Estyshana’s POV
   “Say, Igmis.”

   “Hmm?”

   “If you have a Bloodline Magic that can control time, why didn’t you ever use it to finish off your opponent in one go? Why bother to engage them in dragged-out fights?”

   “Didn’t I ever tell you that using it even once digs very deeply into my life force?”

   “You did. Still, there were times when you felt like you really have to use it, or you might be defeated, right?”

   “Well, yeah. There was that time I fought your father before I joined his rank. Man, it was such an epic fight-”

   “Hold it.”

   “What? I’m trying to tell a story here!”

   “A story that I’ve heard literally hundreds of times. Just make it quick.”

   “...Fine. Long story short, I really thought I was going to die. I’m so glad he decided to spare me.”

   “Then why didn’t you tried to turn the tide around by using Chronokinesis?”

   “Call it a demon’s pride. Sure, my Bloodline Magic is mine and mine alone. No one else has it, and it can’t be copied. Even so, I would feel like I cheated if I used it to finish off my opponent, you know?”

   Esty rolled her eyes.

   “Because casting tons of Spells around your opponent while the time is frozen isn’t cheating…” she mumbled.

   “Hey, there’s a difference between these two things okay? At least in the one you mentioned, I gave my opponent a chance to do something when the time starts moving again.”

   “And that’s supposed to be better?”

   “I want my fights to be as clean as possible. I don’t mind my opponents using dirty tricks, but I have higher standards than that.”

   Ah, Devils. Esty had to chose this moment to recall this conversation she had with Igmis. Her right fist, which was aimed at Igmis’ spine and thoroughly had its power increased with Strengthen, suddenly feels very heavy. She lets out a sigh. She’s so going to regret this. She inhales deeply and clears her throat.

   “Hey, Igmis!” she calls.

   Igmis turns around while looking really bewildered. Esty made things easier for him by undoing the invisibility she cast on herself. Igmis blinks his eyes a few times in surprise. He then looks at the clone she made, then at the original again.

   “How did you do it?” he asks her. “ I had my Eye of Truth activated the entire time, but I didn’t notice at all.”

   Esty shrugs. “I used a trick you know nothing about, that’s all.”

   “Hmm. Fair enough.”

   Esty looks up towards the ceiling. The Hero has stopped the Energy Arrows bombardment and is putting his right hand on his face. He’s probably groaning too and mumbling to himself about how much of an idiot she is.

   “And? Why did you reveal yourself? Judging on how you were behind me, you were planning to take me down without me noticing, right?” Igmis continues to ask.

   Another shrug from Esty.

   “My brain thought it was a good idea to remember the time we talked about you preferring a fair fight all those years ago.”

   That got a hearty chuckle from him.

   “That’s it? Yo do realize that we’re not really in a position to have a fair fight, right?”

   “Still, my conscience was weighing down on me.”

   Igmis starts to laugh hysterically.

   “Imagine that! A demon! Having a conscience! I really started to think that you spend too much time with the humans!” he chortles.

   A third shrug. “I just don’t want you to think that I won because I played dirty.”

   “I’m pretty sure that I mentioned about how I don’t mind dirty tricks.”

   “Well, I do. At least, when my opponent is you.”

   “And you expect me to fight you one-on-one?” Igmis asks with an amused look on his face.

   “I do.”

   “Okay, then. If that’s what you want.”

   Esty thought he was going to refuse for sure, but nope.

   “Are you sure?” she asks for confirmation.

   “’Course I am. Rather, shouldn’t you ask the Hero about this?”

   Speaking of him, he has already descended from the ceiling and is walking towards her right now. In the blink of an eye, he’s right in front of Esty.

   “Do you think you can take him on all by yourself?” he asks her.

   “...No.” she confesses sheepishly.

   “And you challenged him to a one-on-one because…?”

   “I had my pride clouding my judgement. Again.”

   Slowly, he raises up his right hand. She flinches and closes her eyes, expecting a smack to the head-

   Instead, she feels his warm hand stroking her hair gently. Tentatively, she opens her right eye to take a peek. He’s putting on his usual poker-face. Esty knows him well enough by now that if he has this expression, he’s not feeling angry nor having any other negative emotion.

   “Idiot.” he chides without raising his voice.

   She hangs her head in shame.

   “Sorry.” she apologizes sincerely.

   “It’s fine, it’s fine. The chance of you winning isn’t 0, anyway.”

   “Um, just so you know, I have never won against him, whether in fistfights or in using Spells.”

   “What does it matter? It’s fine as long as you win this one, so go out there and beat him to oblivion, yeah?”

   Esty couldn’t help but giggle. The usual Hero is much, much more cautious than this. Even so, he threw the cautiousness to the wind just so he could boost her confidence. For that, she’s really grateful.

   “Yeah, just watch me.”

   “That’s the spirit.”

   Esty knows that this is when she tells him to put away his hand, but she’s really reluctant to do so. His hand is so warm and comfortable she can’t stop herself from purring in pleasure. She wants him to keep stroking her hair forever-

   “Are you lovebirds done with the flirting yet?”

   -If it wasn’t the fact that Igmis and his three minions are watching.

   Esty feels her face burning.

   “We’re not lovebirds! And we aren’t flirting!”

   “Uh-huh.”

   Drokemoth lets out a few angry moans and groans.

   “He said that the two of you should get a room.” Igmis translates.

   “Go chew some mint, corpse breath!” Esty growls.

   Drokemoth looks at her with a genuinely bewildered expression. He then puts his right hand in front of his mouth and exhales. A single second later, the spirit collapses on the ground while having a coughing fit.

   “Is it okay if I do this a bit longer?” the Hero requests without looking at Igmis and ignoring Drokemoth. “It’s not everyday that she lets me pat her head.”

   “How about you asking for my permission since, you know, it’s MY head you’re patting?” Esty growls.

   “You would have brushed my hand off if you hate it.”

   Esty averts her eyes guiltily.

   “Drokemoth was right. The two of you should really, really get a room…” Igmis grumbles.

   “Look, I really need you to move your hand. Please.” Esty pleads at the Hero.

   “...Fine.”

   He pulls his hand away from her head with a reluctant expression. Esty is really glad that he obliged. If he did it any longer, her legs might have give away. His head pats are that divine. And then he leans his face close to her.

   …Huh? What? What’s going on? What’s he doing?

   Esty closes her eyes instinctively. Nothing happened for a few seconds.

   “Listen, don’t think too much when you’re fighting him.” she hears him whispering at her right ear.

   Esty opens her eyes and sees his head a few centimeters above her right shoulder.

   “If you use your brain, it might end up affecting your judgement. Then again, it’s not like you’re using it often anyway.” he continues.

   Talking about strategy made her stops being flustered and come back to her senses. Until her mind processed the last part of his sentence, that is.

   “Are you saying that I’m stupid?” she demands softly.

   “It’s the truth, right?”

   Urgh, he must be the only one in this world, Ifezan and all those other worlds that might or might not exist that could make her flustered in one second and upset in the next.

   All this while, Igmis is chortling his heart out while lying on the ground just like Drokemoth was. The Hero couldn’t help but turn around.

   “What are you laughing at?” he asks.

   “Don’t mind me…and just, continue with…whatever you’re doing…” Igmis wheezes.

   “Well, that’s all from me. Good luck.” the Hero tells Esty.

   “...Yeah, I’ll be right back.”

   Esty walks past him and faces Igmis. The distance between the two of them are a mere hundred meters. For both of them, this is a distance they could cover in a flash.

   “You sure you don’t want to ask him for a good luck kiss?” Igmins asks playfully.

   Yup, Esty knew it. That was the reason he was laughing so hard just now.

   “No thanks.” she declines frostily. “Let’s just get our fight started already.”

   Igmis raises his eyebrow in surprise.

   “Wait, what’s with that calm reaction? It’s not like you at all!”

   Indeed. The usual Esty would have blushed and get mad. However, the her right now isn’t fazed at all. Whatever is happening to her? Ah, well. At least it’s helping her to concentrate.

   Esty shrugs. “Does it really matter?”

   “I guess not. Relgal. Drokemoth. Zorgathos. Stay out of this fight. Whatever happens, the three of you are not to interfere.”

   Upon hearing their master’s order, the three minions stopped being ready for combat. Relgal turned into a puddle of slime, Drokemoth is just standing and staring, and Zorgathos sits down on the ground with his legs crossed.

   Esty puts up a fighting stance. Igmis does the same. The two of them stare at each other like two predators about to tear each other to ribbons. The entire cavern is quiet except for the sound of the waterfall outside.

   Esty takes a normal breath. She exhales. Her muscles are tense, but not to tense as to ended up affecting her movements in the long run once the fight begins.

   It’s really odd. Here she is, about to face off against Igmis, a demon whose strength got acknowledged even by her father the Demon Lord. Even so, she doesn’t feel scared or nervous at all. The Hero had said on multiple occasions that optimism was her one and only strong point. Esty disagrees on the “one and only” part, but she definitely thinks that being optimistic is part of the reason she’s not scared of fighting against strong enemies-

   Hmm? Wait a second. The Hero? Ah, so that’s why. His presence alone was enough to calm her down. Jeez, his existence just gives her complicated feelings every single time. It’s all she could do to stop herself from turning around and look at him.

   Esty and Igmis continue to stare at each other without moving a muscle. This continued on for an entire minute. Just as things are about to get awkward, the Hero clears his throat loudly. Esty decides to take that as a cue to begin the fight.

   She charges forward with her right fist pulled behind her. She has the full intention of putting a dent on Igmis’ face. Naturally, he’s not going to make things easy for her. As her fist is inches away from his face, he dodged it by tilting his head to the right. Before he could do a thing, though, Esty pulled back her right fist again and swings her left fist next. This time, Igmis chose to lower his head. At the same time, his right fist is aimed for her rib cage. Seeing that fist coming, Esty lowers her left hand and slams her fist on his arm. The impact is usually enough to break the bone of a human, but Igmis is obviously made of sterner stuff. He merely brushed it off like it was nothing and tries to knee kick Esty’s head. She blocks it with both her hands. However, the force of his kick was strong enough to make her slightly stumble backwards and almost lost her balance.

   Seeing this opportunity, Igmis decides to charge forward. Just as he’s mere few inches away from her, he raises his right leg with the intention of hammering the heel down to her face. The foot falls faster than a bullet, its velocity sufficient enough to crush even a thick block of steel with ease, much less the skull of a demon. He smirks, thinking that his victory is certain-

   Esty reaches out both her arms and catches his foot calmly.

   “...Huh?”

   Igmis was only allowed to make the single dumb sound before Esty twists it. In the blink of a eye, Igmis is the one who’s on the ground. Esty, on the other hand, is standing upright while still holding his foot.

   Esty blinks in surprise. She has seen this move being used by an MMA fighter on television, and she was eager to try it out ever since without believing that it was even possible. And now, here she is, doing the move perfectly without a single training. Maybe she’s actually a prodigy in doing submission-

   “Stop daydreaming.” comes the Hero’s voice from behind.

   His warning came a second too late, as Igmis used this opening to break free of her hold. He does a backflip while aiming a reverse hammer kick at her head. She dodges the kick by tilting her head to the right. In just a second, both of them are back to square one.

   “If only someone didn’t get her thoughts lost, things might have ended up very differently…” the Hero mumbles.

   “I could do without the reminder, thank you!” Esty growls without turning around.

   Esty shakes her head a few times so that she could clear her thoughts. What has happened, has happened. No point on brooding over it.

   For the next few minutes, the two of them are going back and forth with a combination of fistfights and magic battles. Spells fly left, right and center. The ground around them are either incinerated, frozen or blown off. It’s literally a war zone in here.

   “Whoa!”

   A Wind Spear almost got Igmis, but it missed since he dodged it at the very last second. Esty was rather frustrated since she was absolutely certain that it would hit. Still, she’s rather doing well. She can see through all of Igmis’ attacks so far, and there were several instances like just now when her attack was very close on landing. It’s probably safe to say that she’s having the advantage in the fight. That or Igmis is just waiting for her to show an opening by acting like he’s having a hard time.

   “You got better.” he compliments as she almost kicked his head off his neck.

   She snorts at that.

   “Is that a lame attempt at making me arrogant so that I would lower my guard and lose sight of things?” she asks.

   A soft chuckle from him, followed by a punch to the face that she dodged by bending her knees. A rapid exchange of fists comes next, with both of them either hurling their punches at the other, blocking or dodging the incoming attacks.

   “I would never do that. No when I’m in my serious mode.” Igmis replies casually.

   As for Esty, she’s too focused on thinking of her next moves to use at the exchange, not to mention thinking of what moves Igmis himself might be using. Her brain right now is working at gazillion miles an hour-

   “Don’t think too much.”

   Right, she’s not supposed to think about all those. She’s to feel, to use her sixth sense, her instinct.

   A punch is coming. She blocked it with her left arm and gave him a right jab to the left shoulder. A kick to the stomach is next. Not when she charged in and did a one-two on his first instead. A Detonation. Blocked with a Barrier and countered with a Detonation of her own. A right spinning kick. Squatted down a the last second and gave a punch to the left ribs. This continued for several minutes with Esty managed to deal with all of Igmis’ attacks without even trying. In fact, he has suffered so much damage he had to take some space between them to take a short breather.

   “You…huff…got very good at this…” he wheezes.

   “And you’re losing.” she says without a single trace of sarcasm or mockery.

   He laughs weakly at the remark. “I guess the student has surpassed the master.”

   On more than one occasion, Igmis has told her that fighting is like playing a game of chess. One is to decide her moves by predicting her opponent’s movement and react accordingly faster than the said opponent. Being slow means certain defeat. In order to have a complete advantage, one must think at least five moves ahead.

   Well screw that.

   The Hero is right. She’s not suited for a battle of wits. She’s not going to spend time outguessing the moves of her opponents. She much prefers to act and never thinks. If that backfired, so be it.

   Igmis takes a few more steps back. His right fingers are curving, indicating that he’s about to snap them. Instead of panicking and trying to stop him from casting Chronokinesis, she quickly mutters a few words.

   BOOM!

   Esty didn’t blink at all. Even so, the ground she was standing on was cracked, and she felt heavy for a single second. Her guess is that Igmis has cast a gravity magic on her while the time was frozen. And speaking of the Marquis-

   “Well what do you know, you did it. Congrats, Esty.”

   There’s a huge wound where his left ribs used to be. The wound looks like someone has used a shovel to dug out the ribs.