“Oh? The Spirits of Isabel are here?” Aquaria asks with Luna behind her.

That’s right, Roy and I headed towards a marble stage and were directed by a muscular looking Elf to a register to sign up so that we could begin sparing with other people, and by complete coincidence, the first people we were sparing were the princess of Eskal herself and her Spirit, Luna.

“Lady Aquaria! It’s a surprise to see you here!” Roy quickly bows.

I follow suit and bow down myself.

“Oh please, there’s no need to be formal. You’re my best friend’s party members after all.” Aquaria giggles.

“Hey look,” another Elf says to his buddy, “the new guys are gonna face the princess, think they stand a chance?”

“No way, these guys won’t know what hit them.”

Sorry to burst your bubble, but Roy and I are technically undefeated against Aquaria.

“It would appear that we’re getting a crowd, shall we enter the stage?” Aquaria elbows my ribcage softly.

“I’m pretty sure that you would attract a crowd everywhere considering that you’re a princess.”

“Hehe, maybe.”

The four of us enter the arena as we get softly sprayed on by a sort of liquid. The liquid felt awfully sticky at first, but after a couple of seconds of being on my skin, it felt like I was never sprayed on in the first place.

“Hmm, looks like they’ve got liquid armor here,” Roy mutters under his breath.

“Correct! The liquid armor has a point system where it will decide who is the winner based on damage taken and the number of hits taken.” Aquaria excitedly informs, “We won’t go easy on you two, right Luna?”

“Y-yeah, no way are we losing to them,” Luna says as she looks me directly in the eye from across the stage.

“Come on princess, show them what you’ve got!” An Elf in the crowd chants.

“Let’s go, Luna! Use your special moves against them!” Another chant.

“Hey, isn’t that guy with the white coat kind of skinny?”

Well, that’s just not very nice to say, is it?

“Weapons at the ready!” A voice-over a speaker announces.

I close my eyes and visualize my shield and gauntlets. I feel some weight on my shoulder and hands as a familiar white and black shield in the oval shape of a Celtic shield materializes out of thin air on my arm. Roy summons his blue armor and golden longsword as he readies his stance.

Roy raises an eyebrow at me and lowers his sword.

“What happened to your armor?”

“It’s a bit complicated, but let’s not worry about that for now,” I say as I face the two Elves who’ve also summoned their weapons and armor.

More Elves and adventures begin to fill the crowds as they anticipate the battle that’s about to start between the four of us.

I face Aquaria and take a deep breath.

“Roy, any attacks that run your way, let me tank them,” I whisper to Roy.

Roy quickly understands as he nods his head.

Come on, bring it on.

“Fight!” The announcer screams into the mic.

As soon as that word is announced, Aquaria raises her hand to us and shoots out a ball of water toward Roy. A sneaky-quick attack, but not quick enough as I read the situation and jump in front of Roy to block the ball with my shield. Roy quickly dashes around me and runs straight for Aquaria.

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Aquaria reads what is happening and jumps backward as Luna dashes in to take her place. Luna slams her staff onto the ground, causing it to break apart as a small wooden golem quickly climbs out of the crack, blocking the path of Roy.

Roy swiftly swings his sword across the wooden golem, making the poor golem disintegrate, but as soon as the golem disappears, a black fireball from the palms of Aquaria is thrown toward Roy. Luckily for Roy, I had noticed Aquaria chanting as soon as the golem was formed and read the attack.

Together, Roy and I lunge toward Luna.

Luna’s expression doesn’t change as she swiftly jumps backward and points her staff at us and begins firing green rays. I raise my shield to block the rays and I experience a bit of knockback as I slide against Roy.

Aquaria and Luna both smile mischievously.

“!!!!”

Roy and I hear a roar behind us and we turn around just in time to see the giant wooden fist of a giant golem slam down on us. I quickly raise my shield to block the fist, but am brought to my knees as the force and power of the golem was much too powerful for me.

The golem brings more force onto my shield as I start to feel my arms burn with pain.

…Burn?

That’s it!

“Roy, when I give the call, lie down.”

“What?”

“Trust me.”

I lower my body and put on an act as if I was running out of stamina to hold up the fist of the golem, I also changed my shield into the bigger rectangular shape of a Scutum shield.

I catch Aquaria chanting out of the corner of my eye and decide that now is the best time to execute the plan that I had formulated in my head.

I let the golem’s fist slam down completely over Roy and me.

A couple of seconds of silence pass.

Visualize flames, Rin.

For the first time since my visit with goddess Balia, I attempt to summon flames.

I closed my eyes in preparation for the worst, but even though I felt the heat in the air, my hands and arms felt no difference in temperature.

“!?!?!?” The golem roars in pain as flames begin to engulf his body.

As soon as the golem lifts its fist, Roy dashes out from under my shield and comes to a stop behind Aquaria and Luna. In a flash, Roy slashes his sword completely across the two Elven girls as their eyes widen in shock.

The stadium flashes red and a buzzer buzz on the stage.

“A-Aquaria and Luna are deemed unable to battle!” The announcer’s voice blasts across the stage. “Uhm what’re their names here? Ah! Roy and Rin are victorious!”

The Elves and adventures spectating begin cheering and gossiping in a mixture of amazement and confusion.

“What on Spirinall was that?! I thought Luna’s golem had flattened them!”

“Where did that fire even come from? Was it the shield?”

“I’ve never seen anything like that before!”

“Don’t worry Aquaria! You’ll get them next time!”

I get up and sigh.

Despite winning, I was held back from celebrating as a question ringed over and over in my head.

If I was a couple of levels higher, would I have been able to hold off that golem?

I hear a loud laughter boom behind me and feel a large hand slam my back, completely knocking me out of my deep thoughts.

“You’re crazy aren’t you Rin?” Roy booms. “When you told me to lie down, I was so confused!”

I manage an awkward laugh as Aquaria walks over to me with a large smile on her face while Luna stares at me intensely. I quickly avoid eye contact with Luna, but I can still feel the force of her stare as the four of us head into the break room.

An Elf offers me a glass of water as I collapse onto the couch.

Roy and Aquaria begin having a conversation since Roy showed massive interest in liquid armor, which meant that left Luna and me sitting on couches across from each other.

I took a sip of water and forced myself to look back at Luna.

“G-good game?” I stutter.

“Yeah, good game…” Luna answers in monotone.

She continues eyeing me up as the conversations of other Elves fill up the break room.

I look at Roy for some assistance, but his ears were glued to a conversation about how liquid armor was made.

“You’re from Earth, right?” Luna asks, surprising me a bit.

“Yeah, if I remember correctly, you’re also from Earth?”

Luna nods her head and leans back on the couch, “How did you die?”

That’s the next thing you ask a fellow Earthling?

“I, uhm, saved a friend of mine by pushing them out of the way of a truck,” I answer honestly.

Luna’s eyes widen in shock.

She remains silent for a couple of seconds before calming down her reaction and nodding her head.

“I see, that’s pretty impressive,” Luna says as she grabs my cup of water and takes a sip.

I stare as her lips make contact with the glass I was drinking, “Uh yeah, thank you. It was quite painful.”

Luna looks at me out of the corner of her eye and giggles at my joke. She looked extremely cute doing so that I couldn’t help but blush a bit at her cuteness. She notices me staring and goes slightly red herself.

“I-is there something on my face?”

“No! I was just uhm…spaced out! Yeah, that’s right!”

We both quickly look away from each other. I couldn’t believe I allowed myself to get caught staring.

No please Luna, don’t look at me out of the corner of your eye while you’re blushing. That’s too cute.

“Hey, Rin!” Roy’s loud voice booms, causing Luna and me to jump up in shock, “These guys challenged us to a duel!”

“R-Right! Coming!”

I gave a small wave at Luna and Aquaria as I follow Roy back into the stage to spar with another pair of Elves.

Unfortunately for them, Roy was fully warmed up.

I wasn’t even needed at all in that battle.