Cough! COUGH!....

Audrey who had regained her senses began coughing furiously immediately after speaking.

Blood began rushing out of her mou... Well, it wanted to. But Audrey's power was literally blood manipulation.

So no matter how terribly injured she was, she would never let even a single drop of blood leave her body.

However, just from her coughing alone, everyone could see that she was in a very critical condition.

"Raya" Muku called out to the little dragon girl.

Without wasting a second, Raya disappeared from where she stood and appeared beside Audrey.

However, she didn't appear empty-handed. She was holding something in her hand...

It was a large silver jug full of a red liquid. That's right, it was a jug

Audrey sensed it immediately and without saying anything to Raya.

She snatched the jug and drank it down like her life depended on it. In fact, her life really might have depended on it.

The injuries on her body all began healing at a visible speed the more blood she drank.

Soon enough, there were no visible injuries on her body. And her aura had also stabilised.

However, that didn't mean that she was completely healed.

While her vampire ability could heal her completely in normal cases. Her body was simply way too injured for it to heal this time.

While she looked completely fine from the outside. She was actually only half healed at best.

Her internal organs were barely holding on with the help of her mana which took over after she exhausted her last Force in her last attack.

But hey, that was enough to keep her going for a while. And that's all they needed. She should be completely healed as soon as Hope wakes up and does her magic.

At the end of the day, nothing could beat healing magic in healing people.

Muku walked over and, without saying a word, hugged Audrey. It wasn't tight because she was still injured and that would worsen her situation.

"You won. I'm so proud of you..." Muku spoke softly in her ear.

"Of course you are. You probably won a few bets because of me. You better give me a share of your winnings or I'm fighting it out with you" Audrey replied in a happy and joking tone.

"Of course, of course. You know me. I'm all about fairness. I'd never mistreat my winning ho... Cough" Muku replied and stopped himself from saying something he would have regretted.

"Your winning what?" Audrey asked in a chilly voice as she held Muku slightly tighter than before.

"Winning honorary wife of course" Muku replied with nothing but sincerity in his voice.

"Wah wah. You bully!" Audrey was caught off guard and reacted cutely before letting go of Muku and running away.

Sure, she knew that he had changed what he had almost said before. But that didn't change the impact being called wife had on her.

She was so happy and embarrassed that she ran away.

Muku looked at her running away without doing anything. A cunning smile appeared on his face as if he had just found a cheat code to life.

"Tsk. You really are shameless, huh?" Jade's displeased voice sounded from behind him.

She had heard everything he said and she couldn't help but call him out for it. She didn't know why but she felt very displeased at the moment.

"What was that honey?" Muku turned around and asked her with nothing but honesty and love in his eyes as he stared directly into hers.

And like Audrey, Jade was also defeated by the words and the look.

Again, like Audrey, she felt her cheeks heat up and made a break for it. She didn't even say anything.

She just gave him one last wronged look and ran away.

Muku stayed back with his hands on his waist doing the iconic superhero pause like he was a hero who had just saved the world.

But then again, he managed to beat two strong women with just a few words.

That was something not even Naruto could do.

"Humans are so interesting and entertaining" Tracy commented from the side with an amused look in her eyes.

"You have no idea..." Muku replied and then carried all the unconscious girls back with his Telekinesis.

The gauntlet was officially over and the winner had been decided. It definitely took an unexpected turn towards the end but the main objective was accomplished.

And that was to allow everyone to use what their learned in a battle somewhat similar to real life.

Which was necessary for them to completely understand the techniques and make them theirs instead of a tool they acquired.

.....

Sometime later...

Emily and Freya were the first to wake up. Muku then took it upon himself to enlighten them on what happened after they fell unconscious.

Hearing everything he said made them want to kick themselves for missing such an epic event.

What happened was something they could learn from even if they didn't participate. Just watching would have been quite insightful. And yet they missed it.

Freya was even more disgruntled than Emily because she was technically the start of it all and yet she couldn't even see how she was taken out.

Anyway, since it had passed, there was nothing which could be done. Muku promised them that he'd ask his mother if there was a way to let them see the memories of others when he manages to get into contact with her again.

But for now, the girls could only forget about it and blame their terrible luck for losing the rock-paper-scissors matches and coming in first...

After the two woke up, Hope was next. This was fortunate for the girls who were still unconscious because she healed them before they woke up.

Otherwise who knew how much pain they would have experienced when the time came for them to wake up but Hope hadn't healed their broken bones. It would be a terrible experience without the adrenaline that numbed their pain receptors before.

Anyway, after healing them, Hope finally got to healing Audrey who had refused to get healed before the others.

After that, she apologised to them many times even though they said that it was unnecessary the first time she apologised.

They gave a valid reason why there was no need to apologise. Which was that everything happened during a battle they willingly participated in and their most serious injuries only happened because they refused to give up.

But that wasn't enough for Audrey to forgive herself for causing them harm. So the girls asked her to teach them the weird move she used as a way of settling things.

Which was something Audrey happily agreed to.

However, Muku broke their bubble by saying that it was probably something only Audrey could do. At the very least, the learning process seemed to require someone to be in that trance-like state. That Muku called battle mode.

And it was a mode none of them had been able to get into before. Hell, they didn't even know it existed.

The best they were able to do was get into the zone. But battle mode seemed to be a level above that.

And how Audrey managed to get into it was still unknown. The only thing everyone knew for certain was that the pressure from facing one opponent after the other had played some part in the process.

However, if pressure was all it took, then they should have all gotten into the mode a long time ago after all the situations they had faced. And yet they didn't. And that included Muku.

Also, the pressure from facing Audrey wasn't little either for the girls who literally got knocked out or had their bones broken... So yeah, pressure wasn't the only thing.

Maybe it was a certain state of mind Audrey managed to get into by accident due to her meditation...

With that being said, the girls were extremely disappointed but there was nothing they could do.

The only good part about everything was that Muku said that he would look into it and study it with Audrey.

If they manage to make a breakthrough, then everyone will get a chance to do it too...

After that nothing else worthy of note occurred. The ground didn't even talk about the battle events too deeply as Muku stopped them.

He said that they would do that the next day and for now everyone is completely relaxed.

Which would be a first since around a month ago.

For that reason, the girls didn't refuse. They happily did as they were told and they all ran up to their rooms and jumped onto their beds.

Within a few minutes, all of them were fast asleep.

This showed just how mentally exhausted they were.

Even Layla who would normally use such time to do some extra practice or meditate went to bed.

Audrey did the same.

Only Muku, Raya and Tracy were left awake.

And so, Muku decided to relax as well. However, since he wasn't tired like the girls. He decided to relax by teaching Raya and Tracy how to play cards.

This was also his way of attempting to get the two to become closer.

Tracy had no issues with it, but Raya did. She never liked Tracy for whatever reason...