Niamh didn't even have to break a sweat in her fight.

She passed her assessment simply by tearing the other mages apart without ever counterattacking. Her superior control in infiltrating and manipulating the active spell of another mage was enough to show the guild she had what they thought it took to become a competent adventurer.

Her opponent was a capable ice mage.

But Niamh kept adjusting the energy of the women's ice magic, turning most of their attacks into slushy puddles, absorbing into the sand before they could do much damage.

With all the moisture pulled from the environment to fuel the ice mage's spells, Kai's throat was dry by the time the chime signalled the end of the fight ended.

"Niamh Korabain, accepted, high mid tin. Will the last of the Korabains please come down," the announcer called.

Maeve turned to Aoife and whispered something in her ear. She nodded in reply, and Maeve went back to her conversation with Alicia. The two of them going back to subtly showing off the alien technology Kai had inadvertently brought to Alea that Alicia was now trying to reproduce and spread to the masses for a profit.

That Alicia was now an empress and didn't really need funds was lost on her. Personal funds were personal funds… or so she had told him many times when he was lectured about his tendency to throw around expensive dragon scales.

Seeing Niamh turn their way, satisfaction writ clear on her face when she caught Kai looking her way, he realised something was bugging him.

"I have been meaning to ask. High mid tin? You told me there were only three different grades in the guild, low mid and high…" Kai started to ask Temra but he trailed off as Aoife got up and started adjusting her skirt.

She lifted it, bunching it up at the front, above her thighs and tucking it back to expose limber legs and over the knee boots, the kind with lacing up the sides, dagger tucked into the rolled-over tops. An assortment of steel that would make a butcher blush strapped around her thighs, that made Kai's eyes bulge.

"So you like that, do you?" Niamh said as she got back to her seat.

"Pick your jaw up off the floor, Kai. It's called a skirt hike. They're in fashion from what I can see in the crowd. And she's not showing off anything special down there. She is all covered up, unlike most people. I dare say you would see a lot more if you actually looked around us. Quite a few women are a little disappointed they haven't got your attention," Syl said with a curl of her lips that he couldn't quite read.

Aoife face flushed a nice shade of pink as she did one last check that everything was in place, even slipping a few daggers free, then slotting them back into place in her corset, ready for her fight.

"You should see her dungeon gear. Tight-fitting is inaccurate. But she likes to be a bit more subdued when out and about in public, so the skirt comes out to hide everything. Honestly, I'm going to have to find a good tailor to make these robes of mine a bit more seductive, if that's what draws your eye. If it weren't for all the pockets, we mages wouldn't bother with robes."

When Aoife adjusted the positioning of a long, thin rapier, Kai had to wonder how she sat down with that hidden in her skirts. The basket hilt alone would have made things difficult.

Aoife gave Kai a quick glance and smiled as she ducked her head on the way past.

"I'm wearing the same style gear. I'm just not wearing the skirt over everything. But that display caught your attention," Maeve complained. "Men are so dumb."

"I will explain it to you over that drink," Syl said with a sigh. "I'm thinking about introducing something called a summer dress. It works on similar principles that somehow melts men's brains."

Kai coughed, "No one actually answered my question, high-mid tin. What is that about?"

"Actually, Kai, they answered you right away. You were just distracted by my cousin," Cillian said with a chuckle.

"It was all the steel. Well, maybe a little. I just didn't expect her to be carrying so much, and I never thought I would see a ninja star. That and those throwing knives she had were practically kunai," Kai said defensively.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"What's a ninja star?" Cillian finally asked when Ka just looked at them blankly.

Syl sighed, "Ninjas are culturally specific stealth experts, covert agents and assassins… the ninja stars were the shuriken Aoife had. And Kai, the high mid tin thing. It's an unofficial way for the announcer to inform the crowd someone's actually high tin or near it without breaking the guild's policy on not assigning new recruits anything higher than mid tin. I wouldn't worry about it much."

There was a chime, and Kai watched Aoife dart across the arena faster than he expected. Heck, she was a lot faster than he could manage, which made him wonder if she had invested in her physical core.

Her opponent, the same swordsman Cillian had faced, slashed the air in front of her as Aoife jumped and flipped high over them, clear of the blade and its wielder.

Her opponent deflected the throwing knives expertly as she turned to face Aoife's assault.

The acrobatic display was far beyond anything he would currently try in a fight. Impressive as his new perfect race and his superhuman stats were, he knew moving like that still took a lot of practice.

"Why do you have Cillian if you have her?" Kai asked in surprise.

"Because Aoife isn't the kind to press the assault. Cillian is a traditionalist, using sword skills to get by. While Aoife is… well, she is deadly when you underestimate her. The most flexible and agile out of all of us. She is a strike when the time is right, kind of girl…" Niamh said, trailing off into a notable pout at the end.

Steel clashed against steel.

Aoife thrust forward, her opponent capturing the rapier under her arm only for her to look back in surprise as Aoife release and produced two long daggers to continue her assault, while the swordsman held onto the rapier in confusion.

Aoife's rapier was tossed aside as the guild's assessor realised the applicant in front of her was tricky and needed her full attention.

Only Aoife flipped away again, the tip of her boot catching her discarded rapier and tossing it high into the air as she launched more throwing knives at the swordswoman as she put some distance between them.

Kai grew suspicious of how fast Aoife moved. He couldn't move that fast unless he twisted time to his advantage.

He watched with his mana senses still active and he realised she was doing something beyond natural ability as each preternatural reaction, counter and attack, was accompanied by a subtle burst of mana within her.

His curiosity getting the best of him, he asked, "Is she enhancing her movements with mana?"

Niamh gave him the same suspicious look that reminded Kai he was asking about someone else's skills before she smiled and tilted her head slightly, asking, "You can see it, can't you?"

Kai nodded.

Aoife caught her rapier from the air and thrust forward again, before kicking the swordswoman in the shin, sending her slightly off balance. Aoife dodged back from the counterattack that came her way.

Niamh sighed and said in a hushed voice, "If you must know, she is a body-enhancement specialist. Annoyingly, she doesn't even use spell constructs. So don't think about having some… one-on-one time with her to learn the skill set." She paused to give him a cheeky wink before continuing. "She can move her mana about her body to enhance her speed, flexibility, strength… you think of it, she can probably do it." She turned her head to Kai and gave him a sly smile. "So long as she has the mana, she can go on like this for days."

"She can push herself much harder, but she limits herself because of the drawback when she is done," Saoirse said as her sister increased the pace down in the arena.

The swordswoman now moving at the same accelerated pace she had used when she had forced Cillian to submit to her.

"I tried learning support magic, thought it would help with my combat style. But all the spell constructs were just too complicated for me, and when I tried to use them, they just gave me a headache. So, I leave that to our specialist now. But you said Aoife isn't using spell constructs?" Kai asked in awe as he watched the bout of arcanely augmented physical fighting.

Sure, stats could make someone faster and stronger. But the way Aoife was using her mana allowed her to go beyond her base stats and perform at a much higher level.

There was a chime signalling the end of Aoife's assessment. The swordswoman took a throwing knife to her shoulder so that she could place her blade at Aoife's throat. The result, a draw as Aoife pointed out the dagger she held to the swordswoman's gut with a tilt of her head.

"You should ask her about it… see what you could learn. We all know you struggle with normal magic… But Kai, I mean training," Syl said, giving him a sharp look that no one there could mistake. "Not that one-on-one training Cillian was so disappointed he had to refuse. Infact, Alicia can supervise. She might learn something or have some input that Aoife can learn from."

Cillian buried his head in his hands at the repeated mention of the one-on-one training.

"Yes, I'm sure she would like that. She's shy, but sharp. And I mean that in more ways than one, so don't think you can take advantage," Maeve said with a smile.

"That's funny. I thought you were the one angling for some time with our Kai," Alicia said tartly.

Kai just let out a long breath. All the double entendre was getting a bit much. And he would never take advantage of Aoife like that… and they all knew it. At least he hoped they knew it.

Maeve shrugged. "I've shared everything with my sisters my entire life. Why would a decent man be any different?" She said as she gestured to the stands full of women around them. "It's not like we have much choice when it comes to men, let alone good men. Besides, it tends to be the creepy ones that peruse us as triplets, not individuals. Your guy…" she made a point of eyeing Kai, "he seems different."

"We've just met. How could you possibly know I'm any different?" Kai said, both confused by and interested in her perspective.

"Body language, your eyes, after years of it you kind of learn what to look for… Maeve, do you remember that sick guy outside that dungeon that wanted the three of us at the same time?" Saoirse said wearily.

"The noble little prick? The one that practically demanded I join? His subtle suggestions about as seductive as a mana discharge to the face?" Niamh asked in disgust.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"I remember him. Him and his paid party," Maeve said with a shudder of disgust.

"I know it's not uncommon for sisters to have relationships, even children, with the same father. But what he wanted was just sick," Niamh added.

"What did you do?" Alicia asked, her own disgust clear by her tone.

"Aoife gave him a good kick where the sun doesn't shine and when that wasn't enough, pressed him with a blade and promised to cut it off if he approached us again."

"It didn't work. The kid was some viscount's pissant and demanded recompense. Luckily, we had some high ranked adventurers with us. They took him aside and made it clear his attention wasn't wanted," Saoirse chuckled at the memory.

"Does that kind of shit happen often?" Kai asked, unable to clear the sour, sick taste in the back of his mouth.

"More than we like. It's why we don't announce that we are triplets anymore. Nobles tend to want to wrap us in a bow as some kind of twisted gift for their little lordling when they hear about us," Maeve said with a look that told Kai that exact scenario had in fact happened. She glanced back at Kai, then to Alicia at her side and finally Syl, her eyes assessing each of them in turn. "I mean no offence, nobles are-"

Alicia waved her off and shoulder-bumped her as she said, "Please, we're hardly nobles… I have my own stories about entitled noble men, so believe me I know what you mean. Luckily, Kai is as common as they come. But he is a little backwards… actually thinks he should be the one wining and dining women, not the other way around. And Syl, Syl is lucky. She has known Kai her whole life, and believe me, she is older than she looks, so that is saying a lot."

"Took him entirely too long to notice me… and what I wanted from him. He has a blind spot for female attention. It can be fun at times, but it is also frustrating at others," Syl said as she glared at Alicia.

Kai groaned. While this was in some ways illuminating, he wished they would move the topic away from him.

"Aoife Korabain accepted high-mid tin. Just a reminder, the last five adventurers with the Korabain name are not looking for a guild or to expand their party at this time. Do with that information what you will. Alicia, will you please come to the arena?" the announcer finally called as Aoife made her way to the stairs and back up to their section in the stands.

"That's me," Alicia said as she got up, giving Maeve's compound bow a long look before she moved past the rest of the Korabains and grinned at Syl and Kai.

Kai could feel Alicia's apprehension through their bond. She wasn't really worried about the fight. She just missed Gif.

He sent her comforting thoughts, and she sent her pleasure at his concern back at him.

"Sandra, that swordswoman said she was looking forward to her training with you, Cillian. I told her you had a vow of celibacy that would be in effect for some time," Aoife said as she got back to their reserved section.

"Damn it, Aoife. Why did you have to tell her about the vow?" Cillian groaned. "She didn't need to know that. I could have at least learned something from her before I had to break the news."

"You sure you didn't just want to see how far you could go?" Niamh sighed.

Cillian just looked away, the busted look on his face priceless as he pretended he didn't hear her question, mumbling something about loopholes under his breath.

Aoife gave her cousin Cillian a pitying look. "Sandra said patience is the first thing any swordswoman learns, that it would be better if she had the opportunity to get your stamina up. She is silver and in good standing with her guild, so I wouldn't push your luck, Cillian. We don't need any trouble."

Cillian sat up straight. "Oh. Oh! Won't be any trouble." He started beaming like a little idiot.

The message delivered to her cousin, Aoife paused in front of Kai and gave him a shy smile as she unhitched her skirt. Kai, unable to look away as he noticed the lump that was the basket hilt of her rapier vanishing under the fabric, as she asked him in a soft voice, "Does this mean I also get to buy you a drink?"

Kai's jaw went slack, and he cautiously looked to Syl for a moment before turning back to Aoife. "Sure… I'm actually hoping you can help me with that body enhancement you were doing."

Aoife span to look at her team. "You told him?!"

"Nope" was all Saoirse said.

"He actually noticed all on his own. I think he was paying extra-special attention to your fight after you gave him that eyeful hiking up your skirt like that. Clever, wish I had thought of it," Niamh said dramatically.

Aoife blushed, and her ears twitched.

The distinctly el'vei mannerism reminded Kai somewhat of how Alicia used to act around him when they first met. He smiled at the memory and he couldn't help but wonder if other el'vei women purred like Alicia.

Aoife's eyes went wide upon seeing his smile just after she dropped her skirt in front of him. Her ears turning a deeper shade of red and twitching furiously as she ducked her head and said, "I didn't mean to. I mean, as Syl said, it- it's not like there was anything to see. I wasn't."

Niamh pulled her cousin down into the seat beside her, right in front of Kai, where she turned away from him and tried her best to hide by burying her face in her skirt.

"I think she likes you," Syl whispered teasingly as she leaned into Kai.

There was a muffled groan from Aoife.

"Be careful, Kai. Your two main types are assertive and shy. You remember the shade of red Alicia used to turn around you?" Syl continued. "Now she flips you over and makes sure you get what you need."

"Shy and assertive? That makes no sense!" Niamh said, bewildered and frustrated, as she turned to look at Kai, assessing him. "Men are unfathomable."

"Don't use big words…" Syl said warningly.

"Why?" Niamh asked curiously.

"He likes them smart, too. If he isn't mentally stimulated, he loses interest."

That made Niamh sit up a bit straighter. "Does he now? Looking at the two of you, I would have assumed he liked his women dangerously beautiful."

"You're too kind. You and your cousins aren't exactly unpolished stones yourselves. Keep this up, and I might decide to keep you around as backup just to keep others away from my Kai. It's tiring keeping his clueless head out of trouble, I can't watch him all the time..." Syl made a point of looking at Cillian and said, "You obviously know how hard it can be with other woman coveting what is not theirs to take."

Cillian gave Kai a sympathetic look, and he got a bad feeling.

His stomach sank as he began to worry this might be a little more than just acting things out. The girls somehow using this little performance of them officially meeting each other for the first time to come to some kind of agreement.

Kai had alarm bells going off in the back of his mind for some reason, and he felt Castiel's confusion and curiosity through their bond. She was beginning to feel a little defensive for her father, and his sinking feeling had caught her attention.

He felt her shift in her spot on his head, and he had to send her a reminder to stay hidden and that everything was fine.

He got the feeling she wasn't so sure he was right about that back from her as she settled.

There was a chime from the arena below, the snap of bow strings and Kai decided to focus all his attention on Alicia as she lifted her bow with a golden conjured arrow and darted towards her opponent, her running form shifting to an indistinguishable blur as she moved.

Down in the arena, Alicia was matched up against the same archer that Maeve had fought against.

Only where Maeve had maintained her distance, the two of them circling the outer edges of the arena. Alicia instead leaned on what she had learned in the trial dungeon and closed the distance.

Her opponent was caught off guard by the irregular move and altered her course. Backpedalling closer to the arena wall instead of circling around the perimeter from her starting position, as she fired off a few shots into the blur that approached her. The arrows sailing cleanly through it without impacting anything.

A disturbance in the sand alerting the archer that Alicia was elsewhere.

A tumble allowed them to narrowly avoid Alicia's close ranged shot when she suddenly appeared in front of them.

Alicia's conjured arrow flying up high to impact a magic barrier in a shower of golden magical sparks before it could hit the crowd.

She kicked out, sweeping at the other archer's legs, and they leapt back, firing off shot after shot into the spot Alicia had just appeared.

Only she was gone again, the arena floor suddenly empty.

Kai chuckled.

Alicia had only moved a foot off to the side, and was preparing her next move as the other archer stalked the arena, her bow up and an arrow knocked as she looked for any disturbance, her eyes sweeping the sand.

Alicia appeared on the far side of the arena, the golden glow surrounding her arrow growing brighter by the second.

The archer changed position, but as soon as she noticed that the illusion of Alicia didn't adjust or move to target her, she ignored her and twisted to fire an arrow off at the second Alicia that appeared to her side.

The moment the arrow left the string of her bow, a third Alicia appeared right behind them, the tip of her golden arrow flaring as it touched the back of their head.

This was a kill shot for sure, and Alicia held it as she stepped back a safe distance so her opponent couldn't turn and knock away her bow.

The bow Alicia was using had a draw weight several times that of any bow you would have found in use back on Earth, and if she loosed her arrow now, all that potential energy would be delivered to the back of her opponent's skull.

Kai doubted the level difference would save her opponent from a shot like that.

The materials used were far more robust and had been magically reinforced to the point that simply firing it would shatter a normal arrow because of the forces applied in the release.

But Alicia's arrows were conjured, and she had packed enough mana into their construction that they would hold up to a bow that would shatter any of the arrows he still had lying about uselessly in his domain.

Alicia could only draw the weapon because of her increased stats from levelling and layering an equal amount of essence into her physical core, as she did her mana core.

Had she done what most el'vei do and focused on her mana core, she would have had to use a considerably weaker bow. Which in turn meant she would have to use more mana to empower her attacks to compensate.

Might or mana? It was, as he was told, a hotly debated subject within the archer community on Alea… and the rest of the multiverse.

With all the benefits of a heavier bow, there was all the same drawbacks.

Everything about the weapon had been multiplied, the power, the range, the lethality and in this situation, the strain on Alicia and the weapon itself caused by holding a shot drawn for too long.

Alicia's opponent froze, her fingertips grazing the knock of an arrow in their own quiver, and the arena went quiet.

The illusion covering the sand vanishing to show that Alicia had barely moved, her two illusions expertly placed to make her opponent change position, moving right into Alicia's trap.

The archer looked about, reading the sand, and nodded in satisfaction. There was a chime as the archer lifted their hands very slowly and sank down out of the line of the shot.

"Alicia accepted as high-mid tin. Again, Alicia and her party are not actively looking for member applications…" the announcer paused. "And I must stress, anyone found to be harassing new members of the guild will be severely punished. Will Sylph please come down?"

Syl got up. "I'll be right back. Don't think we are done with that conversation."

Niamh shrugged, Aoife giggled, and Talious let out a long, bemused breath. The mixed reactions made Kai wonder what he had missed.

As Syl passed him, she leant down and kissed him on the top of the head.

He felt Fayriel's slight weight land in his lap, where he curled up. The tip of his tail wrapping around Kai's hand and pulling it close so he could snuggle as he adjusted his weight a little to make it known he was not moving from this new spot for anyone.

Kai had to resist giving the little guy a scratch as it would either give away that something was there, and look weird to anyone observing him.

Castiel, for her part, who preferred to be so light Kai often forgot she was on him, shifted her position slightly so that she could look down at her brother, somehow seeing Fayriel despite him being phased and invisible.

Alicia and Syl just nodded to one another as they passed each other on the stairs.

When Syl got to the sand, the announcer called out, "Sylph, Arcane Rogue, same party, so same so far as not officially looking for party members or guilds."

A shortish person, probably a dwarf of some kind, Kai couldn't tell they were covered head to toe in plate mail, walked out onto the sand opposite Syl.

The moment the chime went off, the armoured opponent raised a hand and gave a gesture that read as 'come get some.' Then, they immediately widened their stance and planted their feet as they brandished an impressive battle axe in each hand. Their stance making it clear that they were in fact going to wait for Syl to come get some.

Syl just sighed, her shoulders slumping as she slipped the collapsed quarterstaff she had prepared into a horizontal holster in the small of her back. The weapon Ester had made for Syl resting comfortably against its twin.

The moment Syl had put the weapon away, she stepped forward; the arena held its breath suddenly as she drifted casually across the arena.

The dual wielding axe armoured opponent sank lower still as they braced themselves. But when no immediate assault came, they looked about, checking the sand for any telltale disturbance around them.

The arena began to murmur.

Syl just kept walking, crossing the distance as if she had no care in the world.

There was no disturbance in the sand, as Syl had transitioned from her physical form into her spectral one. Her old spectral form, which no one but he could see on the visible spectrum unless she wanted them to, or they had the skills or abilities to see her.

Her opponent had mistaken the cancellation of her physical form for some kind of rapid movement skill, but when no attack came, they assumed it was some kind of stealth.

Syl had just been introduced as an Arcane rogue type, so Kai couldn't blame them for thinking she was using some trick to hide. It was just a shame that the person she had been matched up against clearly had no counter to her metaphysical nature as they started sweeping the area around them with their axes in a complicated form that Kai assumed was developed for fighting stealth'd attackers.

Syl got within a few feet of them, and her position shifted suddenly, and she appeared behind her opponent.

She said something, causing them to turn and strike out in her direction.

She shifted her position again, leaning over the figure with a knife in each hand.

She positioned one blade under their arm and the other down into their collar, where slight gaps in the overlapping plates that allowed for movement allowed her to slip in her long, thin blade.

A collective intake of breath from the crowd told Kai she had rematerialised and was visible to all. Her opponent froze where they stood when they felt the sting of the sharp point of steel held against them.

There was a chime a moment later.

The crowd began to grumble in confusion. From their perspective, Syl had just disappeared, then reappeared next to her opponent.

There was no spectacle, no fight, just a display of weird, arcane roguery.

"Sylph accepted, high-mid tin… Will Kai please come to the arena."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.