Marve, Mimiki, and Lila stood facing each other, with both Mimiki and Lila ready to act at a moment’s notice. Nobina had taken several steps back to give them some room, moving to more of a spectator role for now. She was still technically having her match with Marve, but neither of them was concerned about that at this point. Rather, Nobina was merely there to assist the two in facing Marve if needed. Not that they needed her assistance at all.
“Come on,” yelled Marve, his aura pushing forward a bit more. Both Mimiki and Lila were unphased as the aura swooped over them.
“Hm,” said Lila, a hand on her chin. “This is quite a powerful aura. No wonder Nobina was being pushed back.
Mimiki nodded her head, also unphased by it.
“Perhaps I would have been pushed back a bit if I was still a B rank, but as someone seeking S-rank you can understand how wasted it is.”
Marve laughed, nodding his head.
“Such a show of force would normally be wasted, but the aura is far more complicated than merely something that pushes the weaker back. Observe my ability firsthand. The Will of Strength!”
As Marve yelled out his ability, the aura suddenly became visible, showing off a reddish color. It was light enough that you could still clearly see through it, but there was something else going on as well. Both Mimiki and Lila, who were unamused, suddenly became serious. Without wasting time, the two of them both tensed up before charging at Marve.
Marve, who had his axe already ready, held it up for defense as both Mimiki and Lila swiped toward him with their training swords. Thanks to the fact the swords were steel, they held up as they clashed against Marve’s axe. However, the result of the impact was Marve being pushed back a bit as both Mimiki and Lila jumped back as well.
“How reckless,” scoffed Lila. “A taunt that makes us incline to attack immediately. Against these odds I don’t know what you were thinking.”
“Yeah,” nodded Mimiki. “I hope you can explain yourself Marve.”
Marve, who took a deep breath, nodded.
“One doesn’t go on explaining his abilities to his opponents. Once we are done though I won’t mine sharing,” he laughed.
Both Mimiki and Lila were now calm, showing that the aura was no longer affecting them. With both in control, Lila spoke up to Marve.
“It would be unfair of me to use my full might against an A-rank. Especially given this is a two verses one, I shall abstain from using my arsenal of active skills and beat you purely with the strength and speed of a S-rank,” she grinned.
“I’m just glad you aren’t thinking of me as weak enough to have to only face Mimiki,” he nodded. “If you believe me that strong, then I shall prove it. I do have the title of the Iron Wall for a reason.”
“I know someone else that feels like a wall,” chuckled Lila. “Though… this isn’t going to be quite the face comparison.”
As the two got ready for the next clash, Mimiki moved closer to the sidelines where Immana was standing. She was as calm as could be, which really made Nobina curious.
“Hey Immana,” said Nobina, drawing a chuckle from her.
“Ah addressing me more casually now that you have likely two more members? How bold of you Nobina,” she smiled. “I’m still a noble after all.”
Nobina really wanted to say something she shouldn’t say, but she luckily held back.
“So how do you feel about this current match?” asked Nobina.
Immana put a single finger under her lip as she gave her analysis.
“Well… The current match between the three has just started but I can already tell that this will be much closer than you think,” said Immana, surprising Nobina. “You don’t notice it, but that A-rank with Marve seems ready to join the fray. It is unlikely Lila is going to break her word even if that second A-rank joins. Bear in mind, this is still two A’s vs an A and S, but Lila is handicapped enough to make this interesting. It would be sad though for her to ramp it up at all.”
As she finished speaking, Nobina could see a look of excitement in Immana’s eyes. She was really investing in the fight, making Nobina feel obligated to focus on that for now.
With her attention back on the fight, Nobina noticed that Marve was being pushed back. Mimiki and Marve were the primary fighters of the fight, with Lila moving around and poking at Marve here and there. There was no seriousness in her attacks as far as Nobina could tell, as she wasn’t trying to decisively end the fight. Immana was right that Lila was indeed handicapping herself. However, Nobina could see the joy in Lila’s face. This was what she wanted, and she was going to make the most of it.
“Come on,” said Lila in a taunt. “If you give us a few minutes then this will… woah!”
Lila was about to charge but immediately dodged to her right. It wasn’t a moment too soon either, as a pillar of earth coming from the sky almost crushed her.
“Damn it Marve,” said the A-rank with the book. “Don’t let them look down on us.”
“Can it Cain,” Marve shouted back, swinging his axe forward. “Lila’s a S-rank holding back and Mimiki’s a rather skilled A-rank. Don’t think that me winning this alone is even possible.
Mimiki dodged the axe with ease, swiping at him with her training sword. To her surprise, it landed a hit, but Marve did not give her a chance to combo as he took a defensive stance yet again.
As Nobina watched, her Gaze bag glowed once again. Considering what was going on, Nobina felt she had the time to check out what was inside. She noticed Immana move closer to see what she was doing, making Nobina hesitant to pull anything out. However, the smell of food was too great for her to resist. Before she knew it, a branch made its way out of the bag, offering a weird-looking fruit that was light brown and shaped like a big m & m. Nobina did her best to carefully remove it from the branch without damaging it. The surface of it was warm to the touch, and it had a soft, fluffy exterior. She took a bite of it, enjoying the mushy nutting filling of it.
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“Wow… it’s been a while since I’ve eaten some Gaze food,” smiled Nobina. It made her crave another feast of food from her old world, but she knew she couldn’t depend on the Gaze for something like that. She would need a recipe for food she could get regularly.
“Gaze food,” said Immana curiously. “So… your bag offers non-important items like food?”
“I wouldn’t say non-important,” smiled Nobina. “The bag has a will of its own and gives everything for a reason. Sometimes the items it gives are immediately important, but other times it takes time till I find a use. Overall, I will say it’s been extremely helpful.”
Immana seemed to be in deep thought as she stared at the bag before turning to Nobina’s fruit.
“Do you…”
Nobina, realizing she had eaten half of the fruit already, stopped herself from consuming it all.
“Oh yeah. You can give it a try,” said Nobina, handing it over. At the same time, she noticed a note with it.
“Hope you’re allowed to bring snacks! Enjoy ♡.” The note ended with the symbol of the white branches at the end of it.
“I will,” smiled Nobina.
She turned to Immana, but to her surprise, the fruit was gone. What was more surprising was that Immana had a rather pleased look on her face. It seemed she was in her own world. However, it wasn’t long before she noticed Nobina and returned to her usual self.
“Please… uh… Forget you saw that,” smiled Immana.
It was only for a little bit, but Nobina was happy to see at least something normal from Immana. However, it didn’t change how she felt about her overall.
“Sure,” said Nobina. “Doesn’t do me any good remembering that pure enjoyment you experienced eating food.”
Nobina couldn’t help but give a smirk at the end of that, prompting a sigh from Immana.
“Fine. You can enjoy your temporary victory. Now let’s focus on what matters,” said Immana, looking towards the others with a bit of embarrassment in her face. However, that faded away quickly, showing how much in control she was of her emotions.
Turning her attention back to the fight, Nobina could see that the addition of Cain had completely changed the dynamic of the fight. It had turned into two one versus one matches, with Mimiki and Marve facing each other, while Cain and Lila were the others. One would have guessed that Cain would have been at a significant disadvantage against Lila due to her just being fast and strong, but Nobina was surprised to see her play it passively.
Lila herself was strong and fast. As an Alpha Magical Wolf, her real strength was in her abilities, which made this whole fight a lot more difficult with her own self-imposed restriction. Physically, she had to be on the lower end of S at the very least. Though, that might not have been the case. It was just hard to tell with her since she did have forms.
Getting back to the fight, Nobina was surprised at how strong Cain was. He had a slew of different abilities of different elements. Fire, water, wind, and earth were the four types of spells Nobina saw. She even occasionally saw non-elemental spells cast by Cain.
“My god,” said Nobina, seeing what felt like the twelfth different spell cast from Cain. “How many spells does he have.”
“I believe they say he has more than twenty,” said Immana, her eyes on the fight. “They call him the Elementist because he has a large variety of spells he can cast. His major drawback is he can’t cast too many copies of each spell and recharging isn’t the fastest for him. It’s the main reason he’s currently stuck at A-rank.” There was a look of disappointment on Immana’s face, making Nobina wonder if she wanted to recruit him as well.
As she said that, Nobina turned her attention towards Mimiki and Marve. Both of them were basically slugging it out with how close they were to each other. Mimiki was trying to get around Marve’s defense, but he was doing great and defending against Mimiki’s fast, precise hits. It seemed like the matchup favored Marve, but Mimiki looked calm. Nobina was well aware she had means against strong defenses, so she likely was looking for the right opportunity to strike.
After a few minutes, she turned to Immana, who seemed focused on the battle between Cain and Lila. It wasn’t long before she commented though.
“That being said, I think we are about done with the fight,” sighed Immana. “I was hoping to see more, but Lila seems to be too fired up.”
Nobina turned to Lila, who was transforming into her first form. Before anything could begin, she yelled out something.
“Don’t you dare surrender Cain. Do your best to at least survive! Prove you can actually be a part of this hunt!”
Cain wasted no time creating barrier after barrier to block off Lila. It was a composition of earth and ice, which was surprising since she didn’t expect him to also have ice spells in his arsenal. As for Lila, she didn’t seem to want to try to go around any of them. She was getting ready to charge right through. On her right hand was her lightning sword, which she was ready to use to slice through all the defenses. However, before anything could happen, Nobina saw Marve fly back, landing on his back as Mimiki appeared on top of him, one foot on his chest and her sword on his neck.
“My god,” laughed Marve. “When you get serious, you really are something Mimiki.”
Nobina, looking at Mimiki, could tell she was dead tired. However, the look of triumph on her face was all she needed to see to know Mimiki was being completely fueled by victory.
“Thanks for the spar, Marve. We should do a few more before the hunt begins for sure,” she said, taking her foot off his chest and putting her sword away.
As Mimiki helped him up, Nobina barely caught Lila making her move. Lila was moving like a streak of lightning as she moved. Her sword movements were quick as strong, destroying each barrier in a flash. By the time the last one was gone, Lila had her sword against Cain’s neck, the lightning gone as the barriers of stone and ice all fell apart. It was one motion, but it was a sight to behold for sure.
“And that’s that,” said Lila, withdrawing her lightning sword as it faded away.
“As expected of an S-rank who’s fired up,” sighed Cain.
With the matches done, they all reconvened back where Nobina and Immana were.
“Well?” asked Nobina to Marve and Cain.
“Well indeed,” he nodded. “I’d say you’ve proven yourself enough for me, but Cain didn’t get a chance to test you so his choice is up in the air.”
Cain sighed, shaking his head.
“I wouldn’t have gone with such a brutish method anyway. I will say this. I will also join you as I tend to support this knucklehead in his stupid choices. Though I do have confidence you can get together a group that can do this,” nodded Cain.
Nobina turned to Immana, who merely shrugged.
“You did as you said you would, and that’s what matters,” she told Nobina. “Though remember, what matters the most is dealing with the dragon while minimizing damage. Considering this whole economic situation is due to the dragon, I’d try to resolve it as soon as possible.
Immana was right. As long as the dragon remained a threat, Nobina needed to resolve the matter as soon as possible. Else, it was very possible the dragon would cause the town to turn into chaos as people either retreated or gathered into the town. All it took was one piece of bad news, and things would go south quickly.
“I know,” said Nobina. “Let’s figure out how to get those S-ranks then.”
As she said that, Cain raised a hand.
“We could ask my master, Master Helios,” said Cain. “He’s a retired S, but he’ll likely help us if we accommodate him and his particular needs. If we can get someone better, great. Though I doubt you’ll find many quality S-ranks at this point.”
Cain was right. Nobina knew that the situation was grim, and they were losing A and S-ranks to escort jobs out of the city or protection jobs. If they waited too long, they might have no other A or S-ranks to add to the party.
“Then lead on,” said Nobina.
The group all began to follow after Cain, with Immana at the back. As she saw them walk, she slowed down and smiled to herself.
“Hm… Will they really convince the Nav the Spell Library to join their cause?” chuckled Immana. “That would be impressive for sure, given what he demands for payment.”