While Christa and Eileen stopped attacking and dodging at each other. Selene leers on them from the the roof of one of the houses. Watching their battle the entire time, Selene was utterly amazed by their strong and swift attacks.
"Amazing... They're strong and fast, too. I hope they don't accidentally continue their battle here. I don't think my barrier is enough to protect the neighborhood from them."
Selene worriedly spoke about the two. If they continue their fight and end up coming to the neighborhood, it's no doubt that they'll destroy everything.
While she was anxiously thinking about the possible scenario, Selene's eyes caught Christa as she's being surrounded in flames while Eileen is covered with clear-blue myst.
"Looks like they are about to start again..."
"Hey... Selene!"
"Ah, Itsuo...!"
Selene heard Itsuo calling him and turns around to see him flying towards her. He landed right beside the girl. He then asked Selene where Christa is. The girl answered by pointing to the direction in front of them.
When he turned into the point of view, the once beautiful plains were devasted with countless craters of impact, destroyed little brushes, ice-covered land, dried ground, and Christa who are clad in blazing fire.
"Isn't that Christa? What happened to the plains? It's like it got bombarded with huge catapults!"
"It's the result of their fight earlier. Although I think the real fight is just about to start. We need to be ready to protect the houses if things goes wrong, Itsuo!"
"...! All right!"
The two then went and watch Christa and Eileen from the roof of the house as the two were posturing up to continue their fight.
.
.
.
With the wooden sword clad in burning fire, Christa takes the first move and charges onto Eileen with great speed. She was incredibly fast that Eileen barely blocked Christa's swift strike with another ice barrier she created with a single hand.
"D-Damn you!"
Eileen tried to spawn another ice spike onto her barrier, but she was surprised that Christa disappeared in front of her and then instantly reappearing behind to kick Eileen away in the distance.
The pain she get from that kick can be seen through her face as she talks to herself.
"Shit! She's faster than before! Wha?!"
Christa continues to go on the offensive as she reappears again right in front of her with her fist that is about to throw a punch on Eileen's bare face. She did just that without hesitation and sent the ice magic caster away.
"Oh!"
"There's no way that didn't work!"
"Christa's really amazing!"
Itsuo and Selene commented as they were amazed by how Christa is easily pushing Eileen back and is taking the advantage.
Itsuo added "I can't believe that she's single-handedly taking on Eileen. She's one of the five strongest adventurers in Reilaea, you know?"
"Yeah. But that said, I don't think Eileen's already using her full strength. There's no way she'll let Christa do what she pleases."
.
.
.
Eileen struggles to get up after being sent away by a punch that hit her directly to her face. Just by receiving two direct hits, she already looked like she got her bruises and other serious wounds around her body.
She wiped the blood spilling from the corner of her mouth with her right hand before she curled it up as she annoyingly look up on the approaching enemy.
"Damn it all! She's not just faster, she's stronger too. I can still feel the pain... It's like I've been punched and kicked all around my body...!"
Christa stopped just a few steps away from Eileen.
"Are you okay?"
Christa can clearly see the wounds around Eileen's frail body. She didn't expect that the woman would easily get beaten up. That explains why people who exelled at magic casting should only stand behind the ones who are plenty used to blow by blow combat.
Christa looks into Eileen's eyes that seemed like she was not burned out yet, but her body says otherwise.
"You can still stare daggers at me but your body doesn't seem like it can endure this fight further."
"What?!"
"I have no interest of fighting you or even killing you. But you still kept going so I had no choice but to fight back. Otherwise I'll be the one in your current state... Or much worse."
Christa gave a brittle laugh as she thinks what worse could happen if she hold back against Eileen.
She extends her left hand to Eileen and added, "Now then, why don't we just forget about what happened and pretend that we never met each other today?"
The words came out of Christa's mouth hit's a fuse in Eileen's eyes. The woman could only see a blurred image of Christa clouded in red and black aura around her. Her body is completely hidden in the dark and her eyes are glowing crimson red. That's when the horrifying moment that happened 15 years ago gets inside her head.
Standing right in front of Eileen's younger self is a figure of a young man. But that young man had a demonic hand punched through his heart. Eileen saw right before her two eyes the brutal and merciless death of a friend and a member of her own party who was killed by the other member of her party who's actually the demon disguised as a human to hide from the people who are hunting him.
What's more painful is the fact that the demon never even lay a single finger on her. Because it deemed her to be weak and worthless.
The demon spoke and told her, "You're weak. I have no interest in fighting nor killing the weak. Killing a worthless human like you is just a waste of time."
The demon gave a scornful grin and added, "Never show your worthless face on me, and you'll live long enough to see the world be conquered by us, demons!"
Afterwards, the demon simply goes away to find people the demon deemed worth killing. While Eileen was left shakingly in terror and sorrow. She couldn't even approach her friend's dead body due to her fear rendering her to move an inch.
That time, Eileen felt the feeling of terror of having to face a demon all by herself. The feeling of sadness for losing her friend right before her. And, the humiliation she felt for being a weak and powerless magic caster who could do nothing but watch her friend die in front of her.
And now, that same humiliation is taking over her and clouded her mind from thinking, as both Christa and the demon said they have no interest of fighting her or even killing her. The words Christa spat out were replaced by the demon's word Eileen.
"Never show you worthless face on me, and you'll live long enough to see the world be conquered by us, demons!"
Because of that, her anger bursted into a strong storm of misty wind that sends Christa away.
Eileen furiously roared, "Don't underestimate me!!"
"Waah!!"
It was terrifyingly strong that it even reached the neighborhood where Itsuo and Selene were hiding and watching the two fight.
"It's about to reach us!"
"T-Take cover!"
Itsuo and Selene jumps down from the roof they were sitting to hide behind the house to avoid the strong chilling gale to blow them away.
Covering her eyes with both her arms, Christa tries to get the right balance to hold herself against the powerful gale. Afterwards, she stares right in front of her where she can barely see Eileen who are ever more furious than ever.