Hilary being given permission made her voice echo around the field, and two requests were directed at Gilly. The first was to survive ten minutes; the second was to land one hit before everybody present. There was a bit of disagreement, but not by the majority because the conditions seemed fair. To Valmor, it was a huge feat to achieve given her opponent was Hilary.

Gilly had no obligation to continue this battle. First, she was new to the system and had no trust in the world. She had only trusted those who she had interacted with. The other reason was the feeling of dread she was getting from Hilary. This was their first time meeting, so she had committed no offence prior. But based on the story Ephini and Valmor told her, this was expected.

Valmor wore a frown on his face, exchanging glances with Ephini, who bit her lip in frustration. Zin was indifferent to the whole situation, wearing his usual demeanor. Behind them stood a demi-human who had cat ears and a tail. She tapped Zenora and asked.

"Who do you think is superior?”

Zenora was shocked as the question threw her off guard. She had not noticed her around. But it was not weird to see Demi humans in Elnor. The demi-human continued.

"I think the girl will win.”

Gilly actually has no chance of beating her!

This caused Zenora to sigh, turning back to the field. She did not expect to hear such rubbish from a random stranger. Zin had overheard this; his lips gradually curled upwards. Hilary wore gloves in her hand, her country insignia on it, and her sword strapped to her waist, shining silver in contrast to her stark white military uniform.

She was adjusting her gloves when Valmor gave the signal.

She was standing at the opposite end of the field when Gilly drew her sword, but in an eye’s blink, she was in front of Gilly. Her hand glowing red hot with a heavy punch, making the air whistle. Gilly blocked, but the force behind it caused her to stagger backwards. Without giving her space to recover, Hilary followed it up with a kick. Unable to respond in time, the attack hit her square in the face, throwing her like a doll a few meters.

"Get up! Monsters won’t give you time to breathe."

Hilary mocked her. The crowd wore a mixed expression, some cheering and some worried, with Ephini and Zenora having the saddest faces. Zin was indifferent as usual. Valmor maintained a rather calm demeanor, though he was as concerned as the duo. Gilly struggled to her feet, having lost vision in her left eye completely covered by blood. She wiped her nose, revealing a crimson stain across her face.

The onslaught continued, sending Gilly across the field several times; she had to put all her energy into defending, unable to find a single opening to attack. A sweep followed by a roundhouse had sent her flying a few meters before crashing on the floor. At this time the crowd had gone dead silent as Gilly could barely stand. She was shaking, using her sword as support for her injured leg.

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All this while, Hilary never used her sword, just magic. Now looking at Gilly, she was disappointed in her being this weak and using her teacher's standard to judge the now weakly standing girl. Hilary walked away, signaling the end of the test. She was approaching Valmor. Ephini, who stood beside him, glared at Hilary.

Gilly, on the verge of passing out, had memories flash through her mind. First, there was a woman who patted her head; then she was in a lab; then she remembered what they always called her average, weak, mocked by the faces of people she did not know; the last string was people who died, with the last one pushing her down the water hole.

To her, she was standing, but Ephini could see she was about to fall. Zin stopped her, Hilary still approaching from a distance, and Ephini, not understanding, looked at Zin with mixed emotions.

"Something is off."

Zin had the strongest sense of danger, even surpassing that of his master. Ephini turned to look back at Gilly and froze. Gilly could no longer be seen where she was standing. Hilary suddenly drew her sword, and a loud clang reverberated with shock waves around the arena. This pushed Hilary a few meters back, her being even more shocked than Ephini with an open mouth and Zin smiling with his eyes closed.

Hilary had just drawn her sword in a hunch. This was what she had when she faced monstrous opponents. She regained her composure, jumping back to keep her distance. The more she leaped back, the more Gilly's speed increased. This made her use barrage after barrage of fire magic from the. Fireball, which was within the first tier to fire javelin, which was on the fourth tier of magic scale.

This made her grit her teeth in frustration. She had only used spellcast when facing higher-level opponents. The crowd erupted with cheers as Gilly, who was tossed around, was now overpowering Hilary. The exchange continued, with each blow Gilly landed being heavier than the last. Hilary, being in a pinch, used all enhancement magic but still could not keep up with Gilly's speed and power as a huge horizontal swing had sent her flying to the arena’s edge.

Her sweat glistened as she struggled to regain her breath, panting breath after breath. She had used all the tricks in the book, all her flame spells, but Gilly had either blocked or used a simple swing to counter. She looked like a prey facing a predator. For the first time in her life, she couldn’t comprehend the power of the person standing before her. Even when facing her teacher or Zin, she had never felt this way.

Gilly now looked like a predator, ready to deal its final blow. Shetook a stance, her sword starting to glow blue. Anyone who saw this and was on the level of a Hunter class understands its implication. This feat is only achievable in the predator class and beyond. Ephni whispered.

“Mana Attribute change”

This was a case where a natural element is taken and transformed into a new form, much more destructive than its previous form. What stood before them was one of the forms of flame, the Azure flame, which is said to ignore physical defence and flame resistance. Her train of thought was quickly interrupted by Zin tapping her, and they both moved like the wind toward Gilly and Hilary.

Zenora, noticing her master movement, put up a barrier, with Valmor putting up two above hers. Valmor looked at Gilly, who drew her sword twohandedly. In the blink of an eye, a blue slash flew forward in Hilary's direction, who was dragged off its path slightly earlier. The slash continued forward, shattering through the original barrier and, like a hammer on glass, obliterated the second and dented the third slightly before dispersing.

Zin appeared behind her, giving her a slight tap to the neck, and Gilly slumped out cold before being caught by Zin. On the floor, Hilary was shaking as she was in awe of Gilly being able to do a meta slash with blue flame. Even her reaching that class could not acheive such a feet.

"Thank you."

She muttered to Ephini, who was already running to Zin with Gilly in his hand. This was the first day of the day cycle, and with the entire event that had just transpired, discussion was heard throughout the city.

…

For the next few days, Zin would spar with Hilary as Ephini remained at Gilly's side, who was asleep all this while. She was out of danger thanks to Zin's friend Aerial being present and performing restoration magic. This was different from healing magic as it returned the person to his previous state of well-being.

Zenora constantly brought food for her master, who refused to leave Gilly's side all the time she was asleep.

On the first day of the night cycle, Gilly woke up, but she had a memory fragment just before waking up. It was her father who had loved her and protected her until he died in an accident. His name was Santo Martina