The Adventures of Rose Hood

“So, you want us to all fast-track to 1000?!”

Mammon’s shock was understandable.

Asura laughed.

“I’m actually close to that. 989 now. Even though I haven’t killed much, fighting you all increased my levels.”

“That’s because I made it so when you fight a transcendent, you gain XP so the weaker ones wouldn’t be wiped out instantly.”

“Smart, so what’s the plan?”

I smiled in a menacing way.

“I take off the restraint and fight all of you until you reach level 1 in the system.”

Celios laughed.

“Man, if only we could level in the system that way.”

“It would be helpful.”

“Though, why can’t I access the system too?”

“Because, technically you haven’t met the requirements yet, you just gained level because you did the second most damage.”

“I see.”

“Well, let me take this off.”

I detached the restraint. They looked at me in shock.

“How long could you do that?”

“The whole time.”

Mammon sighed and drew his hammer.

“Alright… let’s train.”

_

Over the next month we all took shots, trying to beat Rose.

Even those of us who made it to the required level couldn’t land a blow on her.

It was obvious that 15 was high as heck in the system, and we wondered once again, how we managed to beat that guy with no casualties.

“He was overconfident.”

“Yep.”

“But Rose is flat out incredible.”

“Well, add in the training that she had with the rest of the gods, and factor in her strength before, then the fact that she’s a 15 in the system. I’m not surprised.”

“Yeah, but still.”

When we weren’t fighting her to gain levels, she was training the other elements under restraint, so she could develop arcane even under restraint.

As a result, she could decimate us with relative ease.

Surprisingly, despite training as much as possible, the only gods in the system were Celios and Silith, but Rose was quick to explain.

“They barely trained before the restrained training. Silith and Celios on the other hand, had to train to get stronger, so they were already a high level when it began.”

Another surprise was that Amy and Ausar became a duo. They fought with maximum efficiency, and Ausar took it upon himself to teach her the divine attribute.

Both of them leveled at the same rate.

In fact, they claimed that they would gain access to the system at the end of the next battle.

So, we all watched their battle with Rose.

“Are you two ready?”

“Yes.”

They spoke of a special move they made. I was interested to see it.

Nala, as usual, was the referee.

“FIGHT!”

Ausar and Amy charged in at Rose, but she managed to avoid their first attack and retaliated with a high-level nature attack.

Amy tried holding it back, but she only managed to mitigate it before being launched.

Ausar morphed into a bear and launched at Rose, but she became the horse sized dragon and grappled with him, tossing him around.

Amy launched herself onto Rose’s back and attempted to stab her spine, but Rose did a roll that not only knocked Amy off, but also twisted Ausar’s head.

The duo stood up and dusted themselves off. But Rose made the offense this time.

She struck quickly, and Amy barely dodged as Ausar barely blocked.

They struck back and forth quite impressively. The duo had more coordination than most.

Despite not even being a level 1, they managed to remain in stable battle for a while, but even still, they couldn’t land a proper blow.

Amy decided to use a massive amount of life magic, while Ausar turned into a large salamander.

Rose seemed to catch on before we did and launched back right as Ausar, who now mimicked a dragon, bit down where she just was.

“Was that their special move? That’s incredible. Using both life magic and Ausar’s affinity for beasts to morph him into a dragon is a powerful move.”

But I had a feeling that there was something else they had planned.

While Rose was preoccupied with Ausar, Amy was doing something odd. She was using advanced magic on herself. And her aura kept growing.

Rose clearly realized that something was happening, but she was busy with Ausar.

He countered her arcane with life magic. It was certainly a spectacle.

“What’s their game? Sure, Ausar can obtain the same bodily strength now, but Rose still beats him in terms of skill. Amy is too smart to put everything into a plan that flimsy.”

Silith nailed it.

“Notice that she is buffing herself. I think that that’s just a distraction while Amy builds up the strength for the real special move.”

“Smart distraction, even Rose can’t just ignore a dragon, especially when that dragon is another god.”

Rose managed to push down Ausar and he shifted back to his birdkin form and launched a kick that Rose dodged before returning to catkin.

The two clashed as Rose tried to advance on Amy.

Amy continued buffing herself, and she began removing some armor. The play was odd. None of us could figure out what she was doing.

Rose, still clearly expecting something, finally pushed Ausar out of the way and attempted to interrupt Amy, but Ausar, as a tiger, bit her side, resulting in the first damage she received since the start of the training.

That seemed to give Amy just enough time as she yelled.

“NOW, AUSAR!!!”

Ausar leapt at Amy and reached out his hand.

Celios gasped.

“It can’t be. That’s the move?!”

As soon as their hands connected. Ausar began to crumble to dust. He was possessing Amy.

They merged and one of her eyes looked like Ausar’s while the other resembled Amy’s still.

“A dual mind?”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s like what Kala and Rose do, where there are two minds in one body. That’s why she was buffing herself, so not only her body, but her mind would also be able to withstand his will and power.”

“That’s… ingenious.”

“It is.”

Then the duo, now in one body, spoke with both voices. Wings sprouted where the discarded armor originated.

“So Rose, are you ready?”

Rose smiled at the new challenge.

“Let’s fight.”