Fire was a funny thing. So very destructive, but also strangely hard to peg down. Thankfully for her, she was its friend. And she knew it wanted to burn. To live. There was no way fire would be able to resist a place where it would be able to burn for a long time.

Like that forest Feng had talked about. That was what had given her that idea. Fire made it hard for people to see.

The mana turned into fire mana under her will, transforming slowly as air and fire mixed to evolve into a pure, bright and hot blue flame. A blue flame that burned around her in a sphere. The mana gathered around her was so enormous that it would take a very long time for it to extinguish. And as long as she kept some air mana around, she would be able to breathe.

Althea looked around her, trying to identify where Feng had escaped to. The troublesome man had to be somewhere, there was no way he had just given up. The fire blocked her vision, but not her mana, and she had a lot of control on the surrounding mana right now. After all, the surroundings were fire, and she was a friend of fire.

The whistling sound increased as she closed her eyes, trying to use her mana senses to probe him out. Of course, there was nothing strange about them. What he was using was clearly a battle manual, and there was no way something like that would leave mana traces.

But there had to be a way to detect him.

Althea shot the fire out, trying to shoot it around randomly in hopes of detecting him. With the amount that was burning around her, she could afford to do that.

The first missed.

So did the second.

The third produced a flicker. Not a hit, but a flicker of mana, a mere after shadow that told her something had happened.

That something could just be air mana reacting. Some phenomenon of air mana that she didn’t know about. There were bound to be many of those.

But it could also be Feng. And that wasn't something she could ignore.

Althea shot a horizontal, circular wave of fire out, with her as the center. The blue flame produced a flicker, just like she had expected. Then she shot a flame where the flicker led. Another flicker. The flickers continued as she increased her speed, and then suddenly shot a flame a few meters ahead.

The yelp in reply told her that she had hit her target. A laugh bubbled in her throat at her victory as she prepared to continue the attack.

A mistake.

Magic tore through the fire sphere that surrounded her, screeching towards her with a force that she could not parallel.

Althea dodged, spinning in the air as she lost her mana. The attack followed her. And then another emerged right in front of her. Dodging again, she waved her stick into the third one, trying to disperse it. A ridiculous notion that did not work.

This was not an attack she could escape so easily. But she probably could. The attacks were powerful, and seemed impossible to dismiss for her power. But they were too powerful. An attack like this had to be difficult to maintain.

Althea searched the sky as she dodged, regretting it immediately as a fourth attack tore the bottom of her legs. A flashing pain screamed through her as she suddenly found the sole of her foot...gone. The skin and a number of vessels had been torn apart, with blood falling out of her body like gas leaving the fire trail of a rocket during takeoff.

The attacks had no intention of letting her recuperate. Pressing their advantage, they headed towards her, a very real fear for her life taking over as dodged desperately. The pain filled her mind, and the blood loss was pressing.

Althea dove towards the sea, calling on her mana to heal her, and the surrounding water mana to suppress the blood loss. The situation was not looking well. There seemed to be no way for her to survive this. No, Feng wouldn't kill her. There was no reason for him to.

The moment of relief cost her as another attack headed for her, this time heading for her head. Althea swerved, but the attack moved with her, switching targets to instead slide across her back. No, she couldn't allow that to happen again.

The feeling of desperation filled her as she called on mana, any mana that would listen, to fortify her dress.

The dress sparkled, glowing as the attack slid against it. Althea could feel the dress give away, the Jewel bonds weakening as magic poured into it. Mana poured towards the attack as the dress emitted its own stored mana. Crushed between the two forms of mana, the attack...died.

The shock rippled through her as the rest of the attack caught up, surrounding her as they tried to end her. Thankfully, she had trained her reaction speed. Calling on mana faster than she had ever before, she crushed them both, pressing them as they grew closer, increasing the amount in hopes that it would work.

Just as she was thinking that it wouldn't, that the attacks would end her, it did. The attacks were crushed, destroyed until not a trace of them remained for her senses to detect.

The feeling of relief she felt was more profound than she had ever felt before. Of course, Feng had other opinions. The sword heading for her appeared in the corner of her vision following the tell-tale flicker in the mana, making her move to block it as another sword moved towards her.

Althea dodged again. The sword struck again as she continued dodging. A sword was waiting for her as she dodged, right in her path. Thankfully, she had expected something like this. Feng had to be at least decent at combat to be chosen by the Warrior, and that meant he could anticipate her actions.

Even with practice, she still wasn't good at being subtle. The amount of mana she moved was enormous, and that meant she was not only inefficient, but also easy to predict. The air mana would move in the direction she was about to, telling Feng where she would be moving. The flaw was something she had tried to curb, but she hadn't succeeded yet.

Althea made a ninety-degree turn, avoiding the sword as she sent fake signals in several directions. If hiding it didn't work, she had to make it unreliable. The attacks continued as she was pushed back, having a hard time keeping up. Feng had taken the attack, and he wasn't giving up. The fact was, she was too slow to strike back.

Even worse, she was slowing down.

Oh, she was able to notice and keep up her speed, but her muscles were already strained under the weight of her dress, and were unable to keep up. There supposedly wasn't a great difference between a man and a woman's strength once they reached the Master stage, but Feng's strength seemed to be above hers.

Even as she quickened her breath, breathing shallowly to try to keep up, Feng did not seem bothered. The weight of his blows remained the same, precise, unaltered and barely within the limits of what she could handle. To make things worse, she was losing focus. With each blow that came, her arms sagged, and her mind grew hazy.

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This battle had to end, and soon. There was no way she was winning if she kept on going much longer. Was this a part of being a martial artist? Were they physically superior? Or was it experience? Feng's blows screamed experience. The boy must have been in more battles than her, many more battles. And he was even a few months younger than her.

Althea racked her brain to find a way to strike back, to force Feng to disengage and keep it that way. But the speed of his blows, the fact that she had to track his flicker, watch for his sword, and then dodge the other that was aiming at her from somewhere, while deceiving him and making sure he didn't track her was exhausting.

Thinking about an idea to change this situation seemed to be beyond her abilities. But it was still something she had to do.

What could she do?

Feng's sword twisted as she parried with her staff, his other sword heading straight for her midsection. Althea knew that she couldn't snatch the staff from his grip. Feng was too strong. The only solution was to give it off. Pushing the staff forward to hit Feng, she cartwheeled backwards in the air, regretting it as a spear shot towards her.

The fucker had a spear stored somewhere? Why didn't she store some weapons in her ring? The only thing she had inside were cakes.

Why did she have those anyway?

Althea broke the spear in two with air mana, conjuring an upward drift to try to block the hundred that followed. An Earth shield would have been much better. But here, the Earth was far away. A few spears made towards her anyway, which she dodged, using her air mana to glide through them.

Fend moved with her, his swords reaching towards her in an attempt to finish the battle now that she could no longer block. For some reason, she was much more mobile now that the staff had gone. More accurately, she was just moving around more. Having a staff had made her feel like she needed to hold a position.

Wait, where did the staff go? The bastard hadn't thrown it away somewhere, had he? That was the Diery family's ancestral weapon! No, wait. This wasn't the time to think about that. There were more urgent things for her to figure out. Like how to beat this guy.

The higher mobility was nice, but Feng was still faster than her. If this continued, she was going to lose. And there was still the threat of him continuing with that attack he had before.

As he was, he wasn't using a lot of mana, and the amount she used from the surroundings had to be reducing his rate. But he would still recover eventually. Althea was presuming he had enough talent to outpace his consumption.

The only thing she could think of that could help was using her core magic. But that was very potent, perhaps too potent. This was still a casual battle, and she would be in trouble if she killed Feng. Not to mention, she was sure he had to have cards saved up too.

What then?

Althea continued dodging as another sword appeared before her face. The other sword appeared towards her side, shooting towards her with a speed a little faster than before. Reacting as quickly as she could, she shot a blast of air towards it, trying to slow it down, so she could escape. The sword flew away as she flew backwards, ready for the next attack. Magic danced around her hand as she decided to let go of her reservations and call on her core magic.

An explosion covered her vision as her core magic tried to annihilate Feng from existence. Of course, Feng dodged. So she tired again. And again. For a precious few minutes, she felt like she was gaining ground. Like she had a chance. And then, just like every single time before in this bloody idiotic battle, the tempo changed. Feng's speed suddenly increased, his swords striking towards her. Althea dodged, skidding through the air as repelled the swords, flinging her core magic in their direction in a haphazard manner.

Wait a second. Althea's eyes widened as she found her attack find it's prey, destroying a sword. But a question came to her mind.

Where was the hand that was supposedly holding the sword?

Turning as quickly as she could, but still too slowly, she found Feng's palm pointing at her, and then things went white. A bolt of lightning. That had to be it.

Althea fell down from the sky, her eyes wide, staring upward as she found herself paralyzed. Mana responded as she called for it, but it felt like a distant echo. A faraway sound that she could place, let alone command.

The lightning must have reached her brain, for she found her thoughts grow foggy, cold water surrounding her as she fell into the sea. There was no denying it, she had lost. Feng had won. The surface grew further away as the light faded, darkness closing in as she fell quickly towards the bottom.

Why weren't they rescuing her yet? Did Feng think that she could still fight? Althea screamed internally, trying to scream, respond, indicate in some way that she was in distress.

A Master could do without air for minutes, but she had already been inside for more than a minute. And the lack of air was far from the worst thing in the sea. A mooing sound entered her ear, as she shuddered mentally.

Please be a weak beast. Or a sapient one that could help her. Not a shark. Or a whale. Or...any of the beasts that frequented this part of the oceans.

The image of sharp, partially broken teeth appeared in her vision as she found herself being pulled into the mouth of a creature. The lightning bolt’s effect had still not ended, her mind fogging up as her vision continued to grow hazy.

Was that purple mana she was seeing? Or the insides of the beast’s mouth?

A blue box interrupted her just as her vision darkened, her head spinning as she lost consciousness.

> System power source extended…

>

> System reinitializing…

>

> Name: Althea

>

> Class: Arcane Druid

> Skills:

>

> [Error]

>

> System power source minimized.

>

> Initialization failed.