She also noted that Kris was sitting next to Sera now, with no Andrea in between, with Neph on Kris's other side, though the bee girl had stopped interrogating the phoenix about alchemy. Beth saw that Bjorn was drinking from a tankard just as big if not bigger than Baelvyr's usual mug, and Sera was sipping from a large, cut crystal glass. She was still often surprised by the things that Sera sometimes pulled out of her storage power, considering the glass looked like it was meant for a royal table. Beth joined them, though her drink of choice was a mild stimulant rather than a depressant.

  "Hunting spice?" Kris asked quietly, sniffing the air.

  "Yeah, my drink of choice these days," Beth said, pulling out her bottle of redgold salt and adding it to the mug.

  "Oh, you're one of those," Bjorn grunted on seeing the salt.

  "People keep saying that to me and I don't know what it means," Beth replied calmly.

  "Redgold salt tastes weird," he answered shortly, as if that explained all the intricacies.

  "It's a shame nobody else has such refined taste," Beth said with a faux dramatic sigh.

  "It's some kind of taste, alright," Blood grunted, getting a poke in the ribs for her efforts.

  "So, what are we here for?" Bjorn asked.

  "Well, for one, we can take a bit of time to relax," Beth said with a chuckle. "Beyond that, there's an area that I want to explore, which I think you, especially, will find interesting."

  "I will?" he asked with a frown.

  "Yes, you," Beth said, laughing.

  "Fine. I'm interested," he said. "But we can't just sit around. Dragon gi-, uh, dragon lady, let's fight."

  "Well, not in here," Beth interrupted, getting chuckles from others around the room.

  "Eh, I guess," Sera said, not seeming too convinced.

  "How about a bet?" Bjorn asked.

  "Oh, really? What were you thinking about?" Sera asked, Beth literally feeling her perk up through her body language, the dragon girl sitting up and turning slightly to more directly face Bjorn.

  "We could just do money, to start," he replied with a grunt.

  "Hmm, that's so boring though," Sera said.

  "Sera, we don't have the time to bet five years of work…" Beth said with a warning.

  "Spoilsport," Sera muttered. "Fine, let's bet some money."

  Sera stood up, lifting Beth with her and then setting her back down on the couch next to Kris. Beth stood back up and followed along as the two left the room, seeing that none of the others were interested. It wasn't so surprising, considering Kris was shy, Neph liked fighting but wasn't obsessed with it by any means, and Blood was lazy and would rather sleep if given the option. The three of them made their way to the arena floor, finding a decent number of people spread out across the floor and a few Senior Enforcers there as well. Baelvyr was overseeing everything, surprising Beth again considering she thought the ogre avoided most of the training and oversight duties if he could.

  "You draw the short straw?" she asked, walking up to him as Sera and Bjorn took a dueling field.

  "I do work, girlie," he grumbled at her. "I do more work than ya even know, so pipe down with that crap."

  "Somebody's cranky today," she muttered, not all that quietly.

  "Who's that kid? Looks like he's strong, unlike the rest of ya," Baelvyr asked.

  "First, insulting," Beth said, waving a finger at Baelvyr as the other two were getting ready. "Second, his name's Bjorn and he has titan blood in his veins, apparently."

  "Hmph, makes sense," Baelvyr grunted. "He's a lot stronger than ya."

  "I doubt that," Beth said with a shake of her head.

  "Well, he's gonna beat yer girlie, there. Give it a try after she's done and see what I mean," Baelvyr replied, just shaking his head.

  "Eh, we'll see," Beth said with a shrug.

  Sera and Bjorn were ready, and they used a simulated referee to oversee the match, which was just fine at their current level of strength. Bjorn was in his heavy plate while Sera was in her scalemail with her spear ready. When the match started, they dashed towards each other, though neither had particularly impressive speed, not compared to Beth or Blood. Sera led with a powerful piercing attack that thrust at Bjorn's throat, but the big man simply ignored it, not seeming to be bothered by the dragon girl's very sharp spear tip hurtling at him.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  He was right to not worry, as a very powerful attack from Sera was no more than a small tap to him, something that he was able to shrug off with ease. Beth watched as Sera's spear smacked into Bjorn's throat and bounced off, barely scratching the heavy armor guarding his neck. Bjorn swung his weapon at the same time, a heavy two-handed mace that was basically an anvil welded to a heavy steel rod. Sera swayed out of the way before returning with a blistering series of thrusts that all aimed for Bjorn's vital points. Every single thrust was ignored, and for good reason, as even Sera's incredibly powerful spear barely scuffed the dark coating of Bjorn's armor.

  Fighting Bjorn was a real battle of attrition, and a real risk at the same time, as a single good strike from him could also do devastating damage. Sera was essentially always on the back foot, no matter what she did, as she couldn't strike through Bjorn's impossible defenses to cause any kind of serious injury. At the same time, Bjorn had a lot of trouble, not just because of Sera's speed, but her insane offense that gave no openings for a good counterattack. Bjorn could largely ignore the hits, but it left him no room to maneuver his weapon in to get a clean strike off on the dragon girl.

  The conclusion was almost foregone, however, as Sera actually had less stamina and far less power than Bjorn. The fight took a long time, especially for a fight involving powerful skills, incredible equipment, and magic abilities, nearly a dozen minutes, but it eventually came to a conclusion. Largely because Bjorn finally got a good hit in on Sera, after which he managed another hit before using his insane charge ability to smash Sera flat. The dragon wasn't able to recover from that, and lost rather quickly after getting knocked off her feet, not able to stop Bjorn from pummeling her into paste.

  "Told ya," Baelvyr said to her with a snort.

  "It's one loss," Beth said with a grunt. "Doesn't mean that much."

  "Whatever ya say, girlie," Baelvyr said, shaking his head and thumping his gut.

  The two readied up again after just a moment and went at it for a second time, the fight proceeding largely the same way. Sera just could not damage Bjorn's defenses enough to seriously threaten him, and the titan descendant ran her over for a second time. After that they took a longer break before going for a third round; this one Sera won, though almost by a fluke. She was able to hit the same point, the exact same point, three times in a row without Bjorn being able to stop her. That was enough to not just crack through his armor but to deal him a serious injury. His mobility was already worse than hers, and she was now able to not only outmaneuver him, but strike through the damaged gaps in his armor multiple times repeatedly. She used her skills to eventually take Bjorn out, though even piercing through his armor, he was incredibly resistant to damage and lasted a very long time.

  "What about you?" Bjorn asked Beth after the third match, indicating the dueling field.

  "Sure. Why not?" Beth answered with a shrug while Sera took her place next to Baelvyr, leaning on her spear and watching the upcoming match eagerly.

  Bjorn might be the only one that was both stronger and had more endurance than her, though she wasn't sure even his powerful ancestral skills were stronger than the skills she had. They squared off and both acknowledged the ref when he asked for their readiness before getting prepared to charge. There was nothing fancy or complex about their starting, just two unstoppable forces slamming into each other at a very high rate of speed.

  That collision resulted in a large explosion, a shockwave spreading from the center of the dueling field before smashing into the shielding around the edge and causing it to flicker slightly. The force screens could handle far, far more energy than what Beth and Bjorn could produce, even if both of them stopped fighting and attacked it, but it was still impressive to see people of their level cause even that flicker. Beth had learned from Sera's fights and didn't try to use her sword against Bjorn's armor, understanding that would be a futile effort, but instead relied on her fists. Her abilities made the fight drastically different than any of the fights between Sera and Bjorn, as Beth didn't even need to break his armor to send a ton of damage through into his body.

  Still, the titan in the making was incredibly sturdy with a very powerful regenerative skill and high resistances, so it wasn’t a cakewalk for Beth. She had to burn mana like it was going out of style to continuously dish out damage to the titan, while at the same time avoiding his massive weapon. Just because he was slow didn't mean he was a snail, and his weaponskill was also pretty damn good, meaning Beth had to really stay on her toes the whole fight.

  The end was a forgone conclusion, despite Baelvyr's negative opinion before their first match, and she finished Bjorn by teleporting multiple times in rapid succession and pummeling his brains into an old milkshake. Bjorn was not very sensitive to spatial mana and wasn't able to track Beth's teleports very well, and he wasn't able to respond to his bell getting rung over and over. He did manage a single hit that cracked a bone in Beth's left arm despite not having been struck head-on by it, but that wasn't nearly enough to stop her onslaught.

  "Ya can't do that shit out in the field, girlie," was Baelvyr's comment, disparaging of her wanton use of mana at the end.

  "Good thing we weren't in the field, then, isn't it?" Beth replied with a slight snort.

  "Just keep it in mind, kids," Baelvyr said, looking between them. "Ya, dragon girlie, need somethin' with more stopping power. Get a skill to smash an opponent apart; if ya need a suggestion, I'll give ya one. And ya, blockhead, ya need somethin' that disrupts yer opponents. Don't just stand there and take it; interrupt their momentum and get a hit in."

  "And what about me?" Beth asked with a slight frown.

  "Use yer weapon," he said. "Even if ya don't think it'll work, it can buy ya time to try more things. At a higher level, ya can use yer weapon to directly break through even tougher defenses; ya need to be used to usin' it more. Other than that, don't get a big head. Ya ain't that strong. Not yet."

  "I'm not sure any of that was even advice," Beth muttered, getting a disapproving look from Baelvyr and a sigh from Sera while Bjorn remained stoic.

  "I am interested in what you recommend, skills-wise," Sera said.

  "So, ya could get either Overwhelming Smash or go for the more classic Dominating Blow. Other than that, ya could get somethin' a bit nicer if'n ya got the money and connections. Grab somethin' like Annihilating Strike or even Void Destruction. Somethin' that'll let ya make a tough enemy's armor not an issue. Hell, there's stuff out there that'll let ya make even enemy regen not an issue," he explained.

  "Oh, I like the sound of Void Destruction. I am void aspected," Sera said, eyes glazing over as she looked it up on her communicator.

  "Ain't got no idea why nobody told ya to take that 'fore now, girlie," Baelvyr grumbled, shaking his head.

  "And me?" Bjorn asked, seemingly more interested after Baelvyr demonstrated his expertise.

  "Crippling Strike or Quaking Smash. Could go more magical kinda AOE stuff and get Frozen Field or even Tomb of Deadly Stone. Eh, that last one's really rare, but ya know what I'm talkin' about, anyway," Baelvyr said.

  "And I just wave my sword around?" Beth asked slightly sarcastically.

  "I'd hesitate to even call it that," Baelvyr muttered under his breath, which meant it was still loud enough to be heard three counties away.

  "Come on, let's do a couple more," Sera said to Bjorn, leaving Beth on the sidelines with Baelvyr.

  "So, how's it going?" Beth asked the massive ogre.

  "Oh, ya know, I get called for this, I get called for that. Gotta run halfway 'cross the galaxy for some dumb student of mine buyin' a dragon's whorin' contract. Sun comes up, sun goes down," he rumbled.

  "Hey, it was worth it," Beth said, a touch defensively.

  "For ya, yeah. But whadda I get for my time? Nothin', barely even a 'thanks' from the people I'm helpin'. Back in my day, kids had some damn respect," he grumbled.

  "Baelvyr, your day was before most worlds invented the wheel," Beth quipped.

  "And better for it. Ain't nothin' good come of pushin' things back and forth on them round terrors," he shot back.

  "Now I don't know what to believe. Where you really born before the wheel?" Beth asked, trying to sound as innocent as possible.

  "No, girlie! Ya ain't got anythin' better to do than bother my old ass? I'm busy here," he rumbled at her.

  "So, listen, are there any Gold missions here, by chance?" Beth asked him, giving the ogre, who was standing with his arms crossed and not looking all that busy a side-eye when he protested how busy he was.

  "Girlie, this world’s got maybe ten silver-level missions. Ya think we're just overflowin' with random nonsense? Ya want to hit gold, especially along with the other two girlies, ya gotta go off-world. There's plenty of places out there; I can send ya some locations, if'n ya got nothin'," he said.

  "Ah, I think we can browse around. We've got some other stuff to do here first before we try to get Gold," Beth said. "Speaking of other stuff; wanted to ask you something. You got any advice for my Mana Physique?"

  "Don't look at me," he said, shaking his head. "I just did what I felt was right. Built myself a damn good one, too. Don't get too lost in theory; try to build somethin' that feels right."

  "Well, I guess that's as good as anything else," Beth said with a shrug, not sure the advice was all that great.

  She stuck around after that but didn't make any further comments or ask any questions. She was there to watch Sera and Bjorn, though mainly to support Sera, and she focused on how they were doing. They did another five rounds before they were satisfied for the day, heading back to the suite to clean up. They were lazy after that, waiting for Andrea to get back and see what her status was.