While Ruel was looking in awe at Edari, Muriel and Nocten were ready to be attacked.
One held a bow made of energy, while the other wielded a sword of ice.
They all waited for Edari to dart towards them because they felt like it was the optimal decision.
Edari rose, revealing her full form.
She had a long slender, dragon-scaled deer body with majestic legs extending to cloven hooves.
A flowing mane of mist and flame trailed from her neck. Antler-like horns arc gracefully from its head, radiating an aura of wrath as she stared down at her guests.
Her eyes were deep pools of starlight, calm yet unfathomable, watching the world with quiet judgment.
The cavern buzzed with silence, a stillness that heralded violence.
A pressuring aura swept the cavern, making Ruel smile tensely.
"And you say it's far from its full power?"
"Crazy, isn't it?" Nocten said, his eyes focused on Edari. "Pay attention, she's coming."
Edari leapt from the rock, dashing through the air and closing the distance in a blink.
A huge sound resounded throughout the cavern as a breeze spread from the center of the space.
Nocten had intercepted Edari's horn with his ice sword, grinning as he proceeded with a punch that held more power than usual.
Muriel immediately flew up, pulling her bow as her mana turned into a burning arrow.
As soon as Edari bounced back from the clash, she released it.
But the Qilin released a roar, wrathful yet calm, that reduced the speed of the arrow, giving her time to dodge.
Nocten appeared above her again, with a vambrace made of ice serving as a conduit for his Graviton Grasp that crushed anything that neared his fist.
As Nocten clashed with Edari, Muriel circled above like a hawk, her fingers already pulling back an arrow.
She patiently waited for the right moment to shoot.
Her main purpose in this fight was to control the aerial space in case Edari ascended, while maintaining a safe distance to avoid disruption of her half-corporeal state.
At the edge of the cavern, Ruel observed the battle's opening blows, his gaze sharp and focused.
His eyes were focused on the fight, trying to see a real high level fight before joining one.
While he watched, he followed Nocten's advice and simulated the fight, wondering what abilities would be best to use in certain scenarios.
Nocten and Edari were locked in an intense one versus one.
Both were beings with centuries of battle experience who had been weakened for various reasons.
Edari, wary of expending mana on a bait, relied solely on brute force.
Horns slashed through the air, hooves thundered against stone, and her scaled body struck with the weight of a falling star.
A brutal exchange of punches and slams.
Nocten, who was physically weaker, took more damage, making it seem like Edari had landed more punches when that wasn't true.
"Edari, be thankful to your god that I lack other skills," Nocten said after distancing a bit. Then with a grin. "Oh shit, I'm your god… And I just got a new skill!"
Nocten suddenly appeared beside Edari and connected a punch to her scaled-body.
A crack appeared before it expanded under Graviton Grasp's influence.
As Edari turned to face Nocten, he appeared at her other side, launching another punch of the same power.
Edari got tired of it and flew upwards.
Despite being prepared, Edari's hastily conjured orb barrier was pierced by Muriel's burning arrow.
Edari couldn't take damage of that level on her body after Nocten's punch so she took the arrow head on with her horn.
The attack cracked her horn—but fire and sun meant little to her. The damage was dulled, but not forgotten.
Nevertheless, her primary means of attack had taken damage.
After that though, to her surprise, Nocten appeared in the air, bending his body to land a kick on her.
She conjured another orb barrier, which shattered—yet before the kick landed, she had already darted downward.
Nocten also landed on the ground, spitting blood out.
Cleaning his dusty face and his bloody mouth, he said, "It was your mistake to think the air would protect you from me. You've turned old, Edari."
Edari stood close to the wall, her calm eyes focused on Nocten.
She then let out a sound that resembled a sneer.
"Old lady, just use your abilities already. You've already used your barriers, so what's holding you back?"
Nocten's voice resounded throughout the cavern as he disappeared and appeared in multiple places.
This was the skill of the Event Singularity: Singular Step.
Edari saw this and stomped her hoove on the floor aggressively.
Then her body was outlined with a glow before multiple Edari's began appearing where the original once stood.
There were now around a hundred Qilins occupying the space.
Fractured Reflection.
It was now a battle of the dwarfed omnipresence.
Nocten was the one who blessed Edari, leading to the birth of her current skills and he had watched her for quite a while.
Of all people present, he knew best how to handle Edari's Fractured Reflection.
It was more than just the five senses and logic.
Muriel and Ruel were attacked by some of the Edaris, but because of the reduced strength of the reflections, they easily handled it.
Nocten and the rest of the Edaris occupied the center of the cavern.
As Nocten disappeared, the Edari's had all turned their focus to another spot, where the kid eventually appeared.
Nocten, now wielding a sword to increase range and to not rely on his other skill, brought down many of the Edari.
Slowly, the amount of Edaris had become less than 50.
But things were hard for Nocten – Edari was risking some of her reflections to allow others to land a hit.
And the spaces Nocten would reappear were limited, reducing his mobility.
Upon bringing down a Qilin, another stabbed him with its horn.
If that one died, another slammed into his body like a cannon.
His body was battered, his vest torn and stained with blood.
Worst of all, Nocten's mana capacity was little, amounting to 102 which was low for a 3rd Ringer.
The reason why he had not exhausted his mana was because of his title, the False Divine.
Because he once had divinity, his base mana's quality was twice better than those of his core and so, he used half the mana he was supposed to.
But after using his new skill, his mana ran low—it was time for a swap.
"Your turn!" Nocten yelled with a bloody grin, appearing on the rock where Edari was resting.
Muriel, still mid-air, had just finished off the Edari attacking her.
She cocked her sun-made arrow and pointed downwards.
Meanwhile, Ruel had drunk a potion worth 1,500 En Coins, enhancing his body and pain resistance by 50% for one hour.
Reinforcing his body further with mana, Ruel blurred into motion and reached the cavern's center.
Gravity Control.
Within a range of 20 meters, everything felt almost two times heavier.
The Edaris outside this range lunged toward Ruel, only to be reduced to light as burning arrows struck them.
The first one fell, followed by the second, then the third–
Soon, a rain of burning arrows filled the cavern.
As fragments of lights appeared, Ruel's eyes darted around, mapping out what to do.
'Should I freeze them to slow their movement, or trust Muriel to thin them out while I maintain gravity?' Ruel debated, calculating risks.
Using Cold Touch and Gravity control at the same time increased his mana depletion, while the other was time consuming and if Muriel doesn't kill the original, she might recover.
Just then, Nocten used telepathy to inform Ruel.
"The original is right behind you!"
Ruel immediately pivoted, using all of his weight to swing his sword behind him.
He felt the sword cut through flesh as blood then gushed out.
With a thud, the other Edaris began flickering.
Edari had died.
Behind him, Muriel wasn't fazed—she fired more arrows, finishing off the remaining reflections.
Ruel and Nocten both stared at Edari's corpse and grinned. "Round two."
Edari's corpse compressed into a ball of flesh, surrounded by a glowing barrier.
Ruel wore a look of irritation as he heard bone crack while flesh squirmed.
Soon, within the barrier, Edari, in what looked like a younger form of her previous self, appeared.
Ruel smiled bitterly as he gulped loudly.
"For a beast not built for combat, you're awfully hard to kill."
As the newly reborn Edari glared with burning eyes, Ruel raised his blade again. "Guess round two won't be any easier."