The End

Several Spirit Realm Travelers took the opportunity to attack one another.

Some had already been on guard, but with the earlier attacker who had ambushed Fran drawing their attention, the others still found an opening.

"Ah!"

In an instant, two people were killed by their "companions." They had been targeted because, after observing them, their attackers had confirmed they really had jade.

They snatched the jade and ran without even looking back.

Some people reacted in time and avoided being taken out by their "companions," but they were still worried that someone might try to steal the jade they had.

So they scattered too, moving away from the crowd.

Fran watched everyone around her flee, completely confused.

Why had they suddenly turned on one another? She was beginning to understand why Velint had ignored all these people and come to her to work together.

They had all been thinking about killing those around them and stealing their jade.

Velint had drawn her weapon and gone on guard the moment Fran was ambushed.

Only after seeing Fran deal with the situation and the crowd disperse in the commotion did she speak.

"Are you all right? Some people only care about stealing from others."

"I'm fine..."

Fran noticed that after she killed the attacker, he disappeared and left behind a small pouch. She picked it up.

Velint hadn't noticed Fran collecting the pouch. She hesitated, then asked, "Um... do you have any powerful spells? Can you cast them multiple times?"

She hadn't been concerned about this before, but after seeing Fran counterattack an ambusher in the blink of an eye, she'd started to wonder.

At the apprentice stage, it was nearly impossible to excel at both close combat and spellcasting, because it wasn't worth the effort.

Once you reached the Formal Rank, you'd get much better results training in the other discipline than you would by practicing it as an apprentice.

Even the Sword Chant School followed this principle. They had their apprentices focus entirely on swordsmanship, and the spells they taught were all support spells.

"I do. I can cast them multiple times."

Fran answered with complete confidence. After several fights in the Spirit Realm, her Wind Blade had reached the proficient level. That had to be what Velint was asking for!

Hearing Fran say she had spells, Velint could only take her word for it and continue toward the platform.

Fran was her only choice. She didn't think she could find anyone else she could trust.

Whether or not Fran was actually good at casting spells, she had no choice but to act as if she was.

Going to find someone else now could get her betrayed. Besides, both she and Fran had two pieces of jade, so neither had any reason to turn on the other.

At worst, they'd only get the reward for two pieces of jade. That was still better than finding someone else and possibly ending up with nothing.

They walked onto the platform, keeping a safe distance from the motionless Vine Giant.

"I'll cut the vines over here. Aim your spells at the places without any vines."

They quickly worked out how they would attack.

Velint held her breath as power gathered in her arm.

"Ha!"

She activated her Breathing Technique. Her muscles quivered, and her greatsword seemed to gain a thousand tons of weight.

With a powerful, heavy slash, the greatsword cut through the air in a blur and slammed into the rock with a terrifying crash. It seemed to cave in the stone.

The sound of vines being sliced apart came with it, but the impact of the sword against the rock drowned it out.

The Vine Giant sensed the attack. The ground shook as it began to stretch its body.

Before it could extend its arm, a Wind Blade whistled through the air and struck its uncovered shoulder.

The Vine Giant lurched backward as if it had taken a heavy blow. A large chunk of rock was sliced from the shoulder, and its arm fell with it.

"It worked!"

Velint hadn't expected it to be so effective. One strike had taken off the creature's arm.

"Keep going!"

But she also noticed that as the arm fell, the vines around its neck began growing rapidly, gradually covering more of its body.

Velint couldn't afford to look back. She had to keep her eyes on the Vine Giant's movements, or it might hit her and send her tumbling off the Spirit Realm, making all their efforts pointless.

She raised her greatsword and swung at the Vine Giant's other shoulder.

She wanted to cut through the vines there first, so Fran could take off that arm too.

That would make close combat much safer for her. A stone giant without any arms would struggle to attack nimbly.

But the giant seemed intelligent. Knowing she was trying to take off its other arm, it leaned backward, making her miss its shoulder.

Its body, however, was simply too large. Velint's greatsword struck its stomach, shaking off a large patch of vines. The broken edge turned black, revealing the smooth rock beneath.

Fran seized the opening and sent another Wind Blade, brimming with energy, straight into the Vine Giant's stomach.

The Vine Giant's stone seemed extremely vulnerable to magic, with an unexpected result.

A large hole appeared in the side of its stomach. Its upper and lower halves were now connected only by the remaining strip of rock.

This made it much harder for the Vine Giant to move. It could tell that if it moved too violently, its body might split in two.

It wanted to curse the Lord of the Jade Corridor for designing it this way. Why give it a weakness? Why not just let it fight them with a body that size?

"Nice spell!"

After studying the Vine Giant's movements, Velint saw that it was struggling to keep its balance. This was a perfect opportunity.

She rushed forward and, without wasting any movements, struck the other side of its stomach with her sword.

Then she immediately unleashed the spell [Lightning Impact], which she had obtained while exploring the Spirit Realm. Her hand glowed with dazzling white light as she charged toward her target.

She thought this would be the finishing blow. After taking that hit, the Vine Giant would practically fall apart. There was no way it could keep fighting her.

But her strike only chipped away half the rock. Some still clung to the giant.

Her pupils contracted. She hadn't expected this. If Fran's spell could do that much damage, she'd figured that even if her own spell was weaker, it wouldn't be much weaker.

Surely it could at least smash the section holding the giant together?

But she hadn't expected it to be so weak. A horrifying thought surfaced in her mind.

That Lai wasn't just stronger than her; she was far better at magic, too.

A Wind Blade grazed Velint's hair and struck the Vine Giant. Its upper and lower halves split apart, and the rocks fell to the ground and rolled for a while before coming to a stop.

In the Vine Giant's chest, which had cracked open at some point, lay a green piece of jade split in two.