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"What’s going on here? Why did they suddenly start taking off their clothes?"

As Dorothy sensed the opponent’s movement through wide-area detection magic and was preparing to strike first, she was momentarily stunned.

But in the midst of battle, there wasn’t time to think too much; to Dorothy, the opponent’s baffling behavior actually made things easier for her.

After all, she had been quite worried whether her surprise attack could break through the opponent’s defense, especially since their golden battle armor looked so high-end, which made her feel quite envious.

If possible, who wouldn’t want to wear a fancy set of battle armor?

Most men dream of armor, and Dorothy, with the heart of a lad, was no exception.

She had always wanted to acquire a handsome witch’s battle robe for herself, but well...

Alas, the old adage held true: money was tight.

A witch’s battle robe is the most expensive piece of equipment, ridiculously so. A standard familiar witch’s battle robe costs about a third of a small sky island, and if it’s a custom-made one, the price is even more absurd.

Take for example the battle robe of her sister Alice, which wasn’t actually hers but their stepmother Annie’s. Now that Annie has become a research witch and no longer needed the robe, she passed it on to Alice.

As for the price of that gorgeous blood-red battle robe?

Heh, well, Annie had spent all the money she saved from risking her life on the battlefield on that robe, with just a little left to purchase their current sky island home.

That set of robes could be traded for at least a dozen of the sky island homes Dorothy dreamt of.

Unaffordable, it was truly unaffordable.

Dorothy hadn’t even saved up enough to buy a house, let alone a custom battle robe. And as for the relatively cheaper standard battle robes?

Forget it, their defense wasn’t even as high as her natural dragon scales. It would be a total waste of money to buy them, neither attractive nor useful.

The battle robe worn by the opposition, Sophia, was clearly high-end. In the Witch World, the only downside of expensive things is usually their price. You get what you pay for, and the defensive power of the robes purchased at such prices can be quite terrifying.

Dorothy, looking at her meager mana pool of only 10,000 mana, always felt it might not be enough to pierce the opponent’s defense with her full power, and even if it did, it probably wouldn’t do much actual damage.

She had been pondering how to deal as much true damage as possible that could penetrate armor.

But before she could come up with an answer, the opponent suddenly started taking off her robe.

Although Dorothy didn’t know what was going through Sophia’s mind, maybe her brain had gone haywire, she didn’t want to overthink it. After all, she wasn’t going to be polite about it and just charged in.

As to whether it could be a trap, a ruse to appear weak and set up an ambush...

Dorothy had considered that too, but she still thought she should just go for it. After all, a true weakness is still a weakness, and this might be her only chance to win.

After all, it can’t be that anyone really believes she could defeat a fully powered Sophia, right?

What a joke, she’s only got 10,000 mana, compared to the opponent’s 290,000. With a 29-fold difference in mana, if she could turn the tables, that would be a miracle.

It’s been said before, for witches, mana is primary. If the mana difference is not too great, then there’s a chance to show off one’s skills, but with a huge gap in mana, no matter how you show off, you’re just delivering yourself to a tiger — door-to-door service.

True, she was the Magic Web Duel champion, but Magic Web Duels are absolutely fair, everyone has the same mana value. Real-world duels, however, don’t balance mana for you.

The reason she had proposed this duel today was to gather as much intelligence as possible. Twenty years later, after graduating from Witch Academy, that would be the right time for a real duel.

Yes, this is the commitment for twenty years.

As for today’s probing?

Heh, as long as she could break through the defense, that would count as a win.

Dorothy was quite pragmatic. Being able to break through despite a 29-fold mana disparity was already an incredible achievement.

And now the opponent had taken off her battle robe, Dorothy felt energized. The difficulty of breaking through had been reduced, so why not be a bit bold? Maybe today, she could even witness angel blood.

Charge, charge, charge.

"Roar~"

Following a resounding Dragon Roar, Dorothy spared no pity for the meager mana in her mana pool; she erupted with full power, charging at full speed towards the Archangel who still stood in place.

And that Dragon Roar wasn’t just for show—it was spellcasting, casting spells in dragon language.

Although magic is a kind of idealist power, where belief in the heart is your magic and the strength of your heart’s intent could directly affect the power of the magic, there are still some other methods to enhance the power of magic besides intent.

One of the most common ways to enhance the power of a spell is to chant it in a supernatural language.

What we call supernatural languages, simply put, are the languages of supernatural races, such as the languages of Elves, Mermaids, Giants, etc.

The strength of a supernatural language is directly linked to the strength of the supernatural race that created it. Therefore, the strongest supernatural languages in the world are still the same old three: the Great Dragon’s dragon language, the Angel’s word spirit, and the Demon’s profanity.

As a Dragon Witch, Dorothy is naturally proficient in dragon language—it’s something she knows without learning, indicated by the asterisk in her skills column as Mastery in dragon language.

She hadn’t wanted to use it before, so Dorothy had been chanting her spells in human language, and all her spells were the original, unenhanced versions.

But now that the misunderstanding had been cleared up, not to use the handy dragon language would be a waste.

Dragon language is a very complex and magical language. Thanks to the Great Dragon’s much broader vocal range compared to humans, every low growl in dragon language contains a multitude of information.

Therefore, a spell that may require over a dozen lines in human language to express and a few minutes to chant, can be summarized in merely one or two syllables in dragon language.

This is even more convenient and faster than High-Speed Divine Words, and it’s not just about speed—the power of the magic would also be enhanced by the Great Dragon’s strength.

I’m not only faster than you, but also stronger. How does that make you feel?

But even this is not enough...

Anyways, facing an opponent with 29k mana value when you have only 1k, forget about a war of attrition or any fancy feints. It’s just not going to work. Dorothy had only one way out, and that was to go full force in one fell swoop.

If you don’t succeed, you die trying.

"So, it all comes down to this one attempt."

The map of the Arena was quite large, about the size of a small mountain range, but with Dorothy’s full-speed flight, that distance vanished in an instant.

It was in less than two seconds when the countdown had just ended that Dorothy already appeared right below that descending sword edge, raised high by the Angel Witch. And just as that blade burning with Holy Fire was about to touch her body, she suddenly vanished.

When her figure reappeared, she was already behind the Angel Witch, her right hand—now a sharp Dragon Claw—had pierced through Sophia’s chest, holding a still-beating heart firmly within her ferocious grasp.

The next moment, still a bit dazed and not quite recovering from the shock, Dorothy squeezed unconsciously.

Then, blood splattered everywhere, and the angel’s heart was crushed like a tomato, leaving sauce all over the place.

Afterward, the sound of shattering glass rang out. The likewise dazed figure of the Angel Witch cracked and shattered just like a broken mirror.

That wasn’t the end of it. Suddenly, a water orb rose, wrapping around the shattered angel pieces, but then the fiery ghoul claw that sprang up from the ground crushed both the water orb and the angel pieces within it, and the flames and evaporating water spread as hot steam.

Then there was a burst of lightning. And so the electrically conductive steam and overloaded fire lightning...

Soon after, the cooling steam turned into frost, and the earth churned...

All sorts of Elemental Magic unfolded in an instant, the combination of different elements producing a dazzling array of special effects that blinded the eyes.

Finally, after nearly a minute of elemental bombardment, a wisp of dust dispersed with a gentle breeze into nothingness.

Dorothy was left frowning at her hand, still smeared with tomato sauce, lost in thought.

"So, that’s it?"