168 Progress (1/2)

After the victory with the giant rats and taking a quick bath on a river nearby to clean off the blood on herself, Ellie began to rely on Marcus and Lilith's help less and less while dealing with the rest of the monsters on their path.

”You're using your diamonds too much!! Try to mix it up a bit with your blades!”

”Got it!”

They kept encountering several creatures as they continued their advance towards the time ring. Like always, the beasts looked like mixtures of regular animals with different shapes and sizes and porting some form of elemental energy inside their bodies.

Every now and then one would land a lucky hit on Ellie, but the girl would just ignore it and continue to battle without giving her opponents any time to breathe.

”These monsters attack with projectiles! You need to close your distance and stab them before they can run away!”

”Understood!!”

It took a while but Ellie was finally getting the hang of it. With each fight, she would get sharper, would react faster, and would understand her powers better. Gone were the moments where she would stand still frozen without knowing what to do. The kid was slowly turning into a machine of destruction.

Detra was overflowing with joy by watching the little girl continuously growing just like she wanted.

”Now!! Strike it while it's down!! Don't give it time to react!!”

”Right!!”

”Wragahhhhhh!!!”

Detra decided to follow Lilith's advice and kept giving Ellie hints and tips on how to deal with the monsters they encountered. She had basically turned into her coach as if Ellie was a professional boxer and the entire jungle was her ring.

Right now the girl was stabbing a monster that bore the resemblance of a massive yellow lizard with a lion's mane made of fire that could spit fireballs from its mouth.

Ellie managed to defeat it making use of all her mirrored abilities. Using Lilith's future sight to predict where the fireballs would land and Mia's spell breaker to absorb the fire magic energy, proceeded by converting it into magic power for herself to keep her mirror magic from ever ending.

She then approached the monster with a shield made of blue diamonds and smacked its head to keep it dizzy, and finished it off with a silver blade to the heart.

Ellie was already turning into a master of mirror magic only a day after entering Hana's garden.

”How was that Detra?” the girl asked while cleaning herself from the lizard's yellow blood.

”Absolutely perfect, young miss!! You're doing great!!”

Detra kept clapping to celebrate Ellie's constant winning streak while noticing Lilith glaring at her, but Detra was so happy right now she didn't even mind it this time and just smiled back at her as if they were good friends.

”Mmmm...” Lilith didn't share the sentiment. She wasn't a fan of the way Ellie kept killing things so easily like it was some kind of game.

Marcus as well. He, in particular, was very displeased with Ellie's development. In his eyes, the girl was looking slightly like his old pony-tailed partner who just took joy from slaying everything in her path as if there was no tomorrow.

”Hey, can we take a break? I'm getting hungry” Ellie mentioned while hugging her belly. She had been killing monsters for hours now and had barely eaten anything besides her breakfast that consisted of eggs from a giant bird monster she had killed.

”I think it would be for the best honestly...” Lilith suggested.

Detra felt that they were going at a good pace so this time, she decided to go with the flow as well, ”I guess we could.”

The group then searched for a good spot to sit, away from any dangerous predators, and grabbed a couple of supplies from their bags taking a moment to rest. Ellie looked at her phone again and noticed that it was past twelve already.

”Ellie, are you sure you're ok?” Lilith asked.

”For the last time, Lilith, yes!! I'm fine!! You asked me that about twenty times by now!”

”I'm just a little worried... That's all...”

”Worried about what? We came here to make me stronger to face Mia, and that's exactly what's happening. Why do you keep making such a worried face?” Ellie asked while opening a box of orange juice.

”I just want you to be careful... You're progressing a little too fast.”

”And that's bad? Honestly, I feel I should try to be even faster!”

”...”

Lilith felt Marcus poking her arm to show he wanted to whisper something to her. Lilith approached her ear and listened to what he had to say.

”What do you think? Should we try to stop her? She's finally looking happy again. Maybe we should let her be for a little longer...”

”Maybe... But how much longer?”

While Lilith and Marcus kept discussing about Ellie's growth rate, the girl turned her attention to Detra, who was enjoying a cup of coffee, to review her performance.