After punching away a monster in front of her, Tiona glanced toward the other side of the battlefield from the corner of her eye.
At the same time that Cain was fighting at full strength, carving a path toward the deeper parts of the Colosseum...
As the main focus of this training session, Ais was not standing idle either.
After separating from Cain, she fought her own path forward with sword in hand, cutting through the monster army from the opposite direction.
Watching the two of them fight with such exhilarating intensity, Tiona's own fighting spirit began to rise.
"Tione, I want to go too."
"No!"
Tione rejected the idea without hesitation.
Compared to Tiona, who was becoming somewhat carried away, she had a much clearer understanding of their current priorities.
Tione: "There are too many monsters here. You need to stay and help me protect Lefiya."
Although Cain and Ais had attracted the attention of most of the monsters, a considerable number were still charging toward the area where they were standing.
Combined with the new monsters constantly being born nearby, Tione alone could not block them all. She needed help in order to properly protect Lefiya.
"Don't get carried away. Fighting here requires careful control of both stamina and Mind."
"Lefiya, keep watching Cain and Ais. If they run into trouble, use your magic to provide long range support."
"Yes!"
After acknowledging the order, Lefiya entrusted her back to Tione and Tiona. She raised her staff and focused her attention toward the depths of the Colosseum.
Although she was worried that Ais might get injured, most of her attention was directed toward Cain.
After all, Cain was only Level 2. His stamina could not possibly compare to that of a Level 5.
In a prolonged battle, if anyone was most likely to reveal an opening, it would undoubtedly be Cain.
With that thought in mind, Lefiya concentrated with unprecedented intensity, watching Cain's every movement while preparing to release magic at any moment.
One hour later.
Lefiya continued watching Cain with full concentration.
Three hours later.
Lefiya tightly gripped her staff, her eyes wide as she stared unblinkingly at Cain.
Nine hours later.
Cain returned to the edge of the Colosseum and looked curiously at the Elf Girl.
"What's wrong with your eyes?"
"...It's nothing, just a little tired."
Lefiya rubbed her eyes.
Cain and Ais moved far too quickly. After staring at them continuously for nine hours, the two fighters were completely fine, yet her own eyes had begun to ache.
"I'm back."
Ais fought her way back from the other side of the battlefield.
"Since everyone is back, let's withdraw."
Cain cut down a monster in front of him with a single strike, then led Ais and the others away from the Colosseum and into a nearby chamber to rest and recover.
Even Cain felt a trace of fatigue after nine consecutive hours of high intensity combat.
Of course, that did not mean he had reached his limit.
If he continued fighting, he could probably last another day or two without much trouble.
However, since this was only the first day of training, there was no need to push himself to the absolute limit.
After recovering some of his stamina, Cain looked at the Blonde Girl sitting across from him.
"How do you feel?"
Ais thought for a moment.
"I haven't reached my limit yet. I'd like to extend the combat time."
After mastering the fundamentals of Hamon, a user could rapidly restore stamina during combat.
Just like Cain, Ais still had a large amount of stamina remaining even after fighting continuously for nine hours.
If possible, she wanted to push herself into a state of exhaustion and maintain her breathing rhythm at the limit for as long as possible in order to achieve the best training results.
Tione frowned.
"The monsters in the Colosseum are all Level 3 at minimum. If conditions allow it, I think it would be better to conserve some stamina."
Ais pretended not to hear.
"Cain, can we extend the combat time?"
Cain thought about it briefly.
"We can."
Tione: "..."
So the two of you are just ignoring what I said entirely, huh.
A vein bulged slightly on Tione's forehead as her blood pressure began to rise.
"Don't worry. Nothing will go wrong."
Noticing Tione's displeased expression, Cain took out a pile of potions from his backpack.
"Hamon has healing effects. Combined with the potions I prepared, even if Ais gets injured she can recover quickly."
"If you're still worried, I can shorten the combat duration slightly and rotate shifts with you or Tiona so we take turns joining the battle."
"I'll stay in the rear to recover stamina while you fight near Ais. If she encounters danger, you can immediately step in to assist."
"As for the timing... we can rotate every three hours. That means three hours of fighting followed by three to six hours of rest. What do you think?"
Tiona immediately raised her hand.
"I'm fine with that!"
After watching from the sidelines for half a day, she had already become restless.
Compared to standing guard and dealing with the occasional monster that slipped through, she much preferred fighting inside the Colosseum itself. That was far more exciting.
Seeing Tiona agree to extend the operation, Ais turned to look at Tione.
"I promise I won't suffer any serious injuries. Please."
"Sigh, what a troublesome situation."
Tione scratched her head in frustration.
Coming to the Colosseum for training was already dangerous enough. Now they wanted to extend the combat duration?
To some extent, this already conflicted with the mission Finn had assigned.
However...
Looking at the pleading eyes of the Blonde Girl standing before her, Tione ultimately could not bring herself to refuse.
"Just this once. If you suffer a serious injury during combat, you must immediately stop the Colosseum training and return to the surface to recover."
"Okay."
Ais agreed immediately.
In truth, after the battle with the Labyrinth King and the fighting today, she had already begun to grasp how to maintain Hamon during intense combat.
By using the spiritual energy of Hamon, her stamina recovery speed had greatly increased, creating a cycle that further improved her endurance in prolonged battles.
As long as Tione agreed, she could probably fight continuously for three days and three nights without any problems.
Lefiya: "..."
Was no one planning to ask for her opinion?
Watching the others happily finalize the entire operation plan right in front of her...
Lefiya's small face wrinkled into an expression of pure suffering.
As the only member responsible for long range support, she had to remain constantly alert while observing the battlefield.
A dozen hours was still manageable, but if this continued for an entire day or two...
"Lefiya, what's wrong?"
Ais's voice came from beside her.
Seeing the Elf Girl's strange expression, a hint of concern appeared on her face.
Seeing this, Lefiya quickly came back to her senses and hurriedly shook her head.
"I'm fine, Miss Ais. Thanks to Tiona and the others protecting me, I'm in great condition right now."
Ais sighed in relief.
"That's good. If you feel tired, you must say so. We'll retreat, recover our strength, and then continue fighting."
Lefiya: "Yes!"
Exhaustion? Eyes unable to endure it anymore?
At this moment, Lefiya threw all of her previous worries to the back of her mind.
In battle, there is no retreat!
...
Ten days later.
Ais and the others returned to the Loki Familia.
"Finn! We're back!"
Tiona waved her arms enthusiastically as she greeted Finn, who was walking toward them.
"Welcome back, everyone."
Finn responded while his gaze naturally fell upon the figure behind Ais.
"What happened?"
Ais looked away slightly.
"Lefiya hadn't slept for too long, so she fell asleep as soon as we returned to the surface."
Finn: "...?"
She was already Level 3. She shouldn't be that weak.
He remembered that when he had been Level 3, two hours of sleep had been enough to maintain energy for an entire day.
Just how exhausted must Lefiya have been for Ais to carry her all the way back to the Familia?
Seeing the faint guilt on Ais's face, he turned to look at Tione, the supervisor who had accompanied them.
"Tione, what exactly happened?"
Tione replied calmly.
"We fought continuously inside the Arena for eight days. After leaving, Lefiya collapsed from exhaustion and has been sleeping ever since."
Finn: ('?_?`)
Did he just hear that correctly?
...
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