In the arena, Celestine quickly closed the gap as Altair narrowed her eyes. Altair felt a tinge of panic towards the weight of that blow. If she kept taking hits that heavy she was definitely going to lose by getting tossed out of the arena. She could only burn a lot more Mana to deal with those kinds of hits head on or dodge them completely. If she had her old Mana capacity then she wouldn't hesitate to use her Mana in that way. But right now she was burning it at a fairly high rate and if she had to burn that much Mana just to keep up with the power that was being thrown at her now she wasn't sure it would last until the end of the fight.

She gritted her teeth as she decided to attempt to dodge the attacks for now.

Celestine started throwing her attacks at Altair and was surprised that Altair decided to try and dodge everything. This didn't make any sense to her because she couldn't repeatedly use her Inborn Ability or she would drain her Spiritual Energy like it was nothing. However, she took advantage of it and quickly cornered Altair on the defensive.

Altair noticed that she was getting pushed back towards the edge of the arena and the panic within her started to grow. 'I can't lose to a child! That would be too humiliating!' She quickly burned a large chunk of her Mana as she caught a random attack that Celestine threw, which caused Celestine's eyes to widen because it felt like she punched steel. Altair then threw a sharp kick at Celestine's gut again, which caused Celestine to strengthen her free hand as she caught it.

Both attacks rang out loudly into the room like a thunderclap. It shocked everyone present at the force of the blows hitting each other. Even Dave and Ben, who had been silent on the side watching with a neutral expression the entire time, had their eyes widen slightly at the strength behind the attack.

They had not seen Altair practice any kind of fighting before and the display she was showing them was surprising enough. Now, with the strength of both of the attacks thrown behind them as well, they wondered how far Altair would be able to go in the future.

It was like two diamonds had fallen into the Marnithok family with Joshua's birth and their adoption of Altair. They had suddenly realized why someone had attempted to kidnap her. They probably knew about how skilled she would be in the future and were planning to steal her into their own family.

Strengthening her hand was the right idea because it felt like she was blocking a truck that ran into her. Celestine was sent skidding across the arena. She planted her feet down heavily onto the arena and slid backwards towards the opposite edge. She managed to barely stop herself from sliding off the arena completely and sighed in relief at that. She then looked at Altair who did not pursue her at the other side of the arena.

The amount of strength in that attack was more than Celestine could throw out in any given attack with her current abilities. This caused Celestine's mind to shake as she wondered if Altair had the same ability as hers or something similar. If that was the case, she didn't know how she was going to win.

Hadrian couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Celestine launched the way she was. He knew Celestine's strength first hand and this development in the match surpassed everything he had seen so far. He could only stare blankly as he continued to watch how the match played out.

Rictor and the others were speechless at this display of strength from Altair. They didn't think she had been holding back that much against them before but clearly they were ants trying to fight a shoe.

Altair exhaled a deep breath as she muttered a curse. That one attack took half of her total Mana that she could use in a day and it didn't get the job done. She couldn't just dodge because she would be pushed off the arena if she did that. She could only try one more time to launch Celestine off the arena and if she failed to do so she would lose. It was all or nothing for her now. She took a deep breath and started walking towards Celestine.

Celestine saw her approaching and walked towards Altair as well. She couldn't take a hit like that from the center of the arena or she would go flying. She would need to avoid attacks as well now or things would get ugly for her and she would lose. Her Inborn Ability was no match for that amount of power. She suspected that Altair was a higher stage of Warrior than her and was a little envious of her.

Another flurry happened the moment they met each other near the center of the arena. Celestine was focused on defense this time. This caused Altair to frown as she was hoping that Celestine would overextend and fall into her trap again. Realizing this wouldn't work she decided to look for a point where she could throw the rest of her Mana at Celestine. She didn't have enough to use the same amount of strength as before and could only hope that this one hit would end it all.

This exchange lasted longer than any of the other ones and it caused Altair to grow impatient. For every second that she didn't get a decisive hit in she lost more power on that hit. If this kept up then it would soon be over. She gritted her teeth as she decided to force the issue even though she knew it was a bad idea.

Altair took a bold step forward to get closer to Celestine. This caused Celestine to widen her eyes in surprise as she quickly used her Inborn Ability thinking that the next attack was coming. She saw an attack coming for her head and she leaned back to avoid it. This attack was a feint though, and she knew it the moment she heard Hadrian's shout of warning from the side.

The real attack came in at her gut. Altair planned to put just enough Mana into this blow to cause Celestine to drop her guard for her real attack. The attack connected and caused Celestine to double over towards Altair in pain. Celestine and everyone then saw Altair's next attack coming in right at Celestine's head. Altair put all of her remaining Mana into this attack.

The blow connected with the side of Celestine's head and a crisp slap rang out in the room. But that was all. Celestine's cheek burned from a hit that was lighter than any attack that Altair had thrown at her so far.

This caused Celestine's brows to scrunch up and her expression to turn unsightly. She felt like she was being insulted by Altair, who gave her a mocking slap, in the middle of their fight.

She turned her attention to Altair and ignored the look of shock on Altair's face. She immediately threw an attack at Altair with her Inborn Ability and Altair, without any Mana to defend herself, was sent flying out of the arena like a doll from the impact.

Altair landed unprotected onto the ground and rolled several meters before coming to a stop on her back while gasping for air. Her ribs shattered upon impact and her insides shook violently. The massive amount of sharp pain that assaulted her caused her complexion to pale but it didn't match the shock she suffered. The Mana she put into her attack dispersed into the air without warning and she didn't understand why. This had never happened to her before and she had nothing to draw information from. It was something that Altair had never heard of.

Mana didn't just disperse into nothing for no reason.

Still, the end result was the same.

'I lost to a Human?' She felt deep shame at that realization. It mixed and combined with the shock she felt and she couldn't bring herself to listen to the children or entertain them with any words.

So, Altair closed her eyes and acted unconscious.

Celestine thought that Altair had thrown the fight because of that last attack. She didn't consider that Altair had run out of steam for a second. But the thought did cross her mind when she saw how far Altair flew and how she didn't even attempt to break her own fall.

If Altair had any of the power she had during their normal exchanges than she could have prevented herself from getting thrown off the arena. But Altair was thrown about the right distance that Celestine figured someone her size would be tossed at her full strength from an unprotected attack. This caused Celestine's face to pale. She knew her strength better than anyone and her attacks were lethal to unprotected bodies.

The rest of the room was stunned by the different ending than they were expecting. Celestine running off the arena toward Altair while shouting, "Aria are you alright?!" brought them all back to their senses.

Hadrian was next to recover as he turned around and shouted, "Servant get a medical pod ready!" Contrary to what Hadrian was expecting, Noel was already running from the room to do so.

Dave had already rushed toward Altair's side with Ben following behind him.