Looking at the scene, Hitomi furrowed her brows.
‘Why aren’t they running? Could it be that she’s planning to take on all the B classed adventurers? She does realise that there are 20 of them right?’ She thought to herself with a frown.
Flicking one of the switches on the table next to her, she got a tracker of where everyone is in the arena.
Realising that Shiro’s tracker would disappear before reappearing on a regular basis, Hitomi realised she must be using a strong concealment type skill.
However, that didn’t make any sense to her since Shiro was registered as a mage.
“Did Nytri lie about her class?” She muttered in suspicion but decided to hold off on her theories for now.
She’ll see how the two of them performed for now and question them later.
####
Flickering in and out of her rift, Shiro noted down the locations of each chaser and realised that there were about 20 of them.
‘Hmm… it’s not too bad. If I play my cards properly, I’ll be able to take care of a few of them before they even realise it.’ Shiro mused to herself while twirling her dagger.
Hiding behind a boulder, she closed her eyes and planned out who she was going to attack first. Since they’re mostly travelling as a group for now, she’ll have to wait until they split up.
‘Lisa should also know this so she’ll be waiting for a while. I’ll go be bait first and try to draw a few of them away from the place.’ Shiro thought to herself and dashed to the highest point of the arena.
Upon arrival, Shiro immediately went to work.
Flicking her dagger into the sky, she snapped her finger and exploded it into five shards that flew out in different directions.
This didn’t escape the chaser’s attention as they immediately had 5 of them go towards her locations.
“Be careful, it might be a trap. Regardless of how high our levels are, we’ll get sent out upon taking too much damage too so keep your guard up. They’re still level 100’s after all.” One of them warned as the five nodded their heads.
Dashing to the highest peak, they saw Shiro standing there with a challenging grin.
“I wouldn’t normally do this but for you five, I’ll try out a new tactic.” Shiro chuckled and stomped her foot down.
Just as she did this, a giant magic circle instantly appeared with the five shards that she had sent out earlier acting as anchors.
*KRRRRR!!!!
A tearing sound could be heard as the skies tore open to reveal a vibrant galaxy full of stars.
Activating Frozen Slumber once her preparations were complete, Shiro’s eyes had hints of excitement since she wanted to see what Cosmic Ice could do when paired up with her best restriction skill.
Shimmering with a soft light, the stars in the galaxy flickered for a moment before chains started to pour out from the tear.
*CLING CLING CLING CLING!
Smashing against the ground, a pulse of energy spread outwards as the chasers realised that with each pulse, a layer of ice would be instantly formed around them. Not only that, but they wouldn’t be able to use their mana for a short period as the pulse hit them meaning they had to use their physical strength to break out.
However, Shiro wasn’t about to allow that. Using the chains as a trampoline, she propelled herself towards the closest chaser and readied her dagger.
‘Takemikazuchi Sword Technique, First Stage.’ She muttered in her mind.
Lightning flickered from her dagger as she twisted her body.
*BANG!
Feeling a sudden burst of speed, Shiro’s body flickered out of view before reappearing not too far behind them.
During this moment, two lethal slash marks could be seen tearing through the barrier as the chaser was sent out in an instant.
‘Tch, I need to get used to this speed. I was only able to strike twice within that moment.’ Shiro thought with a frown.
Not only that, she could feel a little numbness spreading through her body as a result of that. Whether or not it was because of her inexperience or not, only time would tell but so far, she liked the technique quite a bit.
Jumping into the rift, she repositioned herself with a second attack.
Meanwhile…
Lisandra looked towards the peak of the mountain and realised that Shiro must be trying to draw their attention.
Smiling softly, she thanked Shiro in her mind before spreading out her mana.
Unlike Shiro, she can’t jump into the rift to disengage should she run into an annoying situation so she needed to be more careful.
Suppressing her own mana to the point where it’s barely detectable, she discovered 15 signals moving closer to her.
‘Hmm… 15 of them. I can probably take the two at the back before being discovered. Once that happens, I’ll need to make sure I can get away quick enough.’ She thought to herself.
Adjusting her grip on her sword, she created a small ball of light in her hands and threw it into the air once the group was close enough.
Detonating the ball, the area was suddenly filled with an intense light as she made her move.
Enhancing her body with her elemental armour, she flashed towards the two at the back of the group and swung her blade.
Unfortunately, they were able to react in time by raising their arms in defence.
‘I need to correct my sword’s flight path.’ Lisandra thought to herself and created two pockets of mana that detonated one after another to readjust her attack while also giving it a speed boost.
*KSH KSH!
Slashing twice, she managed to inflict enough damage to their barriers and force them out of the arena as the other’s charged towards her.
Sweeping her blade around in a circle, she released a barrier of light that obstructed their view of her.
Sending out several light blades that were unfortunately blocked, Lisandra used this moment to change her location and camouflage herself. Through the use of her light attunement, she wrapped light around her so that to outsiders, no one was there. When paired with her mana concealment, it was as if she suddenly disappeared.
###
“. . .” Staying silent, Hitomi watched as Shiro took out the five chasers easily while Lisandra was able to take out two without being attacked by the others that were near her.
“Seems like they’re more capable than I thought. By attacking quickly, they’re able to surprise the chasers and give them enough time to escape without fighting a prolonged exchange. They know what kind of leeway they’re allowed and make use of that. While that Lisa isn’t able to take on several chasers simultaneously like Nytri is, the number of enemies she faced was greater.” She muttered after a short pause.
As the chasers were trying to look for Lisandra, Hitomi realised that she didn’t have an escape skill like Shiro.
“This isn’t good. Unlike humans, the monster’s senses are stronger so even if she enters stealth and removes her mana signature, her smell is still there.”
Sending out a message to the leader of the current group of chasers, she allowed them to use their tracking skills to find Lisandra.
“Find her and take her. Only then will you focus on Nytri since she’s the main problem.” Hitomi ordered before cutting the communications.
While this does seem unfair, it was needed since it’s better than sending people to a dangerous mission. Only when they overcome unfair odds will she be slightly ok with sending them out.
###
Receiving a green light for them to use their tracking skills, they instantly found Lisandra’s location and attacked her.
Widening her eyes, Lisandra flipped her body backwards and narrowly avoided the attack.
However, the chasers didn’t give her too much leeway since the second wave was now charging at her.
Looking at the attacks that were trying to send her out of the arena, she couldn’t help but realise that this was exactly like the training she had done with Shiro. While she didn’t expect to deflect each and every attack, she wanted to open up a narrow gap so that she could slip past and last a little longer.
Tensing her hands around the grip of her sword, she created several pockets of mana.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Deflecting four attacks in an instant, she dived through that gap before slashing another chaser just as she was getting back on her feet.
But before she could stabilise herself, the chaser managed to throw out a punch at her and send her crashing into a wall.
Thankfully, she was able to raise her sword in time to block that strike and narrowly stop herself from being sent out of the arena.
But with this, she somewhat got a hang of utilising the mana pockets in moments of danger.
Grinning with excitement, Lisandra readied herself once more and slashed towards the chasers.
