Chapter 40: Battle

"Shall we?" Aria grinned, running at her first enemy like no other. She had been training for this, watching videos of Lily's fights and simulating those powers being used against her in her training sessions.

Dianthe had the fastest speed. She flew up high, lunging downwards at Lily.

Lily was there to fight, so she had been ready for the first one to attack her. She harrumphed.

Lily's name wasn't that famous yet, but those who knew her told everybody not to underestimate her just for her small stature and frail looking beauty.

Her flower, which was a mutant lily, had a great offense and defense. Those who approached her had to multitask against essentially three people.

The flower's attacks, Lily's spells, and parrying the flower's defense.

To counter this, Aria developed a team strategy with her two spirits.

Dianthe would provide outer cover and additional damage. She would launch her spells from upwards.

Rallaka worked to create ground shields and stray rocks. Those items were then used to defend and attack the flower at the same time. He took charge of the side attacks.

Lastly, came Aria.

As for Aria...

She would fully utilize her speed and skills to get past the flower's detection and strike Lily from the back.

One strike should be enough.

Aria didn't care about flashy moves.

She had to end each fight she was in fast.

Or else, her last battle might get hindered if she was tired or injured because she got lax.

Thus, she commanded her spirits to manage their mana well. To prepare for everything after this.

It had been a decided plan that she would attack Lily first, but the other three were just general information and basic countering plans.

It was because she didn't know who would fight who.

There also had to be the possibility of tag teaming to be considered. She would be ended if those three decided to bond together.

Although, according to the background check, that was unlikely. Their teams weren't close, and they were essentially rivals.

Aria set off to attack.

"Ha! Don't tell me, you think these spirits are enough to take me on? Just because there are two of them? Foolish!" Lily's flower sprouted from the ground.

Aria had seen it in videos, but encountering it directly was very different. The massive flower emitted a sickeningly sweet scent that seemed to bring confusion and deluded sensations.

This was included in the data. Experiencing it straight up was a bit harsh, though.

"Dianthe!" Aria called.

The spirit, which had been attacking the flower, nodded.

There was a plan to counter the scent too.

A filtering spell. It was basic knowledge, applied correctly.

A simple purification spell. Dianthe could purify grimy dirt, polish a sword, and clean an entire building using a singular spell.

A basic one that can't be utilized to fight.

However, in this case, putting a thin membrane of purification over Aria's head was able to act as a filtering layer before the gas' effects got her.

"Thank you, Dianthe," Aria smiled after confirming the membrane's activation. She sped up her pace, delivering her first blow against Lily.

"Hmph! So what if you can take care of the flower!" Lily blocked her strike with ease after pulling out a sharp longsword.

Unfortunately, something that Lily didn't know was that Aria had trained her swordsmanship skills back. Although not everything was recovered, she could be called a sword master just based on her pure skills and methods at this point.

Her power might still be lacking, but it would be enough.

"[Reinforce] Sword. [Reinforce] Arm," She had spells to back it up.

The spells activated, bringing Aria enough additional power to execute a full blow on Lily. Her wrist swung [Halvargg] with ease and speed.

"Aaah!" Lily was swept off her feet. Her sword flew up in the air and dropped in a far location.

"Concede, or things won't be pretty," Aria pointed [Halvargg] at Lily's throat, twisting her blade to let her know that she wasn't kidding.

"..I concede," Lily grimaced in pain, admitting her loss. The position wasn't worth injuring herself severely.

Aria withdrew her sword, knowing that there was a rule in the selection program.

A special rule for forfeiting Hunters.

As she predicted, the announcement soon came.

"Contestant Two has forfeited the battle. She may leave. Do not attack her. I repeat, do not attack a forfeiting contestant," The commentator's voice came down once again from the speaker.

Aria watched as Lily staggered a couple times while walking down the stage.

Aria sighed in relief, calling back her spirits and letting them rest until the next battle.

The other four people were still fighting.

Yoon Ji-min, who utilized ice magic faced Reik, who had a mastery over fire.

Logically, fire would beat ice. However, in this case, Ji-min's main was excellent in terms of dealing with Reik's fire.

Ji-min wielded pure ice- ice that was so condensed and frozen that it could eat away a fire's might.

Every time Reik slashed down his flaming sword to attack Ji-min, an ice shield would be made.

This shield would then calm down Reik's fire, putting it out.

However, there was a loophole in Ji-min's way of countering Reik.

She couldn't create massive shields, nor was she able to use high-leveled magic.

Aria could also see that Ji-min wasn't able to efficiently defend while launching an attack. Thus, she was cornered by Reik into a position where she could only defend, defend, and continue defending.

Meanwhile, Reik was able to continue lighting his sword up because the sword itself was a special item. It boosted his fire aptitude and cut down his mana cost for using the flaming spells.

Not only was Ji-min not able to attack, her stamina was also not that great.

She was breathing heavily. Her moves were sluggish. Ji-min was mainly a support mage.

Her role did not excuse Ji-min's fatal weakness.

In the battle, they would be stuck inside the dungeon for long because of the frightening difficulty. If Ji-min acted like this inside and couldn't keep up with the rest of the subjugators, she would certainly become fodder.

Ji-min had only entered dungeons on her level, and her team was suitable to her as well. [Ice Palace] consisted of mainly Ice element users, with some exceptions being made. However, everybody inside that team knew how to work with the ice element and coordinate strategies.

It could be said that Ji-min was like a little chick who got too comfortable with a team that benefited her condition the most.

Unfortunately, she wouldn't hold up against Reik who had better stamina.

In Aria's eyes, the victor between those two had been decided ever since the match up came to be.

On the other hand, the other pair was a bit amusing.

The mysterious White Fox against Song Kang.

White Fox continued dodging with beyond unimaginable speed, while Song Kang with his high stamina relentlessly attacked.

Song Kang was full on laughing while wielding his claymore, chasing after White Fox like a madman.

White Fox, like a literal fox, escaped every single strike without attacking back.

With Aria's sharp eyes, she was able to track the fox to a certain extent. She was sure that the fox could attack, but she didn't.

Aria chuckled, feeling a bit strange over that knowledge.

The conceding announcement had drawn attention towards her way.

Aria took Lily down fast, a bit too fast. Now, she was regarded as a dangerous threat even though they had never heard of her name openly participating in a dungeon gate subjugation before.

They were still busy with their respective battles, so they didn't bother with Aria for the time being, but their eyes were certainly still pinned on the woman from time to time.

Aria kept her actions to just observing.

She wanted to analyze their prowess in detail.

Ji-min and Reik's battle seemed to be ending. Ji-min was already struggling to keep herself upright, while Reik could still hold on because he had better stamina.

Aria mused, pursing her lips before deciding to take action.

Things were about to get dangerous for Ji-min. She constantly tripped over nothing, trying her best to defend against Reik.

However, this foolish attempts could put her in serious harm's way.

Aria ran up to the pair, snatched Ji-min away, and carried her to a safe place.

Ji-min was powerless to resist. She let Aria carry her.

"It's better to concede now. You don't want anything bad to happen. You can get stronger from now on," Aria brought Ji-min away, far from Reik's range.

She let Ji-min's exhausted body down.

As long as Ji-min did not concede openly, she would still be regarded as a contestant and someone who can fight.

"Ah.. thank you. I concede," Ji-min, with her dazed gaze, thanked Aria and got off the stage with some help. She was almost on the brink of collapse. She imagined what would happen if Aria hadn't carried her away in time and became extremely thankful.