"What is your condition?" Vulcan asked me.

There were two skills I could use to overcome Vulcan. The first was Berserk Wolf, which was capable of doubling my Strength at the cost of reducing my mana to zero and putting me in a berserk state.

It was an option, but I would rather risk staying conscious throughout the entire fight against him. Remembering what he was like, a careless attack could mean defeat here. What remained was the second skill.

"I would like to have a tent so we can prepare for the fights," I told him bluntly.

"Just that?" he asked me with a bit of suspicion. "I thought you would try some tricky rule to get one over on me."

"Not a chance. If I’m going to defeat you, it’ll be fair and square with my own abilities," I said. It wasn’t a lie, but I didn’t consider my plan a fair path to victory.

"All right. I’ll give you a tent," the leader of the mercenaries said to me. "Prepare for the fight however you like, and don’t worry, my men won’t spy on you and your girl. If they do, I’ll beat them to a pulp. You have my word."

"G-Good to know," I said hesitantly.

"So let’s step outside so I can explain the rules," he said, finally rising from his chair.

We went outside as Vulcan had asked us to and moved away from his tent. He asked some of his mercenaries to set up a tent for us and headed towards an open spot near the clearing.

"Falco." Vulcan only said the name of his subordinate, but it seemed like he already knew what he had to do.

He responded with a nod and drew his long fencing sword. Falco ran in circles while his sword touched the ground wherever he passed. When Falco finished, a large circle had been perfectly drawn. It was so well done that it looked like he had trained just to make that circle.

"The rules are simple," Vulcan said to me, raising his fingers with each rule he stated. "We are going to fight inside this ring. If you run out of mana, you lose. If you step outside the ring, you lose. If you lose consciousness for whatever reason, you lose."

"And you guys have to fight me and Vulcan in that order," Tanya continued. "If you lose even one match..."

"We lose. I get it, I get it," I said impatiently to my Valkyrie’s sister. After our conversation, just hearing her voice irritated me.

"So," she asked me, unwavering even after witnessing my displeasure, "are you going to accept this fight?"

After we stated the rules and Tanya asked that last question, a mission screen appeared before my eyes. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

[

Mission: Duel

The Leader of the Ghosts of the Road has challenged you to a duel. You and your Valkyrie have to win by achieving one of the conditions below in each fight:

1 - Make him run out of mana.

2 - Make him step outside the ring.

3 - Make him lose consciousness.

Rewards: 5-level boost + 20 Status Points for you and Diane.

Do you accept these terms? Yes / No

]

I looked again to make sure of what I was seeing. 20 Status Points for both me and Diane was a really big deal, and on top of that, we would gain 5 levels. This was the first time we had received joint rewards, and that was great. Even without eliminating our enemies, we could become much stronger.

I wondered if my sexual prowess had put Freya in a good mood. But I didn’t think that was the reason. Although I knew she really was satisfied with our night together, it was probably the reward befitting the defeat of our opponents.

But at this point, what other answer could I give? "I accept!"

...

I was surprised by how quickly the mercenaries were able to set up the tent. Maybe having a "persuasive" boss like Vulcan was incentive enough to make these guys work their asses off.

That same persuasiveness made the mercenaries place the tent far from the rest of the camp, where they were gathering to watch the fight. Falco was watching to make sure no one tried to get close to us, but he was far enough away that he himself wouldn’t spy on us.

As soon as we had a little more privacy, Diane asked me, "How are you going to fight him?"

I hadn’t explained it to her, and every time I had used this skill as a last resort, she hadn’t been present, so she didn’t know the true potential of my power.

"It’s true. You weren’t with us back then." I gave a fake cough and said, "Diane, I’m going to need your help to win this fight."

"Huh? What are you talking about? It’s a one-on-one fight. How can I—" She stopped talking, remembering one of my skills, and immediately frowned at me. "Ero Boost..."

"Exactly. I’ll use Ero Boost as much as I need to surpass Vulcan in power and win," I told her.

Diane sighed. "I finally understand why you asked for the tent. You’re going to use Ero Boost in your last fight, and then you’ll use this tent to recover from the side effects."

I nodded to her, not wanting to be more direct about the fact that I needed to have sex with her to get rid of the penalties.

"Well, there isn’t much else to do. Ero Boost is the best option we have for victory. Thanks to it, I managed to defeat the Wolf Lord, a creature far above my normal power, so I believe I’ll be able to surpass Vulcan by using this skill multiple times. Since Vulcan believes he’ll be facing me at my current power level, he’ll be caught by surprise by the buff I’ll get in the middle of the fight."

"You make it sound simple. Do you know his fighting style?"

"Yep, it mixes physical strength with fire magic. He isn’t a Monk, but his punches still hurt. As for his skills, I know pretty much all of them, but knowing them and fighting them in real life are two different things. A powerful Mage with high physical ability, that’s the kind of man I’m about to face."

"It looks like he’ll be a troublesome opponent." Diane looked worried about my safety.

"Don’t worry about me, Diane. More importantly, focus on your fight. You’re going to fight first, aren’t you?"

Diane seemed like she had only just remembered. First, she would have to face Tanya, and then I would face Vulcan. And if Diane happened to lose, the result of our battle would be decided as a defeat.

Diane’s determined expression seemed to waver now that she had to face her own reality.

"Are you going to be okay, Diane?" I asked her in a worried voice.

Diane shook her head as if trying to stop thinking about something. "Yes, I’ll be fine. I promise I won’t lose to Tanya."

Diane’s words were firm, but it was still bugging me. Clearly, my ability to hide my emotions wasn’t enough to conceal my doubts from Diane.

"Don’t you believe I can win?" she asked me.

When she asked me that question, I remembered Diane’s stats and compared them to Tanya’s.

[

Name: Diane Stollen

Level: 20

Class: Shadow Assassin

Title: Valkyrie

Master: Richard Forster

Health: 250 points

Mana: 202 points

Strength: 35 points

Defense: 15 points

Magic: 15 points

Agility: 27 points

Status Points: 0 points

]

[

Name: Tanya (Jasmine)

Class: Assassin

Level: 25

Health: 250 points

Mana: 200 points

Strength: 40 points

Defense: 10 points

Magic: 30 points

Agility: 27 points

]

I shook my head in denial. "That’s not it. You’re very skilled. There’s a difference in your stats, and Tanya seems stronger, but I believe you can beat her. What comes to mind is something else."

"And what would that be? You can ask me."

"Why does your sister hate you so much?"

"Ah, that." Diane didn’t seem comfortable with my question. "Tanya is my younger sister, and our father was the leader of our clan. Although I showed talent for becoming a great Assassin early on, the same couldn’t be said of Tanya, and our father was much stricter with her because of that. Her training was very intense."

Diane seemed to stare into the void, as if her memory were somewhere on the horizon. Finally, her eyes focused on me again.

"Because she was my sister, he thought she would also be capable of doing what I was skilled at, but that isn’t how human beings work. She probably blames me because our father projected something onto her that was far beyond what she could do."

"I see..." I said, regretting asking.

"Either way, I don’t intend to go easy on Tanya. I wasn’t responsible for her suffering, and our clan disappeared a long time ago," Diane said to me, determination returning to her. "It’s time to put an end to this."