"You have a satisfying progress."

Standing right in front of Valeria, hearing those words, I don't know what to say. I am not overwhelmed by her presence or nervousness—I just can't think of a reason why she decided to jump into the party.

"I will give my best," I reply, in the end.

Valeria smirks faintly, and I take that as a cue to take a distance. At the same time, much to my amusement, the Warriors fighting alongside Valeria step back, leaving her alone in the center of the Arena.

Whoosh!

Like a whip, her violent Mana pressure lashes at me and her surroundings. She is merely standing there doing nothing, but the ground around her has already developed battle marks—no wonder the Warriors distanced themselves away from him.

"She is not joking, is she?" I remark, half-excited, half-nervous. "This killing intent—it will stop any human's heart upon being exposed to it."

Summoning Rexorem, I swing it lightly to get the feeling of it. I haven't wielded it since last night, so I need to readjust myself to avoid mishaps in the battle.

On the other side, Valeria extends her hand to the side; and a black, thin sword materializes immediately. Aside from its simplicity, nothing about it is worthy of note—even saying its simplicity is worthy of note is kind of ironic.

The simple sword gives off a very intimidating pressure in Valeria's hand nonetheless, so I instinctively put my guard up. I channel my Mana into Rexorem's Magic Stone, and cover myself with the Barrier it generated.

Woong!

The air hums as Valeria swiftly extends her sword to the side. I immediately know something dangerous is going to hit me the moment she does that, so I quickly rush at her.

The faster I move, the slower my surroundings moves. I can see everything that Valeria is doing slowly: the moment the miniature star appears above her blade, the moment she swings her sword, and the moment her lips faintly curve upwards.

'I need to get away!' I instantly decided.

Abruptly stopping in my tracks, denting the ground quite severely in the process, I change the course of my run because the trajectory of the miniature star and the supernatural cut of her sword aligns with my course.

Doing it, of course, is always not as easy as thinking about it. Valeria is not alone—she has nineteen Warriors who are ready to drag my feet.

'Those bastards are messing with the ground structure—Luxia, aid me!'

They are creating hundreds of earth spikes to skewer me.

'Prepare yourself! The underground is not much safer than the surface!'

Luxia immediately manipulates the ground with Earth Magic to swallow me. I am safe from the hell on the surface, but like she said, there is something already waiting for me underground.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Countless of earth spikes that are strong enough to pierce through a tank immediately protrudes from every surface in my surroundings.

My sufficient skill in Earth Magic and the Barrier Rexorem's Magic Stone generated, fortunately, are already enough to save my life. I managed to keep them at bay until the shitstorm on the surface ended.

The reason why I know it has ended is because I have already got my power-up. This is a bad and good news at the same time: on the one hand, I got stronger, but on the other hand, Valeria must be giving it for free for a reason.

Bang!

Upon coming up to the surface, my guess is proven to be correct. If not for the fact that my instinct has been honed enough, I wouldn't have been able to dodge the bludgeon that one of the Warriors swings at me.

Of course, that Warrior is not the only one waiting for me. There are many others who are ready to end my life, so I am forced to be tactful and figure out a way to escape in a split second.

I stab Rexorem into the ground while simultaneously channeling my Mana into it. Activating [Great Impact] just as the closest Warrior's sword is a hair's breadth away from me, the Mana inside Rexorem bursts forth.

Boom!

historical

The ground surges upwards, and sweeps the Warriors in my surroundings. Some of them are thrown away, but most of them merely lose their balance.

Swiftly taking Rexorem out of the ground, I activate [Senbonzakura] and create ten thousand "petals of cherry blossoms." Using Wind Magic, I equally distribute them throughout the Arena, injuring more than a half of the Warriors.

My killing intent bursts forth, washing those who have a weak heart with terror. This way, I can immediately tell which one I should after first.

'Luxia, immobilize these guys...'

After locking on the targets, I swiftly rush at them and knock them out one by one. Countless of hurdles stand in my path, but fortunately my instinct and my reflex are enough to allow me to smoothly pass them.

In a span of 10 seconds, I have knocked 7 of them out. All of them are the easiest targets among the group, so the power-ups I receive from defeating them are not much, but rewarding nonetheless.

'Luxia, can you change the terrain to better suit my fighting style?'

'How is it?'

'Turn it into a mess.'

Luxia doesn't say anything, but I know she is not too bewildered to respond. She is concentrating hard to make what I asked come true.

... And, it does come true.

Crack!

"What the fuck?!"

"Watch out the cracks!"

"Shit, the ground is really unstable!"

"Watch where you step on, otherwise you'll fall into a pit!"

As the ground structure of the Arena is in a complete mess, the Warriors are all bewildered. Still, being a bunch of battle maniacs, sure have its own perks; in just a few seconds, they already got ahold of the terrain.

"I-It's changing! The terrain is changing!"

"Gah! These annoying spikes!"

Unfortunately for them, being able to quickly grasp the terrain doesn't really matter in this case. Although it is exhausting, with the support of my Mana, Luxia can change the terrain anytime—I am the only one who truly knows it.

Just like that, 10 minutes passed. Most of them don't last any longer than 20 seconds against me, but the 5 Fifth Wing Warriors are just on a whole different level compared to the others—it takes me around a minute in average to take them out.

"Huuh... The power-ups are quite satisfying this time," I remark as I calm my breath down. "My Mana Pool is now already bigger than Vibiane's. Unless she is sealed like Millonia, I can easily knock her out with a kick now."

After getting so many power-ups, my view toward strong opponents have changed. I see them as farming objects that provide me power-ups—I treat them no different from mobs that provide me experiences in games.

I tighten my grip on my sword as my heart beats faster; I can barely hold back a triumphant smirk. I have been so envious about the growth of my accursed classmates, but now I can surely say I have already caught up to them.

It is time to surpass them now. To do that, I need to get as many power-ups as I can from the person gazing at me from afar.

"Did my performance disappoint you, Lady Valeria?"

"That was decent," she answers curtly. "I thought you would have done it faster, but I am satisfied with how careful you fight now."

As I expected, the reason why she threw her Spell that carelessly was because she just wanted to give me a free power-up. She wanted to see how well I could perform, and how well I could utilize the power I newly gained from the power-up.

"Let's see how well you can fare against me, shall we?"

Allowing Pride's influence to take over me, I exclaim, "Show me what a strong woman is!"

Flash!

In less than a second after I said that, Valeria appears before me. Her sword is already two inches away from my body, but I managed to block it with Rexorem, thanks to my instinct that has made me anticipate it.

Clank!

The ground below us craters as soon as our sword clashes against each other. I can feel the bones in my hands fracture like a glass upon blocking her sword, but they are immediately healed by the power-up I got.

"What a strong woman indeed," I remark.

I try to push Rexorem forward to no avail; Valeria is too strong. I immediately decided to distance myself, but that is not a good idea either.

A Spell comes at me when I am 30-feet away from Valeria. The Spell looks like a mini black hole, and it works like one: it has a ridiculous suction power.

Luckily, Luxia is with me; together, we block the mini black hole. She blocks it with two three meters thick earthen walls, and I cut it using my Skill: [Whistle of Death] after it easily passed through the walls.

... At least, that's what I am about to do.

"Shit!"

Just before I swing Rexorem at the mini black hole in front of me, I realized there are another three of it coming from three different directions.

I immediately submerge myself into the ground, but Valeria is already underground to kick me out. My ribs broke, and I have to fight in that state until I receive another power-up.

The fight lasts for thirty minutes. Although the difficulty is simply off the charts; by the end of it, my power has grown by leaps and bounds.