There’s an odd silence left in the air. Evelyne was like a warrior ready for a fight to the death. I could feel the killing intent in her eyes. Her gaze was like an icy cold whirlwind, turbulent yet pure.

 

The colour of her eyes reminded me of Yulena but it was a lighter shade of violet, perhaps maybe due to them being from a similar ethnicity. I stop scouring her appearance and focus more on her next move. 

 

Her hand reaches the hilt of her sword as she pulls it out. I similarly take out mine. Both of us stay in a standstill, waiting for the other to make a move. After some seconds of staring each other down, Evelyne chooses to take the first action. Her footsteps are steady as she sprints towards me.

 

Just as she is within 5 meters of my range there’s a sudden pause in her motion. I am momentarily confused as to what led to her abrupt stop. Without wasting any time she starts to chant a spell with a short incantation time.

 

“Ice slam!” her voice calls out the spell’s name but unexpectedly the target of her spell wasn’t me. Her palms push against the gravel. A thin layer of ice spreads out, originating from her hands.

 

Evelyne was probably using the Ice Slam along with Judgement Time to transform the whole battlefield. Knowing her intentions I start to stay away from the frosted areas. I could probably choose to counteract her magic by melting it away with fire magic but my mana reserves were already low. I had been constantly applying buffs during my escape, so for now, I only had about half of it remaining. 

 

My best choice was to stall for time and wait till the duration of Judgement Time got over. I didn’t really intend to fight her in the first place. My stamina needed to be reserved in case I were to find further trouble. Clashing with Evelyne would result with me being too exhausted to escape efficiently.

 

Evelyne kept on pouring her mana out as she cast Ice Slam repeatedly. I had kept on avoiding her till this time but it seems I underestimated my opponent and her mana reserves. Judgement Time was yet to show any signs of ending and half the area was already covered by ice.

 

My earlier plans might have been counterproductive now as it gave Evelyne the opportunity to take the upper hand. Regardless I would’ve still taken the same decision as preserving stamina was my only way to survive this ordeal.

 

Evelyne was completely unhindered by the icy floor, she was fully accustomed to it. I, on the other hand, was having some trouble keeping my equilibrium but it wasn’t as bad. I could still manage to keep my posture and not slip away.

 

If I was in my normal form I could’ve chosen to use brute force to make cracks and footholds on the floor but as of currently, my current physical prowess wasn’t capable of doing that. I just needed to endure and adapt to my weakness for now.

 

She had noticed my intentions of avoiding her and took advantage of it by positioning herself on the areas which were yet to be frosted, forcing me to tread on the slippery spots. About 1 minute had passed with not much action happening.

 

Perhaps I might be able to get out of this fight if both of us were to remain passive. My wishes were not answered as Evelyne started casting a huge spell. The tension in the air instantly rose as I calculated what to do.

 

If I were to head towards her right now, I doubt I would be in the range to interrupt the incantation. Considering this I tried to evade and go as far as I can from the targetted area of the spell.

 

“Flash Flood” Evelyne exclaimed as water started pouring out. The impact of the spell was barely worth mentioning as it did little to no damage. I almost gave a sigh of relief but I soon realized the intention of this attack.

 

The floor was now entirely wet. It would be a lot harder to keep my posture if I were to fight in such slippery circumstances. She started chanting another spell, which seemed to be a single target spell.

Why is this armoured girl using so many spells? Give me a break!

 

It was unlikely for me to get out of the trajectory with my environment being so hard to traverse. I still gave it a shot and made a dive towards the side.

 

“Dark Binding!” she cast yet another spell. The spell lands right onto me as I fail to avoid it, some sort of translucent black substance wraps around me, immobilising me completely. Sweat starts pouring out of me knowing how much deep shit I was about to be in.

 

“Wait! Wait! Let’s talk this out! I haven’t even told you my name yet.” I continue on with my rambling as a means to buy time. I had already started utilizing the mana which I was planning to keep for an emergency situation. Magic circles meant to buff my strength appeared behind me, hidden away from her sight. I intended to force my way through these bindings using sheer strength.

 

“What’s your name then?” Evelyne asks while walking towards me.

“Alex, it’s Alex! How about we talk this through like civil people right?” 

At this point, I was grasping at straws. I tried my best to somehow delay her in any way possible.

 

“Alex…” her voice sounded like the drifting wind. She stops in her position, completely motionless. Everything comes to a standstill while I continue to try and cast the buff, but unfortunately, the binding had a function of interrupting my incantations.

 

“Alex, I love you.” My struggles come to a pause as I am confused as to what I heard... I must be becoming delusional right? There’s no way my opponent would confess their love to me all of the sudden while having a death match.

 

“Will you not respond to my love?” she asks in a tone softer than before. Her helmet comes off as I notice her face. She had a light tone of blonde hair fashioned in a bob haircut. Her face was entirely red while she directs her eyes towards her feet, completely angr- wait is she actually blushing?

 

Did she really mean it when she said she loved me? My opponent just happened to be playing psychological tactics against me right? Telling me she loves me must surely be a means to lower my guard even further surely? Several questions appeared in my mind as I try to resist the reality of the situation.

 

“Wait we just met, how can you possibly love me?” I ask in complete bewilderment.

“I can prove it right now…” She says so as her face turns into a darker shade of red, almost scarlet. She soon starts to take off her armour piece by piece.

 

Her pauldrons first come off, followed by her breastplate, then her fauld and tassets, and other parts, finally ending with her greaves. Her current clothing was now just a single piece of black skin-tight suit covering only her torso and her thighs.

 

Her bountiful breasts sprang up and her luscious thighs were now visible. I could clearly make out the curves and contours of her body. My face grew hot and flustered seeing this, making my little boy rise up. Her expression was exactly the same as all the other aversive girls I had met but her actions seemed to say otherwise.

 

A ridiculous thought appeared in my head. Were the girls I met before actually liked me? My worldview was starting to break apart as I felt my brain going into a comatose state again. There is no way for it to be possibly true right?

 

At first, when I tried to attract other girls I had the impression that they were just shy and blushing maidens, who were not used to a male’s presence yet tempted by it. But upon repeated failure on these attempts as well as the weird isolation I went through, I convinced myself that there could’ve been some sort of divide in my understandings of Earth and Nymto.

 

These thoughts kept piling on as I wasn’t able to get a single response from those girls. In the end, I could only conclude with that I had managed to misunderstand the emotions of others by taking Earth as my reference point. Nymto was an entirely different world so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities that their way of expressing emotions might deviate from the standards of Earth.

 

But it seemed I was proven wrong, all the evidence from these recent events seemed to be pointing elsewhere. Could this all be the effect of that dumb buff “Silence of the Lamb?” I happened to recall the times when Seris mentioned some curse which I had. Was the curse which Seris mentioned actually the buff in the workings? Did Reli give me this buff while knowing all of this would happen?

 

Unaware of my current plight going in my brain, Evelyne starts laying her body against mine. Her soft parts were squishing against me. It only resulted in me getting distracted from my train of thought.

 

For now, I need to prevent this girl from ravaging my poor soul...