Kira appeared in the center of the coliseum, Orion soon appearing opposite her. He was once more wielding his mace and shield. To her surprise, however, his weapon and armor had changed. While before he had been wearing everything made of metal, now everything seemed to be made of ice. Even his shield was frosted over. “What’s that?” she asked, her eyes narrowing on him.

“What’s what?” Orion asked.

“All of that,” Kira said before gesturing towards him. “Did you get new armor just to fight me?”

“Definitely. You wanted a good fight, right?” Orion asked. “I couldn’t think of a much better way to make sure I put up a good opposition to you.”

“Oh? You had to build yourself just to counter me? I’m touched. You must think really highly of me,” Kira said in a teasing tone, though she couldn’t help feeling a bit of pride knowing he had gone to such lengths just to face her.

Orion gave a small nod. “Of course.”

Kira opened her mouth to try and make a comeback, but she really didn’t have anything. She wasn’t even sure she had anything she could say to that. It took a few moments, but finally a single phrase came to mind. “Thank you. At least I know you won’t be a push over this time.”

“I’d hold onto that thank you until after we’ve fought. If I beat you, it’ll feel pretty bad to have thanked me for it, won’t it?” Orion asked before readying his shield.

“Not really. It’ll just mean I have to get that much better,” Kira said before twirling her ji around for a moment and then charging at him. She wished she’d spent a bit more time studying what kinds of effects the leviathan armors had, but she suspected it had something to do with freezing. The armors seemed to, generally, have some visible effect that hinted at their abilities and the frost seemed fitting. She ran at him, lifting the tip of her polearm up and then driving it down hard at his shoulder.

Orion barely moved, moving the shield up to block the strike and now moving his mace from its relaxed position on his shoulder. She pulled her ji back before it could hit the shield, then held her left hand towards him. “Shadow eruption.”

“Wait, w--” Orion tried to pull back, but was too slow. The erupting shadows struck him and made him stumble backwards.

Kira stepped in once more, a grin on her lips when he tried to interpose his shield between the two of them, striking out with the mace towards her side. She dug her ji into the ground, catching his mace with its shaft. True to her expectations, ice formed from the weapon and spread up the ji. She let go and instead reached out, grabbing the hand holding the mace. “Drain,” she cast, darkness spilling out of her hands and into his.

Orion yelped and slammed his shield forward, knocking her away from him. Her hand wrapped around the shaft of her ji as she passed, pulling it behind her. A small notification appeared, alerting her she had been affected by a slowing effect. “I knew it,” Kira said with a light laugh. “Trying to freeze me out, huh?”

“You’re kind of hard to keep track of otherwise. Ready for round two?” Orion asked before hunching down, holding his shield out towards her.

The small alert disappeared, the cold wearing off. “Yeah. You know, this just makes me more certain,” Kira said before lowering her ji, the tip near the ground. She’d only take a little damage from the attack, but she suspected he hadn’t taken nearly enough damage from her attacks to be out of the running yet. “That duskcloud armor is going to be awesome once I get it. Say when,” she said.

“When,” Orion said.

Kira ran at him. As opposed to her initial large strike, this time she stabbed repeatedly. First at his leg, then pulling it back to whip at his shoulder. He barely managed to bring his shield around to block some of the strikes, but many of them got through his defenses and crashed against his armor.

Unfortunately, each strike brought up the small warning from the cold effect. Worse, it seemed to stack, each hit making frost form over her body and making her feel a little numb. Even if she was dealing damage to him, she was getting slower with every hit and before long he was able to keep up, blocking her blade easily.

Kira tried to pull away from him, only for him to charge at her this time. He swung the mace down at her head and she brought her ji up, catching the mace across the shaft again. Unfortunately for her, her block left her open to his shield, which slammed into her and sent her stumbling back. A moment later he was running at her again.

When he swung at her this time, Kira cast her spell. “Shadow form!” Once more the shadows erupted out from her and her body became incorporeal. The mace went right through her, not leaving a mark.

“Is that why you use that spell?” Orion asked, stepping away from her.

The spell ended and, to her delight, the frost had disappeared as well. Unfortunately, her MP was almost gone now. “It’s a good way to reset when I’m taken by surprise. Saved my butt there, didn’t it?”

“Personally I think it costs a bit too much for that,” Orion said, holding his shield up and his mace ready to strike. “Resetting everything only works if you’ve got a plan to go with it.”

“I do have a plan,” Kira said. She was lying, though. She didn’t really have a plan, though she did have the beginning of one. Charging him head on would just get her frozen again and she doubted she’d have regained enough MP to cast shadow form if she got that bad again. He was still being as cautious as ever, though. Waiting for her to make the next move. “You know, that is a really obnoxious armor type to use.”

“I did warn you not to thank me until after we fought,” Orion said, giving her a cheeky grin. “It’s pretty good for tanking, though. Unfortunately, a lot of bosses are immune to the effects.”

“Of course,” Kira said. She couldn’t help but notice something else, though she wanted to test it before she depended on it. She charged forward again, swinging her spear to the right, then left, stabbing repeatedly from different angles. He tried to keep himself steady and locked in place, but she always pulled her spear back before it could connect and was careful to avoid getting within striking distance. True to her suspicions it seemed the armor had another weakness. He was slower than normal. “So, is that armor just bulky or does it hit you with some of that frost effect too?” she asked.

She was rewarded with a momentary look of alarm, before he sighed and gave a small nod. “So you noticed?” Orion asked.

“Of course,” Kira said with a small smile, before moving back away from him. “Couldn’t make this easy, could you?”

“Well, was hoping to make it easy for me,” Orion said. “But it seems you’re a lot tougher at this than I thought you’d be. Normally you just charge in. As such, heal,” he cast, white light washing over him.

Kira’s eyes widened and she ran at him, charging directly into his shield. “Decay,” Kira cast, shoving her hand around his shield and hitting her palm against his chest.

Orion let out a yelp, stumbling back away from her. “When did you pick up that spell?” he asked.

“I mean, it’s a PVP mode,” Kira said with a small smile. “Do you really think I didn’t do the bare minimum of preparation? Especially considering the number of angels in our guild?”

Orion’s cheeks turned a little red and he shook his head. “I mean, I figured you did a little. But not that much.”

Kira snickered, shaking her head. To be fair, decay really was another niche spell that wasn’t always that useful. If she hadn’t looked up how to deal with healing spells before hand, she probably would have forgotten to use it entirely.

It didn’t help that the spell was designed as a ‘counter’ to healing spells, making it so healing spells did damage to the target, rather than healing them. But it required her to practically be on top of something to use it, as it required physical contact. On top of that, most bosses and tougher enemies were immune to it.

On the up side, the effect would last for a while so long as he didn’t--

“Restoration,” Orion cast, the dark aura disappearing a moment later.

Kira mentally screamed and ran at him. She took him by surprise the first time, she really didn’t think it’d work again. She had to finish this now, or she was going to get crushed. “Corrupting strike!” she cast, bringing her blade down against his shield with all the force she could muster. To her delight, the shield was pushed aside, though the frost washed over her. She charged into the opening, receiving a blow to her hip for the trouble that sent her HP plummeting.

But she had an opening. She drove the blade of her ji down on his shield arm, just above where the strap was. “Corrupting strike,” she cast again, darkness enveloping the blade. It dug in deep, partially removing the arm.

“Ice bomb!” Orion cast, a ball of ice forming in front of her, exploding and sending her flying back from him.

Kira let out a startled grunt when she hit the ground. Once more her body wasn’t responding nearly as fast, the frost making it hard to move. But she had her chance. If she could just get in again and remove the shield from the fight, then she could win this.

She started to get back to her feet, but to her surprise Orion was already there. “Freezing crusher!” he cast before driving his mace down on her head. Ice washed over her body, freezing her entirely. A moment later and her HP hit zero, causing her to disappear.

Kira appeared back in the guild hall entrance a few moments later, her eyes wide with surprise. She’d lost. She couldn’t believe it, she’d actually lost. She felt her frustration and annoyance growing. Of all the ways for him to beat her, did he have to use such a cheap and unfair way to do it? She turned and punched one of the support pillars as hard as she could, wishing it would have done some actual damage, either to the pillar or her hand.

After a few seconds she took a slow, deep breath and smiled. She’d already received a few messages, first from Ervent and then from Orion. She quickly responded to Ervent, letting her know that she was alright. Orion’s message, however, surprised her.

‘Guess I was tougher than you thought, huh?’ his message read.

Kira’s eyes narrowed. She was sure she was misreading it, but she suspected he was taunting her. She couldn’t believe it. He went out of his way to crush her, getting equipment to literally counter her and then he taunted her over it. She hit the reply button, but stopped before she typed anything. What could she even say to that? He’d beaten her again. He had every right to taunt her.

A minute later a new message from Orion arrived. She took a deep breath before opening it. ‘Can we talk?’

Kira paused for a moment before sending him a message back. ‘After your fight. You better not lose.” She then walked through one of the doorways, opening the transport menu. After a moment she chose Orion’s room and, to her delight, she still had permission to enter.

Kira wondered if he knew she was frustrated. She suspected he probably did. He seemed like the kind of person who would pick up on something like that. That only annoyed her more, though she tried to bury it down. She wondered if she should watch the final match before shaking her head.

Despite her claim to Orion that he better win, she honestly suspected that Blueberry would crush him unless he’d built himself to counter her as well. She glanced around the messy room for a moment before walking to the desk and sitting at it, kicking her feet up on it and scattering papers around. She then reached out and opened a display to watch the fight.

Sure enough, Orion was getting crushed. Blueberry wasn’t being hit nearly as hard by the ice effects and, more importantly, had Orion back up against the wall of the arena as the leviathan desperately tried to shield himself from the blows. It did bring a bit of a smile to her face.

Though Kira couldn’t help but notice something else. She leaned in and pulled the display a little closer. They were definitely talking, but she couldn’t hear any of the words. She suspected it was a private chat between the two. It wasn’t long before Orion was finally defeated and Blueberry stood victorious, the guild champion.

Kira gave a soft sigh before closing the display. She suspected now all she had to do was wait. She leaned back and closed her eyes.

She didn’t have to wait long before she heard the sound of his arrival. She opened her eyes and glanced up at the leviathan who was now standing in the middle of the room, staring at her. “What?” Kira asked.

“You stole my chair,” Orion said with a nervous laugh.

“Power move,” Kira said quickly. “Take the chair that faces the entrance. Or something like that. I read it in a book once.”

“Really?” Orion asked.

“I don’t know, maybe? What’s up? You said you wanted to talk?” Kira asked.

“Yes,” Orion said before walking towards her. He then paused. “Sorry, it kind of…”

Kira gave a light snort. “Is it really throwing you off that much? Well, should have got here first.”

“It feels like I’m talking to my boss,” Orion said with a light chuckle. “I probably deserve it, though. I was kind of a jerk.”

That made her pause, eyeing him for a moment. “I’m sorry, what? You were a jerk? When?”

“Today. When we fought. It really wasn’t fair of me to do that,” Orion said before giving a soft sigh. “No, it was incredibly rude of me to do that to you.”

Kira pushed her feet off the desk and sat up in the chair. “Wait, what? Beating me?” she asked before glaring. “Hey, I can handle a beating, I don’t--”

“Not that,” Orion said quickly, holding his hands up. “Blueberry was pissed at me for it. It was one thing to fight you. It was another thing entirely to get equipment that was specifically designed to counter you, especially when you haven’t had a chance to get your master armor yet. If I was going to fight and beat you, I should have done it as myself, using my normal armor and abilities. Fighting you like that was kind of dirty.”

Kira stared at him for a few moments, before a small smile formed on her lips. “I mean, that’s the whole point, wasn’t it? To take me by surprise?”

Orion gave a nod. “Yeah. But it was still kind of a jerk thing to do, especially since this entire little tournament of ours was supposed to be a friendly thing. I ended up building myself specifically to beat you. I guess I got a little competitive and if you’d known that I was going to do that, you probably would have approached it differently.”

Kira shrugged. “To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have. The only thing I might have done was tried to force you to help me get my master armor sooner,” she said with a light chuckle, though she couldn’t help feeling a little relieved. After a few moments she sighed and gave a nod. “Okay, yeah. It was pretty frustrating. I really hate that armor of yours.”

Orion gave a small nod. “I imagine so. It really wasn’t the best way to go about it. So I just want to say I’m sorry. Once you get your master armor, do you want to have another fight?”

Kira stared at him for a moment before her grin going wider. “Oh? You sure you want to do that? You already beat me twice.”

“No tricks, no traps,” Orion said with a small smile. “Just you and me, full out. I’ll use my normal armor, you can use your armor once you feel ready. We’ll fight for real, without me doing anything to give myself an edge.”

“That sounds pretty nice, actually. Though, I’ll still expect you to go all out. You can even use the ice equipment again if you like. I’ll just figure out how to beat it,” Kira said.

“Of course. I won’t go easy on you in that case. But I won’t hide that from you, either,” Orion said.

“You know, though. Once I do beat you, I’m going to have to challenge Blueberry to become champion,” Kira said.

“Oh, already planning your victory?” Orion asked before giving a small smirk. “Confident, aren’t we?”

Kira nodded. “Oh, but of course. After all, you had to specifically build to beat me. What will you do when I’m at full build and equipment?”

Orion opened his mouth to object, only to stop after a moment. He then gave a light snicker. “I’m doomed, aren’t I?”

“Yup,” Kira said before jumping to her feet and stretching out. “Okay, time to go and get to work on my armor! You’re coming to help, aren’t you?”

“Of course,” Orion said. “So, you’re not mad at me, then?”

“Not anymore,” Kira said before reaching out to open her menu.

“So, no lizardman ordeal in my future?” Orion asked.

“Not this time. But the future is full of opportunities to get yourself in trouble. So never say never.” Kira was rewarded with laughter for that comment, moments before she opened her teleport menu and prepared to leave the guild hall once more, her frustration having melted away. He really was good at that.