Day 3(0): I woke up. I looked around. I don''t remember getting to my bed yesterday. My body still hurts everywhere, especially my feet. I circulated nature energy. I woke up again, I must have fallen asleep shortly after I woke up before. I felt refreshed but I could use more rest. I realized I slept for quite a long time as it was past 4. I got up and listened if there was anyone home. Nobody was home so I showered, changed, and started to brush my tails. After half an hour of brushing, I spread out all of my tails. They looked quite fluffy, all 8 of them. That is correct I can use 8 tails now. Just one left but there''s no rush. I retracted them and my ears so that I looked like a human again. I was quite hungry but was also wondering what my buddies were up to. I decided to physically check on them to stretch my body a bit. I headed for Ted’s house first since his house was the closest, also because Gregory’s house can be reached on the way to Raishin’s hut, meanwhile, Ted’s house is the furthest away from both of them so I wouldn''t get to his house naturally unless I go there first. I rang the doorbell. No response. I was about to head over to Gregory’s house when I heard some noise inside. Ted opened the door.


    Did I wake you up? Yeah, but don''t worry about it, what''s up?


    Oh, nothing I decided to check on you guys while also stretching my body since I also just woke up. Oh, I’ll join you, give me a sec, I gotta shower and change.


    That''s ok. I stepped inside while Ted went upstairs to shower and change. I sat down on the couch and waited for Ted. ...is... Agnis! I got woken up by Ted.


    Ugh, did I fall asleep again? You sure this is a good idea? Do you need to rest longer? I slapped my cheeks to wake myself up.


    No, I''m fine, let''s go check up on Greg and Raishin. I got up and headed out with Ted. So, did you finish what you wanted to achieve?


    Yup! And even more! So, what did you train for?


    Hehe, that’s a secret, you will find out soon enough, how about you? I succeeded, it was rough but it worked out, you will see soon enough. Are we going to go for a rematch today or tomorrow?


    I’m not sure if any amount of rest will make us refreshed enough for the rematch so I guess it doesn''t matter when we do the rematch. I was thinking about this evening but that depends on how Greg and Raishin are feeling. You are not going to fall asleep mid-fight, right? I surely hope not…


    Hey, you''re supposed to deny that!


    “Agnis and Ted?” Oh hey, Charlize and Cecilia.


    “That is odd, normally you would be put on edge whenever we bump into each other” I have the feeling that this is different.


    “Hmm, you’re not wrong, don''t you feel something is different about him today, Cecilia?”


    “Yes, but I don''t know what, maybe it’s related to that we couldn''t find them yesterday?” Hmm, well we are here now.


    “We talked yesterday and we realized that we might not have handled all uhm this appropriately, and we came to apologize for chasing you and Greg around all these years.” Apology accepted; I assume you two will stop chasing us?  Hey, Agnis are you ok? You’re acting a bit… mature…


    Hey, zip it, Ted! I can be mature too! Never mind, there is the Agnis I know.


    “You aren''t asking why we suddenly decided this?” Cecilia asked. Nope, you would''ve told me if it was easy for you to tell me. I will relay this message to Gregory if you two don''t mind.


    “Thank you, we will be off!”


    “Don''t get the wrong idea though! Cecilia and I didn''t give up on making you 2 our daughters'' partners! We will just stop using aggressive approaches!"


    Yes, I''m not getting the wrong idea. I continued walking towards Gregory’s house. What was that about? And how come you’re acting so... Weird?


    I''m not acting weird though. This is normal if I get time to sort everything in my head. You might know me as chaotic but that mainly happens if I can''t sort stuff out, I made sure to think over whatever happened and archive them, I shouldn''t really forget anything important from here on out, I think. Anyways they were supposed to do that apology yesterday but we weren''t around, now the question is what caused it? The original time loop was the revelation that we escaped through the sewers, In the previous time loop Uraya talked to them but in this time loop we didn''t do anything yet, I''m assuming that this is one of those events that happens no matter what. Now there is one problem that I realized this morning. Which is?


    I didn''t sell my rubies this time loop, I was supposed to confirm the transaction yesterday and actually have the exchange this morning. Uhh, that’s not an issue, right? As long as you make sure most of the stuff matches up in our last time loop then everything should be ok, right?


    That!... hmm, you might be right, if this time loop will get overwritten then at the end only the last one matters, I think. Anyways nothing I can do about it now so I’ll just make sure that the last time loop matches up. We arrived at Gregory’s house and rang the doorbell. Nothing happened for a bit but we heard a noise inside the house. Gregory opened up in his lab coat.


    Brewing more potions, eh? Yeah, I only started an hour ago. I woke up at around 4 and I woke up Ted after ringing his door. Wait it''s past 4?!


    Yup it''s almost 5 now. Then I haven''t been at it for an hour but for 4… Well, good thing we hopped by, did everything go well in your training session?


    I had some difficulties because this nine-tail fox messed up the gravity in that space but I managed to complete everything I set out to do yes. My bad.


    Nah, you warned me beforehand. Since we know that Raishin completed whatever he wanted to do that makes us all successful then! Let''s pick up Raishin and prepare for the rematch.


    I imagined that that would be the series of events so I brewed some more potions. I don''t know what new kind of stuff you guys might need after the training but I hope it’s adequate, can you come and store these in your dimensional pocket? Sure. We entered Gregory’s lab, which was normally tidy but currently it was a mess.


    Did Raishin hop by? Nah, I was kind of in a rush, I will tidy up later. I stored all the potions and we headed off toward Raishin’s hut. Ted knocked on the door but no answer. Are you there? I pushed Ted aside and kicked in the door.


    Wakey wakey! What are you doing?


    Oh, nothing, just some petty revenge! Raishin was still sleeping, I woke him up and stole his pillow. Hey, my pillow!


    Yeah, sucks, eh? Give it back!


    Catch me if you can! I dashed off with his pillow. What? He disappeared! Well even though he ran off I''m guessing he went to the root. I arrived at the hole that led toward the root. I activated my Elgards eyes and saw my buddies approaching at a snail''s pace, oh Raishin grabbed them and went for a teleport. Hehe, how about no. I interrupted his teleport. He looked confused. I don''t blame him, to him it looks like his teleport got interrupted out of nowhere. He tried again but I interrupted it again. Gregory seemed to go for a shadow meld approach. Since that is a racial skill and doesn’t rely on teleport pings, I can''t interrupt it but I can make it a bit tougher for him to get here. I placed small bright white-yellow flames around the hole causing there to be no shadows in the vicinity. I hopped in the hole and also lit up the cave. Gregory appeared 100 meters from the hole and he seemed to look a bit annoyed at the flames I placed all over. I waited in the well-lit cave throwing Raishin’s pillow up and catching it repeatedly.


    Let me guess these flames and the teleport interrupts are your doing? Correct. Give me back my pillow! Somehow Agnis became even more annoying. Raishin approached me in a zigzag manner, I stepped back with [Voltaic step] and he got paralyzed.


    Shit! Well, playtime is over. I threw the pillow at Raishin’s face which he took full on because he was still paralyzed.


    Here is your pillow. Meh. The paralysis wore off and he picked up his pillow.


    Wait this isn''t my pillow! Correct your pillow is still at home. I canceled the illusion on the pillow and it turned back into its original form which was a pile of leaves.


    I''m glad my single-layer illusion was that convincing. Hey is it possible that we are going to win this round? Agnis seems really powered up. Let''s hope that is the case, Paula wasn''t really going serious on us after all. I canceled the flames beside 1 which I used to light up the cave. I''m still upset about that pillow! But did you manage to control your flames? It doesn''t feel hot.


    Who knows. You know!


    As we approached the root, we could hear the boss music again. I got to give it to Paul, he plays really well. A different piece but by no means less intimidating and epic than the previous one. Sounds perfect for a rematch boss music. Yoo we’re back! Paul was still shredding that piano and Paula was listening. She got up and approached us after Raishin called out.


    “You have only been gone for a day, what could you have possibly achieved in just one day?”


    “Maybe they want to use the fight against you as practice.” Paul said while starting a new more intense verse. Well, you were right Paula, we did hold back two days ago, I would suggest being prepared though, because today we’re going at it seriously, kinda. At that moment I released all 8 of my tails. What! Aren’t we supposed to keep this secret?


    I don''t think we can if we want to pass this test. Paula seemed shocked. Paul stopped playing too.


    “What? 8 tails? Fox''s ears? You are a beast kin? Or...” Paul’s hand glowed and the piano started playing by itself while he approached Paula.


    “A nine-tail spirit fox, I guess that is how they beat the spirit sisters. I don''t think you can do this alone Paula, Raishin’s words suggest that the other 3 are hiding something too.


    ”He took out a blade that I recognized. “I''m sorry for lying but this sword was meant for myself." I smiled. That’s fine as long as it gets used by a worthy person that is all I care about, I got to warn you though, my swords have a habit of shattering.


    “Hmm, that is odd, I have done many tests with it but where a normal sword would chip this one wouldn''t.” I was confused, then was I the problem and not the swords? My buddies released their tails too. “This might be a long night honey.” Paula said to Paul, who nodded.


    “I acknowledge that this makes a difference but as long as you haven''t addressed your weaknesses it won''t matter!” I can understand where she is coming from to her, we''ve only been away for a day but for us, it was a month, I guess she will find out the hard way soon. I would suggest being flashy and showing off a bit before we become a bit more serious in teamwork, doing teamwork is going to be hard if none of us know what the others have been up to anyways. Sounds good to me. I have a suggestion though, I remember Paula mentioning that Paul was a skilled swordsman, none of us have experience fighting magic swordsmen besides fighting you and to be honest fighting you in any way or form is a pain so could you hold off Paul?


    How rude! But sure!


    “How rude! And I’m not as freakishly strong as Paula!” Paula sends him a glare.


    “Now you are being rude! Don''t tell me you forgot how we got engaged! I would only agree to marry you if you could beat me and I stood no chance!”


    “Hey, it’s not my fault that your fighting style is weak to mine!” Great, they are both brokenly overpowered, try not to die, guys! Let''s go! I slipped into stealth and approached Paul, I only needed 2 tails for now so I removed the others. I sneak attacked Paul who barely managed to parry my lightning-imbued dagger.


    “Whoa, that was close, purple lightning, eh? I wonder what other surprises you have!” Well, that’s the thing, I do not want to reveal too much so if you can just get defeated by the same skill that would be nice! I went back into stealth but threw some daggers left and right to keep him busy. The uncertainty of my location made him wary but it also locked him into place because he realized that he couldn''t make any careless movements.


    “I thought nine-tailed spirit foxes specialized in unparalleled ranged magic!” I kept my silence and kept Paul occupied, meanwhile I looked at what my buddies were doing. Raishin spread out uhhm is that glitter? Over a wide area. Paula tried to evade them and block them but since they didn''t do any damage or status effects they went through her barriers. She inspected them and determined they were harmless and just a diversion. I inspected the glitter but it truly seemed harmless. At least he hit an attack. Maybe that''s related. And there you have it. It might not be clear to most people but I can see it clearly. Whenever Raishin fires off lightning magic it makes an invisible trail, which is visible to me, towards any glitter on the opponent and the lightning follows that path. Basically, all his lightning attacks home in on the glitter. That is pretty smart, he still has to hit the glitter but I guess his problem is fixed at least if it''s lightning-based.


    Paula notices that it increases his accuracy so she is forced to block it since it can''t be evaded. And there you have it an anti-lightning shield. Raishin seems frustrated. Now, this is interesting. Gregory really worked hard. He is launching himself with earth pillars and flying left and right swinging his hammer. One swing and he shattered the anti-lightning barrier because as you can guess it''s only strong against lightning. He uses gravity to manipulate his hammer swings and make it easy to launch himself. He is also throwing the hammer like it is really light and is controlling its trajectory with a shadow tendril he has attached to it. He didn''t become physically fast so he just made himself and the hammer ping around like a pinball. Raisin''s lightning barrage continues and whenever Paula tries to make an anti-lightning shield Gregory shatters it. He also seems to be able to appear from the shadow his hammer casts. It looks like fighting Gregory how he is now is a royal pain. He also uses gravity to pin down Paula to make it harder for her to evade him. Ted is still looking and studying what Gregory and Raishin are doing. Besides the glitter, It doesn''t look like Raishin practiced anything else but I think that is fine. As long as it''s lightning-based he doesn''t need any setup for me anymore. Gregory is showing great control in flinging himself around and swinging the hammer. It seems he put in a lot of effort in mastering those. He doesn''t have my eyes so it is even more impressive what he''s pulling off because he has quite a high accuracy with what he''s doing. The self-playing piano starts a new more intense verse. I used this moment to up my Paul harassment a bit and threw in a [Frozen ground] and some water bubbles.


    Nothing special but now he needs to pay more attention to his balance and has extra targets to look out for. I''m still in stealth trying to avoid a real battle, also because I want to see what my buddies were up to the last month, if I get locked into a serious swordfight, I might miss some things. Raishin used this same moment to start closing the gap and attacking with his lightning-charged spear in addition to throwing lightning attacks at Paula. Gregory used this opportunity to make shadow clones and mix in shadow melds with his attacks. And Ted jumped in at this moment. It seems all of us had the same thought of using the boss music to seemingly power up. Now let''s see what Ted is doing. He is punching? But he''s not even close… ohhh. Arcane magic flies toward Paula in form of fists. Paula is quite occupied but still tries to dodge them. They home in but slightly and they miss. Gregory and Raishin take this opportunity to flank Paula.


    Paula tries to cast a big spell to get out of it but I interrupt it. Paula seems surprised as she decides to take a hit of Raishin''s lightning attack and avoid getting hit by Gregory’s hammer. Probably because her magical defense is better than her physical defense. As I thought the lightning didn''t seem to do much damage. Ohh what is that a whitish transparent bear appeared behind Ted. It is punching, ooh that looks nasty to be on the receiving end. It seems Ted fixed his range problem with a cool skill. Bit by bit Paula seems to get accustomed to these new skills and gets more room to throw in offensive magic and counters. But since Gregory is our defense guy and Ted’s bear thing seems to be decent at blocking magic it doesn''t seem like she can damage them as easily as before. Any attempt to outrange Gregory and Ted ends up in failure.


    “I don''t know what happened but you guys changed a lot in just 1 day!” She throws more magic at my buddies and tries to sneak in a big one but I interrupt it. “Paul, I don''t think these 3 can interrupt my skills! Do something about Agnis!”


    “I''d like to but even though I don''t know where he is exactly, he''s keeping me pinned down! Hey, are you planning to fight me seriously or not!” I attempt another sneak attack and he narrowly blocks it again he tries to counter but I evade it.


    I will, soon, I want to see what my buddies are up to a bit longer As I slip in stealth again. He didn''t realize I did because I left a shadow clone at my spot. I needed to test something. I''m convinced he doesn''t sense me but he managed to block my strikes twice. I''m assuming he has a certain range where he either knows or feels that an attack is incoming. So, I will have to coordinate my attack with my clone. I hear a bear roar. I look over and it seems Ted went into big bear form. Whoa that bear thing of him is huge, it''s even bigger than the Mountain. Paula casts the big arcane spell that defeated us the last time but his bear thingy punched it and canceled it. Paula looked shocked. I guess they don''t need me to cancel any magic anymore. The music became more intense and so did Paula''s magic. I have full confidence that my buddies can deal with this. Paul seemed to get bored by my clone dodging and tried to head over to Paula. I coordinated the attack with my clone.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    “What!? Two attacks?!” He blocked my clone''s strike and took a dagger out and tried to parry my dagger strike but he was partly unsuccessful and he got a cut on his side. Hmm, some kind of skill that detects incoming attacks, eh?


    “A clone, eh? I didn''t notice.” Which only leaves 1 thing to test. I threw several daggers and made them ricochet off the water bubbles which froze over. Paul deflected most of the daggers flying at him caused by the ricochets but he missed some and several grazed him. I see, it''s not more a warning about an attack but more about the intent to attack.


    “Uhg I''ve heard that fighting nine tails is a bad idea but to be found out this easily is disheartening, are you sure you’re only 12 years old?” I''m pretty sure I’m 12 years old yes. I can see why you would have a good matchup against Paula or any person that relies heavily on magic. It is impossible to form magic without the intent to cast unless it has a random effect or it isn''t targeted at you but still somehow hits you. But I’ve found another of your weakness and I feel dirty exploiting it but we need to pass this test.


    “Oh, and what is that?” I do not doubt that you were fast in your youth, at this age, not even at any age it''s an impressive feat to block my sneak attacks twice and deflect all those daggers I sent ricocheting. I sent out 32 daggers and you only got hit by 5. You would probably still out speed most of the fighters out there but unfortunately, I''m not one of those.


    “I''m quite confident in my speed, I might have gotten old but I''m still fast enough.” Paul seemed to power up too but it wasn''t synched with the music. Is he even taking this seriously? “I do have to admit, I haven''t fought many sneaky opponents like you, but they all have something in common, catch them and it’s over.”


    Hmm, I wonder if that will be the case here. I pulled all the daggers laying around into my pocket dimension and canceled the [Frozen ground] and [water bubbles].


    “Giving up?” I retracted all my tails; I only had my ears out. “Or are you underestimating me? Aren''t the number of tails in use an indication of how much power you’re using?” He points at my buddies, Raishin is using 4 tails, and Gregory 2. Depends on the race, in the case of a nine-tail it''s the fluctuation of tails. If I pop some out, I''m preparing something, If I take them back means I''m finished.


    “Wait at the start you popped out 8 tails!” Just a contingency plan, let''s hope we don''t need that.


    “And the 2 tails you had earlier?” Uhh, you''ll find out soon! I threw out a lot of daggers and wires and dashed at Paul. He focused and tried to time his swing with my attack. I swung my dagger and Paul swung his sword to parry. He missed. Why did he miss? Because mid-swing I sped up and dashed past him and turned around for another follow-up strike. Paul did a spin strike to catch me but I backstepped. He used this moment to close the distance. I parried his swing and rolled away. I got to say that he is fast but he didn''t have a move to follow up on a rolling opponent.


    “You really have some weird movements” He swung his sword again and it looked like he would cut me but his sword stopped 10 cm before my head. “What!?” Hehe, these wires aren''t for nothing! I ducked as he managed to cut through them and I did a leg sweep. He regained his balance but I kicked his hand which was holding his sword and blocked his sword strike like that. He put more strength in his swing and I hooked my leg over his arm and used the movement of his swing to flip under his arm and end up behind him, I released my improvised evade and was in the air behind him. Since I was about neck height, I wrapped my legs around his neck and did a hurricanrana but flipped him up into the air.


    “What the! Do the laws of physics not apply to you?!” Paul tried to orient himself mid-air and sent sword slashes downwards. I made 5 shadow clones and spread them out and each clone threw a dagger with a wire attached to him. He blocked all of them at the same time because I aimed them to hit him at the same spot. “I have a bad feeling about this easy-to-block attack” Paul was still in the air and the wires made a tent shape with Paul at the tip, or a cone-like Christmas tree, I guess Paul was the star. I moved to the base of the cone right under Paul and took a spear out of my dimensional pocket, charged it with purple lightning, and kicked it right up at Paul. At that moment my clones ran lightning through the wire. The clones let go of the wire and the wires and spear formed a lightning-charged umbrella that started spinning and pushing Paul upwards, who was still blocking the attack. “What is this!” You don''t like my [Lightning Umbrella]? The umbrella kept spinning faster and ascending while zapping Paul who had no choice but to keep blocking it.


    Hmm, I didn''t expect you to take the full attack head-on, now this is awkward, I only have a follow-up in case you broke free. Anyways have fun up there, I’ll prepare something different there, it should stop when the lightning runs out in uhh I think 2 minutes? Maybe less? Paul amped up in magic again and imbued his sword and tried to push back. The umbrella stopped ascending but it was still keeping Paul airborne. This magic spike isn''t synched with the music again. How disappointing. I set up various types of wires and retrieved the daggers I had on the floor and that were stuck in the walls. I hoped that this wouldn''t defeat Paul because there were a lot of other things I wanted to test out. Paul finally broke through the attack and sent the spear flying back at me. I kicked the spear with a lightning-imbued kick and returned the spear. “Shit!” He deflected the spear which lodged into the ceiling. Guess I won''t get that one back anytime soon. Paul sent a sword slash at me and rushed in. I jumped and dodged the slash. Paul was expecting me to land back on the floor but I floated in the air. Or more accurately I was standing on some wires I spread out.


    “Hey, Agnis, have you ever heard of gravity?” Paul seemed a bit annoyed. Don''t worry, I''m not flying or floating or anything, I''m just standing on hard-to-see wires.


    “Yes, because that is going to make me feel better.” I threw daggers from my position which Paul evaded. I wasn''t trying hard to hit them because they were using some wires as a monorail so I could make them follow unnatural paths. The daggers curved around and flew towards Paul’s back. I threw some daggers aimed at him this time and created a pincer attack. “What is the point of physics if you’re not going to follow them anyways?” He stabbed his sword into the ground and created a blast that blew everything close to him away. Including the wires in that area. Well, that sucked. He started a dash but instantly stopped. I guess lucky for him, he would have cut himself into ribbons by rushing into the wires. He got entangled in some that I had hanging slack but he blew those off and away. I casually walked over the wires which made it look like I was walking in the air. I took one tail out, grabbed the wire with it and let myself hang upside down, and threw more daggers. Paul deflected them but paid attention to the area that was wire-free. Well too bad for him that it doesn''t matter what he''s doing. I pulled on some wire and with the setup, I did before the wires and daggers formed a magic circle underneath Paul.


    “Oh, you gotta be kidding me!” He covered himself with defensive magic. Now I might have mentioned this before, or I might have forgotten but magic circles are normally formed with household magic which makes it fast and easy to cast magic but because the circle was made with a type of magic the power drops by 40%. To make a full-powered magic attack you draw a magic circle or chant the incantation. What I just did with my wires falls under the category “drawing a circle” since it''s not made out of magic it creates a full-powered magic attack, it also doesn''t use my own mana but the ambient mana. Good luck Paul! A lightning pillar shot out of the ground in Paul’s wire-free zone and blasted the whole area. The lightning blast induced electricity in the wires which I stored in my tail. There were easier ways to do what I did but I kind of like messing with my opponents. I dropped down.


    Paul rushed at me at an incredible speed. He seemed quite damaged. I tapped the floor with my right foot and disappeared. Well, that is how it looked to him. One of the things I''ve practiced was something that I call [Accelerated steps] or [accel step] in short. As its name suggests it makes me speed up, some lightning is involved and it will be used instead of my [tail dynamo] now to speed up and generate lightning. It can be used without tails so in that case it''s superior. Every time I use it, I also generate a lot of lightning caused by the pressure, impact, and heat generated by my [accel step]. The only downside is that the ramping up speed is quite feet unfriendly. I got faster because of my accel step and used [Blindside]. Paul was holding up quite well, he still hasn''t landed even one hit on me yet though. I used some tripwire but he cut the wires moments after regaining his balance. I decided to fake him out and dashed at him. A split second before I got into range of his sword, I used an [accel turn] and made a sharp turn towards the direction I came from. I made a flip and threw daggers at Paul who was mid-sword swing. [Accel turn] is the same as accel step but it generates 3 times as much lightning as accel step and it also speeds me up more than [accel step] but this is the most feet unfriendly move I have. I shredded my shoes. I’m augmenting my feet so they are fine but, in my training, I went far enough to also shred my feet a bit. It is the most efficient way for me to generate lightning and speed up though. All 3 daggers I threw at Paul hit by the way. “I never expected to meet someone faster than me, you’re even faster than when I was in my prime”


    Shouldn''t you take care of that? It will become a problem later on. I pointed toward the 2 daggers that were stuck in his arm.


    “I’m old but you don''t need to be overly concerned about me! I’ve been through rougher fights!” Ok then. I shrugged and ran deep purple lightning through the wires attached to the daggers, zapping Paul in the process.


    “Aargh!” I told you the daggers would become a problem. Paul pulled the daggers out of his arm and threw them into the ceiling. Guess I’ll have to forget about using those too.


    “Right, guess I have no choice but to use my [Godspeed] technique!” Wait before you power up!


    “Why would I wait!” Because this boss music needs strings!


    “Is this some stupid pun?” At that moment the boss music intensified and I ran lightning through some special wires that I set up and they started to vibrate mimicking the sound of string instruments and made it play along with the piano. At the moment the boss music had piano and violins playing! Although the violin sound is actually some wires. The strings added to the boss music and it sounded epic. Everyone, including my buddies and Paula, looked at me in shock and surprise. I totally didn''t use a stupid amount of time to master this, the only string instrument I can’t mimic well is the piano because it is secretly also a percussion instrument. I''m also not going to tell my buddies that I gave myself 3 months to train while they got only 1. I have a lot of skills to perfect ok! One month wouldn''t be enough. If you were curious, this is what the 2 tails were for. I said as I manipulated the wires to adjust the pitch of the string part of the boss music.


    “I’m baffled, I don''t even know how to react to this.” You can react by powering up! The boss music got more intense! Paul powered up properly now although a bit late. I used the lightning I stored up earlier to kickstart a big [accel step]. Paul blurred and various afterimages appeared that sent out multiple slashes. I threw more daggers and more wires to block them while speeding up more and accumulating more lightning. The whole area was now filled with electrified wires and flying daggers from my side and sword slashes from Paul’s side. At this point, it would just be a matter of time before he would be defeated. The wires formed a kind of cage because as long as Paul was in its area of effect, he would have no chance of defeating me. Not that he would if he was outside either. I wasn''t aiming anywhere with these because just getting close to the wires or daggers would get you zapped by the purple lightning running through it.


    Paul tried to get out of the area of effect but I simply moved with him. This attack is centered around me so if he can escape from me, he can escape from this. Paul was fast enough to still keep up with me but I kept using [accel steps] and [accel turns] so a difference started to show where he had an idea where I was but was unable to react in time. The lightning wrapped thick around the wires. At this moment it looked like there were wires inside a lightning attack instead of lightning running through the wires. I started to circulate nature magic through my system. Another [accel turn] and this death ball of purple lightning turned red.


    “Aarrgh” Paul took a lot of damage. This attack isn''t even close to finishing but I’ll have to finish it here, I don''t want to vaporize Paul. I made sure the daggers would miss him because the daggers in this attack do the most damage, if he gets hit head-on by them, they will punch holes through him. This attack has 3 dangerous elements. The wires are the least dangerous I can use them to restrict and/or bind opponents. I don''t think anything can escape from this attack because they need to out-speed me to achieve that so don''t use it for that. The second part is the lightning running through the wires. At a point, I don''t need the wires anymore because it becomes so thick that it just turns into a death ball of lightning that can be moved by only the daggers. This is the part that will probably do the most damage during the execution of this technique because it will constantly damage whatever is trapped.


    The daggers do the most damage on a single hit but I don''t think I need to use them because for now, the lightning is enough. Opponents I would use the dagger part on would probably be the Mountain with his Diamond skin on. Anyways I finished off this technique which I named [Dagger Torrent]. I dashed at Paul and hit him with a palm strike augmented with nature magic. This knocked him out but also sped up his natural healing. I got pretty good at using nature energy now. The piano stopped playing but the strings took over. I added some more instrument sounds. Now that I was in control of the [Boss music], I made it speed up again and increase the intensity once more. My buddies seemed to be wrapping up and this is the push they needed. I sat down and inspected my feet. I didn''t go fast enough to wreck my feet, good, I applied nature magic to my feet to be sure.


    [Aurora bearealis]! I looked on at how Ted used a flashy multi-colored move and made Paula concede, is it me or does his bear thingy look smaller than before? I guess he was running low on mana. And [Aurora bearealis]? I thought we wouldn''t be yelling our attack names because it sounds stupid. I guess he wants everyone to know what stupid pun he made.


    Paula and my buddies approached me. You had some cool flashy skills there! You guys did well too.


    “I’m very impressed, you guys came far in just one day” Wait let me get down for this. Down?


    So, there is something I’ve omitted. Whatever you just saw me do wasn''t the real me. I pointed toward the ceiling directly above the entrance and dispelled my clone, which was the one I''d been describing the point of view of.


    So, what I was doing was covering myself in an illusion and letting my clone fight. I jumped down. I had a bow made out of frost in my hand and had 3 small ice orbs rotating around 2 of the tails I had out each. What the! Wait, you made a clone beat Paul? And what is this uhh frost mode you have going on?


    Just in case Paul and Paula had some nasty tricks up their sleeve. I canceled my frost bow and retracted my tails and returned back to normal. I’m not sure I want to know but what were you planning to do if they had nasty tricks?


    Snipe them. Snipe them?


    Snipe them. You know what, never mind, some things are better if we don''t know.


    “Not only did you beat Paul, but you also did that with a clone? I guess that is to be expected of a mythical beast. You three also put in a lot of work. I was planning to go easy on you in this test but you forced me to get more serious than I planned to. I have one request though, please don''t mention to Paul that you beat him with a clone.” Sure. I have a request for you too Paula, I assume we passed the test but could we hold another battle on the last day? You 2 against us 4. Ooh! I like that idea! If you want to do just a 2v3 and let Agnis sit out that would be good too!


    Hey!


    “I will talk about that with Paul but I''m sure he would want a rematch, and Agnis, you can stop the music now.” Oh, yeh. I stopped the music. It felt weird this silence.


    “You guys passed, I want to give you some more information about this root and town but I''m tired and I want to do this together with Paul, do you guys mind if we have this conversation tomorrow? Sure, Do I need to carry Paul up?


    “If you would be so kind.” Ted took Paul on his shoulder and carried him to Paul and Paula’s house. We made some tea for Paula and left their house. Good job guys! Yeah, we owned them!


    Your attacks looked cool! That bear thingy looked super strong and it was interesting to see Greg flying all over the place, no offense Raishin but your new attack looks lame but I guess it works. Pff, I channeled my inner Agnis, I thought that the opponents would be so annoyed if the cause of their defeat was some glitter!


    Hmm, not gonna lie, that is something that I would probably do. You had some weird flashy attacks too, I saw you defying gravity and making lightning umbrellas, and uhm what was that last thing? It looked like a dense mass of lightning. Did you use the gravity magic branch?


    Nah, just some wire stuff and evasion. Talking about wires that music was so cool! Yeah, what''s the deal with that music, did you really spend time mastering that useless skill?


    Hey! How rude! [Boss music] is just as important as the boss fight itself! Agreed! Well, it didn''t seem like any of his other skills suffered because he went for that at least it added some exciting element to the fight.


    Too bad I couldn''t finish my [Dagger torrent] everything just gets defeated before I can finish it... Wait what? Your lightning shifted red, there is more to that attack?


    Hmm, it is more a technique than an attack because it attacks uhhm. I don''t know how many times it attacks but the number probably has more than 5 digits. Even the spirit sisters in my simulation couldn''t stay alive long enough for me to finish it. That... hm how? Did you beat them?


    Well since I''m in charge of using crowd control to keep our opponents occupied, I fought multiple opponents at once but once they got stuck in it, they couldn''t escape and they got defeated. So, you CC’ed them to death? Cc’ed?


    Short for crowd control. Ah. you guys and your gaming terms.


    Well, in the beginning, my execution was rough but after fixing that I could trap both Guyani and Nayani in it and defeat them. … so, who said that control skills don''t do damage again? Hmm, that is impressive, I''ve only won against Guyani once I couldn''t reproduce it nor beat Nayani.


    Wait you beat her too? Don''t worry Ted, I didn''t beat any of them, we can be losers together!


    Nooo! I don''t want to be in the same group as you! So how strong is that technique in theory Agnis? And that frost bow attack you had on standby? Hmm, the frost bow attack is a modified, stronger, and 99% safe version of the attack that I used to one-shot Guyani, the [Dagger torrent] uhm I don''t know, I haven''t fought anything tanky enough to survive it long enough. It eats a lot of stamina though. give it several years and I can spam that attack! Which is one of the reasons I let a clone do it. I can''t use any other clone besides that one while doing that though.


    I wonder when you will use some skills that don''t have any vague or dangerous side effects. I have those too but they are boring!


    Being healthy is boring?! Stop taking stupid risks because you want to be flashy! Meh, so what are your skills and techniques called?


    Oh my [Bear avatar]? It''s pretty straightforward, it fixes my range problem, and it''s really useful! I got my [Lightning glitter]! Whatever gets hit by it won''t be able to evade my lightning attacks! So, it''s useless if you can''t use lightning?


    Ugh, that''s true but there aren''t many opponents that are immune to lightning Right? No clue, how about you Greg? I haven''t thought about how to name it, all I''m doing is manipulating gravity, shadow skills, and earth magic to fling myself and my hammer around.


    Why don''t you call it [Hammertime]! Rejected! How about [Gregoryball]


    Rejected! How about [Is it a bird, is it a plane, no it''s Gregory!]


    Too long and rejected! What is a plane by the way? No clue. I read this somewhere. Weirdo. Ok, Mr. Boss music, who is the weirdo here? Hahaha, you''re all weirdos. We talked more about our training experience and skills. Formed some incomplete strategies based on them and headed home. I was pretty tired, not from the battle but still from that training. As I was heading home, I bumped into something.


    “Hey watch out!” Oh no, not this again. My bad! I tried to walk away but a hand grabbed my shoulder.


    “You again! I will have to pay you back for what you did the last time!” Alright, get on with it then, I''m too tired to play Donkey ball with you,


    “Haha glad that we got to an understanding!” Donkey and his friends surrounded me. What are you guys doing outside so late by the way? Isn''t it bedtime for you guys?


    “Pfft! We’re not kids! We decide when we go to bed!” Some random friend of Donkey thought that was a good comeback. You say that but holding petty revenge like this is something children would do though.


    “Ha, you would know because you’re still a kid!” Donkey looked at his friends because he thought he made another good comeback. Seriously where does this guy learn his failed logic? So besides beating me up, do you have any other ways to settle this petty revenge? I''m sure someone who is not a kid would find a sophisticated way of handling this.


    “Huh, Donkey what does this guy mean with those words?” “It means he’s afraid of us! Let''s kick his ass!” I sighed, I wondered how to deal with them in a low-effort manner. How good are your defensive skills guys?


    “Haha, we’ve never lost a battle against similar-aged opponents! We’re unbeatable!” I''ll take you for your word then. Donkey and co rushed at me, all ready to cast some magic. These guys have 0 coordination. I dropped some wires and formed a magic circle on the floor with them. Say hi to the Boshi gulls for me, if you see a bulky gull punch it for me, please!


    “What? What is this!” The magic circle activated and created a wind blast that launched them high into the air. I stepped out of its activation radius, of course, I don''t want to get launched. I might use this for something cool in the future. I looked up but I blasted them quite high so without my Elgards eyes I couldn''t see them. Anyone worth their salt could deal with a fall of any height, I think. I continued my way home. I greeted Philip and Hera who seemed to have a late dinner. Philip talked with his mouth full, choked, coughed, and spat out his food. I see where this is going. I told them I would go to bed early before they started their argument routine.