Her face was what came close to Ken first, burning with an intense desire to cut him down. She slashed upwards so fast that the air whistled, and without even touching the floor, she managed to cut it.

Ken’s eyes followed the sword path. She was fast, a good amount faster than him, but he didn’t need to match her speed to block her attack, he just had to predict where her attack would be heading.

He stepped back and immediately positioned his sword at the right place while shifting into his stance. Her attack collided with his sword and sparks flew in every direction. His hands were knocked back due to the power of her attack, but he gathered the momentum and used it to retreat even more.

She saw this and frowned. "Don’t try to run," she roared and placed her legs down, blasting ahead again and thrusting at him full speed.

"Who said I was running?" Ken replied with a confident smirk. He pushed forward as well, acting like he was going to counter the attack, only to change it at the very last moment into a parry, allowing her sword to slide down the side of his sword. Sparks flew and they passed themselves, both turning around very fast, but not attacking.

’She is extremely strong physically, but she fights by the book, that’s the one advantage that I have against her,’ he thought to himself.

’This kid, I can tell that I have more strength than him, but even then it’s so hard to see a clear path to taking him down. I have trained with the sword for more than seventy years at this point, my blade is impeccable, a young human should not be capable of stopping my attacks this way,’ Sierra was fuming in her mind. She could not see a world where Ken would be blocking her attacks.

"Fine, since you are so good, then let’s kick this up a bit, I hope you can keep up."

Normally, what Ken had displayed was enough to show his competence, but it was clear that it was not the issue anymore. She wanted to fight, the excitement had started rising in her head and now she wanted to get even more.

"Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to keep up, so you better not slack off, I’ll not forgive that if you do," Ken replied.

She attacked again, a wide slash coming down, but Ken noticed very fast, her movements were wide and overexaggerated.

’It’s a feint, she wants me to give my all for a powerful block. Tch, didn’t know she had it in her.’

He watched the attack come and then made a move to block, only for her to stop the attack midair and then very quickly pull back and thrust. His hands were already to the side, there was no way that he could recover, or so she thought. As her attack got close, it was deflected.

Her eyes widened in that instant as she watched her blade get moved to the side. Ken didn’t allow the moment to go to waste, he pressed his foot hard on the ground and charged at her, stabbing at her now that she was open. There was no way that she could dodge this, her very well executed feint had failed when she believed it could not, there was no counter for this.

As the sword was about to reach her body, an aura powered with mana exploded out of her.

BOOM

It slammed into Ken and threw him back, he slammed hard into the ground and rolled near the edge. Every elf was stunned, they had just witnessed someone force their head guard into using her mana and activating her sword aura.

Sierra was also shocked, she looked at her hands and a look of anger formed, but then faded, what followed was acceptance. She looked up at Ken who was getting on his feet.

"You forced me into using mana, you have won, human," she said.

"Won? That’s not how you win a fight." Ken said, he looked her right in the eye. "If you have something in your arsenal that you trained for years to master, then that’s your weapon.

It is not cheating to use what you have learned for so long, and I’m also not bitch enough to take that win I didn’t deserve. So get off your high horse and fight with all that you got, the only one allowed to sit on a high horse here is me," he declared.

"Is he mad? If she uses her true strength he’ll die."

"What’s wrong with this human, does he not like to live?"

The elves asked all around, shocked by what Ken said.

Sierra looked at him, her eyes wide, she was confused, what in the world could be wrong with this kid?

She looked for a few seconds, then her blank face shifted into a wide smile.

"Hahahaha, fine! Then I’ll not hold back anymore. Let’s see how much you can take," she roared and immediately unleashed her mana in full form. It surged like a violent storm, rushing in all directions.

Some elves that were closer were blasted back by the force, it slammed into Aren as well and pushed him a few feet back. He looked down at his feet and then smiled before looking back at her.

"I guess this is the true strength of the head guard, but if you think I’ll lose, you are mistaken," he declared.

"Hahaha, then come and show what you are worth," she yelled.

Ken pressed hard against the ground, exploding forward like a rocket, his gaze locked on her. He covered the distance in one second and lunged at her with a stab, she didn’t move until the last moment, and then her hands moved, so fast that it could not be followed.

CLANG!

The collision knocked Ken right back, he skidded a few feet back, his entire body numb from just that impact.