***

"Ow! The pain! It's killing me!"

'Is he... making fun of me?', Sylvia thought as Theodore was obviously acting like he's dying, and very badly at that.

'His acting is worse than Arthur's... how interesting'

Not just that, he even massaged the wrong cheek. It was almost like he didn't even try to fake being hurt.

'Well, it's understandable I guess'

After all, even she could tell that Theodore really didn't want to fight her.

Sighing, she decided that if she wanted to have the battle she desperately needed, giving him an incentive to fight was a necessity.

'What would work best...?'

After a good second, she recalled a certain memory. It was of the one time that Theodore went around Avaron, disguising as a girl, enticing people to join the church of a certain God like a con artist.

'Yeah... let's use that'

Thus, she had decided on what she would say.

"Fight me properly, or I will kill the fucking Zeus knockoff of a God that you follows"

Although the profane language that accompanied her soft and beautiful voice was unfitting, or even unsettling, she still got her intentions across to him. Nothing was more insulting to a presumably religious person like Theodore than making fun of the God that he followed after all.

'Did it work?', Sylvia though as she observed Theodore closely.

Her question was soon answered, as after only a few seconds, Theodore slowly stood up and glared at her with the same expression that the knights of her mother's old order often gave her, one that she was unfortunately all too familiar with.

'He's angry... good'

His soul, according to Sylvia's Eyes, was a color of bright red.

In fact, his soul's color was of the brightest red. No, scratch that, not just the brightest red, his soul's color was the brightest she had ever seen.

She could tell that it was leagues brighter than the hatred the most zealous of her mother's old knights legion had for Sylvia herself.

'...Maybe my plan worked a little bit too well'

Just maybe.

It was then that Theodore dusted off his clothes, picked his sword back up, and pulled out a handgun from seemingly nowhere.

Still glaring at Sylvia with anger and hatred, he spoke.

"Be prepared, oversized lizard"

Hearing this, Sylvia could barely contain a smile. She clenched her fist hard in anticipation, and her breathing became got more ragged as she got more excited.

'Yes! Fight me!'

As if responding to Sylvia's thoughts, Theodore continued in a dignified but slightly mad voice.

"I will cut you down, break you apart, splay the gore of your profane form across the STARS!"

'Wait...'

"I will grind you down until your very BLOOD CRY FOR MERCY! My hands shall RELISH ENDING YOU—"

'Is he copying G*br*el's lines from Ultr*k*ll?'

"—HERE!"

SWOOOOSH-!

"—AND!"

BZZZZZZZZZT—!

"—NOW!"

BOOOOOOOOOM—!

The ground below Sylvia's feet glowed a shade of bright orangish-red, and sparks of similarly colored electricity crackled from the ground. And as soon as Theodore finished his speech, a massive bolt of red lightning descended onto her with immense speed.

Sylvia stared up at what could be described as certain death with widened eyes. She really wanted to let her Eyes get loose now. However—

'Not yet!'

—The time wasn't right.

As such, she quickly put her hand up into the air and concentrated Space mana.

Two portals instantly appeared. One directly above Sylvia, and another pointing towards Theodore.

The bolt of lightning dropped into the portal and came out of the other side, shooting towards Theodore.

BZZZZZZZZZZT—! WOOOOOOSH—!

The lightning bolt lets out a powerful crackling sound as it ripped apart the ground it travelled above.

In response to his own attack being used against him, Theodore merely extended his handgun out and aimed it towards Sylvia, as if unconcerned by the massive mass of destructive Lightning flying towards him.

BOOOOOOM—!

Dust rose up, filling half of the room. In spite of the obscuring dust, however, Sylvia could make out a huge crater forming right under Theodore's feet.

She judged that even if she had hardened her scales as much as possible, such an attack would make her lose an arm at the very least.

Despite having been just milliseconds away from death earlier, she didn't feel fear. Instead, she felt immense joy.

'D- Dangerous... I- I almost died? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!'

Certainly, after being hit with such an attack, Theodore would be critically injured, or even dead. After all, even a peak rank wouldn't walk out of it alive.

However—

'HEHAHAHAHAHA! HOW INTRIGUING! TO STILL BE STANDING EVEN AFTER THAT!'

—Theodore was basically unscathed.

Of course, Sylvia didn't have any way to know that [S - Monarch of the Storms] made him immune to his own Lighting attacks.

Drifting her gaze a little bit upwards, Sylvia noted that Theodore was pointing his gun which was crackling with red electricity towards her.

'...He's a Halfling?', she thought that she noticed the vertical pupil resting inside Theodore's gray irises.

Indeed, the fact that Theodore was a Halfling was laid bare for the world to see, as the previous attack had pulverized his sunglasses.

However, Sylvia couldn't care less about his race, since as long as he gave her a satisfactory fight, nothing else mattered.

In fact, even if she wanted to dwell on the fact that Theodore was a Halfling, she couldn't have, as—

Bzzzzt—! BANG—!

—A bullet, followed by a red trail flew towards Sylvia. However, she merely titled her head to the right to dodge it.

Bzzzzzt—! BANG—! BANG—! BANG—!...

What followed was a rain of bullets being shot towards Sylvia.

Putting her back against the thick wall of ice that were slowly being chipped away by the seemingly endless torrent of bullets, Sylvia's mind calmed down a bit and she began to analyze his attacks.

'His spell... it uses some kind of force related to electricity... but what?'

Although Sylvia didn't know the exact mechanism, or even the theory behind [Railgun], she could still imitate what Theodore had been doing.

Closing her eyes, she spread light-blue Lightning mana around her.

And then suddenly, something clicked in her head.

She instinctively chanted the name of her spell out loud, despite not knowing what half of it meant.

Almost simultaneously, the bullets broke her [Ice wall] into pieces.

However, instead of hitting Sylvia right in the face, the bullets curved around her, completely missing their mark.

Seeing this, Sylvia manifested an Ice Scythe again and dashed towards Theodore, not worrying the least about his [Railgun].

BANG—! BANG—! BANG—!...

Bullets flew through the air, but none of them managed to even come close to hitting her.

Having closed enough distance on him, Sylvia raised her Scythe up and brought in down in a swift manner.

CLANG—!

Her Scythe was blocked by the body of Theodore's gun.

Infusing a little bit of her mana into her Scythe, Sylvia easily cut through his gun. However, Theodore had already dashed back, making her strike hit the ground instead.

Glaring at Sylvia for a split second, Theodore muttered something inaudible under his breath and dashed towards her again.

"YOU'RE DEAD!", he shouted.

In response to Theodore's thrust, Sylvia quickly pulled her still mana-infused Scythe up and block his attack.

CLANG—!

They both jumped back and dashed towards each other again.

CLANG—! CLANG—! CLANG—!...

After a good minute of exchanging blows, the table had seemingly turned, as Sylvia tripped on a piece of rock and fell backwards.

"Ah!"

Not wasting the chance, Theodore slashed his sword towards Sylvia's neck.

SCREEEEEEECH—!

His sword grinded against Sylvia's newly grown hard draconic scales, creating a horrible screeching sound.

SCREEEEEEEEEEECH—!

The sound only got worse as the sword grinded against Sylvia's frozen scales even harder under Theodore's increased strength.

Despite being in this awkward position, Sylvia had still not fallen down to the ground. This was because just before Theodore's sword made contact with her, she had already brought the curved blade of her Scythe against the back on his neck.

Similarly, however, Sylvia also couldn't land her attack properly, as Theodore had already condensed a great quantity of mana onto his neck, protecting him from getting his own neck sliced off.

The uncomfortable stalemate lasted for a while, before Sylvia noticed Theodore's gray eyes looking down on her with ridicule and the corner of his lips curling up into a smirk.

BOOOOM—!

Theodore's sword exploded into pieces, creating a shockwave that knocked Sylvia to the ground, and Theodore himself dozens of meters back.

"A- Arghh!", Sylvia lets out a groan of pain as she slowly removed herself from the ground.

Drip—! Drip—!...

It was the sound of blood dripping onto the stone floor which was covered in a thin layer of frost.

Mangled.

That was the best word to describe the state of Sylvia's throat.

When Theodore's sword exploded at point-blank range, even Sylvia's extremely hard icy scales were cracked.

In fact, they even worked against her by embedding themselves into her own throat. If it wasn't for her Draconic physique, Sylvia would have died on the spot.

'Hehahahaha! To think someone like him could hurt me this much!'

Ignoring the numbing pain, she directed her gaze towards Theodore again.

He wasn't faring any better than her, as fragments of his broken sword was also embedded in his face. His right arm was also bent in an unnatural position, presumably from holding the sword when it exploded. However—

Crack—!

—With a cracking sound, Theodore snapped his own hand back into place.

He then glared at Sylvia with the rage that had not subsided on bit even after the intense fight.

Sylvia was similarly staring back at Theodore, but with interest and anticipation instead.

However, that wasn't the only thing they were doing, as they were also scrutinizing each other for any openings.

After a few dozen seconds of doing so, both Sylvia and Theodore instinctively knew that the battle would turn into a spell-slinging one if none of them made any moves soon.

And, perhaps predictably, none of them did. As such, the fight turned into a battle between Mages.

In response, Theodore targeted the spikes of Ice that were shooting towards him with—

This back-and-forth continued for a while, until one of them couldn't take the frustratingly long stalemate anymore.

"GAHHHH! JUST DIE ALREADY!", Theodore screamed on the top of his lungs.

He then dashed towards Sylvia with immense speed.

His speed wasn't fast enough to dodge her [Ice lances]. As such, there was many times when he should have been skewered.

However, he wasn't, since—

'Crazy! Is he actually trying to get himself killed?'

—Sylvia deliberately held the [Ice lances] back, for fear of killing him.

"HEHAHAHAH! DIE!", Theodore screamed as he brought his sword down to Sylvia.

In response, Sylvia looked at him with an indifferent and almost bored gaze as she extended her hand out.

Of course, like with before, the beam of water healed Theodore. But this time, it blasted him into the ground.

"Krrrrrrgh!", he groaned.

But even after a minute, he still couldn't get up.

Despite the immense pain Sylvia felt whenever she tried to push air through her mangled throat, she still persisted through it and spoke, albeit with a much more coarser voice.

"Is that all? As I had expected. Your God is really Zeus' cheap knockoff"

She then looked at Theodore in anticipation. She was afraid that she wouldn't be able to rile Theodore up again, as she had just basically repeated the same thing she said in the beginning of the battle.

However, her worries was for naught, as her Eyes showed her that Theodore's soul suddenly got a lot brighter, and Sylvia herself could sense that Space mana was surging in massive quantity around Theodore.

'...He's planning something...'

That much was obvious.

However, she had no plans to put a stop to whatever Theodore was doing, as—

'Hehahahaha! Yes! Show me what strength you're hiding! Prove to me that I've chosen the right person!'

—The fight would end too quickly if she did after all.

And after exactly 12 seconds, Theodore stood up again.

Spurt—!

Blood spilled onto the floor as Theodore bit his own hand and a sword made of blood formed on his right hand.

Glaring at Sylvia in absolute hatred and rage, Theodore muttered.