Hello, my peeps. Sorry for the late release. This is the regular update for last week, meant to be out yesterday, but I ended up being hooked on a new game. BTW, I just want to know where all of you, my readers, are from. I'm from Singapore, so if any of you are Singaporeans, give a shoutout in the comments section.

“Oh? What’s all this hoohaa?” Isana asked casually as she floated gracefully downwards. Almost immediately, she caught the attentions of everyone in the area. As proof of her otherworldly beauty, some of the male members of the birdmen even began pruning their feathers, straightening out their clothes and showing off their most vibrant feathers by instinct to attract the female.

“Muuuuuumm!!” Kina yelled out in glee, waving her arms wildly as she dashed forwards. “They said I can join their competition! Watch me beat the shit out of them!” Isana seemed a little confused, looking at Kiefer who only sighed and shrugged, almost as if saying it was not his business.

Isana clearly recognised the carnage around her, which has become a common sight wherever her daughter picked up a new interest. It was like Kina’s signature every time she forced things to go her way. Deciding it was best to first clear the place, Isana activated her void space, cancelling out all of Kina’s spells. The stone poles crumbled to dust instantly, allowing the captured birdmen to heave a giant sigh of relief.

“So?” Isana asked, looking at Kiefer for some answers. “What is this competition about?”

“Kina suddenly decided that she want some exercise, and also a weapon specially made for her, so she kinda forced them into letting her take part in the competition.” Kiefer explained, walking up next to Isana and pulling her hand.

“Weapon? Can’t you just give her your mithril sword? It’s not like you use it anymore anyways.” Isana replied as she let herself be led off the arena towards the spectator stand.

“But mum! I want a brand new one! Not some of dad’s old hand-me-downs,” Kina whined in response.

“Um, sorry miss, but we really should be continuing with the fight now. You can join the fight next match, but you are only allowed to use wind magic and a weapon, no other magic or body enhancements are allowed since we are testing for the fighter’s skill level.” The announcer interrupted as he descended from his mid-air hover.

“Nnn!” kina nodded to show she understood, before turning to Kiefer. “Dad! Let me borrow your sword for this match. I will return it after I get my own weapon.”

Kiefer did not hesitate, producing his mithril sword from thin air, much to the surprise of the birdmen around. Kina quickly took hold of the guardless, single edged silver sword and sat down on a seat. She frowned as she inspected the sword, giving it a few test swings. Kiefer could tell that she was clearly not pleased with the sword for some reason, but decided to leave questions for later.

The crowd began to settle down after the disruption as the 2 fighters took their positions once more. It was Jielin versus Kan. They were two young prodigies, one from a famous family and the other from a smaller less well-known one. The announcer plucked one feather off his elbow and let it float gently down to the arena. The moment the feather touched the ground, the contestants immediately sprung into action.

“Poor bird. He loses a feather for every match. I wonder when he will go bald.” Kina wondered silently, chuckling to herself as she looked at the announcer hawkman.

This fight was highly anticipated. Two young geniuses facing off in a rural village that is not even that well-known. An older boy versus a younger girl, spear versus sword. The older boy Kan obviously had the advantages in terms of experience, technique and physical strength, being able to overpower the girl in every single one of their occasional clashes. However, Jielin was smaller, and thus much more nimble. She could dart around the arena like a fly, changing directions so quickly that it was almost impossible to follow her movements. It was not that she was particularly fast, just unpredictably agile and dexterous.

Kan’s long spear kept Jielin’s short sword at bay, giving her no chance to approach close enough to inflict a wound. His multitude of skills and techniques enabled him to execute large scale wind spells one after another with each swipe of his spear, attempting to catch the ever so slippery Jielin. The match eventually dragged on to the 5 minute mark, with Kan showing signs of slowing down. He had been casting spell after spell, and his concentration had been stretched to the limits just trying to keep his eyes on the girl’s erratic movements.

Finally, in one crucial moment, he experienced a lapse in his concentration, which Jielin did not miss. She exploded forth with a sharp flap of her wings, parrying Kan’s spear with her short sword and landing her first successful blow on Kan’s face. A full force, top speed 2 legged kick to his face, her talons shredding some of the feathers on his face to reveal 3 bloody streaks across his face. As he is knocked down from the blow, Jielin stepped on his spear arm and held the edge of her sword against his neck. She would be smiling had she any lips, but one could tell from her eyes that not only was she exhausted from the drawn out battle, she was elated as well over the victory.

As the day dragged on and dusk arrived, the last of the quarter finalists finished their battles, and the coordinators began preparing for the semi-finals. Kina was fuming by the end of the day, having sat through the entire day without a single battle. However, seeing her name finally put up on the list of 4 people taking part tomorrow, she was satiated. She would be facing Jielin as her first opponent tomorrow and having seen the young hawkgirl fight, Kina had somewhat of a rough idea what she was up against.

The Highwind village was situated at a rather remote corner of the Natiria district. There was little supervision from officials that came down from the city central since no one was willing to take the 300km trip just to manage a small self-sufficient village. Tax collection was about the only time any birdman officials ever visited this out of the way village. Therefore, as long as no one blabbed, the higher ups would be kept in the dark about a village being intimidated into providing residence for outsiders.

The Village chief was surprisingly a sparrowling who handled most domestic and external affairs with his family. Kiefer found it hilarious that an entire village dominated by powerful, muscular hawkmen would be led by a sparrowling no taller than himself. It was quite a sight to see the sparrowling yell, or rather chirp at the hawkmen for breaking the most sacred law of Yurza.

Kina did not sleep the entire night. That was partially because she was eager for her first battle, and also partially because she was adamant about pestering her father to remove the restriction bracelet for her fight. Kiefer though had other plans and increased her restriction instead, making sure she could only use the most basic of spells.

As per Fahlnir had said, a thousand years on Risea was equivalent to a single year on Aioa. This meant that he had all the time in the world to find the soul flowers to return Isana and Kina to Aioa. Watching Kina’s spoilt attitude and over-dependence on her over the top magic abilities, Kiefer had plans to train his daughter instead of rushing for the flowers. After all, finding 60 flowers was no easy feat and he would probably have to wait several decades for new flowers to spontaneously bloom in random places.

A quick discussion with Isana about the future of their daughter managed to convince her to hand over the mantle of responsibility for their daughter’s upbringing to Kiefer. Reluctant at first, Kiefer brought up several undeniable points regarding Kina’s current demerits, finally making Isana cave-in to his arguments. He pointed out that Kina showed no respect, no courtesy and had absolutely no reservations when acting out her desires. Even though this was a common trait of Titans, Kiefer pointed out that they would be living amongst humans and hence had to act the part.

Kina finally fell asleep sobbing in her mother’s arms after Kiefer increased the restrictions on her magic abilities, barely catching a few hours of rest before being woken up rudely by the incessant squawking of baby birds hungry for their first meal. Morning came around quickly as Kina stared at some of the baby birds while drooling. The arena was repaired quickly by a rainbow mage and by the time the sun had risen completely, Kina was back at the stadium standing in front of all the birdmen and her parent.

Mithril sword in hand, Kina stepped up to the arena and faced Jielin, a girl the same age as her. She looked around the arena and met Kiefer’s gaze, rubbing the bright red bracelet and pleading with her eyes. Kiefer shook his head slowly and smiled. Giving up all hope that her father might change his mind, Kina sighed, her shoulders drooping a little as she bowed and waited for the match to start.

The same thing happened as per the day before. Both girls watched intently as the feather drifted in the wind, swaying and flitting gracefully before making contact with the stone floor.

Jielin wasted no time dashing forwards, flapping her wings to give her additional thrust. However, Kina was not who she was aiming for. Instead, she shot past Kina on the right, making a sharp turn behind her and brandishing her previously sheathed sword.

Without body enhancements, Kina’s eyesight, reflexes and thought process were mediocre at best, but she’s had had plenty of training in magical combat back in school. . She muttered her spell quickly after realising she could not train her eyes on her opponent. The spell conjured up a column of compressed air around her body. Seeing this, Kiefer smiled, knowing that his daughter was not so useless without her overpowered magic. The might not be a strong spell, and it most definitely cannot stop incoming attack completely, but it would slow anything passing through it considerably giving Kina enough time to react.

With seasoned reflexes and muscle memory, Jielin made perfect use of her wings and agility in the air to swiftly changed directions, this time swinging her sword as she shot towards Kina’s back. Passing through the film of compressed air, she suddenly felt her speed decrease drastically and made a split-second decision to bolt backwards. Trusting her instincts proved to be the right move as Kina’s mithril sword grazed the tip of her outstretched sword.

Kina smiled, knowing she successfully fended off a backstab. Still standing in the same spot, Kina proceeded to chant more spells. Without physical enhancements, her physical abilities were on par with any ordinary 13-year-old girl. Just swinging the sword took quite a bit of strength and she knew she was in no shape to be darting around the arena with the sword.

“, , ” Kina muttered in sequence. The first spell altered her ongoing barrier spell to expand outwards while she cast a second barrier. Then came the higher level spell manipulation that was taught only to elites within her school. She could manage to chain up to 5 spells in a set, but with her limited mana thanks to Kiefer’s bracelet, the most she could manage now was two spells pet set.

“At least, she knows her limits and plays to her strength,” Isana praised her daughter quietly as she whispered to Kiefer, who was sitting next to her.

Jielin frowned as the small feathers on her face wrinkled. The density of air was undulating thanks to kina’s constant spell casting. While each spell was not powerful and did not cost a lot of mana, she had not expected Kina to be able to upkeep a continuous stream of ever expanding wind magic to throw her off her flight trajectory. This was the first time she met someone with so much mana, not knowing that unlike normal sentient life, Kina’s body generates mana constantly instead of storing mana from the surrounding.

It took about a minute of constant darting around before Jielin finally got the hang of Kina’s wind magic. Turning the opponent’s strength into her own, Jielin made use of the deceleration when passing through each layer of compressed air to make her sharp turns even sharper, accelerating in between each wave of compressed air. Her movements became even more erratic, causing Kina to become frustrated.

“If only I didn’t have this stupid bracelet!” Kina cursed silently as her eyes started adjusting to Jielin’s speed, being able to catch the momentary glimpses when Jieling made turns. After several successful blocks with her mithril sword, she became confident that she would be able to parry Jielin’s attack in whichever direction it came from.

Just as she finished her thought, Kina’s solemn face grew into a wide grin as she noticed Jielin diving straight for her. Pushing her arms to the limit, Kina mustered the last of her strength to swing the mithril sword with all her might, knocking Jielin’s sword out of her hand and throwing her off balance. Knowing that she had disarmed her opponent and that she had won, Kina stopped her barrier spells, causing the undulating air to return to its original serene calm.

Stepping over Jielin, who was sprawled on the floor, Kina looked down on the Hawkgirl smugly, as if Jielin never once stood a chance. Then, as fast as lightning, Jielin’s beaks parted, and from her throat came an ear piercing screech which was amplified by a wind magic she had cast during her last dash. The loud screech disoriented Kina instantly as she dropped her mithril sword to cover her ears on instinct. This gave Jielin the opening she had been calculating, flapping her wings to create a large gust. As Kina shut her eyes in response to the gust of wind blown in her face, Jielin moved into action swiftly.

“And the winner is – Jielin!” the announcer yelled out as the crowd cheered loudly. They had all seen how powerful Kina was yesterday, and yet even the monstrous little girl was defeated by this young prodigy from an unknown family. Kina opened her eyes wide in disbelief, feeling Jieling restrict her arms from behind and hold the mithril sword up against her throat.

Kiefer was smiling while Isana had a worried look on her face. Kina had lost. All because she let her guard down at the last moment when she was confident she had won. Naturally, she was frustrated, giving Kiefer a baleful stare, unable to accept her first loss ever. She should have won. She was the first one to knock down Jielin, and yet the announcer did not stop the match.

As a child, she immediately pushed the blame to others, telling herself that the announcer was biassed to the Hawkgirl because she was an outsider. Unfair. It was an unfair ruling. Now, her mental state switched from shock and surprise to an unprecedented level of anger and feeling of unjust.

“It’s not fair! I won first! And you blatantly did not stop the match!” Kina yelled, pointing at the judge. However, before she could take another step, Kina was quickly plastered to the ground as Kiefer stepped forwards.

“Don’t blame others for your mistake. You were overconfident. Learn from your mistakes or you will never improve.” Kiefer said as his gravity field gradually decreased, allowing Kina to barely struggle back to her feet. Kina shot Kiefer a hateful stare, before tossing the mithril sword to the ground and stomping off to her mother’s side.

“I’m sorry for my daughter’s behaviour. Please proceed with your tournament. We shall spectate the rest of the way. I assure you my daughter will not cause any more trouble,” Kiefer apologised to the judge as he sauntered back to the stand where Isana was patting Kina’s soft black hair.