Anita, no, all three of them were surprised to see her here.

“New haircut?” Anita casually said.

Tina shyly chuckled. “Y-Yeah.”

Iruyu and Dune gathered around them, Dune gawking at Tina with a happy smile.

“You look good.”

Tina mildly nodded and looked at the three of them one by one with a wide smile, she missed them.

“What are you guys doing out here? It’s dangerous.”

“Helping people, of course,” said Dune. “And what are you doing here?”

“And what’s with the getup?” Anita asked.

“It’s…” She seemed to hesitate. “Wisteria is under siege… that’s why.”

Iruyu glanced at her bow of golden light. “Incredible weapon, it’s made of magic?”

“Y-Yeah.”

“Didn’t know you could do that.” Dune poked the weapon with his finger, and it was solid indeed.

“I just learned it…”

Suddenly, there was a booming sound as debris was blown away. Everyone turned towards the building, and emerging from the rubbles was the knight. His front armor was damaged and flesh wounded, but nothing severe. However, he was enraged.

“I can’t fight him directly, I’ll leave it to you. I’ll support you.”

The two warriors, Dune and Iruyu, stepped in at the front of the group. Anita moved in front of Tina, as the latter stayed at the utmost rear of the party.

Dune flourished his sword. “Just like old times, eh?”

Upon hearing that, Anita couldn’t help but form a fondly smile. Although, it was saddening to realize that one of them was no longer here.

As the knight got closer, his sword crackled in flames. He glared directly at Tina. “You actually hurt me, you bastards. Fine, no more playing around.”

The knight ran towards them and swung his sword subsequently multiple times, sending a number of fiery arcs at the party. Judging from their speed, the knight was truly serious now. Tina quickly cast translucent shields to her friends, protecting them like armor. It will protect them from at least a couple of direct strikes.

Iruyu charged forward and did a wide swing with his ax, unleashing a large slash of magic, intercepting the flames. But a couple survived, and thus he engulfed his weapon with magic and personally attacked the slashes. After successfully doing so, Iruyu and the imperial knight met.

They swung their weapons at each other, but the sword wielding knight was faster and stronger. And the knight was able to land a powerful hit, but the barrier got in the way. He clicked his tongue.

“So annoying!”

He stepped back, pointing the tip of his blade at Iruyu, and shifted back his arm as he focused his fiery magic. He was intending on unleashing a powerful stream of fire, but as he thrust his sword forward, another sword struck from below. His magic was released upwards, completely away from his target.

“Damn you!”

He glared at Dune who stopped his magic. After swiftly retracting his sword, he struck Dune to the chest, but again, the shield protected the man. At the same time, Iruyu took the chance to swing an attack. The knight quickly cast a shield with his one hand, blocking the incoming ax.

And suddenly, a thunderclap spell came and hit him from behind him.

“Agh!”

The electricity crawled all over his armor, and he breathed heavily from the shocking pain. He took a step back and swung his sword at Iruyu, and as he did so, he moved his position to behind the large man, obstructing the mage’s view of him.

Iruyu took a swing at him, and the knight, with all his strength, parried the ax. With the ax pushed back, the knight turned his attention to Dune, who was about to attack him. The knight met Dune’s sword, and as their weapons locked, he revolved his weapon, bringing Dune’s sword with it. While the adventurer was caught off guard, the knight thrust his weapon a little and blasted flames. Both damaging his barrier and obstructing his sight.

With that chance, the knight stepped forward as Iruyu’s ax went behind him, successfully evading it. And the knight delivered a powerful blow at Dune from the side, and upon contact, he unleashed another blast of flames.

With those, Dune’s barrier shattered. The knight grinned.

Iruyu attacked, and the knight kept deflecting his weapon. When Dune took a swing, the knight dodged and stepped forward, punching the adventurer in the face. Dune was blown away a few feet, and he spat out blood. The knight rushed towards him to finally slay him, but a light arrow struck his back, piercing through his armor.

He grunted in pain, stopping and blocking Iruyu’s another attack. At the same time, a stream of golden light healed Dune’s minor wounds.

The knight gritted his teeth. “Like fucking cockroaches!”

The adventurer mage used her frost magic directed at one of the knight’s feet. Surprised by the unexpected spell, he cast a barrier to block Iruyu’s incoming attack and swung his sword towards Anita, sending a wide wave of fire. Anita, however, took it all completely unscathed because of her golden shielding.

Another arrow pierced his back. The knight glared at the priestess. Tina drew back her golden string, spawning another arrow. She aimed and fired again. The knight deflected the arrow with his blade, and at the same time, he was struck by another thunderclap spell. His skin underneath the armor was getting burnt, and his joints were numb. Pain radiating all over his body.

With all Dune’s strength, he stabbed the knight from behind, piercing through his armor and his flesh.

“Agh!”

With a trembling body and bloodshot eyes, he looked at Dune from the corner of his eyes. His gaze filled with resentment.

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“D-Damn adventurers…” He took a deep, trembling breath. As he gathered his final strength, he broke the ice holding his foot and turned towards Dune. He raised his sword bursting with flames, intending on cutting him down. But then Iruyu’s ax struck the knight in the chest. Tina fired an arrow and stabbed through his neck.

The knight paused as he choked. Iruyu retracted his ax, and the knight started stumbling forward, but he was still trying to keep his footing. Despite that, he still fell to one knee, his blood dripping to the floor.

“Defeating m-me here… w-won’t change a t-thing.” He took a wheezing breath, trying to keep himself alive.

The party gathered together and watched him struggle. They were quite astonished to see that he was still alive despite all the damage he took. Even so, in the end, even a tough knight like him, completely dropped to the floor, and he breathed his last.

The party sighed in relief.

“Good job, everyone!” said Dune with a wide smile. “I missed this so much.”

“Indeed.” Iruyu nodded. “It feels great to be working as a team again.”

Anita chuckled. “Yes… Even if we are missing one member, it’s a great feeling.” She glanced at Tina. “Um, Tina… I’ve been wanting to apologize for what I did to you and how I treated you.”

Tina’s eyes widened in confusion. “Huh? I thought we already had that behind us…”

“N-Not completely… Last time… I was not in a good place. And I was too mean.”

Ever since Tina’s departure from their party, Anita has always been thinking and reflecting on how she treated Tina that time. And she felt terrible. She had longed for her to see Tina again, to at least apologize.

Tine mildly smiled. It warmed her heart to hear her friend’s words. “Anita, everything is already fine, ever since I left. You have nothing to worry about anymore.”

In truth, Tina didn’t hold any grudges or anything bad. She understood her, and them. She lied and kept what she truly was, and worse of all, one of their friends perished. Anyone would be mentally unstable in that kind of scenario, anyone would act and say something they didn’t truly mean.

“I see… I’m glad.” Anita smiled in relief. “I’ve been wondering, will you come back? To us?”

Tina lowered her gaze. “No… I don’t think so…”

Anita’s smile disappeared. “Why…?”

“I can’t. Being an adventurer… is not my place anymore.”

“I thought you loved adventuring. You’re giving that up?”

“Yes.”

Returning to the Church Order, training, working hard to develop further, Tina had time to reflect. To consider what was more important. She had her fun… And now that fun had to end. To return to what she truly should be, her purpose. Being a priestess, and to focus on protecting the homeland. She shouldn’t satisfy her own selfish desire anymore.

Anita was speechless. Tina often expressed how much she enjoyed going out there with her friends. And for her to stop all that, both shocked and saddened her. No, not her alone, but the other two party members as well.

“Tina, you can’t just give up on what you want,” said Dune.

Tina gave Dune a sad smile. “We all have our roles and purposes. I have returned to mine.”

Dune scowled. “Stop it with roles and purpose. Does what you want don't matter anymore? You’re free to do what you want.”

Tina shook her head. “That’s just not how the world works, Dune. We can’t always do what we want.”

“So you want it?”

“I…” Tina paused and closed her eyes for a moment. “I want to, but as I said, I can’t come back. I also want to give my full service to the church and to the homeland.”

“That’s not fair.”

Tina bit her lip. “I wouldn’t expect any of you to understand.”

“Then make us understand.”

“Dune… Our wants, wishes, are not always the most important thing. And in the end, we have to make a choice. I have made mine.”

Anita took a step closer. “Is this how you truly want it? You’re not being compelled?”

“This is out of my own will. Please do not argue with me. Let me… Let me enjoy this reunion.” Tina forced a smile.

Dune and Anita looked at each other, hesitating. But there was nothing else they could do, it was what Tina decided. And thus, all they could do was mildly nod.

“If you need help, we’ll always be there to help you,” Iruyu said.

“I know…”

It was then that Dune saw an enemy knight leaping into the air, holding a spear. A blue hue of mana engulfing the tip of his weapon.

“Watch out!” Dune warned his group.

But before he could act, the enemy knight thrust his spear forward. A powerful and wide bolt of destructive mana shot forth, coming at the group at incredible speed. Tina, as the strongest within her group, had enough reflex to respond and cast a wide shield of gold against the attack.

The magic crashed against her shield, and the magic exploded and expanded. Her shield cracked, to Tina’s dismay. However, thankfully, the magic completely dissipated.

The new enemy landed on the ground, and Tina, as she dispelled her shield, she cast another shield on Dune and after that she held out her one hand and fired a beam of golden light. The spell was supposed to be fast, but the enemy was faster. He swiftly avoided her most powerful offensive spell.

The enemy spun his spear, leaving white streaks in the air, and with it, he unleashed numerous slashes of light. Tina, feeling nervous and in more danger, frantically cast a barrier to block all the slashes. However, the enemy moved fast, and as all the slashes were blocked, he was now right next to her shield.

The knight thrust his magic filled spear into Tina’s already cracked barrier. With a boom, the entire protection shattered. Tina cast her thunderclap spell, but the enemy adeptly evaded it. This guy was even worse than the knight before.

Tina quickly fired a beam of light, and again the enemy evaded as he got closer. Both Tina and Anita fired their spells, and now Iruyu joined using his Armament Magic, but all of it was evaded by the spearman.

“What the hell?!” Anita exclaimed.

And the enemy was closer than ever. If he extended his spear, he'd be able to reach them. Tina panicked. Perhaps she could survive an initial direct attack from him. However, her friends were a different matter. True that they have shields, but she doubted if they could survive long against an enemy this fast and relentless.

In the shortest time, she racked her brains to come up with a way to fight. And then, suddenly, as the enemy was running closer, a spear of ice came flying at the knight at tremendous speed. Unexpected and quick as it was, the spear hit the knight, violently pushing him away to the side and crashing into the nearby building.

Tina recognized that magic, and she smiled brightly. “Sister!”

Leaping in the air was a dark outfitted and masked woman holding a spear of golden light. She headed straight for the knight, and the latter quickly got up. They attacked each other, and their spears collided. Each one of them trying to gain the upper hand, to strike at the enemy’s opening.

Tina’s sister, Astine, parried the enemy’s spear, and she instantly thrust her spear forward with one hand. However, the enemy recovered too quickly. He stepped back and used the pole of his weapon to block Astine. The knight retracted his spear and as he swung emerged a slash of light. But Astine managed to barely evade.

Astine stomped her foot and a pillar of ice instantly arose from the ground, crashing against the knight’s chest, throwing him upwards. The priestess took the chance and lunged forward to strike. Seeing the incoming attack, the knight heavily swung his spear sideways, successfully deflecting the attack, and at the same time, his footing returned to the ground. However, suddenly, another spear appeared in her other hand, and she thrust her spear at him, while the other disappeared.

He quickly used his spear’s pole to block it, and he did. But then in her other hand spawned another spear, and she sent her strike into his abdomen. The knight’s eyes widened as the golden weapon pierced through him. Blood stuck to the beautiful holy spear.

The knight slowly raised his eyes to look, no, to glare at the woman through her mask. But she glared back.

She flicked off his spear and swung her spear sideways, beheading the man. The head dropped bloodied to the floor, the eyes still open. She dispelled the spear stuck to the enemy, and the corpse dropped like a loose puppet.

She stared at it for a moment before approaching Tina. She frowned when she saw her face.

“You removed your mask.”

“Ah, I’m sorry, sister. It’s just… I wanted to meet my friends…” She expected a scolding, because after all, she was not exactly allowed to do such a thing.

But surprisingly, none of the sort happened.

“I see. Don’t loiter around too long, we still have work to do.”

“Y-Yes, sister.”

“What’s this?”

“!”

A voice suddenly came from behind them, and they instantly turned around, their weapons at the ready.

There was a man in a cloak standing there, but his face was bare.

“Church warrior. Fascinating. You killed that elite knight, but I guess that’s just how much we’d expect from measly humans.”

Tina took in a shaky breath. The man stood confidently with a grin on his face.

“Still, you are quite a danger yourself, spearwoman. To the humans at least. Allow me to smoothen this assault.” He pulled a pair of thin swords from underneath the drapes of his cloak. “I must head to the palace, but I have plenty of time.”

The mage, Anita, trembled as he stared at the man, no, specifically to his ears. “Isn’t t-that an elf…?”

The same kind that killed Derin. One they were powerless against.