“Zone 2,” Rem slashed the piece of wood toward the top right of Hikma’s head. Hikma met him with a swing to the strike zone.

“Zone 5, Front, and Back,” Rem swiped at Hikma’s left leg, followed up with a thrust, before flourished his sword in a finishing sequence ending with a reverse-grip stab at his sparring partner's back. Hikma managed to ward against the first two blows and spun away from the third as plan.

“Zone 1, Zone 3, Zone 5,” Rem launched as an overhead strike, a reverse-horizontal slash, and closing his display with a downward cut at his opponent knee.

Hikma blocked all the blows without pausing, moving minimally in a tight figure-eight loop. The practice blade moved up, shifted left, twisted down, before finally came back to the resting stance and ended its loop.

“We are getting better,” Hikma gasped.

“Not good enough,” Rem concluded. “We need Scathach to go over the form and refine it." Rem rubbed his chin in contemplation. "Should we start fleshing out the concept of three-ring defenses?”

“Yeah,” Hikma said. “We probably should.”

…

Luxinna stood tall like a tower. Her hand held a golden bow. The weapon drew to the limit; its metal curve reflected the light of the sun. The elf breathed, slowing her heart rate and uniting the scent, sight, and sound filtered through her mind like soft music.

She fired.

The piece of sharped wood impaled the tree trunk.

Without stopping, Luxinna let fly another arrow. The wooden projectile hit the arrow impaled to the trees and split it in half.

A badger clapped.

“Impressive,” Scathach exclaimed. “This is the first time I see someone picking up archery so quickly. I am very pleased with your gift in the way of weapons, my girl. I guarantee Lucian will spit up blood if he discovers that you achieved such proficiency with spear and bow in only two months. Ahh, If only I could be there when it happens."

“I can’t do it without your coaching, Scathach.”

“Nonsense,” Scathach said. “I only shorten the process. That [Armory Grace] is yours. It proves you attain an instinctual understanding of weapon-wielding. Luxinna, there is no weapon in the world you can’t wield. That is how much your skill has progressed.”

Luxinna smiled.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t relax,” Scathach cautioned. “Just because you can wield every weapon doesn’t mean you master them. The skill that proves that expertise is another animal entirely.”

“I will keep that in mind,” Luxinna said, and an idea suddenly came into her mind. “Hey, Scathach, let me try something.”

The elf stretched out her hand. She let the golden liquid dripped down her fingers and molded into a glass arrow. Luxinna docked her newest ammunition onto the golden bow and started running current down the [Serene Glass] shaft. The glass crackled with electricity and glowed. 

Scathach’s mouth hung open. The golden material snaked around the bow, coiling over the limbs, converting it into an electromagnet. The current surged and the superconductor projectile radiated with power.

“What are you doing?”

Luxinna grinned like a maniac.

“I remember Rem talking about this weapon,” she explained. “He said coiling an electrical current around metal will accelerate a charged arrow. I think he called it a railgun.”

Scathach suddenly had an incredibly bad feeling about this ordeal.

“Luxinna, I don’t think this is a good idea.”

Luxinna didn’t listen. She already fired the arrow. Its recoil blasted her backward violently. The bow's magnetic field cut the superconductor arrow perpendicularly and generated massive Lorenze force. However, the electromagnet cutting direction resulted in an upward force, causing the bow to painfully fly out of the elf hand and the shot going wild.

…

Melody was working on reverse engineering an Assault Rifle.

It was a week ago when she discovered her newfound fascination. She was walking along the street of Venistalis with Rem when they ran into a depressed businessman on Earth. The poor man was trying to sell the weapon to the citizen of Venistalis, but no one seemed to be interested in a piece of metal from the youngest world in Phantasia. Melody thought it made sense. Even the weakest spells were much more lethal than an archaic weapon that fired metal. Compared to Isle of Knowledge’s energy weapon, or the elven’s magical archery, guns were the illogical weapon that shouldn’t be viable in Phantasia.

Melody knew all of those points, but she didn’t care. It was love at first sight. The craftmanship, the ingenious mechanism, and design; everything was so well put together. Something in her clicked when she saw how the weapon snapped together as it fired. It was a work of art--a testament of the generation of engineer pouring their sweat and blood to craft the perfect killing weapon in the world with no Mana. She could hardly believe when Rem and the businessman started to explain how these weapons were mass manufacture. The young princess tripled Earth's worth after that day.

Rem also said something about how his birthplace allowed its citizens to carry a weapon like this. Melody had to give this America her respect. Its founder must be a genius.

However, she still doubted what Rem said about its people wanting to ban these guns. How could anyone be stupid enough to surrender the weapon to a tyrant? It was how the country like Grand Empire and Demonic Continent controlled its citizens; hoarding powerful magical knowledge and books, leaving the people reliant Seven Continental Alliance for protection.

Knowing she might not have another opportunity, Melody bought the weapon with all her allowance. Rem didn’t even bother to stop her. Now the young demoness spent her time carefully disassembling her new toys and noted down how she could make it the hottest thing in Phantasia.

Melody was in the middle of studying the automatic firing-pin when a loud explosion nearly made her dropped the delicate mechanism. She saw a golden light blasting apart the cloud a second later and growled in annoyance.

What the heck did that air-head elf bumbled into this time?

…

“IT HURT!” The black-hair elf screeched while a blonde-goddess fixed her broken hand.

“Of course it hurt, you idiot!” Cytortia hit her over the head with a rolled-up medical manual. “Who told you to experiment with an untested technique for fun! You are grounded, young lady. You will be spending tomorrow morning helping me take care of the herb.”

“But-“

“Shut. Up.” Cytortia cowed Luxinna in submission. 

Scathach nodded speechlessly at the goddess’ ferocity.

Hikma looked at the area of signed glass with admiration and fear.

“Are you sure it is a railgun?” He asked Rem.

“Probably,” Rem said as Melody autopsied the incident with pen and paper. “It is one of the weapons that could break her hand.”

Rem showed Luxinna the diagram Melody drew with his input.

“Is this what you did?”

“Yeah,” Luxinna flinched from the pain.

“No wonder you lost control,” Rem said. “Your magnetic field cut with the current in the wrong direction. Instead of propelling the arrow forward, the Lorenz force sent it up instead.”

Melody added something to the picture.

“Given what you said about the Right-Hand Rule, we should make the coil parallel to grip and reshape the arrow rest. A bit of extension should help deal with acceleration and recoil.”

Melody showed the gang the picture.

“Would this work?”

Luxinna stretched out her hand and summoned her bow. To Hikma’s surprise, the bow morphed into Melody's newest design.

“How does the bow do that?” Hikma said.

“Technically, it is a sword,” Luxinna said, flipping the weapon to the sky. The bow spun twice, elongating into a blade as it landed on her hand. “Tadaa! Say hello to [Historia].”

Hikma stared. Of course, an elf wielded a shapeshifting sword. He was in a fantasy world now.

“Yes, it should work,” Melody said. “But you need a way to deal with the recoil. I recommend readjusting your gauntlet so that it shatters more easily. That will at least soften the momentum.”

“Okay then,” Rem said. “Cytortia, information update. How are things doing in Venistalis?”

“Aside from the fact that a random Duke will host the ball next week, everything is normal,” Cytortia said. “I spot one 33 Stars in the city.”

“Two,” Scathach said. “You forget to mention your friend Shyme.”

“Shyme isn’t interested in nuking up cities,” Cytortia argued. “She isn’t a threat. But another one of the Stars might be a problem.”

“Which one is it?” Melody said. “Please tell me it is Kruger Aztellic.”

“I know you have a grudge against Jekyll’s eldest son, but calm the hell down,” Rem said. “Assuming the crisis will happen within a month or two, we need to gauge any potential players we might come across. We need an insider’s intelligence. I need to contact Marley.”

 Everyone paused.

“Marley?” Hikma asked.

“Marley the Magpie is in Venistalis!” Melody’s jaw dropped. “How is that possible?”

“The best place to hide from the cop is right across the police station,” Rem said. “The Seven Continental Alliance would never believe that one of their most infamous criminals is hiding inside one of their most prominent capital.”

“Guys, who are we talking about?”

Cytortia started explaining.

“Marley the Magpie is a member of the Liberator,” Cytortia explained. “They are an organization hell-bent on overthrowing the influence of the noble of Aurorin who had there hand in most of Phantasia high society.”

”Think Robin Hood and his merry men deciding to give terrorism a try,” Rem said.

A memory of his father’s death resurfaced inside Hikma’s mind.

“I don’t trust them.”

“Understandable,” Rem admitted. “Marley and I struck a truce the last time we crashed. Although we disapprove of their tendency to use excessive force, we need allies against the like of Seven Continental Alliance and Aurorin. Thankfully, Marley is at least a moderate.”

”He is also and S-ranker only below Scathach,” Melody said. “Infamous for holding back an invasion during his soldier days.”

“That concludes our discussion,” Rem said. “We will contact Marley tomorrow.”

“I have one thing to ask,” Luxinna raised her hand. “What are you and Hikma cooking up? I saw you two drilling with each other a lot these past few days."

Hikma and Rem looked at each other.

“Now that you reminded me, I need to talk to Scathach about a certain project of mine,” Rem said. “The truth is we don’t have a battle style to utilize True Magic combat."

Melody frowned.

“Don’t have one? Scathach taught us some pretty advanced techniques.”

”A flashy one,” Rem nodded. “But those techniques are meant to use with Cultivation Technique or Spells. We couldn’t use either. We are implementing an entirely new system from the ground up.”

“We are trying to lay a new basic,” Hikma added. “Rem and I are constructing a basic sword-form from what we know and our inspiration. We still needed to work it over a lot until completion, but I think we get the basics down.”

“Oh really,” Scathach said. “Show me.”

…

It was a match between Luxinna and Hikma.

Luxinna was holding her practice blade with her left hand. Meanwhile, her dominant right hung inside a sling.

“This duel has only three rules,” Rem said while leaning on a practice like a cane. “You can only launch an attack within the ring. And no lethal injuries. A direct blow to the body is a killing shot. Melody will be the referee. Get it?”

“Uh-huh,” Luxinna flourished her blade.

“Rem, we already go over this multiple time,” Hikma said, suspiciously paying more attention to Rem over Luxinna. “We are using Pandemonium rule, right?”

“Yes.”

Hikma groaned. The fight would be a clusterfuck.

“What is Pandemonium rules?” Luxinna said.

“You will know,” Rem smiled insidiously. “Begin!”

Luxinna waited for an attack, but Hikma simply stood still in a guard stance. The elf grew impatient and started attacking, coming at Hikma with a one-handed over-head blow. Hikma blocked the blow and spun away from her range. The boy maintained his guard stance, unmoving.

 “You are not going to attack?” Luxinna said.

“No,” Hikma managed a small smile. “I am a gentleman.”

Cytortia gulp. Luxinna hated patronization. Things are about to become messy.

“Well, Mr. Gentleman, here I come.”

Luxinna delivered an overhead feint, hiding a reverse-cut. Hikma fell for it with an overhead guard. However, the tight swing he employed allow him to correct his block with minimal movement. The two practice blades clashed. Luxinna pirouetted and brought the sword toward his right flanked with a lethal gracefulness only to met a wing block. Luxinna followed with a headbutt, but the boy already twisted out of the way and stuck out his foot. The elf tripped, but she managed to cartwheel herself back into the standing position.

Scathach, Cytortia, and Melody stared with awe.

“Is this the real Hikma?” Cytortia said. "When did he get this good at swordplay.”

“Rem, what did you feed him?” Melody said.

“Unbelievable,” Scathach barely believed what she was seeing. “Lux might be missing her dominant hand, but she is above Hikma in almost every metric. Just how did he last the exchange with such a wide power difference?”

Luxinna grunted, unleashing another set of fast pace continuous attacks. However, her attempt would only meet an unbending wall. A small parry nudged her thrust away to the side. A quick block from Hikma stopped her horizontal lash. Her next attack, a downward cut to the left, got intercepted by a free-flowing reverse-downward block. Each movement was tight and efficient.

A short pause followed before Luxinna restarted her attack with twice the vigor.

“It is his battle style,” Rem answered as Hikma consecutively stopped an overhead strike, a whirling cut, and backpedaled away from Luxinna’s sword-flick. “Hikma isn’t a bad swordsman, but he sucks at attacking and counter-attacking. He unconditionally tries to avoid hurting people, so we decided to build an all-defensive form just for him.”

“A defensive form?” Cytortia said. “But how that helps someone like Luxinna.”

Rem smiled.

“A defensive form I plan to create is invincible. The battle-style surrenders all the attack potential for absolute defense. Essentially, the form sacrifices reach and power generation for tight coverage, speed, and deflection. No one should be able to pierce its guard unless they overwhelmed the practitioner or the tired him out.”

“Isn’t that tactic essentially delaying the inevitable?” Scathach said, as the Hikma backpedaled toward the spectator. “It would be a contest of stamina at this point.”

“True,” Rem admitted as the duo fought past him. “But the philosophy of this style is to eventually fatigue your opponent to the point they make a stupid mistake.”

Unbeknownst to all but one person, Rem tightened his grip on the weapon he was holding.

Finally, Luxinna twisted her sword in a disarming maneuver, disarming her sparring partner. The elf’s face lighted up with glee. But at that moment, Rem did the unexpected. He stepped to the ring and tapped her over the head with his wooden blade.

“Lux, you are dead,” Rem said. “Hikma?”

HIkma, his arm numbed from the sparing, had only one thing to say.

“I surrender,” he shrugged. “You win.”

Silence.

“What the hell, Rem!?” Luxinna yelled. “This is supposed to be one-on-one!”

“Melody,” Rem said. “What is the rule?”

“Attack only count within the ring. No lethal injuries. A direct blow to the body is a killing shot.”

“Are there any rules against entering the ring late and launching an attack?”

Silence. Melody sighed and admitted tactical defeat.

“Rem win.”

Luxinna screamed to the sky.

“Oh, you fucking cheater,” Scathach groaned. “You two plan this.”

“I am happy being the runner up,” Hikma said. “The mode is called Pandemonium because it essentially has no rule that stops ambushes, alliances, and actively encourages cheating. Personally, this is a real bastard idea, Rem.”

“Hey, it is good training for us because we will be outnumbered against cheaters,” Rem shrugged. “You either get better, or you lose.”

Cytortia glared at the heaven. Just how the hell did Rem keep cheating them and get away with it?