Vander looked at his opponent with bated breath. Less like a half-dragon, with her horns, her one eye, and the flapping of her wild, crimson, mana, and golden hair Lara De. Frag looked like a demon. He gripped his weapon tighter with both hands and focused on her. He couldn’t run away or he would fail his master. Failure meant forgetting the past. And he didn’t want to forget it. He wanted his village back.

He could ignore magical attacks in human form and he could ignore physical attacks in phantom. Anything he had on his person would change with him as well, yet that meant he couldn’t deal any physical damage in phantom form or any magical damage in human form. Yet, it was only as fast as his reaction speed allowed. He was essentially deadly in so far as he timed his switches right beyond his opponent’s movements.

He released a breath and readied himself to be bruised by an unstoppable force.

He took a step forward and slashed.

Laughter reached his ears and a sword met his.

The ground beneath him shattered and Vander jumped back. The girl before him stomped and a crater was formed as she leaped towards him, the grin upon her face widening.

“Be a man and dance closer, why don’t you?” She chuckled and slashed.

Her weapon blurred through him as his person flickered from reality and he landed.

“No thanks!”

His mana gathered at his blade and he sliced at her form.

The air shattered.

The mana burst forth before exploding on impact with a radiance of blue.

Yet.

The person he was facing was a monster.

Her laughter filled the air as the explosion waned off and her sword came down faster than he could perceive.

“Is that really all you’ve got? You’re weaker than I thought you would be.”

The crush of her strength sunk him to the earth. The blade raised over his head quaked under pressure. His arms cracked and his body shuddered. He gritted his teeth, gulping down the blood that wanted to pour from his lips.

From a distance away, Claire looked at the two fighters.

“What was that slash? That didn’t seem like magic or a skill.” She commented.

Vander’s mana powered slash had exploded forth. In her opinion, that was far from magic, and there was nothing in his Sacred Text that indicated he had a skill resembling something like that.

“He’s using Arts, a bit like magic, a bit not, it’s really more like pure force using mana,” Via said, “It can give you power, but it can also rip you apart if you haven’t mastered it. Who the hell taught him that though? Even I don’t know how to use it.”

“Interesting. . .” Claire muttered as she held her chin with a hand.

In honest, she was merely pretending to be in deep thought, though she couldn’t say she wasn’t intrigued by the new power system she saw, something else caught her eyes. While the two continued their fighting, Claire silently maneuvered her mana until it covered the corpse and head of the dragon and frosted the two.

“. . .” Via, watched speechlessly as the two parts disappeared into the girl’s <Elemental Realm>.

“What?” Claire raised a brow, “They caused this mess. It’s not improper if I steal from them.”

Via Goodwill felt like she couldn’t exactly refute that notion. On the other hand, the vampire beside her was rapt in the fight of the two figures., almost twitching to join them

The land ripped apart and rumbled as two opposing forces clashed. Vander’s sword creaked under the assault of Lara’s singular arm. She laughed, spun her blade, and slashed down.

Her blade struck the earth and crimson mana spewed forth and devoured the land. A bright flash and a good chunk of the ground exploded apart into nothing, taking with it a mountain’s wall.

Vander stepped forward unarmed and slashed his own blade.

A streak of mana bisected through their distance.

Lara scoffed and crushed it between her left hand, the explosive force becoming null as she chased the boy who continued to flicker in and out of reality.

Via’s crossed her arms, brows furrowed. “When will we stop them?”

Claire smiled. She hadn’t exactly been doing nothing as they waited. No, her mana had stretched and covered the place.

“Now.” She snapped her finger.

A wave of water spurted from the ground and devoured the two beings in the midst of their clash. Just as Lara moved, she froze. Just as Vander flickered, he too froze. In a single moment, both persons were encased in a cube of ice.

“Alright.” Claire clapped her hand as she took a step forward.

She looked at the statue in which the two fighters had become frozen in time, greatswords in the midst of swinging. Lara’s form was already beginning to rumble, her mana still well alive within the thing. Vander was shaking, slightly, but it didn’t look as if he would escape as quickly.

Claire crossed her arms as crimson mana erupted and ripped apart the cube of ice. Shards flew, some came her way and immediately melted into her skin, and the rest shattered against the environment. Then, a heated breath was released as the figure of the half-dragonian, a head taller, stepped out and stared at her.

“Girl,” Lara De. Frag spoke just as Vander too escaped his bindings behind her, “You’re pretty strong.”

Claire stared up at the visible eye of the girl. Emerald, she found it. Then, she ignored her words and looked at them both.

“You two do realize you almost wiped out a village with your antics?” She mouthed.

“Wha—what?” Vander replied instantly, shocked. “We almost destroyed a village?!”

The girl on the other hand narrowed her dragonian eye. “So?”

“Is all you’re gonna say ‘so’? Are you deaf or just dumb? Did you not just hear what she said?” Via glared only to be glared back at.

Claire raised a hand and stopped the bunny.

“Your battle caused all the creatures that should have been within this mountain to run out in fear for their lives,” Claire spoke as she deduced the situation, having past pieced it together, “And those beasts became twice an ocean that almost crushed a town just outside these ranges.”

“Again,” Lara spoke, her crimson mana already ramping up, “Why does that matter? Better yet, I’m a bit pissed that you stopped my battle.”

The half-dragon stared into Claire’s azure eyes.

“Step aside and let me continue beating this kid up or I’ll kill you.”

“Oh?” Unperturbed, but rather surprised at the brashness of the girl before her, Claire raised a brow. Did this figure just threaten her? She chuckled as her azure mana began to whip the air along with her hair and attire.

“You know,” She said, “I’ve been meaning to test my current full strength. Fine, I’ll play with you.”

She glanced back at Alicia.

“Alice, would you be so kind as to teach the boy to take stock of his surroundings before fighting?”

“Wait-!” Vander yelled.

Yet, a vampire had already reached his front. A kick met the underbelly of his chin and he flew up. Alicia’s wings flapped, the ground cracked as she leaped to meet him within the air.

Alicia grinned as her hand grasped his face.

“Explode.”

As the explosion resounded above them resounded, the person known as Lara De. Frag made her move and stepped forward, slashing her blade down.

“You better be worth playing with,” She mouthed.

Claire scoffed.

She was never one to hide her strength. When she was serious, she was serious. She dodged the girl’s strike with a tilt of her head, mana exploding behind her, and reached a hand forward to touch the individual’s forehead.

Lara stopped in the midst of her swing.

“<Elemental Realm>.” Claire mouthed.

Instantly, the world changed and they found themselves in a realm. A snowstorm covered the atmosphere. Below, the world was an ocean of water. In the distance, a tower of ice pierced through the air. The two stood upon the surface. Claire had a sheet of ice beneath her, but Lara De. Frag seemed to ignore natural law, feet placed comfortably upon water..

“Separate,” Claire spoke.

The distance between the two of them grew as the ocean they stood open stretched, dividing them through Claire’s will.

“Hah, really, you have a domain? Now, this is interesting?” The half-dragon looked around her, whistling in wonder, great sword upon her shoulder.

“That’s what’s in your head?” Claire sighed as her cold eyes stared at the figure meters away.

“Hmm?” The individual grinned at her. “Are you still trying to lecture me?”

For the first time since she entered this world, Claire felt as if she had finally met the first person to annoy her.

“I don’t much care when two children playfight, and neither do the people of Acron interest me specifically,” She spoke as her world rumbled and water coiled around her. “But it’s a bit silly to ignore the destruction and deaths you caused.”

She waved her hand.

“Honestly. . .”

An endless storm of blades flew.

“I’m a bit peeved.”