Under normal circumstances, I would probably be looked down on for picking a fight with a girl, but I don't really care about that. I, for one, believe in gender equality: nobody should get treated differently because of their gender.

I'm a merchant, after all, so I group people in two different categories regardless of gender: "potential customer," and "get the hell out of my shop."

Amber mentioned that the harpy girl in front of me was the fastest person in this town, so it would be difficult to land an attack on her unless I used a spell with a wide area of effect. Since there was a large crowd gathered around us, using a spell like that wouldn't be a good idea at all…

Looks like I have to use physical attacks on her, or try to keep her in one place.

"Flame Body!"

I had already finished chanting this spell a while ago, when the harpy girl was busy blowing the fire away from her reptilian accomplice.

This was a spell that changed the physical property of the caster's body, reducing physical damage taken and giving a chance to burn an enemy that makes contact. It would probably be impossible to burn the harpy girl, though, given how fast she moved - her slash attacks wouldn't make contact with my body for long enough to make her talons catch fire. I only used this spell as a precaution against being unable to avoid her attacks.

The girl charged at me at full speed. We were ten paces apart, but she closed that distance in less than half a second. That only gave me enough time to move my staff in front of my torso, resulting in my right arm that was holding the staff getting slashed.

Even though her strength was supposed to naturally be low, the harpy girl's high movement speed greatly amplified her attack's power. If I hadn't used that spell earlier, my arm most likely would have flown off.

I continued holding my staff close in front of me to protect my torso against the girl's slashes as she repeatedly charged at me. She was moving at such a high speed that I could not counterattack or even get a clear grasp of her position.

Crap. This was a bad situation. Her slashes weren't deadly, but I would most likely get worn out from the repeated attacks and lose after a while.

I started to get the feeling that I should have just let them get away with messing with the shop…

Wait. The shop? It's probably fine if I get my self-proclaimed assistant involved, right?

"Amber! Help me!"

"Huh?"

"Use the sleep spell you used on me yesterday!"

"But… it only works on people of the opposite gender!"

Who the heck invented a spell that only works about half the time?!

"Then just use anything that would buy me time!"

"I got it!"

She raised her hand up high after her cheerful response, and it began to glow white. The light grew brighter and brighter, and it soon blinded my sight.

"Ahhh! My eyes!"

"I'm going blind!"

"What's going on?!"

"I can't see!"

The spectating crowd was panicking after suddenly being blinded, and all I could hear were their cries. Whatever Amber used was strong enough to white out everyone's vision.

Even though I couldn't see anything, neither could my opponent. The attacks from the harpy girl stopped for now.

Well, I suppose this does give me some time to chant a couple spells.

"Blazing speed! Strength boost!"

The light that Amber channeled faded away after I finished casting the spells that buffed my speed and strength. My body was lighter than usual thanks to the Flame Body spell, so the speed boosting buff was more effective than usual.

I think I should probably be as fast as that harpy girl now.

"I'll make you regret doing that!"

Having regained her sight, the harpy girl charged towards Amber, angry about getting blinded earlier. I swiftly dashed towards Amber and threw a left hook punch at the harpy girl.

She was focused on trying to slash Amber, so the girl did not notice me coming at her and her face took the full force of the punch. She veered left as a result of the impact and hit the ground.

I was a mage, so my strength was relatively low. Even with the strength boosting spell, that shouldn't have been enough to knock her out.

The harpy girl stood back up and glared at me with bloodshot rage.

"Your opponent is me. Leave Amber alone."

Furious, the harpy girl once again charged at me at full speed. Unlike a while ago, however, my speed was now on par with the harpy girl, and I was able to parry all of her slashes with my staff. I countered with a few punches and staff swings, but they were easily dodged or shoved away.

Having realized that constantly charging at me was keeping the fight at a standstill, the harpy girl changed her tactics and flew up.

Before I could figure out what she was doing, she dove down towards me with blinding speed. Her talons grazed my right arm as I jumped to the side to dodge.

I see. She's making use of gravity to make her attack speed even higher than when she charged at me on the ground.

I chanted another spell while constantly sidestepping to avoid another two dives.

"Heat wave!"

"...!"

The harpy girl swerved a little on her third dive and missed me. She tried to fly back up immediately after, but failed.

As a user of magic that controlled heat and fire, I knew too well that cold air sank down and hot air rose up. The heat wave spell I released earlier manipulated the air temperature unevenly in a moderate area around me, completely disrupting the air flow and making it impossible for my opponent to fly.

The crowd around me didn't seem too happy about suddenly having their standing spot turned into an outdoor sauna and started booing at me, but I didn't really care. Saunas were great for making one lose weight, and the large orcs in the crowd looked like they had a lot of excess weight anyways.

"Don't think you can win just because you grounded me!"

She was not happy about losing her aerial advantage.

I suppose it's about time to end this battle.

I dashed towards the harpy girl and kept my distance close to her, occasionally throwing a punch or kick that would easily get deflected.

"Your attacks are too slow!"

She would occasionally take a couple steps back at first, prompting me to dash towards her again. However, after realizing that my attacks were not dangerous to her, she remained put.

As for me, I wouldn't have kept my distance so close to her if I didn't have a plan in mind.

My staff did have that weird enhancement of "tougher than tempered steel," so I could use it like a pole weapon without having to worry about the oak wood breaking.

I swung my staff a couple times, but the harpy girl easily sidestepped to dodge it.

It didn't matter if I couldn't hit her, because after observing how she dodged a few times, I had a general idea of what her movement pattern was like.

"Amber! Blind everyone again!"

"Alright!"

A blinding light shot out of Amber's raised hand, completely whiting out the vision of everyone. The crowd once again panicked and screamed at the sudden loss of vision.

This was good. Their loud cries would drown out the sound of my staff swinging through the air.

I had already closed the distance with the harpy girl before Amber used her spell, so there was no doubt that she was still within range of the staff's swing.

I swung my staff with all my might towards where I predicted the harpy girl would be, aiming a bit higher than my previous attacks with hopes that it would hit the head and possibly knock her unconscious.

I heard a thud, and the impact caused the staff to break free from my hands' grip and fly away.

Success!

As the bright light faded away, the crowd was shocked to see that the harpy girl had fallen unconscious on the ground. There were a few grunts and moans from the people who placed their bets against me, but overall the crowd was speechless as they observed the unbelievable sight in front of them.

I picked up my staff that was lying on the ground, and raised it up in the air in triumph.

Amber excitedly announced to the crowd,

"Blaze won! Those two have to give everyone's extorted money back now!"

All of the market district's store owners in the crowd erupted in cheers after hearing that announcement, prompting the rest of the crowd to join in on the excitement.