After what happened in this dark forest the sky became cloudy, the birds quietly returned and the migrating battle bunnies finally settled in a fitting place for them, winter was coming so they had to find a shelter somewhere hot, and the hottest place on the planet was the Heart kingdom, Things in the royal capital were also gloomy, another major terrorist attack by Joker occurred and this time even killed a promising generation of adventurers

Another thing was that the forest was filled with crimson butterflies and royal defectives, the fire that Teras caused burned a big part of the forest, and since the royal capital didn't know who caused it they suspected the Joker since many reports from individual that witness him were publicly being announced so the Royal capital sent detectives to inspect his potential because even to this day nobody really knows what Joker's power is, and in the end of the day people weren't even sure that these reports were true so the truth was ultimately hidden, people have also reported multiple powers that Joker might have through the ages and most of them don't fit with each other so the royal capital formed a special group of researchers on this topic

"How did you even get here kid? And what was all this stuff about the Joker, but if you don't feel comfortable telling me it's fine"

The woman said as she prepared tea for Teras, after what happened the woman took Teras inside her house and treated him with a plate of food and some new clothes since his last were heavily destroyed

"After leaving a village after a mission we came across the Joker pretending to be a lost adventurer, naturally we escorted him for a little but then he tried to sneak attack us and a fight broke out, in this fight, my friends were killed by him and..."

When Teras reached this part of the story memories of the bloody corpses of his friends popped into his head and made him puke

"Oh god, are you alright?"

The woman asked him as she approached him, Tears used one of his hands to stop her

"I'm okay, sorry about that, I will clean it up!"

Teras said as he quickly picked up a mop, the woman felt terrible seeing him in this kind of state

"Are you sure you are okay kid? It has been a day since you have come in and you barely say a word, if you feel ill then you could have told me"

The woman said worried, Teras finished mopping the floor so he took the bucket full of his doings and went to the edge of the house to drop it down, the woman closely watched Teras in case he attempted to jump off again, this time he didn't

"I won't jump so you don't have to worry, it won't result in anything even if I do"

Teras told her, he noticed her looking his way

"That's good that you finally noticed that, so as I said yesterday I want to make you stronger, when you will finally get up and train? If you don't train then I can't keep housing you for free"

The woman told him she sat on the same table Teras was sitting

"My limbs hurt and my mind is foggy, I can't train like this"

Teras said as he released his mana flow, the woman saw his aura and she was impressed

"Silver huh? Even I don't have such a weird aura wouldn't you say?"

The woman said as she released her brown aura, the aura had a similar color to her skin

"Hmm? You are not surprised even a little, strange, the most common color of auras are, blue, green, orange, purple, and red, other colors are usually very rare!"

The woman explained to Teras

"Hey aren't the colors similar to the slime's colors?"

Teras asked, he didn't look very enthusiastic even after sounding this interested

"Yeah that's right, the primal colors as the philosophers say"

The woman said, that knowledge was unknown to Teras

"Philoso-what?"

The woman ignored Teras's question and grabbed him by his hand and started walking with him outside

"We are going to my training place, and you are a man so stop whining about your little bones"

The woman jokingly said as he dragged Teras out of her home, she didn't know what to do about Teras's condition but she knew she had to take his mind off what happened

Walking in this weird and scary forest made Teras feel a little more at ease, even though he didn't want to admit it Teras was scared, scared of the Joker, scared of losing more than he has, genuinely scared of losing his mind, but this specific walk made him calmer, maybe it was because the woman was around, he didn't know

"Here we are! A training ground I made on my own, it has a short grass so it reduces the damage of you falling down, it is located near a river so you can refresh yourself as soon as you need to and most importantly, a great view of my little and humble house, you dig the place don't you?"

The woman asked Teras with a smile

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

'I don't know what she means by dig but this place seems nice'

"So what do we do know?"

Teras asked as he looked around

"We will fight to the death of course! What did you think? I will let you live in my house for free just like that? If you prove to me that you can kill me then I will allow you to stay, if not then you either die or end up very injured..."

The woman said as she stretched her limbs, Teras was unsure if the woman was joking or not but he was ready for everything

"Behind you!"

The woman yelled, Teras thought that what she said was bait but before the woman could get closer to him she suddenly disappeared and out of nowhere he was stuck from behind, his body was launched away and rolled around this short grass

'What just happened she disappeared right in front of my eyes, is she this fast or...'

The woman didn't give Teras any time to recover, as soon as he got on his feet the woman charged at him once again but this time in a zig Zag format, meaning she rapidly exchanged the right and left sides of Teras leaving him thinking when or where she is going to attack next

The woman didn't take long to find an opening so with a flashy kick she stuck Teras, He was able to block the attack with mana but his hands were heavily damaged

'Her mana control... even though it looked like she didn't apply much mana her attack was still very strong, I have to worry more about her attacks than I thought

Teras thought as he was launched away from her attack

"What's wrong kid? Can't handle this old lady?"

She asked with a smile as she pointed at herself with her thumb

"Shut up!"

Teras said as he activated his mana overflow, he was very irritated to see that she didn't take this fight seriously and mostly mocking him

"An overflow? Are you alright kid?"

She asked confused, suddenly Teras rushed at her, the woman was surprised by Teras's speed but she still was able to easily dodge the attack if she wanted to

"Worry about yourself!"

Teras said as he was about to hit her with a punch, suddenly she disappeared again, this time she was slightly above Teras

'Huh?'

Teras wondered again but before he could process what happened he was punched and his body stuck to the ground, the woman then created a mana shield and used it to launch herself at Teras and attack him once again while he was on the ground, after that kick that pinned him down she gently hopped away from Teras

"Oh man I understand how your group got killed now, you fight carelessly, you don't even know my ability, my skills, or even my fighting style but you go and charge at me without thinking twice, and I supposed that you were a great fighter"

The woman said with a cocky smile, Teras didn't like that and also didn't like her disrespect

"Shut the hell up! Don't ever talk like you know me!"

Teras yelled as he focused most of his mana on body enhancement, this way he made himself stronger and faster, the woman saw that but she wasn't scared, she simply stood still and waited for Teras's next move

And he was fast to deliver it with all he got, Teras charged at the woman with a straightforward attack, but the woman dodged it by simply stepping away from Teras

"Missed me!"

She jokingly said, she was unaware of Teras's plan, Teras placed a shield to stop his movement and also redirect himself at the woman once again, the woman saw through him at the last second and managed to dodge his attack by leaning her head and body back

"You won't get away!"

Teras said as he grabbed the woman's hair, he then tried to slam the woman on the ground but before she could make contact with the ground she disappeared and reappeared above Teras, she then with her right leg stumped Teras's head into the ground, breaking his nose in the process

"Look at you copying other people's tactics!"

The woman said as she applied more force to her leg, Teras then raised up his hands and created a massive explosion, the woman was caught off guard by the attack so this time she was injured from the attack

"Frist of all don't ever make fun of me or my friends, and second of all, I was using those shields way before you were even a thing!"

Teras said as his aura's color slowly started to shift back into the black color he had in the forest

'Black? I have never seen something remotely close to this, well except his silver color'

The woman thought as he watched the enraged Teras

"So what if I do? What are you going to do to me? Hit me with your lame excuse of an attack? Or cry some more? TELL ME WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO FOR YOUR GRIEF!"

The woman yelled at Teras, and that was the breaking point of his, the black aura devoured Teras once again and a great power surrounded him

Teras charged at the woman with an incredible speed, this time the woman dodged like she was dodging a real attack

'No more playing, this kid really wants to kill me now!'

The woman thought as he kicked Teras away, Teras crushed into a tree breaking it in the process

Teras stood up once again and attacked the woman multiple times like a savage, but the woman wasn't cornered or scared, she evenly matched Teras's strength and speed with her tactics and mana tricks, punching, dodging, disappearing and hitting him on his blind spots, that's what the woman did to attack Teras

And Teras on the other hand couldn't touch her, only sometimes but those times weren't enough to cause damage to her or hurt her in any way, Teras's aura slowly started to get weaker and weaker, to the point it started to disappear

After some hits from the woman Teras was down, he couldn't move or fight anymore

"How did you win?"

He asked the woman that was sitting next to him looking at the trees

Even though he doesn't remember it clearly, he knew that he fought the Joker and matched him for a long time and he was supposed to be a global threat so losing to this woman didn't make sense to him

"I'm just better than you!"

She said with a smile

"I know that but I want to know who you really are and how can you fight like that"

Teras told her

"It's simple..."

The woman said as she got up to face Teras

"I'm Enyo, the 10th card possessor and the one known as the "Goddess of War" and one of the members of strongest parties on the world!"

Enyo said as she offer a hand to Teras

"So you can teleport huh? I knew that something wasn't right about your speed but I never imagined that"

Teras said as he started healing his nose

"Kid, you know that what you did here today requires a sharp use of your mana vessels right?"

Enyo asked him

"Mana vessels? What's that?"

"You don't know what they are? Wait what rank adventurer are you?"

Enyo asked confused

"Silver why?"

"YOU ARE SILVER???"

Teras was surprised by her reaction'

"Y-Yeah..."

"Since when silvers became this good with their mana control, Oh no am I getting old and weak? Hey kid do you think I'm old?"

The woman worryingly asked Teras

"Uhhmm, I think you look quite young"

Teras replied

"What age do I look like?"

She asked again

"Maybe 30"

The woman slapped Teras on the back of his head

"THAT'S NOT YOUNG!"

She yelled

"You asked me how old I think you are so I answered! Don't go around hitting people for expressing their thoughts!"

Teras whined

The two of them looked lively walking back to the house

'I don't know why he isn't mad about what happened but I'm happy to see him slightly smile for once after all this sadness he showed me'

Enyo thought as she watched the faint smile Teras had as he walked

"Get ready kid because, after today, we are going to start the REAL training!"

She said with a smile

"Sounds good to me, so show me all you can!"

Teras said with D E T E R M I N A T I O N on his eyes...