Despite how absurd it was to request an Oath Challenge against the Orc Chief, Grag'bog nonetheless accepted her challenge. None of the Orcs even shouted a single protest and simply followed the will of their leader.

Upon making the challenge, the Orcs made preparations for the fight. They didn't need to do much and simply created a makeshift arena for the battle to take place. The arena was essentially a fence made of bones and wood positioned as a large circle. Once it was completed, the Orcs and other residents of the village crowded around the makeshift arena as Hazel and Grag'bog entered it.

A chorus of screams and laughs could be heard from the Orcs, filling Hazel's ears with the loud noise. She did her best to ignore them and focused on her main target, Grag'bog. The Orc chief was positioned on the opposite end of the arena. He wore the same attire as before, clearly not stripping any of his armor like Hazel expected.

Normally, in duels and the like, certain tribes or groups would take off their armor and use ordinary weapons. But that didn't seem to be the case in this. Then again, the Chief was up against a mage, while he was a Warrior. In certain cases, that would leave him at an unfair advantage.

And obviously, Hazel wasn't going to take off her magic items either, so she had no problems with this since this made things fair. Speaking of fair, she was met with a bit of resistance regarding her level of strength.

Because no one could read her level due to her Arcane Veil, the Orcs, along with the chief, also believed that Hazel was stronger than them and only picked the chief because he was weak. To avoid this kind of problem, she pulled off her veil and allowed her level to be appraised. This solved the problem of her being stronger and simply picking a weak opponent when they realized that the Chief was stronger by five levels.

Thankfully, this tribe seemed to associate strength with levels, so when they saw that the chief had a higher level than her, they believed that the rules of the Challenge Oath had not been broken. This was Hazel's plan all along anyway.

Due to the leveling system, it would've been natural to assume that a person with a high level was stronger than a person with a lower level. It was because of this that she was able to take advantage of the rules and challenge the chief without much issue. Now all she needed to do was win and have the chief listen to her request.

An orc stood between the two opponents, likely acting as a referee for the duel. He looked over at his chief.

"Are you ready, Chief Grag'bog?"

The chief firmly nodded. "Yes!" He declared in a booming voice.

The referee orc then looked over at Hazel, looking a bit hesitant and annoyed compared to when he stared at his chief. "...And are you ready, Hazel Thatcher?"

Hazel took a moment to think. "Well, almost."

Saying this, she raised her wrist that wielded her storage bracelet before bringing out her secret weapon. She didn't want to use them in such a situation, but she believed that she would gain the most experience out of using them if she did.

Materializing out of the bracelet were around ten small stones. All of them with a familiar rune carved into their surface. The Strengthening Rune, to be exact.

The Chief and the other members of the village watched with confused expressions written all over their faces. Some of them even started whispering to one another.

"She brought out stones?"

"Perhaps they are her weapons?"

"Does she plan to attack our chief with stones?"

Even the chief voiced his concerns over this matter.

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"I will ask this now just to be sure, but do you intend to fight me with...those stones?" He pointed at the ten stones lying on the ground.

Hazel nodded. "That's right."

The chief didn't say anything else, whether it was because he was speechless or something, she didn't know. The crowd wasn't much better because they continued to talk and voice out their confusion.

Hazel ignored the meaningless chatter from the crowd and instead focused on the stones that were currently laid out on the ground. With a raised hand, she calmly cast Telekinesis on all ten stones, willing them to levitate in the air at once.

This caused a bit of a stir with the crowd as their tune changed from confusion to sheer awe.

"She's lifting the stones without even touching them!"

"What form of magic is that?"

"But what kind of purpose does this have for the match?"

Hazel continued to ignore them, keeping her focus on the stones and the chief. Instead of keeping them in place, she willed her weapons to spin around her, similar to a hula hoop, acting as a makeshift shield or barrier.

The reason why she was doing this was simple. She wanted to test out the capabilities of her Strengthened stones, and fighting against the chief seemed to be her best bet in doing that.

The chief watched this and made a stern expression, clearly realizing that she meant business, and he couldn't let his guard down. Hazel could tell that he was cautious of her stones, knowing that they were not ordinary. He gripped his battleaxe with both hands, preparing himself for the match.

Seeing this, Hazel smiled. "Okay, now I'm ready."

Upon declaring this, the orc referee stepped away from the two opponents before raising his hand. Then, with a swift swing down, he commenced the match.

"Begin!"

Once the duel began, the chief made the first move and charged straight toward Hazel without skipping a beat. He closed the distance between them in a second, to the point where Hazel was a bit taken aback by his speed.

The chief raised his weapon and brought it down on her, hoping to cut her down with a single strike. However, before the axe could even get close, Hazel willed her stones in front of the weapon, making a makeshift wall to block the attack.

The chief's axe clashed against her strengthened stone wall, causing his weapon to rebound from the collision. A bewildered expression was plastered on Grag'bog's expression as he jumped back to put some distance between them.

Hazel used this opportunity and shot a couple of her stones at the chief with a simple finger flick. The strengthened stones shot forward like bullets, aiming straight for her target. Surprisingly enough, the chief managed to block the attack by raising his axe.

One stone struck the handle of the weapon, barely making a dent, while the other made contact with the flat end of the blade. Both strikes delivered enough force to push the orc chief back, making his feet slide across the ground.

Grag'bog expelled a grunt while adjusting his grip around his weapon. His eyes focused on Hazel as both watched the two stones return to her and rejoined the other stones floating around her.

"You display amazing precision with your magic," The chief unexpectedly praised her.

"Thanks, I've been practicing," Hazel smiled.

Before, she was never capable of controlling ten items with Telekinesis. However, after some intense training, this was the fruit of her labor. And she planned to test out its capabilities as much as possible.

Hazel sent out a couple more stones at the chief with a flick of her finger, watching them zip through the air at a frightening speed. Despite that, Grag'bog was still able to defend against them with his axe, blocking and deflecting the stones that came his way. Some of the stones were knocked away so hard that they pierced the ground around him before being brought back to her.

Instead of standing around and waiting for another attack, Grag'bog lunged at Hazel, swinging his axe down on her. She blocked the attack with her stones by waving them in front of the blade. However, for a brief moment, she noticed that the axe was emitting a crimson aura just before striking the stones.

When it did, a powerful shockwave was made, pushing both opponents backward. The shockwave disrupted her focus on the stones, causing them to descend into the ground with light thuds. As soon as she realized this, her first course of action was to reapply her telekinesis on them. But that wasn't going to be easy.

"I have you now!"

Grag'bog quickly regained his composure and attacked Hazel before she could get her strengthened stones. He was mere inches from her within a second, causing her to change objectives. Applying Telekinesis to her body, she leaped back to avoid the attack, narrowly dodging the orc chief's strike.

His axe struck the ground where she had been mere moments ago, while Hazel was several meters away from him. All from a single leap. Grag'bog looked up with a familiar, surprised expression. He clearly didn't expect Hazel to move like that.

"You don't move like a mage..." Grag'bog noted with a narrowed gaze.

"Never said that I did. Does that surprise you?"

The chief scoffed. "No. If anything, it makes this fight all the more interesting."

Hazel smiled after hearing this. "Well, I'm glad you feel that way."

Feeling the excitement build up between the both of them, the two opponents charged at one another to proceed with their match.

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