After bidding his goodbye toward the guys, Ryu was currently on his way to the depth of the woods, the place where's the girls will hold their match.

'It's been 4 hours since my mana got depleted.'

'Then, about 17-18% of mana has already restored.'

'At best, I could only be able to create two of Mana Footing, huh.'

'Maybe I should distribute my free points on mana the next time I leveled up. Wait, don't tell me...'

Intrigued, Ryu halted his movement and quickly cast a magic circle inside his consciousness. Before long, a tiny aqua flame has manifested in his hands. "Hmm, was my hunch wrong? No, maybe I just need a little bit more time to reach level 22." Ryu speculated as he stops channeling the spell with his mana.

After a few more minutes of walking, Ryu finally caught up with the girls. And outside of his expectation, they are still preoccupied with their preparation for the sparring.

"Not started yet?" asked Ryu while looking puzzled.

"With those kinds of rules, You expect us to begin without an observer?" Understanding what's written on the note, Mizuha knew that the judge -Ryu in this case- would play the central factor for the upcoming match.

"Clever like always, What you guys waiting for then?" Ryu said as he suddenly kicked down the ground hard, springing his body into the air. Just as when the gravity was about to pull him down, Ryu immediately created an invisible footing, allowed him to soar even higher before smoothly landed on one of the branches, 15-feet off from the ground.

Looking into that display, Mizuha's mouth slightly gaped, "Whoa, what was that? You look so graceful for a moment there."

"This wouldn't be that useful for an archer. Proceed with the match already," Ryu talked with hands over mouth, making his words to clearly transpire to the opposite party.

"Okay, okay, there's no reason for you to shout loudly like that."

Distancing themself from each other, Mizuha and Ayano eventually commence their match.

"Sorry, Ayano, but I'll win this one, please don't resent me after this!"

Mizuha fired two arrows in succession, which strangely directed at Ayano's left and right side. If Ayano stays on her spot, she will surely be safe from the attack, but she didn't do so. She instead goes to her left while casting a fireball to ignite the incoming bolt.

There's a reason for why Ayano did this complicated step to defense herself from Mizuha's arrow, and that was because the first custom rule this match has, which is;

Even for a second, it's forbidden for the participants to simply stand still in their place. If the participants did stop, there would be a penalty given by the observer in a fixed interval until the related individual moved from their spot. Additionally, it could also be considered a violation of the rule if the participants only went back and forth between the same area.

Also, because of this very rule, Mizuha coincidentally moved in the same direction with the fireball, it still streaks steadily despite the fact that it had swallowed the arrow from before.

Dodged the fire in a hairbreadth, Mizuha quietly gave a relieved sigh as she looks into the flame that's presently devouring the grass that she had stepped on before.

"Hey, why it hasn't died down yet!?" Sensing that the fire will spread to her way, Mizuha frantically ran while readying the bow for her next advance. This time, Mizuha's choose to solely shoot a single arrow imbued with her mana instead of constitutively launches two of it.

Noticed that it was coated with mana, Ayano spontaneously ducked down to evade the arrow. However, by doing so, she has to face the conscience of the 1st rule. Without any warning, Ryu hurls a thumb-sized pebble aimed at Ayano. He also didn't forget to insert a tad of his mana inside that tiny stone.

'Thud,' Although it sounded dull when the solid object crashed on its objective, the target, Ayano reflexively grab her shoulder tightly as she groaned in pain, 'He's really not holding back at all, it definitely cracked!'

'I need to complete that as soon as possible.' Enduring the pain that originates from the fracture, Ayano forces herself to walk towards the fire that already covers a small part of the woods.

"Mr. Sadist, are you sure you will let that go? The fire would burn the whole woods at this rate!" Mizuha alerted while looking for an opportunity to strike her sparring partner.

"It's not my concern actually, well, the heat has reached here through," Ryu indifferently replied as he knew that there's nothing to fret about. After all, different from the fire scroll that he usually uses in the Dungeon, the magics that manually generated by the thoughts or staff still obeyed the casters will even after it landed on its target.

Thus, all of these fires are actually connected to Ayano's soul. She could effortlessly extinguish those flames if she wanted to, but she didn't. Therefore, it's clear as day that this is a part of Ayano's strategy.

Meanwhile, Mizuha's face began to form sweats as the temperature rises, 'Seriously, why he doesn't stop this match? The fires are as big as a house now!'

'There's no helping it, I must end this within a minute.' Pulled her bowstring, Mizuha started to pour her focus toward Ayano again.

She once again shot an arrow combined with her mana. But, unlike the previous one, Ayano tried to retaliate by maximizing the power behind her fireball magic, which of course, compelled her to circulate extra mana into it.

Thankfully, this effort of her didn't end up in a dump. The fireball successfully burned both of the arrow and its mana layers in a matter of seconds. It furthermore flew past Mizuha and exploded at the tree behind her. Because of that, Mizuha's body got blasted meters away as she kissed the grass.

"Aw, that's hur-!" Didn't have any time to finish her complaint, her intuition told her to jump into her back. The moment she did so, Mizuha instantly saw a pebble flashing past through her, embedding itself deep into the ground where she had fallen earlier.

Staring into that scene, Mizuha nervously thought, 'Damn, I think that gonna be more hurt than Ayano's spell. What could Ayano have felt after gotten hit by that!?'

'Still, that move didn't work at her anymore, huh. I need to come up with a different approach.'

Didn't want to stop her feet again, Mizuha began to bombard Ayano with a variety of techniques. Sadly, every single of those was being repelled by the same spell that got released from Ayano's staff.

'She should have run out of mana anytime soon. Let's finish this up!'

Just as she wants to prepare her bow to launch another barrage of attack, Mizuha unconsciously flinched as she saw the smirk on Ayano's face.

"It's over, checkmate, Mizuha!" Ayano concluded confidently.

"What are you saying?" Mizuha inquired as she running around circling Ayano.

"You're too focused on me!" Shouted, Ayano fired off another fireball.

"Hey, are you drunk with your own fire that you threw the spell randomly like that?" In response to Mizuha provocation, Ayano chuckled, "When did I act like that?"

'Boom,' when the vibration entered Mizuha's ear, she finally knew what Ayano mean by checkmate when she observed her surroundings thoroughly. "Hope you liked my gift, Mizuha."

Gulped down the lump in her throat, Mizuha quietly swore, "Damn right."