"Hm?"

From within the heavy faceplate came a slightly puzzled sound.

It wasn’t because of that humiliating “trash mob” line, but because of this sudden change.

Scarlet light flickered. Zagu’s gaze finally fell properly onto the human girl in front of him—this human girl who was fighting him with two strange lumps propped on her chest.

In the span of a single breath, he could clearly feel her strength surge with the ferocity of a scallion being yanked straight out of the ground, rising an entire notch at once. And as those dazzling waves of light pollution flashed, he could even vaguely feel a faint stinging against his skin.

If the previous level had only made Zagu wave a hand as casually as shooing away flies, then now, this human girl finally had some qualification worth his attention.

No—considering that her realm was still only at Fourth Tier peak, this strength could already be described as terrifying.

The imperial genius girl who was said to have defeated that Lion King’s son, Muen Campbell—was it her?

"So that’s how it is. No wonder Basaroka lost to you. Before, I thought he’d simply been careless, but now... you do have that kind of strength."

Zagu pulled his spear out of the metal thorn-grove and gave it an easy shake. The spear trembled, blasting apart the iron chunks stuck to it.

Battle qi that was almost condensed into something tangible clung to it, and a scarlet, vicious hue began to prowl along the cold spearhead.

"But so what? Even if your grade goes from D to C, you still can’t beat A. The gap between us is a chasm like this."

Zagu stepped forward, then suddenly thrust.

Even though there were still dozens of meters between him and Ariel, who had just been knocked flying, that spear was like it pierced straight through space itself, stabbing toward her fatal point—straight at her chest.

Clang—

Steel met steel, sparks exploding.

That burst of light was so intense that it made everything around them seem dim by comparison.

Ariel lifted her sword upward in a supremely exquisite posture, forcibly breaking Zagu’s spear momentum, but the spear still slipped past her shoulder, leaving behind a slowly blooming, enchanting blood-flower.

"Quit your fucking bullshit!"

Ariel cursed in irritation, and the waves of her chest surged with her violent movement.

"I’m at least S right now!"

Which aspect was S didn’t matter at all.

S was S!

DuangDuangDuang S was still S!

"Skyfire—Scorch the Plains!"

Firelight erupted!

Under Divine Favor’s control, the flames burned savagely, coiling around the greatsword in Ariel’s hands. The bandages wrapped around the Skyfire greatsword finally scattered completely, revealing a solemn blade body carved with red-gold patterns.

Battle qi roared. The amount of battle qi inside Ariel was far less than Zagu’s—his realm surpassed hers by a whole major tier and more—but thanks to her teacher’s {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} guidance that went beyond this realm, and her relentless hard training, in a small range, the degree of compression and refinement of her battle qi did not lose to Zagu’s at all.

Even if it was only a small range, not all of it—combined with all these BUFFs she had cast on herself, for a short time, she had the qualification to collide head-on with this so-called First Demon General!

Ariel swung her sword again, fearless!

"Oh?"

The voice inside the heavy faceplate shifted again—this time, from puzzlement to surprise.

Even Zagu himself hadn’t expected that his evaluation of one person would rise twice within this single minute.

This was the kind of thing that even he—the strongest under the eight Grand Dukes, the dignified First Demon General—would feel startled by.

So that’s how it is. With this kind of stubbornness and fearlessness, no wonder even in the middle of battle, she insisted on keeping those two strange things on her chest to train herself.

So there were humans who were this fanatical about battle too.

But—

Zagu suddenly clenched his spear. Veins bulged on the back of his hand.

The astonishment in his scarlet pupils, in a short span, turned into complete killing intent.

If someone like this were given time to grow, she would definitely become a grave menace hanging over the demon race’s heart.

Therefore... this one—must not be left alive!

Zagu let out a low shout. Blood-red aura swept out, shaking the entire tower top.

Facing that plain-scorching blaze, and the even more terrifying sword intent hidden within it, Zagu felt no fear at all—and had no need to fear. He charged straight in and swung his spear.

Boom!

There were no complicated moves, no exquisite martial techniques.

He simply swung.

But that alone was enough to make the fiercely burning fire collapse from the middle in an instant, like the sea in myth being split apart by a deity’s agent.

Ariel’s pupils shrank. She still did not retreat. Sword and spear collided again!

The shock roared like thunder!

The two locked in collision fell into a bizarre stillness in that instant.

Fine strands of patterns crawled upward along Ariel’s snowy neck—like dragon scales—yet shattered in the blink of an eye.

Those dazzling currents of light pollution kept circulating, rapidly consuming Ariel’s mana.

At the same time, the Beast Heart that had been added onto her was continuously pumping boiling blood through every limb and bone in her body, and her ears were filled with the drumbeat of her heartbeat.

And Zagu across from her...

Under that scarlet gaze, his eyes lowered in silence to the blood that seeped from a gap in the armor on his arm.

This was a completely frontal collision.

On the surface, they looked evenly matched.

But in reality... amid those heartbeat drums pounding like war drums, Ariel once again clearly heard the sound of flesh tearing and bones snapping.

Her injuries were far worse than Zagu’s.

That was only natural. Even if Ariel, through various special augmentations, temporarily gained an offense comparable to Zagu’s, that was only offense.

The physical gap brought by realm difference, the stamina gap, the defense gap—none of it could be erased.

It was like a child swinging a peerless treasure blade that blinded dog eyes, trading blows against a burly man holding a blade... even if the child’s blade could still wound the burly man, would the final outcome change?

No.

The gap was too large.

Ariel’s talent, effort, and luck were already enough to let her cross one chasm that was unreachable to ordinary people, but that didn’t mean she could cross every chasm.

And the size of the gap between Zagu and her was already beyond what “chasm” could even describe.

"Ariel, colliding head-on like this is an extremely stupid behavior."

Ariel’s teacher’s voice was extremely stern. "If you keep going like this, you won’t last more than a few exchanges."

"I know!"

Ariel swallowed the blood at her throat, a flash of madness passing through her eyes.

"The nutrients in my head haven’t been sucked away by the ones on my chest!"

The extinguished flames stirred again. Ariel only retreated two steps before she abruptly swung the Skyfire greatsword, meeting that terrifying spear.

Boom!

Ariel retreated again, her feet plowing deep gouges into the ground.

And Zagu gave her no chance to breathe—his spear was already following like a shadow.

Boom!

Ariel retreated again.

She raised both hands, trembling.

Both sleeves had already been reduced to dust in those collisions, revealing pale arms.

Boom!

Ariel was forced back.

Her arms were no longer pale, covered in cracked, bleeding fissures.

"Ariel, use that move—"

"Miss An is still here."

"Then I can use soul power—"

"No."

Ariel spat out a mouthful of pure blood. "For something like this, there’s no need for teacher to step in."

Boom!

Sword and spear threw off arcs of lightning.

Ariel simply stopped using any complicated moves at all, because those things were meaningless in front of a monster like Zagu, who had fused martial techniques and skill into every single motion.

No matter how exquisite the move, to a true grandmaster, it was nothing but a flowery stance full of openings.

So she only poured all her strength into the Skyfire in her hands.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Collision!

Collision!

Collision again!

The chain of impacts had already started to scramble Ariel’s senses.

She couldn’t tell blood from sweat, sky from ground.

Even the whole world began to blur.

But a sudden spike of pain, and a chill that came from her back, snapped her awareness much clearer.

With a glance out of the corner of her eye, Ariel realized she had already been driven to the edge of the tower top—half her body had been chiseled into the thick wall.

Gales surged in through the windows not far away, and once this already-cracked wall fully shattered, what awaited her would be a thousand-meter cliff of despair.

There was nowhere left to retreat.

"I have to say, you’re much stronger than I imagined."

Zagu stopped, drawing his spear back for the moment.

The surprise in his eyes had already turned into full admiration.

"With your realm, with your strength, to take this many of my spear strikes and not die—this is the first time I’ve seen it in two hundred years."

"Heh... two hundred years?"

Ariel braced herself against the broken stone rubble, gasped in pain a few times, then struggled upright and sneered.

"Two hundred years and this is all you’ve got? You’re not even a Crowned One. I still haven’t used my trump card."

"But you look like you’ve got at least dozens of bones broken all over your body."

"Breaking a few bones is a minor injury."

Ariel, wobbling, supported one arm with her other hand and cast healing magic there first, so she could keep gripping the greatsword in her hand.

Otherwise, if she couldn’t even lift the sword, that would be way too embarrassing.

"Is that so. In that case... I will give you a warrior’s respect, and in the most solemn way, send you to your death."

Zagu slowly raised his spear.

That killing intent of death brewed heavier and heavier.

After colliding with Ariel dozens of times, Ariel was practically at the end of an oil lamp’s wick, yet aside from a few negligible superficial wounds, his consumption was only about the level of having done a bit of intense exercise.

"But no matter what, to be able to fight me head-on for a full two minutes with this realm and strength—you’re already enough to—"

Zagu’s movement abruptly halted.

It was as if he had finally remembered something. His scarlet pupils stared at Ariel, and in that instant, a trace of shameful rage and fury finally surfaced—impossible to hide.

That’s right...

They had already been colliding for a full two minutes.

And he remembered what this human girl’s original goal had been...

"Heh, you’re right. Two minutes—enough to be proud. Even I can’t help admiring myself."

The mockery in Ariel’s eyes grew even thicker.

"But two minutes still isn’t enough, so I still have to thank you for all that bullshit you said at the start, because no matter what, those words did successfully waste some time, didn’t they?"

Ariel had been counting silently in her heart.

Three minutes. One hundred eighty seconds. How much longer.

This First Demon General was a despicable bastard. He didn’t have any warrior’s honor at all, so once he had the chance, he would turn around without hesitation and attack Miss An.

So she couldn’t run.

She had to make him feel like he could kill her in a short time, but at the same time, within that so-called “short time,” she had to block his attacks head-on.

She even had to, without leaving any traces, draw as far away from Miss An as possible.

That was hard.

Very hard.

By common sense, it was almost impossible, because with the slightest misstep, she would die miserably under Zagu’s spear.

"But who told you I’m Ariel Bugaard, the pure-love war goddess who fights for all the beautiful girls in the world? Things that are impossible for others—I can always do."

Ariel looked at Zagu, the corner of her mouth tilting.

"Now, Mr. First Demon General, there are ten seconds left until three minutes are up... what are you going to do?"