The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

"I'll go easy on you, of course. It'll be bad manners for me to crush you so early in our fight, would it?"

"I truly wonder how you got so confident. Have I fought you before? How do you know that your victory is certain?"

According to the situation, White Fox should be an A ranker. Although Aria didn't know the specific details, there was a high possibility that she was a member of Athena.

Aria's views towards Athena was complex. She had mixed thoughts on said team.

"Haa? Even in battles against Hunters of my own rank, I have a clean victory streak ever since I was admitted in my squadron. You're telling me that I'm going to lose against some uncertified B ranker?"

"Perhaps?" Aria raised a brow, acting as a taunt this opponent of hers.

In response, White Fox's eyes enlarged as she covered her stomach and started laughing heavily, as if she had just heard the funniest joke ever.

"You are hilarious for thinking that, then. Let's hurry and finish this up. Five minutes, tell me when you are ready to start," White Fox recovered from her burst of laughter. She then wiggled her index finger, beckoning for Aria to signal the beginning.

"...Start of what? Me defending against you?" Aria asked.

"Of course. Have you not heard of what I said before? Successfully defend against me for five minutes and I'll give you the spot right here and now. It'll be my warm welcome. I can't possibly let an unqualified contestant enter our plans and risk dangerous scenarios, right?"

"So not only will I only have to defend for five minutes, you will also go easy on me?"

Aria got White Fox's point. Indeed, if they were talking about qualifiers, the contest would only be between budding rookies and not real powerhouses. There had to be a set standard of power on all the participants if they wanted to avoid useless casualties.

"Correct. Very simple, isn't it?" White Fox waved her hand in the air. She was a relatively temperamental person, and so far, Aria's behavior towards her didn't exactly add into her not so great mood.

Her gaze was piercing as she looked at Aria through the mask. She had seen many cases like the woman before her. Just because they were a little bit talented, they grew to become arrogant.

She was once like that. Arrogant without a proper reasoning. As a result, she was beaten down by someone who truly had the qualifications to be arrogant.

That person was her squad captain, someone she grew to respect. Someone who told her that it was indeed fine to be arrogant as long as one could afford it. Someone who made her growth skyrocket.

White Fox, whose real name was Kwon Yu-ri has never lost against anybody she challenged to a fight after her one defeat against the captain.

And now, she was seeing her past self overlap with Aria.

Grinning, she contemplated her choices. She began to think that going a little harsh wouldn't be that bad.

In order to teach her lesson, why couldn't she knock some sense into the woman's head?

However, in the next second, White Fox was instantly taken aback by Aria's sudden movements.

Aria had charged with all her might. With accelerated movements, she rushed towards White Fox. In her hands was [Halvargg], which she gripped tightly for an attempt to hit White Fox.

Of course, this first strike was easily handled by White Fox with her amazing reflexes.

She took out a small dagger that suited the girl's temperament and agility. With it, she parried Aria's strike and even attacked back.

Aria was prepared for failure, so she readily defended. The two's blades were now clashing against each other's, creating a strong metal sound.

"Hoo-oh? You're attacking?" White Fox asked in amusement. She liked fights, but the one before her was an unknown newbie.

If she did go harsh on this one, she would have to face the brunt of her captain's anger. Just thinking about it made her shudder.

"Yes. I do not wish to take your offer," Aria calmly stated, fighting back White Fox's power by administering strength to the right places.

The position from where one held the blade's handle was very important. Just from pure strength alone, Aria could feel that White Fox outperformed her by quite a lot.

To be able to stand up with her own strength, she had to make certain adjustments.

Luckily, it seemed that White Fox was not proficient in the arts of magic. With a couple enchantments, Aria was able to be on par with the agile girl.

On par. That was it. She couldn't best the girl in terms of anything.

She was still lacking, especially because of her slow growth rate that impacted her progress.

Aria had to play the game both very carefully and aggressively. If she was only careful, she would fall into the position of a defender with how tricky White Fox was. If she was only aggressive, she would be taken down in mere seconds as White Fox will definitely get a strike on her.

She had to maintain a balance between the two actions.

On the other hand, if Aria had to point out one specific characteristic from White Fox, it would be the lack of mastery in multitasking.

She was able to deduce White Fox's slight sluggish movements when she switched over from the attacking position to a defending one.

That slight discrepancy was minimal, but to someone like Aria, who was grasping at straws, it was counted as a chance she could manipulate.

Aria began trying out some attack patterns that would throw White Fox out of her balance with controlled experiments. Aria was an expert, and her experience clearly showed between battles like these where a power imbalance was applied.

To counter a power imbalance, one needed to utilize their best skills.

Aria waited, and waited. She observed White Fox's movements while keeping up her own set of actions intact.

With her unsurmountable experiences, she managed to calculate her hits and parries until she cornered White Fox, even just by a little bit.

Of course, White Fox would notice the strange situation. She felt her condition worsening with every blow she exchanged with the 'newbie' Aria.

Disgruntled, White Fox let out an annoyed cry as she began to force her way through Aria's defenses.

"Don't- mess around with me!" White Fox jumped into the air. With her high flexibility and aided by her Main, her body twisted as she got behind Aria and slide her arms around the neck area.

Clenching it, Aria was successfully choked with no means to escape from the hold due to the power White Fox exerted.

This was the huge difference in power, which Aria would not be able to overcome with her skills alone.

Aria bit her lips as she internally commanded her spirits to save her. However, White Fox noticed that Aria's spirits were still flying about and decided to take things to the extreme.

Her instincts forced her to abort the fight, but she couldn't even do that as White Fox was in a trance after being threatened by a newbie. White Fox wouldn't allow the slightest chance for Aria to come at this point. She was starting to get desperate.

Within less than a minute, White Fox's strong hold made Aria pass out and stop her struggling movements.

White Fox, too, relented after seeing that Aria became unconscious.

She was instantly reminded of her Captain's scariness and the things that she would have to bear as a result of going serious on a newbie like Aria.

White Fox's brain was already producing all sorts of excuses to prepare for the Captain's scoldings.

But before that, White Fox was anxious about another thing.

She had lost track of how much time passed during her fight with Aria, but she realized that their exchanges were short, yet powerful.

Taking out a watch from her pocket, she glanced at the time. Her eyes widened as she processed the information.

"..Well, that's actually over five minutes. Crazy," White Fox looked at her watch and counted the time.

Five minutes and twenty one seconds. That was how long Aria lasted in a full on battle against White Fox.

"Ahh, what should I do at this point? I hurt a newbiee~!" White Fox covered her head, scared of the things that was about to come in the near future.

"It just means that you're going to get tons of scolding from the Captain," Loud clacking noises were made between the ground and a woman's high heels.