"Uneasy?" Aya pursed her lips. "As long as we take him down, everything will be fine, right?"

"True," Tiran grinned, then vanished from the air, reappearing moments later with Aya's protective spell enhancing his sword strike, the icy blade descending menacingly towards Blackzelle's head.

Judging from their previous bout, Blackzelle was purely a Magic user. Even as a Holy Rank Magic user, facing Tiran up close only led to a dead end.

Yet, Blackzelle managed to evade the strike. The solid ground beneath his feet suddenly liquefied, allowing him to smoothly sink into it. He swiftly moved underground, untouched even as Tiran's frost-chi-infused strike left a deep gash of over ten meters on the surface.

"Do you really think this guy is Holy Rank?" Princess quipped, tapping the intact ground nearby. "He's even more cowardly than Aya."

"Are you trying to be funny?" Aya landed beside Tiran.

"Isn't it obvious?" Tiran glanced at him subtly.

"Of course, I'm definitely braver than him. If someone came looking for trouble, I wouldn't hesitate to show up," Aya nodded confidently.

"...As expected of you," the Princess sighed, covering her face. After a brief silence, she sighed again. "Instead of that, do you have a way to blast this guy out? Like the big move you just did?"

"Let's respect his expertise a bit. After all, he's a dedicated Earth Magic user. His research on this type of Magic far exceeds mine. If he hadn't been hindered earlier, I might not have been able to release the reverse deconstruction spell," Aya explained.

Suddenly, the ground violently trembled, causing both of them to stagger. Simultaneously, the surrounding earth rumbled and surged up like how Blackzelle had disappeared underground, exerting a strong gravitational pull that seemed to drag them below.

Accompanying this were approaching shadows in the sky. Earth elements coalesced into rocks, reconstructing into a massive hammer that descended towards the restrained pair, the oppressive air rendering them immobile.

For an ordinary warrior, this would have been a fatal situation. Even if Blackzelle could free himself from the swamp control, he was already prepared with earth spike spells on all sides, leaving no escape except to be impaled by sharp rock formations.

However, instead of trying to break free, Tiran plunged his sword deeply into the ground. Infused with frost chi, the sword pierced through the earth Blackzelle had ensnared, reaching a depth of nearly a hundred meters. The frozen swamp lost its sinking properties, allowing Tiran and Aya to easily free themselves from the ground.

"You think you can kill a Holy Rank using spells of this level? Are you underestimating us or yourself?" Tiran sighed, grasping Aya's hand with his left and extending his right hand with fingers splayed, facing the oncoming rock hammer with immense force.

Objectively speaking, the strike was strong, albeit unremarkable. For a skilled swordsman like a Tier 5 or 6, splitting a large rock on the ground with full chi concentration wasn't challenging. Even for greater knights or powerful swordsmen like Miss Zilan from the East, splitting mountains with a single sword strike was possible.

But when a mountain hurled with tremendous force, even a Holy Rank swordsman would struggle to cleave through it with a single sword.

However, who said a sword was the only option?

The advantage of a Magic user over melee fighters lay in their varied attack methods and large-scale attacks. Mages could manipulate magic elements in versatile ways, while warriors relied solely on their weapons.

"I'm not your average clueless swordsman," Aya muttered to himself. Invisible forces gathered in his palm, then expanded, causing visible ripples in the distorted air.

Subsequently, a crack manifested at the base of the descending rock hammer, radiating from the central point like the initial domino in a set, spreading swiftly along visible fissures that crisscrossed the entirety of the boulder. The fragments, robbed of their falling momentum, disintegrated upon contact with each other.

At that moment, the ground spikes that had risen abruptly found themselves with no target to impale.

Boom! A thunderous explosion shattered the air, unleashing another shockwave that emanated from where Tiran and Aya stood, dispersing the surrounding dust.

"Though it sounds ordinary, 'Vibration' seems much more effective than imagined," Tiran remarked, clenching his fist. "If the frequency is increased, maybe a single punch could pulverize someone."

"Let's give it a try," Aya's curiosity piqued. With a light touch of his left foot and a sudden stomp, powerful shockwaves of vibrations propagated underground.

The swampy ground reverted to its original form. After a moment of silence, a deep crater emerged not far away, ejecting Blackzelle from it. Seizing the opportunity, Tiran cast a spear of ice towards him.

Struck head-on by Aya's wide-reaching attack, Blackzelle gritted his teeth, barely managing to maintain a rocky crystal shield as the mid-tier Magic spell shattered upon impact. The shield, however, blocked the lethal blow.

The impact launched Blackzelle into the air, slamming him forcefully on the ground, his insides feeling as if they were about to spill out of his body.

*Cough, cough…*

Dizzy and disoriented, Blackzelle struggled to maintain consciousness, trying to employ his earth wave spell to restrain them. But before he could, Aya and Tiran swiftly pinned him down.

"Finally dealt with him," Aya's face revealed a sense of hard-earned victory. "What now, kill him outright?"

Blackzelle, once dashing and confident, now appeared disheveled. His hat was missing, his once pristine cloak torn and tainted with dirt, feathers half-shredded. Despite his appearance, a self-assured smile lingered on his face.

"Just finish him off. He's a Holy Rank, better not let him linger," Tiran nodded, lifting his sword to strike.

"Hey, hey, hey, wait for me to finish speaking!" As the blade neared his throat, Blackzelle's composure finally cracked.

"Why should I wait for you to finish? Frankly, if it weren't for your somewhat honorable conduct, you wouldn't even get a chance to talk. Just relax and accept your fate," Tiran dismissed, pressing the blade down firmly.

"Hmm?" Unexpectedly, the sword edge halted at Blackzelle's throat, unable to penetrate further.

"Hey, isn't this giving me a chance to speak?" Blackzelle's smile now held a sense of relief.

Less than two centimeters above his windpipe, a semi-transparent barrier prevented Tiran's blade from descending, swiftly expanding upwards with remarkable force, forcibly pushing them apart.

"Haha... Almost missed the timing there."

Struggling to stand up from the ground, Blackzelle couldn't hide his relief. He thought his skills would let him buy enough time in a Holy Rank face-off, but he had nearly lost his life by a hair's breadth.

One versus two under the constraints of his law wasn't an easy task, but finally, he had bought enough time.

Activating the remnants of his spell, a light screen reappeared behind Blackzelle.

A blazing gust of wind swept forth, followed by projectiles traveling at unprecedented speeds.

"Oh no!" Tiran hesitated, the bullets leaving milky white sonic cones in the air almost upon them.

Fortunately, Aya reacted swiftly, pulling Tiran away. However, his reaction time wasn't enough for further countermeasures; he could only turn his back to withstand the impact with his "Air Scales."

The incredibly intense shock hit from behind, and Aya could feel the fierce collision between his "Air Scales" and the projectile, the immense heat almost unbearable. Instantly, the sharp sound of shattering and the intense pain in his back followed.

"Aya!"

Feeling the impact as well while holding him, Tiran also sensed the scent of blood.

"I'm fine, just a minor injury," Aya grimaced but didn't slacken, swiftly repositioning, backing off, and summoning layers of sturdy rock barriers.

"Hah, all this time of delay wasn't in vain," Blackzelle smirked despite the solid barriers. Multiple projectiles akin to the one that damaged Aya's defense bombarded the rock barriers.

"How does this guy still have railgun-esque technology hidden away? With such tech, why didn't he use it from the start?" Tiran marveled, hearing the sound of the rock barriers breaking coming closer.

"Perhaps this is his law, originating from within like the initial cannon," Aya rubbed his back, thankful that his clothes were transformed from scales; otherwise, that hit would have shredded his attire.

"Could it be...?" Suddenly recalling Blackzelle's words during the battle, Tiran had a revelation.

"Civilization, huh? Using such a peculiar law?" Tiran was flabbergasted. The transition from arrow rain to firearms and now to electromagnetic weapons hinted at a civilization's progress, affecting the use of law in such diversified ways.

The realization left the Princess feeling like she wanted to cough up blood.

"I'm in the development phase, what are you waiting for?" she mused, realizing her own folly!