After their first exchange ended without a winner, both Artemia and Gracier stared at each in silence before they burst into laughter. However, hidden under this smile was the desire to win.
Artemia may be the temporary guardian with limitless stamina and mana, she might be stronger than Gracier, but data could win every fight, then everything would have been more accessible. Unfortunately, being stronger than your opponent by a few levels doesn't necessarily mean that once you fight, you will win. Many factors must be considered, such as mana capacity, skills, and other things.
For unknown why the princess felt this way, but she was sure that this fight would be more intense than anything she ever faced until now. While the fight against Maria in Ice Empress Mode could be considered problematic, the current fight would be more intense, more violent. Knowing this, Artemia began smiling because of excitement; not many people could make the princess feel the joy of fighting without being sure of the outcome. For such a young girl barely two decades old to be among them could be said that she valued the little devil extremely highly.
''Why not fight with everything we got?" Unexpectedly it was Gracier who made this suggestion.
''Sure, why not,'' Artemia answered while spinning her spear; Gracier's eyes were momentarily drawn on what Artemia was doing like a dog seeing a frisbee.
Like a puff of smoke, she disappeared and reappeared behind Gracier and immediately sent two attacks forward; her spear attacked while simultaneously from her finger fired a lightning bolt toward Gracier.
The latter did not even turn around before speaking in dragon tongue.
''Blossom!"
Immediately fire lotus bloomed like magic with Gracier at the center; the lotus flowers acted like shields and stopped the two attacks.
Artemia immediately jumped back before launching her spear forward with all her strength; the spear cut through the air like a homing missile and arrived before Gracier, who never expected her master to be able to increase the speed at which she threw her spear.
Knowing that she would not be able to dodge in time, Gracier's mind raced to come up with some crazy idea. Just as the spear tip was about to touch her body, she moved one of her hands forward; from her palm, a small fireball appeared and collided against the spear tip resulting in a small explosion that sent Gracier flying backward while the spear bent downward.
''Not bad, that was a diversion.'' Artemia's voice echoed behind Gracier, surprising her; before she could react, Artemia caught her face and slammed her onto the ice surface.
Bang!
But she didn't have the time to celebrate before immediately jumping back because as soon as she did that, she escaped a crimson flame pillar that rose behind Gracier; if she were late by a millisecond, she would have been swallowed and suffered greatly.
Lifting her head, Gracier wiped away the blood dripping out of her nose. She grinned, and because she didn't clean all the blood, her grin was bloody, making Artemia's blood boil unexpectedly.
Gracier knew she was at a disadvantage since the beginning, to compensate for this, she thought of using her new ability, the one that let her transform into a dragon form, while she still has human form in this mode, she was extremely powerful, even if it was temporarily, she believed that she could beat her master while being in this form.
''Dragon Mode !"
Boom!
Immediately after Gracier said those words, an immense amount of strength burst out from her body, shaking the surrounding space. Her hair elongated, she became taller, more beautiful, her breasts swelled, two horns appeared above her head while her eyes turned into golden slits like the eyes of the Apex predator, the eyes of a dragon. Dragon tail appeared behind her while her dress changed into a crimson robe that clung tightly onto her body.
Artemia was shocked; she didn't wait before using lighting goddess form as she knew she would lose if fight Gracier with her normal form. After checking Gracier status under the dragon mode, she was shocked; it was completely different from her usual status.
『[Red Queen Alexandra]
Level 1?????
Class: Mage
Age: 15
Female
Race: High Half-Elf
Experience Value: ????????????
HP: 4000/4000
MP: 5000/6000
STA: 4000
Magic: Fire
ATK: 1500 ➤ 2000
DEF: 870 ➤ 1200
AGI: 1040 ➤ 1500
INT: 1040 ➤ 1300
LUK: 840
BP: 0
SP: 0
Fame: 0
Gift: Ignia's Bracelet
Skills: [Cooking Level 4] [Sewing Level 3] [Fireball Level 5] [Fire Arrows Level 4] [Meteor Level 10] [Fire Snake Level 4] [Flame Shield Level 5] [Presence Detection Level 5] [Chantless Magic Level 8] [Fire Lotus Level 5] [Archery Level Max] [Blaze Steps Level 5] [Golden Arrows Level 1]
Special Abilities: [Dragon Eye Level 10 Max] [Flame Wings Level 3] [Dragon's Breath Level 10] [Lord of Hundred Flames] {Dark Mode (Sealed due to its instability)} [Dragon Tongue Level 10] [Dragon Mode]
Titles: [Avenger] [Child of Fire] [The Awakened] [The Diligent] [Lord of Flames] [Half Dragon]
''This is called cheating,'' Artemia muttered while being on her guard.
The dragonified Gracier opened her mouth and breathed golden flame; the lightning wall Artemia erected was reduced in dust an instant.
Swoosh!
Gracier pierced through Artemia's lightning armor and caught her face before slamming it against her knee.
Crack!
Artemia's nose was broken, and blood flowed out, intense pain coursed through her body, almost making the princess scream, but she didn't; her body turned into lightning escaping Gracier's hands.
Gracier, who was about to pursue Artemia stopped because lightning tentacles were shot toward.
Tap!
Tapping her foot on the ground, the ground cracked, and the lightning tentacles vanished.
''Meteor!"
RUUUUMBLE!
The sky above them darkened, and a gigantic meteor significant as an island appeared.
Artemia immediately attacked the meteor.
Boom!
Before the meteor could fall, it got destroyed, turned into countless pieces, and Artemia appeared before Gracier, whose body had reverted to her original form; she was sure that she had won, but to her surprise, Gracier was smiling.
''World of flame.''
Immediately, those meteor's pieces rose, and the whole floor was turned into flame before exploding.
KABOOOOOM!