Mumei's punch sent The Ancient Ones flying, with their body digging into the ground, all the way to the outskirts of the city. They stopped when they crashed into one of the huge diamond chunks that were laying on the ground.

AO:(This cursed Guardian woman! Every time We are about to deal a decisive blow, she stops Us! We must kill her! But no, this time it was not just her. The Time Warden took part in it as well. Curse her!)

The Ancient Ones rise from the rubble and fly towards the two, but stop mid way when they notice Mumei flying towards them. She stops in front of them and smiles.

AO:" You... We have been itching to kill you for quite some time now..." they say as they materialize their sword in their right hand.

Mumei:" Go ahead, give it your best shot!"

Mumei releases her fists and forms two knife-hands, with strong wind circling around both of them. She rushes towards The Ancient Ones and swings her hand at them, and they block it with their sword. The Ancient Ones stared at her hand, while gritting their teeth.

AO:” You have a weapon and yet, you do not use it?! Are you mocking Us Nanashi Mumei?!”

Mumei:” I don’t need to use it against someone like you!” (I forgot I had it!) “ I can tell you don’t even know how to use that sword! Your only experience in using it is fighting us today! Why do you even have it? Just to look cool or something?” she says with a smug look on her face.

AO:” SILENCE!!” 

The Ancient Ones swing their sword down and shoot a slash of dark purple energy, which pushes Mumei away, but she stops mid air and effortlessly redirects it by swinging upwards with her hands.

AO:(Impressive. We did not expect this one to be so strong… Even without using a real weapon, her wind is so strong, it is as if We are hitting a blade.)

Mumei:(It looks like I won’t be needing my sword, at least for now. My martial arts technique, The Fist of Earth’s Guardian, combined with my wind blades, should be enough!)

The Ancient Ones rush towards her and swing their sword down at her, but she easily blocks it with her wind blade. The two both back away from each other, then rush towards each other and their blades clash, which creates a huge shockwave. They do this again and again, while quickly moving around the sky, with Mumei huge wings flapping while leaving wind trails behind her, and The Ancient Ones leaving a trail of dark purple energy, with black electricity circling it. 

---

While some were watching Amelia and Gura, and some Mumei fighting, Kiara was fixated on Mumei’s fight, all while barely being able to make out the colors of the two’s energy.

Kiara:" Incredible... Even with how much stronger The Ancient Ones become, Mumei is fighting them without even using her sword... And I can't even keep up with their movements... " 

Fauna turns to her upon hearing that. 

Fauna:" This shouldn't surprise you, Kiara. You lost your powers and couldn't train for a year, but Mumei never stopped." 

Kiara:" Yeah, I don't doubt she kept training... But still... Seeing how much stronger she became in person... And now I won't be able to train for another year... Dammit! " she says as she looks down at the ground, while clenching her right fist. 

Fauna:" I can tell that you're upset by this, that you won't be able to train for another year... So if you want, after this is over, there may be a way to get your powers back. "

Kiara instantly lets out a gasp and looks up at her. 

Kiara:" WHAT?! I-if you can do that, then why haven't you done it last time?! "

Fauna:" Hey, you're not getting your powers back with that attitude! Just don't ask any questions, and I'll see what I can do." 

Kiara looks away and slowly opens her mouth to speak. 

Kiara:" Oh uhh alright... I'm sorry..." 

Fauna:" I just thought it was gonna be a one-time thing. And after you lost them, you decided to open that restaurant and later joined Hololive, so it didn't seem necessary. But now, since you did it again, and seeing how upset you are... "

Kiara:" Hah yeah, I thought it was gonna be a one-time thing too… But I get what you mean now. Thank you, Fauna. "

She looks back up at Mumei fighting, then Calli puts her hand on Kiara's shoulder. 

Calli:" Looks like we'll be able to train together again! "

Kiara:" Yeah! "

Fauna looks at both of them and smiles, then looks back at Mumei. 

---

During a collision of their blades, Mumei simply smiles, then kicks them in the stomach, which pushes them away slightly. Then, as the wind surrounding her right becomes bigger and faster, she does a powerful downward swing at them, which instantly shatters their sword upon hitting it and propels them towards the surface. Before they could hit the ground, Mumei quickly flies below them, punches them in their back and sends them flying upwards. Mumei appears in front of them and does a sideways kick to their stomach and as they’re being sent flying, she appears behind them and with her right arm stretched out, she uses her hand to pierce the left side of their chest. She makes a huge hole in it, with her arm being inside their body up to her elbow and with wind circling her hand.

Mumei:” Tch, too bad you don’t have a heart I can rip out!” 

The Ancient Ones grit their teeth in anger when hearing her say that.

AO:(Has she been holding back this entire time?!) 

Mumei extracts her arm from their chest and as soon as The Ancient Ones turn around to face her, she punches them in the face and a huge tornado pushes them downwards and drags their body across the ground, until it eventually stops. Mumei goes down towards them, but then notices that they’re no longer there. She flies around looking for them, but is unable to find them.

Mumei:(Judging from their previous fights, I can tell that they’re gonna use a portal to attack me from behind. Hmmm now that I think about it, I haven’t been using my wind defense during this fight, have I? This seems like the perfect time to do it!)

The Ancient Ones come out of a portal from behind Mumei and swing their sword down at her, however, the sword simply bends backwards, without ever reaching her. 

AO:(What?!)

Mumei:” Sorry, but it looks like your attack just wasn’t strong enough to reach me, now that I’m taking you seriously.” 

She calmly says and without turning around, Mumei uses the back of her fist to punch the top half of their sword off and shoot it through their head. As they’re regenerating their head and sword, they float backwards into a portal. They emerge from a portal in front of her, now fully healed.

 AO:” Explain yourself bird! What was that just now?!”

Mumei:” I already told you. Your attack was too weak. Or it might be that you are just too weak. I guess you’ll have to attack again to find out.” she says and gets a smug look on her face.

AO:(Too weak?! Impossible! It must be some kind of a trick!) 

Mumei crosses her hands, and while gritting their teeth, The Ancient Ones rush towards her and swing their sword down, but she easily dodges it, by moving to her side. They pull back their sword then attack her head with the tip of their sword, but she simply moves her head to the side. They continue to shove the tip of their sword towards her head with their attacks getting faster each time, but Mumei effortlessly dodges by moving her head left and right. 

They both suddenly stop, once they get interrupted by a huge explosion of energy coming from behind Mumei. She turns around to see Gura in her new form, and both her and The Ancient Ones can tell that there is something different about her. 

Mumei:(Woah, she’s in another new form! This one looks like a combination of both halves of her!)

AO:(It appears this shark has reached even greater heights than before. We must kill the guardian woman now, while she is distracted.) 

The Ancient Ones raise their sword up and a huge amount of dark purple energy surrounds it completely, but Mumei doesn’t turn around and continues to watch Gura and Amelia talk. They swing their sword down at her, and without turning to face them, she raises her bare right hand and stops their sword between two of her fingers. Their eyes and mouth widen in shock as she squeezes the sword with the two fingers and crushes the blade completely. Mumei quickly turns around and closes in on them, then kicks them in the side of their stomach, which sends them flying into a building. 

The Ancient Ones look up and see Amelia running towards the rest of the girls and they get a smile on their face. They point their horns out in her direction and charge a huge black beam in front of them. They shoot it towards her and Mumei sees it, but it was going too fast for her to stop it in time. As soon as Amelia turns around to look at the huge laser coming at her, Gura appeared right in front of her. She opens her mouth wide and proceeds to suck the laser beam in completely, until there’s nothing left of it.

Gawr Gura:” Mmmm laser…” she says while rubbing her stomach. 

Amelia lets out a giggle, then turns around and continues to run back to the rest of the girls. The Ancient Ones couldn’t believe what they just saw, and remained frozen in shock. Mumei let out a sigh of relief after seeing that, then looked back at The Ancient Ones, and with her teeth clenched in anger, she quickly flew down towards them and did a dropkick to their face. The force of her attack exploded their head and sent them flying through dozens of buildings. Mumei then flies towards Gura and lands next to her.

Mumei:” Looks like you’ve calmed down! And went through another transformation too…” 

Gawr Gura:” It’s a long story, but you don’t have to worry about me going berserk again. And… I’m sorry for those things I said before... ” 

Mumei:” Don’t worry about that! I understand how you felt, after what you saw…” (It sounds like both halves of her are talking at the same time… I get it now! This is them combined as one! I can tell, their energies are completely in sync! So cool…) “ Now then, what do you say we beat this thing up together, Gura?” 

Gawr Gura:” Let’s do it!!”

The Ancient Ones emerge from a portal in the sky in front of the two, with their sword in hand. They both crack their knuckles while looking up at them with smiles on their faces. Gura clenches her fists and energy in the form of shark heads appears around her fists, which is blue on the left and red on the right, while Mumei makes two knife-hands with wind circling both of them.

¹ FYI, the flying cars, buildings and the lightning are only there cause it looks cool.

To Be Continued...

---

hiii, sorry for the wait! I was waiting for my artist to finish this picture, but in truth, I also just finished the chapter not too long ago. My twitter account got suspended out nowhere without any reason given a couple days ago, and it really bummed me out. I felt like shit, I kept sending appeals, but none of them worked, and I kept looking for alternative ways to get them to notice me, since I was only getting bot replies. Needless to say, I was really unmotivated to write. Thankfully, I managed to finish the chapter at the same time my friend finished the picture! Hope you like it, cause I sure as hell do!

I really don't know when the next chapter will be out. I'm still not in a good mood, and also, Lostbelt 6 from FGO came out and I want to play that too. So yeah, I'll just continue to annoy twitter with my appeals while playing FGO. Hope you liked the chapter. I guess I'll just see you again eventually.