Maxine had only just begun to meditate when grandma Victoria asked her via spiritual sense, "Maxine, what did you say to Elder Ezekiel earlier? I only ask because he became quite irrate after your spiritual sense conversation." It's a good thing that I can meditate and chat with grandma at the same time.

"He asked me what it would cost him to have me loose the fight against his grandson," Maxine answered, "My answer was for him to ressurect mom."

"Maxine, there is no way he could do that," grandma Victoria said.

"I know. That's why I said it," Maxine answered.

Grandma Victoria chuckled and she suddenly got sad, "I understand why you asked that though. I know there are few things that I wouldn't do to see her smile again. There are times where I wish that I had the means to resurrect her, but I don't. The only person that might be able to is your father and I know for a fact that he has been researching since her death. I find it odd that he hasn't at least tried to yet. I can only guess that he isn't completely satisfied with his research yet." I bet grandma would be surprised to know that Guan has found three ancient methods to revive mom. The first one involves using a pheonix feather and a few other preparatory items, but pheonix feathers are so rare that there hasn't been on seen in a millenium. The other method is alchemical in nature. The biggest problem with it though is that it requires extremely rare herbs, but they are far more easily acquired than a pheonix feather. The last one is horrendous. I can't believe that Guan even recorded it's existence. Guan would have to sacrifice the flesh and blood of one thousand people that have the shadow attribute with silver stage or higher cultivations and refine their bodies to create a suitable form for Hellen's soul to inhabit. The only people with the shadow attribute are in the Kavros Clan, so that would mean that he would have to slaughter a large portion of it to revive Hellen. She would never forgive him for that and it's probably why he hasn't even tried it. 

"I agree entirely," Maxine agreed, "Anyways it's not like there are pheonix feathers lying around anywhere."

"That's true," grandma Victoria said, "Hmm!? How did you know that pheonix feathers can be used to revive the dead?" 

Maxine knew that she messed up and quickly added, "It's a legend on Earth. One was used on a man's dead lover to bring her back to life."

"Oh, how interesting. You will have to tell me about it in detail later," grandma Victoria said calmly, "I have held you up long enough. Try to recover as much of your essence as possible before your next match." FUCK! I can't believe that I did that. Now I have to come up with a damn story to tell grandma to cover my lie. Or I should tell her the truth in secret? The only problem is that I don't know if she will keep it to herself or not.

"Will do, grandma," Maxine replied and felt the spiritual sense connection being severed. She continued to meditate while she waited for the arena to be repaired.

However the arena suffered quite the rough treatment due to the match she had with Joshua. The top forth of it had to be replaced. She was wondering how they were going to do that when a squad of people came flying into the arena and started lifting up sections of the arena before carrying them away. 

Maxine checked their cultivation and each of one them had a cultivation above silver stage. It made her quite jealous that they could fly in and out of the arena with such ease. She perform similar feats of aerial agility with her dragon essence armor, but it would drain her essence far too quickly for it to be sustainable. 

Maxine released a frustrated sigh and continued to watch them work while she meditated. Fortunately, it didn't take them long to repair the arena and get the matches back underway. Jenifer Krell was called into the arena almost immediately, but her opponent was so weak in comparison that it ended in one strike.

Maxine wasn't too surprised to see that. The odds that there were many more exceptional individuals in their age group was rather low. Finding three of them was impressive enough. However Maxine excluded herself from them since she wasn't raised in the Kavros clan's territory.

After a few more boring matches, Buck Wilder was called up again and he was facing a dark haired girl. It was one of the younger competitors that had gotten lucky early on and hadn't face any skilled opponents. Unfortunately her luck had run out.

Buck's opening move was slower than before as he lashed out at her with his whip sword. The girl dodged the lashing strike by less than an inch. She looked terrified as Buck continued his assault and the girl narrowly dodged his every attack.

Maxine became infuriated when she saw that Buck's expression was one of sadistic glee. The fucker is toying with her! But it's a weakness that can be exploited if he thinks he is up against a weakened or exhausted opponent. I think that I found a way to beat him even if I am low on essence. The fight continued for another four minutes with Buck barely missing the dark haired girl before finished her off by wrapping his whip sword around herp. He seems to like finishing off his opponents that way. I will use that against him.

Maxine stood up at the same instant that the AI announced, "Maxine Levings vs Jenifer Krell."

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Maxine leapt into the arena and waited for Jenifer to do the same. However once she was in the arena, she gave Maxine confident look while saying, "Don't even try to hide it. I know that you are tired from fighting Joshua. Just surrender. It would be better than embaressing yourself." 

"Maybe I'm tired. Maybe I'm not," Maxine stated as she withdrew her Twightlight Iron Blades from her dimensional pouch and got into a fighting stance while forming her essence armor, "Why don't we find out?" Jenifer looked at Maxine with uncertainty for a moment before getting into a fighting stance of her own.

"Begin," the AI announced.

Maxine rushed Jenifer at top speed. Jenifer thrusted her halberd toward Maxine's chest, but Maxine twisted her body to avoid the strike by a hair's breadth as she hacked down with the blade in her left hand at Jenifer's head. Jenifer abandoned her halberd and drew her short sword in an instant to block Maxine's strike.

Maxine only smiled and kicked Jenifer powerfully into her unguarded stomach. Jenifer folded at her waist as she was thrown backwards, but Maxine wasn't done with her assualt yet. She unleashed a Crescent Moon Blitz at Jenifer while she was still mid-air. Jenifer got her feet under her, but didn't even have a chance to register that she was being attacked before dozens of small crescent moon blades impacted all over her body. Jenifer was teleported out of the arena an instant later. That went far more smoothly than I thought it would. I half expected her to twist her halberd so the ax blade on her halberd would wound me.

"Winner, Maxine Levings," the AI announced.

Maxine deactivated her essence armor and released a sigh. She normally would have dragged that fight out a bit more to spare Jenifer's ego, but the girl had asked for it with her cocky attitude. Knocking Jenifer down a peg or two would help her in the long run anyways.

Maxine ignored the strange stares that she was receiving and returned her Twighlight Iron Blades to her dimensional pouch before walking back to her seat. However before she could sit down and go back to meditating, Jenifer approached Maxine and asked, "How did you know I would react like that when you charged?" Now this is unexpected. But since she came to me, I might as well help her out.

"That's easy," Maxine answered, "It's the normal response of anyone that uses a weapon that could be used as a spear and your eyes revealed exactly where you were aiming your weapon."

"I see," Jenifer said with a frown, "How do I avoid revealing where I will strike?" 

"Training your eyes to not look at your intended target until you strike is one way, but that is extremely difficult. Everyone wants to look where they are attacking. Another way would be to train yourself to react as you attack to a changing scenario, but you need a quick mind for that. The easiest way is just to wear a mask that has tinted lens' so your opponent can't see your eyes," Maxine answered honestly, "Also, I suggest that you learn a movement technique. It will be helpful to keep your opponents at a distance and where your halberd can do the most damage. I only say that since you seem to plant your feet on the ground when you are being defensive. Standing still only makes you a target for long ranged opponents."

"Thank you," Jenifer said and she looked rather uncomfortable, "I apologize for what I said earlier." 

"Don't worry about it," Maxine answered.

"Thank you, again," Jenifer said before she walked back to her seat. 

"Aren't you going to tell me how I could do better?" Joshua asked Maxine once Jenifer was out of earshot. 

"Nope," Maxine said seriously, "I think you are smart enough to figure it out on your own."

"Thanks," Joshua replied with a small smile. 

"You're welcome," Maxine said, "By the way, what do you think are my chances against Buck Wilder?"

"I would say that your chances are quite slim," Joshua answered, "At least, that's what I would say with the skills you have shown thus far. Buck's weapon of choice is your natural enemy."

"Tell me about it," Maxine agreed. Now how should I approach this problem? Like Joshua said, Buck is a damn good counter to my fighting style unless I can get close. Summoning my dragon like before won't work. He will have me cornered before it finishes emerging from my shadow. I can't rush him either. I will get shredded before I can get close enough to use either my blades or war scythe and he is agile enough to avoid most of my ranged attacks, even if I spam them. If only I could use my Harpy essence armor. I could use the Harpy Feather Bombs to beat him. After all who would suspect that harmless looking feathers would suddenly home in on my target and explode. No use complaining about it though. I can't use it with what I am wearing. I guess that I will just have to act like I'm exhausted from my earlier matches. That should give me an opening to work with. I hope that he falls for it. The conditions are not right for any of my other tactics to work, so this is my only option for now. 

Maxine fought her following matches while gradually showing increasing levels of exhaustion and afterwards watched Buck fight in his. His tendancies to toy with his opponents quickly diminished as the fights progressed. Maxine noticed that he kept looking at her cautiously. He doesn't completely believe my act. That's good enough. It just means that he will perform a probing attack to verify my condition. 

Maxine was rather confident that she could beat Buck by the time the final match was about to commence. She looked over at him and froze. There was a young woman fearfully standing next to him that hadn't participated in the tournament and she was wearing a cloth face mask that covered the lower half of her face. However that wasn't why she froze. Along the edges of the mask, she could see horrible scarring caused by a blade and came to a realization. It was him. He was the one that ruined Neesa's and her sisters' faces. That fucker is very lucky that there is a forcefield projected around him while he is in the arena. Otherwise I would be very tempted to carve up his face just like he did to Neesa and her sisters. Maxine's rage began to burn fiercely and she wished that the AI would announce their fight already. Oddly, Buck seemed to notice Maxine's anger and revealed a pleased smile. 

"Maxine Levings vs Buck Wilder," the AI announced. 

Maxine leapt onto the arena and glared angrily at Buck. She was only waiting for the AI to announce the beginning of the fight so that she could use him as a punching bag. However something happened which surprised her. A shadow swiftly covered the entire arena. She looked up and saw that a thick cloud cover had just moved in to block this planet's sun. I wondered how I was going to beat this bastard after I got angry. Now this will be easy. Afterall, the shade provided by a cloud still counts as a shadow. She looked back at Buck and got into an unarmed fighting stance while Buck did the same.

"Begin," the AI announced and Maxine performed a Shadow Step.