"Run run run run run!" Ruby frantically yelled as she and Sophia sprinted at full speed across an empty spot of the archipelago; Moments later, the space behind them exploded into a towering mass of sand; Sophia and Ruby were sent flying by the explosion before landing in a shallow part of Lake Vesovian.

"Why'd sensei think fighting a double S rank animal for training was a good idea?" Sophia remarked angerly as she pulled her face out of the lake.

"Well... it wouldn't be the first time we've been in a situation similar to this," Ruby remarked as the duo looked over at Hexed Zalroth(wearing a pink frilly swimsuit) as she sucker punched the sea dragon(a large blue snake-like dragon) into the sandy beach. Sophia sighed as she watched Hexed Zalroth circle around the sea dragon before grabbing its tail and energetically spinning the sea dragon around while playfully laughing.

"If I had my doubts about her being sensei, well they're gone now," Sophia angerly mumbled as she sat down on the soggy ground with Ruby quickly sitting next to her.

"I know what you mean, it really threw me off when your sensei's mana suddenly..." Ruby remarked before going oddly silent, making Sophia glance over at her; Sophia attempted to ask what was wrong but was interrupted by Ruby abruptly placing her arm over Sophia's chest before she slammed Sophia and herself onto their backs as a fin-like blade slashed across their vision.

The duo quickly rolled backwards and jumped to their feet while getting into defensive stances while entering their Surgeing Mana States. The anthro shark-like dragon that had tried to surprise attack them turned around and gritted its teeth at the duo.

"An A rank monster huh; what a hassle," Sophia complained as she created two light mana spears and Ruby made two opaque mana boxing gloves.

"Don't be like that Fifi, I'm sure your sensei has a good reason for making us fight these sharkmons," Ruby remarked as a school of sharkmons erupted from the water and surrounded the duo.

"Yeah, he... she probably just wanted to get so ingredients for sushi," Sophia snarkily murmured. Ruby couldn't help but laugh, at Sophia's statement, before ducking under a fin-blade slash followed by her placing her hands on the ground and kicking the sharkmon behind her with both her feet, just like a horse.

The sharkmon was sent flying into a group of sharkmons before Ruby crushed them all with a giant opaque red mana fist.

Sophia blocked and deflected the relentless attacks from the sharkmons with only a single light mana spear. Sophia firmly grasped her spears before attempting to slash all the sharkmons around her with a 360° slash, but the sharkmons jumped out of the spears' range. The sharkmons opened their mouths before firing water cannon spells from their mouths in unison.

"How odd," Sophia commented before teleporting away as the water cannons collided with each other and exploded. Sophia appeared above the sharkmons and hurled one of her spears at them; she quickly snapped her fingers and the spear split into multiple light mana arrows.

The sharkmons fired a barrage of water blades at the light mana arrows but the light arrows easily pierced through the sharkmons' attacks, without the slightest sign of slowing down; before the sharkmons could react the light arrows pierced through their chest, followed by Sophia teleporting behind the sharkmons and slicing them in half, by the spots the arrows had pierced into.

The sharkmon halves landed on the sandy ground before bursting into magical dust with each leaving sharkfin blades and a medium-sized orb of cyan mana. Sophia huffed as she dispelled her mana spear and, along with Ruby, detransformed. Ruby quickly hurried around and gathered all the monster loot using her opaque mana tendrils; she wrap the tendrils around the loot and turned the tendrils into a bag-like shape.

"That was surprisingly easy," Ruby cheekily remarked while placing her fist on her forehead, sticking her tongue out and winking at Sophia.

"Yeah... and before we left the academy it would've taken all of us just to beat a single A rank anything," Sophia stated as she looked at her palms.

"Heh-he, maybe being around are senseis made us super strong without us realising it," Ruby cheerfully remarked. Sophia gave an acknowledging nod as the sea dragon was piledrivered into the ground by Hexed Zalroth.

"And the victor is I," Hexed Zalroth chirpily snarked from on top of the sea dragon's head as Sophia teleported herself and Ruby onto the dragon's head.

"And here I thought this was about training?" Sophia snarked. Hexed Zalroth turned around and gave Sophia a smug grin.

"Of course it is, it just us kitsune are super competitive, isn't that right, fluffkins," Hexed Zalroth said as Lola popped her head out from Hexed Zalroth's tails and gave a confident nod while eating a piece of garlic bread.

"So we're not going to turn this stuff into sushi?" Ruby asked while pointing at the stuff in her mana bag. Hexed Zalroth awkwardly whistled whilst twiddling her thumbs and looking to her side.

"Well I wouldn't say that... but it would probably best to sell the monster parts instead of eating them," Hexed Zalroth mentioned, which made Lola abruptly lean in front of her face and look at Hexed Zalroth with a shocked expression.

"What but why?!" Lola disappointedly asked while desperately ruffling Hexed Zalroth's hair and ears before starting to bite her ears.

"First only monsters can safely eat other monsters and two it's up to Sophia and Ruby as to what happens to the loot," Hexed Zalroth explained. Lola slowly panned her head over at Sophia and Ruby while giving them the biggest puppy dog eyes she could muster. Sophia tried to resist but the longer she stared into Lola's eyes the stronger their effect had on her.

"I guess it wouldn't..." Sophia said before noticing Ruby was profusely crying as she handed multiple sharkmon fins to the delighted Lola. Sophia defeatedly sighed as she wondered if Ruby was crying from Lola's cuteness or from her trying to resist Lola's pleas.

Meanwhile, Zulcrestus destroyed the rest of the heathian feather cluster, which was pinned to a mountain by Novathane, with a wave of destruction mana. Zulcrestus pulled Novathane out from the stone and resheathed it as Hika and Pink Hika were conversing.

"Seems you were right, we really would hit the mountain range at this height," Pink Hika said as she looked at the mountain and Lake Vesovian along with its many archipelagos. Hika smugly crossed her arms and did a laugh, that was similar to an evil villain's laugh.

"Of course, I was, which also means I won the bet," Hika stated. Pink Hika chuckled as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Do I have to, we're literally the same person so we share a bank account," Pink Hika inquired with Hika giving her a firm nod.

"Naturally, about us have a single bank account that is, but I'm more worried about the principle of following through with a bet," Hika explained.

"Oooh, yeah that makes total sense," Pink Hika replied as the two took money out of their bank account before immediately putting it back and giving each other a high five. The two noticed that Zulcrestus wasn't going anywhere and was deep in thought.

"Now that I've dealt with the heathians, I should probably go investigate that, as Callie would put it, freakishly huge mana surge I sensed earlier; although given..." Zulcrestus stated before being interrupted by the two Hikas pulling on his horns.

"Come on, Papa Zuzu, it was probably just some people training for the tournament or some trapped mana that escaped from Lake Vesovian's monster core, or something; if you don't hurry you won't be able to attend the Maxicannion Tournament," the Hikas said in unison while trying to shake Zulcrestus' horns but only ended up shaking themselves. Zulcrestus sighed as he used his telekinesis to pull the Hikas off his horns and placed them on his shoulders.

"The tournament isn't until tomorrow and I don't have any interest in participating," Zulcrestus stated as he began to fly around the mountain with the two Hikas complaining about him not showing any interest in the tournament.

"But the tournament is literally about you, well the Righteous King and his reincarnations, so you have to take part," The Hikas whined as they lightly and repeatedly bonked Zulcrestus on the side of his head.

"Until I've completed the objective given to me by the emperor king, I don't have the luxury of doing anything else," Zulcrestus stated. The Hikas angerly grumbled at Zulcrestus' comment until an idea shot through their heads.

"But wouldn't it be a good idea to go to Talkia since Charlotte and the others are there, and you'd be able to check if that kitsune she mentioned is the one you saw at Velkenfall Academy, couldn't you?" the Hikas asked. Zulcrestus sighed before stating he'll consider it, much to the Hikas' pleasure while they cheered.