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Mid Evening - Late Summer : The Tree of Prayer, Valtivar | Siratha

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Lief instantly turned her head to me in agitated confusion. "Huh?!"

I honestly didn't know what to think of it. -Could you not sense her before?-

"Has her aura always been that.." an irritated look came to her face as she looked back up toward Hera, ".. combative?"

Tilting my head a bit, I looked up toward her as well, but she just smiled and waved. -What does that mean?- Where Hera's aura met mine, it was completely smooth and calm, so I wasn't sure where she was coming from.

"I feel like she's trying to squish us, My Lord..." The animosity in her voice slowly grew the longer she stared.

-Hm...- A momentary silence encompassed us as I gave something a bit of thought before deciding to go with it.

"So what do you think of a friendly spar with her?

You know, to stretch your legs some." Originally, I was going to 'spar' with her myself, but after a moment of thought, I figured it would be better to take advantage of the sudden animosity since I wasn't keen on the idea of flaunting my humanoid form in front of Sirathans as Nott.

However, Lief's reaction was a bit unexpected. "Huh?!" Her irritation and confidence disappeared in an instant. "A s-spar?!"

"Haha," I let out a chuckle as her slight lisp and slurring of words returned, and her 'confidence' disappeared. "Just think of it as you receiving guidance from her. She'll be limited to her humanoid form, and I'll make sure she doesn't go too far, okay?"

Realizing I wasn't really giving her a choice, she gulped down her already diminished confidence before looking back up at Hera, standing at the edge of the railing with a smile as she took a casual sip of a new glass of alcohol.

To me, nothing about her seemed out of place, but at that moment, to Lief, it was simply predatory. "Hera, what do you think about it? Care to give her some guidance?"

Turning her gaze to me and looking deep into my eyes, Hera slowly took a final sip of piotita before moving the glass away with her aura and setting it on a table behind her.

"I would rather tussle with you.." *sip* ".

. but I wouldn't mind guiding a junior." *tap* Reaching to the side, she gently rubbed Krystallo's head and bent down to her level.

"It seems your brother wants me to give Lief some 'guidance'. So, I'll be right back."

Krystallo's curious and questioning expression instantly morphed with excitement as she ran up to the railing and looked down at Lief, who I just revealed from beneath my light magic. "A spar?!"

Finally noticing that Lief had awoken, the crowd around us at the base of the tree immediately reached up in cheers, praising my name and congratulating Lief on her successful evolution.

But after darting up to the tavern, the sound of their cheers had yet to reach us.

"Is sister Hera really going to spar Miss Lief?!" Krystallo, balancing her waist on the railing, kicked her dangling feet with excitement as she looked down over the crowd.

"Mhm! I'm curious how she'll fare." Quickly grabbing a glass from downstairs, I filled it with Piotita from the barrel Hera bought earlier and brought it to my hand. *vwoom-pat*

As I turned back to the railing, Krystallo looked back at me with an excited look. "Do you think Miss Lief will win?"

"Haha!" I let out an immediate, hardy laugh. "Absolutely not."

*FLASH-CR-CRAAACK* The instant I finished speaking and put the glass to my lips, the area around Lief lit up with a flash, and Hera's right palm, coated with superheated plasma appeared in front of Lief's chest.

Lief barely even had a chance to react. *ZIP* Shifting her feet and turning her shoulder with pure reflexes, the palm zipped across her chest with enough force to kill an ancient. *FWOOOOOOSH*

Looking at Hera's partially scaled arm in pure shock, Lief's eyes went wide.

But Hera didn't give her a chance to think. *THUMP* Swiping Lief's legs out from under her, Hera instantly pulled her palm back and grabbed Lief's face, but taking advantage of the split second Hera couldn't dodge, Lief drove her foot into Hera's cheek.

*CRACK-CRACKLEEE* The entire Tree of Prayer shook violently as splinters of wood from the root they stood on shot out in every direction.

Everything happened so fast the crowd couldn't even react to it.

But as the dust settled, Lief's expression slowly turned worried.

Rather than finding her foot firmly seated on the side of Hera's face, or perhaps Hera wearing a serious or shocked expression, she found her firmly gripping the top of her foot with an entertained smile. "Hey, you're better than I thought you'd be!"

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As if having turned into a cat playing with a mouse, Hera instantly launched Lief by the ankle over the crowd. *Fwip-FWOOOSH*

*WHAM-CRACKLEE* Ripping up the ground as she landed a few kilometers away, Lief quickly slowed to a halt before looking at her palm and clenching a fist with a shocked expression.

With each second, the worry on her face was dissipating. -She's finally recognizing her new strength, huh...-

*VWOOM* Quickly sharpening and condensing her aura to be denser than Hera's, it looked as if a bubble of mana suddenly formed around her. "Everyone on the ground, please clear the area!" She amplified her voice with magic as she spoke. "This spar was directed by Our Lord!"

Hearing that I had directed it, every speck of animosity and displeasure in the crowd vanished, and they cleared out without a hint of hesitation.

But it still took a few dozen seconds for them to clear the area.

In the meantime, Hera gave Lief quite a good piece of advice. "What are you trying to accomplish by not using magic?"

"Hooh..." Letting out a frosty breath, Lief lowered her stance and shifted her entire demeanor, stiffening her gaze and relaxing her body. "I wasn't sure if I could go all out just yet... But don't worry, because I will now..."

As Lief's gaze finally landed back on Hera, everyone hastily clearing the area watched her with baited breaths, but just a moment later, she vanished.

It was time for her to finally make use of her new attribute nodes.

*ZIP* A line of light created by blazing plasma instantly connected where she once stood to Hera.

But even that speed was slow to Hera. "Are you really going to just charge straight at m-" *crackle* However, as she went to take a step back, her confident tone vanished, ice suddenly encompassed her foot, and a beam of light blew over her face like an intense flashbang. *brRRMMM*

With Lief's aura so compacted around her, her sequence of spells made her completely vanish from Hera's senses, even her aura, allowing her to get close, stop just in front of her and swing her earth mana-strengthened shin up into Hera's side.

*WHAM* Without giving Hera a chance to react, she instantly followed it up with a lightning bolt far beyond the bounds of what nature could typically create. *CRRAAAACKK*

But before the flash of light from the lightning could fade, Hera, who should have been launched more than a few kilometers away, appeared in Lief's face. "You're too slow compared to your durability..."

*CRACK* With a reflexive movement, Lief parried Hera's punch aimed for her stomach and transferred the energy to her elbow, spinning around and catching Hera's jaw with the force of her own punch.

*WHAAAAAAM* Hitting the side of the tree root adjacent to them, the Tree of Prayer rattled, nearly ripping more roots out of the ground while catching Hera on a cushion of hardened wood that quickly turned to a bed of splinters.

*thump* But as the dust settled, and Hera fell to the ground Lief just found her gently rubbing the side of her jaw, and went pale.

"To think you would be able to land a hit that hard.

.. I guess it's no wonder 'he' gave you special treatment.

.." Momentarily glancing up at me, Hera seemed to try and read my expression, but after lowering her gaze again, her expression finally stiffened.

"Well, I guess that means I can go a little harder then. "

*FWOOOOM* "Stop." Feeling her speed up a small bit of her divinity, I finally stepped in with an unamused look. "I told you to give her guidance, not beat her."

Hera almost instantly stopped. "The only way she can learn is through experience. Her technique isn't far from perfect."

"That doesn't mean you can blow her spine out using divinity. If you want to guide her, beat her with technique, not raw strength."

She paused before looking back at Lief. "In that case, I'll start using magic. Is that fine?"

*sip* "As long as you hold your strength back to compensate."

A grin immediately spread across her face. "Alright. I can work with that."

Krystallo, watching with a worried look, mumbled as Hera gently massaged her neck. "Is sister Hera okay? That looked like a big hit..."

*pat* Setting my hand on her head, the worry quickly faded from her eyes. "Hera could probably take my full strength; she's more than okay. That was just a hit she felt."

*sip* Taking a quick, refreshing sip of piotita, I looked down at Hera and Lief, watching closely as they restarted the spar.

It was just as one-sided in Hera's favor as I had imagined. There was only so much you could do against a being that much stronger than you, even if they were holding back.

But it was a good opportunity for someone else. "Make sure you're watching what they're doing, even if it's a little hard to follow... It'll make for a good learning experience."

I was hoping Krystallo would be able to watch the fight and maybe learn some techniques, but it seemed like saying anything was needless.

Even before I opened my mouth, there was nothing but focus and the reflection of the fight in her eyes.

Although the fight was happening so fast, even Elders wouldn't be able to follow it; she didn't seem to have any trouble. -Maybe it's because she's learned some techniques from both of them...-

But it honestly made me start wondering. -When the Coming of Age Festival rolls around.. I wonder how the other prodigies will fare against her...-

Although I can't say I didn't already have an idea how it was going to go...

I was simply holding my hopes up that she could find a good rival.

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