Dimensional Descent

Aina took a deep breath in and exhaled. The wind whipped around her, but there didn't seem to be enough to fill her lungs.

Across from her, Orion stretched. He had just awoken from a nap, and though he was a bit surprised to see Aina here, it wasn't too much. It was bound to happen.

His lip curled into a smile as he watched her trying to catch her breath.

"Unfortunate. I asked them not to put such a beauty through hardship, but there was only so much I could do," he shrugged his shoulders. "Those guys are pretty heartless. Well, I think one of them is just acting out of jealousy. Maybe you'll meet her, though it seems unlikely at this point. Lumina is her name. No need to thank me."

As Orion spoke, he suddenly moved.

In truth, he wasn't too worried about wasting enough time for Aina to completely recover. An expert on Aina's level, to be tired to the point she was heaving for breath, needed to have been pushed far beyond the point a few seconds of rest would be helpful.

That was the way of the world. The stronger your body was, the harder it was to injure it, but when you injured, it was also far harder to heal it with external items.

And in this case, when you were tired...

Orion appeared before Aina, a bright smile on his face, a strong punch suddenly coming from him. Aina almost didn't get a chance to read where it was coming from. Orion didn't seem to be using Dream Force, and yet his ability to obscure vision and trick the mind was on a level that Aina had only seen from Leonel.

Aina reacted quickly, smashing her polearm into the ground in the path of Orion's fist.

Just as the two, fist and polearm, were about to collide, Orion's arm suddenly came to a grinding halt.

breathing even heavier. Even such a

"A shame, a shame."

Although this

the feeling of having more time to rest, but this "good news" was the

was just the fourth battle of ten. And what about

but it would also have the most battles. Every single finalist would

to the Finals, she would

make it there given how things were

flood of clouds coming out from the back of his head disappeared. Soon, he was

Aina's gaze turned cold.

that reaction? Did I not do your hubby justice? I

out a hand and a

"Better? No?"

his head,

got it," his eyes lit up and his expression turned colder and different. "This is it, right? I was too cheery. Why a woman like yourself would want to marry a man who's nothing but ice cold all the time is

the face of some who looked ready to commit murder felt out of place. Even his voice itself was

filled the skies. But they quickly lost their form, becoming akin

movements possible. Some lashed against