Chapter 844: The first day of the evaluation trial (part 22)

’I knew that purple eyed girl was really strong since she easily managed to handle seven people alone while perfectly putting on a front of not being good with offense, but to think she was the other leader when there were zero signs of it, even I was tricked, where does this group come from... perhaps they are from a divine family’, thought Cassandra who of course paid a lot of attention to Vera’s battlefield, basically because she hated Vera from the bottom of her heart since she tried to have Jen get rid of Lauren.

Like previously stated, Vera wasn’t stupid, the fact that she thought Valentina was weak when it came to offense is because the purple lightning princess perfectly played the role of someone whose focus is dodging and redirecting enemy attacks.

Such fighting styles are normally taught to those that aren’t supposed to be sent to the battlefield, it’s not that common since even young misses and young masters from noble families are meant to know how to defend themselves.

However, even when Vera realized that Aster probably wasn’t a dual cultivator given the strong aura he radiated when he held his sword, that didn’t mean he couldn’t be emotionally involved with the whole bunch of pretty girls that accompanied him.

So, in Vera’s mind, the purple lightning princess was probably one of his favored lovers and as such, she wasn’t meant to step into battle, therefore she was taught how to keep herself safe without needing to engage with the enemy, that was the brown-haired woman’s conclusion.

Cassandra on the other hand, had a different idea, leaving the nature of the relationship between all the present girls and the black-haired youth aside, which she indeed couldn’t properly discern, prior to talking with Mira whose words convinced her of Aster not being a scum dual cultivator at worse and a shameless womanizer bastard in the best-case scenario, from the moment Valentina first exchanged movements with those seven, she was aware that the purple lightning princess was really strong.

Because she was basically playing around with seven enemies at the same time without putting any real effort, and she made her supposed role natural and perfectly believable, even Cassandra would have been tricked by her, had it not been because her sharp danger detection senses warned her about the purple lightning princess, being almost as dangerous as her own opponent, in other words the ligress girl.

That being said, even Cassandra didn’t know that Valentina was the other leading authority of Aster’s group, until a moment ago, there were no prior noticeable signals of it after all.

Her money was on Sarina being the other leader besides Aster, not only because she was overwhelmingly strong and looked maturer than the rest of the girls but also because she had this fierce but caring aura around her in the open, unlike Mira who would have been her other obvious choice had it not been for the fact that she was a bit too cold on the outside.

Amusingly enough, that rejuvenating effect which has been a headache for the purple lightning princess, helped her go unnoticed by Cassandra, until the fight was basically over.

’She went past defeating and capturing an enemy with a dangerous ability like Vera, and instead completely destroyed her fighting spirit for the safety of the others, that’s a leader quality for you’, added Cassandra to herself as she saw the purple lightning princess arrive at their vicinity to then toss the spear guy with the others before saying.

"Her ability is limited to her hands, so I made sure to tie them up, but just to be safe keep an eye on her at all times", said Valentina as she placed Vera on the ground, separated from others.

Earlier, Valentina, after naturally looting the dead enemies and confiscating everything the spear guy and Vera had on them, she used the shirt of the fat man to tie Vera’s hands and legs together, as one would expect from the responsible older sister type purple lightning princess.

"Looks like it’s almost over, there is only Aria’s fight left and then we’ll just have to see what to do with these guys...", Valentina’s words were interrupted by Aster who shook his head at her, taking the purple lightning by surprise as he said.

"There is something important to take care of before that".

"Mm?", Valentina couldn’t help but wonder what she was missing, she seriously went through all the recent events in her head in a second but couldn’t tell what she was ignoring, only for Aster to smirk as he answered her doubt.

"Miss Valentina made a "huge" contribution by not only stalling a large number of enemies alone, but also capturing an enemy leader, so of course she should receive a proper reward for it", he jokingly said.

"Huh!", the purple lightning princess reacted like a cat whose tail was stepped on, of course she knew that being "rewarded" implied receiving a head pat from Aster, and she felt that she would die of embarrassment if that happened, not to mention that such information will be spread throughout the whole camp by dinner’s time, since she was being watched by a lot of girls from the sect.

"There is no need, I also had a bit of fun at the end, besides neither those girls who defeated that giant centipede nor miss Mira who also captured an enemy leader were rewarded so I would feel bad if I...", Valentina who was using the girls and even Mira as an excuse to save herself, just dug her grave deeper.

"No, no, they were given big rewards, after all, those thirty want to keep the centipede as their mount, which implies healing, having little Kana help to teach them how to communicate with him and the future equipment that will be needed for it to be a proper mount for them, Mira asked for miss Cassandra and her group to be taken in as her reward which will need some negotiation with the blue flaming board, but don’t worry, I know that miss Valentina wouldn’t want to receive such a big reward, so we’ll settle it with a normal one, a leader must be responsible with both tasks and rewards, right?", said Aster.

"Yeah, it’s only fair for sister Valentina to receive her reward too~", added the girls of the sect in unison, which sealed the purple lightning princess’s fate.

’You little girls, I’ll remember this!’, thought Valentina as she saw Aster’s hand approach her head, to then gently pat her a couple of times, surprisingly enough she didn’t actually feel embarrassed because of it, in fact she liked the "praising" and gentle sensation that Aster’s hand radiated, at least until she heard some giggles and mumbles coming from the back of the centipede, where the girls of the sect were sitting.

"So, sister Valentina can also have such a carefree and relaxed expression~".

"As expected of senior brother, even sister Valentina isn’t a "match" for him~".

’Ahhh!’, listening to the comments of those girls and knowing full well that she was never going to listen to the end of this, the poor lightning princess shouted to her insides, but kept a calm expression on her pretty face, as she cleared her throat.

"Ahem, that should be enough for a normal reward", she said as she gave Aster a "I’ll cut you if you take things too far", sharp gaze with those pretty purple eyes of hers.

’Oh, she is also the tough type, good luck darling~’, said the dragon mother from within the mind space, which made Aster chuckle to his insides as he retrieved his hand, Valentina kept her responsible sister composure perfectly until the end, which honestly deserved another reward, but judging by the rebellious light in her eyes, it was better to stop here.

Sarina became able to use electricity even as a mortal, so while Aster would be happy to see the purple lightning princess gaining a similar ability to complement her fighting style, he didn’t want to be zapped by her.

"Chances are that we won’t have much time after Aria finishes her fight, so let’s eat the food we brought and rest in the meantime", said Aster, to which the others agreed, especially the girls sitting on the back of the centipede, they had moved around quite a bit after all, so a nice snack sounded like a good idea.

...

Leaving the amusing scene of Aster and the girls having a picnic in the middle of a platform used for battles, the sole remaining battlefield didn’t have such a wholesome and funny vibe.

’W-What the hell, how is that bitch not even sweating!!!’, screamed the blond-haired leader while panting, if you observe Aria’s battlefield, you’ll see many dozens of small puncturing cracks on the ground all over the place.

Those were arrow impacts of course, the number of them doesn’t make sense though because of the item number limit, even if either the blond-haired leader also known as Ryan, or the other reaming archer took the quiver of their deceased fellow archer, to use his arrows, there were simply too many of them.

But there is a proper reason for it, after Aria casually killed one of the archers with a single strike of her spear, the blond-haired leader changed their strategy, amusingly enough he went with a concept similar to the one used by Violet and the other girls of the battle formation unit.

Ryan’s version was rather cowardly though, after that other archer died, he called for assistance from Vera’s group, he called for a shield wielder to be accurate and then, with the shield wielder as their core, they started running all over the place while shooting arrows at Aria.

Their aim wasn’t as refined as Kana’s one of course, so while moving they missed a lot of shots, but that was fine by Ryan, they weren’t aiming to kill Aria with the arrows but wanted to wear down the ice princess to then capture her, which is why their arrows aimed at her legs mostly.

Naturally after a turn or two of that, they ran out of arrows and that’s what the shield guy was here for, with him blocking Aria’s spear, they retrieved the arrows and started all over again.

And in case you wonder, how was that shield not destroyed by this point, the answer is simple, that shield and its wielder are the best in terms of defense, in the whole group, outside of the tanned man, it was a large tower shield which was completely reinforced with steel and leather too, it was the piece of equipment in which the blond-haired guy’s group had spent the most effort to craft.

"Crack!", that being said and while it is known that Aria’s physical strength is not on the higher end, the ice princess’s piercing technique which she was executing with a spear instead of the rapier with which she is familiar, is quite fierce, so after multiple clashes she had left a total of eight cracks on the tower shield.

"Ha... ha...", the tower shield guy saw his treasured defensive equipment be on the verge of crumbling and he panted to catch up his breath as he said.

"T-This is fucking ridiculous, how are you perfectly fine after all that!", he exclaimed to which the other archer added.

"We even made sure to force her to move more than twice as much as us, so why...".

The base of their strategy was to wear Aria down, she didn’t look physically outstanding, in fact given her slender and elegant body shape as well as her pale skin, the ice princess looked like someone who has never done any manual labor in her life, so those three couldn’t understand how she wasn’t showing even the slightest traces of tiredness, it was as if she hasn’t been moving around, dodging arrows from different angles and heavily thrusting her spear at the tower shield every time, but instead had been sitting and resting for the past forty and so minutes, it didn’t make sense for them.

’She is clearly not a main body path cultivator and we are all secondary path body cultivators here, so...’, Ryan’s thoughts stopped in cold as he looked at Vera’s battlefield.

The blond-haired guy was not that much of a bad leader, but he committed the huge mistake of losing track of the battlefield because he was too worried about his own life and put all his focus in dealing with Aria.

That’s not a bad trait for a regular fighter of a group, but it’s a sin for a leader who is responsible of the safety of not only himself but all the members of his group.

"No way!", exclaimed Ryan as he saw the giant centipede, the defeated Vera and Cassandra’s group, all close to Aster and the others, who were in the middle of having a light snack.

Then the cold harsh reality of the three of them, being the only ones left, rained down upon the blond-haired leader and while he was feeling despair, the ice princess frowned.

"Tsk... luckily the dragon princess is not here, otherwise I wouldn’t listen to the end of this", mumbled Aria as she tightened her grip on her spear.

Ryan and the shield guy are not weak, as someone that could reign in Xander to a certain extent, the blond-haired leader was as strong as Cassandra, the shield guy is not as strong as Vera, but he is on the level of the tall guy and the others who acted as seconds in command for Ryan, he didn’t receive such a position because he completely focuses on defense, the reaming archer is not outstanding but he is indeed quick on his feet too.

So, it’s not like Aria was stalled by weaklings, not to mention that if they hadn’t run all over the place and directly clashed with the ice princess just a few more times than they did, this fight would have been over a long time ago.

Still and as usually composed as Aria is, there is someone who always manages to get on her nerves, namely Alice, so imagining the dragon princess mocking her when she learns that Aria finished her fight last, made the ice princess feel angry ahead of time.

"Mm?", of course she cooled down as fast as the previous happened, what’s more noticing a difference in the texture of the area of the spear’s shaft where she was holding onto, a sharp light flashed through the ice princess eyes, followed by the corner of her lips curving upwards.

"What do we do, the rest are either dead or have been captured?", asked the other archer who was panicking, to the blond-haired leader.

"Don’t lose it now, we are not done yet, we can either run until the battle time ends, or try to capture her to negotiate...", Ryan who was in the middle of calming down one of his sole remaining teammates, once again committed a sin for a leader, he lost track of the enemy in turn, in other words the ice princess.

"Crack!", a not so loud but still noticeable cracking sound could be heard as Aria’s legs tensed, before she rushed towards the enemies, who before they could react, had the ice princess arrive in front of them,

"What!", Ryan couldn’t help but exclaim, the speed at which Aria had moved surpassed what they had seen so far, by quite a bit.

"Damn it!", the tower shield guy sprung into action and placed his shield in between the archers and the enemy as that’s his role in the team.

"Booooom!", unfortunately the result was completely different this time, as the loud shattering sound released by the shield being destroyed by Aria’s spear, suggested.

’She didn’t aim at the wrecked areas of the shield...’, was the last thing that passed through the shield guy’s mind before lights went out for him, because Aria’s spear had broken through the shield and directly pierced his head.

"Thud!", the impact that Aria’s spear packed was strong enough to send the shield guy’s body flying a couple of meters before it heavily landed on the ground.

"No, I don’t want to die!", shouted the other archer as he turned around and tried to run into the distance, there were around fifteen minutes left of the battle time and he preferred to run all of that time than facing the platinum blue haired girl, who "mysteriously" had gotten way stronger than before out of nowhere.

"Crack!", it’s a shame that to begin with he was already tired, and even if that wouldn’t have been the case, Aria was now not only at her prime like before the fight started, but in an even stronger state, as the small crater she left on the ground when she propelled herself frontwards, spear first towards the enemy.

"Aghhh!", the ice princess instantly reached the enemy and her spear pierced his back and came out of his chest, making him scream for a moment before his eyes lost their light, he was dead.

"You didn’t get tired at all and now are exploding with higher strength, you are like that fool of Xander right!", said Ryan as he shot arrow after arrow at Aria, who coldly snorted in response.

"Humph!", then to the enemy’s surprise, the scene of the ice princess rolling up the left sleeve of her brigandine and taking off her protective glove, to then use her pale forearm to defend against the incoming arrows, happened.

"Clang!", multiple clinking sounds were produced as the arrows which fully landed on Aria’s forearm, simply fell to the ground without being able to pierce through her skin, there was not even a trace of that pretty and fragile looking forearm having received strong arrow impacts a second ago.

"No way!", screamed the blond-haired leader, he thought that Aria had used something like the black henbane "pill" which Xander used to go berserk, which "increased" his strength by allowing him to ignore the unconscious limiter in the strength a human has in order to not harm himself, but that sight destroyed his theory, after all, Xander wasn’t really impervious to attacks, he simply didn’t feel pain but his body was normal.

He was actually right in something though, Aria was indeed able to ignore the safety limiter of her body, that’s what she used to suddenly explode with higher strength than before, but the origin of it wasn’t external unlike in Xander’s case.

She could do it, because she just got full control over said limiter, the reason being that she won’t suffer any damage if she surpassed it, or well, more accurately, the damage didn’t have the time to be registered because she recovered from it too fast.

That only explains her explosive increase in strength, but she also stopped arrows with her bare skin right, well, said ability originates in the same principle, but with a different application.

’Finally, I’m so going to rub this on Alice’s face later~’, happily thought the ice princess, what she used to stop the arrows with her bare forearm was focused extremely precise recovery, in simple terms she recovered her outer skin layer so many times and fast enough to exhaust the momentum of the arrow.

That’s the application of her mortal recovery ability which she has been training so hard to achieve, not only because this way she could clash with Alice without being looked down by the dragon princess, but also because with this she just completed her unique mission right now, which means that she’ll have access to her technique once she confirms its completion.

And what she was planning to rub on the dragon’s princess face later, is the fact that she completed her unique mission before her, that being said the celebration and fun will have to wait for later, because right now she still had to dispose of some trash.

"What the hell are you!", shouted Ryan as he shot the remaining arrows at Aria who casually dodged them by exploding with higher strength on her legs, the fact that she can negate arrow impacts doesn’t mean she will just let them land on her, that’s something Alice would do just to mess with the enemy.

"Crack!", Aria accelerated midway through her charge at Ryan.

"I want Aster to praise me right now, so stop being a nuisance", said the ice princess as she closed her right hand and punched Ryan jaw’s from below, the impact was heavy enough to make the blond-haired leader faint on the spot.

And even after landing such a heavy punch, Aria’s pretty fist was perfectly fine, her skin didn’t even redden.

"Humph", with a soft snort, the ice princess grabbed Ryan from his neck and then happily walked towards Aster and the others.