Maria and Hecate started their round two and this time, it was even more chaotic. The floating orbs around Hecate were actually her weapons and they fired a variety of magic spells and aura skills which greatly threw Maria off when she wanted to engage Hecate in close-quarters combat.

The only response she could make was having her familiars go after her opponent while she and her clones fired magic spells at her from a distance while also intercepting the abilities fired from the twin orbs. It was quite obvious that Hecate’s [Aura Mastery] skill level and rank were way above Maria's as she was able to imbue aura into her weapons from a distance and fire aura from her weapons and fist.

These aura projectiles didn’t even count as skills but regular ranged attacks, which were quite fascinating. Maria wanted to try that and thought that if she could use her aura as Hecate did, she might be able to gain a form of ranged attack other than her spells. Of course, the aura did consume her MP, but at least it wasn’t much compared to her spells. Also, they didn’t have a cooldown, so she could link those aura attacks with her spells for maximum combat efficiency.

Leveling up her aura required Maria to use it in battle, but at the moment, it was a bit tricky because Hecate was much more skillful than her, so attacking her at close range when Hecate’s two orbs were constantly firing abilities at her was quite dangerous. She might get locked into a chain of attacks and become immobilized by them.

Maria still wasn’t sure what Hecate’s class was because she seemed to have a few sub-classes like her, so it made determining her actual class a bit tricky. Whenever Hecate was in control of her body, she attacked using close-ranged and long-ranged aura attacks, but when Ophelia took over, she would suddenly use attack-type and support-type magic spells. This kind of inconsistent swapping was what kept Maria from engaging in close-quarters combat. It was almost similar to the way she fought her battles and, due to this, they were stuck in a stalemate.

It wasn’t only Maria and Hecate’s battle that raged ever more intensely. Their Summons were also duking it out in the sky just above them, so they had to watch out for any stray attacks that came their way. Being hit by any of Bahamut or Chaos's attacks would likely result in an ejection from the realm since those two were so powerful.

There was also the danger below them, so Maria couldn’t just focus all of her attention on dealing with Hecate. She needed to be aware of her surroundings because a moment of negligence could eject her out of the Realm of War. Whether it be by Hecate and Ophelia’s hands or the Celestial Order and Pantheon players down below. Their fight was still ongoing but the two main characters of each faction, Caedes, and Eos, were both paying attention to what was happening in the sky.

It was clear that they were waiting for an opening and Lizzy continued to remind Maria in the faction chat not to be too invested in the fight and be careless to the other people on the battlefield. This wasn’t a duel between opponents but a war between factions, so anyone could jump in and take advantage of an enemy’s dire situation if they saw an opening for it.

‘Tsk, too many factors are at play so I can’t go all out…it’s hard enough already that I’m in my [Nightmare] form and still struggling against this crazy girl, but I also have to watch my back for the other guys down there…’

“Hey! You seem distracted! Eyes on me, Maria!” Hecate cried out as she broke free from the encirclement she was in and charged straight at Maria.

“Tsk.”

Maria clicked her tongue and had her clones intercept her opponent. They fired a few [Fire] and [Blizzard] spells at Hecate, but just as they were about to land, a transparent white barrier appeared around their target and blocked the spells. Hecate didn’t stop and charged past the clones while countering with a few spells on her own which were launched from the black-white orbs rotating around her.

“Did ya miss me?”

“...” Maria remained silent and blocked Hecate’s aura-covered fists with her blades. She countered with a flurry of slashes that were expertly blocked and parried by her opponent, but then a few spells were fired at her from the two orbs floating around Hecate.

Maria cut the spells down with her Calamity and Zantetsu-R before backing away but suddenly, she heard Hecate’s voice from behind her, “Don’t try to run~”

“!”

Maria didn’t hesitate as she flapped her wings and used her extreme speed to blow away Hecate and dodge her aura-infused strike.

“Gah!”

After being knocked away by the sheer force of Maria’s speed, Hecate quickly tried to re-orientate herself in mid-air but saw a blazing [Hellfire] spell flying her way.

“My little flower sure is a thorny one~”

Hecate was just about to block the attack when Maria appeared behind her in a flash and kicked her straight into the [Hellfire] her clones created before launching a [Hellfire] spell of her own. Her opponent was sandwiched between the two spells and couldn’t use her earlier barrier, so she had to take the full brunt of the 2 [Hellfire] spells.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“AhhHHHHHhhHHHHH!”

Maria could hear the pained cries that came from both of the personas in her enemy’s body. However, that only lasted for a few seconds before she heard her enemy’s maniacal laughter again.

“Ahahahahah! Don’t think this is enough to kill me, my thorny rose~”

“Tsk, annoying little bitch,” Maria once again cursed before she got into a stance and prepped her [Shin-Zantetsuken].

[Lizzy: Mary, watch out!]

Maria saw the message from her friend a little too late when a black figure appeared in the air just above her head. This player’s dagger was already moving straight for Maria’s neck and it was too late for her to do anything. It was the trademark Assassin skill [Cutthroat] and if it successfully landed, the target would be inflicted with a [Stun] and a [Silence] that would last for 3 seconds and 10 seconds respectively.

The skill landed on Maria and it stopped her from executing her [Shin-Zantetsuken]. A large critical damage number appeared above her head and a [Bleed] debuff was also applied due to the attack being executed right as her assailant exited from their [Stealth] state.

‘Dammit, it’s that stupid Assassin player from earlier!’

Bob’s face was hidden underneath a mask but from his eyes, Maria could tell that the assassin was smiling gleefully.

Maria had high resistance so the 3-second stun only lasted 2 seconds, but in those 2 seconds, she was hit with a flurry of skills from Bob and it brought her HP down to a third before she flew away and opened up a distance between her and the assassin. She was about to bring up her guard but saw that Bob had once again entered into his [Stealth] mode and disappeared from sight. The silence lasted a few more seconds so she had her clones and familiars regroup with her for protection.

“Tsk, another pest has come…” Maria said as she kept a careful eye on her surroundings.

“Mary, are you alright?!” Lizzy arrived next to Maria and quickly asked her.

“I thought you guys had him busy down there?”

“He suddenly disappeared earlier and we waited for him to attack us again but noticed a little bit too late that he had gone away and went to attack you.”

“Argh, how annoying. I’m already having trouble dealing with this Hecate or Ophelia girl, or whatever this bitch calls herself. The least you could do is keep that dumb pest busy for me!”

“M-Mary?”

Maria was seriously pissed. It was the first time she talked down to Lizzy like that and expressed her anger. After realizing what she had done, Maria quickly turned to Lizzy and apologized, “S-Sorry, Liz…I-I’m just a little bit angry right now. Dealing with that annoying bitch over there has gotten to me.”

Lizzy sighed in relief before replying, “J-Jeez, you must be seriously pissed off… to think you’d cuss at someone and get so angry at me…”

“Sorry…”

“Nevermind that, just deal with that girl over there. I’ll keep a better eye on Bob.”

Maria nodded at Lizzy before she rushed straight towards Hecate with her clones and familiars as she restored her HP with a [Regen] and [Hi-Cure].

“Sorry for that interruption. Let’s get back to it, yeah?”

“...”

Hecate’s face was dark and she didn’t respond to Maria’s words. Instead, she was mumbling something, “How dare he how dare he how dare he how dare he how dare he How dare he how dare he how dare he How dare he how dare he how dare he How dare he…HOW DARE HE! AHHHHH!!!”

Hecate released a loud cry and a shockwave was released from her body at her sudden power-up. Her body was glowing with aura before she suddenly disappeared from her spot.

“Huh?!”

She moved at blinding speeds and flew straight towards an empty spot in the air before punching out with her fist.

“GAAAHHH!!!”

Her fist seemed to have struck somebody as Lizzy and Maria both heard a person’s pained cry.

“L-Lady Hecate…w-why?”

“You dare interfere in my battle? I’m going to kill you, you little whelp,” Hecate growled as she spoke to Bob, whose [Stealth] she had broken.

Maria saw that Hecate’s speed now almost rivaled her own and the abrupt increase in her STR put her on a level that was even higher than her own STR stat. Whatever she did to boost her stats like this completely amazed Maria…

“What the hell is this girl?” Maria mumbled to herself.

She could see that Hecate wasn’t relying on her class advantage to one-sidedly beat up Bob right now. It likely had something to do with [Aura Mastery] because before Hecate went to attack Bob, she clad herself in aura before this change happened.

[Aura Mastery] wasn’t a class-related skill, since Maria could learn it. She had to take her time later after this war to thoroughly learn all she could about this new skill. If she lost today, it wouldn’t matter because the next time they clashed and she had a better understanding of the skill, she wouldn’t lose.

For the first time since she played the game, Maria felt that there was just no way for her to win against her opponent this time. Maybe if she fought against her with numbers, then perhaps she could win, but that wouldn’t be a victory for her though and she didn’t want to win in that way.

“How dare you, Blob, Bub, or whatever the fuck your name is. You came in between me and my little flower’s sweet time. This is what you get for being so cocky!”

Bob felt the full force of Hecate’s fury and he couldn’t move a muscle anymore as the pain was far too much for him.

“P-Please spare m-me…Lady H-Hecate…I w-was…only trying…to help!” Bob croaked painfully as he tried to beg for mercy.

“Did you hear me request for help? Did you? Did you?! If not, then it means I don’t fucking need your help! Now go die for me!”

Hecate placed a hand on Bob’s chest before she grinned maniacally and fired off her aura square in the assassin’s chest, blowing him far away. That must have been excruciatingly painful because Maria could see the whites of Bob's eyes, which meant he had been knocked unconscious by that attack and inflicted with the [Fainted] debuff. As he was falling to the ground, Bob’s body began to disappear, which indicated that his HP had bottomed out and was being sent out of the Realm of War.

Hecate smiled in satisfaction as she took a deep breath before turning to look at Maria with a flushed and pleasant expression on her face, "I’ve dealt with that mangy mutt, so let’s continue our fight, shall we?”

“...You’re nuts, you killed your own ally just because he took advantage of an opening and attacked me? We're enemies for crying out loud, so it's only natural that he'd exploit my negligence!”

“He was interfering with our battle. Of course, I’ll be mad,” Hecate replied firmly without any hint of remorse in her words. She even looked like she wanted to be praised for what she had done.

There was absolutely no use in reasoning with this crazy girl so Maria turned to her friend and said, “Lizzy, get out of here. I’ll deal with her alone. Don't let anyone else interfere, okay?”

“Got it, but you be careful, Mary. She's really strong...”

“Mhm.”