"Damn, it barely connects."

Ana unleashed water blades on the man, sweat beading all over her face, only for the man to evade them with disturbing ease.

There was no doubt from his move and the ease with which he handled Ana’s attack that unlike her, her opponent had plenty of experience and was quite fighting-competent. However, his fighting abilities were far from the only concern Ana was facing while fighting the man. His magic effectively counteracted Ana's water magic, allowing him to easily handle each of her water blades or any other offensive attacks that he couldn't avoid.

It was fair to say it looked bad, and that was even more so because the man understood the advantage his magic held over Ana’s. He was well aware of this advantage and did not hesitate to take advantage of it, showing little to no fear of Ana's attacks and firing lightning at her whenever possible.

Ana continued to relentlessly fire her water blades, but the man, who was running in a circle around the room, avoided almost all of them, causing them to crash destructively against the walls.

"Is this all you can do, girl?! Just lay down and surrender."

"Tsk." Ana hurled her water blades at the man, saying, "If the small ones don't work, then..." before summoning larger blades and hurling them at him.

Surely, Ana thought, with blades this big, there was simply no room for him to evade these attacks, and indeed there wasn’t, yet a concern persisted in Ana’s heart.

One that soon became a reality.

With a wave of his magic, the man dissolved Ana's blades into nothingness. He didn't stop there, as he immediately came lunging at her.

Ana, realizing the gravity of the situation and her own limitations in close-quarters combat, desperately summoned another of her blades or whatever other magic she had at her disposal, as long as she could keep the man away from her.

Unfortunately for Ana, the only thing she was able to conjure in time was a thinly layered shield. As the man had reached her, he struck at her shield with a bolt that shattered the poorly summoned water shield.

"Gaah!"

Ana’s body was sent flying a few meters from where she originally stood to land heavily in a corner of the room.

The blow and the landing, as violent and vicious as they were, weren’t enough to render Ana unconscious. As she felt a strange sensation on her arm, and looked over it, she remarked that her left arm was now bent in an odd way.

Before she could muster any sort of physical or emotional response to the sight of her arm in that sorry state, something interrupted her. The man flew a salvo of bolts in her direction.

Though barely in time, Ana nonetheless managed to summon her magic out to intercept the man’s attack, yet the blast of the blow being intercepted produced a blast powerful enough to send her body once again flying, this time knocking her against the wall. The shock was such that Ana heard an unreal buzzing from her left ear, yet she forced herself to stand up, clutching the wall behind her.

"I told you to lay down," the man mocked, while also already calling magic out. "This confrontation is futile."

"That we’re going to see," Ana replied, slapping the sound out of her left ear.

Looking down at her broken arm, she realized she was more handicapped than ever, but after a long sigh, she resolutely summoned all her courage and magic.

"You can’t win against me," the man scornfully remarked, seemingly ready to unleash his magic on Ana.

He was just about to unleash his magic on Ana when he heard the sound of footsteps running towards him and a voice speaking. "Losing against you? Don't get ahead of yourself, son of a bitch."

Before the man could muster a single semblance of resistance against what was coming at him, something from behind swung violently at his side. Though the blow was not inhumanly strong enough to send the man flying into the distance, it did cause a panicked sideways retreat.

"What–You!"

Despite the surprise-yet-unfortunately-not-lethal surprise attack, the man, having already gathered himself up, fired his lightning, this time around, not onto Ana but onto his assailant, with the clear intent of killing her. But that was without counting on Ana's intervention.

Before the man’s lightning could reach their target, Ana formed a water wall to intercept them and protect the man’s assailant.

The lightning was intercepted, and the man’s assailant approached Ana, saying, "Thanks for that; for a moment, I thought I was done for."

"What... Ina, what are you doing here?"

In front of Ana, Ina stood, holding onto a cudgel-like metal pipe with her trembling fingers and a grim smile on her face.

"I figured you would be incompetent enough to not win this fight alone. So we came back."

As the girl, Ina, made mention of "we," Ana noticed the other two girls, some distance away, looking at them from a discreet spot across the room.

Seeing them warmed Ana's heart; she couldn’t help but scold them, "But I told you—"

"We know what you told us, but that no longer matters as this is where we are now."

Having seemingly recovered from Ina’s surprise attack, the man raged, "You little bitch! You’re going to pay me for that," while retrieving a dagger from his back.

This time around, the man was in for blood.

"See, my lady. This isn't the time to tergiversate." Ina announced, glancing at Ana’s arm before asking, "How is your arm?"

"Fine..." Ana said, coating her arm in water magic. Somehow, within it, Ana's arm twisted to return to a normal and more natural position, yet her right arm was still lifelessly hanging. "I can't use it, but I'm fine; beside, it's not like I ever needed my arm to use magic anyway, so I'll roll with it."

Ana, also noticing the state in which Ina herself was in, reached onto both her hands to coat them, as she had done with her own arm, in a bead of magic-made water.

"I hope this helps a little. This should grant you better grips. Sorry, that's the best I can do."

Swinging her metal pipe, a content smile appeared on her face. "Yet this should be enough. I might not look it, but I'm a decent fighter," Ina joked before the second after seriously instructing, "Let me handle him in close quarters; just support me to the best of your ability, especially against his magic." I'm helpless against his magic. You are not, sort of."

"Sigh,… you’re sure about this?"

"Sure? Nah, of course not. But I'd rather die fighting, trying to escape, than be sent back to that damn cell," she murmured as she walked ahead of Ana, "so don't hold back; my life is in your hands."

Ina charged at the man, whose face was red with murderous intent, trusting Ana's magical support.

"Nothing will remain of you!" the man raged, unleashing a salvo of his lightning onto Ina.

With little to no hesitation, the girl dove forward, rolled on the ground, and passed beneath the salvo fired at her, only to stand up a few meters later, as if nothing had happened, and charge toward the man.

"What!"

She closed the distance to the man, swung the metal pipe she wielded like a cudgel at his face. Ina’s blow seemed like it could connect, but the man’s reflexes finally kicked in. Tucking down and sliding past her, their gazes briefly meeting, the man avoided getting Ina's pipe in his face.

Ina and the man turned around to face each other.

Ina planned to follow with yet another swing, but before she could adjust her cudgel of fortune for a second swing, the man ventured a frontal kick.

Ina felt the enhanced kick of an aina-user connect slightly with her belly. Had she not previously taken the wise decision of backing off a few steps, the kick would have sent her flying into the distance.

Ina raised her cudgel and swung it down perpendicularly against the man's thrusting leg. She felt the slight resistance of his tibia slamming against her metallic pipe, enhanced by Aina or not.

The man's expression changed, indicating that he had felt the blow deeply but did not appreciate it. He immediately followed up with a swing of his dagger towards Ina's unprotected face, if not straight up her throat.

In face of this, Ina was left with not much of an option but to back off away from the man’s blade’s reach, but that soon proved itself to be a horrible decision, as it granted the man enough time and reach to make use of his magic.

"Die!"

He was about to launch his attack when he realized something. Instead of firing his lightning at Ina, he turned around, and summoned a shield of electricity that intercepted the shards that Ana, on his back, had unleashed at him.

Both girls frowned at the man’s reflexes, but that didn’t stop them from coming up with yet another attempt.

Ina once again charged at the man, who had just turned to face her, swinging her cudgel at his face. The man passed his dagger to his other hand and intercepted Ina's cudgel, cutting it in half with ease, attesting to the blade's sharp edge and his overall strength.

The other half of Ina's former cudgel flew across the room and rolled loudly, coming to a stop at Ana's feet. Despite being deprived of half of her metal pipe, Ina still had half of it remaining in her hand, now resembling a truncheon.

In other words, it was still a weapon.

Using her truncheon of fortune, Ina took a swing at the man’s face, then diverted the swing to her real objective: the man’s fingers, as she knew that fingers were a part that, whether enhanced by Aina or not, remained vulnerable unless curled into a tight fist posture. Ina's target was not just any finger, but the ones with which he held his dagger.

Ina, while pretending to aim for his face, waited until all four were within reach.

"Aaaah!"

A single attempt was enough to relieve the man of his dagger. But even unharmed, the man remained a threat—a considerable threat. Especially given how aggressive and adaptable he was.

He immediately followed Ina’s response with a punch aimed at her face. Ina arched her upper body backward with Olympic grace, narrowly avoiding the punch, but she didn't stop there. Locking her arm onto the man's thrusted arm, she wrestled her way to a position in which she locked the man's neck between her two legs before rolling inward and sending the man rolling like a log in Ana's direction.

"Did you know? Aina actually doesn't magically increase one's weight," Ina remarked to the man mockingly.

"DAMN BITCH!!" More frustrated than ever, the man raged, summoning his magic, but before she could unleash any of it, something stopped him in his course: Something pierced through his belly.

Lowering his gaze, he noticed something that looked like the other half of what he had severed from Ina's metal pipe.

Turning around to face the one responsible, he saw Ana.

"YOU!!!!" screamed the man.

This time around, he unleashes on Ana the lightning he initially planned for Ina’s, but Ana was already prepared, summoning a thick layer of water within which she shielded herself entirely.

Mad, the man unleashed upon Ana all of his lightning, forgetting entirely about the presence of one person.

"Hey, son of a bitch, did you forget about me."

Turning around to face the voice, the man was welcomed by a second cudgel of the same metallic object, piercing through his stomach.

"Aaargh," the man screamed in pain, but things didn't stop there, as Ina immediately followed with a punch to the man's face, sending him kneeling to the ground.

"Aîe, aie, aie," Ina lamented, as she had punched the man using her hand, from which she had forgotten the wound.

Despite his injuries, the man, mustering strength, rose back up to his feet.

"You’re a tough guy, aren’t you? Let’s see if you can eat this!" Without holding back, Ina flung her elbow into the man’s face.

At that point, whether he was aina-enhanced or not, he clearly felt excruciating pain from that blow. Sent straight to the ground, the man summoned all his strength to get back to his two feet. Unfortunately for him, while trying to get back to doing so, he noticed Ana finally come out of her summoned water shield, fists clenched, ominously stomping her way toward him.

Holding the man by the hair, Ina raised the man back to his knees, certainly not out of benevolence but rather to kick him over to her comrade.

"Hey, Lizzie. He’s all yours."

"Thanks," Ana said, receiving the man with yet another punch to his face that sent him back to the ground.

"Aaaargh!" he pitifully cried, but up to this point, those cries didn’t stir the slightest bit of mercy from the two girls.

On the ground, the man was stomped, kicked, and pounded, sometimes one after another, sometimes simultaneously.

"Let’s see how your magic helps you now. Hold him up for me, can you?" Ina asked Ana.

Nodding, Ana obliged, raising the man’s face so that he could see Ina.

"I bet you’re having less fun like this, don’t you?" Ina mocked him before reaching for the formerly metal pipe protruding from the man's belly and viciously yanking it out.

The man let out an otherworldly shriek as a disgusting mixture of blood and entrails squirted out of him after the metal bars were removed.

"Shut the hell up!" Ana ordered, violently slamming the man’s head, face down, against the ground, not once, nor twice, but repeatedly.

She kept on, till the man eventually made no other sound, but the one of blood pissing out of his skull. Yet that wasn’t enough, so Ana kept pounding and pounding until the time came when she finally heard Ina calling her back to reason.

"Oi, oi, Lizzie, Lizzie!"

"Huh?"

"It’s over now. He got what he deserved."

Coming back to her senses, Ana finally stood away from the man's corpse, her breathing erratic.

It was at that very moment that he appeared—the boy the girls recognized as the teleporter one. He appeared out of nowhere, clutching an apparently freshly severed arm, to see a sight he had not expected in his wildest dreams, as he immediately fell to his buttocks, trembling and muttering, "Dani...how..."

Standing over the butchered corpse of his comrade was a girl bathed in blood and flesh, while beside her stood another girl also bathed in blood, holding in both her hands metal that seemed to have been plunged into highly questionable places.

At that sight, he struggled to keep himself from vomiting at the boy and, without wasting a single second, teleported himself away.