“Here. You should hold onto these two cards for now.” I said to Ria as I handed her Element Valkyrie and Firebird. They will be good for her to start with and if she does well with them, I might just give her the Sacred Phoenix of hys ter.

  Spoiler[colpse]“... where should I hold them?”

  “Your fanny pack, your pocket. Anywhere really, as long as they won’t actally fall out of there. And you should already know how to use them, right?”

  “Just say the name? Oh. I actually read it now.”

  “Yeah. You need Card Summoo be able to read them. You also ’t use the ones with that protective sleeve on them without Card Summoner.” Both of her cards actually have a toploader, but small difference.

  “Okay. Should I summon them now?”

  “Not just yet. Let me summon a few monsters first. I picked a few with ons that you might enjoy using.”

  “... they are alright, but I don’t think they are for me.” Ria said after testing out the twin daggers of Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke and the arm bdes of Performance of Sword. I had also let her test out my mithril sword, but she didn’t like that either.

  Spoiler[colpse]“I see. That’s too bad. Thanks, you two. You go baow.” I said before I unsummohe two monsters. “Let’s try these . Cestus of Dag.” I activated an equip spell that summowo ons that were not too far from punch daggers. Just a bit over sized.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]As they came out of the card, I took a hold of them so they wouldn’t fall to the ground. pared to their size, they were actually quite light, so they shouldn’t get in the way of Ria’s fighting style.

  “Here. Test these out.”

  “Sure.” Ria moved to receive the ons from me, but as soon as they were fully in her hands. “Ah!” She let out a little scream and dropped them.

  “Ria! What happened?”

  “They just hurt me.”

  “The ons?”

  “Yes.”

  “... okay. Why?”

  “You should tell me that.”

  Is it because they are an equip spell? Did it get equipped to me when I activated it? It shouldn’t be that. I have given equips to other people before. Like when I gave that guard the Legendary Sword during the wyvern i.

  “Alice, could you try pig them up?”

  “... do I have to? Won’t they hurt me as well?”

  “I’m not sure, so I’d like to find out. This is the first time an equip has hurt someone. I do have an idea as to why it might have, but that also doesn’t fit how I’ve been able to use them previously.”

  “... fine, but if they hurt me, I’ll expe apology gift.”

  “Sure. If they hurt you, I’ll give you ara card. Is that fine?”

  “Yes.”

  Alice moved to pick up the falleus of Dag. She picked them up and seemed to be holding them with no problem.

  “... they don’t hurt?”

  “Why do you seem surprised by that? They shouldn’t hurt. That is the norm.”

  “Then why did they hurt me?”

  … yeah. That is the question.

  (Laura, any ideas?)

  (One. Her race. She is a dhampir aus of Dag is only for Fairy-type monsters. That difference could cause the damage.)

  (But her Alice or I are fairies.)

  (But you are humans. Humans are an adaptable, ral race. The cards might not treat you as any ra particur, so you equip any of the usually limited cards.)

  (... okay. So humans use everything, but Ria ’t use fairy equips as she is half-undead?)

  (Yes. That could be the case.)

  (Well, let’s assume so until we have more data.)

  “... sorry Ria, this one is on me. I didn’t take your rato sideration.” I said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Those bdes are made for fairies. And while a human use them, a dhampir seemingly ot, as you are basically half vampire.”

  “I see. Well, I don’t think I’d have liked them anyway. They are too big and bulky.”

  “Perhaps some gaus will really be the best. Something like these. Armed Dragon LV5.”

  Spoiler

  [colpse]

  What do you mean I ’t do that? Why not? Armed Dragon LV5 doesn’t have to be summoned by the effect of its LV3 version, so I .

  My new dragon wasn’t that rge, pared to most of my others. It only stood at about 7 meters tall. Sure, it is still rge, but pared to most of my actually rge dragons, this is quite manageable.

  “B-Brian! You ’t just summon a dragon out of nowhere.” Alipined.

  “Why not? It isn’t even that rge. And it’s just to show some gauo Ria. So Ria, what do you think? Would something like that work?”

  “... I think so. But I want to test them out first. And I think those ones are way te for me.”

  “Don’t worry about that part. As long as you think they’ll be good, I’ll get you some. I just o go and buy some iron, then summon a moe it into something you use.”

  “Did I hear that correctly? You summon something that fe?” Paulina walked in and asked. I didn’t notice as I was focused on Ria. “Also, why is there a dragon here?”

  “... because I summohe dragon. And yes, I have an iron bcksmith on my list of summonable monsters.”

  “I see. I suppose that isn’t overly strange for you. Do you want to borrow the knight orders smithy? I arrahat for you.”

  “... Yes, please. I’ll pay for it as well.” I holy thought I might have to find one I rent for a month or something.

  “I think as long as you pay for the materials, it will be fine.”

  “Sure. Holy, that will be a huge help.” At least until I get the DDF smithy done. And I’ll still need materials for the DDF smithy.

  At least I won’t need an anvil as Iron Bcksmith Kotetsu es with one, but I’ll need basically everything else. A fe, some tools, a quench tac.

  “Giant Orc.” I summohe monster Ria wao fight against.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]

  “Is that a greater orc?” Paulina asked.

  “... The card calls it a giant orc, but it might be.” I said.

  This thing was a ler than the orcs we have fought this far. The native orcs are around three meters tall, but this thing is four. A full meter taller. It wielded a rge bone like a club.

  “You two sure about this? This might be a little too much. I trade it for something weaker.” I offered Alid Ria.

  “... Mana kill it?” Alice asked carefully.

  “Not sure, but maybe.” I answered. Of course normally Dark Magi Girl has less attack than Giant Orc, but Mana has the book installed. And I don’t know if she gain attack with her ability, even if there are no Dark Magis in the GY. There is also the ive ability of Giant Orc to sider. If Mana force the orto ‘defense mode’, it should be no problem.

  “This orc is that strong?”

  “Yeah. It has a lot of power, but it also has a big weakness. If you exploit that weakness, I’m sure you win.”

  “What weakness?”

  “If I tell you, then this wouldn’t be good training.” Well, it still would be. They would still have to get the orc to go into defense somehow. And holy, I have no idea how to do that.

  “Perhaps I should help you as well. We do it together.” Paulina offered.

  “Would you really?” Alice asked. “That’s fine, right Brian?”

  “Sure, I don’t really care. I’ll also stop the orc if it goes too far.” I also do want to see Paulina fight, so this is going to be nice. I know I saw a bit back at the orc settlement, but that was just her firing a few spells.

  “Begin!” I called out to start the practice fight.

  I had given my orc the order that it was not to attayohat had gone down, but other than that, anything was fair game. I didn’t want to make it too easy and I could help them recover even if the worst happened.

  As I gave the signal, the orc began walking towards the trio.

  Alid Paulina stood their ground and began throwing spells at it, but Ria took off running so she could get to a better position. The spells were doing some damage, but the orc didn’t seem to care that mud was just walking through them.

  “Alice, use shade.” Paulina instructed.

  “Yes. Dark, embrace us, Shade.” Alice quickly ted and the area around the orc was engulfed by darkness. The darkness didend much past the orc, so the rest of us could see everything.

  But the orc didn’t seem to care about its new enviro. It is dark attribute, so perhaps a little darkness doesn’t bother it too much. It is also a fiend, so I think it resides within the Yami room of the factory.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]

  “It. It didn’t stop!” Alice panicked a bit as the orc kept walking towards them.

  “Earth Wall!” Paulina quick casted a spell, raising the ground to make a wall between them and the orc. “That happen. Some monsters don't care about spells like shade.” She then expio Alice.

  The orc didn’t care about the shadows, or the wall that had appeared a moving. In fact, after the wall came up, it accelerated and tackled the earth wall, causing it to crumble.

  As the dust from the wall was settling, the shadows caused by shade also lifted, so I could actually see the ain. It didn’t really seem hurt at all, even though it just charged through a wall, but it was a bit disorientated and had to take a few seds to catch its surroundings.

  Alid Paulina used that time to take some more distance, and Ria took that ce to finally charge in.

  With her eyes glowing slightly, she used Flicker Step to get behind the ord jumped up to its neck. Using her legs to hold on, she pierced her fingers into the orcs eyes, blinding the monster.

  GRAAW

  The orc let out a scream and dropped its bo then used both of its hands to try to get to Ria, but as soon as Ria saw them ing, she jumped off of the ord took some distance.

  “Stone Spear!”

  “Dark Spear!”

  Two spear spells came from the magis as soon as Ria jumped off of the orc.

  The stone spear hit the or the right shoulder, causing a small wound, but Alice’s Dark Spear hit it iomad actually pierced quite deep. Her Magi’s Power skill must be w overtime again.

  GRAAW

  The orc roared again. It held its pierced eyes with one hand, and pced the other onto its bleeding wound on its stomach.

  “Alice, another one.” Paulina said, and began a t. “Stones, gather and fly as my spear, Stone Spear!”

  “Dark, form a spear and strike my enemy, Dark Spear!” Alice followed her lead.

  Again, both of the spells nded. If I’d have to say, Alice’s did just a bit more damage, but this time, it was more difficult to tell. Maybe Paulina was holding back with her st spell, or maybe the orcs shoulder is just tougher.

  The orc then moved to pick up its bone again. And as it opes eyes, I saw that it once again had its eyes intact. It had regeed them. I didn’t know it could do that. Even the wound from Alice’s first spear in the orc's stomach had begun tee somewhat.

  The orc then charged at the two mages. Not walking like it had been, but a full on sprint. And it was fast. For something se, it move quickly.

  Paulina began dodging to the left and pushed Alice to the right to get her moving as well. They made a rge enough of a space between them where had the orc still been blind and operating based on the dire the attacks came from, it would have charged through the empty area where they had been.

  But as it could see once again, it saw what the two were doing and chose to go after Alice. Probably because Alice’s spears do slightly more damage.

  As the orc approached Alice, it readied its bone for a strike onto her.

  “Dark Shield.” Alice quick casted a defensive spell before the orc had time t the bone down.

  But as the bone came down it first hit the wall and shattered both the wall and the bone. But a remaining piece of the bo Alice, throwing her back a few meters.

  “ALICE!” Paulina called out.

  I sidered stopping the practice match right now, but as the orc turned away from the downed Alice, I don’t think that is strictly necessary. Alice also didn’t receive a full blow, so she should still be alive. Hopefully.

  I guess I should add a little detail. The reason Threatening Roar or Spellbinding Circle didn’t automatically activate is because I removed both of them before the match. They are too much of a crutch for Alid she shouldn’t rely on them most of the time, so I don’t want her developing any bad habits. When we are out there, doing actual adventuring work, is ohing, but as this is basically a practice match I said it would be better if she couldn’t rely on them.

  “You two! The fight is still on! I’ll take care of Alice!” I called out to the two still active batants, as I ran to the fallen Alice. On the way, I took the Guardian Angel Joan that I had already put into my pocket out, pced it on my Duel Disk, and summoned her. “Heal her.”

  I looked Alice over as Guardian Angel Joan got to work. She didn’t have any obvious punctures, probably because she has on the leather armor she got from her father. But that amount of blunt impact trauma would still cause some damage.

  “Is she?” I asked the angel.

  “She’ll be fine. She lost a lot of HP, but it wasn’t a lethal blow.”

  “Good.”

  I turned back to the fight.

  Aone spear from Paulina was flying towards the ord then another. And they were doing a lot more damage than they had been.

  The spears, that had previously only peed a bit, were now pierg all the way through the orc.

  As the orc approached Paulina, Ria came bato the fight. With the plete passthroughs of the spears, she had plenty of opportunity to go in and use blood magic to draw out more of the orcs blood. She tched onto the orc's bad the wound that had been bleeding only a bit began gushing out blood like someone had fully opened a slightly leaking faucet.

  The orc tried to get to Ria, but getting to the middle of your own back isn’t the easiest thing. Especially as Paulina was still casting spells. She had sed from her spear spell to a stooss, something with more impact force, but less peing force. Good call on her part as friendly fire is most certainly on and over peion is a thing.

  The orc, for its part, tried to get Ria off of its back, but it proved to be impossible. Perhaps because of the blood loss, or maybe because of the rocks hitting it in the head, it was getting more and more disorientated.

  But then the orc seemed to catch its sed wind and it struck the ground with its right hand, pulling out a fresh bone from the card that had appeared at its feet when it did. With the bone ba its hand, it seemed ready to strike again.

  Its first move with its new bone was to strike its own back, and Ria who was ging to said back. The bone impacted Ria hard and shattered. Those things aren’t very durable. Ria let go off the ord fell to the ground. Like with Alice, the nored her for the future and turs eyes onto Paulina.

  I pulled up Ria’s status through my own and saw that she still had just over 200 HP remaining, so she was fine enough for now. She still needed healing quite badly, but it wasn’t like she would die in a few seds or anything. I then had Laura minimize the status s so that only Ria’s HP was visible. I should have asked Laura to do this earlier. Having active HP bars like this is super useful.

  Paulina, as the st batant standing, stared down the orc that was waddling towards her. The orc was clearly moving slower than it had even at the beginning of the fight because of the mixture of blood loss and all of those stones hitting it in the face.

  “Earth, crush my enemies, Earth Crush!” Paulina ted, causing two sbs of ground to raise and cmp around the orbsp;

  The orc must have beey low on HP already, as that final spell did it in, and the orished into specks of light.

  Battle over. Winners, Alice, Ria and Paulina.

  nro_8

  [colpse]At least that is my expnation on things. Hope you ehe chapter.