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.

and formed a wind barrier to block this swing. But as expected, Noel used his

with

answered with a light-hearted tone as the wind blew away the

the tree with her sword fully pulled

frowned, never expecting this from Stella. He looked back for a second and realized Stella directed the explosion to the

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

Noel wasn't the only one who had gotten stronger. Stella and all the people in the Zero Squad had tried to fix their mistakes so an accident

only one who didn't have time to get stronger due to not being able

gratified that these people still tried to

pointed his sword at her

again, shall we?" Stella smirked and jumped forward, trying to catch Noel off guard by moving

Noel had prepared for this since he used his

rampaging as if trying to

her sword reddened as if it was heated up. If this continued, her sword would become soft and eventually become molten

advantage of the situation to

smirked, moving toward the tree. When she was about to strike it, she stopped and looped around

time, he heard

"Yeah."

Stella's body trembled as she instinctively ducked down. Suddenly, Noel's sword cut through the tree, almost

sweating, never thinking someone who had just graduated could be

hadn't stopped there. Noel had waited for a bit before slicing down the tree because