To Lucy's surprise, the dark elf man excelled in close combat as well. Despite her continuous attacks for a minute, she not only did not succeed in hurting the dark elf, but she even failed to activate the force field protecting him. Even though Lucy simultaneously used the skills Steps of Light and Bending of Light to confuse the dark elf, he seemed to possess the ability to anticipate her moves, effortlessly evading her strikes. He even managed to graze her clothes a few times with some of his arrows used as knives or skillfully shot with his bow, leaving afterimages with his swift hand movements.

'Shit! I didn't expect him to fare this well in close combat...', Lucy thought, seeing that none of her attacks hit their mark. 'But how can he react so quickly? Could he be capable of reading my mind? No, I don't think that's it. Most likely, he has a skill that allows him to anticipate the opponent's moves. Yes, something like that would be useful for an archer to hit a moving target from far away...', she continued to ponder while distancing herself around 50 meters from her opponent to calm down for a few seconds.

After changing her hiding spot several times to ensure that the dark elf had lost her trail, Lucy breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that he hadn't followed her, a sign that he couldn't anticipate all of her movements.

'I was too reckless attacking without properly assessing the situation. It seems my recent easy victories got to my head...'

Because Lucy wanted to retaliate against the dark elf for the injury inflicted on Rina and because she was very confident in her abilities, she didn't even consider checking his level, thus being taken by surprise by his physical prowess.

'Hmm, no wonder he's so fast. It seems he's at level 61. Moreover, it's possible that his class isn't Archer, as I initially thought. Perhaps it's a special class...', Lucy said to herself after using her ocular ability to read the dark elf's level.

Aware that the dark elf was not an opponent against whom she could afford to keep her aces hidden for the entire match, Lucy decided that in her future attack, she would use both the Phantom Body skill and her ocular ability to create illusions to counteract the dark elf's ability to read her movements, as well as the Substitute Creator skill to create some explosive paper substitutes capable of causing a lot of damage.

Once the plan was finalized, Lucy immediately purchased a potion from the Ninja Shop to maximize her stamina and a few hundred explosive papers, enough to create about 20 substitutes.

'Let the second round begin...' Lucy said to herself after drinking the potion, her black eyes, each adorned with 5 sparkling stars, filled with determination.

............................

"Where have you vanished, little kitten? Don't tell me you've run away with your tail between your legs..." shouted the dark elf as he scanned the surrounding trees to uncover where his opponent was hiding.

Although he possessed a skill enabling him to anticipate the opponent's movements, it had rather challenging conditions to activate: he needed to see the opponents for two seconds to predict their actions in the following two seconds or be within a maximum distance of 5 meters from the opponents, thus continuously predicting their movements. Therefore, he had no way of knowing Lucy's current whereabouts.

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'Even though I am a bit faster than her, her skills are quite problematic as she can instantly close the gap between us, leaving me unable to see her until the moment she attacks. Yes, I can't afford to lose focus for even a second...', thought the dark elf, who wasn't as confident as he appeared.

However, he didn't have to wait much longer, as Lucy appeared instantly behind him, giving him no more than a fraction of a second to dodge the sword aimed at his throat.

"Damn it, this girl isn't tired at all!" muttered the dark elf, tired of being on the defensive and hoping Lucy would eventually lose her pace.

'Even if I have enough mana, it'll be hard to maintain my focus indefinitely. No, I need to do something...'

Determined not to let Lucy dictate the fight's pace, the dark elf nocked an arrow on his bow, activating one of his most powerful skills, Lightning Arrow, capable of creating an explosion akin to a lightning strike over 40 meters in diameter where the arrow hit, his goal being to destroy everything around him when Lucy attacked again, while his body was protected by his magical necklace. So, upon detecting Lucy's presence once more, instead of dodging her sword, he aimed the arrow towards her feet, on the thick branch where both were standing, enveloping the entire area in a blinding light seemingly capable of penetrating any material.

"Boooomm!!!"

As the battle took place 100 meters above the ground, on the branch of a giant tree, the dark elf was forcefully thrown towards the ground by his own attack, his magical necklace absorbing almost all his mana to shield him from the blows he received.

"Fuck, perhaps this was one of my worst ideas. But I had no choice since this cursed catgirl is a totally unsuitable opponent for me..."

Struggling to rise from the half-meter-deep crater he created when thrown to the ground, the dark elf looked around to find what remained of his opponent's body, only to be surprised to see Lucy standing unscathed at a distance of 10 meters from him.

"How, how is this possible?" he asked in horror, realizing that all his efforts were in vain.

The dark elf immediately retrieved a magical potion from his storage ring to help replenish his mana, but before he could drink it, a kunai with an attached explosive paper pierced his hand, the powerful explosion maiming his entire arm and throwing him back into the crater from which he had risen.

..............................

Even though Lucy had won, she didn't feel particularly satisfied with how the battle ended, finding her carefully crafted plan unnecessary. She remembered experiencing a similar feeling in the past during a karate tournament's final, where her opponent withdrew after spraining her ankle, only having a brief exchange of blows with her.

'What he did was truly thoughtless, but it probably would've been more than enough to defeat anyone in my place...', thought Lucy, surveying the damage caused by the dark elf's attack.

When Lucy noticed the massive amount of mana accumulating in the arrow the dark elf was preparing to shoot, she anticipated his intentions, and as soon as she noticed that he sensed her presence, she activated the Phantom Body skill, rendering her unaffected by the magical explosion.

'He probably didn't expect that I have such a skill allowing me to dematerialize, and he likely assumes I'm too poor to possess such a magnificent necklace like the one around his neck. Hehe, this will be a perfect gift for Rina once I clean it from blood...', thought Lucy while dragging the fainted dark elf out of the crater by one of his legs.

After binding the dark elf using over 50 meters of steel wire, Lucy removed the golden necklace, adorned with a giant ruby in its center, from his neck, putting it in her storage space. Then, grabbing the dark elf by a leg again, she headed toward the area where she had left Rina sheltered, dragging him along without paying attention to the sounds his head made upon contact with numerous blunt objects.