Arby had been defeated. He had assumed a similar form as the food in the canteen. Io had made her opponent and the food equal in appearance. Both had been reduced to ash.

  “Ahhh! That felt good!” Io rolled her shoulders as she appeared from the blaze. She looked quite refreshed, as if all her exhaustion and weariness had been incinerated.

  “Hey how does this work? Did you heal her Giana?” Vinny looked at the three idols who were still eating popcorn. It didn’t seem like any of them did anything.

  Io noticed the snacking idols. “Ohh gimme! I want too!”

  Vinny shook his head. “We’re in the most secure prison on the continent and you four are just eating popcorn…”

  “Want some too?” Giana asked as she extended a bag to Vinny.

  He stepped back as her eyes were glowing a strange color as usual. He also felt something else. “Hey Giana… this feeling. Is this charm magic?”

  “Oh sorry I will keep it under control.”

  “You can look but not touch! She already belongs to someone else!”

  “Yes, yes I know Noelle. I have no intention of doing such. We should get to the next objective.”

  Noelle crossed her arms. “Which is?”

  “Ehh let me check…”

  A message ran through everyone’s head. It was similar to a Teleroad message.

  “Ok, I'm going to only say this once! Cygnus here, Quack! We have an escapee from Layer 2, I suspect that he got help from outside, the escaped prisoner is number 781326354 Bunai, race: human, probably… he might have some golem blood. Everyone who is able. Look for, and capture, the escapee and his associates! Lethal force is allowed Quack! Geminga and Cassiopeia what the quack are you doing?! Get into action, Quack!”

  “Oh Kyle did it! That was fast!” Io jumped around and spilled popcorn on the floor.

  “Wait how did he get down here without using that magma elevator? Did he join us in stealth?” Vinny asked, trying to remember if Kyle had joined them on the elevator.

  “Who knows. But Kyle is amazing! He will be here in no time! Hey Giana, do you have sweet popcorn? Kyle prefers it sweet”

  “Sure, here!” Giana reached into her cleavage and pulled a bag of popcorn out.

  “Hey girls I don’t want to spoil the mood but shouldn’t we get out of here?” Vinny realized that he might be in the wrong party. Everyone looked at him as if he spoke draconian. Even though Io was supposed to understand Draconian she had the same look.

  “Shouldn’t we wait for Toxic Donkey?” Noelle asked as she basked in the blaze.

  “Y...yeah, he might not be from H...Hourai but we can’t leave him behind!”

  “But he’s a Toxic Donkey! THE Toxic Donkey! He will be fine!”

  “Then we can be fine together. Hey Io does Kyle like scones?” Giana pulled scones out of her dimensional pocket. Vinny had noticed it before but she often pulled items out her dimensional pocket as if she pulled items out of her cleavage and wondered if all vixens did this.

  Vinny facepalmed. “This was a mistake.”

  A shadow approached them half an hour later. “What the fuck are you guys still doing here?! Let’s go!”

  “Oh, that is an interesting golem. I’ve never seen this kind before. It’s made out of rubies and sapphires. I like lil’ bro’s taste.” Noelle bumped her fist into the golem to test its toughness.

  “No time for this Noelle! We’re so fucked! I can’t believe I forgot about this guy! We need to go now!” Toxic Donkey said in panic as feathers made out of frost started raining down on the party.

  “Oh shit wasn’t this the guy that gave Raishin and Gregory a lot of trouble?” Noelle handled defense, but the mana got sapped out of her barriers. “Ugh, right, this element was stupidly strong.”

  “Wait!” Giana stopped.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “Giana?”

  “I will keep him busy!”

  “Giana don’t be silly he gave a 6t and a 3t a run for their money! Toxic Donkey can you kidnap her?” Vinny asked as he evaded more [Frost Feathers].

  “I’m sorry Noelle. I can’t do anything against someone whose determined like that. Giana don’t forget, magic is useless against him. I think you know that! I will leave a shadow clone behind to [Shadow Swap] you to us. Don’t die please…” Toxic Donkey dropped everyone in stealth and disapeared. Giana nodded at her dearest friends before they got put into stealth.

  “I can do this!” Giana said and sat down and brushed her tails while waiting for Cygnus to arrive.

  “What the quack? Who are you? Are you friends with that donkey?”

  “Good afternoon, Mr Duck. I am Giana Kahlua and I won’t allow you to hurt my companions.”

  “I’m not a duck! I’m a swan! I’m sorry, you are super hot, but I have a duty. It’s a waste but you die here!”

  Giana got pelted by frost feathers but she didn't feel anything. She picked one up from the floor and looked at it.

  “Hmm it’s more refined than Agnis’ frost magic but it has a nasty feel to it. Does frost magic get affected by auras or feelings?”

  “What the quack? Why didn’t you take any damage?” Giana’s mana was getting sapped by the frost magic attacking her, but it wasn’t an immediate concern. She had yet to consider using defensive skills. She used this moment to understand frost magic better. It was very possible that Agnis had also used the fight against this strong opponent to get a better feel of frost magic.

  She tried to fire magic off at the frost magic and studied the interactions between the magic. The mana got sucked out of the skill, extinguishing its effect. The mana transformed into something Cygnus could use and added to his mana pool. The last part was a guess on how it worked.

  She deactivated her Elgards eyes, because she noticed that she was unable to see anything that was covered in frost magic.

  “That… is a big problem.”

  Cygnus rushed at her. There was no point in evading as Giana was too slow for that. She took the attack full on and inspected herself afterward. No damage.

  “Ahhh! My favorite baseball bat! What the Quack are you?!” Cygnus shouted as his bat had been reduced to splinters.

  “I am just a vixen passing by. This can’t be all you have to come at me Mr. Duck.”

  “I’m not a duck! Quack!”

  Giana began dancing and creating [Water jellyfish] but they froze over due to the low temperatures. It took Giana some time to adjust to the [Ice Jellyfish] which she sent them to harass Cygnus.

  He was fast. Giana couldn’t hit him. She lost sight of him and felt something shatter on her back.

  “What?! My sword too!? I even augmented it! Who the quack are you!?”

  “I think I had already introduced myself.” Giana blocked a barrage of [Frost Swans] and [Frost Novae]. Her mana was depleting at a decent rate. Her tails calculated that what she was enduring would be extremely lethal for any member of team Hourai at the age of 14.

  “I see, so they somehow survived an encounter with you. Honestly, I’m impressed. I don’t think anyone in our party of 6 could defeat you or come close.”

  Cygnus created a baseball bat out of frost and used [X-1]. Giana’s tails dug in to the ground to make sure she didn’t get sucked in.

  “Oh… this is a problem.”

  “Die! Quack!” Cygnus swung the bat and the laser hit Giana. Giana froze over. It did damage to her, but not a lot. Her mana was getting sapped and she would be in trouble if she didn’t break out of it.

  Giana couldn’t dance or sing while frozen. She thought that she might have messed up when she remembered that lost magic can counter lost magic. She harnessed the frost mana she was holding on to and counteracted the frozen state.

  The ice broke off her head and a pleasant song filled the area as she started to sing.

  “Wow you sure can sing. Like a chorus of swans. Want to become my wife? Quack!”

  Giana broke out and inspected herself. “No thanks. My heart already belongs to someone else. That stung. I wonder if this was enough stalling.” Her tail notified her that she had stalled 32 minutes. She spotted a shadow clone of Toxic Donkey nearby. It was giving her the sign that it was ready to have her [Shadow Swapped] up.

  “Hmm oh but I have an ever better idea.” Giana walked over to Cygnus and used [Transform] to change from her ‘Adventure Giana’ to ‘Charming Giana’ which was wearing a revealing dress. Her eyes glowed pink purple and pink energy gathered around her.

  “Hey, how about you help me and my friends out?” Giana said in an enchanting voice, flicked her hair and used [Seduce]. Cygnus fell for it.

  Cygnus got successfully charmed by Giana. Pink energy was swirling around Giana, and she tried to have some stick to Cygnus to increase the effect of [Seduce] but it failed. She sighed as she expected that to happen.

  “Wow! If you don’t mind! I will even give you the world, Quack! Tell me where you want to go babe!”

  “Ohh how thoughtful, thank you so much! Bring us up Kyle.” The shadow clone approached Giana, who locked arms with the charmed Cygnus and both of them got [Shadow Swapped] to a higher numbered layer.