"The task you must do is simple; if you land one hit on me, you win."
They both stood in the middle of a diamond arena designed with weapons all over it. Most of the weapons were unknown to Ray, but a few had nuclear symbols on them.
"That rifle is a nuclear weapon?" Ray was ready to kill to have a copy of that for himself.
Marian changed the aura around herself: "It's an N430. Each of its bullets is equal to a small nuclear bomb."
"Can I get that as a reward too?"
"No."
"Time to test my new ability." Ray waved his hand in the air; the ground around him started to turn into bloodstones, with a lake of blood coming out of them with him at the center.
Ashbringer appeared in his hand as a full scythe; he didn't hesitate to shoot a burst of green flame toward Marian.
"It's stupid to use it as long range when one can dodge it easily." She just took five steps to the right, and the burst hit the wall with nothing happening to it.
Ray followed by shooting blood swords at her, joining himself too.
"How the fuck?"
Marian dodged all of his strikes, and the blood swords couldn't even pass her armor.
"I should just use an attack that she can't dodge!" His eyes shone with killing intent.
The lake of blood moved on the ground, circling around Marin. His scythe turned into two swords, and with the whole lake turning into small needles, he attacked his target.
"You know that most of blood is made of water. And that can be vaporized." Her whole figure shone with a silver light. Ray retreated immediately, but his blood lake had disappeared.
"And you told me that your task is easy." Ray clenched his teeth; even with his newfound powers, he was still hopeless against such a power.
"It's easy. That's your problem; many people can counter your magic easily. Many can counter your fighting style, and that has nothing to do with your training or your strength; just an unlucky encounter, and you are dead." Marian said with a calm tone.
"Then what should I do?"
"As your opponent, why should I give you advice?"
His blood boiled from the anger, with his weapon returning to its scythe form.
Wings grew from his back; he could only use his ability once for each hour. Now, he had to face her head-on.
Ray charged toward her; his target was her shoulders, which was the most likely place he could land a hit.
Once more, she dodged any attack from Ray. "Too predictable. Your only weapon is not that thing."
Her figure disappeared from Ray's vision; only a faint light could be seen from her trace. Before Ray could react to her, a kick from her sent him flying to the wall.
Air left his lungs; flashbacks from his fight with the moon-beast returned; however, this time his task was different.
"She definitely has made a way for me to attack her; I just have to find it!" He charged again, this time with two swords in hand.
Covering his swords in his blood, their slashes sent a blood slash too. His range of attack increased, but it didn't work yet again. Only this time Marian had to block some attacks.
"That's it!" He stepped back from the fight as his wings changed form to a pair of hands. He gave them the Ashbringer, with two blood swords appearing in his hand.
His bloody hands were not that strong; however, he didn't need strength—he only needed one attack.
He ran toward Marian again, with his bloody hands aiming toward the places that she could dodge, and his own strikes trying to make her dodge to the right.
"Not bad!" Marian's eyes narrowed. "But are you aware of its weakness?" She increased heat in a larger area this time; in an instant any blood in the air vaporized.
From the light came Ray with a fist aimed at her waist. Most of his skin and clothes were burned, but he didn't care and continued to close their distance.
Before his hit could land, Marian took his wrist, followed by a kick from Ray; her other hand blocked it too.
Marian's eyes went wide as Ray's mouth opened and he spat some blood on her face.
"You disgusting fuck!" She vaporized the blood from his face. "But you passed."
Ray fell on the ground; his burns made him want to scream. Suddenly a silver aura embraced him; anywhere it touched, his burns healed.
He looked at Marian's legs in front of him. "Thank you."
"From tomorrow, each day at 5 am until 10 am you should be here, no excuses unless you are dead."
Ray didn't dare to object; the earliest he had woken up was 7 am.
Marian continued, "I shouldn't tell you this, but if you tell anyone about this, I will kill you and the person you talked to."
She helped Ray stand up and supported him to walk toward the stairs: "Oh, and that girl you had a date with—show me a picture of her. You need some new ones too."