My body ached like crazy, but it wasn’t like I had a choice. How long had it been? Hours? Actually, it was probably less than five minutes, but that was how crazy the fight was going. My sword zipped around in front of me as I fought Alysia with all of my strength. Of course, this battle had nothing to do with me. My body was being used, but it was ultimately Octius who was controlling everything.

This was his struggle, and the exertion could be seen on his face. When he offered to battle the girls, I had figured that he could easily resolve things, but it turned out he was more evenly matched than he originally let on.

I had taken numerous cuts and bruises, but Octius himself was still in perfect shape. In fact, I had a distinct feeling he was protecting himself a lot more than he was protecting me. While I had taken dozens of hits, his magic girl outfit was somehow immaculate and untouched. It wasn’t like I wanted to see his outfit hanging seductively from his body, but it’d be nice if he treated my battle with the same care as his own! Maybe this wasn’t fair. I didn’t know how much control Puppetry gave him. For all that I knew it was extremely difficult to control fine motor skills and keep me safe.

My body took damage after damage until I had to order the girls watching not to interfere. My body was bloodied, and my armor had been stripped one piece at a time. My only consolation was that Alysia had taken just as much abuse. I couldn’t even believe it, but she was panting as hard as I was, and her clothing had been sliced many times so that she would appear indecent. I was afraid to point it out now though, lest I cause her even more anger.

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As for the three against Octius, they were also in bad shape, having been knocked back and knocked down dozens of times. Although my fight with Alysia was leaning on her side, Octius’s fight with the three Titan’s Fall girls was leaning on his. They were no longer making quips or paying attention to our fight. They couldn’t afford to take their attention away from the whirling Octius, who didn’t even use a weapon as he fought them.

It was clear that the winner would be decided by whoever defeated their opponent first. If he defeated the three girls, then he could drop his Puppetry and attack Alysia in earnest. If Alysia won… I’d die, and he’d lose all of his bonuses. Then, the four girls would team up on him and bring Octius down quickly.

“Now!” Alysia declared.

All three women had used a skill on Octius at once. Somehow, despite the fact that I hadn’t seen it, the girls who worked and fought together so much had managed to signal a plan between each other and were now executing it perfectly. It was at a level of skill, only an experienced group that had fought through life and death could manage.

“I’m sorry, Deek, it ends here!” Alysia bellowed.

Three glowing attacks landed on Octius just as Alysia delivered her strongest blow yet.