"Is this serious? Amelia, I thought you hated painful training?"

This was a situation Orion never saw coming. For him, Amelia was more of an alone training kind of person.

Every time they trained together, she always complained that something was hurting, that it was too exhausting, or that he was too harsh.

"I am serious. I don't want to back down now."

He stared inside her eyes, to see that she had really made up her mind on this matter.

'She wants to have a serious fight? Why?'

But that question stayed inside of him. It wasn't his thing to ask the motivations behind every actions his friends did.

"No holding back, you get to use the Second Gear, and the Arm Overdrive, while I use everything I have."

"Amelia?! That's going a little too far, don't you think?"

Asking to use the Second Gear was one thing, but asking for the Arm Overdrive, even for him, was another thing.

"You know I can't use the Arm Overdrive on anyone. Isn't that why you kept it locked away until now?"

She nodded with a hard face.

"Yes, that's right. But I can't do that anymore. I can't bring myself to bring you down any more than that. We're both responsible for our actions, and I cannot stop you. This should have been like this originally."

"But The Marked ability is yours!"

"And the Shackles are yours! There's no common ground on how to use our ability."

Their shooting caught Karteira, Dramia and Drania's attention.

"Amelia, what's happening? Was the way we did things bothering you? Did I do something wrong?"

He looked slightly down, but she immediately tried to correct the situation.

"No! Of course not! It's nothing about you. You know how dangerous the fights will become from now on. There will be a moment where you need the Second Gear, or Arm Overdrive, but I will not be able to unlock it for you."

"If we get used to always use them, then we won't have to bother with asking. I'm only the wall blocking your own abilities. I'm nothing more than that."

This wasn't well received by Orion. His expression turned to anger in a split second.

"When have I said that you were a bother to me? That you were blocking my powers?"

Biting her lips, she realized that she only dug her grave deeper.

His anger disappeared, and only warm words remained.

"Amelia, we share the abilities, that I understand. And because I understand, I never asked you more than what you personally accept."

"But I know why you feel like this. Are you scared about the next unlock, and the future ones?"

Astonished, she looked at him.

"How did you know?"

He placed a hand on her head, and caressed her head.

"I knew from the beginning that dealing with The Marked was going to be tough on you."

She looked down at the ground in defeat.

"So, you guys are done with training?"

The three curious lookers were quickly called out, with Dramia and Drania fleeing back to their training without a word, while Karteira walked to them.

"Well, yes. Since I needed Amelia for a boost, but she was in the middle of something, I chose to stop for now."

"Sorry, Karteira. I bothered your training."

Receiving a apology from Orion, she shook her head.

"You don't have to. So what are you doing here? Are you done with training?"

He also shook his head.

"It seems like my day isn't over. You should come with us, this will definitely be a nice show for you."

Karteira tilted her head, not understanding what he was saying.

"Amelia, let's do it. I won't hold anything, just like you asked."

He removed his hand from her hair, and created a portal.

"But if we want to be serious, we have to get further away. Karteira, be sure to always be on the defensive."

Orion stepped inside the portal, and found himself on the other side of Horizon, where he could see his house as a tiny spot in the distance.

Shortly, Amelia and Karteira followed.

"Karteira, you stay right here."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

She nodded, and asked.

"Are you seriously going full power? Even against me, you barely attacked."

'Seems like Amelia told her before following me.'

"Yes, that's the plan. And for our fight, it was more of a check-up on how your strength grew."

He shook his head.

"I would never go full force against any of you. But since she requested it, I will do it."

With that said he turned to Amelia.

"Amelia, the moment you feel that you can't endure anymore, you shoot it. If you can't stop an attack, you dodge it. Don't receive it if it will injure you. That's all I ask."

There was no refusal in his tone.

All Amelia could do was nod in silence.

"Karteira, you be extremely careful. Any thing going your way, you either defend, or dodge. I don't want to regret bringing you with us."

Same tone, same answer.

"Alright. With that done, let's go. Follow me, Amelia."

They both walked a few hundred meters away from Karteira in silence. Amelia was beginning to regret asking for a serious fight.

Orion stopped, looked behind him to see that Karteira was quite far from them, and then turned to look at Amelia.

"You can activate both locks when you feel like it."

"I'll do it now."

The Marked activated, removing the locks on Orion.

'Left Leg, Second Gear, Lock Opened.'

'Right Arm, Arm Overdrive, Lock Opened.'

Ego's voice did as usual, stating in which state Orion was.

Orion turned around from Amelia, jumped a few times to get used to the Second Gear, and ran thirty meters away.

When he stopped, him and Amelia exchanged one last glance, before Orion unleashed his full power.

A burst of magic was released from him, and his front hair changed from black to the silver and gold hue.

Alcyone formed in his hands, and he pointed it straight at Amelia.

'He is serious.'

Amelia bent one knee forward, while bending the other behind her. She crossed her arms, and brought two of her daggers out.

'I have to get serious too. I'm not fighting Orion right now, I'm fighting the last of the angel and demon factions.'

Both where thinking of the other differently from usual. Orion was replacing Amelia with an Apostle, though he wouldn't go as far as to kill her.

'Leima, Ceres, Dana, Aura, and Vesta, I'm counting on you right now.'

From the five daggers, Amelia chose to use Dana and Aura first. The water and wind daggers were ready before the fight began.

*click*

Orion fired first. An arrow of light flew through the air at incredible speed.

'I can counter these arrows!'

There was no way Orion would use an Overdrived arrow right of the bat, she wasn't even sure he would even use it against her.

Amelia leaped forward and ran toward the arrow. With Dana and Aura strongly gripped, she slashed Aura toward the light arrow, sending a wind blade against it.

Both attacks were destroyed when they touched each other. Orion continued to fire arrows right after the other without moving from his spot.

Beginning to gain tremendous speed thanks to activating the wind and water together, she had now less time to react before an arrow pierced her.

Luckily, she was agile. She countered the one she was able to observe, and dodged the one she couldn't by sliding under them.

She got closer to Orion, around five meters away from him.

Without holding anything, she slashed both daggers, creating a wind blade, and ice spikes toward him.

With the Second Gear, Orion easily avoided the attacks, and continued to fire at Amelia while running.

'Dana, Vesta, do it.'

An orb of water, formed behind her back, hidden from Orion. Vesta, the fire dagger, formed inside of it.

She dodged and countered the incoming daggers until the water orb was boiling.

Once done, she bent her arm holding Aura, and stabbed into the boiling orb. She then pointed it toward Orion, and with a wind burst, send it near him.

When the orb touched the ground, an explosion of boiling droplets and steam happened, concealing Amelia's location from Orion.

But that wasn't enough to stop Orion, as he kept firing arrows, even blinded.

Amelia ran inside the steam, toward the source of the shots, until she found herself face to face with Orion.

That was something he wasn't expecting, as she managed to take him by surprise.

'I got you!'

Slashing Dana downward, Orion gritted his teeth as he received a powerful strike with his crossbow.

He pushed Amelia away with a low kick, and hid himself into the steam.

Amelia tried to go after him, but realized that he would most likely not be in the steam by now.

''Space Shifting' away...'

'Dana, go back. Leima, you're next.'

The water dagger vanished, and was replaced with her lightning dagger.

'The smokescreen has been used, it is useless now.'

With Aura, she dispersed the steam with strong winds, revealing Orion that had managed to make some distance between both of them.

But Orion was preparing something else. The moment he noticed Leima, he began to ran around Amelia like he did against Ivan.

She remained in place, watching for his next move.

Orion began to ran faster and faster around her, picking up speed at every steps. When he thought the speed was enough, an onslaught of arrows came flying her way.

'Aura, switch with Ceres!'

Immediately, she stabbed Ceres in the ground, and formed a dome of rocks around her.

But wasn't all, there was a hole on top of the dome. Leima was directly pointing at that opening.

'Let's see what you think of this.'

Hearing the arrows crashing against the dome, she released the lightning power stored inside the dagger.

'Electrical Discharge: Curtains.'

Out of nowhere, Amelia created a new ability for Leima. A beam of electricity flew out through the hole and stopped a meter high of it.

Then, tremendous amount of lightning strikes began to fell all around the dome, and falling upon Orion.

As he fell in surprise from the sudden counter, he had a hard time dodging an attack wilder and unrelenting than the lightning strikes created by Ivan.

There was too much to dodge, each time he dodged one, he had to immediately dodge another, or he would suffer a burn.

But, he was Orion. Processing each and every strikes coming his way was possible.

A few strikes grazed his arms and legs, but they never managed to cause a direct hit.

After a few minutes, the lightning strikes stopped, as the dome crumbled from the hits it endured, revealing Amelia holding Leima up.

She stared at Orion, and noticed that he wasn't completely uninjured.

Killing her thoughts before feeling bad about it, she immediately grabbed Ceres from the ground, and ran toward Orion.

Once again, a volley of arrows came her way, but she defended against it with earth walls.

One wall was enough to endure two hits before crumbling away, which Amelia used to get closer to him.

The moment she got close enough, Orion released Alcyone.

"Alright, let's go for round two, shall we!"

He took out the dagger from his thigh pocket, and ran toward Amelia.

Sounds of clashing were heard, as Karteira watched, with an unbelievable expression.

After a few exchanges, Amelia began to overpower Orion with the speed of her attacks.

Orion was stronger, but if he used the Arm Overdrive on the dagger, it would instantly break, leaving him in a worse situation.

Two daggers against one, to say that this was more favorable for Amelia wasn't a lie. But Orion was also doing great.

If you can't counter it, just dodge it. With that said, Amelia managed to place a hit on him.

When he was expecting it the least, she kicked him in the stomach and sent him back a few meters, before running to him without letting him breath a second.

She was ready to take him down. But Orion wasn't going to let it work.

He let go of his dagger and grabbed her wrist, making her also drop her daggers.

"Now, what are you going to do?"

Orion smiled as he evidently stopped her from moving. This was going to be his win if she was unable to free herself.

"Just you see. I'm not done yet."

The ground shook when she said that, and a wall of rocks appearing under his feet forced him to let go.

"Fine, if it's like that, I won't go easy anymore."

A shockwave coming from Orion pushed Amelia back.

Orion took out Taygeta, and unleashed another volley of arrows, albeit slower, toward her.

"I was going easy too."

Amelia rushed toward Orion, dodging everything.

The fight was only at its first phase.