Dreadwolf, Lord of Runes

After Luna's victory, Kane looked at a solemn Aelia next to him. "Looks like you're up. Still feeling confident?" he asked, with a slight smirk.

Aelia remained silent for a moment; her eyes fixated on the recovering catling. But then she shook her head and grinned slightly, "I think it's 50/50 at this point." She turned to Kane with an impressed expression, "I suppose I can see why she's your Valkyrie."

"Please, you think it's just about that?" Kane chuckled without taking his eyes off Luna. "Our relationship goes far deeper than mere mutual benefits. Her position as my Valkyrie is more about her position in my heart than anything else."

Suddenly, as if hearing his words, Luna interrupted her meditation to look at Kane and smile softly. Emotion flared in her eyes at the same time, before sending a challenging glare at Aelia, and then resuming her meditation.

Afterwards, Aelia blinked and panned her gaze between her new boss and his catling. Surprise was evident in her words. "You… You actually love each other?" she asked, with an amount of incredulity that she quickly regretted.

Fortunately, Kane didn't mind, and simply kept focused on Luna with an intense gaze while he answered with a shrug, "I have a second mark I can put on people, called the Mark of Love, which actually requires mutual feelings. Is it so surprising that Luna bears this mark?"

"I—" Aelia muttered, but then fell silent before suddenly grinning strangely. "No, I guess not… I just didn't think either of you were build that way. But I'm happy to be wrong."

Kane nodded calmly, but didn't say anything, still refusing to take his eyes off Luna. He loved seeing her like this. She may not have the best intentions by being up there, but he didn't care. What he liked was seeing her enjoy herself.

Aelia looked at Kane strangely for a moment. For some reason, she felt a strange feeling building up in her chest, but she was unsure about its origins.

After a few moments, she shook herself free of her thoughts and mumbled, "Whatever…" Then, she started to prepare for combat.

* * *

A few minutes later, it was Aelia's turn to step up to the plate. With neck-length, loose, light blue hair framing her face, she looked at a once-again combat ready Luna solemnly.

In her hands, she wielded two small warhammers that looked like carbon copies of each other. They had short wooden hafts, and the hammer heads were divided into a flat face, and a dangerous looking spike.

Meanwhile, Luna had fully recovered from her fight with Anna, and now looked at Aelia hungrily. On the one hand, she was concerned about her chances, particularly because the surprise effect of her speed burst had been ruined, but on the other, Aelia was the last obstacle on getting what she wanted.

Surprisingly, however, she didn't use the same stance as with Anna, or anyone else. This time, she used a reverse grip on both of her slightly curved short swords as she crouched in a low combat stance.

This was her most aggressive stance, and she saved it for moments where she knew she'd need to finish the fight quickly, regardless of consequences.

For a moment, they stared at each other; Luna with hunger and determination, Aelia with a focused and discerning frown.

Finally, the human woman spoke up. "I'll admit I was a little angry at you after last night, even though I know that's not entirely fair… But you've definitely impressed me today."

She grinned slightly, "It'll be an honour to have you teach us, now let's determine if you'll actually get paid for it or not!"

Luna couldn't help but blink and look at her master. This was the first time she'd heard anything about teaching anyone. Unfortunately, Kane just smirked at her and send her a telepathic message, "Don't lose focus, now…"

Instantly, Luna focused ahead again, and noticed a smirking Aelia was already charging her. In response, Luna snarled and decided to think about this later. She brandished her swords and met Aelia's charge with her own. Her eyes showed a deadly focus she saved for only the most difficult of fights.

This time, she didn't waste a single second before calling on her technique and element. There was no point in saving energy anymore. Crimson lightning began to flicker around her swords, and she swung both in quick succession, sending wave after wave of crimson lightning at her opponent.

Aelia narrowed her eyes. With Mira, these waves crashed uselessly against her armour because of their low penetrative power, but against Aelia they were actually a danger, despite her generally higher power.

After all, Luna's Sanguine Spark combined her lightning and blood elements, which were supported by her fifth rank spirit core, and third rank blood core.

Yet, Aelia had the answer. Her expression was solemn, but confident. Suddenly, her hammers began to be engulfed in a bright blue fire, and she smashed them both forward. As soon as they came in contact with the first wave, the physical force in combination with a small explosion of blue fire wiped it out.

But the fire around her hammers didn't go out, and the temperature in the surroundings quickly began to heat up significantly.

Meanwhile, Ella looked at Aelia with appreciation, but not as much interest as she had for Lyra's force or Anna's spirit elements.

"Blue fire…" she mumbled, perhaps as explanation to Kane. "It's also a mid-tier element, and theoretically no less powerful than force or spirit, but it's also a lot less interesting. It's basically just a more powerful version of regular fire, and not even the most powerful one."

"Maybe so, but it's still a mid-tier element," Kane answered thoughtfully. "Plus, she might be able to advance her fire to the next tier someday."

Ella nodded in acceptance, but then they both focused on the fight again.

With the rising heat, Luna had begun to sweat a little, yet her gaze remained no less focused. She'd actually decided to remain at a small distance for now, choosing so simply skirt around Aelia while she fired wave after wave of lightning at her opponent.

Despite Aelia's apparent ease at which she destroyed these waves, it was costing her far more energy and effort than Luna was expending by sending these waves. Luna's technique was at the fourth stage, after all, so Aelia needed to bridge that gap

Unfortunately, Aelia wasn't so easily locked down. Her fifth rank blood core allowed for fare more speed than Luna was capable off, so she continued smashing apart lightning waves while rapidly closing the distance between her and the catling.

Finally, it came to contact.