System vs Rebirth

"Wha—!" Stella was dumbfounded as she became hot-headed again. "What are you doing?"

She hurriedly chased after him while gritting her teeth.

It might look like he was running away, but Noel knew Stella's personality. So, instead of letting her become comfortable with her serious mode, he would prefer to fight her in this state since she was easier to manipulate.

Noel looped around a tree to use it as a shield.

"Do you think I will fall for this trick? I know you're going to use this tree as your shield to launch a sneak attack. All I have to do is to slice it through!" Stella smirked and waved her sword, striking the tree.

*Clink!*

"!!!" Stella widened her eyes when she heard the clicking sound. She looked at the tree and realized it was only half-cut. In other words, she couldn't penetrate the tree with that swing.

"What? Although Stella hasn't used her full power, she shouldn't have any problem cutting a tree!" Zion gasped.

"Take a look behind that tree!" Jonathan pointed at the rune behind the tree.

It was Noel's Hardening Rune. This was the rune he got after completing the previous mission in the valley.

Yes, he had opened the Spirit Enchantment System, so he could boost everything around him, including the tree.

Now that Stella's sword was stuck in the tree, Noel looped around and struck her from the opposite side.

a wind barrier to block this swing. But as expected, Noel used his Ignition Sword

smirked, believing he had hit her with this. It seemed his strategy of riling her up

tone as the wind blew away the smoke from the explosion, revealing Stella's

standing next to the tree with her sword

back for a second and realized Stella directed the explosion

month ago. Thanks to a certain accident, I realized my weakness. If I were not so hot-headed that I ended up overlooking things, I wouldn't have had to experience all that stuff. That's why no matter how

stronger. Stella and all the people in the Zero Squad

didn't have time to

these people still tried to do their best

deep breath and pointed his sword at her

shall we?" Stella smirked and jumped forward, trying to catch Noel

he used his Sword

Stella's sword started rampaging as if trying to overwhelm Noel's fire, not wanting to lose

still disappointing as she could see her sword reddened as if it was heated up. If this continued, her sword would become soft and eventually

the situation to run away, looping around

will work on me twice?!" Stella smirked, moving toward the tree. When she

that time, he heard

"Yeah."

Suddenly, Noel's sword cut through the

thinking someone who had just graduated could be this

Noel had waited for a bit before