Now that all the magma floor was gone, I was able to move more freely without having to ski on ice blades.

Isak, who was in an unfavourable environment, stared at me, and the air around him had become different. He took a deep breath, and mana started to surge throughout his body. His blade became coated in an orange glow, and his hair glowed like it was engulfed in flames.

I…mean… He was already a redhead… but damn, that’s cooler with added glow…!

Now that I think about it, it’s the first time Isak’s going into berserker mode. Well… I call it that, but it’s the overload state.

Close enough, right?

Whilst I could wait for him to exhaust himself…and it’s the smarter thing to do, I feel like I want to face this guy head-on like this…

Isak’s Overload sublimed the ice, and in a fiery vapour explosion, he instantly leapt toward me.

However, I made sure to put up mana armour and water armour to surround myself.

Isak won’t expect me to take it head-on…

I increased my mana output and created a condensed layer of pressurised air underneath the layers of water.

He won’t be expecting this!

Attribute magic: Vaporous blade

I braced myself. Our blades clashed, the layers of water blew up, and compressed air created an explosion which sent him flying.

Before the clash, I had frozen my feet in place, and yet, I, too, flew a decent distance away from the clash.

Isak’s mana armour had shattered, and he stood there and gasped for air. His sword had shattered, and he looked quite surprised. Usually, he’d be the one to win these duels, or we go even, so it felt pretty good to win for once…

YES!

“…not bad Aska…” Isak said.

His eyes became clouded. He fell on the spot.

…huh?

Didn’t Saint Amethely completely heal his injuries…?

I ran toward Isak. He looked up and said, “Damn… you actually won…” and raised his fist.

“…idiot, is this the time to be fist-bumping?”

Isak chuckled. “Always,” he cheerfully grinned.

I was worried for a sec there, bud…

“Geez, you had me worried.”

I reached out my hand and pulled him up. He gently smiled and sighed. “Welp, I lost this time, but I’ll have my revenge pretty soon.”

“Aiye…good luck,” I smugly replied.

Welp, I won against Isak. Now what? I mean… I’ve been thinking so much lately that my brain hurts…

Like, c’mon…

Isak met his GF. Good for him… Meanwhile, I still can’t decide between Hilda and Julia. The obvious answer to most would probably be Ju—I mean Hilda. Sorry, I’m not calling anybody out for not having a sister…

So, in that regard, Hilda is the optimal choice, but also because my moral compass says so. However… Despite that, Julia has been acting way cuter lately.

She was cute as a kid, but also now. Well, appearance-wise. After all, she was so cold to me during the two last years of middle school until we arrived in another world.

Y’know?

I found it a bit hard to straight-up reject her. Like… isn’t it endearing that she keeps trying despite having been rejected?

Then again…I sort of fell in love with Hilda at first sight. Or…not really? I don’t know. I really don’t know.

Like… Our first encounter was when I found people, but they turned out to be naked girls…

And despite having seen her vulnerable state, she wasn’t upset or anything with me—even after realising that I was a boy.

I like her for that. She’s kind and sweet, her blue eyes captivated me, and her figure is amazing…

I like them both.

And…that’s the root of my problem.

As Hilda said. I did somewhat try to shift Julia’s feelings a little toward Isak. I saw that they got along pretty well despite hating the other’s guts.

But then Freja came into the frame, and that made things more complicated as she was Isak’s ex-girlfriend.

Now they’re dating again…

Like…

C’mon…

However… I feel relieved. Relieved that Julia still liked me.

God, aren’t I disgusting?

I don’t think I want to think too much about anything anymore.

One could ask me why I don’t just pick both.

And well…

In this empire, having a lover is something sacred. It should be treasured. Sure, even this world has a dating culture to find a fiance. It’s not something one would casually enter. In this type of relationship, one has to commit and see how far they could take the relationship and get engaged.

And if it doesn’t work. It doesn’t. And if you do too many partner finds—their culture frowns upon that.

So…the dating scene isn’t what you’d call casual around here.

You know what?

Whatever happens happens. I won’t think too much about it.

— :::: —

The next day, we went out hunting again. We found ourselves a…what was it called again? Jekkes. Some big snake or something.

“So? You think we can hunt it?” Isak asked.

He seemed more motivated than he previously was. Of course, it was perhaps because he wanted to show off to his girlfriend.

But…

She wasn’t with us since it can be slightly dangerous.

Oh! Another thing is that we don’t really need supervision now that we’ve gotten better. Well… Isak wasn’t in the picture when we improved. But I think he’ll fit right in.

I’m sort of a vanguard to Julia and Hilda. They decided not to be too far away from their target like how we were during our first real battle.

This worked pretty well since I have the Eye of Concept. It helps to see when they fire spells and arrows. They also make some sort of gesture, so I know when to get out of the way.

“I see. That’s how you’ve managed?” Isak commented.

“Yeah, I’ll tell you when to get out of the way. We’ll fight side by side.”

“You okay with that?”

“Duh, obviously, I can beat you in close combat.”

“Hmm, I’ve always assumed mages should be somewhat distant, though,” he said.

Julia nodded and agreed. “Well, it’s usually like that. But in Hilda’s case, she can cast more low-damaging spells but have higher accuracy. Or she could use high-damaging spells with high accuracy. The thing is that it would be harder to miss, and the enemy would have less time to react to the mana being released.”

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Isak seemed a little surprised by her explanation. He turned to me and asked, “Could she be more of a gamer than you?”

“…I mean, who do you think has more free time? The dude that does the housework or the smart stepsis who studies in her room and plays games for a break?”

“…well, you can’t really blame it on that,” Isak said. “I mean, you’ve always been casual.”

“Oh, shut it!” I sulked. “Why does that matter?” I grumpily replied.

Hilda chuckled at our conversation but didn’t add anything. She was sort of like me and more clueless. However, she did have a good enough understanding of our formation and did her role pretty well.

—we don’t really have a healer since healing magic is mad difficult…

“Anyhow, how should we take it down?”

“Hmm, it’s an elemental snake. It doesn’t really react to its own element because of its resistance. In this case, it has a lightning attribute. So I thought that we should be careful with water threads this time around.”

“I see, Hilda, Julia, do you remember what kind of beast this is?” Isak asked.

Hilda pondered for a moment. “It’s generally vulnerable to wind magic unless its attribute is wind.”

Julia nodded, “Its blindspot is on above its head. And for a snake type, it has a good field of view in the front. But it’s risky to attack the scaled body that can eject scales. Its head is the most optimal place since it wouldn’t want to use those parts as projectiles.”

Isak’s eyes widened. I don’t blame him for being surprised. Compared to our first fight, we have a somewhat clear goal and sort of know how to reach that goal.

“Wow…” he uttered.

I gently hit him on the chest. “We’ve studied pretty hard after all,” I said while grinning.

Isak smiled but had a somewhat lonesome look. However, not for long. “So, the execution?”

Julia, Hilda and I grinned. “““We smash it’s brain!”””

“Woah…psychos…” he remarked.

“Well, in all seriousness, we have to break the scales on its head. Here’s what I think we should do,” I calmly said. “Julia, you break the armour with [Pressure Break], and Hilda, you knock it up from the ground with [Gale Bomb] and [Earth Pillar].”

Both gave me an affirmative nod.

I then added, “Besides that, you can judge what’s appropriate. We do some improvising as well.”

Hilda giggled, and Julia sighed.

“Well, nothing ever goes as planned after all.”

“What about me?” Isak asked. “I mean, sounds like that plan could straight up kill the thing.”

I shook my head. “Well, technically, the two of them could manage this on their own. But it’s a lot simpler if we defended them instead of having them dodge and shoot or cast spells at the same time, don’t you think?”

“Hmm, I see. With our enhanced defence and reflexes, we should protect them as much as possible… Got it.”

“That’s right, this thing has pretty fast regen on the scales, as they’re made out of mostly mana and stone. However, it usually refuses to use the scales on its head because it would become vulnerable for a short period of time. So, the plan is for Julia to destroy those scales completely and then for Hilda to knock it up into the air. I’ll defend them until you go in for the final blow, then I’ll support you so you can get there.”

“Hm? Why should I go for the final blow?” Isak curiously asked.

“Well, after Hilda’s semi-powerful spells, she’d feel slightly ill and have some difficulty concentrating. Julia’s discharge skill is quite powerful as it unleashes powerful and enhanced mana arrows. But there’s a catch. She can’t fire it consecutively, and her arrows won’t have enough firepower as [Preassure Break] for a short period.”

“I see. We intend to one-shot it?”

“Correct, and since my attribute is water, I’ll have more difficulties. Even if I can create ice, I first need to make water and then freeze it.”

“Huh? But doesn’t Al create ice blades instantly?”

I chuckled. “Well, you should know how absurdly difficult that is. We use the same method of creating water and freezing it. However, he does it faster than me, and it seems instant, even though I consider my one-second cast pretty fast. Isn’t it the same for you when you make obsidian shards?”

“Ahh… I see.”

“Then… Let’s go!” I said.

They all nodded, and we sprinted toward the Jekkes. Running through the trees and arriving at the open spot. It noticed us and instantly beamed lightning toward us.

I pulled Hilda and Julia to the side while sliding on the water path I’d made for myself. Isak dodged it and dashed toward the Jekkes to aggro it.

It ejected lightning-infused projectiles toward Isak while it coated the venerable parts in lightning as the scales got replaced.

Isak had no issues and slashed through the projectiles. Some made their way through, but it was fine.

I glanced at Julia and Hilda. They nodded, and Julia fired a wind-infused arrow to redirect the scales that were ejected our way. Hilda touched the ground and elevated the ground beneath the Jekkes.

“Isak, change of plan. I’ll solely cover for Hilda and Julia!” I shouted. “You can get close and wait for an opportunity!”

“Got it,” he replied while dashing off.

The Jekkes are also prideful and won’t easily turn and run. So that’s good for us.

“Isak, Julia! I’m ready!” Hilda cried.

Julia nodded and readied her arrow, and Hilda was ready with a wind orb in her hand. Isak jumped off with an explosive force, and I led my water threads around the trees.

Hilda fired off the [Gale Bomb]. She then put her hand on the ground and chanted her magic, and pillars knocked the Jekkes up slightly off the ground as it tried to flee from Isak and [Gale Bomb].

As the [Gale Bomb] closed its distance, Hilda retracted the pillar to the ground again. In a loud boom of shrieking-ear-bleeding explosions, a wave of shock waves was sent in all directions.

I’d prepared a wall of ice to cover for us, but even so, shards of ice shattered around and almost broke our mana armour.

Julia had charged up and fired her [Pressure Break] arrow. I rushed toward the beast, and Isak was in position; everything went smoothly.

“Isak, now!”

Using the water threads I tied to the trees, I chained the beast mid-air, and Julia’s arrow perfectly hit it between its eyes. Parts of the Jekkes’ scales were torn by the sharp wind blades that shattered once the arrow hit. With a loud bang, Isak stabbed it where the arrow hit.

—however…

I released the water threads and pulled on Isak. Just a moment later, a strong electrical discharge erupted as the beast cried. It broke through the water threads and did a mid-air spin, slamming its tail toward Isak.

“Shit!” I yelled.

Isak was slammed to the ground and formed a dust cloud.

I hope he’s fine!

Julia fired arrows and hit the same weak spot. The beast let out a loud cry in agony yet again. Hilia seemed a little dizzy but managed to create a massive pool of water for me.

As she released control over the spell and water rained down, I gathered all the water into a single condensed point. At the same time, I used acceleration magic and released the spell.

Attribute magic: Droplet Bomb

At the same time, lava and magma erupted as Isak tore the ground up to slam the beast toward the droplet.

*Boom!*

In a massive explosion, trees were thrown off the ground due to the powerful shockwave. Their roots were torn up, and since the explosion happened mid-air, there wasn’t a lot of damage on the ground.

Damn! The water vapours are so damn hot!

After that, a flash of bright light illuminated the mist, and an explosive flame erupted along with a loud, agonising cry.

…no way…it was that tanky? I thought we finished it off with Isak’s [Magma Hammer] and [Droplet Bomb]…

Well… it’s a D-5…no, perhaps a C-1?

“I finished it!” Isak shouted.

Hilda and Julia ran toward me and cleared the mist. There stood Isak leaning on the decapitated head of the serpent.

“Holy, I thought I was a goner after being hit by that electrocuting tail attack,” Isak said.

He had scratches here and there, and his arm was bleeding, but…

“I’m glad you’re fine!” I rushed over and gave him a healing magi-tool. Slowly, he stopped bleeding, and the wounds slowly closed.

“Thanks,” he said with a grin.

“Geez, you’re reckless.”

“Yeah? Said you who fired a damned [Droplet Bomb] toward me!” he retorted.

“Eeh~ I knew you’d be able to handle it,” I casually replied. “Somehow, at least.”

“You little…”

Hilda and Julia giggled at our banter. Slowly, Julia walked toward Isak, and they stared at one another before fist-bumping.

“Good job,” Julia complimented him. “Now you can brag about it to Freja.”

Isak responded with a sour expression. “…Welp? You’re teasing me now? You brocon!”

“Hmph.” Julia crossed her arms. “So what?”

Seeing the two interact as friends made me happy. Hilda giggled and joined in on the teasing. “Now Freja will think you’re super cool!”

“…not you too, Hilda…?”

She grinned and gestured to him for a high-five. Isak sighed and exchanged a high-five with her. She exchanged one with me and Julia as well.

I looked at the exhausted isak and reached out my hand.

“Thanks for the cover, Aska,” he said.

“…is that supposed to be sarcasm?” I sulkily replied.

“Huh? Not at all. Had you not pulled me out of that initial electrocution attack, I’d be toast!”

I could feel my cheeks slowly inflate.

“Hmm, is that so?” I said.

I don’t know what to feel. I couldn’t pull him out completely, yet he was thanking me.

I should do better.

“Aska!” Hilda suddenly clung to me. “I want a reward!” she happily said.

“…sure,” I replied and kissed her on the forehead.

She was probably not expecting it and turned beet red.

“WHAT!?” Julia shouted. “Hey! Aska! Where’s my reward!?” she fussed.

…I think I messed up…great job me! For not thinking too much anymore!

Isak, who watched in amusement, began to laugh hysterically. “Ahaha! Man, you’re screwed!”

Well…at least Hilda seems happy, I mean. She’s adorably smiling.

I patted Julia on the head. “There there,” I said.

However, she just glared at me.

“Fine…” she reluctantly said while turning away.

But as she turned back, I gave her a peck on the forehead, too. She was probably not prepared as her face turned completely red as well.

—they’re both precious—adorable, and sweet.

I’m going to hell…

A/N: Halloween special next chapter.