"What are you doing?" Chad asked the beastkin girl as she started to stretch herself out like the cat she resembled while he was standing there with his spear at the ready.

"Pre-training warm up. Very important." The girl said, not changing her mode of behavior.

"Well cut it out! I don't have all day!" Chad shouted. He couldn't stand her. He couldn't stand people who were just gifted life on a silver platter. Who had never worked for anything. These brats and that C-rank noble asshole, they had been born with a silver spoon in their mouths, and didn't know a damn thing about what it was like to crawl around in the slums, fighting with dogs for scraps.

The Adventurer's Guild had been Chad salvation. It had been all of their salvation. While it hadn't been easy, it gave them a means to life, and the right to have a little pride in themselves as they worked their way up the ranks. So to see someone just be shunted up in standing because of connections and a lolicon Guild Master… unforgivable!

With that magic sword, and the way her expression never changed no matter what Chad did or said. It was clear she came from some kind of privileged class. That she thought she was better than the rest of them. Well, Chad planned on teacher her a lesson.

"Nn? Training time: limited?" The girl said, tilting her head before nodding. "Understood. Will start sparring now." She stood opposite the spear user, then she stopped and frowned. "My turn on watch."

"What? Are you gonna try to make excuses now!? Chad growled, but then stopped as the girl started to mumble to herself.

"~[Wind Zone]." The girl said, and Chad felt as the wind around him began to steer. The spear user was shocked, as he recognized the spell. It was one that some of the other Adventurers on the expedition had used to set up a giant ward around their camp, to warn them if anything approached. However, the girl wasn't done. "~[Earth Zone]." She said, placing her palm against the ground, causing a light pulse to go through it.

"You're a magician?" Chad said, with more than a little surprise. Both [Wind Zone] and [Earth Zone], the girl had both [Wind Magic] and [Earth Magic] at their level 4 forms at least. To have a single type of magic at level 4 would normally imply the level of skill of an E-rank Adventurer. Chad had assumed she was a Warrior, like him, due to the broad sword she carried, but she was a magic user.

"Nn? Not a magician." The girl said.

"But that just now… that was magic."

"Usably without being a magician."

"...True." Chad said, before shaking his head. He wasn't going to back down now. If she was a magic user, that just meant he would have to keep up the offense, not giving her enough time to cast her spells. "Come on, let's go already!"

"...Nn." Fran replied, reaching out her head. But to Chad's surprise, rather than going for the magic sword on her back, she instead reached into empty space, and drew out a spear…. A very familiar looking spear, with the shape of a dragon branded on its head. Chad's jaw nearly dropped as he looked from his own weapon to hers. "Use this. More fair that way." The girl said as she dipped into a stance, holding up her spear. Chad shifted his own footing as he realized her stance was better than his own. "Could use practice."

"I…" Chad didn't know what to say. This wasn't what he had imagined happening. He was starting to get the impression that he might be in over his head. Like those stories they told about the girls were more than just stories.

He could hear his companions, his family, his brothers in arms, mumbling the same worried thoughts that were running through his head. But he was in too deep to be turning back now.

"Ready?" The girl asked, her eyes still calm, the same way they had already been.

Chad shouted as he rushed forward and thrust his spear with all his strength. "[Double Thrust]!" His attack was fast, but nowhere near fast enough. The girl's spear blurred, knocking Chad's thrusts aside before slicing across his arm. Chad stumbled from the pain and the girl performed her follow up attack.

"[Power Swung]." She moved her entire upper body with her swing, letting the spear slide between her fingers to stretch out her reach to beyond Chad's own so that she could strike his legs and knock them out from under him. "Leaned too far forward. Couldn't correct footing. Don't over commit." She said, commenting on his form, though Chad was too stunned to hear.

"I thought you were a sword user." [Spear Techniques]. She was supposed to be a sword user, but she also knew [Spear Techniques]. Chad had been fighting with the spear for years, but had only recently learned how to use [Spear Techniques] at level 1.

"Sword, best. But Archer taught all weapons." Fran said. "~[Middle Heal]." Immediately, the injuries that Chad had just sustained disappeared. "We continue."

"Boss, are you alright!?" The other members of "Dragon's Roar" started to run forward, wanting to check on Chad, though they stopped when Fran turned her head towards them.

"Joining in?" The girl asked with a tilt of the head.

"I… we.. ah…"

"Understood. Five against one. More fair that way."

What had Chad gotten them into?

Frion watched in stunned awe, along with the rest of the camp at the 'Training'. None of them were thinking about resting for the next day. He wasn't even sure if he would be able to sleep at all that night.

After Fran had thrown around the members of "Dragon's Roar" for a half hour, the men stopped getting back up, regardless how much she healed them and tried to encourage them. But the girl herself, despite having just spent thirty minutes fighting five on one and using up a good deal of mana on a barrier spell and healing magic, wasn't satisfied, and started to spar with Art and Amanda instead. That was around two hours ago, and none of them seemed to be in any hurry to stop.

Someone probably should have taken over watch, even with the barrier up, but no one seemed to bother. Any Demonic Beast that came towards this was simply suicidal. Frion was actually a little worried about being so close to such a battle.

Amanda was an A-rank Adventurer, which deserved their reputation of being inhumanly strong, and yet, Fran and Art were actually able to land small blows against her and keep her moving. They weren't by any means winning, but to even do this much against one of the legendary A-rankers was frankly absurd.

When his uncle, Klimt, had told him about the girls, Frion hadn't truly believed him. It just didn't seem real. But after watching them 'spar' he was starting to get the impression that his uncle didn't know the half of it.

Klimt had asked his nephew to follow along on the mission, both to make sure it was done properly and to ask his Guardian Spirit to evaluate the children's personalities and see if he could detect Fran's own Guardian Spirit, 'Archer'.

Tarua was an Ether-type spirit, and one of the most intelligent of his kind. He could easily communicate with people and possessed the ability to accurately judge others, not just detect malice, like most spirits. It was because of this that Klimt had asked them to take a look at the girls. Chad had been picked for his bad personality, in order to create conflict to make it easier to judge the girls by.

(I suppose Chad did his job. She got so fed up with him that she beat him into the ground over and over again.) Frion thought as they watched in silence.

[You'd be wrong about that.] Tarua said in that same cheeky manner he had used with Frion for as long as the Elf could remember. [While it might look to you like she was taking out her frustrations against the man, she didn't hold any malice against him at all. She genuinely thought they were training and was having fun. The entire trip down here, she didn't once feel hatred for him, regardless how much he had for her. It's rare to see anyone so good natured… and oblivious.]

(She seems more like a force of nature than good natured to me.) Frion chuckled weakly, a habit he had picked up from spending too much time with his uncle.

[Well, that just goes to show that you still are not good at reading people.] Tarua replied. [After all, it is Art who is a 'Fiend' in the most literal sense of the word.]

(What do you mean by that?) Frion asked as his eyes went to the other girl. While still incredibly strong with magic, Art seemed to be overshadowed by Fran in terms of weapon skills.

[I mean that the girl is a true Demon. A Fiend-type Demonic Beast of the C-rank. One of the servants of the Goddess of Chaos.]

(What!?)

[I'm not surprised that my brethren didn't notice. She does a good job of hiding her magical signature.] Tarua said. [She seems to be Fran's Familiar. WIth how difficult it is to enter into a familiar contract with a Demon, I am rather surprised myself.]

(A Demon. The girl managed to make a Demon her familiar.) Frion repeated, trying to process it. Having a C-rank Familiar automatically placed someone on the level of being a high C-rank Adventurer, even if they themselves were rather weak. Jean Dovy was almost considered an A-rank Adventurer, despite his B-rank stats, because of his ability to create and control B-rank Undead. Indeed, the only reason the man was never named an A-rank was because of the fact that he couldn't get the approval of enough Guild Masters, as they thought that he was too creepy to be a 'Hero'.

[It isn't really anything to be worried about. While she is a Demon, she is just a mischievous child who enjoys using [Illusion Magic] to prank people. I just found it interesting.] Tarua said with a mental shrug.

(And what about the girl's Guardian Spirit? Have you spotted him as well?" Frion asked.

Just like having a Demonic Beast familiar could cause one to be classified as a higher rank, having a spirit at one's call could do the same. While Frion himself was an E-rank Adventurer based on achievement, and a D-rank based on his own stats, Tarua would allow him to be classified as a C-rank in terms of total ability, or even B-rank depending on the situation. If Tarua took him over, his stats all skyrocketed and he could disorent hundreds of enemies at once, while also providing support buffs to all his allies.

While Frion couldn't sense any spirit around the girl, that didn't mean that one wasn't there. It just meant that the girl was not using his power. And if this was how strong she was without the help of her Guardian Spirit...

[I did sense him, if only briefly, and only because he was probing me.] Tarua said. [He spotted me immediately, back when we were still near the town. As for his nature, I cannot be the judge of him, I barely had any time to get a feel for him. His observation of me was nothing more than a passing glance. The same way that you might look to a bird that you heard shaking the branches of a nearby tree. I was so uninteresting to him as to not even warrant a second glance. To be honest, he frightens me.]

(He frightens you?) Frion said, surprised. He had never known the spirit to be frightened by anything. Even individuals like Amanda and Jean Dovy only caused the spirit to roll his eyes and complain about their childishness.

[Frion, the most powerful spirits you mortals can summon are the Supreme Spirits. But that doesn't mean that there are not even stronger spirits out there. There are Spirits that were never meant to be permitted within the mortal realm. There are Spirits whose power can even rival that of the S-rank threats, the Divine Beasts.] Tarua said seriously. [You and Klimt wanted to hear my advice on this matter, and my advice is simple. Under no circumstances should you ever make an enemy that young girl. And if anything should happen to her… Gods help us all.]

Frion just nodded his head.

Spirits that were more powerful than the Supreme Spirits. It could only mean one thing.

The legendary type of spirit that had never been confirmed to exist, save for by other spirits who spoke tales about them. It was said that the Gods only ever allowed them to descend into the world whenever an S-rank Beast got out of control as the last possible line of defense against world wide destruction.

A Counter Guardian Spirit.

Cruz had never witnessed something so humbling as this… training.

Cruz Liuzel had been born into nobility and started training at a young age in order to become strong, to uphold the family name and honor. He had worked hard to improve himself, not relying on others to feed him easy levels and never letting a chance to hone his skills pass by. Because of his skill and his relatively young age, he had been considered something of a genus, and while he had never thought that he had let that kind of talk go to his head, he couldn't help but have his world shattered by what he was witnessing now.

It wasn't as though he hadn't known that people who were stronger than him existed, or that some of those people were younger than him. He hadn't even doubted Donna's word when the man had told him that the young girls were stronger than he was… he just wasn't exacting the gap to be this large.

It wasn't just stats or levels. Even Art, who appeared to be the weaker of the two when it came to weapon's combat, had skills that were equal to his own, with Fran's level of skill with her weapon of choice being closer to that of Amanda's. They were not limited to only weapons as they possessed magic as well, with multiple types at high levels. Their stamina was unbelievable as they fought for whole hours without a break.

Compared to them, Cruz wasn't just weaker, he was weak.

It must have been their training. The way they pushed themselves, getting up each time they were knocked down, just healing their own injuries and continuing to fight.

The "Dragon's Roar" hadn't been able to handle it for more than thirty minutes, but these children could go on for hours at a much higher level.

It made Cruz's own training, which till now he had been so proud of, feel… inadequate.

Finally, Cruz had enough, grabbing his weapon and heading over to the three fighters… only they didn't stop as he approached. "Please, let me train with you!" His response was a stray attack from Amanda, which he barely managed to block and with sent him flying.

Not to be one to give up that easily, Cruz pushed himself back up and returned to the battle, again and again until he was acknowledged and the three recognized him as a participant.

….He was going to regret that.

For whoever thought I was bashing Gawain in the last chapter, I suggest they good look at him in Fate/Extra. He is an extremely arrogant individual in it. He doesn't bother to hide his identity and believes himself to be completely invincible, not taking battles seriously. He also openly insults the player and their servant in a rather childish manner.

In the game, Archer tells Gawain that he never understood Arturia, and seems to have a personal dislike for the guy. (maybe that is me just reading into things)

As for why I brought it up at all, Cruz is going to be attempting to become Fran's Gawain, a loyal knight who would follow her everywhere without asking any questions and do whatever she says.