"Wha—!" Ste was dumbfounded as she became hot-headed again. "What are you doing?"


    She hurriedly chased after him while gritting her teeth.


    It might look like he was running away, but Noel knew Ste''s personality. So, instead of letting her befortable with her serious mode, he would prefer to fight her in this state since she was easier to manipte.


    Noel looped around a tree to use it as a shield.


    "Do you think I will fall for this trick? I know you''re going to use this tree as your shield tounch a sneak attack. All I have to do is to slice it through!" Ste smirked and waved her sword, striking the tree.


    *Clink!*


    "!!!" Ste widened her eyes when she heard the clicking sound. She looked at the tree and realized it was only half-cut. In other words, she couldn''t prate the tree with that swing.


    "What? Although Ste hasn''t used her full power, she shouldn''t have any problem cutting a tree!" Zion gasped.


    "Take a look behind that tree!" Jonathan pointed at the rune behind the tree.


    It was Noel''s Hardening Rune. This was the rune he got afterpleting the previous mission in the valley.


    Yes, he had opened the Spirit Enchantment System, so he could boost everything around him, including the tree.N?vel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive ? material.


    Now that Ste''s sword was stuck in the tree, Noel looped around and struck her from the opposite side.


    Ste clicked her tongue and formed a wind barrier to block this swing. But as expected, Noel used his Ignition Sword again, sting the wind barrier.


    ''Got her.'' Noel smirked, believing he had hit her with this. It seemed his strategy of riling her up worked.


    "Or so you thought…" To his surprise, Ste answered with a light-hearted tone as the wind blew away the smoke from the explosion, revealing Ste''s condition.


    Unexpectedly, Ste was standing next to the tree with her sword fully pulled out from the tree.


    "Hmm?" Noel frowned, never expecting this from Ste. He looked back for a second and realized Ste directed the explosion to the sword so that it knocked off the tree. Ste shouldn''t be capable of this feat.


    Ste answered his doubt by saying, "You would have got me if it was a month ago. Thanks to a certain ident, I realized my weakness. If I were not so hot-headed that I ended up overlooking things, I wouldn''t have had to experience all that stuff. That''s why no matter how hot-headed I will be, I''ll keep my mind as cool as possible."


    That was right. Noel wasn''t the only one who had gotten stronger. Ste and all the people in the Zero Squad had tried to fix their mistakes so an ident like Noel''s death wouldn''t happen anymore.


    Rose might be the only one who didn''t have time to get stronger due to not being able to ovee her grief.


    Noel couldn''t help but feel gratified that these people still tried to do their best to improve.


    He took a deep breath and pointed his sword at her neck again, challenging her.


    "Let''s start again, shall we?" Ste smirked and jumped forward, trying to catch Noel off guard by moving before he could run away.


    However, Noel had prepared for this since he used his Sword Fire to block Ste''s sword.


    The wind on Ste''s sword started rampaging as if trying to overwhelm Noel''s fire, not wanting to lose again like earlier.


    Unfortunately for her, the result was still disappointing as she could see her sword reddened as if it was heated up. If this continued, her sword would be soft and eventually be moltenva, so she had to jump back, avoiding the worst thing.


    Noel took advantage of the situation to run away, looping around the tree again.


    "Heh. Do you think the same trick will work on me twice?!" Ste smirked, moving toward the tree. When she was about to strike it, she stopped and looped around to fool Noel.


    At that time, he heard Noel''s voice.


    "Yeah."


    "!!!" Ste''s body trembled as she instinctively ducked down. Suddenly, Noel''s sword cut through the tree, almost slicing her neck.


    ''He faked it this time?'' Ste started sweating, never thinking someone who had just graduated could be this clever.


    Sadly, Noel hadn''t stopped there. Noel had waited for a bit before slicing down the tree because he had prepared another trap for her.


    The ground she stopped earlier had been embedded with a Softening Rune.


    When Ste tried to get up, the ground wobbled, destabilizing her form.


    "What?!" Ste stomped the ground to get more force to stabilize her form, but Noel took this chance to form another rune.


    Chain Bind Rune.


    "A chain this time?" Ste narrowed her eyes and released her wind to deflect the chain. She thought the chains would be packed with a lot of power, but surprisingly, the wind easily carried them away. "Huh?! The chains aren''t that powerful?"


    Ste was confused for a moment, but she didn''t know the chains ended up hitting two trees behind her. Noel had nted a Softening Rune on those two trees, so when the chains hit them, it would crush the trunks and the trees would end up falling in her direction.


    "!!!" Ste turned around and created a wind barrier to blow away the trees, thinking, ''This new guy is amazing. He is utilizing that weird power that looks like a Spirit Enchantment to confuse me. Because I don''t know the meaning behind them, I end up like this.


    ''If hebines with the extraordinary me, he won''t be an easy opponent. As long as he gets more experience and more Spiritual Energy to advance to a Spirit Master, I''m afraid I won''t be his opponent.


    ''Though, the battle is not over. I have to get up and chase him aga—'' She suddenly stopped her thought when she realized Noel had raised his hand as if giving up.


    "I have done everything to show my strength. I believe this is enough, so… let''s end it here."


    Veins bulged on Ste''s forehead. Noel had excited her this much with her power, yet, he left right after. If she could hit him right now, she wouldn''t hesitate to do so.


    "You bastard!"