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Zane was no stranger to the skill Charge. As long as you dodged behind a large boulder, it would cause the attacker to crash into it and become stunned. But right now, that clearly wasn’t an option, the afterimage was too fast!

Worse still, the ground was littered with loose stones, severely restricting movement. If she lost her footing and fell, it would practically mean instant death.

In a split-second decision, Starry pushed off the gravel with her foot, her Shoes of Speed giving her a burst of speed as she darted diagonally backward to the left!

**Whoosh!**

The charging enemy blurred past, a glowing MISS flashing behind him.

She braced her foot against the sharp stones beneath her. Jagged edges scraped against her soft skin, leaving thin trails of blood. Clenching her teeth, she forced herself upright again.

MrFixIt turned back, stunned. ‘Someone actually managed to dodge Charge from that short distance!? Heh… now this is getting interesting.’

With high spirits and battle lust in his eyes, he raised his sword and came striding back toward her.

There was no way she’d let him close in so easily! Starmew’s light-blue tail arched high, and a half-meter-long spike of ice floated into the air before her.

The spike shot through the air with a whistle.

“What?!” MrFixIt exclaimed, instinctively raising his longsword horizontally to guard.

**CLANG!!**

Due to the spike’s large size, it was impossible to parry it completely, some damage still got through. And it confirmed one thing, the guy definitely had decent gear.

“That’s all you’ve got?” MrFixIt sneered coldly.

Starry remained unfazed, her expression icy as she stared him down.

“Only know how to defend? Boring.” He spoke with disdain, then suddenly burst forward in a few quick strides, weapon raised, an obvious indication of a killer move!

Although Starry couldn’t identify the skill, there was no way she would let herself get hit so easily.

Swordsmen had slightly lower Dexterity growth than Archers or Assassins, but not by much. Still, with her current movement speed, she couldn’t rely on dodging it normally, she had to act fast!

With a 50% speed boost, her movements became significantly lighter. In an instant, she evaded the incoming attack and slipped behind him!

At the same time she brandished her sword, Starmew leapt from her shoulder, frost-covered claws aimed straight at his head.

“Damn it!” he cursed, summoning his pet, a green turtle, from above!

Unfortunately, the turtle’s shell landed right in the path of Frost Claw. The creature was instantly frozen solid, turning into a block of ice. Meanwhile, Starry’s sword strike had already landed, slashing into his unguarded back.

MrFixIt’s HP dropped by nearly a third in a single hit.

‘Chance!’ Starry didn’t hold back. She immediately followed up with Icy Moon Slash, the swirling blue sword energy roaring toward his exposed back. But just then, the swordsman stumbled and collapsed to the ground, causing the slash to cut through empty air.

That was no accident. He had likely sensed the threat in Starry’s sheer burst damage. A single normal attack had taken off over 800 HP from a heavy-armored swordsman? He resorted to this lowly tactic.

He had narrowly dodged the most lethal part of Icy Moon Slash. But the real turning point was just ahead! MrFixIt pulled out a high-grade HP potion with his left hand and, without even looking, shoved it straight into his mouth.

His health recovered a sizable chunk.

‘Damn it, my pet’s still frozen! I can’t use its crowd control skills!’

He tried to roll to his feet and escape, but Starry wasn’t about to let him off so easily. Her Autumn Moon Sword thrust toward where she predicted he’d be.

MrFixIt smirked, ‘Good thing I stopped just in time! Did she really think I’m that easy to predict?’

“What are you so proud of?” Starry snapped. She followed up with another sharp slash, and at the same time, Starmew leapt in to attack as well.

‘Damn it! This crazy woman!’

His HP dropped by a full thousand, already down by half!

Using the force of her strike, he finally managed to get up and launched himself over with a push off a nearby rock.

Starry frowned, then turned to the still-frozen turtle and finished it off with a single blow. At this stage, pets were just too hard to level. They required way too much EXP.

And just like that… the swordsman bolted with his tail between his legs.

‘Trying to stall for his Charge cooldown?’ Zane saw right through it.

He must’ve activated a special effect from his boots, because in the blink of an eye, he was sprinting with incredible speed. Just two seconds in, and he had already widened the gap by 10 yards!

‘Oh no you don’t!’ Starry had a permanent 34% movement speed bonus, there was no way she’d fall behind. Plus, as soon as she hit out-of-combat status, her Windwalker Cloak would give her another 20% speed boost. Then he’d have no hope left.

Sure enough, ten seconds later, MrFixIt felt footsteps closing in behind him, like needles pricking his back. He quickly ducked behind a massive boulder.

Acting purely on instinct, Starry gave chase. As she rounded the corner, she suddenly saw a gleaming blue longsword coming down at her with terrifying force.

‘Damn, no time to dodge!’ Starry’s pupils dilated.

A sky-blue blur leapt into the path of the attack and took the blow in her place, crashing hard into a nearby rock.

“Starmew!”

“Wha—?” The swordsman clearly hadn’t expected that outcome. He turned and tried to flee.

But a nameless flame ignited in Starry’s chest. This guy had picked a fight for no reason, and now he’d hurt Starmew like that…

Energy surged from her blade. This strike carried the full weight of Autumn Strike.

In an instant, it wiped out the rest of his health.

The plummeting temperature froze his entire corpse in place, turning him into a statue of ice. MrFixIt dropped one level and vanished in a burst of white light, leaving behind only a pair of boots.

Starry rushed to Starmew’s side. The little one still had two-thirds of its HP left. Starmew gave a quick shake, then bounced back up like nothing had happened. Only then did Starry finally breathe a sigh of relief.

‘That’s right… didn’t he drop his boots?’

The stats were decent. The key feature of these boots was that they didn’t offer a passive movement bonus; instead, they granted an active burst of speed. That explained why he had suddenly taken off like the wind just moments ago.

‘Too bad he didn’t drop his sword…’

As the fight ended, the scene reverted to its original form.

DumbCitrus blinked in surprise. “That girl showed up again!”

“…”

…

“Hello, my name is Stardust, just call me Starry.” Zane had Starry reach out her hand in a friendly gesture.

“Mew~” Starmew let out a bored little cry.

“Ah—” DumbCitrus was caught off guard. “Hi, I’m DumbCitrus, just call me…”

“Just call her Stupid Orange,” Zane said with a mischievous grin.

“Yeah, just call me Orange… Hey! Who are you calling stupid? Don’t call me Stupid Orange again!” DumbCitrus raised her tiny fist in protest.

“Mhm, Orange it is~” Starry chuckled softly.

…

“You knew her already? Why didn’t you say something earlier! I totally embarrassed myself!” Starry walked ahead while DumbCitrus complained to Zane behind her.

“Didn’t you check the party list? Her name was right above yours, okay?”
“Eh? Wait… you’re right!”
“…”
“I haven’t really teamed up with others before…” she admitted sheepishly.