"♪ Wizards will rarely act without people guarding them, but party depends on their magic power to reduce most of the numbers before engaging. With a slow stone golem as opponent, Reveon will have to prove his power and quick thinking!" shouted dryad to the crowd.

The Arena was already clear from direwolf corpses. Must be teleported by enchantments. If we could teleport outside Arena with shout 'Retreat', it's not surprising they can get corpses away as well.

My attention was on Phoenix in the middle of Arena. With arms behind his back, he calmly looked at the gates. I couldn't help but giggle from the sight. Copycat!

My father often used to keep hands behind his back with a palm in palm gesture. In movies, I often saw martial arts masters doing this, so I quickly caught this habit as well. Phoenix saw me standing like this when I trained him outside the city and now he is already doing the same.

Finally, with slight tremors, a three-meter tall golem walked from the gates. It looked as a failed attempt of child to make a human figure from various rocks put together. One arm was twice as thick if compared to another, and the head was just floating rocks. How does it see?

Well, bullets would be useless there.

Reveon started slowly walking forward, then raised left arm and summoned his ghostly Grimoire.

"Fireball!" a fireball was launched slightly behind him and from the explosion, Phoenix flew forward at incredible speed.

A transparent egg like barrier protected him from harm and at the same time let him safely use the power of explosion to fly.

As Phoenix landed on the shoulder of Golem, new letters were already forming above his grimoire. He touched the body of golem and then with a jump away launched a fireball. A new explosion launched him back almost to the same spot from where he started and at the same time knocked the golem few steps back.

"Couldn't he just launch those fireballs from afar." I heard the elf from our side.

Others might not understand actions of Phoenix, but I did. My naughty boyfriend tried to steal the golem inside his dimension. It's impossible to do that to living things, but the golem wasn't exactly alive so he probably thought it was worth a shot.

Phoenix looked at me with an embarrassed smile, and I smiled in return. It was a nice idea. If it worked, we would have our own golem. Even if it was impossible to control, we could learn a lot just from studying it.

Even after receiving a direct hit from the fireball, the golem was still 'alive'. A part of his body was shattered, but rocks from all around were slowly floating to him and replaced what was lost.

"Fireball!" shouted once again Phoenix and a new fireball flew from his hand.

The golem started raising his bigger hand to defend. It was too slow to make in time, but his attempt showed intelligence.

Phoenix made a gesture with his right hand and the fireball stopped mid-flight, then shortly after started circling the golem in a wide radius. The golem 'looked' at the fireball, and then started walking towards Phoenix.

"What the hell?! It's possible to control it?" shouted the elf.

"Not bad.." grinned Red.

This was a result of awakening 'enhanced mind', and a bit of experiments with the knowledge of my world. While a fireball was only a second level spell, it was the most dangerous spell to the golem. That's because only a fireball could cause an explosion. Higher level spells 'Flame arrows' and 'wildfire' would be useless against him, as you can't hope to 'burn' a stone.

"Fireball!" Phoenix launched another, while the first was still circling.

With one more gesture of hand, new fireball started circling around as well.

"Fireball!" and the third fireball joined soon after.

The golem increased his speed within his limits, but more and more fireballs started circling him. It took only few seconds for Phoenix to form a fireball. When the golem got close to Reveon, all of fireballs stopped for a moment and then launched at the golem from all sides.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

You have gained 962 experience points for overcoming your adversary.

That was overkill, I am sure three fireballs launched at the same time would be enough, but can't deny, the explosion was very impressive.

Nothing was left from the golem and only small rocks flew in all directions. A rain or small rocks continued for a half minute, but none of the rocks reached Phoenix as his barrier was doing its job, and only slightly glowed from each hit. Phoenix placed both hands behind his back and looked at me. I greeted him with thumbs up and a smile.

"♪ Incredible!" was all the dryad managed to say while the crowd roared with excitement.

"♪ Next is Zack Adelort .." and as the dryad said this, a dwarf clad in heavy armor walked to the Arena.

"Nicely done." Phoenix was greeted by Red. "I am sure you will fare well in a group battle. By the way, that performance at the start of battle .. was that to show you can get away anytime you want?"

"He he he." Phoenix just laughed awkwardly without saying anything. After all, what he really wanted to do was to steal the golem.

Finally, I came closer and gave him a long and passionate kiss saving him from the conversation. Red looked at us for a moment and then walked away.

This kiss had nothing to do with some girl talks I overheard. After his display in Arena, some elf girls wondered if Phoenix was free, and if he would like them. The nerve! He. Is. MINE!

After I was satisfied with the kiss, I looked back where those girls should be sitting and noticed gazes filled with jealousy and hatred. I released bloodlust and for extra effectiveness, with the help of mana and body manipulation, made my eyes glow. The result was imminent, they quickly averted their eyes and I could see them shiver.

Skill "Intimidation" learned. Intimidation reached level 2. Intimidation - Ability to instill fear into your enemies. If the level is high or the will of opponent weak, your gaze can even paralyze.

Hmm, with Phoenix getting popular this might be useful ..

My attention returned back to the Arena when I heard sounds of a battle. The dwarf was fighting against two direwolfs.

Two? But minotaur had to fight against three. Is this because of race or the class of warrior has something to do with it? Well, it doesn't matter, seems even two of them might be too much for the dwarf.

It was a sorry sight. Because of short reach, attacks of the dwarf were easily dodged, and the fight soon turned into that of a cat and mouse. Wolfs were practically toying with him. One would feint an attack forcing dwarf to respond, then other would attack or feint as well so the first could do that.

After responding to one more feint with raised shield, the dwarf was late to attack another and his hand holding the sword was captured by jaws. Even with full plate armor, there was blood when the gauntlet was pierced by sharp teeth of the wolf. Other wolf charged at him again and all the dwarf could do was defend himself with the shield. The wolf that held his hand didn't allow to do even that and tossed dwarf on the ground.

Even if the dwarf was stronger, it would still be the same, direwolf was simply superior in terms of size and mass. Attacking wolf grabbed the shield with jaws by the edge and after wrestling for a moment tossed it to the side.

As the beast reached for his head next, the dwarf shouted "Retreat!" and vanished from the Arena.

"Fuck!" we heard cursing words from behind. The dwarf was lying on the ground in the same pose just like in Arena before teleportation. I already guessed this stone platform was a destination for teleportation. Glowing runes on pillars nearby was a dead giveaway.

"Should learn to better time your counter attack, you can't hope your opponents to just wait being hit, it's especially the case with your reach .." said Red while looking at the dwarf.

"This is bullshit. It wasn't a fair fight, why should I fight against two?!" shouted the dwarf.

"You can't be serious? Really? As a warrior, you will find yourself in situations where you have to hold multiple enemies at bay, and if you can't do that, archers and mages in your group will be put in danger. And if you think this is unfair, then you have no right to call yourself a warrior, grow some balls! Outside world isn't Arena, there will be no 'Retreat' that can teleport you out of danger. Or do you think your enemies will let you go if you say 'it's not fair'?!" shouted Red angrily.

"Get lost and train! You should attempt this only when you really have what it takes to be E rank adventurer!" finished Red and looked away.

The dwarf grunted and then sat in his old seat, he already failed, but it seems he planned to at least watch the ranking till the end.

Next to fight was an orc. His opponents were same direwolfs who beat the dwarf. Orc was better than the dwarf, but not to an extent to kill them without injuries. He managed to kill one wolf without troubles, but the moment he did so another wolf tackled him down and only after long wrestling he managed to free his sword and stab direwolf in the stomach.

After few more matches, it was finally my turn.

"♪ Our next participant is Melissa!" as the Dryad announced my name I looked at Phoenix.

"I will be back shortly. Don't flirt with girls while I am not around." I said and gave him a peck on the cheek.

"Oh? Does it mean I can flirt if you are around?" grinned Phoenix.

"Only if you like pain." I grinned back and made my eyes glow.

"Just kidding, Kitty. Have fun." he said with a smile.

He was very lucky I didn't detect any lies just now. Very. Lucky.

"♪ ..her Reaver class is unique and we found nothing about it in our archives. Still, as a unique class holder, her challenge will be hardest and she will face three crawlers!" shouted the dryad and gates of Arena started slowly open.

I finally could see those so called 'crawlers'. They were weird creatures. The lower part of their body had five spider legs of various size. The smallest leg and the largest was different in size almost three times.

The main body reminded a bit of cocoon, but it was some kind of chitin armor. There was no head to speak off, and on the upper part of the body, there was a large black sphere which I suspected to be an eye.

In the middle of cocoon like body, there was a large vertical mouth with sharp teeth at the size of daggers. The body had no arms, instead, there were four long and thin, whip like tentacles, with a bone spike at the end. If stabbed, I suspect they could release poison or something equally dangerous.

I looked at the audience and noticed few noble girls whispering while looking at my Phoenix. Uhh. Even after showing our affection in public, some girls still dream about him.

That settles it, I will spare crawlers death from bullets. I need all of them to see just what kind of beast they are toying with.

I summoned phantom claws on arms and stabbed them into the ground, then I did so with one leg as well and I was almost ready for the sprint.

Because of foot's small surface, part of the energy is wasted to sink them into the ground and It's very hard to achieve your true potential speed. Phantom claws will help with that, but that's still not enough for the speed I wanted to achieve.

Special skill "Limit Break" learned. Limit Break reached level 2. Limit Break reached level 3. Limit Break reached level 4. Limit Break - for a short time surpass limits of your body by increasing strength and speed many times. It has a heavy strain on your body and if too much power is used, there is a high risk of harming or even killing yourself in the process.

I knew this skill even in my old world. Probably all heard about stories how some people would perform unthinkable feats of strength in time of crisis. It would be strange if I couldn't break those limits with my full body control.

Just like the description said, the limit break has a heavy strain on the body. What it failed to mention is that almost every move can break your own bones.

That's why I need to calculate my every action to a millisecond or I would risk becoming a cripple in the middle of fight.

Skill "Though Acceleration" learned. Though Acceleration reached level 2. Though Acceleration - ability to accelerate the process of thought for a short time, making it feel as if the time has slowed down.

I launched myself forward with all the power I could muster and a large crater with a cloud of dust was left in my previous location. Just in one 'step', I covered a distance of thirty meters. And when my phantom claws reached the ground for the second time, my speed increased twofold.

With a loud bang from the slap with phantom claws, one crawler was sent flying at breathtaking speed. He hit the barrier of Arena and his innards, limbs, and blood splattered in a wide radius.

Another crawler started to crumble into pieces. I touched him few times with my tail when I flew past him to decorate the barrier with his friend. The last remaining crawler finally realized that the battle has already started. He attacked me with his whips, but I cut them off with my tail. I slowly walked to a now powerless monster, grabbed him with the left hand using phantom claws and crushed his body into meat paste.

After that, I pretended to celebrate my victory with a haughty pose, while in reality, I was mending my broken bones in right arm and left leg. Some muscles in legs were severed as well. Yes, I shouldn't use the limit break at its full power..