Before Mia even realized what was happening, Rick appeared between her and the oncoming Lily. This seemed to enrage Lily, and she swung her sword at her trainer with full force. Rick, however, deflected her strike easily, pushing her back.

"Clear your head, and focus on the flow of mana," Rick yelled out, but it was in vain.

Lily heard his words, but all she could think about were her intense feelings for her girlfriend, and the rising anger at the man standing between her and Mia.

She lunged at him, this time using her skill to empower the strike. This time, Rick dodged her blow, sidestepping and using the palm of his sword to push her away. Lily stumbled and almost fell, but this did not stop her onslaught.

Mia watched with concern as Lily kept attacking time and time again. She wasn't worried about herself, as Rick maneuvered deftly, constantly keeping himself between the two girls, but for Lily, as it seemed that the skill was taking a big physical toll on her girlfriend. The normally tireless girl was breathing heavily and covered in sweat as she kept attempting to break through Rick defences.

I wonder how long she can keep it up, Mia wondered as Rick pushed Lily back once again. Surely even with her increased mana regeneration from her passive, she can't keep Invoke Divinity active forever.

It turned out that the answer was very long, as almost two hours later, Lily was still in her Avatar state. Mia could see the exhaustion on her face, and at this point even Rick was sweating. Mia knew that he could have ended the fight at any point if he wanted to, but he was only defending, parrying and dodging blows as they came, never attacking himself.

He probably wants to know how long she can keep the skill up, she concluded. That's the type of information you want to have before you go into a potentially life or death fight in a dungeon. Still, it sucks to see Lily like this.

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By this point, Lily was a complete mess. Despite managing to avoid falling the first time Rick pushed her, she had hit the ground multiple times in the hours they'd been fighting since. Mia was sure that there would be bruises all over her girlfriend's body tomorrow, and she was already getting ready to tease her about it.

It was finally looking like Lily's skill was going to end, as the purple aura surrounding her started to shrink and fade away. It seemed that Lily realized that herself, as her last few attacks were even more wild and desperate than usual. She faced off with Rick one more time, and Mia could see the blood in her eyes. She lunged forward again, going for another empowered blow. As usual, Rick swung to the side, looking to dodge rather than parry it. He did so with ease, and then went for his customary push to get Lily away from Mia.

However, this time something unexpected happened. As he dodged to the side, Lily went low, sliding forward and dodging his push. That left her face to face with Mia, and seeing the look on her face, the smaller girl panicked. She reacted instinctively, reaching out to cast a skill, and to her surprise, lightning actually left her fingers, arcing towards Lily. As it did, Lily's skill expired, but it was too late. All Mia could do was watch in horror as her bolt hit her girlfriend head on. It seemed to knock out the already exhausted girl, and Mia cried out for help.

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Lily opened her eyes slowly, and to her surprise felt no pain. Exhaustion was present for sure, but from what she remembered of her training with Rick (and the finale with Mia), she should have been screaming in agony.

"Oh, you are finally awake," she heard Mia's voice say, and Lily turned around. Her girlfriend was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking down at her with a concerned expression.

"How are you feeling?" she asked softly.

"Surprisingly well all things considered," Lily answered with a small smile, and Mia smiled back.

"You can thank the goddess Marissa for that. Her temple is right next door, and Head Priestess Emilia sent for their help the moment she heard about what happened to you," Mia explained, and Lily nodded. "They sent over a priestess who healed you. Apparently, it wasn't as bad as we feared, but the combination of exhausting all your mana and being hit knocked you out pretty bad, but you should be fine after some rest."

"That's good to hear. Where are we right now?" Lily asked, realizing that she was lying in a room she was never in before.

"We rushed you to the room they prepared for you here at the temple after I knocked you out with that bolt," Mia explained. "I really am sorry about that by the way."

"I wasn't exactly acting rationally. My skill is very intense, I thought I would be able to control it much better," Lily admitted. "I am just glad that we are both okay, and that you have your lightning back."

Her smile was genuine, and Mia once again wondered how she ended up with such a great person as her girlfriend.

"Well considering you slept through most of the day, we will be spending the night here at the temple," Mia said as she laid down next to Lily, her hand sliding down Lily's thigh.

"We have some time before dinner, and I have some ideas how I can apologize for knocking you out properly," Mia whispered softly as she reached in to kiss her girlfriend.