Freja screamed in rage, shattering the debris around her and ring up at us. Her green eyes glowed with anger, but they were ever so slightly changing. Her hair and usual admiral clothes were a mess, showing Elysia had done some damage.


    Speaking of which, I turned to her to see what she nned on doing only to realise she had grown a pair of bat wings. I was a bit taken aback, as a fox and batbo was not something I thought would be possible.


    However, when I blinked, she suddenly disappeared from my view. Turning my head, she was already charging straight to Freja without a word. Panic filled my heart, as I still wasn''t sure of her current skill level.


    It was apparent that she was most likely Tier 10 now, but my overprotective self was still worried about her. What if she wasn''t strong enough and was flying straight to her death… just like she usually does. Bah! Forget it, I just needed to trust her like I always have instead of wasting time overthinking.


    *


    <General POV>


    Elysia wore a massive grin on her face and her eyes shone a slight red. She instantly activated her bloodline art, turning her hair aze, her mes red as blood. It was quite a sight to behold, shocking even Freja with her vampire lord aura.


    "You damn vixen daree at me barehanded? I shall kill you first then!" Freja didn''t show any hesitation, her cockiness shining through. She readied her ck sword and shed towards Elysia, sending ck mes in an arc towards her.


    Right before the mes hit Elysia, she once again vanished and appeared right next to Freja.


    "What?" Freja didn''t know how Elysia avoided the attack so easily, as thetter had barely a fraction of a second to make such a move. It was so fast that Freja couldn''t even register it with her eyes.


    Before Freja knew it, there was a ming hand on her face, and suddenly she was being crushed into the ground.


    "This is for touching my wife." Elysia''s eyes were dark, showing no remorse whatsoever. She tightened her grip even further as she full on sted Freja''s face with her mes.


    "Wife? I haven''t even proposed yet." Shaman floated closer, not letting her guard down. Doubtful that Freja could be beaten this easily.


    While Elysia was burning Freja''s face to a crisp, suddenly blood spikes from around her body shot up towards Elysia forcing her to back away.


    Freja quickly returned to her feet, but now the skin on her face was seared away. Shaman was surprised that it didn''t do more damage, but then again, that would have been too easy.


    "MOTHER FUCKERS!" Freja screamed at the top of her lungs and the ck me erupted from below her. However, even as the mes were engulfing her surroundings, Elysia once again dove straight in.


    There was no fear on her face as she looked at Freja with her death re as if looking at some insignificant piece of flesh.


    Elysia twisted her body as she got closer and prepared a me covered kick. Only then did the furious Freja finally realise that she was already once more under attack, raising her sword to block the oing kick to the face.


    Elysia made direct contact with the de, her mes protecting her from the de''s edge. The kick pushed Freja off her feet,unching her into a few buildings and putting out her wild mes.


    At this point, Shaman was questioning the strength of Freja, as Elysia was just bullying her now.


    "I need to start getting in on this action and end this quickly." Shaman realised that she hadn''t even done much yet. On the bright side, if shebines her strength with Elysia, this fight could be over in the next few minutes.


    Elysia was already chasing after Freja, so Shaman quickly followed, hoping there would be a chance for her to jump in.


    "Enough!" Freja yelled from within the crumbling building, rushing out with her sword. She caught Elysia just as thetter reached the building, her sword now inches away from Elysia''s neck. In those few milliseconds, Elysia leant back, narrowly dodging the de. Yet Freja''s sword did not swing past Elysia, instead it suddenly lost its momentum entirely only to re-angle itself toward Elysia.


    Freja swang down, aiming to decapitate Elysia, only to be met with Kotetsu instead. Elysia, having received a brief moment to retaliate, ced her hands on the ground and spun around, kicking Freja in the stomach, pushing her back slightly.


    Keeping up the pressure, Shaman swung again, forcing Freja to block while Elysia came in hot with another punch. This time, though, Freja reacted by raising a wall of blood to block the punch.


    What Freja didn''t expect however was for her topletely lose control over said wall, which suddenly shot blood spikes aimed at her ribs. Panic filled Freja''s face from this potentially fatal blow, but for some reason she didn''t try to move.


    It was then that Freja dropped her pretenses as she gave a chilling smile, then everything froze.


    Not even a moment had gone by and Freja was no longer in front of them. Then, secondster cuts appeared all over their bodies, ck mes covering them. Blood spurted from their wounds as they both fell to their knees awash with pain. Freja had cut their ligaments and joints with uncanny precision, making it almost impossible to move.


    "Did you think I was that weak? You underestimate how long I''ve been a Tier 10 and how much the system benefits me." Freja was up in the air above, looking down upon thempletely fine. All the damage done up to this point was gone, as if she hadn''t taken a single hit.


    "For fuck sakes, time magic? Since when could we have reality altering magic?" Shaman instantly knew what had happened, as there was no other exnation for it. Time had frozen as well as rewinded, but surely there must be a massive cost to using such magic.


    "As much as I would like to do my viin speech and exin everything, frankly, I''m too annoyed to care."


    Shaman and Elysia looked up at Freja, who raised her sword high, ready tounch her ck mes directly onto the.


    "What makes you think that you''ve won already?" Elysia still had her dead re as she covered herself as well as Shaman in her own mes, healing them both.


    "Because you are weak, Insignificant foxes, mere sacrifices for the greater good. Now be good girls and stay still." Freja pointed her sword down and sent a concentrated st directly at them, hoping to disintegrate them instantly. Her ck mes didn''t just burn their target no, they decayed it so quickly it would be destroyed on a molecr level.


    However, thanks to Elysia''s healing me, Shaman was able to move in time to open up a portal, escaping the mes. It was certainly a close call and they would need to reevaluate how they approach Freja.


    "Tch." Freja clicked her tongue as she saw that her mes hadpletely missed.


    *


    <Dimesional space>


    "Shit that was a close one." Shaman and Elysia were on top of each other as they had dived into the portal to avoid the attack.


    "You can say that again. If it wasn''t for that time magic, we would have had her." Elysia''s face had returned to normal and she was already taking advantage of the position they were in to hug.


    "There has to be some kind of condition to activate it, but as much as I want to n, we have to go back out there before she targets Silver and the others." Shaman knew they were on a time crunch, so the more time they spent chatting here, the more they risked.


    "Mhm, let''s go back out now." Elysia agreed, so without wasting any time, Shaman opened up a portal below them and they began to fall through the sky together.


    Freja instantly found their new location and rushed over to finish the job.


    "Let''s just go all out, Elysia, no need to preserve any mana." Holding back was a habit of mine, as there was always something to do after the fight, but there was no need this time. If they wanted to beat Freja, they couldn''t risk giving her the time to activate her time magic again.


    "Fufu~ thats my kind ofnguage. While it was certainly enjoyable to punch that ugly face of hers, let''s see if she can reverse her way out of trouble when I''m serious!".


    "Alright, here shees. If you figure out the conditions to activate her time magic, let me know right away." This would be the key to winning the battle, the true roadblock preventing them from doing anysting damage.


    "Enough strategy, you vixens. Time to be good little pets like you were all those months ago and die for me!"