In the end, Sophia had given everyone a break after Paolo's speech.

It was one thing committing to the team for a couple of months top and another to do the same for an unknown multiple of years.

So far, they had managed to clear each floor in under one week. But they still had a tendency toward taking more and more time. And if confirmed, one week might soon turn into two, then a month or a couple, until they stop counting entirely.

She also needed time to reconcile with her choices now that she knew they were misguided. They had almost entirely skipped three floors of resources because of the perceived urgency of their predicament. And she gave up one of her lives for what might amount to absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Training her archery to clear off her head had felt natural as if she had done exactly that her entire life, blending it with her true lifelong passion for gymnastics as if they were one and the same.

Acrobatic Archery.

That's what Prince had called it as he had settled down to watch her. He was soon joined by Lono and Michel, who kept exchanging playful banter with one another in an ushered tone.

The two companions were all too happy to send balls flying in the air for her to shoot, while she kept jumping, walking over obstacles, rolling over, taking cover, or hanging on bars upside down.

She could not train for a zero-gravity environment, but she was still trying her best to prepare, even for the impossible.

But mostly, she was blowing off some steam. Despite their recent success, the whole situation was still incredibly frustrating. Having to earn her right to live wasn't within her former plans for the next few years. Anyway, there was no point crying over spilled milk and the training was both useful and providing the outlet she needed.

And though a surprisingly minor part of her current powerset, archery was the embodiment of everything that had gone right for her since the start of the tutorial. Advanced Speed Archery was still her only boon that felt earned. And it was the only part of her build that both had visible room for improvement and felt directly actionable.

Since she had signed that witch contract, she felt like Lady Silverhair, Prince, the system and many others were pulling the strings over her. However, when she was wielding her bow, she felt she had some agency and might one day be able to reclaim her life back. It was irrational but it worked.

"Impressive, I must admit," Moana said out loud yet bitterly cold. "It must feel good to be so talented. But those poor balls are unable to fight back. Are you getting any benefits at all? Or are you just trying to show off for my brother?"

So the girl was as protective of her twin brother as the other way around. However, her protectiveness was currently misdirected.

"Are you perhaps offering to train with me?" Sophia purposefully chose to ignore the girl's provocation and to play dumb.

To which the girl answer left her no choice:

"Nope. [Surgical Strike] is too dangerous for training and my self-control is not nearly good enough." She refused categorically. Before turning around to join her brother while pointedly ignoring Sophia.

What was the deal with that girl? She was alternatively too shy to defend her opinion, then an assertive and capable professional who demanded her authority to be listened to. And then, she was acting like this? What was her fucking problem?

And so she snapped:

"Are you really that concerned about hurting me or just too prideful to even amicably train with me?" She replied, taunting the girl.

And though she could not see her face, her brother's reaction told her everything she needed to know:

"Moana... No. We talked about this." He warned anxiously but was ignored.

"Someone needs to teach that bitch a lesson." She told him back before turning back to face her and stated: "You are a disrespectful piece of shit and I don't know how your team can even stand and follow someone like you."

The first part was the absolute truth, by Sophia's own admission. The second part was Moana establishing a general law based on her own rightful feeling. And the third was a clear challenge to her authority within the group, which Sophia had expected a lot sooner.

Which was changing the scale of this challenge entirely.

"Perfect," She exclaimed, "Give me a moment and we will be able to sort this out."

And so she ran back to her bedroom to retrieve the dull arrows and blades she had retrieved on the third floor. It should have been repaired on the fourth floor but her further efforts and intention to turn those into training gear had somehow been acknowledged by the system. And though an underwhelming one, it had been her first success at crafting.

"Here." She said after returning with gifts. "Pick whatever weapon you want. If you can hurt me with those, I will take full responsibility."

And so the girl frowed at her with a mix of awe and disbelief.

"Why weren't you training with those in the first place?" The girl said, pointing at the dull arrowheads.

"They are too precious. I was keeping those for team training only." Sophia explained.

Solo training was messier since she was pushing the limits of her own capabilities. And she did not have enough training arrows for that purpose. Hence they ironically had become the precious resources to be kept for one-on-one training.

But Moana's face was still blank with incredulity.

"Nope. I don't understand your logic and I'm not gonna try." She said, picking up a pair of dull daggers.

And so, Sophia did the same with the dull arrows, causing Moana to react once more:

"Are you really going to duel against me using your bow?" She exclaimed, frowning.

"That's the point of training" Sophia retorted, "As a primary archer, I won't always have the luxury to stay out of reach or switch to the right weapon in time."

"I told you she is training crazy." Paolo casually barged in the conversation, sipping on a cup of tea, before joining the other guys to watch the girls fight.

And so they were readying themselves, one on each opposite side of the training room, while Michel stood up and left his place to Paolo to go play referee:

"The first hit wins the point. The first to ten win the match. This is a 'friendly' match so we don't want any injuries. Any minor foul will earn you a two-point penalty. Any major foul will lose you the match. As a neutral party to this dispute, I decide what is what. And whoever loses earns the other an apology. Is that okay for everyone?"

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Sophia was first to agree to the terms, but soon, they were all but waiting for Michel to give them [coup d'envoi].

"On the count of three. One, Two, Three, Go!" He declared and she sprung up into action.

She opened up with a volley of three arrows, before dashing for the nearest and biggest obstacles on Moana's path to reach her. But Michel's voice interrupted her.

"First point to Sophia. Please get back to your starting position." He declared.

She had lost three arrows right from the start, but she got Moana to be wary and on the defensive, though Sophia could not afford to do it twice with only five arrows left. But she planned on recovering her lost arrows soon enough.

After the countdown, this time she opened with a single arrow and then started singing while rushing straight in the exact same direction as before. Only this time, the lonely arrow had done nothing and so, she kept going undercover to retrieve the four arrows she had lost so far.

She passed by Moana and ignored her, got what she needed before shooting two arrows at the girl's back.

"Second point to Sophia. It was a dirty one." Michel commented.

And just like that Sophia had already played all her tricks, as she didn't not plan to use Luring Song on an ally, ever, even for training. She recovered her two arrows and faced a glaring Moana on her way back to position but she didn't care. The girl had looked down on her for bringing her bow to their match. She was going to make a point of using it as much as she could.

In the third match, she had sent two arrows toward Moana but the girl had learned and picked them up, so they couldn't be reused against her, forcing Sophia to change strategy. With only six arrows left, she could not afford to waste them.

And so she started singing and switched to her blades.

Though Michel had not known, the terms of this match had been entirely to her advantage. First hit win the point? She could win the entire match like this, as her stealth singing would not drop until her first successful attack.

But it would not be much of a training for either of them if she did so. And so she planned to use it solely for positioning before re-engaging. And also because she would lose a big part of her advantage if Moana could figure out how her stealth singing worked.

This time around, she got closer to Moana and took cover to prepare an ambush for when the girl would get close enough. Earning her another point and allowing her to take back her arrows from her opponent before she got the time to react.

"Sorry, but those arrows are mine." She taunted as Michel confirmed her win.

In that fourth match, she only sent a single arrow Moana's way, which the girl had picked once again before rushing to take cover and disappear. This time around, she was trying to beat Sophia at her own game. And so she had dropped her stealth singing.

Sure, she could have gone 'invisible' herself, and knowing she was there, she could have ratted out Moana before dealing with her. But the purpose was training. And in real life, she would not know that an enemy would be hiding away in an ambush. So playing along and giving Moana the advantage this time around made sense for her.

"You want to play hide and seek?" She taunted the girl, "Okay I'm in. And so she did what made sense for her in this scenario. She started climbing to get a vantage point that might give away Moana's position, while also trading one advantage for another, by playing the high ground.

Anyway, she did not see the dagger flying her way before it hit her.

"And that point is to Moana!" Michel stated enthusiastically.

She had traded one arrow for one of Moana's dagger so she did not care about that lost point. The battlefield surgeon could not afford to lose her only remaining weapon, and so, it would be a one-time thing.

For that fifth match, she chose to flip things around and did not use her bow at all, dual-wielding one of her blades with the dagger she took from Moana in her off-hand. She rushed straight for the girl who wasn't ready for her assault.

"And four to one for Sophia," Michel confirmed with notably less enthusiasm.

'What happened to be a neutral party?' She wanted to ask but kept quiet. Everyone liked the underdog and after three wins in a row, she had clearly demonstrated that wasn't her.

And Moana glared at her, realizing her previous mistake, in a match of two blades against one, she had put herself at a disadvantage. Though she obviously did not understand Sophia's unwillingness to press on.

Her goal was to train, not to get an easy win. She wanted to use that opportunity to test a maximum of things, now that they were in a safe environment, so she would be ready if she ever had to use it for real.

And so, for that sixth round, she switched back to her bow and started stealth singing from the moment Michel yelled at them to start. This time, she wanted to try sniping from a high ground and see how long she could stay undetected after she stopped singing.

And the result, merely a couple of seconds, had been disappointing, though she still got the point, and lost yet another arrow.

Halfway through their duel, Sophia was already running out of ideas and so she decided that this time, she would test out her natural stealth. It had been a foolish attempt that had resulted in Moana getting another point but she didn't care.

For the eighth round, she chose not to use her stealth singing once again and to train to switch from her bow to her blade mid-fight, after aiming no less than four of her six remaining arrows at Moana, who did not have time to both retrieve them and react to her assault. It was another point for her.

"Six to two for Sophia." Michel yawned in confirmation, obviously already bored at their fight.

"Would you like to take a trade: My arrows for your dagger?" Sophia offered to the still-glaring girl.

Still, she could say that Moana had been considering her offer before shaking her head. Obviously, the girl was thinking that denying Sophia her arrows was worth fighting at a disadvantage. She must have been confident in winning a match of attrition. And Sophia could not say the same, hence her offer.

Then, she decided to go for a repeat of her fourth victory, before making the same offer a second time, which Moana refused once again. And so she did it again, and lost that time, but not without reclaiming what she had been aiming for: her arrows. For not taking her deal, their match was now at seven against three. But she now had her arrows back while the field surgeon got nothing but her wounded pride.

She immediately put them to good use and won her next point with a volley of the sixth arrow she had just retrieved and rushed in to retrieve four of them before Michel or Moana could even react. And so showing both that she too was getting bored, mainly because of her sparring partner's inflexible attitude.

She then won her penultimate point to victory by doing a repeat of that same volley, which finally got a reaction from the field surgeon, who swore abundantly.

And finally, she did not bother to try and recover her arrow that last time and went for a last two against one blade sparring that decided her victory.

"Satisfied?" Moana shouted at her angrily, after they were done.

"Not at all," Sophia replied, emotionally drained. "If that counts for something, I'm sorry. I know I have a bad temper and a less-than-stellar personality. But I have tried my best thrice to offer you an olive branch and you are the one holding a grudge. And in a way, you won. I won't ever ask you for a fight. Have a good day."

And so she turned around and went back to the kitchen. Only this time, Michel, Lono, and Paolo took her side and followed after her. She might have fought and won dirty. But she had tried everything she could think of to break the ice with Moana and get back to a healthy relationship.

She offered food and said she was sorry. She had respected the girl's distance while trying her best to be considerate and apologetic. And then, she had tried to fight it off so the girl would get it out of her system, only for the girl to look bitter and bitter as the fight went on. And Sophia was not a bully. So once it was cleared the girl was determined to make the both of them miserable, she simply put an end to the fight.

Plus, true to her words, even with a dull blade, Moana had not even tried to control her strength, and each of her three hits had hurt a lot more than they had any right to. And one of them did manage to puncture through her armor and draw blood, nothing that her song healing couldn't deal with, but still.

She had not been that frustrated by any friendly sparring since she had fought Blake. And that many, however, had been a bully and enjoyed inflicting pain.

"It's okay," Paolo said as she was taking a page from his own book: she was positively seething with rage which she channeled through her own version of comfort eating. "I know what you were aiming for and I know your heart was in the right place. At least, you learned it's not working and put an end to it."

"How I'm supposed to get through to a girl who can't be bribed, reasoned, fought or even left alone?" She asked desperately.

"You can't," Lono stated bluntly. "For all her redeeming qualities, my sister is a socially awkward perfectionist and has been pushing people away for years."

"And when did you plan to tell me that?" Sophia lashed out, accidentally breaking her plate on the table. "Sorry."

The man shrugged and explained: "I love my sister but she needs to grow up. If anything, I hope that damn tutorial would help with that."

So her new teammate had been using her to teach his sister how to make concessions?

Surprisingly, she could not feel mad about it. She even understood it.

Moana and herself had clashing personalities that made conflicts unavoidable. And it wasn't like Lono had manipulated her. He had just withheld some information and let their interactions run their course until Sophia had truly given up.

If he sincerely wanted his sister to learn from her mistake, it was the only sensible thing to do, even if it was at her expense.

"Then, sorry I wasn't good enough," Sophia said before returning to her meal, and then, silently excusing herself.

In the end, she needed some more alone time.