Hannah launched another barrage of fire lances which forced Evelyn to defend.
Once Evelyn was preoccupied with Hannah's assault, Bryce sneaked up behind his daughter and attempted to slash her with his sword.
Of course, Evelyn managed to foresaw the move and evaded the attack.
Bryce then would keep pressuring Evelyn until another opening was created for Hannah.
And the cycle continues.
"(These two have nice teamwork. If I work on them, they'd be pretty formidable.)"
Evelyn let Bryce and Hannah executed their strategy for a while longer.
They kept their pressure attack on Evelyn until they pinned her to one side of the court. The couple thought they were winning as Evelyn was not giving any counterattack.
Bryce and Hannah stopped their assault for a moment to talk to their daughter.
"Give up, Evelyn! No need to prolong this!" shouted Bryce.
"People's lives are in danger. We can't waste any more time, darling!" said Hannah.
Evelyn made a huge smile and nodded in agreement to her parents' words.
"You're both right! We shouldn't prolong this battle any longer since we'll have to quickly prepare to exterminate the gargoyles in Stonewall and send aid to Duke Shaughnessy."
Those were the words Bryce and Hannah wanted to hear. But they felt something ominous behind those saying, which made them maintained their guard around their daughter.
Evelyn raised her right hand. Her smile and confidence were still hanging on her face.
"Since I've given you plenty of opportunities to attack,"
A gigantic brown magic circle appeared beneath Evelyn. The ground started rumbling.
Hannah and Bryce became alerted and readied their weapons to attack Evelyn.
"now it's my turn."
Evelyn snapped her fingers and caused countless large earth pillars rose from the ground all over the training ground.
The spectators were in awe on the spell Evelyn just casted.
"Have you ever seen someone cast a spell like this?"
"Of course not! But I imagine you'd need to be, at least, an A or B-rank mage to cast this."
"When did Lady Evelyn get so strong?"
The rising of the pillars caused Bryce and Hannah broke their formation.
As Hannah dodged the rising pillars, she persistently got swept further away from Bryce and Evelyn that she ended up tossed to the other side of the court.
Bryce on the other hand ran around so he wouldn't end up on top of one of the pillar and get stuck high in the air.
When the large pillars stopped rising, the whole training ground was turned into a semi-labyrinth.
Because of the height of the pillars and the massive dust cloud formed from the pillars' emergence, Hannah had a hard time locating Bryce from the air.
Evelyn on the other hand did not have a hard time to find Bryce as the young lady had arranged the pillars so that Hannah would get separated from Bryce and him ended up near his daughter.
Bryce readied his sword once he saw Evelyn walking towards him.
"Let's make this quick, father."
Evelyn raised her right hand.
[Bara Arts, Fire Lance]
Five fire lances launched towards Bryce. He agilely dodged them.
Unfortunately, another five was already coming at him.
Bryce ran, jumped, ducked. He did all he could to avoid the barrage of fire Evelyn sent.
The head knight then briefly observed his surroundings to find an escape route.
He found one.
"(If I could just go behind that pillar, I'll be safe.)" thought Bryce.
[Bara Arts, Fire Lance]
Another barrage of fire was launched at Bryce. He then sprinted to the pillar he was aiming earlier.
Bryce jumped behind the pillar, away from Evelyn's line of fire.
"(Great! Now I only need to make my escape and reunite with Hannah. Let's—HUH?!)"
Suddenly Bryce couldn't move his feet.
He looked down to see what was holding him. The man was surprised to see what kept him from moving.
A magic circle was shining beneath Bryce. It kept his feet in place.
"(HOW COULD THIS BE?!)" thought Bryce in disbelief.
"I'm really glad you jumped straight to the trap I set for you, father."
"NO WAY!"
Bryce turned around and found Evelyn smiling beside him.
"(All her attacks earlier were only to lure me here? How did she predict I would aim for this pillar?)" thought Bryce. "(No way! Did she already take this into account when she was creating these pillars? How far ahead was her thinking?)"
Evelyn raised her hand, preparing to cast another spell.
"This is it, father!"
The magic circle underneath Bryce disappeared, allowing his feet to go free. Bryce made an attempt to flee but it was in vain.
[Bara Arts, Magic Bind]
A rope of light immediately surrounded Bryce and tied his whole body together. Immobilizing him in an instant.
Bryce was officially out from the battle.
"(One down. One to go.)"
Evelyn suddenly sensed some intense magic accumulating above her.
She turned around and found Hannah in the sky casting a huge spell.
[Bara Arts, Rain of Fire]
50 balls of fire formed around Hannah and they quickly rained down towards her daughter in the form of fire lances.
Evelyn smiled at her mother's effort to defeat her.
"(She's going all out. I'm sure she's pushing herself very hard considering she doesn't have that much mana at the moment.)" thought Evelyn.
The girl then sighed, "(I would like to see more of what mother could do with all her tenacity, but unfortunately we can't waste any more time.)"
Evelyn raised her hand and flicked her wrist.
[Bara Arts, Rain of Fire, Reflect]
Magic circle suddenly flashed in front of each of Hannah's fire lances.
The fire projectiles Hannah sent descended down toward Evelyn but soon changed direction.
The fire lances now flew upward to the sky. Back to Hannah. All of the 50 fire lances
"(OH NO!)"
Hannah plummeted down to avoid the fire lances. She turned her head to see if she managed to escape the line of fire.
Hannah gasped in shock when she saw all 50 fire lances were now chasing her.
The family head tried to maneuver through the pillars to escape the fire lances, but the projectiles maneuvered the obstacles just as well as her.
Eventually the fire lances caught up to Hannah and clashed on her one by one.
Overwhelmed, Hannah had one of the fire lances hit her on the head. Causing her crash landed to the ground, dismantling Lucerna away from her.
Hannah saw the remaining dozens of fire lances coming at her. She closed her eyes waiting for them to rain down on her.
But suddenly Hannah heard fingers snapping and the distinct sizzling sound of the fire lances abruptly stopped.
Hannah opened her eyes and saw the fire lances vanishing and the earth pillars sinking back to the ground.
"I believe this is my win."
Hannah turned around and found Evelyn walking towards her. Bounded Bryce was floating behind Evelyn, following her in her steps.
Evelyn waved her hand and dropped Bryce to Hannah's side. She undid the binding spell on Bryce and also the Angel's Embrace spell on all of them.
With Hannah and Bryce lying down looking up at her, Evelyn spoke to her parents.
"Now, about the arrangement I proposed to you both earlier…"