I stand before Laura just like it was with Yana before and watch her carefully. I am significantly stronger than a week ago, hell, even than this morning, to the point I see a large difference even as I walk or climb when I tire much less than before and everything seems lighter, but my soul is still incomparable to hers.

In terms of volume, I would say that my soul is around two times larger than just after my transformation, but Laura’s is still five times that or so.

To put it short, I might be able to do something with my abilities, but she is greatly more powerful than me in terms of pure speed and strength.

‘Just to make sure, Master, she has no other talent than that about sensing souls?’ – I ask in my mind.

{Most likely not. Definitely nothing passive since I see no mana movement from her body.}

‘Okay.’

{A bit of advice from me, keep large distance from her and try to prevent body contact. Considering she is faster, stronger and taller than you the only viable method to defeat her would be to hit a few well-timed attacks in her blind spots. But don’t even try to do something similar to what you did to Yana at first, because with higher speed and reaction speed she would probably knock you down in the middle of your move. Focus more on kicks and punches because they will be harder to use against you.}

‘Alright.’ – I nod. – ‘How much faster will she be with that soul size? It surely isn’t proportional?’

{It… highly depends.} – Natria says. – {It is proportional increase, not proportional result, and depending on what you use your body for the mana inside it would boost different aspects. Considering she is a scout I would say she will be over one and a half times faster and less than one and a half stronger disregarding differences in your size. If you include that the difference will be even higher.}

‘Mhm.’

That’s pretty bad, but I can’t really back down here, and I don’t need to necessarily win.

I look at Laura with a smile.

She is standing in relaxed posture around five meters from me in her leather armor. Her hair has been tied into a ponytail not to get in the way during the fight and she has empty hands, with all the knives and machete still where she normally keeps them. That said though, she won’t be using them for rather obvious reason.

I stand similarly relaxed in the cloak she gave me some time ago and Neo’s vest underneath. I have no weapons, but I have more experience with fists and I haven’t even tried using anything that can be called a weapon since my transformation. I will also be using feet, so to speak, and I am barefooted right now.

We’ll be fighting with our bodies until one is incapable of continuing or Laura judges it is enough for her to make sure I can fight outside.

As we look into each other’s eyes, Helia’s voice rings out, indicating start of the spar. – “Begin!”

I immediately rush forward, this time going on the offensive unlike what I did with Yana.

Laura steps forward and stops in place, raising her arms, probably intending to fight defensively and focus on measuring my capabilities instead of attacking.

As I am a meter from her I suddenly stop in place and aim a kick at Laura’s shin, intending to kick her off balance, but as expected she takes her left leg back. She then places her foot firmly on the ground and turns around, doing a powerful kick with other leg, significantly faster and stronger than mine.

Instead of retreating out of her range I step forward and duck down and, as her leg passes above my head, push the ground strongly, aiming my clenched fist into Laura’s abdomen.

She quickly jumps backwards with surprised expression on her face using her left leg still remaining on the ground, but I don’t stop and continue my attack as she is above the ground without proper stance.

I launch another kick at her legs aiming it the way it would connect the moment her legs are just above the ground, but Laura raises her legs and my foot passes below her. She lands on the ground somewhat unsteadily, but quickly spreads her legs and launches left straight punch at my chest.

Using the force remaining from my previous kick I strongly tilt my body backwards while kicking once again, this time at her elbow. She quickly catches up to my move and evades it while stretching her right arm out, making me realize my mistake.

I try to change the course of my leg by turning upper body to the left, but she still catches my leg into her hand despite the powerful force behind it, though her arm shakes strongly.

I look carefully at her muscles and almost instinctively notice she will pull me forward, so I jump with my left leg that remained on the ground and at the same time pull with other in Laura’s grip. The next moment I feel a strong force pulling me towards Laura.

She opens her eyes wide feeling much lower resistance than anticipated and quickly tilts her head and upper body backwards as my left foot passes a few centimeters from her face, though she doesn’t let go of my other foot. I get in somewhat stupid position in the air with my head lower than legs, but I curl up into a ball, relying on the fact she still holds my leg to bend forward instead of folding myself into a large letter ‘V’.

As Laura steps back to get into steadier position, noticing my move she turns around, crouches and bends forward, pulling my leg downward and likely intending to smash me into the ground.

And she almost succeeds, but in the last moment I straighten up my body and put my arms against the ground, using all my strength to avoid panting into it face first and instead hitting it with my chest and stomach. Trying to ignore lack of air in my lungs I push myself upward and rotate my upper body, then with all my strength turn my legs around, forcing Laura to let go lest she would get her wrist snapped.

Laura backs away, understanding she lost her advantage, and I lift my legs and jump up and backwards, landing on my legs in low position.

I look at Laura and with surprise notice her wide open mouth as she takes a deep breath.

“Holy shit, Nea!” – She exclaims loudly with excitement as I refill my lungs after the hit that forced air out of them. – “You could teach our instructor at Hunter’s Guild!”

I blink, not expecting such reaction from her.

“No, seriously. I thought Yana was exaggerating when she said she didn’t have a chance to retaliate, but that’s on damned another level! Even when you were in the air I didn’t have the proper advantage I should have. I restrained myself not to use the knives, but even with my speed I barely had a chance to attack properly. If you were more careful and I didn’t grab your foot I wouldn’t be able to hit you at all. And the way you offset the impact at the end was so good I almost lost my balance with how weakly you hit the ground.”

I blink once again. That was probably the longest speech we received from her this month.

“So?” – I ask, relaxing my stance and raising my brows. – “Another round or are you good with that?”

She frowns, thinking intensely. – “I think… if it’s E+ monster, you should be able to defeat it easily, But I wouldn’t risk D-. If you stay at the edge you should have no problems, but I would wait some time. Even if it’s E+, you can outperform it, but you lose tragically in physical abilities. And you would likely die if you encountered any larger group, wolves for example.”

I tilt my head lightly and glance at Yana watching us from the side. – “Okay. I could go next week and take Yana and Ned to the sewers in the meantime. How’s that sound?” – I notice Yana’s eyes lighting up at my words.

“…Alright. I see no problems for now, though I am not sure how it will be on my side. Just be careful not to get caught, because it’s technically illegal, but Natria should help you with that, right?” – Laura says, then mumbles in low voice. – “You’ll probably grow the same amount this week, huh?”

“Not necessarily so.” – I say with a smile. – “It would depend if I have enough monsters and animals on the plate. I’ll have you know I killed over fifty of them already. Mostly rats, but still.”

Laura blinks once in surprise, then smiles wryly. – “You’re telling me it will be even worse when you go to the forest.”

I laugh at her words and turn to the others.

They are all looking at me with surprise and mild admiration, except for Yana of course; her eyes convey rather excitement and adoration.

“Um, how about me? I mean, can I go to the sewers too?” – Helia raises her hand.

Both I and Laura focus our eyes on her.

“…I think there will be no problem.” – I say after a while. – “But I will be taking one of you at a time and I am not sure if we will have enough time. The stronger monsters are rather rare. I got only three in five days and nights I spent almost wholly in sewers. As for the rest…” – I look at other faces. Angelin, Rovio Van. – “You need to awaken your talents or learn to fight better. Sorry to say that, but it would be too risky now.”

“Yeah, I think so too. Angelin, if you want, you can train with Yana. And thanks for your help in advance, Nea.” – Laura adds after me.

“Okay.” “Alright.” “No problem, I don’t really like fighting. I would prefer a calmer job.” – The three say at the same time, nodding somewhat reluctantly, and Angelin adds her own.

“As for Geil, hm…”

“He was never prone to fight.” – Laura chimes in. – “I think he could train with Yana if he wants, but he says he would like to be a merchant in the future, so I doubt that.”

“Oh, right, Neo said that. By the way, do you know when will they come back?” – I turn to Laura.

She glances at Angelin for a moment. – “I’m not sure. Geil said they were going to buy a few things with their savings and try to make some money, but I have no idea what is taking them so long. Do you want to meet them?”

“Un.” – I nod. – “But I have something to do at night so I want to rest early and I would like to go to the sewers now.”

‘Um, Master? Can you check where they are?’ – I ask in my mind.

{I have checked earlier. They are both to the north among a large number of people and I don’t see anything suspicious, so they should be fine.}

‘Oh, so they are probably on the Eastern Slums Market. No problem then. There is no sign of them coming back?’

{Nope, but you can fix that~.} – She says in a playful voice.

‘Hm?’ – I ask.

{Well, you can go invite them somewhere. I’m sure they wouldn’t refuse a girl like you~.”

‘No, thanks. I would rather meet them later than cause misunderstandings.’ – I say with a grimace and blush almost unnoticeably, although I am smiling in my mind.

I focus on Laura, having finished my conversation with Natria, and see her smile reassuringly.

“That’s alright. You can come tomorrow pick up Yana and meet Geil and Ned. Unless you want to take her now?”

I think for a moment and decide I have nothing else to do. – “Do you want to go?” – I look at Yana.

She takes a moment to process my question and then her face lights up with a beaming smile so wide it exposed her longer fangs. – “Yeah!” – She then runs up to me and grabs my arm tightly as if she feared I would leave her, making me and Laura laugh.

“I’ll be going then if there is nothing else. We’ll probably be back in the evening.” – I wave my arm and turn around, pulling lightly Yana’s arm.

…

<Laura’s POV>

After Nea and Yana disappeared under the flop to the sewers, Helia frowned and looked at me.

“Um, Laura, I didn’t want to ask when she was here, but why do you trust her so much? I mean, I know she is Neo’s sister, but…” – She asks somewhat hesitantly, but also with some accusation behind her voice.

“I know. Did I tell you I met her five days ago? I also talked with Neo back then, and while I wouldn’t put my trust in her normally, I saw with my own eyes that there were no secrets between the two of them. And… well, with her abilities she wouldn’t need to take Yana anywhere to hurt her. If anything, by telling us she is going to the sewers with her she would be placing herself as the prime suspect if anything happened to Yana, so… Yeah. I can’t exactly tell you everything, because they have their own secrets, but I trust her as much as I trust Neo.”

“Okay.” – Helia bites her nail. – “But are you sure it is alright to leave them alone?” – She asks worriedly.

“There should be no problem as long as they don’t have really bad luck. You watched our fight. Nea should be able to easily deal with anything below D- rank, and anything in this rank and higher might or might not appear in the sewers every month. And even she herself said that Yana is able to defeat monsters at E rank, and she fought with her so I don’t doubt she knows that she is talking about. The bigger danger would be hunters going down the sewers, but I doubt they would get into any fight with them.”

“Uh.” – Helia groans unhappily. – “Alright, but I still can’t help but worry for her.”

“It’s alright. Nea also has her spirit, Natria. She has very good senses, so in worst case she will warn them beforehand and they will escape.”

Helia nods somewhat reluctantly and comes inside the building as I am left in my thoughts, looking at the flop to the sewers.

To be honest, I am also worried about these two, especially Yana, but I wanted them to learn to fight for a long time and whatever happened to Neo, it should be a great thing for the future. I didn’t have a good chance to take them to the sewers to fight monsters, but with Nea talking the lead I will have a bit less on my shoulders.

{Hello, Laura, I’m Natria.} – I suddenly hear sweet, beautiful voice in my mind, startling me. – {Sorry to ask so suddenly, but Nea wanted me to ask why were you so irritated when you came back, as she didn’t want to ask with the kids around. Would you mind telling me?}

“Oh. Uh, sure, I don’t mind. It’s about Murky Vestair.” – I say in low voice so that no one would overhear me.

{Speak in your mind, if you may. You don’t need to say it aloud.}

‘…Like that?’

{Yes.}

‘Okay, so, I was on a short mission and came back yesterday well past sunset. Today I went to pick up my payment, and he blatantly, without even trying to hide it took half of my four silver coins for maintenance and food, which should be no higher than fourth of that. I tried to ignore that, but it was hard.’ – I grit my teeth, recalling his grin.

{Alright, so it’s was that. Try to ignore it for now. With Nea’s speed of growth we should be able to take care of him one way or another within one month, probably much less.}

I nod my head. – ‘Good to know.’

{I’ll be going then, take care.}

‘Likewise.’

I look at the flop once again.

Natria, Nea’s new master. Another wild card in this story.

She is another reason why I trust Nea, or rather she forces me to trust her in a way. Not that I wouldn’t trust the girl if not for her, but with her around I certainly won’t try to hurt Nea in any way.

I have no idea what are her goals and intentions, apart from that one time she said Nea is helping her build a new body, and I have no idea where is she from and what is her origin.

But, if anything happened to Nea and she was set to kill… we would probably need a High Templar or White Hunter to stop her, if even that was enough.