"..." The tiger looks around in confusion. My magic is everywhere, as if the entire environment were an extension of my own body, while my demonic instincts are amplified.

"You will pay dearly." Using the powers of the domain, I immediately begin to reconstruct Eve, and in less than two seconds she is back. Eve looks at me, then at the tiger, and her gaze closes in on pure hatred.

"EVE, KILL THIS VERMIN! YOU CAN USE THE CORE!!" I shout to Eve, grabbing the electric core of the wolf from my bag—the one I was going to use to create a mage puppet—and I toss the core to her as the tiger finally shifts its focus back to what it considers its "prey."

"Understood, Evelyn-sama," Eve says, catching the core and eating it. Meanwhile, I create dozens of simple wooden dolls. In the future, I might even create copies of the puppets I already have; inside the domain, they can help and will disappear once the domain breaks.

But for now, I can barely use the domain's basic functions, so I just have the wooden dolls surround the stage while the rest carry me away from the fight and also serve as extra eyes and ears.

'Eve... I'm sorry... I should have listened to you and stopped being so petty.' I send the thought into Eve's mind, apologizing. Because of my fault, she felt the pain of being split in two and devoured.

The tiger probably has everything I need to create a powerful mage puppet, which is why I sacrificed the core to fortify Eve, both as an apology and to show her that I've forgiven her.

...

...

...

I look at the tiger, which had cowardly targeted Evelyn-sama, the weakest among us. Quickly, my body is fortified by the electric core of the wolf I defeated, and a system notification appears, indicating the new skill I've acquired.

Art of the Storm Blade (Description = The user can imbue plasma electricity into all physical attacks, whether unarmed close combat or by channeling plasma electricity into their weapons, increasing the durability, strength, and destructive power of blades and blunt weapons, generating explosive blows in the form of purple lightning that leave their own marks on the environment.)

'A new skill... but what is plasma?' It's a truly very useful skill; it will greatly increase my attack power. But I don't know what plasma is, and unfortunately, I'm without a sword since my sword was left outside of Evelyn-sama's domain.

"Come on." I enter a hand-to-hand stance, raising my right fist slightly above my abdomen and below my chest, while keeping my left fist held back and slightly raised.

The tiger immediately realizes hitting me won't be so easy anymore. Before, it only managed to hit me because I jumped to push Evelyn-sama out of the way, but now I'm prepared.

'It has a good amount of magic, and its core also seems to hold large quantities of magic... it will serve perfectly for Evelyn-sama to create a puppet, provided I don't ruin it too much.' It begins to walk slowly.

Hundreds of wooden dolls surround us. The dolls are weak, so if they fought, they'd just get in my way. It seems Evelyn-sama is finally letting go of her fear to fight like a true strategist.

"GRRRAAAA!" It lets out a roar and shoots a fireball, but in the same instant, I'm already on its left side, landing a cross directly on its chin, causing purple lightning to be visible at the point of impact.

The punch pushes the tiger back, and it looks at me with a brief moment of surprise. Thanks to the core, I've become a little faster, more resistant, and stronger. Just as that core was useful for creating a new puppet, it was also useful for fortifying an existing one.

I notice the spot hit by my punch on the tiger seems to have "vaporized," its flesh melting immediately while steam rises from the wound. The very air nearby seems affected.

"..." It begins to release flames all around its body, but without any fear, I advance, throwing another punch at its face. Taking advantage of the proximity, I start delivering a barrage of powerful punches, releasing large electric waves.

Its face begins to deform completely as it melts, but instead of falling to the ground, the flesh turns to smoke, making me wonder just how hot the lightning from this ability is.

The tiger, which didn't expect me to advance against it while it was on fire, is at a loss. It tries to strike with its paw, but I kick, tearing its claws off with the electricity.

'I see...' By combining electricity, the shockwave of the blow, my magic, and physical strength, the damage I cause hasn't just gotten stronger; it has practically quadrupled the destruction in the area I hit.

And not only that, this strange purple lightning each attack releases is insanely destructive, deforming and burning the flesh it hits, generating absurdly deep wounds. Considering the tiger is a fire monster, it should at least have some resistance to burns.

'What the hell is plasma? My punches are literally exploding on contact, and the burns from it seem terribly severe.' Maybe Evelyn-sama knows what plasma is, but regardless of what it is, I like it.

The tiger tries to spit fire, but I don't let it, punching its jaw from below and forcing the fireball to explode in its mouth. I must admit, it's resistant; these blows would have shattered any golem I faced before.

'So this is a Rank B monster nearing Rank A... undoubtedly powerful.' Fighting it also shows that I am at Rank B, as expected, although I only have the advantage because it was already wounded beforehand; otherwise, I probably would have lost.

It lands a powerful blow, cutting off my fingers, and it nearly takes my entire arm. But underestimating my resilience, it still tries to attack instead of retreating, and I take advantage of this to literally sink its skull with a punch, making a dent in its face that disorients it.

'How... strange... can a skull really be that soft?' The electricity generated deformed its body so much that the blow to its skull felt soft instead of the hardness of bone.

'Plasma... is terrifying.' I really must talk to Evelyn-sama and find out what the hell plasma electricity is, because whatever it is, it's far too destructive—though with the limitation of being very explosive instead of concentrated, causing the point of contact to practically generate a mini-explosion.

'Ah... finding a sword whose blade won't get ruined by this ability will be difficult.' I'll need a good sword to use this ability properly.

The tiger jumps back, roaring in pain as it hits the wall of wooden dolls, stumbling clumsily through everything in its path and attacking the dolls that didn't even move.

'Hmmm.' I see my fingers healing rapidly, being reconstructed by Evelyn-sama's domain.

"Incredible..." I didn't know how powerful Evelyn's domain was. She had bragged about this ability once but never said exactly how strong it was, only that it was the trump card of elite demons.

Since I'm a puppet, any damage I receive here inside can quickly be restored by Evelyn-sama, even without materials, which is amazing because it means I don't have to worry so much about the damage.

'But there must be a cost... probably, the more damage the puppets inside take, the more magic Evelyn-sama will expend to restore us...' I need to finish this quickly, then.

'I can feel it...' Evelyn-sama is "bitter." She is sad, she is scared, and she is full of hatred, and I know why. It's because I got hurt. This puts a smile on my face.

I thought she had started to hate me, but it seems she was just normally angry instead of truly furious. This motivates me to end this fight quickly and go see her.

The tiger recovers from the near knockout and charges at me with amplified flames. The wooden floor beneath it turns black from being instantly burned, but the stage easily withstands the flames.

BZZT KRAKZ

A loud electric sound occurs as my punch collides with the tiger's claw strike. Lightning scatters around us while my arm starts to burn because of its flames, but the tiger's bones are shattered by the blow, and it's thrown backward.

I see its paw has literally evaporated. Not even a trace of its paw remains, which brings a sadistic smile to my face.

'With this new power, I'll be able to protect Evelyn-sama much more efficiently.' This certainly excites me. Taking advantage of the tiger's disorientation, I charge at it, gathering all my strength into my fist.

I manage to hit its head directly. The punch, with all my strength, generates numerous purple lightning bolts as I watch half of the tiger's face get completely destroyed, revealing even its brain, which is also affected, half of it vaporized by the attack.

The tiger immediately collapses to the ground as I let out a sigh. In the end, I only won easily because it was already injured and because it's a stupid monster. If it were a rational being like a demon, I would have had a lot of trouble.

'The air… it's purple.' I look around, noticing sparks and purple streaks in the air, which is strange—normally electricity should disperse, yet the air still radiates the purple glow of plasma.

Like persistent sparks that never fade and emit their own light, it's both a magnificent and unsettling sight.

"EVE!!!" I look at Evelyn-sama, who is calling me, and see her running toward me with tears in her eyes. As soon as she gets close, she jumps on me, hugging me and giving me a kiss.

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