Viers knew he would meet Jessica again after Croix told him the monster problem came from the direction of the elf forest. The last time he saw Jessica was when she tried to find the elves to cure her son who got injured in a fight between Level 5s.

But the true reason for his surety was because of the white card he gave to Jessica.

It was no ordinary white card, it contained a little bit of Viers' soul. It had a number of uses, such as allowing Viers to sense the location of one.

When Viers was in nature's labyrinth trying to find the lost forest, he first picked a direction before hacking his way straight through. That direction was where he sensed Jessica's card.

One thing led to another and now Viers and Jessica sparred again like they had in Ebon Wall City. Of course, Jessica was oblivious to this fact. There was simply too much difference between 'Kira' that she knew and 'Avel' who she fought now. Viers misleading her that they were two different people further beguiled her from the truth.

Jessica couldn't afford to think about such things anyway. She was getting completely overwhelmed. Her punches only ever hit Viers' afterimages, at least, that was her impression. If they were using Artes, she was sure her opponent might truly use afterimages.

The two fought barehanded. Viers who liked kung fu movies was no slouch fighting magicless or weaponless either. His main fighting style was still the sword, but his barehanded skill was so much so that a barehanded specialist like Jessica felt inferior. He got the souls of the dead to thank for that. Their contribution, mostly without consent, was invaluable.

"Hit."

Viers stopped his punch before it hit Jessica for the fifteenth time. He evaded, parried, tripped, and countered Jessica's moves. Her post-poisoned condition wasn't doing her any favors either. Taking that one hit from her opponent seemed more and more an impossible task as they continued to spar.

"Urgh…"

From throws, pulls, staggers, or trips, Jessica fell down many times. Each time she ate the dirt, Viers waited until she stood back up before continuing.

Jessica knew from his eyes that she was free to give up whenever she wished, but she wasn't giving up, even when breathing was getting excruciating.

She knew she was pushing her body, recklessly even, but so what?

Her opponent was already not using any magic and lowered his battle strength to the barest amount, the difference in cultivation was minimized to the extreme. What more could she ask for?

In Jessica's mind, if she failed this test now, her and Tim's death was written in stone. It might be decades from now, a year, or even tomorrow, but trouble would come calling. She was already well aware of her powerlessness and she couldn't think of a solution.

Then there was this man standing in front of her and said he was her lodestar.

She had to do this now! She had to get that one hit! Giving up was never an option.

She was a mother and a mother would do everything for her child.

One more time!

Arte - Speed Panther.

Not exactly. She used the footwork, though not the Victa. She brushed Viers' guarding hand with her left and was about to strike with her right. Then she felt a hand grabbing her left arm and a twist, destabilizing her posture.

"Hit, one, two, three."

Viers' fist stopped short from her stomach, chin, and after he sidestepped, cheek. But Jessica wasn't minding that right now.

Again, that feeling…

Her body's condition was getting worse and worse, screaming in agony as the last drops of stamina were squeezed by its master. As her condition deteriorated, her concentration was inversely spiked. It was a human body's defense mechanism. She started feeling something odd when she made physical contact with her sparring partner.

What is that? That… humongous presence?

Involuntary it might be, Jessica managed to touch Viers' soul. A soul that had been strengthened by consuming the souls of other humans in the tens of thousands.

Is it the cultivation base that he repressed? No, it is different! How is it possible, such an amazing…

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Like thin clothes making one more sensitive to the changes in temperature, Jessica's poor physical condition made her soul more exposed.

There was nothing strange about it. Viers had the easiest time extracting another's soul after completely ending their bodily function. In other words, death.

And so Jessica sensed the difference between hers and Viers' soul.

Her soul was an ordinary human soul without any tempering. On the other hand, Viers' soul had undergone a special evolution. Jessica's Mortal Soul and Viers' Grand Soul. In physical terms, it was like comparing a toddler with a ripped adult, there was no way the toddler could win in a fistfight.

In fact, since Viers possessed a Grand Soul, he had never brought forth all his soul abilities to bear against an opponent. His Horizon's soft cap at 500% and refined skills were already enough for him to kill his enemies. Even against the Level 4 half-brother of Croix, Marvin, Viers didn't unleash his soul side.

As for Jessica, she didn't understand what she sensed, but she didn't need to understand to know there was a great difference between the two of them, something that couldn't be explained by a gap between Level 3 low and Level 3 peak.

Viers shoulder-pushed her onto a tree, only lightly. Her foot got entangled with the roots. Jessica grunted and grabbed the trunk to get back up.

"What… are you?"

Jessica suspected the 'Avel' in front of her was not human. A shape-shifting monster? A demon wearing human skin? There were many tales.

If he was indeed human, then she doubted she was fighting a Level 3. She might have even mistook his age in the first place. Powerful Pathseekers could look young. 'Avel' might be a five centuries old Level 5 for all she knew.

"What a curious question," Viers smiled. "If you can hit me, then perhaps one day you'll find out."

"I'll… look forward to that," Jessica wobbly walked forward. At this point, her sweat had drenched her clothes.

All the martial abilities, which were also her body Artes, Phantom Kick, Shadow Fist, Double Rush, Tempo of Crucible, all fell short. Her stamina had hit rock bottom. This was her last chance.

Jessica knew she had to bet it all, on her strongest move, the secret technique she inherited from her family's martial arts. Jessica inhaled deep, relaxed her muscles, and made a different stance than her usual. She wasn't rushing and slowly raised her concentration, shaving unnecessary thoughts like honing the tip of the spear.

But to land it, I have to be more… More everything!

Viers, sensing her change, responded appropriately, by raising his guard. His stance was one of the karate stances.

The two stopped moving, and while the magic item used by Viers made a bubble of silence around them, it only prevented sound and aura from inside going to outside and not the opposite. The sound of the wind and the sparse falling leaves watched like silent spectators.

"This is my final attack, here I come."

"Show me," Viers nodded.

Jessica moved first, unlike their previous exchanges, her approach was slow, like gliding forward. Trading speed for stability. She kept going until reaching Viers' range. The moment she did, Viers struck. He had already made a lot of compromises, if Jessica couldn't meet his expectation then that was that.

Jessica slipped past the punch with a fluid movement. That maneuver was the smoothest she had done so far, achieved by her utmost concentration. They were chest-to-chest now, next came the most important part, her strike for the one hit objective.

Since he didn't say how hard the strike must be, only a clean hit, Jessica didn't put much strength on her strike, only focusing on landing it. The fist traveled slow, no speed behind it. A turtle's pace, even on a non-Pathseeker measure, but she didn't mind.

She studied Viers' pattern during the spar, and when the strike was something he could see, he favored redirecting the attack to the right or left side, whichever was easier. Jessica read Viers right and when he tried, Jessica changed her pattern. The right was a feint and the left fist was coming, and instead of slow, this was fast.

This was the basis of the Tempo of Crucible Arte, a technique for interchanging fast and slow movement. The technique had been beaten by Viers before but that was not all that Jessica did. At the brink, Jessica managed to mix the various techniques of her martial arts together seamlessly.

A series of hand strikes worthy of a kung fu film were exchanged between the two of them. Viers couldn't help but grin. What Jessica did was basically an 'awakening' from every other Japanese anime out there. The way she integrated her techniques into one and elevated each to a higher level, very anime-like.

Viers couldn't say he hated it.

The fast-slow combination of hers was especially dangerous. Viers had to take extra care or one would slip past his defenses. At the next exchange, when Jessica went from fast-fast, Viers got caught off guard but he still reacted in time, deflecting both of Jessica's strikes.

Her legs were free.

Arte - Cloud Dispersal!

Jessica did a straight-up ferocious vertical high kick straight to Viers' chin. It was the kick that was like the yoga leg split but vertical, not horizontal. It was a kick that required a lot of flexibility.

Again, there was no Victa involved, only the moveset. Legend was, the Arte was named so because the creator was able to disperse the clouds in the sky with the kick. Naturally, even with her Victa and full power, Jessica wasn't able to actually disperse the clouds.

But that was not important right now.

Viers was doing a spin on the air backward. Was it from her kick or did he do a somersault as an evasion? Jessica was too drained to know which was which.

When Viers landed, he looked at Jessica with a wide grin. A smidgen of dirt from Jessica's sole was on his chin. Before Jessica's brain processed what was happening, Viers dashed forward with a frightening amount of power gathering on his palm.

Jessica's instinct screamed. Dodge or die. Defend if you don't want to die. It was futile, Viers was too fast. That glowing blue palm of his hit her on the lower stomach and a jolt coursed through her veins. That was the last thing she knew before her consciousness was swallowed by darkness.

"You passed," Viers said while wiping his chin in a good mood.