Status: 1000% of base ATK for 4/10 Minutes)]

His title bonus has yet to vanish and still had a 4 minute left in the timer. This bonus gave him 1000% increment to his base ATK. A single touch was enough to defeat her. If he can get close to her then it would be piece of cake; the problem was that she wouldn’t allow him to get close to her.

Though she had a weak defense, her offense was too much to handle for the current him.

‘I have to think of a plan’ he thought while simulating many scenarios in his head. On the other side, Maria, noticing Kenshin’s change in stance also became serious. She held her short sword in a reverse grip and took a stance with her right-hand outstretched while her left hand that was holding the sword behind her back. She took an aggressive stance.

Seeing her like this, Kenshin noticed that she had perfect control over her maai, her engagement distance. She was no amateur it seemed.

Kenshin did ‘The Snake’ and pointed his sword tip to her face, a basic sword stance that encompasses both offense and defense. But before that, he had another thing to do.

[Ding* You have used Replication on Explosive Ring Lv 4]

[Replication success!]

[+400 EXP]

[WARNING* you have already exceeded the limit of the skills available. To store new skills delete a skill]

[Delete one of the following skills]

Passive Regeneration (Passive/Always active) Lv 6][1900 Exp to next level up] Tireless Body (Passive/Always active) Lv 2][1211 EXP to next level up] Flaming Slash Lv 4][1742 EXP to next level up] Metal Hands Lv 4][2000 EXP to next level up] Death Stare Lv 0][1000 EXP to next level up] Mirror Reflection (Passive/Always active) Lv 0][2000 EXP to next level up] Summon Minions Lv 0][1000 EXP to next level up]

Kenshin knew this would happen one day, so he had already prepared himself for the inevitable. Unhesitatingly, he selected Metal Hands skill that only provided him with a measly 40 ATK.

[You have selected Metal Hands skill]

[Do you want to replace Metal Hands skill with Explosive Ring skill?]

[Yes/No]

Yes!

[Ding* You have gained Explosive Ring Lv 0]

[Explosive Ring Lv 0][2000 EXP to next level up]

creates a ring of diameter 2 meters, inside which everything explodes according to the user’s wish. (Limited to inanimate objects only) MP cost: 50 Deals 100 M.ATK(Magic attack) to everything inside the ring.

The ATK value had decreased by a lot. He had expected this to happen. Unlike his Lv 0, Maria’s was already Lv 4. He had an urge to use all his skill points but forcibly restrained himself. Skill points were very scarce so he was saving them for critical times.

“Ready!!”

“3”

“2”

“1”

“Go!” both of them screamed at the same time and sprinted towards each other.

The battle that’s just about to commence…

BOOM!!!!

…was suddenly interrupted by a loud explosion which was completely unrelated to them.