1st Maelach of Desariel 1237

Petrasha's POV

Months have passed since we all challenged Bel. But even after all this time... we still never managed to hit her, let alone defeat her. Not to mention, it seems that every time we somehow managed to catch up, she would raise the difficulty, making it even harder to win this... I guess losing fight.

*clang* *clang*

Right now Lucy, Amy, and the princess are the only ones that are still in the arena. The rest of us has been kicked out due to receiving an attack that would be fatal normally.

" That lassie really is like a mountain to overcome huh," Frux said. 

That is kinda true. No matter what, we all are lacking in terms of a lot of stuff compared to Bel. Not only she is stronger than us, but her speed and reaction speed are also faster, and her thinking speed is also abnormal. No matter what kind of strategy we would think of, she somehow is able to magically deflect them... well, at least she would also tell us how the strategy is and tell us to change some of the details to make it better...

" But that is why we have to better! Cant always expect a girl to keep protecting us right?" Flux replied to him. Well, for you two it involves a man's pride while for us...

" Oh, it's ending!" Christine said and I immediately focused on their fight. 

Lucy and Amy are both charging at Bel while the princess is shooting... more like distracting Bel. And this is where everything changed. While Bel is dodging the princess' attack with minimal movement, Lucy and Amy are attacking her from the sides and on top. The strategy used is the same whenever those three are the only ones left, but the result is different. The last time they did this, Bel avoided all of their attacks and even managed to retaliate and knocked out all three of them. This time, after Lucy did a slash from above, Amy gave Lucy her rapier that she is using and Lucy used it to do a final thrust on Bel. This attack caught Bel in surprise and she tried to dodge but was blocked by the princess's shots. That is some damn good combo.

With this combo, we finally landed a hit on Bel... except some mistake happened...

Due to Lucy expecting the thrust not going to land, she swung back her sword. Which overdid it as she slashed away Bel's right arm...

" Bel!" Amy yelled as not only her but the rest of us all rushed to her side. 

" Heh~ I guess your training does work huh," Bel said as she slowly walked to her fallen arm, picked it up, and then sticks it back while chanting a very long chant.

All of us stood next to her and saw the huge wound slowly closing up. Within almost half an hour, her arm is reconnected back...

" Well, I guess this proves you are part dragon then~ too bad it's not something like ultra-speed regeneration that could regenerate your arm within seconds though~" Christine joked, at least in this situation it's a welcomed joke in this tense situation.

" Anyways, since you guys managed to do that, I guess it's fine for the party to form~ but with three conditions," Bel said as she used her left hand to tell us that, well, Bel is normally right-handed so I guess even if the arm is connected, it might be good to not touch it for a while.

" One, you are to bring Flux, Frux, and Excelia with us. You guys have been cooperating for the last few months so it would be a waste to not let it continue. Of course, this would also include letting them out of here and go out on their own in this city." Bel said first.

" That is manageable. I am sure I could convince the others now since that they have been training with us and have shown zero hostility." I said out my thoughts. In reality, they actually could go out a few months ago already. The public has also accepted the fact that the princess has been used as the bargaining chip to let Bel stay here.

" Second, I will only bring you guys to dens that are manageable for a team of our size. Those with hundreds of people in are absolutely off-limits." Bel continued, well, this is good. It is better that we... wait, how did she know where the sites are? And more importantly, how many people are there inside?

" Third and last, no matter what, if I tell you to retreat, all of you have to retreat no matter what. If you guys want to forcefully stay, I will knock you out and carry you out." Bel said the last one with a very cold tone, clearly stating that she won't budge on this matter.

" Those... are alright... but are you sure about the last one? Wouldnt it be best if we fought together? Leaving you behind doesn't sit right with me..." Amy concerned. 

" Yes. If there is a situation where I can't fight properly, what is the use with the rest of you there? Don't worry, I won't be too overprotective. I would only call you guys to go when it gets too dangerous. After all, we are all in our isekai dreams, right? What's the point if there is no danger! You guys have been through the training arc so it shouldn't be too bad for you all!" Bel said cheerfully while making various gestures with one hand, the other hand is still limping at its side. 

"That's the spirit! Now, since it is so obvious that you can't really cook with one hand, let us all go out and eat tonight! My treat since I finally won the challenge!" Lucy said excitedly. 

But isn't your challenge to defeat Bel and not just hurting her? Even though she lost one hand, I feel that she would still have tons of tricks to fight back though.

" Well, if that's the case then let's end today's training~ I wouldn't mind continuing training you by the way," Bel said to Lucy and gave her a playful wink, a wink that sent me shivers throughout my entire body... her training so far is very spartan like... so if it's even harder than that... I don't want to think... if spartan training has ranks, then so far we only endured the roman spartan training... I don't want to endure the spartan training in a certain game...

" Ahaha... I will go now! That place is usually full so I am gonna go early and get us some seats!" Lucy said as she flew out of the arena with Amy and May following behind. The two humans also went to the princess's side and went back to the house, chatting about how the princess improved I guess, or maybe something else. I don't know, my hearing isn't as good as Lucy nor Christine nor Bel.

As everyone left one by one, the only two left are Bel and me, and I have something that I want to make sure of. I have my suspicions but once I heard that it is also happening on other continents I remove that thought. But right now after what Bel said, I felt that my suspicions are correct.

" So, you're not leaving? I thought you have work to do." Bel said as she laid down and chanted more to heal her arm.

" You are the one behind the destruction of all of those human bases right?" I went straight to the point. Not willing to beat around the bush.

" Hmm? What human bases?" Bel looked at me with a mystified face. Does she really not know?

" You know, the humans have settled in a lot of caves on this continent, and recently someone has been eradicating them at a tremendous speed." hearing that Bel's eyes start shining... huh?

" I see someone have the same opinion of me~ these monsters that are so prideful need to be kicked down their high horses. I know that there will be exceptions such as Flux and Excelia, but those are a small minority. Plus, if they are coming here, they should be prepared to die! Do you know who is the one attacking them? I wanna see them!" Bel said that excitedly. I forgot, she also has a huge hatred towards humans, even though she is a former human herself. Judging by her reaction... it's definitely not her... I mean, Bel was never a good actor back on Earth, and it is very easy to see through her lies back then...

" Nevermind then... but since we are also going to do the same thing, I guess we will meet them someday?" I said, trying to calm her down since she is getting excited, maybe too excited.

" Is that so... oh, how is the progress about the anti-mana stuff?" Bel asked me. Hmmm...

" To be honest, the progress isn't that good. But, we are starting to implement some changes. From the box you gave me, we can deduct that this anti-mana stuff operates similar to radiation and lead can block a considerate portion of it. Though, my main problem is kinda explaining to them what radiation is first... that alone took me 3 months. Right now we have specified shields that are coated in lead to reduce the effect of anti-mana on us. Since even near that thing is enough to make people sick. But other than that... nothing. Lead is quite rare in here that we don't really get a huge amount of it. So it cannot be mass-produced yet. Plus, lead by itself isnt really suitable to be used as armor too." I said to her as she listened and continue thinking.

" Hmmm, found bismuth yet?" Bel asked. Bismuth huh... I heard back then people considered using a compound of bismuth to make radiation shielding... but...

" Nope, not even a sign of it. Which is why we are still using lead and tin." I said to her which caused her to frown.

" Maybe not on this continent then. I am going to bet that it's going to be on the rock continent." Bel said, huh? Rock... ah...

" You mean the Kesintorr continent? Hmm, even though we have some population mining ores there, most of them are only mining the more important ones such as gold silver, and iron, we haven't really found any other ores since they didn't bother to mine ores that they don't use. I guess let's go there together some time?" I asked her and she nodded aggressively. 

Sometimes it is nice to live in peace like this. Even though we are living next to a living person equivalent to a nuclear bomb. Hmm, a renewable nuclear bomb. Yes, that.

" Anyway, shouldn't you go back and finish your job before the meal? Oh, I might come up with a list of materials I need. I wanna make some equipment for you guys!" Bel said that as she stood back up and start to go back into her house.

Less extra pocket money this month then...

Benokelvin

Welp, we know who it is and they can say for themselves~~~

Sorry for the late chapter, just started my job and it's getting quite hectic... but its starting to settle down~~~