When Alicia was about to bestow her Arcane gifts upon Izel and Wisesa, a voice of denial resounded.

"No, Alicia!” It was from Izel. “Just withdraw with the children. We’ve no need for the creatures that many to undergo evolution."

The Arcane stream was suspended in Alicia's fingers. "Are ye absolutely certain?"

"She has a point," Barong interjected. "A tactical assault from them would be troublesome. Leave, Alicia!"

Within Izel’s heart, a certain gratification arose in rendering Alicia’s might seemingly redundant. But it was not that the bespectacled lass knew nor cared. She stowed Orb in her satchel and, taking the hands of Kaito and Tome, led them away.

Above the canopy, birds were scurrying and branches were rustling. The men-howling hounds, Binxtrunachs, were nearing. Izel and Wisesa stood shoulder to shoulder, waiting for the horde of horrors marching towards them. Izel snapped her staff, and it morphed into a board embellished with obsidian blades on either side.

"I can't wait; I already feel the tension rushing up my arms!" Izel then turned to Wisesa. "One point for each beast! I may not yet possess the power of an entity within me, but that shan’t hinder me from triumphing in who kills the most Mujinos!”

The pyromancer immediately advanced straight ahead to greet them first.

"That lady really harbors a mighty penchant for battle!" Barong quipped. "You’d best not bring me shame, especially with a mere quarter of my power!"

Wisesa actually intended to shame Barong if he could. However, he thought to himself: Izel's mouth would be agog all night if she triumphed. When that happened, gone was the only moment of tranquillity.

The pale, drooling muzzles of the Binxtrunachs made their maiden appearance among the dense trees! Howls, hooves, and dust permeated the atmosphere. Izel had already surged ahead of Wisesa, but the man, his body aglow with radiant yellow, stomped his foot hard, and instantly, the ground beneath the eyeless monstrosities crumbled! Hundreds of dogs plummeted into the abyss, crushed by the cascading rocks. Even the Orange Witch herself was nearly swallowed by the precipice.

"Looks like you're hundreds of points behind, Miss Fire. Has your pants caught fire yet?"

But Izel did not indulge in the lad's jesting. Wisesa's artificial chasm was not of great depth, and upon glimpsing the fallen hounds, it became evident that most of them survived—though their paralysis was eternal. Those teetering on the chasm's edge were shrieking, limbs wavering, while the tentacles on their backs lashed the air, attempting to bridge the gap towards the pyromancer.

"Are you truly so certain?" Izel grinned. She aimed her staff at the ravine, and it reverted to a mana-fueled flamethrower. Flames erupted from the abyss, accompanied by the symphony of dying howls. Another barrier that forced the remaining hounds back several paces.

There she was. Her haughty babble resurfaced. Barong could not help but exclaim "Cheat" multiple times. If left unchecked, there would be two entities that contribute to Wisesa’s sleep deprivation.

The mujinos appeared to have a surprising degree of intelligence. The chasm Wisesa had fashioned was not that long, and they had wisely circumvented it from both ends. But some harboured misaligned minds and reckless natures—they chose to blister their skin in an attempt to leap to the other side.

"There are more dogs on the left side. That's my share!" exclaimed Wisesa as he passed Izel to the intended Mujino wave.

Izel, having just slain the Binxtrunachs who received a baptism of fire, frivolously flung her open hands. Her smirk mirrored her nonchalance. "It matters not which side you choose. I'll wipe out my share and claim yours without delay—"

The bark from the jumping Binxturnach behind her managed to make her dodge.

"Attempting an ambush, are you?" Izel's serpent staff promptly reduced the canine to ashes with a fiery jet. "You don't shout when you ambush people! You shout when you successfully ambush people!"

The hundreds of pursuing Binxtrunachs were a mere dozen paces away, and their gallop was almost as brisk as a horse. The fire hose was pointed at them, swaying back and forth like pest extermination. They were indeed the pests of life for the inhabitants of Kagatse. Along with the rampant heat shimmer, Izel's screams became louder, wilder, chiming with the agonised howls of the hounds. The acrid scent of their frail form acted as her neural trigger.

However, the hounds did not always proceed in a straight line. They began leaping over the approaching fire jet and outmanoeuvred it to the other side. Izel was quick to respond to this situation, hence she darted away, yet her staff still rippled the air. It was not yet satisfied to spew magic.

"Xu-tlāx! Xu-te-tzitzilin! Xu-te-īzqui!"

Izel targeted an empty stretch of ground, and her staff shot out a black pebble lit by fire, which gradually grew bigger and bigger. When it landed on the ground, it became a wildfire wheel three times Izel's height, devouring everything in its path in flames! But then, it reversed course all of a sudden and mowed down the unsuspecting mujinos. And the pyromancer conjured not one, but three wheels.

With most of the Binxtrunach herd diverted, Izel's feet made a sliding motion and pivoted her entire form. Her staff was sheathed. Her hands radiated heat.

"Come forth, all of you!"

One Binxtrunach lunged at her with its jaws wide open, and Izel's head was already within its grasp. However, she immediately seized both of its jaws. The creature’s sharp fangs failed to penetrate the pyromancer's fingers. Flames erupted from both of Izel's hands, enshrouding Binxtrunach's entire head as she wrenched its jaws from its face!

The right hand brandished the jaw as a trophy. The left hoisted the carcass as spoils. Yet it all felt like a false sense of achievement when every part of Binxtrunach’s body disintegrated into ash.

The ceaseless barrage of the other Binxtrunachs yielded nought but minor scrapes. Izel slammed one Binxtrunach and snapped its neck, crushed another’s skull with a fiery stomp, and strangled yet another while delivering a trio of fiery blows to its chest, blasting its spine. As the umpteenth Binxtrunach was being subdued, a wheel of fire hurtled towards Izel, forcing her to toss her catch onto the rolling surface as she rolled to the side.

Wisesa was not as war-crazed. Conflict was a waste of his time. His plan aimed to obliterate the Binxtrunach herd with a singular stroke, hence flipping the very ground they stood on to bury them. However, the area of impact did not encompass the entire herd. Wisesa clicked his tongue. This particular wave proved to be far too numerous and scattered compared to their prior encounter. Overturning the ground plane that encompassed them all proved an insurmountable task; whether it was too heavy or the ground plate on the opposite side had crumbled first upon being hoisted. And the thought of their agility surpassing that of the Giharite Leyaks he previously battled only made him more disgruntled.

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“You were expecting a quarter of my power to upheave the entire earth?” Barong erupted in a guffaw. “Funny man, you are, Wisesa!”

“Shut up!”

"I can sense your growing fondness for my strength! Why then do you still resist the offer of half my power?”

“I don’t! And you can kiss my ass for that offer!”

So the lad switched to another skill, namely forming another artificial chasm. Wisesa's eyes widened after that.

"What the... They learnt my ability!"

Most of the Binxtrunach had anticipated Wisesa’s employment of the same tactic. Their feet capitalised on the crumbling ground’s momentum and effortlessly sprang to the other side. Others switfly backtracked to take a roundabout path. Only a few were foolish enough to fall.

When they got closer, Wisesa pulled a slab of earth as broad as his shoulders, towering high and extending as far as he could manage, which he then unceremoniously dumped onto the Binxtrunach horde. It was effective; the phalanx of hounds was crushed to their demise, though it all but afforded Wisesa some distance to back away, and that distance closed rapidly. He already felt a quarter of his manas disappear.

"The classic way, then. Kick their asses, Barong!" Wisesa’s command rang out as he granted the yellow spirit access to interact with the tangible realm. Barong atop his head obliged with a thunderous roar. Its energetic claws disembowelled the hounds that were baying for slaughter, then threw them into the fiery trench. Meanwhile, Wisesa severed the enraged tentacles with snouts of his beast-fists—Barong Heads—and snapped their necks using large rocks he uprooted from the ground, all interspersed with an array of martial art maneuvers. A spectacle of carnage.

The passion of battle painted Izel as seemingly immune to even an apocalypse. However, a fleeting glimpse of one of the wildfire wheels falling into the ravine dulled her agility. A Binxtrunach materialised abruptly beside her, lunging at her arm until both collapsed to the ground!

Izel's magic wand underwent yet another transformation into a wooden club studded with obsidian blades and bore the brunt of the Dog Mujino's jaws. The jagged tentacles of flesh continued to impale the ground as they failed to leave a mark on her nimble head. A flurry of kicks to the belly was launched by the witch until the dog flinched, before expertly heaving her machete into its skull. All the while still supine, and another Binxtrunach tugged her attire from behind. The frantic stomping of her feet and hands was ablaze once more, crushing the bones and melting the flesh of the monsters that besieged her. Izel crawled backwards. The bite mark on her arm oozed fresh blood, but instead of feeling pain, she exploded in a fit of rage. She felt defeated.

While running, Wisesa produced Barong Heads from his hands and hurled them at the Binxtrunachs surrounding Izel. When he got close, the lad claim the remnants of Izel's dying quarry and extended his hand in mock praise. "So much for a pyromancer, don’t you think?"

Izel almost sliced open his abdomen in irritation. "Screw you."

"What the fuck was that?" Wisesa raged. "You equate me with those blind dogs? Consider a point deduction!"

"What point deduction? My macuahuitl didn't even hit you!"

Still bearing the shame, Izel charged headlong into the approaching horde of Mujinos and hurled her staff into their midst. The weapon spun through the air like a boomerang, its obsidian blades thirsting for vivid scarlett offerings upon the creatures’ skulls. Her hands once again became enshrouded in flames, and with a resounding stomp, she launched herself into the heavens, only to return to the earth with a sweeping descent, scorching the monsters with an intense wave of blistering heat!

From there, Izel performed crazy feats with cries of glee, slashing at the monsters with blazing strokes from her hands and feet. To her, this was a heartless punishment befitting the heartless creatures.

Meanwhile, Barong's energy extended ahead of Wisesa, keen on dispersing the mujinos advancing from its side. Its maw scooped up earthen chunks and spewed them into small pebbles as rapid as an automatic rifle. Wisesa seemed too relaxed in his place and let the cat accumulate more points on his behalf. Too relaxed to quickly notice anything strange.

Pack of hound mujinos suddenly broke formation—some of them passed Wisesa and Izel unceremoniously and infiltrated the other side of the forest. The side where Alicia, Kaito, and Tome had gone. Resentment infected both Wisesa and Barong, cursing "fuck" in each heart. Even without the presence of Arcane, they somehow managed to have a "tactic".

Nevertheless, the silver lining lay in the diminishing mujino numbers on Wisesa's side. "Quickly kill all these bastard creatures and catch up with Alicia and the others!" Wisesa urged Barong. He had erected a towering earthen fence that corralled dozens of hounds towards the steep furnace.

Barong saw what Wisesa saw, and while it would have relished the command to pulverise the monsters as swiftly as Thunderkeeper's lightning, it sought clarification. "They're just dogs. Alicia can take them out with a single spell."

"Her mana is depleted, you short-minded beast! I doubt she can safeguard the children if the monsters evolve. And I can't imagine her failing."

"You don't want to take my point," Izel chimed in, still busy playing with her share. "Just go! Don't take any risks. We're talking about your girlfriend and her children. I'm determined to win this!"

"She's not my girlfriend!" Wisesa shouted back.

"Just go!" the girl snapped back, holding a mujino’s jaws with her staff and dispelling more with a flurry of flaming gears.

After the prior blunder, Izel determined not to repeat her mistake twice. Her focus was all but the Binxtrunachs. And with such, it seemed unlikely that she would be overwhelmed again by the monsters, after all the screams coming out of her throat were profanities in her mother tongue and were issued with flashing vigour. Only when Wisesa's feet began to stir did a pair of big-bodied Mujinos—the hound broods—become a wall of obstruction for him.

"Ah, fuck!"

Wisesa then watched as another brood followed the small band of Mujinos into the forest. His eyes widened. Three more colourful curses involuntarily escaped his lips.

But with Barong at his side, he should have little to fear. As the brood sprang on him, Wisesa rolled onto its belly, and the cat rent its belly open. The fallen bowels were snatched up by the lad and draped around the brood's neck. With a mighty tug of his bulging muscles, he strangled the brood until it thrashed about wildly like a wild horse five times its size. It rammed into the other brood and pushed the Mujinos near Izel into the fire pit.

"More points for me, motherfucker!" Wisesa sneered at the fire lady, tightening the noose once more. The brood lifted its front legs and nearly somersaulted. Indeed like a wild horse.

"Damn it, that's cheating!" cried Izel. "I want one too!"

The pyromancer then spewed more flames from her fist to ward off the hounds, then ran towards the other brood that was attempting to climb onto the strangled one to eat Wisesa. Izel slid under the monster's belly and with a single clap of his hands, a fire blast dispersed its entire contents until fragments of its bones fell out too. While it lacked the elegance of Barong's long claw cuts, the pyromancer cared only if the flames burned and exploded when ordered to. Nothing else.

Izel promptly retrieved the burnt intestines, resembling a long sausage, before the stomach pit vanished. She took flight and tossed it over her brood quarry, transforming the scene into two teenagers engaging in a blind dog rodeo in the midst of a pine forest. They collided repeatedly with each other, each snatching small Mujinos into their respective packs before sending them tumbling into the ravine.

"No! Those are my hard-earned dogs! How dare you take them!" screamed Wisesa.

Izel stuck out her tongue. "I knew you'd suck, even with the Earth Monster inside you. I'll take the remains of your bald-sheeps!"

"Don't even try!"

Wisesa's Mujino brood charged into Izel's. The small Mujinos were sent scattering, some kicked into the hot pit of despair. They no longer appeared intelligence when being chased, though they did not run far because they still wanted their mother. Wisesa and Izel dissolved into laughter. How they—especially Wisesa—forgot about the group of Mujinos that ran towards the bespectacled lass and the two children.

And so they continued until there were no more Mujino saplings left, either dead in the fire or stepped on by their own mothers. Wisesa and Izel seemed to be satisfied with the bizarre fight, evident from their gaping mouths and silent laughter coming out of them in the form of wheezing breaths. However, the broods still did not stop bouncing up and down. The rodeo still raged on.

"I won!" Izel declared.

WIsesa vehemently disagreed. "No, I won!"

"Can you count, man? I burned the dogs in the ravine, and also took your share earlier."

"No, no. You only took the scraps. Most dogs in the ravine must be dead already."

"They're all still alive! They died when I turned the abyss into a sea of fire!"

"You have no proof, Missy! Are those trees the judges here, huh? They say I took the most! And also, more of the second wave that circled the ravine came towards me."

"No, they didn't! Can't you see I've been busy battling them all this time while you've finished first?"

"That's because I'm stronger than you, you idiot! I killed them faster!"

Their back-and-forth yells overpowered the jarring of the giant hounds. Tensions momentarily escalated before melting away again with laughter.

"Good, you had fun," Barong chimed in. "Now it's time for us to kill the last two broods and go check on Alicia and the others."

But Izel had other ideas. He whipped her brood Mujino's neck and forced it to run with her foot kicks that already exuded heat. "The one who gets there first wins!"

"What?" []