"As I suspected," Ryu sighed as he observes Mizuha being entrapped by the fire, "Mizuha's ability to perceive her surroundings seems to go down based on the amount of pressure she has felt."

'Seeing Ayano didn't instantly release a bunch of those balls, there's a chance that she has noticed that weakness and used it for her advantage.'

"It appears our archer still has a long way to go." Smiled, Ryu then shrugged off his shoulders, "Well, I didn't expect to apply the 3rd rule on the match this soon."

Taking out a scroll from the storage ring, Ryu suddenly crushed it with his hand. Upon doing so, the paper quickly dissolved into particles, those blue dots shortly gathered over Ryu's head before it transformed to an ice boulder, 3 feet in diameter.

With a single thought of 'go!' The lump of ice directly sunk into one corner of the fire, canceling each other out. Of course, Mizuha that started to regain her focus didn't miss this opportunity as she immediately rushed into the area that's still clouded because of the previous element clash.

"So this is what you mean by the judge could interfere anytime to balance the fight," stated Ayano as she had finished consuming her potion.

'Somehow, this is a bit unfair... I had spent most of my mana to build this area... I'm doomed if Mizuha could escape from this ring.'

"That's what she had probably thought behind that face." Ryu chuckled when he saw Ayano's pouting expression.

"But, I indeed toppled the balance too much with that act. Not for so long, though." Licked his lips, Ryu imbued a pebble with his mana in preparation for what would happen in the next seconds.

Mizuha, who didn't know what had transpired inside the demon's mind, crossed the path, smiling as she succeeded in getting out of that pinch.

Mizuha's heart was filled with joy, for she has finally got a chance to turn the tide into her favor. And unfortunately, that feeling couldn't last longer more than a second. When she walked past through some point, she could hear a string being torn apart because of her foot. And at the same time, she felt she has triggered something, a trap!

Truth to be told, Ryu didn't blindly throw the boulder either. He had planned everything thoughtfully before lending his aid to Mizuha. Layed beyond the passage that Ryu had created, there's awaits the 2nd modifier of the match that he had placed prior to this day.

There's a different type of traps that Ryu had installed around the area. The one that Mizuha had activated was an immobilizing trap. Right after she snapped the line, a circle rope abruptly appeared around her feet before it instantly tightened on her ankle and brought her up into the air. 

This has occurred so fast that even Mizuha's intuition couldn't bring her leg to escape from the rope in time, making her body to hang upside-down.

"Hey! What's wrong with this ro-! Kyahh!"

Like what he did to Ayano, Ryu also directed the pebble toward Mizuha's right shoulder. Still, the result wasn't the same. Mizuha, without a doubt, has taken more damage compared to her. 

The cause of these differences definitely wasn't because Ryu took sides on Ayano. As a referee, he always made sure that he had inputted the same amount of strength and mana in his throwing. Instead, the reason for this was actually laid on the shape of the pebbles itself.

If Ayano was being struck by a somewhat round stone, then the pebble that pierced Mizuha's shoulder was like an icicle in the form of solidified minerals. Knowing that Ryu just took those stones randomly, maybe Mizuha's luck could be considered the worst as she succeeds in getting the most dangerous type of those rocks in her body.

"Seriously, I'll kill you the moment you set your feet on the ground!"

"I see you enjoyed throwing a tantrum in that rope instead of trying to broke free from it." Took a handful of pebbles from the storage ring, Ryu smirked, "Well, maybe you could also enjoy the upcoming stone shower that will fall on you if you stayed in that place."

"Hii~, You damn sadist! Idiot! Torturer! Heartless!" Terrified, Mizuha desperately pulled a spare quiver from her storage magic as all of her arrows from her main one had dropped when she entered this situation.

Thankfully, Ryu's go with a standard type of rope, so Mizuha didn't have a hard time cutting this trap that restricted her mobility using her arrow as the tool to do so. However... Who would've thought that it was only the start for her agony...

***

"Both of you really didn't have "holding back" in your dictionary, huh," Mizuha grumbled with her eyes narrowed. She had taken off her breastplate, and there's a chance that she couldn't wear them anymore due to their battle from earlier.

The battle had lasted for about 20 minutes, Ayano had earned a landslide victory thanks to a lot of factors. One of them was because of her preparedness, just like Mizuha, she had predicted that Ryu intervention would play a massive role in the battle. 

With a limited amount of mana, Ayano had come up with a way to abuse the rule into her advantage. She would bombard a tiny sized fireball to disturb Mizuha's movement. It could be said that Ayano has won without landing a single hit on Mizuha's at all. Every wound made on Mizuha's body on the match was totally on Ryu to blame.

Also, Ayano had paid the majority of her time to observe Ryu's gesture and her surrounding. It enabled her to evade and tackle something that came out because of the 2nd and 3rd rule. That's why, for this time, it was Mizuha's total defeat.

Looking apologetic, Ayano began to fidget with her hand, "Sorry, you're so good that I had to go all out with that fight. I'll compensate for that armor."

Gaining an acknowledgment, or rather a consolement from Ayano who's 2 levels higher than her, Mizuha seems to cheer up a little, "There's no need for that, I have planned to buy a new one after all."

"Well, for me, I did hold back, who knows what would happen if I had not suppressed my ability," chuckled Ryu. "Boast yourself more, you sadist."

"Let's kick his ass together when we got even stronger, Mizuha," stated Ayano as she took a seat beside her.

"Whoa, this is the first time that I heard you saying something like that." Had a quick startled look on her face, Mizuha then nodded, "But, yeah, let's do that, it's a promise between us."

Seeing the girls enthusiastically do a pinky swear about beating his ass up, Ryu sheepishly scratched his cheek as his mouth twitched a bit, 'Now I'm getting a bad foreshadowing out of this.'

Having their mana depleted, Ryu instructed the girls to train with something else. Also, he wanted to add and change the location of the trap. Later, the match had restarted after 4 hours had passed.

***

Meanwhile, on the other side... Narukami's clothes were being torn and dirtied all over the place as he desperately panted for breath.

"I gonna kill that devil the moment I arrived back to the camp!"