Just like the others, Sofia fought against her enemy, which turned out to be the stingray.
This was the first time she fought against someone like this, but considering she was the longest who received training from Emulda Kalan, she took pride as one of the strongest among Kai's women and often compared herself with Michelle.
She looked at the stingray that had a white bottom and black skin on top.
The stingray didn't underestimate his opponents like the others. He knew Sofia was among the strongest, so he quickly descended from the sky, challenging Sofia in the ground.
The moment he flapped his two fins, the dust kicked up into the air.
A magic circle appeared behind Sofia as she placed her hand on the ground. "Freeze!"
The ice began to spread from her hands to a fan-shaped area in front of her. The moment the ice reached the dust, it began to freeze the cloud of dust.
To her surprise, the stingray only needed to flap his tail to break the ice apart, returning the dust to normal.
"…" Sofia's expression turned grim when she saw this power. The stingray seemed to be prepared to fight her, making this fight more dangerous.
"I acknowledge your power, but it doesn't mean I have the intention of losing." The stingray surprisingly raised the ground next to him and shaped it into a drill.
With a single wave of his hand, the drill flew to Sofia like that of a bullet, forcing Sofia to dodge instead of taking it head-on.
Not wanting to lose against him, another magic circle appeared before her eyes as a dragon emerged from the circle.
The stingray controlled the movement of the dust and covered the dragon.
The dust began to crack the ice and soon shattered it into pieces.
Sofia had another plan for the dust as she raised her hand. "Fall!"
A huge magic circle, spanning over ten meters in radius, appeared above the sky.
The stingray widened his eyes and looked up. He tried to surround the ice boulder with his dust and broke it into pieces, but the moment he did it, the ice pieces fell on top of him, hitting him in the process.
At the same time, Sofia summoned two more boulders of the same size.
"How about you take it again?" Sofia smiled confidently. There were only two choices for the stingray. First, he destroyed the ice boulder. However, due to the gravity, he would end up getting hit by the ice, so it wasn't a good decision.
His skin might be sturdier than normal magical beasts, but Sofia's ice seemed to be able to freeze that layer of skin, making it more vulnerable to the shock.
He was afraid he got injured from underestimating those ice pieces. The same applied to everyone else, because Michelle and the others had trained so much that their skill couldn't be compared to the past anymore. They managed to get a hold of a way to injure the enemy in their own way.
This power rendered their tough skin useless, forcing the stingray to choose the second option.
He jumped into the air and flew to the side, avoiding the boulders entirely.
"You don't dare to withstand my ice?" Sofia looked down on him, openly mocking him.
Surprisingly, the stingray chuckled and replied with a calm tone. "There's nothing wrong with me avoiding an attack."
"…" The statement shut Sofia's mouth as she realized the stingray was stronger than she expected. Unlike the others, the stingray didn't mind the mockeries, making him extremely dangerous.
"Instead of getting fixated over his pride, he is the type who will use all methods available to defeat his opponent, huh." Sofia squinted her eyes, contemplating her plan.
Because of his calm nature, Sofia changed her strategy to match his personality.
However, Sofia also muttered inwardly, "This is going to be extremely dangerous for me. I am afraid I can't escape this battle unscathed."
Instead of relying on power, Sofia focused on speed and penetrating power. She placed her hand on the ground and froze it. Suddenly, three circular platforms rose from the ground as Sofia summoned three huge javelins on top of them.
The javelin reached as far as ten meters and had sharp edges.
"Don't think your dust can destroy this fast enough!" Sofia shouted and launched them to the stingray.
The latter simply smiled and controlled the dust that had been covering him this whole time. The dust created a small tornado, becoming a kind of tunnel for the javelins.
With this, the stingray had more time in dissolving the javelins.
His strategy succeeded when the javelins shattered into pieces inside the dust. There was still quite a distance between them, so this scene was enough to make Sofia understand the stingray's power.
"Young Lady, it's my utmost honor to fight you." The stingray smiled and maintained his calm manner.
Sofia's expression was distorted as she hurriedly formed a huge ice cage, throwing it to him.
The stingray caught the cage with his dust, but he soon realized Sofia's intention. The ice cage had an unusual form that made the dust shatter the wrong pieces, letting some of them fly past them and hitting the stingray.
The moment they hit the stingray, the ice spread on the spot.
"Kh!" The stingray closed his eyes in pain as he somehow felt as if a fire burned him. "An ice that can burn… Dry ice…"
Sofia smiled and looked at him. "Since you don't underestimate me, I can only do my best to defeat you. No matter what method I need to use, I won't hesitate to use it in order to kill you."
The stingray was surprised by Sofia's resolution and acknowledged her as his arch-enemy. "I understand. Let's fight until only one of us remains standing!"
The stingray dove down, carrying all the dust with him.
Sofia placed her hand on the ground and spread the ice all over the dirt.
When he reached the land to make a swift swipe against Sofia, two huge wave-shaped ice emerged from the ice layer on the ground.
Just like her dragon, the ice wave moved like an ocean wave and engulfed everything between it.
The stingray felt a few stings on his body due to touching the ice, but he managed to force himself through it by turning the cloud of dust into a tornado, allowing him to increase his speed.
He arrived in front of Sofia and tried to hit her with his right fin.
"Not good!" Sofia raised her hands and covered them with dry ice.
However, she didn't have the fundamental strength that allowed her to go against this kind of sweep.
The moment the fin hit her, the dry ice shattered, and the fin launched her a few meters away.
She rolled a few times on the ground and struggled to get up.
At the same time, the stingray had several red marks on his body due to the blazing dry ice, including the part of his fin that hit Sofia.
He flew into the air and prepared for the second charge to hit her.
Meanwhile, Sofia had used her hands as her support and rose from the ground, staring at the stingray with blood flowing out of her mouth.
Their eyes intertwined as they recognized each other's strength and their real battle was about to begin.