The ground split all around me, long cracks tearing outward like a web as the soil heaved under my feet. Trees shuddered violently, some toppling as the earth buckled beneath their roots. A suffocating pressure washed over me, thick and heavy enough to make my lungs tighten. For a single heartbeat, the thought crossed my mind. Maybe challenging her like this truly was a mistake.

But retreat wasn't an option.

"Mother Earth, grant me power to vanquish my enemy." Her voice dropped to a low chant as she drew her sword, and the effect was immediate. The ground around her quivered, then surged upward in thick pillars of dirt and stone. They twisted as they rose, spiraling into towering shapes that stretched nearly three meters high before solidifying into serpents forged from hardened earth. Dust billowed around her feet like a chosen battlefield's mist.

A smirk curved her lips. With one clean swing of her sword through the air, the serpents responded instantly, rushing at me with a burst of speed that split the soil behind them, leaving deep trenches in their wake.

But I was no pushover.

My wings snapped open, the force lifting me above the first strike. The serpents crashed into the ground beneath me, the impact throwing up shards of rock and clumps of dirt like explosive shrapnel. Roots snapped. Wood cracked. The forest floor buckled under their strength.

They didn't stay buried.

The ground beneath me bulged twice, and then both serpents erupted upward, shooting from the earth like drills, soil and debris scattering across the air. Their stone bodies gleamed under the filtered sunlight, spinning with vicious force.

The green ice flower in my palm throbbed violently, its petals trembling like a beast wanting to be unleashed. Cold mist coiled around my fingers, thickening with each beat of my heart.

I thrust my hand downward.

Ice surged outward from my palm in a roaring wave. Frost crawled across the ground, racing toward the serpents and meeting their spiraling bodies mid-charge. The clash sent a shock through the air: stone grinding against ice, heat against cold. White mist exploded around us as the elements collided, swallowing the battlefield in a chilling fog.

The serpents screeched, their stone bodies cracking under the sudden freeze, while the frozen earth beneath them shattered in jagged shards.

And still, Silver's power pushed forward.

And mine answered.

BOOM!

The impact tore the battlefield apart, sending ice and earth blasting in every direction. The shockwave rattled the trees, shook loose branches, and rippled through the ground beneath us like a living heartbeat gone wild. The two serpents crashed down in shattered chunks, their bodies weakened under the force of my frost. Whether they could reform or not didn't matter; my wings were already propelling me forward.

I launched myself straight toward Silver.

Her expression shifted, eyes widening for a heartbeat in genuine surprise… yet she didn't look afraid. Not even remotely. Confidence radiated from her, heavy and unshakable, as if she had predicted this outcome from the moment I stepped onto the field.

Her sword traced a sharp, complex arc and then jabbed upward, aiming for the exact point in the air where I was descending.

A sudden, crushing pressure slammed into me.

It felt like the weight of the entire mountain dropped onto my shoulders at once. My wings strained, my bones creaked, and my breath hitched as the force dragged me toward the earth.

Can she control gravity?!

Panic surged through me. That wasn't something I ever expected to face here. She didn't look like someone anywhere near level 50, yet this pressure was unmistakable. I remembered reading about an earth mage who reached that rank, one who helped Hera repel a monster raid in the distant city Lyssandra would later conquer. The book had mentioned this exact skill: gravity manipulation through earth authority.

That ability wasn't supposed to appear below level 50.

Could this woman be someone I should never have provoked?!

"Surprised?" she asked in that sultry voice, the kind that slithered under my skin. "I may not be well known, but my skills could rival even the heroine. Tell me—what do you think? Which one of us is stronger? Me… or that bitch?" She licked the tip of her finger and dragged it slowly along her lower lip.

"Y-you think… I-I'd know?" I managed to choke out. The pressure crushed down on me harder than I wanted to admit, but beneath that strain, a twisted spark of excitement flickered. This challenge… it stirred something inside me. I had to break free; there was no other option.

My body sank lower, pulled down inch by inch, yet I remained in the air, just far enough that her blade couldn't reach me. My wings strained violently against the weight she forced on me, and the frost thrumming under my skin tore at her earth authority, fighting to shatter it.

"How wouldn't you know? Everyone knows…" She laughed, light and mocking, a tone I instantly despised. "A young vampire woman besting Hera in Ashvale... Rumors of it spread through the land like wildfire. But none of us expected you to walk straight into the Holy Lands. How reckless… how clever…" Her lips curled. "Ahh… you make me want you even more. You'd be such a lovely pet."

Yup. Definitely a pervert. I thought with a smirk pulling at my lips, and she clearly didn't appreciate it… But that only confirmed what I needed. That calm confidence of hers was fragile, and it all cracked because of one particular person I knew.

"She would destroy you in a fight, you lowlife." I taunted her, and the halo behind me exploded to life. Frost surged through my veins and blasted outward, slamming into her and shattering her suppression like brittle stone.

The explosion tore the battlefield apart as the earth split, and ice scattered, making the dust rise in thick waves. But I knew better than to believe that would injure her. And as expected, she merely stood there with her hair slightly disheveled, completely unharmed.

I landed on the fractured ground and met her gaze. She looked furious.

Good. My plan worked.

"I'll kill you! And then I'll kill that bitch! Die!" Silver shrieked, and the ground ruptured behind her as she launched herself at me with terrifying speed.

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