[Ding-dong!]

Hmm? Is it Morpheus?

When Amara got up from the desk and went to the entry room, she saw that her prediction was wrong. She darted over and pulled the angel into a tight hug as she squealed in delight. “Fluffles! I thought you weren’t coming back for a while!”

Ezme replied in a tired voice. “I realized that we need to address some things about your training. It’s better not to wait.”

Amara pulled away and scowled as she took in the exhausted angel’s appearance. That bitch. Ezme just left recently and she’s already worn out! Alarice is clearly overworking her!

“Are you alright?” Amara asked with concern. 

“I’m fine.” Ezme replied with a tired smile. “Come on, let’s discuss your future training.”

Amara thought bitterly as she followed the angel. Ezme has to learn how to say no to Alarice once in a while. This can’t be good for her. 

But I guess right now might not be a good time.

They entered the training room before Ezme turned and asked. “You’ve been training against monsters from Ramay thus far, right?”

Amara nodded. “Yeah.”

Ezme nodded in understanding and thought for a moment. “Other than the dark troll I saw last time, what monsters did you train against?” 

Amara cocked her head as she remembered her sparring partners. Although she had sparred with several, her favourites had been Grumpy, as well as a large snake and the giant lizard called a basilisk. Although Grumpy was both fast and strong, he wasn’t the fastest and lacked precision in his attacks. The snake she fought was both precise and quick in its attacks, which gave little to no warning before it lunged, which would let Amara train her reflexes more. 

After she was finished telling about the monsters she sparred with, Ezme’s lips curved up into a sarcastic smile. “What, you didn’t train against any of the spiders I introduced to you?”

Amara shuddered. “Don’t remind me.”

“They were cute, weren’t they? Always wanting to give you a big hug, just like children do. Hesitant at first when seeing a stranger, but once they’ve made up their mind-” (Ezme)

“Don’t draw parallels between them and children!” Amara retorted. “It’s not even funny!”

“I think it’s funny?” Ezme tilted her head with an amused smile.

“Well, I don’t.” (Amara)

“Hmm. Well, alright.” Ezme smiled and contemplated for a moment before she looked at her. “By the way, did you all get them all from the same place? That forest to the south of the capital city?” 

“Pretty much.” Amara cocked her head. “Why?”

“Just wondering.” Ezme shrugged. “Anyway, you won’t be fighting monsters anymore.”

Amara raised an eyebrow. “I won’t?”

“Nope.” Ezme said with a smile. “After all, you’re not improving that much from them anymore. Don’t you think that training against them has been a bit too easy lately?”

Amara cocked her head before she nodded. Can’t argue with that.

“Alright then. What should I do next?” Amara asked.

Ezme smiled sadistically. “That would ruin the surprise?”

Oh boy...

Amara sighed as she made up her mind to follow along. “Alright.”

Ezme smiled brightly. “Great! Get ready!”

As she mentally prepared herself, Ezme brought in Amara’s opponent. It fell down on the floor, and slowly pushed itself up to stand. 

Is that...a human?!

The young man wore what appeared to be armor made of leather that left his arms bare. He was covered with dried blood, as well as soot and whatever the grime was that stuck to his skin or armor. Amara had never seen a human in such a filthy state. 

Why did Ezme bring a hum-

As she saw the man’s hands, she realized she had been wrong. His nails protruded from his fingers as if they were claws, seeming thicker and sharper. Amara had first mistaken them as part of the grime that clung to his arms. 

When he looked up and noticed Amara, his eyes lit up with contempt.

Demon.

[Ding!]

A shiver went down her spine as a smile spread on his face, revealing what were better described as fangs rather than teeth. Although Amara hadn’t spent time spying on demons, she had seen what they were like. Barbarically sadistic with their victims, toying with them once their victory was certain, to ensure death didn’t come quickly nor painlessly. Realizing that the demon seemed to view her as prey, Amara’s anger sparked. Belittling me, are you?

You’ve got some nerve, looking down on me while in my home. Do you even know where you are right now?

Amara glared back at the demon, whose smile only seemed to widen. When the lips continued further than she thought was natural, another shiver went down her spine. But with it, her anger rose higher and made her grit her teeth.

Think it’s time someone taught you a lesson. 

Amara clenched her fists as she stepped towards the demon, who in turn brought out his arms to his sides as he approached her. 

Divine Body Strengthening!

Amara prepared herself to block the first strike as the demon swung its arm to claw at her with his nails. But her prediction turned out to be wrong. 

As the arm was coming down at her, she barely had time to register the ball of light that instantaneously appeared in the demon’s hand. Before she had time to react, the ball had launched from the hand and impacted Amara’s shoulder, exploding with a sharp bang.

Without time to think about what had happened, Amara felt how the demon struck her arm. But she already knew instinctively that she had been careless, because she registered the pain from her burnt shoulder, neck and face. 

Fireball?!

It’s a magici-

Amara’s next miscalculation revealed itself, when she realized that the demon hadn’t clawed at her. It had grasped her arm instead in a grip that would have crushed her bones without body strengthening.

Shit!

Amara tried to yank her arm back while throwing her other arm into punching the demon. He had dug his nails into her arm, refusing to let go of his iron grip on her. Her fist missed the demon, as he turned his body and caught her upper arm. 

Shit!!

Amara had just enough time to see the demon’s sadistic grin before her vision was enveloped in flames. In an instant, she felt pain everywhere on her body as her skin was burned, and the demon’s grasp on her arms tightened. 

[Ding!]

[Ding!]

[Ding!]

The bell in her head brought Amara’s focus back on the fight. Despite the pain, she felt that the demon was still holding onto her arms to keep her close while burning her. 

With her arms locked, she instinctively brought her head back before lunging forward while pulling her arms back. She felt something crack under the impact against her forehead, and the moment after the intensity of the pain subsided when she could no longer feel the demon’s grasp on her.

[Ding!]

Divine Regeneration!

[Ding!]

The pain gradually lessened as her body was healed and her vision was restored, while trying to ignore the smell of burnt flesh. Amara saw that the demon had landed on the other side of the room, and was in the process of getting up - seemingly completely unharmed by the flames that must have enveloped him moments ago.

What. The hell?!

When the demon stood up and glared at her, she could tell that it was angry, but also more cautious. He stayed hunched over, despite having gotten back on his feet and seemed to be having trouble breathing.

While Amara normally felt a bit of sympathy for her opponents that were injured, she felt none for the demon at the moment. And she wasn’t going to let the pause in the fight go to waste. 

Appraisal!

[Ding!]

...Dammit. I should’ve appraised him the first thing I did.

Amara noticed how the demon moved while she was glancing at the screen. He had straightened up, and cocked his head as a smile reappeared on his face.

So he can heal too, huh.

Well then, how should I-

Amara’s thoughts were interrupted as a fireball was flung at her face. She quickly crouched to the side, and heard how the fireball exploded upon impacting the wall behind her. 

But as she moved her focus from the fireball that passed her back to the demon, she saw two more fireballs headed straight at her. They impacted and exploded against her shoulder and her hip. With her body strengthening cancelled during the pause that had appeared, Amara was flung back when they exploded.

Shit!!!

[Ding!]

Divine Body Strengthening!

Divine Regeneration!

With her body strengthening active, she wasn’t disoriented much other than her field of vision taking sharp turns as she struck the wall. Amara quickly got up and faced the demon as new fireballs were coming at her.

He can cast magic too quickly! She thought as the new fireballs exploded, causing new burns over her body. Amara grit her teeth against the pain, and started moving to dodge the oncoming barrage. However, despite her efforts the fireballs were simply too fast to evade completely.

Not good! I have no good defense against him!

Amara changed strategy to go on the offensive. As she closed in on the demon, she got to see how his whole body was enveloped in flames moments before she got close. 

Damn this guy is troublesome!

As Amara had maintained her body strengthening and regeneration skills, her body had started growing increasingly hot, but she knew she had to maintain them to be able to keep fighting. She was already feeling the heat from the flames searing her before she got within fighting range.

As soon as she did, she threw out a punch towards the demon, but he dodged it just in time. Amara could feel how her exposed fist and arm were getting burned from entering the shroud of flames that enveloped the demon. What followed was a chase between the two, where Amara tried to get a strike in, while the demon evaded her. 

I hate this guy!

Amara had lost count how many times she had tried to get in a strike and missed. All the while, being endlessly scorched didn’t help in alleviating her anger either.

She glared at the demon that dodged her, just to have a fireball explode in her face. Amara stopped and covered her face with her arms to give her regeneration time to heal her vision, while new fireballs were exploding around her and shaking her stance.

Calm down. You’re getting nowhere like this.

[Ding!]

Amara turned to the demon and dodged to let a fireball pass over her shoulder before she extended her arm.

Snatch.

Amara grinned in triumph as the demon came flying through the white mist, flailing in the air.

Divine Punch!

[Krrgh!]

[Ding!]

The demon flipped in the air as it flew back when she struck his face. He crashed against the wall and fell down before laying completely still on the floor. 

Looks like that killed him.

“Haah.” Amara let out a sigh as she cancelled her skills. Let’s see what we got.

 

You know, for being a pain in the ass, he was pretty useful.

“Well, that looked like fun.” Ezme said with a grin as she landed next to her on the floor.

Amara sighed. “He really pissed me off.”

“Well, can’t blame you. I was itching to smack him myself a few times.” Ezme shrugged while she was looking at the demon. “Though, do you know what you did wrong?”

Amara scratched her head. “Well...I forgot to appraise him for starters. And I didn’t really have a strategy for how to fight him.”

“Good. You’re not completely hopeless.” Ezme chuckled. “Since you’ll fight demons from now on, make sure to appraise them. And do it before bringing them here. Got it?” 

“Got it.” Amara agreed. 

"And do try and come up with stategies before engaging as well. Demons are at the level where you can't tell what they can do merely by looking at them." Ezme waved her hand at the demon’s corpse, making it disappear. “Oh, and don’t bring any archdemons here. Stick to those of similar power range as this one or lower for now, until you get the hang of it.” 

“Archdemons?” Amara asked as she tilted her head in confusion.

“You know, demons with Arch-something classes. Or something equivalent.” Ezme sighed while she seemed to be looking into the distance. “They’re troublesome.”

“Alright.” Amara looked at Ezme, who hadn’t looked at her since she landed. 

Do I have gunk on me, or...oh. Well, not wrong per se…

No wonder it feels so breezy.

“Why are you still standing around? Get a bath and put some clothes on already.” Ezme crossed her arms while keeping her gaze averted. “Tsk. Pervert.”

Amara smiled as she turned to go to the bathroom. But not before taking in the sight of Ezme's blushing face.