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Cortina decided to head to the hot springs, but it’s not like it would happen right away. She had classes in the academy, and there was also the city reconstruction work to do. Maria and Lyell said they’d come this time, so she had to take their schedules into consideration too.

In the meantime, we were spending our days normally. That also included training in the Guild too.

I stood against Cloud, Michelle and Letina. We were in the underground training area, and I was currently holding a fake katana in my hand. It was the same for Cloud and Michelle.

Letina was using non-lethal spells, so even if they caused injury, it wouldn’t lead to death.

“Here I go!”
“Come at me!”

Cloud responded to my yell with an energetic shout of his own.

I rushed straight at him. He also came out and stood before me to serve his role.

Just before I reached Cloud, Michelle’s arrows came flying at me. Those arrows were aiming straight for my forehead and heart.

“That’s why—!”

It was exactly because her aim was so accurate that it was easy to predict where she aimed. I swung my fake katana and swatted the two arrows down.

I used the same momentum to slash at Cloud, but he easily shielded it. He seemed to have been vigilant of my attack and ended up bracing his legs for my attack excessively.

I didn’t try to cut my way through him with force, but instead moved my body to go around him. And then, Letina’s magic landed where I stood a moment ago.

I used Cloud as a shield to defend against Letina’s spells and Michelle’s arrows. However, this would leave me with no means of dealing with them. Unless I managed to break through Cloud, I couldn’t attack Letina or Michelle.

Based on the current rules, I mainly used katana while my bestowal magic and thread manipulation were sealed off. Michelle didn’t use her bangle and her Third Eye.

This time, we were testing how each of us could fare as simple swordsmen and archers.

“D-Damn!”

Because my attack was lighter than he expected, Cloud’s reaction was delayed because he put too much strength into his body.

He put strength into his arms to force me back and pushed out his shield. I used his strength to my advantage and pulled his shield towards me with my left hand, creating an opening in his defense.

Cloud was astonished for a moment, but instead of trying to unreasonably retract his shield, he just swung down his sword.

I could feel this ever since the Goblin battle, but he wasn’t focusing solely on defense as he had been and was keeping attacking in mind too.

It may not have been a very good development for a shielder, but as a warrior, it wasn’t bad.

Nowadays, he was willing to deal finishers to enemies which used to be mine and Michelle’s role until now. This was surely proof that he was beginning to think of a balance between offense and defense as a warrior.

I met his fake sword with my fake katana and warded it off. I rotated at the moment, and pulled my dagger—also a fake—from my waist.

Using the momentum of the rotation I mowed down his abdomen with the dagger, and then followed up with a backhanded slash from the sword again to his abdomen.

They had no blade so Cloud didn’t suffer any injuries, but if this was a real battle, this would have been a fatal wound.

“Cloud, you’re out.”
“Ghh.”

Hearing my verdict and accepting his defeat, Cloud switched to acting as a corpse.

Because he was defeated, Letina switched to short-chant spells. I threw my dagger at her to interrupt her chant.

“Kyaa!?”

She bent her body and dodged the dagger that was going for her face. I’m not sure what to make of it when an Adventurer squats down while covering her head, though. Well, it’s cute so whatever.

Those thoughts flashed into my mind for a moment, but I didn’t stop moving during that time.

I instantly closed the distance while Letina was crouched down. Michelle, of course, showered me with arrows to get in my way, but because of her accurate aim, it was easy to read her.

I dodged the arrows by rolling and thrust the fake katana from a low angle.

“I see, so it’s blue stripes today… I mean, Letina, you’re out.”
“Where were you looking!”

Letina tried to fall down while holding down her skirt. But her role wasn’t over for me. I grabbed her shoulders as she was falling forward and did a mad dash at Michelle.

Letina’s body was still childish so even I could carry her. I decided on this strategy by considering that.

Michelle tried to fire restraining arrows at me, but as Letina was covering my body she stood without being able to shoot me.

If I just went into close combat with her next, she would have no way of fighting against me.

Convinced of my victory, I tried to accelerate some more… But my foot slipped.

It seemed that my physical strength wasn’t enough to fully support even Letina’s weight.

If my abilities were fixed, I could still have measured my physical strength and dealt with the situation appropriately. However, my body grew day by day, so the changes in my strength and body were quite tough to deal with.

Even though my strength wasn’t growing that much, my chest and bottom were growing, while my waist was slimming down.

I couldn’t keep up with those subtle changes in my body balance.

My legs weren’t changing in size at all, but my upper body was growing heavier. Since it was different from my assumed body balance, I ended up tripping and fell forward.

“Mygaa!”
“Ugyaa!?”

I got entangled with Letina in the roll, exposing myself. Because of how hard we fell, Letina’s skirt got rolled up, revealing her underwear to the world to see.

I was in the same state, but Michelle wasn’t about to care about any of that.

If she let go of this chance, she would have no hope of winning. Thus, she mercilessly showered me with arrows while I was fallen.

“Yah, yah!”
“Ouch! W-Wait, I give up! It’s my loss, so stop!”
“Take this! Teyah!”
“Wait, please just stooop!”

Michelle didn’t hear my proclamation in her excitement. She shot all the arrows in her quiver at me… at us. In other words, Letina also ended up taking the brunt of it.

“Kyaa! Michelle, they’re hitting me too!!”
“Teyah! Teyah!”
“Ouch! Ouch! It still hurts even if the arrowheads are cotton!”
“S-Someone stop Michelle!”

In the end, we continued writhing on the ground until Cloud could no longer watch us and stopped her.

In addition, the Adventurers that saw Letina and I entangled on the ground had left the training grounds with pleased expressions.