[12]

"Come on, we had lunch earlier. There's no reason for you to refuse."

I looked at Regis who was still sitting quietly on the mat, right under the tree. After Reyna's fight, Kris came to us at the forest entrance. It was Venus and I who came to Kris there. Kris came with a servant with a push basket containing the lunch menu. Venus was adept enough to tell Freya if we wanted to have a picnic in the forest until the afternoon of the day I'd set aside. At least Freya allowed it without a servant accompanying her since the forest was so close to the castle.

But sometimes I wonder if Freya really isn't that suspicious of us... Or did she already know and chose to leave it alone?

Whatever the truth was, since Venus' request was allowed, every time we went to the forest, there would be lunch delivered. I actually remembered some words Kris had said when I was about to carry the basket.

"Too hard on the soft things is not very good, princess."

"Are you reminding me?"

"I just want you not to damage the forest."

Well, I'm sorry about that. I can give it back if I want.

I let out my breath for a moment and chose to start activating the protective dome. Not too far from the tree we were sheltering under, white lines began to be etched on the grass. The white line formed a circle that was the same size as before.

[ Dome is loading... ]

"You're not going to run away from this, are you?" I asked without turning around.

After the white line met the other end, a transparent blue layer began to rise from the glowing white line. The blue layer was in the form of waves of aura that were interlocking towards the top of the dome. Before the protective dome was completely formed, there was a slightly disturbed swish of aura waves. Of course it signaled someone entering the dome before it was completed. I smiled as I found Regis who was already staring at me at the end of the dome wall trying to correct the aura waves.

"I will stun you and make me your right-hand man!"

"What a long-winded thing to say."

[ Dome completed! ]

Right after the dome ticked, Regis immediately let out a bright beige aura wave that emanated violently. The boy pointed his right hand towards me, and a moment after that the aura wave surrounding him formed ten sword blades. Indeed, if I examine it closely, it still has a rough part there. Although it didn't become a real sword, it was good enough for her to be able to make that.

"You should measure how fast this flies."

"Do that."

Right after my words, all ten swords flew towards me quickly. Perhaps if I estimated the speed it was equivalent to a shot from a firearm bullet. I created a shield around me to block the attack. There was no explosion, but the mass of aura that formed the swords turned into a trap net that bound my shield. Perhaps if someone could dodge the sword, he would still be caught in the trap.

"I prepared this for you, princess!"

The aura net completely surrounded the transparent barrier I created. I could see that my barrier gradually seemed to be unraveling as if it was breaking down. And at that moment the net seemed to swell and then explode. The explosion was quite powerful because after the explosion, my ears buzzed a little from it. Earlier I made two protective walls, and now my outer barrier was destroyed by the attack.

After the puff of smoke thinned a little, I could see Regis who was already aiming the archery from his aura wave at the roof of the dome. Not even two seconds after I could see my surroundings, fireballs fell from the roof. With different sizes, the meteor-like stone balls hit the grass that was starting to burn.

A large water bubble formed and shot towards the burning rock. After the explosion occurred that made the boulder split, steam began to fill the entire dome. And from behind the steam in front of me, there was a glimpse of light being thrown upwards. Then a faint explosion could be heard from the roof of the dome. It looked like fireworks blooming. Perhaps I could say it was a rain of aura that resembled sharp thorns. And if you looked closely, those thorns contained electricity.

He fired his arrow after the meteor fell... did he already know there would be steam when I used the Water Bomb earlier?

"You understand your terrain well."

Huge roots grew from the ground and twisted upwards forming a conical coil. I could hear from inside the twisted roots the electric shocks that seemed to be trying to electrocute whatever it touched. I didn't know the conditions outside but I could begin to smell burning.

"Geez, well how about we get serious?"

I touched the root plant that was protecting me. The plant noticeably began to tremble and wriggle violently. I turned around and opted to step out of the barrier when I saw a cavity opening up from the twisting of the roots. The plant had grown quite large, probably at least ten meters tall. On some parts of the green roots appeared yellow flowers with large, fiery red crowns. And right at the top of the root was a slightly different flower. It resembled a large mouth with red petals that looked like large tentacles.

"Princess... what is that..."

I could hear Regis asking faintly from behind the fading steam.

"You have a pretty good attack area for individual or group combat. But what would you do if you met this one?"

No answer came from Regis. I snapped my fingers between the silences and it made the large plant in the center of the dome start to move. The mouth of the plant moved in a circle with a gust of wind that was strong enough to dissipate the steam. After the vapor disappeared, I could confirm that I hadn't found Regis' whereabouts.

"Then look at this!"

The boy shouted after being on the other side of the plant. He took a few steps back before finally summoning a large hammer from his aura wave. He smashed the crude hammer into the ground and made a large crack on the plant's leg. The plant squirmed as it tried to reattach its roots to the crack. One of the flowers close to Regis opened the yellow shell in the center of its red crown, and a moment after that a cloudy liquid burst out. And a moment after that a hiss was heard along with the flames that spread following the direction of the cloudy liquid.

"Ukh, how come?!"

Regis continued to step back to avoid the flames. Perhaps if he hadn't dodged during the outburst, the flames would have continued to follow where the cloudy liquid had gone.

"You must understand what happens in nature."

"What do you mean-"

Before he could continue, the yellow shell of another flower on the plant opened and revealed sharp thorns. The thorns shot out straight, and the moment they hit the ground, the surrounding grass began to rot. Regis kept trying to avoid them by running in circles. The thorn flower could not always reach Regis' location, but there were other flowers that could reach him.

"Analyze your surroundings. Find out what your enemy is capable of. And find his weakness."

The boy looked serious about dodging. I don't know what he was thinking, but he stopped right at one of the flowers. The flower immediately opened its yellow shell and let out a burst of sticky sap. Regis struck his hammer to make the ground lift up and form a wall to protect him. He ran again and stopped at another flower that was higher up. The shell opened and revealed slimy tentacles that dug into Regis' foothold. Immediately afterward, a strong electric shock kicked in.

It wasn't as strong as the real thing, but the plant was good enough for training like this...

"You can't hit me!"

Regis jumped backwards by shooting his arrow towards the flower shell. Before the arrow hit the shell, the large red crown spun and closed as a shield. The arrow ricocheted and hit the wall of the protective dome.

"Tsk why did that happen?!"

It seemed Regis was getting a little annoyed. He ran back trying to attack the large plant. At which point the boy again smashed his hammer into the ground and caused an even bigger crack than before. He seemed to mumble before the hammer finally scattered and changed its shape into an arrow bow. This time it was not lightning, but arrows of fire began to fall heavily from the dome roof. All the petals of the flowers closed with the tops of the plants that seemed to bend slightly.

The rain of fire arrows made the surrounding area filled with flames that began to spread to the plant's body. It was a good opportunity to immobilize a plant that was unable to move its ground-bound body in the first place. The mouth of the plant seemed to start bulging before it finally released a wave of water onto the burning parts of the plant's body.

I quite enjoyed this battle from the start. I think that kid has started to understand what steps he should take if he encounters something like this. From the moment he started paying attention to the location of the flower and what attack it would launch. I thought that kid would try to make something out of nothing like cutting down that big plant.

So what was that flash pointing at me?

From behind the smoke after the wave of water hit the fire, three flashes shot right at me. The three flashes seemed to swerve before finally crashing into each other from different sides. Those were the three arrows Regis had shot from that direction. With my shield still active from the rain of fire earlier, it wouldn't be able to hit me. Before I could turn around, someone's shadow seemed to move behind me with a wave of aura that hit hard right behind me.

"I think you should change weapons, Regis."

I turned around at the same time as the plant's mouth opened wide toward Regis. The boy used his hammer as a footstool to jump backwards. But shortly after that, the aura wave on the hammer seemed to glow and then exploded. The explosion being so close to me naturally made my eardrums ring in pain from it. I chose to walk backwards with the squirming mouth of the plant and stood up straight again.

"Do I really have to do that?"

In front of me were now many swords with regis aiming their crossbows at me. I smiled faintly and took a preparatory step. Regis began to unleash the swords at me. I thus began to run through the gapless sword attacks. I ran by dodging all the swords until I could feel my skin starting to scratch little by little.

"I'll tell you how."

A wave of aura began to wrap around my wrist. The waves spread out and formed a long stick in my hand. I spun the staff to deflect all the swords that were about to hit me. Regis started firing his arrows at me. And just then one arrow spun and split into many arrows. The arrows turning and splitting were good enough to confuse the opponent, which was good.

I stopped my run and waves of aura began to spread out from the sides of the tip of the staff. Stepping the left foot forward while spinning the staff around in all directions made the arrows start bouncing. But during the second attack, the arrows seemed to turn into the same net that the battle first started. I changed the direction of rotation with a wave of aura on the tip of the spear that turned into a blaze that resembled a large knife. At least that fire could burn the net before it exploded.

"This is what I call a new weapon."

I could see Regis who was starting to get tired from having made so many attacks from his aura in the first place. But the boy kept looking at me seriously and continued to shoot his arrows at me. I changed the rotation of the staff again and started running back towards the boy.

"Focus your aura on your hands!" I shouted.

"I'm doing it!"

"Change the use of your bow, Regis."

"I'm not-"

"Shield!"

The blade tip of my staff flew right at the boy's head. The soft aura waves that formed an arc on the boy spread out and gathered at the tip of my staff blade. I found it a little amusing to see that the boy seemed to grimace at the sound of the collision between the aura waves. I pulled my staff away and pointed it towards the side. The boy shifted and brought up a hammer from his disorganized aura waves to deflect my attack.

"You must remember your opponent will not wait for your turn of movement."

"I know! The princess is too fast!"

"Just tell me I'm someone you don't know."

I again rotated the position of the staff and twisted my body to gain thrust on the stomp of my staff. Regis chose to step back with his clothes slightly burnt from being hit by my staff's flaming blade.

Regis was a good player for long-range attacks... but he would be cornered if his opponent used melee attacks...

"What are you going to do at a time like this?" I asked.

The boy was silent and had to keep moving backwards to keep away from all the stick slashes. I started to give more aura to the tip of my stick. And of course it made the slashing area wider and made it more difficult for Regis to attack. If I'm being honest, the weight of the staff increased as the heavy aura wave was there. At least right now I felt like I was lifting a real metal spear.

Some of my attacks managed to tear apart the aura waves that Regis was using to withstand the attacks. Until finally Regis was cornered with the dome wall behind him. I thought I would stop if the boy would raise his hands and give up. But I wanted to see to what extent he could make a counterattack.

"Attack me, Regis."

Regis was heard muttering before finally smashing his hammer back into the ground. The ground jump was enough to successfully distance myself from the boy. And he started his attack suddenly, just like when he fought William this morning. The boy held two arrows in both hands, which he then aimed at the side of my face. He ran around the jump in the ground that he made and then started attacking.

"Did you forget that you were too reckless?"

I spun my staff to block the boy's attack. Right after I managed to fend off the boy, I could feel the heat on the back of my neck.

[ !!! ]

[ Giant Plant is forcibly moved! ]

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