As the lieutenant clutched its fist in pain, Tabitha activated her ice armor. Tabitha always enjoyed the cool and rigid feeling of the ice as it covered her skin. Right as the armor finished forming the rough shape of a helmet, Sarah called out, "It may be faster than us, but we only need to make it hit our armor!" Out of all of them, Sarah was the most armored, thanks to Samuel crafting her a complete set of ornate plate armor.

The lieutenant screamed in pain one last time before flashing away. Everyone looked at each other in confusion, but before anyone could speak, the lieutenant was back, attempting to plunge a rapier into Elizabeth's leg. As fast as Elizabeth could manage, she activated one of her sound shields deflecting the bow, but only after it sunk into her leg. The rapier was deflected with a ding sound as the lieutenant stumbled backward from the force used to knock back its weapon.

Tabitha quickly capitalized on this by propelling herself forward almost as fast as the lieutenant was. The lieutenant flowed around her attack right before she hit it, with it only missing by a centimeter. It did not expect her arm's sharp swing towards it when they were parallel, impacting its left arm completely shattering the humerus.

Rather than screaming like last time, its eyes narrowed, and its blade flowed with grace. Over the next five seconds, it made five more attacks. The sound of the blade scraping against the ice armor filled the surrounding area. The entire time Elizabeth and Sarah were attempting to hurt the lieutenant to no results. For every well-done attack, there was an even better defection or dodge. Then came the sound they feared, breaking ice. Tabitha's armor had broken around her stomach. The lieutenant's blade impaled her, its blade puncturing her spine, dropping her.

The moment of shock affected everyone but the lieutenant as it let go of its blade and rushed off, appearing moments later with a new one. Elizabeth was the first to shake off her surprise at the events rolling to the side right before a sword would have entered her skull. Before she could counter-attack, the lieutenant was already on Sarah plunging a rapier into a gap in her armor. Suddenly Sarah's body shifted a few centimeters, and the blade slammed into the plate armor and shattered in a flash of light. This time it was the lieutenant's turn to be surprised, and Sarah impaled its right leg with her spear; for a moment, the fighting stopped, and the only sounds that could be heard were ragged breathing and droplets of blood hitting the ice. Then the lieutenant's face split and the most horrendous screech any of them had ever heard echoed out. Everyone, including Tabitha, had to cover their ears as their eardrums threatened to pop. Thankfully the lieutenant didn't seem able to move as it unleashed this horror. After a full ear-wrenching ten seconds, the cry cut off, and the lieutenant stood in complete silence as if waiting for death. Before anyone could deliver, it ripped the spear out of its leg, spraying the surrounding ice with blood and viscera.

The spear was then thrown towards Elizabeth, whistling through the air thankfully slower than she could react, and she quickly activated her sound shield, pinging the spear away. While the spear was in the air, the lieutenant dashed back towards Sarah then stumbled due to the large hole in its thigh. Sarah's armored boot caught its face with a bone-crunching sound, and it was sent flying over 4 meters away. Twisting mid-air and land on its feet and sliding on the ice. Blood was pouring down its leg even faster than before, thanks to its overbearing movements.

Tabitha covered herself in ice during this, allowing her to move again, but each movement would shave points off her health. With blood-stained armor, Tabitha rushed towards the weakened lieutenant, letting out a roar of pain. Her first attack narrowly missed, with her second impacting the lieutenant in the solar plexus with a wet thump crushing part of its rib cage and sending bone shards to puncture its lungs. A leg sweep destroyed its knees with a sicking snap. Tabitha then conjured a large block of ice above the lieutenant with one final scream and let it drop. Blood covered her legs and the surrounding area like a small tidal wave of viscera.

Tabitha then promptly passed out due to the pain falling to the ground. Sarah and Elizabeth could only look on with a mix of wonder and horror. While they had gotten used to bloodshed, it was terrifying to see a woman covered in ice and blood with a sword in her spine physically demolish a being that strong then flatten it like a pancake. They both made a vow to never mess with Tabitha, and Elizabeth now truly believed that she was the third most powerful person in this sector.

Not really knowing what to do, Sarah slung Tabitha's still ice-covered form over her shoulder after removing the sword. Over the walk back, Elizabeth and Sarah talked about how to better deal with foes like this one with a significant investment in one stat but failed to come up with any real answers other than getting stronger. Each of them had gotten two levels from the fight pushing Sarah to level 30 and Elizabeth to level 31. This time, the walk back took twice as long, but it was a walk of victory rather than a desperate dash to protect a town. Neither one of them worried about Tabitha since the system came; all injuries were healed over time, allowing people with physical disabilities to function in complete form once again. This had brought some of the most dedicated warriors that this sector had seen. They weren't the elites just yet as they were still getting just to having a whole body, not to mention fighting to the death. As they approached the gates of Haven, cheers could be heard from all around in a deafening display of joy. They would live another day.