“Rend! Yoshitsune!”

  A streak of thin light made contact with Krieg’s shield with a loud thud. Miyamoto had used blade energy in an overhead swing that would have split the knight in half if he wasn’t using the platinum shield given by Robert.

  “Ugh!”

  However, even if the shield itself was unscathed, Krieg still had to bear the tremendous impact that his father’s technique created. The soil beneath the knight’s feet caved in as the blinding blade energy dissipated against the metal.

  “Stone Blast!”

  Using the swordmaster as a distraction, Setsuna summoned a barrage of rocks from the soil beside them with the aim to finish the fight there, but Leona had other plans in mind.

  The tactician raised her staff towards the forming stone mound and quickly chanted.

  “Blast!”

  A powerful blast of wind disintegrated the forming dirt and at the same time, Miyamoto was forced back by Krieg’s offensive maneuver with the shield—using the protective piece of equipment as a makeshift battering ram to force his father to either step back or be sent flying.

  Upon having some space, the knight looked back at his liege, who nodded. In a silent agreement, both started to close the gap between them and their opponents.

  That not only surprised Setsuna and Miyamoto, but also everyone else that was watching on the sidelines.

  “What are they doing…?” Kaeli muttered under her breath. “Getting closer to a spell caster and a master swordsman is nothing short of suicidal.”

  “Hmph.” Robert raised one eyebrow while keeping a faint smile on his face as he muttered to himself. “Not bad, Leona. Not bad.”

  Krieg kept his shield raised as he was closing in. Leona on the other hand made herself seem open to an attack by running slightly diagonally behind him.

  “Keep him busy.” Setsuna raised the staff and pointed it to Leona. “I’ll deal with her.”

  “Aye.” He raised his blade up to the sky parallel to his body as mana started to condense near the blade’s edge. “Shatter! Yoshitsune!”

  Setsuna took three steps to the same side as Leona was and chanted.

  “O chains of light, shine with the brilliance of a thousand bolts as you tear their flesh asunder, Chain Lightning!”

  “Bastion of the land, raise upon my command, Earth Wall!”

  Just as the lightning spell crackled and roared out of Setsuna’s staff, the soil in front of her trembled before shooting up into the air, forming a solid wall of earth that absorbed the thunderous lightning bolts that struck violently against it.

  “Wha-!”

  “Tch!”

  Not only Leona’s spell came out faster than Setsuna’s but it also blocked Miyamoto’s view—forcing the swordmaster to unleash his technique against the wall of dirt and stone that was in front of him.

  His swing was powerful enough to blow a hole straight through the elemental wall, but he didn’t find Krieg there, instead—Leona was standing with her staff just a few meters away from his chest.

  “Crushing Wind!”

  “Blast!”

  However, just as she unleashed the spell, Setsuna negated it with her own while also sending the tactician a few meters backwards into the ground.

  “Argh!”

  Seeing Leona be sent flying made Krieg lose a bit of his temper as he made his way around the far side of the wall—coming up behind the shrine maiden preparing to strike her down with his sword.

  “Rend-!”

  Seeing this, Miyamoto tried to unleash another attack, but his sword was stopped by Krieg’s shield before it could get any momentum.

  “Out of my way!”

  The knight stepped in and shoved his father aside with his shield while using the momentum of his returning arm to land a shield bash right against Setsuna’s body. Luckily for her, she was able to reinforce herself with mana right before impact and she was sent flying into the bushes without fracturing any bones.

  “Ugh…” Leona stood up using her staff. She could feel the stinging sensation throughout her chest. “That was close…”

  “Are you alright?”

  Krieg asked as he backed into her with his shield raised.

  “Yeah, just a scratch. We should finish this quickly, do you think you can deal with Setsuna?”

  “I only need a minute.”

  She nodded firmly.

  “I’ll leave it to you then. I’ll keep Miyamoto busy in the meantime.”

  As Setsuna recovered herself with only a few bruises as scratches from the bushes, she stood up, only to be met with an incoming blade aimed at her torso. She jumped back, barely dodging it as Krieg kept going on the attack, forcing the shrine maiden to keep running away from him. Miyamoto saw this and tried to help her, but his path was blocked with a massive earth wall that enveloped around him with a few spikes coming out of the dirt as if to keep him there.

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  Looking to his side, he noticed Leona standing at the only exit created by the makeshift arena. He raised his blade and narrowed his eyes.

  The tactician raised her staff forward and started to chant. Mana started to gather both around her body and at the end of her staff.

  “O chains of light, shine with the brilliance of a thousand bolts-”

  Purple energy crackled as mana surged into Avalon’s claws while a greenish glow enveloped the prismatic orb in its clutches.

  ‘No escape huh?!’

  Seeing how he had nowhere else to run, the swordmaster raised his arm and threw the sword at Leona. It made her flinch and hesitate just long enough for him to close half of the way to her.

  Her fizzled spell, widened eyes, and backpedaling motion made Miyamoto think he had the advantage, but once he picked the sword to slash at her—Avalon’s prismatic orb shined with a powerful green hue.

  “Wha-!”

  In a split second he could feel the sudden wind pressure rise violently as he was about to be blasted to pieces by the spell she had stored in the staff.

  A loud snap of fingers echoed in the swordsman’s ears as a golden barrier protected him from getting shredded to bits by her blast spell. One glance at the carved earth was enough to tell him that it had enough force to kill.

  He smirked before quietly sheathing his sword and saying in a solemn tone.

  “I yield.”

  Leona didn’t even acknowledge his surrender and instead quickly began to run around the wall she had made in order to meet up with Krieg.

  That being said, the knight wasn’t faring that much better. Despite being fast, Krieg wouldn’t be able to hit an enemy that could fly—and Setsuna knew of it. By using a combination of wind and dark magic, she was able to keep herself afloat just outside of his range. Forcing the knight to commit to blade energy strikes.

  “Tch!”

  Krieg held Arondight with both hands while unleashing slash after slash. It kept Setsuna busy enough that she couldn’t counterattack with a spell, but he knew it was only a matter of time.

  ‘I can’t let her cast another spell.’

  As Leona rounded the corner of her earth wall, she noticed the shrine maiden dodge a barrage of slashes, but it didn’t seem like Krieg was getting anywhere with them.

  The tactician let out a sharp exhale before pointing Avalon just below where Setsuna was flying. The shrine maiden was so occupied in dodging that she didn’t even notice Leona start to cast her spell.

  “Render unto me, vestiges of destruction-”

  At the same time that she was chanting, Avalon also did the same while gathering mana from the tactician’s body. Enveloping the silver staff with a light blue glow.

  ‘Soaring winds, heed my cries-’

  “Fuel, ruination-!”

  ‘Encase my foes-!’

  In complete sync, Leona and Avalon finished chanting simultaneously.

  “Conflagration!”

  Setsuna felt a terrible shiver down her spine, as she looked at the ground below her feet she could see the sudden change in color. The verdant grass wilted as the soil turned bright like molten lava.

  Robert snapped his fingers as he muttered.

  “True Teleportation.”

  A split second later a pillar of flames erupted from the ground where the shrine maiden was just a second ago. The deep blue flames roared into a tornado of fire that melted the nearby landscape and set distant trees on fire. Even Krieg had to hide behind his own shield to survive the scorching heat from the violent eruption.

  Leona felt strangely good. It was as her body was drowning in adrenaline and dopamine in equal amounts. Though a bit tired from using a large amount of mana, it was still cathartic. Residual mana coursed through her body, it was a high so high that it made her dizzy.

  ‘Don’t get drunk on power.’

  An eerily familiar voice echoed in her mind, snapping her out of her haze. The environment around her crackled with the fire spreading across the trees. Robert and Yuna were taking care of the fire while Krieg approached his liege that found herself with her knees on the ground—only noticing it when he got closer to her.

  “Leona, are you okay?” The knight questioned as he sheathed Arondight. “That magic was something I had never seen before.”

  “It was something Avalon and I came up with.” She smiled while looking at the silver staff in her hands. “A trump card up my sleeve, so to speak.”

  “Hey! What in the world were you thinking?!” Robert shouted at her while he was using water magic to douse the flames and keep it from spreading to the rest of the forest. “That spell was overkill!”

  “Wasn’t you who told me to ‘hold nothing back’?!” Leona shouted back, annoyed at his remarks. “Besides, Setsuna is a competent mage, I’m sure nothing short of my strongest attack would’ve finished the fight!”

  Robert was taken aback by that remark as he stopped for a brief moment to look at her. Equal parts vexed and impressed. Leona on the other hand knew in her mind that she couldn’t take any chances against skilled opponents. One slip up could mean an ally’s death or worse. Total defeat.

  “Leona!”

  A female voice echoed from across the training field. Both Setsuna and Miyamoto approached them two with a smile on their faces.

  “That spell was incredible!” The shrine maiden grabbed her hand as she sang her praises. “How did you manage to chant it so fast?”

  “I owe it to Avalon.” She glanced at the silver staff in her grasp. “She and I can combine spells by casting them simultaneously.”

  “So that explains it.” Miyamoto chimed in as he walked up to them with his hands hidden inside his sleeves barely able to contain his excitement. “That feint was something I didn’t expect from you, Leona.” He then turned to Krieg with a faint smile showing up on his face. “You too. Making full use of a shield given to you just before battle was also impressive.”

  “I tried my best.” Krieg answered dryly. “But I still couldn’t keep up with Setsuna’s flight.”

  A few more footsteps came from behind the shrine maiden and swordmaster. Standing behind them were Phoebe, Kaeli and Isabel. The two high elves were equally impressed while the towering angel didn’t waste any time in kneeling down beside Leona and extending both her open palms.

  Before the tactician could ask what she was doing, a faint golden glow started to come out of Isabel’s hands and envelop her body. It was like a gentle warm embrace, the fatigue and euphoria in her body melted away, almost as if she had laid down on the soft grass and taken a nap.

  “Oh…” Leona glanced at her and a smile started to appear on her face. “Thank you, Lady Isabel.”

  “Think nothing of it.” She spoke with a serene expression on her face. “It’s in our nature to help those who need and also those who persevere.” She locked eyes with the tactician. “Leona, the power you showed just now was something incredible.”

  “Ah… well…” She didn’t expect praise to come from the angel woman before her, but it felt good nonetheless as she replied. “Thank you. Me and Avalon really put the effort in it.”

  Isabel nodded firmly as she continued.

  “Please, keep nurturing this bond.” After healing her, she stood up. Towering above everyone around her. “You have much to accomplish yet.”

  The tactician nodded firmly with a confident gaze.

  Kaeli looked at Krieg with a saddened expression as if mirroring his own while Phoebe was holding her thumbs up at Leona.

  “That feint would’ve even caught me.”

  The former assassin complimented her which prompted the tactician to smile.

  “I learned from the best.”

  “Hah!” Phoebe couldn’t help but laugh. “No tricks are off the table when fighting to win.”

  With their distant laughter, Robert couldn’t help but smirk himself as he shook his head. Yuna saw it after she finished dousing the last fire and went over to him to ask.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Nothing, dear.” He looked over his shoulder and then returned to her—patting her on the head. “Let’s gather everyone. They need to rest plenty for tomorrow’s departure.”

  “Mhm.”