The morning of the gauntlet.

Audrey and Jade could be seen facing each other in the air arena Muku prepared. The battle was physical, so the ground wouldn't be useful to either of them.

And at that point, they were setting out for the stadium after being gone for over two years.

It was something Freya requested after realising that the next evolution would likely be too much for the ladies there to handle on their own. And since it was sort of like her old home with the ladies being her old family, she wanted to help them.

Muku who remembered that he had made a promise/bet with a certain girl there wasn't against going to help them.

Plus he had invested in them back then, so it was only natural that he'd want to make sure that they live long enough to be useful.

So, he decided to hold the gauntlet while heading towards the stadium. He decided to visit the university too if there was still time...

"Contestants are you ready!" Raya who had begged to be the referee after falling in love with wrestling from Muku's memories shouted excitedly.

Sure, she was playing both an announcer and a referee, but she didn't care. She quite enjoyed it actually.

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

Audrey and Jade replied with the same level of enthusiasm as the little girl.

If it were Muku, they probably wouldn't have done it, at the very least, Jade wouldn't have done it... But it was Raya, the team's youngest, cutest and strongest member. So they didn't mind.

It actually took all of Audrey's willpower not to rush towards Raya and pinch her rosy cheeks.

"Good. Now, a little preview for the viewers.. To the right, we have Mama Audrey. The team's resident vampire empress with unparalleled beauty and strength. And on the left side, we have Jade. The team's resident beast empress is renowned for her versatile beast aura. So this fight can be said to be an empress versus empress battle.. So it should be extremely entertaining... Anyway, I will not waste more time. The battle will begin as soon as this extremely narcissistic Muku-coin touches the ground after I throw it up..." Raya finished her announcements and threw the coin she was holding up into the air.

The reason she called it narcissistic was quite obvious to all who saw it... The coin literally had Muku on both sides. One side was happy while the other was sad.

And it was so detailed that the girls realised that Muku might be more narcissistic than they thought.

Anyway, the coin didn't take long to hit the ground...

Yet, neither Audrey nor Jade moved... They continued staring at each other intently then...

BOOOM!

BOOOOOOOM!

They both disappeared at the same time and a second, louder boom was heard.

The two reappeared as they jumped back from each other.

"Impressive..." Audrey commented as she looked at her slightly shaking hand.

Neither of them had used their full strength in the attack. In fact, they used about the same strength and their fists collided against each other. This resulted in the second boom.

And yet Jade looked to be unharmed when her hand was shaking slightly.

This reminded her of how Jade's body was actually a level above hers now. Sure, she already knew it, but it was her first time actually experiencing it. And now she could properly gauge how much Jade was stronger than her.

And she began coming up with a plan on how to deal with the physical difference.

She wasn't disheartened at all. After all, as a veteran, she knew that just being physically superior didn't guarantee a win. Even if it was a physical battle...

Hell, Jade knew that too. Which was why she wasn't recklessly charging at Audrey.

"Hehe... Thank you" Jade replied then she disappeared again.

She saw no reason to delay. And there wasn't any... While she couldn't be arrogant. That didn't stop her from going on the offensive. After all, she had the base advantage which she intended to completely exploit...

Boom! Bang! Bang!...

And so, the battle between the two finally began in its entirety.

Jade was on the offensive while Audrey was on the defensive.

Even though Audrey wasn't able to throw even a single blow at Jade. She was completely calm and unbothered as she blocked all of Jade's attacks.

The reason for this was simple. Jade was more of a raw-power-type while Audrey was a lot more swift...

So while Jade was stronger and faster... Audrey was a lot better at controlling her body. This gave her the ability to block Jade's attacks while redirecting their force. So she wasn't injured at all...

Jade was also unmoved by what was going on. After all, they both knew each other well enough to know that it wasn't going to be easy for either of them to take out the other no matter the advantages that were given...

The two went on to "dance" like that for close to thirty minutes...

In this time they both studied each other on a deeper level as they tried to figure out how to break through the other party...

Jade finally found a slight opening in Audrey's defence. It wasn't there at the beginning, but only came later on as she changed up the way she fought whole trying to break through.

A small smile appeared on her face then...

BOOOOM!

BOOOOM!

She punches Audrey on the gut without holding back... However, she was surprised to receive a hit from Audrey at the same time.

Both parties staggered back and looked at each other as they grabbed their stomachs in pain.

Jade's eyes were full of surprise while Audrey's were full of amusement despite the pain.

"What? You thought I wouldn't attack also? Yeah, I noticed that fixation of yours. You were so hellbent on attacking that you forgot that you could be attacked too. That's a terrible mistake which could get you defeated... However, I'm glad that you listened and decided not to hold back." Audrey spoke.

"Thank you... But are you sure you should be telling that to me now? After all, I will now keep it in mind and you won't be able to hit me again..." Jade replied.

"Hmm... That is a possibility. But don't you think that there's a high chance that now that you'll start thinking in a completely different way from before while trying to incorporate what I said... You'll mess up at some point and I can take advantage of that?" Audrey replied.

"Wha..." Jade was about to reply when she was interrupted by a punch to her face.

"Sorry about that. But I noticed that you put your guard down, and I had to capitalise..." Audrey apologised to Jade who was now holding her cheek from a distance.

"...No, it's fine. I appreciate the lessons actually..." Jade replied after looking at Audrey in silence for a little bit.

And she meant what she said. Also, she suspected that Audrey had been wanting to teach her such things for a while now but just didn't have the chance to before.

Sure, she could have spoken to Jade about it... But Audrey wasn't the type of person to do such a thing. She'd be too embarrassed.

"Great! Now let's continue!" Audrey gave Jade a heads-up this time and attacked again.

This time Jade managed to block.

However, an unexpected kick hit her side and sent her in the distance.

Audrey didn't stop this time as she followed with a stump that missed because Jade got out of the way.

However, a roundhouse kick still hit Jade and sent her flying again...

.....

On the terrace...

"Umm. What's going on? Isn't Jade stronger? Why is he losing?" Emily asked with eyes full of disbelief.

"It's simple really. What you're seeing right now is what we call talent paired with the perfect body. Audrey has by far the highest amount of talent in the team when it comes to martial arts. And her abilities also sculpted her body into its perfect state. She's the very definition of "not just a pretty face". And on the other side, Jade is great. She's also talented in martial arts like the cheat she is. But Audrey is just better, also, unlike Audrey who adapted well to the fighting style, Jade is still fighting against her own instincts. After all, that's how she fought for more than two years..." Muku replied as clearly as he could.

"So you're saying that if Audrey went back to her old fighting style, she'll win?" Emily asked again.

"Nope. She'd lose quicker. And she knows it too. Which is why she's still using the techniques I taught her despite the disadvantage. And I'm quite proud of her for that. I expected her to give up on them... It seems she's finally growing..." Muku replied while wiping a fake tear from his eye like a proud father.

"Tsk. So that's why you bet on Ms Audrey, you knew she'd win..." Emily spoke while rolling her eyes...

She also felt a pang of regret in her heart as she had placed her bet on Jade.

"No, no. Even though Audrey is suppressing Jade right now. It's still anyone's game. They haven't even gotten serious yet after all... In fact, look, things are finally bout to get serious and interesting..." Muku replied while directing everyone at the battle..

And so, they all refocused on the fight...