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.

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

had hit her with

surprise, Stella answered with a light-hearted tone as the wind blew away the smoke from the explosion, revealing Stella's

Stella was standing next to the tree with her sword fully pulled out from the

for a second and realized Stella directed the explosion to the sword

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 hot-headed I will be, I'll keep my mind as cool as

in the Zero Squad had

might be the only one who didn't have time to get stronger due to not being

people still tried to do their best to

deep breath and pointed his sword at

to catch Noel off guard by moving before he could

since he used his Sword

as if trying to overwhelm Noel's fire, not

the result was 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 become molten lava, so she had to jump back, avoiding

of the situation to run away, looping

on me twice?!" Stella smirked, moving toward the tree. When she was about to strike it, she stopped and looped around

time, he heard Noel's

"Yeah."

body trembled as she instinctively ducked down. Suddenly, Noel's sword

Stella started sweating, never thinking someone who had just graduated could be this

a bit before slicing down the tree because he had prepared another