I thought the Karen group would actually reject Emilia’s suggestion but surprisingly, their leader scoffed at her and agreed to it.

They had set the fight to happen in the Guild itself since they had the training facility below it that we could use to stage the fight without worry of collateral damage.

They even said that they were fine with fighting my party straight away and they would wait for us at the Guild itself.

I returned to my room in the inn and I realised that nothing was stopping us from just leaving right now and just ignoring those karens altogether.

I even suggested it to the girls after I explained what happened when I got to the room but…

“What?! No way, Sister Aster! You said so yourself, didn’t you! I won’t beat them up unless they find us first! And they did! Let’s go fight them!!” Odeta protested.

Emilia nodded beside her, “Exactly, Boss! If we don’t honour that deal, they might hold the agreement over us and actually have grounds to demand for compensation!”

Sure… Your primary reason for this is definitely because of the money, Emilia…

Surprisingly, Ather also agreed with them and piped in, “I think we should also fight, Miss Aster. Though my reason is more personal. I simply just can’t stand them and an opportunity to beat them up has presented itself… Why would I say no to that?”

Ok… Fair enough… That’s a good point. Now even I want to go as well.

In the end, all seven of us headed towards the Guild branch after we finished putting on our gear.

Stepping into the Guild, I found it completely empty which was the direct opposite of the sight I saw yesterday.

The moment we entered though, a Guild staff immediately leapt to his feet and ran towards me.

“Miss… Miss Aster! You’re really here! We… We were sure you would…”

“Run away?” I finished for him.

He gulped, “We… Well… We really thought you only issued the challenge as a way to get them to leave… But… Are you sure about this? They are really strong…”

“Hmm… I feel like it might be a little too late in asking this but… How did they beat the others that challenged them?”

He hesitated for a second before shaking his head, “I want to tell you but I don’t even know… Actually, no one knows… One moment they are standing facing each other, then the next moment all of their opponents are down on the ground, all beaten up badly and without mercy.”

Hmm… I’m guessing they must be able to move really fast that normal people aren’t able to see them.

I smiled at him, “Don’t worry, my party is pretty strong too.”

The Guild staff peeked at the girls behind me, keeping his face entirely neutral.

“I see… Umm… Allow me to lead you to the training grounds, Miss Aster…”

He quickly turned around and guided me past the main hall to a set of stairs at the back that was leading downwards.

When we reached the training hall, I finally realised why the place upstairs was empty… Everyone was gathered here…

This Guild branch in particular had a small arena setup with spectator stands surrounding it and every single seat was currently filled up. Heck, there were so many people that some of them were even standing at the very back or seated on the floor just to watch this.

And of course, standing in the middle of the arena was Karen and her little group, all of them prepped for battle.

Ok… I just want to say… It’s literally morning… Do all these Guild members have nothing to do today? It’s not like there was a one or two day notice before this fight you know? We literally decided on this challenge just about an hour ago!

Or… Wait… Karen couldn’t have already foresaw this happening and prepared this… Could she? Or perhaps this was their modus operandi all along?

Well crap… That just means we fell into their trap from the very beginning… But why do they even want to do this to us? Is this like a newbie hazing that they do for every newcomer in the Guild just to get them to join the GMA?

Hmm… No point thinking about it now… Let’s just deal with them first.

I stepped into the arena with my girls and Karen also took a step forward in front of her party to smirk at me.

“I honestly thought you would run away, pervert”

She’s still saying that, huh…

I ignored her jab and nodded at the stands, “What’s with the crowd?”

“Oh, did you think we’re going to let you do this with no witnesses? Of course we have to get people to watch and serve as our witness or you might go around lying about beating us when we beat you. We’re not only going to beat you but also expose you for being a pervert.”

“Didn’t you say that the people of the Guild are unreliable as a witness?”

“I never said such a thing.”

This bitch… I agree with you Ather, we really need to beat her and her little group up.

“What are the rules?” I asked.

She placed her hands on her hips haughtily, “It’s very simple. We’ll just fight until everyone on one side has given up or become unable to fight. There’s no need for complicated rules for this.”

Works for me.

We returned to our spots and my girls already adopted their usual formation with me standing at the very back as their support.

Ather blinked at me in confusion, “Miss Aster? What are you doing?”

I tilted my head at her, “What do you mean? Preparing for the fight?”

“No… Why are you in the arena? Shouldn’t you be at the stands?”

Ah… She still has the idea that I’m really delicate and shouldn’t be fighting…

“This is my party, Ather, I lead them and participate in the fights. I don’t just stand outside of it and watch while twiddling my thumbs. Besides, are you going to deprive me of the chance to smack their faces myself? There’s twelve of them, that’s almost two people each to slap.”

She seemed like she wanted to argue at first but then shut her mouth after that and turned back to face the group in front of us.

“Fine… I’ll make sure to neuter them so that they can’t fight back. Then you can slap whoever you want… Which I presume one of which is the leader herself?”

I nodded, “You got that right. That lying and conniving bitch… I’ll make sure to slap her really good once I get my hands on her…”

“Where shall I stand in that case?”

Ah, she must be referring to her position in the party.

Odeta’s our frontliner as always and flanking her two sides are Emilia with her katana and Delmare with her rapier.

In between those two was Katsuki who would look for opportunities to flank the enemy and behind her was Lisa acting as the mage.

Then finally right behind Lisa was me who will act as support and also the final trump card should I also need to fight directly in the event of a team wipe.

I thought about it for a moment.

“Hmm… Your primary weapons are the guns you can materialise, right?”

She nodded, “Though I have to remind you that they consume a lot of my mana to materialise so I cannot fight for extended amounts of time.”

“Are you only able to materialise the two pistols?”

She shook her head, “I can create other guns as well, but at my current skill level, it is not practical to switch weapons mid-fight from the mana consumption. So whatever I create at the start of the fight is what I will be stuck with until the end of the fight.”

“Hmm… In that case… I suppose you can occupy our ranger position? We don’t exactly have a dedicated archer in our party so you could fill that role.”

She looked at the rest of my girls for a moment before turning back to me, “I will be honest… I would much rather be in the thick of the fight using dual pistols but for you, I will agree.”

I waved my hand, “Ah, I don’t mean that you can only fight like that. If you see an opportunity and if you believe that it would be better for you to jump in with the rest, go ahead. I’m the support here so I will just cover all of you no matter what you do.”

She tilted her head very slightly, “Is that so… I see…”

The Guild staff member at the edge raised his hand, “Are both sides ready?”

All of us nodded.

“Then begin!”

I readied myself to cast a buff on Odeta who was charging in when I felt myself suddenly unable to move.

No… Not unable to move… But just moving really slowly.

Try as I might, it felt like I was stuck in some really dense liquid that was preventing me from moving as I wanted to.

And looking at the girls, it seems like I wasn’t the only one, yet Karen’s group had no such problem and they were even strolling towards us casually.

What’s going on?!

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