?


    Shaman, hearing her name being called, felt a rush of anxiety ovee her body. She wasn''t as worried at first as it would only be a mock duel, but now that the time had actuallye, facing ina was much more frightening than she imagined.


    "You''ll be alright." Elysia walked back into line looking extremely exhausted which only made Shaman worry. No one was able to tell what happened at the end of their duel, so for Elysia to look so pale it must have been tough.


    "A-alright." In the end, Shaman took a step forward and grabbed ina''s out-stretched hand. Teleporting to the middle of the field, ina took a few steps back, giving Shaman some space.


    "Start whenever you are ready." This time ina was going to go a bit easier to gauge what Shaman is capable of. For Elysia, ina already knew the kind of test she had to give to find out if Elysia was a good candidate for the ck me. For Shaman however, ina would let her show her talents before choosing a course of action.


    Shaman took a deep breath before pulling Kotetsu out of her inventory. This instantly grabbed Jane''s attention as she recognised the design.


    "Is that one of my swords?" She needed to get a closer look to confirm if it was, but it looked extremely simr to one of her failed experiments.


    "Possibly, it did look familiar when I saw it, but I never saw a sword like thate out of your forge." When she first met Shaman, Himeko suspected her Kotetsu belonged to Jane, but it was quite far removed from the cksmith''s usual style that HImeko shrugged it off.


    "Well, that''s because I threw out every sword of this style. It was meant to be a sword that would be able to evolve and get stronger as the user did. It''s abination of monster materials and cores, but I was unable to create a stable sword without it falling apart."


    "I did however manage to create a katana with the only difference being that I used a dormant magic crystal to facilitate the monster cores'' energy. The katana in the end did nothing and was just a regr weapon so I threw it away thinking it was another failure…. However, somehow that sword is now in her hands and has even managed to evolve." Jane tried racking her brain and the only possible weapon it could be was the in katana she thought was useless.


    "What materials did you use?" Himeko was curious as the sword had an alloy that resembled a mix of different materials, but she didn''t know of what kind.


    "If I remember, I used dragon skin, Serpent scales and…. Kitsune ws." It just hit Jane in the face as to why the sword could suddenly be working.


    "The user needs to bepatible with the sword, otherwise it''s just an iron stick. How did I not think to do that sooner? And what would I have to do for a human to be able to use it… would Human flesh even work for that?." Jane''s sphemous thoughts leaked out which terrified Himeko, but truth be told that might actually be the material needed.


    "Let''s wait until the fight is over." Himeko didn''t want Jane to get too ahead of herself since for all they know the sword wasn''t even made by her.


    "Oops sorry, you''re right." Jane quickly stopped talking and decided to postpone thinking about the sword until she got to see it up close.


    *


    "Interesting sword, now show me what you can do." ina was impressed with Shaman''s weapon as she felt the magical energy ooze out from the materials used to make it.


    Shaman didn''t say anything in response letting her actions speak for themselves. She was going to use everything she could in hopes ofnding at least one scratch.


    Shaman activated her [royal bloodline arts], surprising ina with her eye-catching stardust effect which danced all around Shaman''s body. It felt simr to Elysia''s hybrid form, but it was clearly much stronger which made ina raise her guard.


    Shaman pushed her hybrid form as much as she could, causing her bright blue eyes to look like you''re staring right into the center of a gxy. The stardust that floated around her body looked as if it was cutting the fabric of reality and opening tears in space itself.


    ina was almost mesmerised by the effect, but she had seen this exact thing before.


    ''Cecilia''s daughter.. looks like she has grown up well.'' ina smiled hoping that this would be an exciting fight. What Shaman disyed was way higher than what her own tier should allow, but because of that she was still limited on how much oomph she could get out of her ability.


    However, while ina was appreciating the hybrid form, Shaman vanished from where she was standing. As Shaman appeared right in front of ina swinging Kotetsu, thetter tried to block the katana, but the tip of the de vanished before making impact.


    A stardust portal then opened right behind ina''s back with the deing out.


    "Nice try, but you''re not quick enough." ina expected this kind of attack as this very move was used against her before. Enhancing her tail with mana, the spade at it''s tip blocked Kotetsu from piercing her back.


    "Are you sure?" Shaman smiled while ice formed on the de and all around her. Spikes shot directly towards ina, but before they could touch her skin ck mes burst out from her body melting the ice.


    Shaman quickly vanished back into her stardust space to avoid the fire, but then ina did something Shaman thought was impossible. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    While in her stardust dimension, Shaman suddenly noticed ck cracks starting to form. Shortly after, ck mes exploded into the dimension tearing a hole through it.


    "So this is what it''s like inside." ina stepped through the hole she created while smirking. The shock on Shaman''s face was amusing since she could only assume this was the first time Shaman had seen someone break into her own dimension.


    "H-how?" Shaman had been feeling confident after the first few seconds of the fight, but to see her one safe zone be so easily torn open, the rush of anxiety came back with vengeance.


    "No time for answers, show me more." ina charged at Shaman swinging her axe, wondering how she would react. This forced Shaman to snap out of the small panic attack she was having.


    Using wind to increase her speed, Shaman moved to the side, just barely avoiding the axe swing. She then switched to using water, an element she has underutilised so far.


    Thankfully like most of her other elements, she had achieved the ability to use them freely and was not bound to only using skills.


    "Oh?" ina was impressed with the number of elements Shaman was using. She knew beforehand Shaman was capable, but didn''t know to what extent.


    Water burst out of Kotetsu creating a water de that constantly moved like a rapid stream. Shaman also formed water tridents around ina preventing her from moving.


    However, ina needed only light a small fire on her finger and all the water evaporated into steam. This crushed Shaman''s spirits as it seemed like ina had no weaknesses when it came to the elements. Her mes were just so powerful that they cancelled out the usual counter elements.


    Shaman jumped back while exiting the stardust dimension hoping it would give her some time to think, but ina did not let that happen. Once again shattering the barriers of the dimension, she walked through like it didn''t exist.


    ''Fuck.'' Shaman was at a loss for what to do next since almost all her elements could be countered.


    "More!" ina was trying to push Shaman, making her desperate enough to use everything.


    ''Wait, my gxy ice.'' Shaman had almost forgotten the sub-element she had gotten in the dungeon. It needed to be consciously used since rather than using her usual ice it was a whole different element.


    With something new to try, Shaman used her domain which had a significant change once again. The flowers now took the same look as her hybrid form, looking like tiny gxy flowers. There were also different colours among the flowers representing each of the group member''s eye colours.


    ina stoodpletely still wanting to see what Shaman will do. It made ina happy that there was more to see so she wanted to give Shaman a chance to perform.


    Shaman dashed forward while covering Kotetsu in gxy ice and creating ice spikes to send through portals. As she got closer, Shaman sent a handful of ice spikes at once praying that the ck me wouldn''t melt the ice to catch ina off guard.


    ina, though, would not use any mes and perfectly positioned her body to dodge all the spikes. She was able to sense where the mana formed in the air and was able to picture in her head the exact pose needed to avoid them.


    It was to be expected, but it still baffled Shaman that ina was able to make all these choices in a matter of seconds.


    Nheless, Shaman swung with Kotetsu while also sending ice spikes off the de straight for ina''s neck and body. The Gxy Ice shined brightly as it came into existence, its many miniature suns making it almost too blinding to look at.


    Just as Shaman hoped, ina went to light her fire to stop all the ice, and yet even when she did nothing happened.


    ina''s eyes widened as the ice was refusing to melt, forcing her to enter her demon form. This allowed her to harden her skin with demon essence causing the ice to shatter upon impact.


    Shaman was happy to see she managed to get a hit in despite the ice doing absolutely no damage.


    After all the ice was gone ina dismissed her demon form and smiled at Shaman. It was unclear if the fight was over, but ina stabbed her axe into the ground signifying that it had.


    "Well done, I''ll take you on as a disciple." ina patted Shaman''s head, extremely happy with the results.