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Olivia could not hide her bewilderment. She had been training and strengthening her body since a young age, and this was the first time her fist had not dealt a killing blow, or not even moved her opponent. Instead her own fist hurt from the impact, and the one punched was smiling.

“Well, my turn now.”

All of Olivia’s instincts were screaming at her and she desperately raised her arms to cover her face.

“Ghuh!”

Fan-Yen’s purple fist struck Olivia’s defense, tearing off her skin and making her bones creak.

“You’re still standing? Lately everyone’s bones would be gone just with that, but I guess you’re one step ahead. Let’s see how long it takes for you to fall, girl.”

There was an insurmountable rift between the two species, humans and dragonborn. Fan-Yen had easily blocked Olivia’s best punch with a smile, while her unbothered punch made Olivia’s arms feel numb.

But Olivia no longer had the option to reconsider the fight, though she still did not regret starting it.

“Let’s try this again.”

Olivia ended her magic. At the same time, all the mana binding her body was released like a sudden gust of wind which made her cape flutter behind her.

“Wha-”

Just as Fan-Yen was about to mutter in shock, her words were interrupted by Olivia. First she punched the bridge of Fan-Yen’s nose, as if trying to break it, which was followed by a quick punch to Fan-Yen’s stomach before she could recover from the first hit.

As soon as Fan-Yen could reaffirm her footing, she punched back at Olivia. The scaly arm merely grazed Olivia’s cheek, but that alone made a burning pain spread through her face.

If the hit had connected with her head, her skull would have probably been sent flying away from the rest of her body. Relieved that she had been able to avoid such a fate, Olivia also realized that Fan-Yen had been holding back when she punched earlier.

She was finally starting to understand just how different dragonborn were from other species.

Fear began to take root in her heart.

But she would not stand down. Her control over her fears was strong enough to keep her standing.

She just had to use everything she had learned over the years, just like she had done many times in the past.

“Hahhh!”

Olivia wanted to put an end to it already.

But Fan-Yen took it head on without worry, only to return what could truly be a finishing blow. Olivia knew a direct hit could cost her her life, so she dodged with quick movements. If she dodged too wide out of fear, Fan-Yen would certainly exploit that as an opening before Olivia could regain her footing.

The current state of the fight was that Olivia’s fists could not break through the dragonborn’s resilient scales, while a single hit from Fan-Yen’s fists would be the end of Olivia.

It was an extremely unfavorable situation, but Olivia did not give in to despair, dodging everything without missing a beat and punching back when she could.

“Huff…”

While breathing out slightly, she delivered three consecutive hits to Fan-Yen’s chin, collarbone, and stomach. No matter how much more powerful dragonborn were compared to humans, their underlying anatomy was still largely the same, so blows to vital spots would eventually cause some damage.

But Olivia’s plan had been too optimistic. Fan-Yen grinned again and swung her fist back. Olivia managed to dodge the punch by a hair’s breadth, only for a knee strike to follow it.

There was no time to dodge it, so Olivia’s body was sent flying like a small pebble, crashing into a nearby house. Everyone believed that was the end of the fight. But after landing past the wall, Olivia got back up on her feet and dashed forward, her fist clad in golden lightning.

“Sparkling Lightning Discharge!”

A ridiculous number of lightning bolts jumped out of her fist, striking Fan-Yen.

“This…isn’t enough!”

That was the spell Olivia had mastered the best, but Fan-Yen swatted it away with ease.

“Ignis Drake!”

Burning flames swallowed Fan-Yen whole.

“How ironic, using a spell named after dragons against a dragonborn. Let me show you what real fire is like!”

Fan-Yen began mixing the flames surrounding her with her own fire, heating them up even more before spitting them forward. The heat of those hellish flames that could turn bones to ashes could be felt even by the onlookers, but even those who realized Olivia was not a regular human did not believe she could fend off the fire, so they got ready to leave.

“Sparkling Lightning Shock!”

But contrary to their expectations, Olivia’s voice rang clear through the flames.

Much to the audience’s shock, she appeared a moment later, breaking through the flames with her lightning charged fist aloft.

Fan-Yen was different though. She held pride in her own fire, but she never expected it to be enough to take down Olivia, so she had already taken a step back while holding her fist ready to strike back.

Olivia remained calm too, holding her palms forward and slightly open, just the way her late father had taught her.

Each of Fan-Yen’s punches produced a thunderous sound, but Olivia redirected the first with the back of her hand, and the second completely missed its target.

Brute force was Olivia’s specialty, but that did not mean she lacked dexterity. She simply preferred the more direct approach, and so far it had worked against everyone she faced, meaning she never had to move more carefully.

“Try dodging this!”

Fan-Yen laughed with delight seeing that girl who would not falter even while running along the edge of life and death.

“Gentle like carrying a flower…”

Olivia muttered with firm words, reminding herself of that.

Meanwhile Fan-Yen continued punching wildly, and Olivia calmly dodged everything.

Dragonborn were superior to humans in every measurable aspect, so when it came to fighting they never needed any elaborate movements. They were also smart, so they knew that keeping things simple with pure violence and brute force was the most powerful weapon.

In the past as Seperion was trying to absorb Longshan, she had long served the dragonborn army, standing on top as the most powerful warrior of the time. Even when facing multiple other dragonborn, she would defeat them alone.

While she went berserk, Olivia was following her mantra, moving like there was actually a flower within her heart, never exerting too much force out of fear petals would come loose. She would not let pain, impatience, or fear get in the way of her.

But Fan-Yen’s fists were still deadly, giving Olivia no room for mistakes, while her attacks seemingly did no damage to the dragonborn’s scales. Olivia was also wearing her Black Mountain Dragon scale gloves to protect her fists, since punching something so hard repeatedly would only injure herself if she did it with her bare hands.

The cycle of punching and dodging continued with no end in sight, until Fan-Yen finally lost her cool.