The duels between each of the commanders were beginning and Freja watched from above, ready to jump in if any of the girls or Silver were going to die.
'I don't think Shaman will be able to beat the bear, so hopefully she can at least draw out the fight until Elysia or Clara are done.' Examining the stats of the bear, Freja was concerned for Shaman and how she would deal with him.
'If she can beat the bear by herself, I might not need to send them on that mission to Elfheim.' Freja's intentions for the mission were for them to improve and grow stronger before she sent them to the demon lands.
'I think I will still send them to Elfheim anyway and hopefully they get to at least tier 6 before returning.' Although Freja was confident in their abilities so far, it still wasn't a good idea to send them out to the demon lands under levelled.
'No matter, this fight should give them a decent boost in their level, so let's hope they will push for tier 7 once in Elfheim.' Freja was confident in her decision and so she got comfortable with a glass of wine alongside a chair to watch the battle.
***
<Elysia POV>
'I wonder if they can fly?' Elysia looked at the half eagle Skald, a female half-eagle who had wings on her back, but Elysia was unsure if she would be able to hold her own weight in the air. Skald also had an eagle head and feathers along her body, resembling her beast race more than her human side, which many would consider as having a purer bloodline.
Skald also wore rather over the top armour, decorated in gold with an embossing of the crest, signifying which family she was from. However, the armour did not cover any of the wings, nor did it have a helmet, leaving some major weak points open.
'I should aim for them if I want to end this quickly, but I can't assume she is weak, the eagle is tier 6 after all.' Elysia knew not to underestimate her as it was clear Skald worked hard for her power, so it would not be as easy as just shooting them out of the sky.
"I have to ask, were you the specific one that killed my master?" Skald did not believe that the group of 4 they were fighting were the ones to kill them.
"Oh yes, I did. Do you want to know how I did it? I think it was the one where I blew up the entire mansion altogether." Elysia smiled. Although she didn't quite remember who or how she killed the nobles, she still wanted to play the role as a villain.
"Tsk you damn vixen." Skald looked at Elysia with disgust, as the smile she gave had a tinge of madness behind it, making Skald believe her words.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"I wonder how I will get to kill you?" Elysia pulled out her bow from her inventory while pondering how she would go about attacking Skald.
Skald was getting irritated by Elysia's attitude, so she decided to be the first to attack. Skald prepared her own bow. It was adorned with feathers, and from each of its sides had what looked like the wing of an eagle. Conjuring up a wind arrow on her bow, Skald aimed straight for Elysia.
Elysia, seeing Skald was attacking, did nothing and paced around like she was still thinking, pissing off Skald even more.
"Die you annoying vixen!" Skald fired the arrow at an impressive speed, but it was not something Elysia couldn't handle.
Instantly breaking from her aloof attitude, Elysia got on her knees and shot a fire arrow at the oncoming wind arrow. Skald had a smug look as she could tell Elysia was weaker than her as the arrow Elysia shot did not exude the same level of power as her own.
The arrows collided, but to Skald's surprise they stayed suspended in the air. Elysia showed a smug face as it was clear Skald had underestimated her.
"Maybe you should go build a nest and have a family, away from danger." Elysia stomped her foot on the ground and suddenly her arrow got stronger, absorbing the wind from Skald's arrow to use as fuel.
Elysia's arrow eventually overpowered Skald's and was much stronger than before. Skald narrowly dodged the arrow, but burnt herself in the process as the heat from the flame was able to burn her just by passing close by. The arrow almost made its way to the soldiers behind Skald, but Freja raised a wall of black flames protecting them.
"Oops." Elysia knew Freja wanted the army, so accidentally killing them was going to be a no go. This action from Freja had also reinforced the idea that she really was throwing away Silver and the girls.
Skald, deciding on a new approach, began to use her wings to fly into the sky.
"Ooo moving target practice~." Elysia prepared a few more fire arrows ready to shoot the Skald out of the sky.
Skald did not say a word and prepared what seemed to be a large-scale spell. A green magic circle appeared in front of Skald, its size just barely eclipsing her own. Finally, she softly spoke a few words.
"Shall the wind punish the vixen and rain down a windy hell upon her!" Skald spun in the air and fired a wind arrow into the magic circle. The arrow seemingly split into hundreds of arrows and began to rain down on Elysia.
"I can do that too!" Elysia was rather excited, so before the wind arrows reached her, Elysia shot back with her [arrow storm] skill, aiming high into the sky.
Once her skill was released, Elysia used [fire wall] and took cover, letting it block the oncoming arrows.
Skald was confused by Elysia's actions as generally spells that cover a larger area need some form of incantation to increase the power. Following the arrow with her eyes Skald was amazed to see that the fire arrow itself suddenly split into a bunch of arrows.
'How the hell.' Skald did not see any magic circle or anything come from Elysia, but what shocked her the most was that the arrows did not lose any power upon splitting.
The storm of arrows was fast approaching Skald and there was not enough time for her to completely move out of the way due to her being distracted. Skald began to dodge the arrows in the air while trying to use her wind to redirect the arrows. This however, backfired as it caused the arrows to explode in her face.
"Argghh!" Skald took the brunt of the explosion in the air and found her body getting covered in severe burns. The rain of arrows however did not stop. The arrows kept on coming and so a few of them managed to hit Skald's wings, causing them to catch on fire.
"AHHHH!" Skald screamed in pain and fell to the ground with her wings still burning.
The wind barrage had stopped and Elysia came out of her fire wall with a few scratches as the arrows that hit the ground would explode into wind slashes.
"I just got new stockings and there are already holes in them." Elysia looked at her legs which were covered in cuts. Her arms did not have it any better and she was slightly bleeding from the many cuts.
Skald, who managed to put out the flames on her wings, stood back up, still heavily breathing.
"Ha.. Haha… Is that really all you have to say?" Skald could not believe the girl in front of her was more concerned about her stockings than the battle they were having.
"Hmm well, I'm sure my girlfriend will love the look of it, but the cold breeze doesn't feel nice." Elysia put a finger on her chin, giving Skald a genuine answer.
Skald took a deep breath and, knowing that Elysia was just trying to provoke her, channelled the wind into her hand creating a wind sword.
'Surely she doesn't have short range capabilities.' Skald did not believe Elysia would have been able to fight at close range and so she sprinted forward using the wind to increase her speed.
"Oh my~ I guess we're going to use a melee weapon now." Elysia stored her bow and pulled out her spear, which caused Skald's eyes to widen.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm'No it's just a bluff, no way she can use it properly.' Skald wanted to believe Elysia would have been inexperienced as mastering 2 weapons takes years of work as well as talent.
Skald swung up with her wind sword to slash across Elysia's chest, but before it could reach her body Elysia blocked the sword, holding it to the ground.
Elysia's face changed from innocent to serious which had intimidated Skald, but nonetheless she smiled as it seemed like she had a plan.
Still pushing on Elysia's spear the wind blade warped around the spear and essentially phased through it.
Elysia was not expecting this and tried putting up a firewall to block the blow. However, she was too slow and so Skald managed to slash across Elysia's stomach. Thankfully Elysia was able to move far enough back that the cut wasn't deep, but it was painful.
"Tsk you damn bird bitch." A switch had flipped inside of Elysia and she no longer was going to toy with Skald like she had been throughout the fight.
Elysia raised her spear and covered it in her flames. Skald jumped back, wary of Elysia's next move, but was still happy to see she finally managed to cause Elysia some real damage.
The tips of Elysia's hair turned into an orange flame as she was pouring mana into her flames, causing some physical changes in her body.
Skald seeing this swallowed her saliva as although she got a confidence boost from landing an attack, what was coming next terrified her.
Elysia taking the initiative dashed forward, leaving a trail of flames behind her.
Skald prepared for the attack. Knowing her wind would only add fuel to the fire, she tried condensing her windblade, improving its power and its resistance to the fire.
However, just before Elysia got close to Skald, Elysia had hit the ground with the bottom of her spear. Suddenly fire spears had come out of the ground charging towards Skalds body.
Skald screamed in agony as the fiery spears stabbed into her, burning her insides.
'How the fuck did she do that.' Skald had no idea how Elysia was able to cast spells so instantaneously at her tier.
'Damnit have the generations just evolved or is it something else?' Skald had spent years studying wind magic and was able to almost instantly cast powerful spells yet Elysia was able to do it instantaneously while being a lower tier than her.
Elysia using one hand thrusted her spear into Skald's heart, killing her instantly and turning her to ash.
Elysia dismissed the flames and fell to her knees as she used a lot of mana and the pain in her stomach flared up.
'Well at least I beat her.'