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The island was thousands of kilometers above them and hidden behind several layers of normal clouds and the usual interference caused by environmental mana. Usually, trying to see really far was made blurry simply due to the mana in the air, but with enough Perception, one could still see clearly.

Perception has once more been proven the ultimate stat, Jake told himself as he and Sylphie took to the air. He summoned his wings and began flying and quickly noticed Sylphie getting annoyed at his low speed. Before Jake had a chance to switch to One Step to go faster, he felt the wind at his back.

Not a slight breeze either…

His wings caught the constant buffeting of winds, propelling him forward as Sylphie flew alongside him. The entire area around him had a light tinge of green to it, and Jake felt the intense mana at work as Sylphie used her magic.

This type of flying was still slower than Jake using One Step repeatedly, but it was far more relaxing as the wind just carried them forward. Sylphie also looked like it didn’t bother her at all to use the skill if it even was a skill and not just some magic. Jake truly wasn’t sure what Sylphie was capable of, which was another reason he wanted this sparring match.

He and Villy had gone over it earlier, but Nevermore had different sections. Dungeons for solo fighters and parties both, with the best approach being to do both. For the party dungeon, parties were mandatory, and while it was possible to just bring four weak people for one person to try and do it alone, it would undoubtedly result in a worse outcome than if it had been a full party of powerful individuals.

With that in mind, Jake wanted to collect a party of five. Sylphie was naturally on his list of candidates, but he wanted to test her first to see if she was truly up to the challenge. While he did want to do Nevermore with her, he wouldn’t take her along just for the sake of it. If she proved too weak, she couldn’t go, and he would take this approach with every candidate he had in mind.

From Earth, he also had three other candidates in mind besides Sylphie. Two of which he felt like he had tested enough already to have along. He was naturally talking about the Sword Saint and the Fallen King, both of which were utter powerhouses of their own.

Lastly, he had Carmen in mind. If possible, Jake would actually have preferred to ask Eron as he wanted a healer, but he was gone as far as Jake could tell. There was also the issue of trust, of course. His only worry with Carmen was that she wouldn’t be able to keep up. He could only know after having a bout with her. The actual fighting kind.

But first, he had a murder bird to duel.

Not soon after, they reached their destination, still finding themselves within the non-restricted zone… which is when Jake finally noted something.

Sylphie was not at all affected by the restrictions a C-grade would usually be under. Jake frowned a bit and wondered why this was, but he knew asking her would be useless. Was it because she was born on Earth? Because she had grown to that level of power all on her own? Some other reason?

Humans weren’t tossed out either, so maybe it was all linked to those special items beasts consumed. Oh well, it didn’t really matter.

What mattered was the upcoming duel.

Landing on the cloud island, Sylphie simply stood perched in the air a dozen or so meters in front of him.

“Sylphie, no need to hold back too much, okay? This will help determine if you are allowed to come along to Nevermore,” Jake made clear.

“Ree!?” Sylphie asked, offended by Jake even daring to question her awesomeness.

“I know you are awesome, but the point is for you to show me that awesomeness for me to tell the other potential party members of the awesome stuff you can do,” Jake smirked. He opened his hand as a bow appeared in it, and faint wisps of arcane mana began to appear from his body.

“Also, I am not entirely sure just how awesome you are. Maybe you are only a little awesome. So, are you rea-“

An explosion of wind sent Jake flying backward as the small hawk made the first move. Instantly, Jake felt that the environment changed, the wind picked up, and a slight tinge of green was seen here and there whenever a powerful gust appeared. He also knew that if he had still been D-grade, small cuts would now be covering his exposed skin, thus forcing him to use Scales.

Not that easy.

No Scales were needed this time around as Jake tanked the wind easily, preparing to face what was next. The wind gathered at several points and condensed into crescent shapes that flew toward him, trying to cut him into pieces.

One Step gave him distance as Jake retaliated. He nocked an arrow and released it, feeling how much faster he was than before. The speed of the arrow was also incomparable to before, splitting the wind as it headed for the green hawk. Jake also came to learn about his new Umblemished Arrows quite a bit earlier than expected.

The arrow seemed to ignore the wind for the most part while in flight, much to the annoyance of Sylphie as she tried and failed to blow it away with a gust of wind. Instead, she had to dodge to the side while gathering even more magic.

Jake looked on as he decided to also let a bit loose himself. He felt the power boil inside of him as he unleashed some. A blast of arcane energy pushed away the wind around him as more than a hundred bolts formed instantly, taking barely any effort. Jake raised his hand and pointed towards Sylphie, releasing all of them at once.

The sky itself moved as a barrier of wind formed and effortlessly blocked the many bolts as they all blew up in mid-air. A large part of the cloud continent was annihilated as Jake was still getting a handle on his newfound power and hadn’t quite gotten the balance down yet, making the explosions larger and less dense than intended.

Returning to his bow, he continued to open fire as Sylphie dodged or blocked them all easily, not really sending anything in return. She gave him a taunting look due to his inability to hit her. If she wanted it that way, fine with him.

“Gonna pick up the pace a bit!”

Narrowing his eyes, Jake focused. He nocked another arrow and fired, with Sylphie tauntingly trying to dodge it again, only for it to curve and fly straight into her trajectory, forcing the hawk to do a last-second dodge that still resulted in a few feathers getting blasted off.

Jake was far from done as several more came, all curved and all predicting her movements. Sylphie literally had her feathers ruffled as she decided to go on the offensive and not just take the barrage.

Before, Sylphie had only released attacks by condensing wind mana and firing it off. This time, she took a far more personal approach and deployed a familiar skill. Her wing began to glow green as she whipped it towards Jake, releasing a crescent wave of green wind energy. It left a faint outline of a wing in its wake, and upon seeing it, Jake knew it would be wisest to dodge.

He used One Step to get out of the way, only to see the green wind blade be pushed by the wind to follow after him. As he prepared to step down again, he saw a second blade be released. Followed by a third and a fourth in rapid succession.

Each blade was pushed forward by the wind, aimed towards him as a slight breeze seemed to be able to affect them. They circled him and came from different directions, but Sylphie clearly wasn’t that good at control quite yet.

Jake dodged the first and teleported away to avoid the second. The two remaining blades turned in the air, but Jake twisted his body and released a Splitting Arrow towards Sylphie. The small bird dodged, but as she was too busy reacting to Jake, she failed to control her wind blades and allowed Jake to create even more distance and pressure her instead as he bombarded her with arrows.

Lack of Willpower. Intelligence stat seems high. Wisdom potentially low. Agility is definitely the highest stat, Jake quickly assessed. This was as much a test as it was a fight, and he had quite a few things he wanted to make sure of.

He knew Sylphie had great offensive power, but she had always struck Jake as lacking defensively. Small bodies tended to result in more susceptibility to damage, and while she was fast and had some defensive skills, she was still limited as far as Jake could see. Dodging was all fine and good until someone had a way to make that an unfeasible option.

Someone like Jake.

A part of him didn’t want to hurt Sylphie, but he felt like it would be disrespectful to hold back. Besides, she was a C-grade, and he knew he had no attack she couldn’t survive.

Sylphie dodged several more of his arrows, and he felt her get a bit cocky. Her wind blades were scarce, and Jake took aim as he began charging his Arcane Powershot. The air shuddered, and the wind all around him was pushed away or destroyed by the arcane energy that exploded out of his body.

The small hawk saw this and countered with her own large blade of wind. At least she tried to. At the very moment she was about to whip her wing to send it out, Jake attacked. Gaze of the Apex Hunter activated, her mobility nullified for a moment as the Arcane Powershot was loosed.

Jake did not know what he had expected to happen next. At the very least, some kind of defensive barrier… but instead, a large gust of wind pushed the frozen Sylphie out of the way of the arrow, just in time as it only faintly scratched her.

Not yet.

He stepped down, refusing to not take advantage of the opening. Once Sylphie unfroze, she would need a moment to stabilize, and that would be a chance. Teleporting forward, a gust of wind came to attack him, but it only allowed Jake to further monopolize.

A shadow emerged, dodging to the side with a bow. Jake himself charged straight towards the hawk that had not become able to move again. He saw her confusion from seeing two Jakes, and she chose to dodge the arrow and not the shadow. A mistake from Jake’s point of view.

She dodged, and at that moment, Jake pushed himself a bit further. Power welled up from within as he flew forward, and her eyes locked on him at the very last moment.

The katar hit flesh, Sylphie too late to dodge. Jake felt it penetrate feathers, breaking bones, and then…

His arm continued forward as Sylphie’s body exploded. Jake was momentarily alarmed until he saw the pieces of flesh, bone, and feathers turn into a light green wind. The wind moved far faster than anything the hawk had done before and flew around him in a circle. The dozens of small wisps of green wind coalesced behind him, forming the faint outline of a hawk, and Jake’s danger sense exploded as he barely managed to dodge a lethal blow in time.

The wind turned tangible as a green hawk flew by him, a gush of blood flying out of his side as a wing still cut him during her fly-by. Sylphie turned in the air again and went for a second attack. Jake met her head-on and stabbed forward, but the second his blade hit her, she once more exploded into a pure green wind that whisked over him, leaving several deep cuts on his limbs.

Once more, the wind collected, turning into Sylphie. Jake turned slowly to see her smug look. He raised his hand and pointed, firing a small beam of arcane energy. Sylphie didn’t even move but just turned a part of her body into air as it flew straight through her.

“That’s new?” Jake commented.

“Ree!” Sylphie confirmed proudly.

“Well then,” Jake smiled in response. “Doesn’t that mean you are quite a tricky one now?”

“Ree!” Sylphie kept being smug.

“That’s good,” Jake nodded slowly. “That’s very good.”

He looked at Sylphie, who seemed to realize what he was getting at and quickly began making some distance as the wind condensed around her.

“That means I no longer have to hold back.”

Multiple reports came in at once, and she got a message from Arthur within minutes to check in and see if everything was okay.

“Ms. Wells, I have gotten many distress signals, have some beasts managed to attack Haven or is anyone else attacking-“

“No… everything is fine. It is just two children having a squabble,” Miranda sighed. “Calm your followers and let them know it is under control.”

“When you say children…” Arthur asked inquisitively after a short pause.

Miranda just gave him a small smile. “Very dangerous children. One of them the world-leading kind.”

“Why would-“

“Why indeed,” Miranda shook her head as she interrupted the man. “Anyway, if there isn’t more, I have to make sure no idiots decide to try and get closer and check it out only to see themselves killed by some wayward blow.”

“Very well,” Arthur nodded. He hesitated for a bit before adding on: “I am beginning to understand the… difficulty of your position.”

She waved him off and cut the connection.

Looking a the reports of the nearby apocalypse, it at least looked like the newly-evolved Jake had fun with Sylphie.

A giant tornado that was nearly a hundred kilometers tall in the middle of the sky, wayward explosive attacks ravaging the desolate plains below, an arrow that blew off the top of a mountain, and auras more powerful than anyone else had felt before.

C-grades were not allowed within the area humans usually occupied. The energy from their fights didn’t even reach the human settlements, and no one outside of the absolute top ever dealt with beasts of that grade.

To the average person – which was still no more than E-grade – what was happening did indeed look and feel like an apocalypse. C-grade was considered the grade where one truly entered the higher echelons. A powerful C-grade could conquer a smaller planet, and most planet leaders spread throughout the multiverse, even those from major factions, were C-grade. Of course, this assumed that the planets could house C-grades, to begin with. The reality was that most planets had no real life on them, and even many of the planets with intelligent life had no interactions at all with the rest of the multiverse. To these, a D-grade was more than enough to be in charge, though it was rare they could have more than a small country. Of course, all this relied on the size of the planet too.

The point is, C-grades were rare, even from a multiversal perspective. Seeing C-grades fight was something most would never experience. To have front-row seats were even less of a thing, especially not outside of preset arenas and tournaments.

So what the hell had Jake and Sylphie expected to happen when they decided to fight only a few thousand kilometers from Haven and still close to several other settlements? Sylphie could be excused. She was only a few years old, but Jake? Jake was… well… Jake.

At least no one has died to a random missed arrow…

Just then, another new report came in about a large explosion in the sky that could be felt thousands of kilometers away.

Yet…