Only a few months may have passed since their first fight but Ben couldn’t deny he was interested in seeing how a new one would turn out. He was already leagues stronger than he had been, both in skills and attributes, while Abel’s own growth was a lot more humble in comparison, evening the odds out between them, even if it might not have been enough in the end.

Intelligence, mana, its regeneration rate, and stamina. Those were the attributes he beat Abel in and in terms of stamina, it wasn’t even by very much. Certainly not anything significant when considering that it had more to do with how long he or anyone else would be able to keep working rather than something that applied to a sparring match, and yet, he wasn’t unconfident either.

Even if some of his other attributes were thousands of points below hers, what mattered most to him was his mind, something he already knew would be the key in that and likely all other fights going forward and he lightly hopped in place while Abel stared at him, looking practically manic in excitement.

“You ready?”

“So long as you call out your outer ancestry, I don’t want Delair reacting badly.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

“Thank you. And Foast, when she calls it out, do me a favour and cover my student’s eyes. I can’t trust her to not give in to her curiosity and I don’t need her family complaining to me about it.”

“Aw, come on, let me see just once!” Delair yelled back while the shifter nodded by her side.

“Don’t worry, she won’t see a peep.”

“Thank you. And in that case, if you’re ready Abel, wanna have Foast call us to start?”

“Sure. Do it, perv!”

“Fine. Ben, go put her in her place!”

He wasn’t sure if he should have taken that as the sign to fight but Abel sure did, wasting no time creating more monstrosities as her blood spilled on the ground before rising once more in the form of her warped beasts, grey, fleshy slime-mould creatures springing up with sharpened bones protruding from them, covered in both eyes and orifices that focused in on him, right as the world froze.

It didn’t seem like she was going to use one to strengthen herself again but she was likely still under the effects of doing so in her fight with the other third tier, with her priority being to overwhelm him from the start, charging with multiple monsters at once while he looked on, considering how he wanted to approach things.

He’d decided to not use deep connection for the same reason he’d avoided it the first time they’d fought. If it was something he couldn’t use against a soul god with any certainty then it was something he needed to get used to fighting without. The fact that he’d already proven he could sneak uses of the skill past the gods of that world did hint that it might not have been completely blocked off from him but even then, it would be a last ditch effort, not something to rely on like he would for other aspects of his life.

But even without that, the solution seemed simple from the start. Extensions of herself though they were, the monsters Abel would make could be killed without harming her and with the power he held he could do that with ease, taking the world around him and spending his mana to raise it up at each beast and crush down, leaving them as nothing more but a grey splatter on the ground.

A result that only made Abel grin deeper, her expectations raised from how things went compared to their last fight but not stopping her production of them as she created more, her blood sinking into the world below before rising once more, remade as the horrors under her control.

If she just keeps doing this then I wonder if I might win from her going through too much blood loss? Not entirely clear how her biology works but considering malevolent form, I doubt it. Still, waiting her out might be an option.

“Outer ancestry!” She yelled out, wasting no time upon seeing how much better Ben was already handling things.

Or not.

She and her creatures started to warp as she said it, straining against reality itself from her more chaotic form as she entirely gave up the more hominid shape she’d been using as her body took on the greatest change, resembling more closely the monsters she’d made as all at once, she stopped holding back.

He knew from her fight with Foast that when it came to him she had been restraining herself a bit, testing the waters to see how his current attributes compared and finding a suitable playmate in what he currently held, moved like she meant it, over fifteen thousand points of agility enough to make it look like she was teleporting to any casual onlooker, even if Ben could keep up.

Her creations were continuously squashed under his power before they could get too close, the effects of her outer ancestry leaving them secreting unnatural fluids that ate into the world beneath them, leaving the dirt and dust to evaporate into the air while her far more deadly true body closed in, dripping that same alien substance while Ben moved to contain her.

If she could dissolve and destroy matter then trapping her with his magic was never going to succeed but he had options beyond that as he actualized walls around her, not creating them to an atomic level where chemistry could come into play but instead making simple, flat planes around her and held her in place, his intelligence high enough that he could now use the skill in a real fight, even if he felt each blow his mental construct took in her attempts to get out in both his mind and soul.

He could hear Foast cheering in the background among a bit more retching, more townsfolk who’d come to watch suffering for that choice like the ones who’d come before them and Ben couldn’t deny he felt good. It wasn’t an overwhelming victory but then, he hadn’t meant for it to be. It was a spar, it was meant to be fun, and it raised his confidence just a bit when it came to how well he could now handle both mortals and gods alike, right until the ground exploded beneath his feet, more of Abel’s creatures bursting forth with vigor in their drive to get the win, throwing him up in the air and leaving him there as he hovered with the power of his mana, observing the situation briefly.

It seemed that when Abel would taint the earth with her flesh and blood, there was no need for them to immediately spring up and she’d kept plenty hidden as a backup plan as they went on the defensive, smashing against the walls he was actualizing to try and break out their core from the outside while launching more ranged attacks, throwing out globs of their own flesh his way at high speeds for purposes he couldn’t guess at but still blocked anyway, confining each attack into different actualized boxes as he considered the fight until that point.

And coming to the conclusion that they too were at an impasse, one Ben would lose if Abel wasn’t going to give in. He believed he could kill her creations, both the ones trying to break her out and any more that might have been hidden, but his only way of stopping her was to keep holding her with his mental construct, something he couldn’t do forever and was beginning to feel more and more with each powerful blow it took.

And while I could just keep on going…

He’d already gotten plenty from the fight so he raised his hands up before cancelling his actualization, seeing her instantly lunge at him and only barely stopping as he got his words out.

“I yield.”

MORTAL REALM ACTUALIZATION ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED

MANA ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED

MANA RECOVERY RATE ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED

MULTIVERSAL INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED

ALIEN SENSE LEVEL INCREASED

She changed back as soon as he’d said it, landing on her two feet as her monsters crumbled around her, even if the frown on her face made it clear she wasn’t happy with the result.

“Don’t patronize me,” She told him. “What do you mean, you yield? You were winning! And I was just about to do something new too, to really show you what I’ve got!”

“Maybe it looked like that to you but not to me. I can’t hold you like that forever and you can break out of any normal thing I could have created. If I’d made some tools or weapons then I think I could have won but without them, it really would have just been delaying the inevitable.”

“Really?” She asked him, obviously suspicious, with the feeling only melting away when he nodded.

“Really really.”

She did a small jump as he said it, looking ecstatic before going over to slap his back. “Well, what can I say? I’m just the best! Still, you put up a way better fight this time, number two, definitely worthy of being the second-best summoned! I was so close to pulling out some of my secret moves, kind of sad I didn’t get the chance but it was still a lot of fun!”

“Yeah, it was a good experience. You’ll have to let me try again in a few months if we get the chance.”

Given the results, he was left wondering and evaluating, seeing how things had turned out and considering how it could have been different if it had been a true fight to the death. That entire time, he’d obviously never gone for the kill against her true self which was one of the bigger factors driving him to give up but if he had, could he have done it and won in the end?

…Maybe. He told himself. She seems more resilient than her creations but I’m pretty certain I could have finished her off if it came to it based on what I’d seen, but I get the feeling she wasn’t lying about having more she could still do. Depending on what that might have been, I could definitely be in trouble, especially if it is related to her outer ancestry. If it came with any crazy sort of interdimensional power I just haven’t seen yet then that’s something that could seriously tip the scales.