“Huh?” Raising her eyebrow at the strange notification, Shiro wondered why it mentioned that it’d return to the trial ground.
Watching the spear flicker into small light particles, Shiro could only sigh.
“Missed opportunity I suppose.” She sighed.
Glancing down at her own hands, Shiro saw that she was about to be teleported away as well.
After a few short moments, she found herself back in the space where she had seen the stone tablet. All of her exhaustion seemed to have faded away but her weapons were still lost.
During the fight, she had sacrificed three daggers and her short sword. All she had on her now was her bow and a single dagger.
Suddenly, words started to appear one the stone tablet.
[You have completed the Trial of Victory.]
[The next trial is the Trial of Flight]
[Trial of Flight]
[Defeat a wave of Harpies and a Hippogriff.]
Raising her eyebrow at the simple description of the trial, Shiro remembered that this was more than what it seemed.
After all, in the books describing what you had to do in this test, you needed to learn how to fly while trying not to die from the bombardment of these creatures.
Thankfully, as Shiro was already familiar with the sensation of flying, this shouldn’t be too bad. And even if it was different to what she knew, she still had a bow to help her kill the monsters while trying to fly.
Suddenly, a bright light filled her vision as Shiro couldn’t help but curse at the fact that the trials always wanted to blind her before she started them.
‘Give me a portal or something if you’re going to teleport me. I would prefer not to have the might of the sun shine right into my eyes when I start a trial.’ Shiro complained in her mind while trying to adjust herself.
Feeling the soft sensation of wind blowing against her face, Shiro looked around and saw that she was on the top of a small platform. The platform was suspended from a mountain and if she tried to jump off, she’d die from the fall.
‘So I only have a limited amount of room to work with huh?’ She thought to herself. Just as she thought of this, a weird sensation could be felt on her back as a pair of white wings started to unfurl themselves.
They were somewhat corporeal as the base of the wings had phased through her dress, allowing her to spread them out without the worry of suddenly destroying her clothes.
Flapping them slightly, Shiro was somewhat used to the sensation thanks to one of the skills she used to use due to her connection with Yin.
Stretching her body slightly, Shiro stomped down and shot up into the air.
Compared to her flight back on Earth, she needed more effort to keep herself afloat but it wasn’t too bad. If anything, it was akin to doing squats while running as fast as you can. The sensation was a little weird but that was about it.
Hovering in the air for a moment, she could see a few harpies appearing in the distance and knew that the trial was going to happen soon.
Normally, one would use this chance to familiarise themselves with the wings and prepare their mind for the ensuing battle.
Looking into the distance, she could see an army of Harpies charging towards her location.
The harpies looked just like what she had imagined as they were essentially large humanoid birds with a female head and torso. Rows of sharp teeth could be seen as drool trailed from their open mouths.
Narrowing her eyes, she estimated that it’ll take them roughly 10 minutes or so to reach her spot.
‘Well damn, only giving people 10 minutes to familiarise themselves with wings. Rather harsh.’ Shiro mused to herself while summoning her bow. Since the Harpies had roughly 10 minutes to reach her, Shiro was going to thin out the crowd a little.
Pulling back on her bow string, Shiro fired her arrow without hesitation.
Soaring through the sky, the arrow pierced the Harpy through the neck and killed her in an instant.
“One.” Shiro grinned and notched another arrow.
Firing arrows without rest, Shiro had killed off more than 40% of the Harpy wave by the time they had reached her location.
However, as she was used to flying, she could easily dodge their attacks and retaliate with ease.
The following fight could only be described as one sided due to the clear difference in combat prowess. With the Harpies unable to land a single hit on Shiro, she was able to fly around the arena and kill them one by one. After a few short moments, only Shiro was left in the sky and a mountain of Harpy corpses could be seen below the platform.
*KIIII!!!
Hearing the cry of an eagle, Shiro looked up and saw a silhouette which seemed to block out the sun.
Understanding that it’s the Hippogriff, she quickly landed on the platform and prepared herself.
Since she only needed to kill one Hippogriff, she could guess that it was essentially a boss and it was due to this fact that she had to proceed with caution. Until she understood its general speed and fighting style, she wasn’t going to go all out on the offensive just yet.
Notching an arrow on her bow string, she narrowed her eyes and aimed towards the Hippogriff.
Letting go of the bow string, she watched as the arrow sliced through the air. And just as it was looking like it was about to pierce the Hippogriff through the chest, its claws grabbed the arrow and snapped it in half.
Glaring towards Shiro, the Hippogriff narrowed its eyes and dived towards her at full speed.
Firing some more arrows towards the beast, Shiro watched as there seemed to be a small barrier of wind surrounding the Hippogriff which knocked all the arrows aside.
“Tch, protection against arrows.” Shiro clicked her tongue in annoyance.
As she had lost a few of her daggers and her short sword to the last trial, the only weapon she had left other than her bow was a single dagger which was essentially common soldier equipment. It wasn’t a blessed weapon like her Artemis’ Bow so its durability was rather questionable.
But in regard to the question of whether or not it could harm the Hippogriff, Shiro had to find out through a live test.
Taking a deep breath, she prepared herself for the fight.
‘From what I know in the books, the Hippogriff has two types of magic and can only use one or the other. The first was the wind aura which allows it to block ranged attacks and the second was wind blades. Seeing as though I relied on my bow and can dodge with ease, it’s only natural that it chose the wind aura rather than wind blades. Honestly, if it chose wind blades, it’d be more dangerous for me.’ Shiro thought to herself since the Hippogriff didn’t have any other methods of attack other than its beak and claws.
The moment it chooses to use wind blades, it’ll open its body up to attacks from her bow which meant that there was a chance for Shiro to kill it. However, even if it retains the wind aura to negate the arrows, there was still the chance that her dagger could damage the Hippogriff if she targeted its eyes.
*BANG!!!
Crashing against the platform in front of her, Shiro jumped back slightly so that she could force some distance between the two of them.
*KII!!!!
Before the dust could even settle, Shiro saw the dust wrap around the Hippogriff’s body as it lunged towards her with its two claws.
Quickly ducking to the side, she slashed at its armpits, ripping out a few of the feathers in the process but her cuts were essentially non-existent. With the feathers dampening her blow, she’d need to find a way to bypass the feathers and strike at its skin.
Due to the large size difference, hitting the Hippogriff was an easy task for her as all she needed to do was wait for it to lunge at her. Once it did, it’ll open itself for her to bypass its guard and attack.
Only problem left was to actually do damage and the best option seemed to be defeathering the Hippogriff so that there was nothing to block her dagger.
“I can’t help but feel like I’m preparing a chicken before I cook it.” Shiro muttered with a grin before dashing towards the beast once more.
