B2 | Chapter 42 - Fighting the Barbarian Princess

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"Are you sure you want to do this?" Juliana asked, though the resignation in her voice suggested she already knew the answer.

Freya bounced on her feet and cocked her arms. "Of course I want to! This is the most interesting thing that's happened in weeks! I've been holed up in a carriage, travelling, dodging and killing assassins left and right and now I get to let loose a little, and you want me to stop?"

Juliana sighed. The kind that said she'd been through this exact conversation before and knew how it ended.

"Right. Of course." She rubbed her temples. "Just... try not to kill him, okay?"

"I'll limit myself to Rank 2," Freya said, as if this was the most reasonable compromise in the world. "To be fair. Since Theodore's also Rank 2."

Theodore felt something twist in his chest. Not fear, exactly. More like... irritation? No, that wasn't right either. It was deeper than that. More personal.

"Why not go Rank 4?" he said.

Freya paused bouncing, staring at him like he'd just suggested something absurd.

"What?"

"You heard me. Full Rank 4. No holding back."

She blinked. "But... that's not fair. I'd demolish you."

There it was again. That twist in his chest. Sharper this time. He recognized it now. 

"I don't want fair," Theodore said. "I want you to stop holding back. It'll be great training."

The words came out harder than he'd intended. More challenging. But he didn't take them back. Couldn't, really. Something about the way she'd casually dismissed him—as if he was just another sparring partner who needed to be coddled—had hit a nerve he didn't even know he had.

Which never really happened before so he wondered why he was having such a reaction. It wasn't even a full blown reaction, actually, just mild irritation.

"No, I can't do that, maybe Rank 3? I'll see if I need to use Rank 3 strenght," she said.

"I am going to make you stop holding back," Theodore said.

Freya's expression shifted. The bouncy enthusiasm morphed into something sharper. More predatory. Her eyes narrowed, and for a moment, Theodore caught a glimpse of what she really was underneath all that cheerful philosophy about violence.

A feral grin spread across her face.

"Give it to me, then! Come on!"

Juliana looked between them and shook her head. "You're both insane." She positioned herself at the edge of the training field, raising one hand. "Three!"

Theodore felt his mana responding before she even finished counting. Not consciously—more like muscle memory. The familiar weight of power gathering in his chest, spreading through his limbs.

"Two!"

Freya was still grinning, but her posture had changed. Lower. More balanced. Ready. Her hair had started flickering, tiny wisps of flame dancing at the edges.

"One!"

Theodore's focus narrowed to a single point.

"Fight!"

Six thermal energy javelins erupted from Theodore. They whipped through the air toward Freya, detonating on impact and sending heat and the resulting explosion rippling outward with her at the center

The explosion should have been her end. Instead, through the smoke and dissipating energy, he heard something that made his blood run cold.

Laughter. Wild and utterly delighted.

"What was that? It's delicious! Give me more!"

The smoke cleared completely, revealing her not just grinning, but practically glowing with excitement. Her hair had gone from tiny wisps to full-blown flames, flickering orange and red like a living torch. Her eyes had changed too, taking on this deep red color that seemed to glow from within.

Then she disappeared.

Theodore's enhanced reflexes and [Mana Reinforcement] activated instantaneously, even before his conscious mind could fully process what had happened.  His [Mana Shield] was already in place. If someone could move with such incredible speed, they would undoubtedly attempt to get behind him.

He began to pivot, his mind already formulating a counter-attack. Perhaps he could allow her to strike him and then shift into a slime form at the very last moment, surprising her when her attack passed harmlessly through him.

But something held him back. Call it pure instinct, or perhaps it was simply sound tactical thinking. He wanted to fully understand her capabilities first, to observe what she could do when she believed she held the absolute advantage.

Her hand swished past his face by mere inches as he swiftly twisted out of her path. It was close enough that he could feel the intense heat radiating from her skin. Yet, she was undeniably faster than him, and seemingly more experienced too. He had known this intellectually, but experiencing it firsthand was an entirely different matter. Her other fist was already arcing upwards, aimed directly at his ribs, before he had even completed dodging the initial attack, which he now realized had been nothing more than a cunning feint.

Her fist cracked through the [Mana Shield] he had erected, and the impact sent a jarring explosion of force through his torso.

Theodore had braced himself for pain, but what he hadn't anticipated was the sheer, unadulterated force behind the blow. Even with [Mana Reinforcement] surging through his body, strengthening his bones and muscles, the impact lifted him clean off the ground. He went hurtling across the practice field like a discarded ragdoll, the world around him blurring into an indistinct swirl of sky and earth.

This was Rank 2? Bullshit. She was already a Rank 3, wasn't she? Theodore grinned. He'd already made her use more strength than mere Rank 2.

Midair, he managed to regain some semblance of control. He pivoted, skillfully using his air manipulation to arrest his momentum and expertly guide himself toward the ground.

His "clothes" were still miraculously intact, he noted with a surprising degree of satisfaction. But his ribs ached intensely where she had struck him, a dull, throbbing pain radiating from the impact point.

"I need me some clothes like that," Freya called out, raising an eyebrow at his pristine appearance.

Despite the intensity of the situation, Theodore couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.

"They're custom made, I'm afraid."

"I bet they are."

She was still grinning, still looking as if this was the most enjoyable experience she'd had in months. And perhaps that very casualness was what finally solidified his decision. The flippant way she treated this fight, as if he were mere entertainment rather than a genuine opponent.

"A little more oomph than you expected, huh?" Freya's voice, laced with playful malice, cut through the rushing wind as he flew. She didn't wait for his reply. She was already a blur, closing the distance, her next strike aimed directly for his mid-flight trajectory.

Just as his feet touched the ground, Freya blinked next to him, and her follow-up kick snapped out, targeting his head. Theodore didn't even flinch. He ducked beneath the kick while simultaneously lashing out with a thin, almost invisible whip of condensed air.

It wasn't meant to hurt her, just to disrupt. The air whip snaked around her ankle, barely grazing it, but enough to throw off her balance for a fraction of a second.

It was all he needed. He exploded forward, not retreating, but moving into her space. One hand slapped against her extended leg with a sudden, localized burst of kinetic energy that whipped her had backward. The other hand, moving even faster, thrust towards her chest, not for a direct strike, but to create a violent vacuum of air directly in front of her.

Freya's eyes widened, a flicker of genuine surprise crossing her face as her leg spasmed from the unexpected cold and the sudden absence of air choked her. Her attack stalled. But only for a moment.

With a feral grin, she pushed through the sensation, abandoning the kick to launch a flurry of rapid-fire punches, a red-tinged blur of motion aimed at his head and body.

He deflected one punch with a low-force thermal blast that snapped her fist back. Another he dodged by slightly shifting his center of gravity, letting her fist whistle past his ear, only to then snap his own hand out and hurl a pulse of [Mana Bolt]. She dodged, frowned, and lunged to tackle his legs.

Theodore exploded upward with air, dodging out of the way, and his mana erupted outward once more, but this time it was fundamentally different. Not in the form of javelins or narrowly focused attacks. This was pure, unadulterated presence. A baleful aura that descended upon everything around him like an immense mountain of oppressive force.

Freya's grin faltered, if only for a fleeting moment, but it was enough. She grimaced under the sheer weight of his aura, her current Rank 2 body and mana struggling visibly against the immense pressure. He still had no idea how she managed to "limit" herself so convincingly.

Before she could possibly adapt to this new pressure, Theodore seized his advantage. He reached out with his thermal manipulation, beginning to rapidly suck the air out of the immediate environment around her. He created a tight, airless sphere centered precisely on where she stood. This sphere, in fact, encompassed even himself, and indeed, the entire training field.

The effect was instantaneous and dramatic

 Her hair-flames poofed out like candles deprived of oxygen.

More importantly, he could distinctly see the moment she realized she couldn't breathe.

Her eyes widened and a look of genuine, almost childlike interest appeared on her face.

She appeared utterly fascinated, as if he had just presented her with an intriguing new toy.

Theodore didn't give her a second to formulate a counter. He erupted forward, using his air manipulation to propel himself with incredible speed while simultaneously cooling the atmosphere around him with his thermal manipulation.

The moisture in the air rapidly condensed, then instantly froze as he drew it toward himself, forming razor-sharp ice javelins in mid-flight. He saturated these nascent weapons with an overwhelming amount of mana—so much mana, in fact, that their crystalline structure simply couldn't contain it all.

The excess energy desperately needed an outlet, and he allowed lightning to erupt outward as he hurled all the javelins at once.

They whipped through the atmosphere with a thunderclap that echoed across the field.

Freya attempted to dodge. Her enhanced reflexes were undeniably impressive, Theodore had to concede that much. But he wasn't merely throwing spears. He was actively controlling them, utilizing the crackling lightning coursing through their cores to precisely adjust their trajectories even in mid-flight. They homed in on her relentlessly, like guided missiles locked onto their target.

Three of them found their mark, striking her center mass with enough concussive force to send her hurtling back several feet. Freya twisted gracefully midair, landing safely and perfectly on her feet.

The javelins hadn't even managed to scratch her. They had shattered upon impact, leaving her completely unharmed. The only discernible sign that his powerful attack had affected her in any way was a single bead of sweat glistening on her forehead.

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