Tibaut had left a bloody mark on the tree he had slammed into before falling to the ground. Yet the damage he sustained from that was negligible compared to the lariat.

Most of his ribs were broken, it was almost certain several of his organs had been ruptured in the initial blow.

He lay on the dirt ground with blood slowly spilling from his mouth and not a single twitch out of him.

Elizabeth flicked up her hair and slowly walked over to him.

(“Now what could have gotten into him? Tch, regardless now we have one less man to help us in the dungeon. I can't imagine the others will have any faith in him if he left me like this.”)

Tibaut had displayed a concerning amount of stillness as she walked towards him.

….

…

..

She quickly turned it into a jog and hurried her way over. After healing him she breathed a sigh of relief, seeing his chest move in and out.

“Whew, alright, he's alive.”

She wiped some sweat off her brow and picked him up.

(“He should be out for the next few hours or so based on what I saw during our training sessions.”)

She hucked him over her shoulder and began heading back to the others.

It wasn't even five steps before she noticed movement on her shoulder.

(“Is he having a bad drea-”)

She turned to look at him and was greeted by Tibaut staring directly at her face. He had his hand on his chin and looked to be taking in her appearance.

“Finally feel like telling me what you were hiding?” She asked. (“It looks like he stayed conscious during all of that.”)

Tibaut stared blankly at her for a few more moments. With each passing moment, Elizabeth felt increasing unease. Tibaut could easily be read by his facial expressions on his best days, much less after being defeated by her. Which made it odd he didn't react to that comment.

(“Damn, I didn't permanently damage him in some way did I? Now that I think about it, I did give him a good blow to the head. Oh no, don't tel-”)

Her thoughts were cut off when Tibaut, without any warning, pushed himself off her shoulder and got back on his own two feet.

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She turned to see him dusting himself off with the same blank expression.

(“Damn is this ki!? It doesn't have the aura but I can't imagine why he'd be unresponsive. I should have known something like this was going to happen. The time I've spent with him had been going far too smoothly.”)

She looked at her sword briefly but decided against it.

(“Ki… hmph, if I'm going up against her I can't hold anything back. But he should be much easier in comparison. I should take this as a training session to prepare myself. After all, I would be admitting defeat if I didn't think of a countermeasure in the scenario where she manages to get rid of my sword.”)

Tibaut paid Elizabeth no mind and stared at the trees and scenery with a soft smile.

(“Could this be a different form of his ki? Maybe it's in response to his emotions?”)

After observing him for several more moments, she decided to go all in and threw herself at him.

He didn't react and she was starting to wonder if he was in any state to fight to begin with.

(“Am I just overthinking this? Whatever I'll check with this first punch and if he doesn't respond to it, I'll heal him and take him back.”)

She threw a punch aimed at his jaw and the sound of the impact reverberated throughout the forest.

But two people were still left standing after this picturesque punch. And the one who was most shocked looked on in confusion.

“Such a beautiful world. It really is a shame he favoured those insects over this scenery.”

Tibaut? said, speaking to no one in particular.

While Elizabeth's punch had made a nice sound, it did still end up being blocked by Tibaut. With only one of his hands.

She immediately backed away and Tibaut looked at his hand in interest and began flicking it.

“You have quite heavy hands, Elizabeth. Thankfully this fight isn't determined by that alone.”

He produced a flame in his hand but looked confused by this.

“That bastard. I give him such wonderful magic yet he uses this basic garbage. I thought he might have hidden it but he really doesn't know he can use it yet.”

“W-who are you?” Elizabeth asked. (“Is this a possession?”)

Tibaut began mockingly clapping his hands.

“Good job Elizabeth. I'm sure this idiot would taken much longer to figure out something isn't right.”

Elizabeth wasn't sure how to take this.

“And as a prize, you can help me pass the time. This is the first time I've used this body so I want-”

Elizabeth interrupted him by throwing a branch. He dodged it by moving his head but soon had a sword in his field of vision.

She was aiming directly for his head.

He sighed and held his hand out.

She sliced through it almost like butter and quickly turned to heal him. But she was surprised to see him with an intact head.

She quickly backed away.

“How did he?”

She looked at him and noticed something shiny on the same hand that held a flame earlier. He flicked it off and it looked like a bead of something.

She turned to her blade and realised what it was. Half of her blade had been removed and it was obvious by the half left it had been melted somehow.

If she decided to look to the ground she would have noticed several parts of the ground burning or steaming, but this thing inhabiting Tibaut wasn't something she could take her eyes off unnecessarily.