"Body Enhancement: Strength."
"Huh?"
The three who were also awaiting them if they're going away or not witnessed Itsuo activating a magic spell. Itsuo speaks to Kaien.
"Sorry, Knight Commander Kaien, but you should be the one telling that to the Prince."
Saying that, Itsuo takes a battle stance in front of their enemies. Selene felt a little bit relieved for the decision Itsuo took.
"Itsuo..."
"Ho? So you want to stay and share the same fate as that Knight Commander?" Lando spoke. "Fine, join him then!"
The man once again puts his hands on the ground and summons magic circles all around Itsuo.
"Ground Pillar!"
From front to back, and left to right. 8 Ground Pillars with the shape of a drill blasts out of the magic circles towards Itsuo. Until a sphere of yellow light surrounds him.
"Light Shield!"
The pillars crumble as it hits Selene's solid barrier surrounding Itsuo.
"What?!" The woman with the long brown hair said in a shocked tone.
"He's not your only opponent." Selene spoke to them as she dispersed the barrier around Itsuo.
"My pillars isn't strong enough to break her barrier alone." Lando stated. "Sandra, I'm gonna need your hardening magic."
"All right." The woman named Sandra replied.
"Quick Footwork!"
Just as Lando and Sandra are preparing to fight Selene, Itsuo quickly dashes towards the two. But as he closes in on them, the one who can phase through walls and objects comes in to clash with him.
With swift movements, Itsuo started the attack as he swings his sword towards his enemy. But the enemy kept moving forward, as if he intended to take on Itsuo's blade. Eventually, the blade closes in and collides with him. However, instead of being hit, the sword simply slipped through his body. His skin suddenly turned pale white as well as the aura he's emitting around him. It's as though his physical body suddenly transformed into a ghostly apparition.
"...!"
"That won't work!"
After going through his ghost-like body, he regained his physical figure as he throws a punch directly towards Itsuo. With Itsuo's momentum, it is hard to take a step back and avoid a direct hit in his face. So instead of trying to take a step back, Itsuo decided to tilt his head down left to avoid his fist.
"Wha...!"
After that quick evasion, Itsuo rolled to the ground thanks to his own speed. He goes up immediately and regained his footing afterwards.
"That phasing magic is a pain." He uttered. "It looks like you three recovered the mana you depleted after that long chattering."
"Yes. This is the only magic I can use, but as long as you can't hit me, you're not gonna beat me." The man replied to Itsuo.
Just then, something came flying towards Itsuo. Reflexively, he crouched down and only hits a few strands of his hair before the thing collides at the wall of the cave they're in.
"That was close..." Itsuo looked at the woman who walks forward and stood beside her ally.
"You're good at dodging, huh?"
"Ground Pillar!"
Without Itsuo noticing, another magic circles appeared around him and attempts to attack him with Pillars. Luckily, Selene who's watching their movements were able to surround Itsuo with another Light Shield.
"Light Shield!"
"Tsk. That shield again."
The three averted their gaze on Itsuo as they glared daggers at Selene for her interferences.
Gulp...
Selene was taken aback from their angry gazes. But she quickly regained her posture as she prepares herself against the enemy and their incoming attacks.
"It looks like we really need to deal with that woman and her pesky shield first."
"I won't let you!"
As their attention were on Selene, Itsuo suddenly came flying towards them. Catching on his wind, Sandra raised her arms to protect herself from Itsuo. But Itsuo's kick that is packed with great force, even though she guarded herself and did not suffer a vital hit, she was still blown away and was sent to the other corner of the cave.
Without wasting any moment, Itsuo throws a turning left kick onto the one who can walk through walls. The man did not use his ability to dodge effortlessly and instead backs away while Itsuo is following him with side kicks.
After avoiding his left kicks one by one, Itsuo begin to twist his body to throw a right whip kick which finally landed onto the enemy's left shoulder. Afterwards he follows up by dashing forward and strikes him with his sword.
"Horizon Cresent!"
With his sword surrounded with his mana, he swings his blade onto the enemy. But once again, his phasing ability proved Itsuo's sword attacks ineffective.
"..."
After Itsuo's consecutive attacks, both him and his enemy backs away from each other to get a breather.
"That magic really is a pain in the ass." Itsuo uttered.
Meanwhile, cluster of magic circles begin to surround Selene and Kaien as it fires Ground Pillars at them from the ground. Selene, taking her defensive ground, puts up a shield around her and Kaien. With the pillars not being solid enough to damage her shield, Lando's magic simply crumbles with every collision.
"That barrier's quite a pain in the ass, too." Lando irritatingly said.
On the sidelines, Sandra who got flung and buried into the wall finally gets herself out of the thick walls of the cave.
"That one hurt..." She muttered in pain. Then Lando calls her out.
"Hey, Sandra."
"Huh?"
"Let me and Jero handle that swordsman. Use your hardening to break through her barrier."
"Okay, give me another one."
As Sandra requested, Lando touches the ground and created a magic circle. Then, as he stands up while raising his hand at the same time, a lance takes shape from the ground.
It's whole body is made of earth with its head taking a shape of a drill. He took the spear and throws it towards Sandra for her to catch.
Once she grabs hold onto the spear, she casts her own enhancing magic.
"Hardening Grasp."
Within her grasp, the lance that came from the ground and reshaped into a deadly weapon takes on a new form as Sandra's magic hardens it.
From its body to its head. It seemed to look more like it's now made of a strong iron instead of a molded clay. It also looks more heavier, sturdier and durable than it was first crafted by Lando.
"This lance is not the same as the Pillars Lando used to attack you two before. With my hardening magic, I can turn any feeble object in a more deadly weapon. Right now, this weapon is much more stronger and durable than a normal lance made of sharp point head of iron and wood. Let's see if your barrier can take on this weapon!"
That being said, the look in Selene's eyes hardened as she decided to take the fight seriously. As if to say she's taking on the challenge.
"Hey!" Kaien shouted at Selene, distracting her from the enemy.
"Knight Commander?" She replied in question.
"Hey, hey!" Sandra quickly struck the shield of Selene with her lance the second she averted her gaze on Sandra. "There's no time for you to be talking!"
"You're a hasty one!" Selene replied.
Without showing concern to the enemy trying to break the shield in attempt to kill her, Selene looks up to Kaien, asking him why he called her.
"Hey, didn't I tell both of you to run? Staying here won't do all three of us any good! Go now while you can!"
The serious look in Selene's face disappears as she turns away from the Knight Commander's eyes. Then, she opened her mouth.
"No way." She replied to the Knight Commander. "I finally found something that I can use to tease Christa, no way I'm letting such valuable information go."
She giggled mischievously afterwards.
"Once this is over, you better tell me more about what those two have with each other!"
Kaien looked wordlessly at Selene with a dumbfounded expression on his face.
Meanwhile, as Lando observes Sandra bashing down the shield, he figured out that Selene cannot move away from her current position or use another magic while she's keeping the shield intact.
"So you can't make a move while you're keeping yourself safe inside that shield, huh. Sandra should be able to take care of that one. Now then..."
Assured that his ally can handle Selene on her own, he puts his attention towards Jero and Itsuo.
Itsuo who continue his attacks once more on Jero begins to think about his enemy's ability. During the first time he charges in to attack Lando and Sandra, Jero, purposely goes up front to take on his sword. With his ability to phase through walls, it's only natural that he doesn't have fear taking on a sword attack as it would only go through his body.
However during his second charge, Itsuo tried to attack him with side kicks and a whip kick. And instead of taking it on and have his kicks just slip through his ghost-like body, he does his best dodging Itsuo's swift attacks. To top it off, Itsuo's whip kick managed to hit and hurt Jero's shoulder before he strikes again with sword which failed to land miserably.
Shortly after, he reached a conclusion to his thoughts. The one weakeness his enemy's magic have.
Rumble...
Right after figuring out his enemy's weakness, the ground in front of him suddenly begins to rise like blocks of towering stones as it approaches Itsuo. Before long it quickly reached him before he could even react. The ground underneath him sends him upward violently like a catapult.
"Uwaa!!"
Before his back hits the ceiling, he concentrated his magic onto his feet to propel him away from the wall. His momentum slowly diminished and instead of crashing onto the ceiling, only his feet touched the wall softly. He let out a sigh of relief.
"That scared me..." He spoke in terror while casually being upside down in mid-air.
"That bastard... So he can use fly magic."
Itsuo looks at them.
"This is not fly magic." He replied. "Through energy control, I can manipulate the energy inside my body to make me feel lighter and enable myself to fly. What's more, if I concentrate my energy onto my feet..."
Itsuo who is suspended in the air upside down descends from the ceiling.
"...I can do this!"
By positioning his body as though he's aiming himself towards Jero and Lando, the energy concentrated on his feet launches him towards them with great speed.
"...!"
Unlike Lando who tried to get away from Itsuo's line of attack, Jero wasn't able to move his feet or react to Itsuo's super speed strike at all. But reflexively, he activated his magic to avoid his sword from severing his upper and lower body apart.
The momentum of Itsuo's descent causes Lando to be blown away to the ground by the force of wind Itsuo created.
Jero begins to doubt his eyes after what just occurred. If it's not for his magic, he would have been killed by Itsuo by now. He has never seen an attack so fast, he barely saved himself by activating his phasing magic in that split second. To top it off, the reason why he couldn't move his body at all is due to his eyes meeting Itsuo's who doesn't have any trace of hesitation when he tried to slice Jero apart with one strike.
In that exact moment, Jero felt complete terror over Itsuo. Only after Lando called him did he somehow came back into reality.
"Hey, Jero!"
"Ah...!"
"Stop spacing around, will you?!"
"Hey, what's wrong? The fight's not over yet." Itsuo uttered. "If you're not going to attack then I will!"
Itsuo leans down his upper body as he puts his strength on his right foot.
"Quick Footwork!"
Itsuo sprints towards them.
"I'll bury you to the ground!"
"Tsk...!"
"Ground Burrow!"
Lando created a hole in front of Itsuo to stop his charge. But it was useless as Itsuo takes flight and continue going forward.
Jero takes the lead as he activates his Phasing Magic.
"Ghost Walk!"
He takes the form of a ghostly apparition to confront Itsuo and his sword attacks once more. However...
Clang...
In the blink of an eye, Itsuo threw had thrown his sword to the floor.
"Wha?!"
Unable to stop his movement and avoid Itsuo, Jero's face meets Itsuo's left fist. His punch brought Jero to the ground.
"So you really can't avoid punches and kicks unlike my sword attacks, huh." Itsuo stated while looking down on Jero. "If my guess is right, the way your magic works is that you're sending your physical body into an unknown place while leaving your metaphysical form in this world."
"Stone Catapult!"
The ground around Itsuo and Jero begins to fire stones that are buried underground like a beam of light.
"Quick Footwork!"
Itsuo effectively dodges them with swift movements. While the barrage of stones continue to fire around him, Lando calls out to Jero.
"Hey, get back here!"
Jero followed what his ally told him, he backs away beside Lando.
"That man is--"
"While you are in that ghostly state, you can go past through almost anything without worry." Itsuo spoke, cutting Jero from speaking. "But because humans each possess souls, your ghost walk cannot go past through my body. What's really happening is that your soul is colliding with mine, and every time I throw a punch or kick at you, my soul simply just hits your ghost body all the same."
"Tck...!" Jero was irked up as Itsuo elaborated how his magic works correctly while continuing to dodge all the stones shooting from every direction.
"That bastard... He's just dodging my stones as if it's nothing!" Lando spoke in a vexed tone. Incidentally, he noticed the look in Jero's eyes that seemed like he's lost, he looks as though he doesn't know how to fight now that his magic that almost seemed like it's too powerful suddenly turned useless for Itsuo.
"Hey, stop spacing out, Jero! Do something!"
Lando slams the palm of his left hand onto Jero's back which awakened him.
"Waa!"
"Do you feel useless now that the enemy figured out how your magic works?! Well, look!"
With Lando's hand, he forcefully turn Jero's head into Itsuo.
"Look! Only you can move through those stones like nothing! Show him how powerful your magic is!"
Indeed, no one can move as freely as Jero in an area full of stones that are being thrown around like beams of piercing light.
Jero stood up, observing Itsuo doing his best to dodge every stones being thrown at him. Watching him doing so made Jero cackle.
"Hahahaha!! Take that! I bet you can't get take a breath dodging those things all the time! I, on the other hand..."
Jero proceeds to cast his Ghost Walk and walked towards the volley of rocks. He boasts to Itsuo with laughter.
"...I can freely walk around them with ease! Hahahaha!!"
As his monstrous laugh echoes inside the cave, the rocks that are being thrown from the ground begins to accelerate, making it harder for Itsuo to avoid even with his Quick Footwork.
"They're faster than they are just a few seconds ago...!" Itsuo spoke to himself as he tries to move away. But no matter where he go, the rocks continue to shoot at him at an accelerating speed. They even begin to increase in number.
"I can still make more and make them more faster!" Lando boasted.
"It doesn't matter if I can't go past through your physical body anymore!"
Lando excitedly charges towards Itsuo with his fist. Their fist clashed.
"The moment that I can stop your movement with my fist..." In that clash of fists, the stones that Itsuo disregarded after turning his focus on Jero made holes through his four limbs.
"Aaaargh!!"
"...You won't be able to avoid those killer stones! Hahahaha!!"
Itsuo screamed in pain before retracting his fist to avoid the other stones aiming for the rest of his body.
With Body Enhancement magic, he is able to endure the pain while also being able to move and avoid the stones coming at him. Jero follows him.
"You're not getting away!"
Itsuo tries to get away, but although he can still avoid the rocks and Jero, his speed is slowly decreasing thanks to the fatal wounds he received.
On the other hand, Kaien who is quietly observing Itsuo for a while now sees him trying his hardest to get away from the enemies' relentless attacks.
"No good! Itsuo is wounded!"
Bang! Bang!
Kaien avert his gaze on Itsuo as he focuses on the enemy in front of him and Selene. Sandra kept on attempting to break the barrier. Until her one strike showed a small crack on the shield.
"Heh! You've kept yourself inside your little barrier this long. But it looks you'll be coming out of your cage pretty soon!"
"She can longer maintain the barrier with the same strength as before..." He thought to himself as Kaien groans in pain from the pillar in his abdomen.
"You two should have run while you had the chance..." Kaien spoke in a dreadful tone as his face darkened. "...It's over."
Afterwards, Kaien no longer said any word, instead he lowered his head, as he accepted their defeat. Until...
"I don't mean to sound harsh but... A Knight Commander shouldn't give up so easily."
A light sparked onto Kaien's eyes as he held his head high, staring at Selene.
"Do you remember what Itsuo said before?" Selene looks back to Itsuo with a confident smile. "I have not fallen to the ground yet."
In that moment, though it was only for an instant, Itsuo and Selene exchanged quick glances with each other.
Out of a sudden, Selene speaks to Kaien.
"Knight Commander, mind if I ask you to close your eyes and cover your ears for a bit?"
Kaien frowns in wonder. However, from the corners of his eyes, he sees Itsuo who seem to be approaching them as he try to avoid Jero and Lando's stones. The look in Kaien's face changes as he figured that the two are about to do something.
The crack to the spot where Sandra is thrusting her lance keeps getting bigger. Eventually it spreads all over Selene's shield.
"This is it!"
Sandra jumps on top of Selene's shield.
"Get out of your little shield!"
Sandra descends directly on top of Selene with her lance pointing down on her and her shield. On the other hand, Itsuo's back touches Selene's barrier as he finally get close to where Kaien and Selene are.
"Shatter!"
"Die!"
Following Selene's request, Kaien closed his eyes and turns his head away from them. Itsuo closes his own as well.
Sandra's lance hammers down the shield of light to pieces as she continue to fall down towards Selene, while Jero's fist is about to grind Itsuo's face.
But unbeknownst to the three who have thought that victory would be theirs, Selene's shield breaking apart is just a turning point to which the two turn the tables against all three of them.
Selene aims her open hand directly into Sandra. Then...
"...?"
"Flicker!"
Bang!
From the palm of her hand, Selene blasts a magic which produced a blinding flash of light all around the enclosed space they are in.
Kaien gently opens his eyes and sees what became of the two enemies who were charging in on them.
Unaware of what was going to happen, the flash of light strucked Sandra, Jero and Lando's eyes in the far back, while the loud bang which have nowhere to go around in an enclosed space pierced their ears and disorients them. Especially Jero and Sandra who were very close to Selene.
Jero was brought down to his knees while Sandra falls to the ground, both suffering in an unbearable pain in their eyes and ears.
"Now!"
Without wasting any moment, both Itsuo and Selene goes in to finish the battle.
Itsuo flies forward and strikes Jero with his right knee onto his head. Jero collapsed to the ground.
On Selene's side, she proceeds to form a giant block with her magic. It's almost as a big as a wooden crate, but it is as hard and heavy as Selene's Light Shield. With both her hands, she smacked the head of Sandra with it, knocking her head out to the floor.