Dreadwolf, Lord of Runes

Just as before, barriers went up around the Arena as soon as Mira stepped on to it. Unlike Lyra, she actually wore some minor pieces of leather armour, mostly designed to protect the vital areas, including her tail. Of course, whether that leather was strong enough to hold up to Luna's attacks was another question.

As weapons, she wielded a long sword, a wooden shield, and the horns on her head

Luna eyed her new opponent casually and smirked slightly. "Mira! I hope there's no hard feelings about last night… you certainly appeared to enjoy yourself."

Truthfully, she didn't really care if there were hard feelings, she just wanted to embarrass Mira a little.

Unfortunately, Mira didn't embarrass so easily. She smirked right back, "I think we both enjoyed that, actually, so of course there's no hard feelings."

Her smirk turned into a grin, and she smashed her sword against the shield. "But that doesn't mean I'll hold back today… It's an honour to duel my own lord's Valkyrie!"

Luna thrust out her chest proudly and laughed, "Ha! Of course it is!"

Mira rolled her eyes, "Don't get arrogant now, lassie. That might bite you in the ass someday."

Then, before Luna could respond, Mira charged with a wild grin, her horns pointed straight at her opponent, "But now, let's fight!"

Luna smirked confidently and crouched down a little, back into her fighting stance. She didn't move, however, and was apparently happy to let Mira close the distance instead.

Yet, when Mira's skin suddenly started forming a small layer of brown rock on top of it, Luna's confidence wavered a little. She quickly realized that no amount of skill was going to pierce through a defence like that, so her expression turned a little sombre.

Next to Kane, Aelia gleefully smirked, "Hehe, let's see how your Valkyrie deals with Mira! She may not be anywhere close to as skilled with a sword, but Luna will still have to break through that defence in order to win!"

Kane didn't answer, but his smile remained calm and confident. He knew Luna's capabilities better than anyone.

After a short charge, Mira had built up some decent momentum and was about to slam straight into Luna. But, of course, the catling was far too nimble for that. She easily dodged to the side to avoid Mira's charge, after which they started to exchange blows in close combat.

As expected, Luna was essentially running circles around Mira, with the ramling finding it impossible to land a hit. Not that it mattered much. While Luna was able to batter Mira with attacks, they easily glanced off her opponent's rocky armour.

At first glance, it looked like this battle was going to turn into one of endurance. Unfortunately, the obvious winner there would be Mira. Not only did she have a higher rank blood core, but she wasn't even moving that much. She was patient enough to simply wait for Luna to get tired before starting her attack in earnest.

Despite being unable to penetrate the armour physically, however, Luna refrained from using the lightning wave she used earlier. She knew its penetrative power wasn't particularly strong, even if it was backed by her fifth rank spirit core, and would be unable to pierce Mira's armour.

Fortunately, she had another plan.

Although none of them knew the exact plan, Kane, Ella, and Aelia all realized Luna was consistently hitting the exact same spot on Mira's shield for some reason.

After five minutes of fighting with barely any progress except a quickly deepening groove in Mira's shield, Luna finally made her move.

After elegantly dodging a sword blow, the catling quickly slipped to mira's side. She dropped her left-handed sword, which was quickly picked up by her tail, then grabbed the right-handed sword with both hands, spun around once, and slammed her weapon, tip first, into the newly created shield groove with all her might.

Since the shield was already weakened there, she managed to penetrate it slightly, at which point the sword got stuck, and she quickly let go. Her tail deposited the other sword back in her left hand, which she quickly took into a reverse grip again, before surprisingly creating a little distance, leaving her sword behind.

Everyone, except Kane, was confused about her plan, especially Mira, who now looked at the sword stuck in her shield with scepticism. "Uhm, I don't mean to criticize you, lassie, but… what's the plan here?"

Luna grinned, and extended her right hand. "Simple, I needed a conduit charged with my own energy to do this…" Suddenly, a crimson chain of lightning formed between her hand and the sword, before instantly wrapping itself around Mira's shield and the attached lower arm as well.

Technically this was a skill from her previous, first stage technique, which, in the past, she'd most often used against Cybers, by getting her sword stuck in their cybernetics.

Yet, she'd found it to be compatible with her new technique as well. Techniques were mostly about how to make one's elements and cores interact with their energy, while skills were different ways to use that energy. This meant that many skills were universal, especially the simpler ones, so long as the elements matched up.

Many people in the crowd were still confused about the point of this. Some even loudly suggested to Mira that she use that chain to pull Luna forward, since it was attached to both of them.

But some others, including Mira and Aelia, gulped as they realized the real problem. Instantly, Mira roared and raised her sword to hack at the chain, but she was too late. A victorious grin played on the catling's lips when she poured a massive amount of power into the chain.

Crimson lightning fizzled and sparked as it travelled across the chain, before reaching her opponent. This was where Luna's fifth rank spirit core came into play. Although the catling wasn't sure which of Mira's three cores supported that armour, she did know they were all at the fourth rank.

Thus, the results were obvious.

When the stream of crimson electricity hit her arm, Mira immediately began to howl in pain, "Aargh!". Steam rose from her body as the rocky armour began to blacken and the ramling quickly sank to her knee.

"Mira!" some women, including Aelia, Anna, and Lyra, exclaimed anxiously.

Fortunately, Luna didn't intend to torture her opponent needlessly. After a mere second, she stopped pouring energy into the chain and looked at the kneeling, twitching, smoking, blackened body of Mira with a cocked head and a small smirk. "Give up?" she asked tauntingly.

Mira coughed out some smoke and groaned softly, "Y— Yeah." Then, she waved her chain-wrapped arm, "P— Please remove this thing…"

At the same time, the green and red lights once again descended, clearly proving this technology was smart enough to recognize different kinds of victories.

Luna grinned widely and chuckled as she dispelled her chain. "Sure thing. No hard feelings I hope?"

Once again Mira groaned as she got off her knees and dispelled the blackened armour, which quickly revealed the unharmed skin underneath. She still looked to be in pain, but mostly unharmed. Unfortunately, her shield had obviously seen better days at this point.

But she still shook her head convincingly with a sigh while looking Luna in the eyes wryly, "No, no hard feelings. In fact, I should thank you for stopping so quickly… that really hurt." Then she laughed a little, "But don't worry, I can handle a little pain."

With that, she stumbled off the arena to tend to her wounds under various gazes of respect.