*Bam!*

“The fighting has already began.”

Hina said. She was walking with Miko as he searched for Tang.

“That assassin chick should still be lurking around.”

Miko said.

“You can sense her?”

“No, which is pretty impressive. Her target is still alive so she must be laying in wait for a second attempt.”

“Why? If it was me I would’ve chose to regroup.”

“That’s the best option but this is someone who is completely loyal to Tang, since she’s his Apostle. Even if she does regroup it will only be temporary. So unless Tang orders differently, chances of her targeting me again are high.”

“If that’s true then doesn’t that mean that we should hunt her down…..No, there’s too many enemies. We might walk into a trap if we hunt for her.”

“That’s right. We can only wait until she makes her move again. When that happens I want you to take her out for me, Hina. Can you do that?”

“Of course. I’ll make her regret ever targeting you.”

Miko smiled at her.

“It’s great to have a woman like you by my side.”

“At least you realize that I’m a good woman.”

Hina smiled proudly.

“If only you’d finish your new books. I’m dying to read them.”

“Hey, you know that I’ve been busy.”

The two started to talk about something completely unrelated to the situation.

“……..”

About a kilometer away, someone had their eyes locked on the two of them. This person was Klaus’s sister, Tara.

“They’re rather laidback considering the situation.”

She turned to her right and could see a battle that involved her little brother Vidal around 3 kilometer away.

“…..He’s seems to be enjoying himself. Plus it’s great experience so I’ll leave him.”

She turned back to Miko.

“For now, I’ll do my duty as an Apostle.”

She stretched her hand to the side and a bow of light appeared in her hand. She then pulled the string and a dragon-shaped arrow appeared. She took aim and locked her eyes on her target.

“?!”

She was shocked to see Miko looking in her direction.

“….Can he see me?”

She shook her head.

“That’s….”

She remembered the information she read about Miko.

“It’s possible. He’s quite abnormal after all.”

The arrow in her bow grew larger and it started giving off a powerful presence.

“Even so, I still have to take the shot. I just need to make sure that he can’t defend against it.”

She pulled the string and fired the arrow. A thunderous roar could be heard as the dragon arrow cut through the air looking like a real dragon flying through the sky. Tara was certain that her arrow would hit.

*BOOM!*

However, the arrow was intercepted by a magic circle which blocked it from reaching even a kilometer near Miko. Seeing that, Tara narrowed her eyes to see who stopped her attack.

“Her again.”

She saw Momo standing on a magic circle with her hands crossed in front of her.

“Go on. I’ll handle her.”

Miko nodded and continued walking with Hina beside him. Tara released her wings and took to the skies. She then landed near Momo.

“Midnight Witch.”

“Divine Arrow.”

The two faced off.

“I take it that you’ve been targeting me from the start.”

Tara said.

“Out of everyone here, I believe that you’re the most dangerous because of your incredibly long range and fire power. There’s also the fact that you have strange abilities that I’ve yet to figure out. As such…”

Momo stomped her foot on the magic circle and dozens more open up behind her. Lightning, darkness, flames, water, ice, earth; various types of elements started appearing from the magic circles.

“I will destroy you here!”

The magic circles started firing various powerful attacks at Tara, who evaded them by flying through the air. She evaded them with swift movements and then charged at Momo. She pulled her bow and fired at her. Momo stretched her hand out in front of her and a magic circle appeared and blocked the arrow. She then swung her hand in front of her and dozens of large revolting magic circles appeared and fired countless light beams at Tara. The beams came at her like bullets out of a machine gun. Tara maneuvered through the air while the light beams chased after her.

*Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!*

The beams that missed her hit and destroyed the nearby ruins, causing the area to be filled with dust clouds. Tara immediately flew into these dust clouds.

“……..”

Momo stopped firing and started looking around.

“I doubt that she’s just using the dust for cover.”

*Bam!*

Suddenly the ground underneath her broke open and an arrow flew at Momo’s chin. She moved her head back to avoid it.

“?!”

While bending her back, she saw Tara aiming an arrow above her. She fired the arrow which caused Momo to erect a magic circle on reflex.

“Curve.”

Momo’s eyes widened when she saw the arrow curve and avoided her magic circle to come at her directly.

“Shit!”

*Bam!*

The arrow exploded the moment it came into contact with Momo.

“Ugh!”

Blood drained from her shoulder as she moved away.

“You have incredible reflexes for a Spell Caster. If you hadn’t twisted your body in time, your heart would’ve been destroyed.”

Tara floated not too far away from her.

“As I thought, you have some strange abilities. From what I can tell it has to do with speech.”

Momo’s arm dangled to the side as blood flowed down it.

(The problem is that I don’t know how her ability works and what kind of a ability it is.)

“Midnight Witch.”

Momo looked up.

“I’ve always wondered why you were called that. Maybe this fight will let me know why?”

A sinister bow appeared in Tara’s hand replacing the old one. The Apostle Crest on her hand started shining.

“I guess I’ll test out Nidhogg’s power for a bit.”

She pulled the string and roots started growing in the bow and formed a wooden black arrow. Momo could feel a dangerous aura coming from the arrow.

“Black Root Arrow.”

She fired the arrow and a ghastly wail resounded in the area. Momo saw the arrow turned into the image of a black dragon flying across the sky. Momo thrust her good arm in front of her and magic circles started stacking together in front of her.

*BAM!*

The dragon slammed into the stack of magic circles and caused a thunderous sound.

*Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!*

The circles started shattered like glass, one after the other. It didn’t take a second for only one circle to be standing in the way of Momo and the dragon.

“Goddammit!”

Momo roared and all of the muscles in her arm tensed up and all of her veins bulged.

“Ahh!”

Her veins in arm started bursts one after one, staining her arm in blood and causing severe pain. Even so, Momo kept pushing. Her efforts paid off as she was able to deflect the dragon arrow.

“Hah~! Hah~! Hah~!”

She panted heavily with both arms dangling at her sides.

“You really are something. I tried my best to use Nidhogg’s power and you were able to stop it.”

Tara showed a genuine impressed expression. This however was no comfort for Momo. She could tell that Tara was just experimenting from her words, and yet her attack was so powerful.

“Let’s try mixing Vritra and Nidhogg’s powers together.”

“?!”

Momo’s eyes widened and she started gritting her teeth.

“Hah~.”

She suddenly sighed and her body relaxed. She closed her eyes and started taking deep breaths.

“Hm?”

Tara interest was piqued by Momo’s sudden change in behavior.

“There’s no use in getting worked up. It will only narrow your vision and slow my mind.”

She slowly opened her eyes.

“Alright, I’ve made my decision. I’m going with Demon Witch.”

“Hm?”

Tara then saw the blood on Momo’s arms started moving like it had a mind of its own. The blood started forming into circles with unknown runes all over her body. The blood circles started glowing and revolving.

“This….Looks dangerous!”

Tara formed another arrow in her bow. This arrow was made of wood and had water flowing around it.

“Black River-”

*Bam!*

Tara’s bow and arrow suddenly burst into pieces.

“Wha?!”

She looked and saw Momo stretching her hand out towards her.

“Don’t interrupt.”

The blood circled seeped into her body and her eyes turned a deep red. Her hair darken into a midnight black and and her clothes changed into a gothic style dress. If you had to describe it-

“Midnight Witch.”

That was the first thing that came to mind when Tara saw her.

“She has the same scent as a demon….”

Tara shook her head.

“Her father is said to be a demon and her mother is half-demon so she is a demon; but why have I only gotten a human scent from her all this time.”

Tara remembered the blood seals that appeared on Momo’s body.

“Did she activate her demon blood and boost it with a spell? There’s no trace of human scent on her anymore.”

“Divine Arrow, how much do you know about magic?”

Momo spoke to Tara.

“With magic the possibilities are endless. This is the first thing I learnt as a child.”

She showed a smile.

“You control elements, reshape reality, conjure things never before seen.”

She stretched her now repaired hand.

“Of course, it can heal injuries as well.”

A dark aura appeared beside Momo and then molded into a staff.

“You asked why I was called the Midnight Witch. It’s nothing special. My father was called the Midnight Dragon and my mother was called the Demolition Witch, so my clan fused the two aliases together and promoted me as such.”

Momo grabbed the staff and Tara felt her presence become even more sinister and saw strange markings appear on her arms.

“While in hell, I started thinking about my moniker and what it means to me. It’s while thinking this I realized that I didn’t live up to my parents’ legends. Soon I started feeling that I wasn’t worthy of this name. So I decided to become like them in my own way.”

*Bam!*

Dark energy started flowing out of her body.

“A terrifying demon.”

“I see.”

The bow in Tara’s hand, that she summoned, disappeared.

“An archer putting away her bow?”

“It seems that you have control of the mana around us, from the way you destroyed my previous bow and arrow. So I simply determined that I need to change tactics.”

She placed her hand on her hips.

“Earlier you said that you’ll go with Demon Witch. Does that mean that you have other forms?”

Momo smiled and didn’t respond.

“Interesting. Let’s put these forms to the test.”

Tara flew towards Momo with lightning fast speed. Since she was a Dragonman, she still had superior physical abilities even if she was an archer. She swung her leg like a whip and aimed to break Momo’s neck. Her leg only hit air as Momo moved so fast that it was like she teleported. Tara spun around and then quickly moved back as far as she could.

*BAM!*

An explosive sound rung out and Tara felt Storm like winds hit her and send her flying back. She looked and saw that Momo had swung her staff at her.

“A simple swing can generate so much force? Did her physical strength skyrocket too?”

A grin appeared on Tara’s face.

“You’re making my dragon blood excited.”

“Then how about I pour some cold water on you?”

Tara looked up and saw a strange spell circle that stretched for almost a kilometer across the sky.

“The hell?!”

Tara saw a devastating downpour come from the spell circle.

*BOOM!*

The water hit the ground and left a deep crater instead of flooding the area.

“That’s dangerous firepower there.”

Tara appeared behind Momo.

“However, spells on that level are sure to consume tons of magic power. I’m sure that you can’t continuously fire spells of that magnitude and was only trying to scare me.”

“You’re mistaking. That was just a test run.”

The staff in Momo’s hand disappeared into a black fog, that fog then wrapped around her arms and formed black sinister gauntlets with blood seals on it. This caught Tara off guard. She didn’t know Momo as a melee fighter.

(A bluff? Or made a distraction for a hidden spell?)

While she tried to make sense out of it, Momo made her move. She moved with a speed that rivaled Tara’s, which meant that her speed rivaled Dragonmen.

“And she’s doing it without spells too!”

Tara prepared herself and threw a punch at Momo, who moved out of the way and countered with a punch of her own.

*Bam!*

“Ugh?!”

Tara felt like her ribs were on the verge of fracturing. She moved back with all she got but Momo was hot on her tail. The blood seals on her gauntlets started revolving and black static started covering her. Momo threw another punch despite Tara being some distance away.

“Guh?!”

Tara felt a static shock past through her body and mercilessly assault her organs. This caused her to slow down, and Momo caught up in a minute. This time, evil looking flames came from the gauntlets. Tara moved back, but she didn’t expect for a giant fireball to come from Momo’s fist when she threw a punch. She was hit out of the sky by that fireball that forced her into the ground before exploding.

“…….”

Momo didn’t stop and swung her claws. A howling sound rung out and the ground was carved up leaving giant claw marks in the ground.

*Swoosh!*

Tara shot out of the smoke cloud with burns and cuts over her body. Momo immediately charged at her. Tara clenched her fists and arrow marks appeared on both arms. She threw a punch and fired an invisible force at Momo, who sensed it and evaded it.

“Curve.”

*Bam!*

Momo was suddenly hit in the back by what felt like a punch.

“Alright.”

The arrow marks changed to a red arrow. Tara started throwing punches one after the other and flames in the shape of arrows shot towards Momo. She naturally evaded them.

“Curve. Increase speed.”

*Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!*

“Ugh?!”

Momo was hit from all angles from flame arrows. She gritted her and pointed her palm at Tara.

“Demon Art: Hellflame!”

Suddenly Tara founded herself completely surrounded by black flames. She opened her mouth to speak. Momo noticed a light coming from inside her mouth.

“Devour!”

All of the black flames rushed into Tara’s mouth and disappeared without a trace. Momo was still relaxed despite this.

“I figured it out. You have a magic circle on your tongue. It’s one I’ve never seen before, so it seems that it’s quite ancient. Also, I’ve confirmed that you can only use it on yourself and things that’s directly associated with you. Otherwise, you would’ve just commanded me to die from the start. Also if you could control other stuff, you would’ve had the ground swallow me up.”

“Impressive.”

Tara nodded.

“What you said is the truth.”

She stuck out her tongue and showed of a strange looking spell circle, and a physical one at that. Which meant that it was tattooed or carved on her tongue and is permanent.

“I won’t say where or how I got it but I’ll say that there’s no use trying to copy it. This came from the Primal Age, a forgotten era.”

She then pointed at Momo.

“But I have you figured out too. You’re not only controlling the mana in the area, you’re absorbing it. The blood seals that sunk into your body is sucking in the mana in the area, it then converts it into a demonic nature which is very compatible with your demon blood and will boost it. This causes you to turn into a full demon momentarily, which explains your increase in physical prowess. As for your gauntlet, it’s an enchanted item that converts your spells in physical attacks. It’s similar to the arrows on my arms that does the same thing for my arrow attacks; it turns them into physical attacks.”

“So we both got each other figure out. What does that do?”

Tara took a fighting stance as her body started changing into her dragon form.

“It just means that there’s no more need for tricks. We’ll just slug each other until one remains.”

“I would normally scold Miko when he does this but it looks like I’ll be a hypocrite today.”

Momo took a fighting stance as well.

“I’m really itching to experience a pure fist fight with someone that’s my equal.”