Chapter 834: The first day of the evaluation trial (part 12)

"Mm?", a certain pink haired girl who just dodged a pair of swords being slashed at her, couldn’t help but steal a gaze at Kana’s battlefield, after a particular scent reached her, that was of course Mylene.

As an alchemist, she of course has a highly developed smelling sense, since there are materials that visually resemble other things but have completely different properties.

And unlike the ligress girl whose smelling sense is the sharpest in the whole camp and couldn’t help but show a disgusted expression on her pretty face, when the skinny man took out that "pill" and then tossed it into her mouth, Mylene showed no reaction.

Well, she didn’t show any reaction due to the smell of the pill, which was foul and akin to that of rotten flesh, but because she caught a glimpse of the color of the pill in question which allowed her to confirm what the plant used for it was.

"Getting distracted in the middle of a fight it’s not a good idea", a deep voice alongside a large shadow reached Mylene the next second.

"Clang!", a loud metallic sound echoed through the vicinity as a large "sword" clashed with a spear producing sparks as both weapons were forced to separate after the impact.

’She managed to deviate my attack with such a small weapon and without it breaking, wasn’t she the medic of their group?’, thought the enemy as he stretched his arm and accommodated his shoulder.

Mylene of course doesn’t have anything that would reveal her role as a medic on her, since that would be directly inviting the enemy to target her, getting rid of medics is a basic tactic after all, and Aster when he was messing around to confirm if other enemies had the sap of the manchineel tree on them, didn’t look her way earlier to not expose her, so how come that guy guessed it, you wonder.

The answer is simple, the enemy also has a decent sense of smell and as an alchemist, there is a certain herbal scent that remained on Mylene, that’s why the blond guy sent the "squad captain" from his side in which he trusted the most to get rid of the medic.

Mylene’s opponent was the tall guy with the great sword which had a lot of mass but no sharpness, earlier he wielded that long excuse of a sword with one hand only, which is why his arm felt the recoil, but he was more surprised about Mylene not being sent flying due to the impact, she only jumped backwards a couple of meters.

"Is that what I think it is?", asked Aster who was calmly observing the battle, to which Mylene nodded.

"Mm, rotten meat-like scent and those colors, that "pill" was a bunch of black henbane crushed and compacted into a spherical form, should I...", before the pink-haired girl could finish her sentence, Aster chuckled as he interrupted her.

"Don’t be too overprotective, Kana will be sad if you ruin her fun", he jokingly said to which Mylene pouted to her insides as she thought.

’Says the one who is holding countless swords against the bodies of every single enemy present, ready to turn them into piles of sliced meat at any second~’, that being said, since Mylene had fulfilled her role by confirming that Aster knew what Kana was dealing with, she focused on her fight instead.

But let’s leave the pink haired girl’s battle for later and focus on Kana’s one, the moment that pill appeared the short bulky man got away from the skinny man but he didn’t leave and instead waited.

"Xander, you still there?", asked the short bulky man to which the skinny man whose body shivered for a second, nodded.

"Of course, I’m an elite from the black dagger sect, so I can handle this without any problem", said Xander whose face was slightly swollen.

"More like you are used to fight while suffering from side effects worse than those caused by black henbane", said Aster from the side to which the skinny man snorted.

"You know what this herb does and still won’t jump into the fight, I originally thought you cared a lot about this little one but it seems I overestimated her weight in your heart!", the skinny man’s legs suddenly tensed as he accumulated strength to then rush towards Kana.

"Clang!", Xander’s right fist was stopped by Kana’s right palm, their metal reinforced gloves produced a loud metal clashing sound, this time the little girl had to step aside even after deviating the previous attack quite skillfully because the skinny man’s next attack, namely those metal claws attached to the left glove, were already being slashed at her neck the moment the punch failed to reach her.

"Thud!", of course Kana didn’t limit herself to simply dodge, by moving to the side she also had perfect view of the enemy’s leg which she kicked the next second, landing a solid hit on Xander’s thigh.

"Swoosh!", at the same time, Kana bent her knees a bit to lower her stance, dodging those dangerous metal claws by a thin margin once again.

"Hey Richard, if you keep watching from the side, once I’m done with her, you’ll be next!", exclaimed Xander as he leaped towards the little girl who was confused for a second there.

’I’m sure I hit his muscle the way sister Alice does, that made mister black horse cry due to pain, but he didn’t flinch’, thought Kana.

The reason for the previous lies in the "pill" Xander took, you probably have never heard of black henbane before, but there is a chance you have heard of "berserkers", special warriors among Vikings who terrified their enemies with their wildness and inhuman traits, such as bear-like strength, indiscriminate violence, roaring and howling instead of speaking and seemingly imperviousness to steel, given that they treated serious wounds like nothing.

Well, while it is not confirmed officially, the culprit behind of said characteristics was most likely black henbane, a plant which by consuming it, causes wild delirium, agitation, emotional volatility and also has strong disassociating and analgesic properties, long story short, those Vikings fought while high as hell.

But then, you don’t see Xander going crazy like that, he does seem more talkative than usual but his aggressiveness remained the same, he did ignore the pain caused by Kana’s attack a second ago though, and that’s because just like Aster said, he is used to fight while suffering from blood rage attacks due to the techniques and manual he has cultivated.

That’s also why, only he dared to use the black henbane pill so carelessly, since the line between the amount needed to cause the frenzy berserker-like state and causing death is rather thin for normal people, but Xander’s body is used to enhancement techniques that put a lot of strain on the user.

"I still can’t believe you are fine after eating that damn thing, we had to kill Daniel because he took a third of a pill and went mad due to it", said the short bulky man, they had another companion who wasn’t exactly a "decent" person, so he thought he could handle it like Xander, but he was wrong, well, he didn’t die but started attacking everyone on the spot, killing one of his teammates and wounding another one before he was swarmed by the rest and killed after some struggle.

The short bulky man smacked the broken wood handle of his hammer towards Kana’s shoulder, Aster removed the head of the hammer but the handle was fine to be used as a simple club of sorts.

"Clack!", of course the little girl simply smacked the wood club away, in a very specific direction which was that of an incoming fist that aimed to hit her face, the result was that the short bulky man’s attack ended up getting in the way of Xander’s punch.

"Tsk, don’t get in the way you fool!", said the skinny man as he slashed the claws of his lefy glove at Kana who swiftly moved her feet to dodge them and then made a small twirl as she grabbed Xander’s wrist to redirect the trajectory of his attack, this time it was the skinny man’s attack the one which was used to get in the way of Richard’s one.

The metal claws scratched the wood club breaking some small parts of it, the splinters produced flew and nearly hit Richard on his right eye, which forced him to get away, a chance that Kana didn’t let slip by.

The little girl swiftly lunged towards Richard, she smacked his weapon out of his hand, which was easy as he had half let go of it to protect his eyes earlier, and then kicked him on the stomach.

"Crack!", Kana’s foot landed on the wood club which was then pushed against Richard’s body, the kick broke the already damaged weapon in half and sent the short bulky man straight to the ground.

"Agh!", the impact was mostly absorbed by the wooden club, but it still hurt to be kicked on the stomach which forced a pained sound out of Richard, luckily for him, Kana had no time to knock him out because she jumped backwards in order to completely dodge Xander’s claws.

"What is up with all this "fluttering", what happened to your unwavering killing focused form of earlier!", exclaimed the skinny man as he dashed towards Kana, to then punch with his right hand and slash his left one continuously, which resulted in nothing since the little girl elegantly used her footwork to dodge.

In the middle of that, the short bulky man had recomposed himself and rushed at Kana trying to tackle her so that Xander could put an end to this humiliating fight, but he committed the mistake of opening his arms wide in a try to get ahold of the little girl, which lowered his guard.

"Crack!", the result was naturally a punch to the face which Kana executed while dodging Xander’s attack, contrary to the swift and highly mobile style she was using against the skinny man, that punch was a heavy one and it resulted in Richard’s nose breaking on the spot.

"Aghhhh!", blood and tears were the result of that punch, and before he could get away, the little girl landed an upper-cut on his jaw, making the short bulky man fall backwards to then cover his face while in pain.

"Stop dodging damn it!", cursed Xander as he used the longer reach of his legs to kick Kana in a try to catch her by surprise, but only kicked air as the little girl casually did a backward flip to land close to the short bulky man.

"Why should I, high impact attacks have low effectivity on someone whose body is in a numb state, but your senses are affected as well, so naturally an agile fighting style easily counters you, as for him, that hammer’s head was hollow on the inside, his physical strength is not that high, he actually used a hybrid fast style and thought he could trick others by using a hammer and his physique as bait", said Kana as she stepped on Richard’s right knee.

"Crack!", the short bulky man who was in pain a moment ago, had his eyes open wide for a moment before they rolled backwards, he actually fainted due to the shock of having his knee crushed by the little girl, who then added.

"I can easily change my fighting style depending on the situation, in other words I was just testing the knowledge I stole with its original owner to see how much I have improved it, only a fool would truly fight the way the enemy wants them to, right, big brother~", said Kana as she cutely smiled in Aster’s direction, which earned the latter another questioning gaze from Valentina.

’Okay, this time it is indeed on me’, jokingly thought Aster, Kana didn’t need to tell that guy he was being played but she still did so just to mess with him, of course this wasn’t done just to show off, though that smug little girl was indeed enjoying showing how much she had progressed to her big brother.

Anyway, the actual reason behind Kana’s mocking words, was to further destabilize the skinny man who was already seeing red since earlier, so it worked like a charm.

"You bitch!!!", and with a loud shout, Xander actually took out another pill from his pocket, this one was twice the size of the previous one though, and the skinny man didn’t think it twice just like before.

"Arrrghhh!", in comparison, the effect caused by taking that pill, did look more like the famous "berserker" state, Xander who couldn’t articulate words anymore, rushed at Kana at a surprisingly faster speed than before.

"Booom!", his kicks which ended up landing on the ground also produced some loud sounds due to the high impacts, now, unlike what it seemed like, black henbane doesn’t actually give inhuman strength to the one who ingests it, but the lack of pain removes the safety locks in one’s mind, so Xander was hitting and kicking with higher strength, yes, but it’s not something he lacked before, but more of something he couldn’t use unless he wanted to break his feet and hands, he just didn’t care as of current.

"You are not even close to be as unpredictable and wild as sister Alice and what’s more, she doesn’t lose her reasoning at all, but simply makes it look as if she does, that’s the epitome of an annoying opponent, you are just a fool who things that going full no brain all brawl counts as an enhancement, how boring", casually said Kana as she dodged each and every of Xander’s attacks.

Earlier, the skinny man still kept the bases of his assassin’s fighting style, so he to a certain extent restrained the sound of his movements, but now he was moving around like a brainless animal so of course his trajectory was easily foreseeable for Kana, she could have dodged his frenzied attacks even with her eyes closed.

Naturally, the way Xander was being toyed with is because his opponent is the little girl, the average person would probably be overwhelmed by a torrent of attacks from someone in a berserker state if he wasn’t careful.

"Not to mention that not feeling pain shouldn’t be used or counted as an enhancement in a fight, not only resorting to such a cheap trick dulls your survival instincts, but it’s not actually effective against an experienced fighter", concluded Kana as she moved to the side to align herself and then slap her open palm against Xander’s right ear.

"Clap!", a loud slapping sound echoed through the vicinity as the little girl’s attack fully landed on the skinny man, who actually didn’t feel pain despite the thin stream of blood which came out of his ear canal.

"Arrrghhh!", Xander turned around to try and charge at Kana who had jumped a few meters backwards after her attack, but when he tried to take a step, he actually fell to the ground.

Unfortunately for Xander, he is not even close to be the first opponent with high "pain resistance" that Kana has faced, and so the little girl knows of attacks that work against them, for example those that destroy the opponent’s balance, like she just did by damaging the skinny man’s eardrum, which combined with the already altered state in which he is, resulted in Xander not being able to get up no matter how much he tried, currently.

’Ah, if only these simple attacks worked on sister Alice’, thought the little girl as she sighed to her insides, it was described as "pain resistance" but against Alice, it’s more that without a weapon, Kana lacks the high brute strength needed to actually cause pain to the wild dragon princess, which is normal, she might not be a defense and endurance-oriented dragon lineage owner, like Aster, but Alice is still a monster with a strong body.

When she was taught about this method... by Mina of course, Kana tried it on Alice and she was captured by her tail on the spot, because she couldn’t even disorient the wild dragon princess by landing a solid hit on the side of her head, that being said she was surprisingly praised by Alice due to it and then she took the initiative to teach Kana other dangerous stuff, like joint and weakness targeting attacks.

"Mmm, after eating that pill you won’t be able to answer to big brother’s questions anyway and you are definitely not a good person either, so, the short hammer wielding man will be captured instead", added Kana as she stepped on Xander’s neck to then apply strength on her right foot.

"Crack", the sound was not that loud, the little girl didn’t like Xander in the slightest, but he was already in a mindless state so she swiftly sent him on his way to hell, which earned her a nod of approval from Aster.

He of course would prefer for Kana to not need to do things like that, but that’s not realistic in the world of cultivation, the next best option was for her to maintain her good heart but have a strong mind that wouldn’t waver at the moment of killing those that deserved it, for self-protection.

’To be sent on his way by such a good-hearted girl, he didn’t deserve such a decent end, but oh well, he was nothing but a pebble on the road, dying alone and being forgotten by everyone will be enough of a punishment’.

’Also, she made a good judgement of the situation, getting rid of that guy not because he deserved to die but because he was useless to us, while taking the bulky man hostage for interrogation, not bad’, thought Aster.

Xander probably did a lot of killing but to be honest Aster didn’t really care, he died on the spot because he tried to harm Kana and wouldn’t be able to provide anything worth extending his life, in the process if this gave peace to his victims then that was fine too but that was not the main reason behind his death.

"How did I do it, big brother, did I get stronger in the past two days?", asked Kana as she approached Aster, not without first having looked into Xander’s pockets to then drag the short bulky man from his right ankle as she walked towards Aster, to then toss the still fainted Richard at Aster’s feet.

"It was a good improvement, it looks like your training with that "new" sister is really paying off, don’t stick only to Alice though, play with Mylene as well", said Aster as he patted the little girl’s head a couple of times.

"Mm~", Kana sweetly smiled as she enjoyed head patting time, both Mina and Mylene are good schemers, but Mylene is quite a bit less "intense" in that aspect, so she is better for a "novice" like Kana, also the pink-haired girl considers Kana as her real little sister, so she wouldn’t teach her anything too extreme.

Speaking of Mylene, the two teammates assisting the tall guy with the heavy great sword who was fighting against her, saw how Kana easily defeated one of their stronger fighters and couldn’t help but feel shivers run down their spines.

’Holy hell, that little girl actually killed Xander!’, thought the one at the left.

’She killed him even after eating two of those crazy pills!’, thought the one at the right.

The idea of surrendering crossed those two’s mind for a moment, after all, if the youngest girl on the enemy’s side can do that, what would the one they are fighting might be able to do.

Unfortunately for them, the next words from the tall guy destroyed that possibility.

"Don’t even think about it, Richard was taken to be interrogated but will probably be killed once they know what he has done before, you two are as bad or worse than him, so you either fight for a chance to survive now or die after being tortured later, you know how it is".

"Damn it!", cursed those two, the chance to stay aside and hope to be spared was basically non-existent for them now.

’Heh, for someone that looks like all brawl and no brain that was quite the "smart" move... it’s a shame, that before I was little Kana’s age, I had already faced that scheme a dozen of times’, thought Mylene.