Chapter 832: The first day of the evaluation trial (part 10)

Loyal to its principles as usual, the blue flaming board made the three parties appear at the exact same distance from the other, with the centipede facing both groups of participants ahead of it.

"Shhhh!", like the blue flaming board had said, the centipede showed no inclination towards any group and instead directly charged towards both at the same time.

The girls of the sect were also quite loyal to their usual selves, since they turned around and charged at the incoming centipede basically as soon as they appeared on the platform.

"We’ll be back in a moment!", said the squad captain from the black sword faction in other words, Amanda, who was the first one to move and nearly left behind even her squad members.

"Hey, don’t go ahead by yourself, you are going to mess the four star battle formation that sister Eris taught us!", said the squad captain from the red sword faction, namely Brenda as she accelerated to catch up with Amanda.

"Those two never change... luckily the formation miss Eris taught us requires two of the four "stars" to reach the target first, let’s go our way too, Blair", said the squad leader from the purple lotus, Violet.

"Mm", the red short-haired girl from the yellow anvil limited to nod and followed Violet.

Maybe because Violet is not from the battle faction, or perhaps because she has a rather serious personality unlike Amanda and Brenda who spend all their time competing with the other, but while they are the "attack stars" of the battle formation, the "leading star" is Violet, while Blair is the "support star".

That doesn’t mean she has to command the others, but it’s more like she is in charge of keeping an eye on the most "delicate" aspects of the formation, like maintaining its balance, but why bother explaining it, you’ll see them in action in a moment.

But before we get to that, the enemies were also loyal to their words, with the skinny man moving independently like usual, half of the subordinates of the blond-haired guy, led by the short bulky man with the hammer, as well as half of the subordinates from the side of the green haired female leader’s side, led by the tanned tall man, moved,

Given their number and direction, it might appear as if they were going to attack the centipede, but their target were of course the girls that were focusing all their attention on the centipede instead.

"Stop you fools!", shouted the green haired female leader, fun fact, the blue flaming board didn’t restrict the leaders for the second part of the match, perhaps because the centipede was now added to the mix, so she could see and be seen now.

Following the words of the green haired female leader, the sixteen of them, the skinny man included, all stopped in cold around fifteen meters before they passed next to the members of the myriad occupation sect’s camp which had stayed behind.

The others stopped by instinct, but the skinny man whose eyes contracted like needles was different.

’What is this, for a second there, it felt as if I was being gazed at by the sect leader’, he thought to then be returned to the real world.

"What’s the problem, didn’t you say you were going to attack those cute juniors of mine while they were dealing with the centipede?", said a black-haired youth who slowly walked until he was standing in between those sixteen and the path towards the centipede.

"I see, so you weren’t just spewing nonsense when you said I would die if I tried to attack your toys, that’s some nice killing intent you’ve got there", said the skinny man as he smirked to then add.

"Turns out you weren’t a mere dual cultivator, perhaps you are a "fellow" of mine in terms of path, but you see that only makes me want to kill you even more than before".

’No, that’s not it, that wasn’t killing intent, it only lasted for a second but when he touched the hilt of that sword which is mounted on his back, there was some sort of invisible "line" that seemed to divide the whole platform...’, thought the green haired female leader.

’Hoh, that’s interesting, I already guessed it since she told them to stop basically at the same time as I held onto my sword, but it seems like she could actually see, no, "feel" when I deployed the absolute field’, thought Aster.

He had managed to suppress the oppressive feeling that the absolute field radiated until it almost disappeared, that was the newest achievement Aster had thanks to the two days of rest and interacting with the girls which helped him clear his head, this way the enemy was supposed to confuse it with a slightly strong killing intent and it mostly worked.

But there were two on the enemy’s side who noticed something "different", first the green haired female leader, she is mentioned first because she reacted before the other case, almost at the same time as when the absolute field which Aster had molded into a horizontal line that divided the platform from side to side, was deployed, and judging by her expression she didn’t confuse it with killing intent, so her danger perception was quite something.

And then we have the skinny man, he still confused the lingering oppressive aura of the absolute field with killing intent, but for him it wasn’t a "slightly" strong one, but a monstrously strong one, so he somewhat realized that there was something dangerous ahead of him, but not in the way and the intensity he should have if his senses were as sharp as those of the green haired female leader.

It was because of that, that the skinny man still considered Aster a dual cultivator, but one from the evil path instead, since killing intent increases by well, killing, so Xander thought Aster had used yin harvesting techniques which produce really good results for the one using them, with the "small" side effect that the ones in which they are used, are deprived of everything they have and die after their vitality and energies are drained completely.

There is a big gap between dual cultivators of the "righteous" and "evil" paths, the former are known for their high realms but low battle prowess and they are also known by seeking pleasure over strength, the latter on the other hand aren’t like that at all, they do drown in pleasure too but with the goal of growing stronger, therefore dual cultivators from the evil path tend to actually have decent battle prowess alongside high realms.

Though, from Aster’s point of view, those that mainly rely on modern dual cultivation are majorly pieces of trash, regardless of the side to which they belong, it’s just that one side are scum behind the scenes while the others are open about it.

"Huh, don’t tell me, you thought I was talking about me earlier?", said Aster as he looked at the skinny man as if he was looking at a clown.

"Of course, only someone with such a strong killing intent could possibly make me feel wary...", the words of the skinny man were interrupted by a mocking laugh.

"Pffft, I don’t know if it’s funnier that someone who seems to take pride in having been trained by an assassin evil sect can’t tell when killing intent is used or not, or that he doesn’t realize that his life was saved by the blue flaming board earlier".

"What...", the skinny man tried to lash out at Aster, but he was cut off again by him.

"Unfortunately for you, I’m only here to make sure my cute juniors have some nice and healthy fun", as soon as Aster finished speaking the skinny man’s eyes contracted like needles.

"Watch our Xander!", this time it was the blond-haired leader the one that shouted which made the skinny man turn around and slash his "dagger" upwards and to the left, a whistling sound followed by a cracking one echoed through the vicinity as an arrow hit the improvised dagger breaking it on the spot.

"Crack!", the arrow was aiming at the skinny man’s neck which is why he reacted by slashing his improvised dagger to deviate it, unfortunately he underestimated the force that was contained in that attack, the high-quality steel arrowhead broke through the steel spearhead which the skinny man was using as an improvised dagger, so now he was only holding onto a piece of broken wood instead.

"Drip", but that wasn’t the most shocking part, a low dripping sound drew Xander’s attention towards his neck, which he touched with his free hand only to realize that he was bleeding, there was a thin cutting wound that went from one side of his neck to the other one.

’This sensation... I was cut with my own dagger!’, he exclaimed to his insides, though he was using an improvised weapon, he had killed enough wild dogs to memorize the sensation of it when it cut through flesh, so he recognized the "feeling" of the dagger, it’s just that this time it was his own flesh the one that was cut.

The silence that resulted from the previous, was broken by Aster who looked at a certain young girl with blond hair and blue eyes that was holding onto a small composite bow.

Interestingly enough, the weapon Kana chose was her bow, the problem is that she had no space left for arrows, she came as a supporter so she wasn’t going to be fighting supposedly, but after what happened with the skinny man, Kana asked one of the archers to give her one of her arrows and the rest is history.

"That was a nice shot, even I didn’t expect you to be able to calculate the angle to make the dagger bounce at that guy’s neck while foreseeing his dodging route", said Aster to which Kana cutely smiled in response.

"It’s nothing, landing an arrow on sister Alice required way harder calculations, timing and higher pulling strength~", happily said the little girl, perhaps she didn’t notice it, but there was a certain "proudful" tone added to her usual voice.

’Is she perhaps being influenced by Espi, how cute’, thought Aster, she had the basis to be "smug", just like the little wyrm who was achieving something out of her comfort zone like using her tail as a sword, Kana is an arrow type intent archer, her specialty is power which can be seen in her incredible grip strength even as a mortal.

However, she was now showing accuracy and dexterity that would be expected from a bow type intent archer, and as if to confirm the little girl’s newly found liking to showing off her abilities just like the little wyrm does, Kana added.

"And I also learned quite a bit about hand-to-hand close combat thanks to the past two days of training", she said as she mounted the bow on her back to then charge at the skinny man who was having a hard time believing that Kana nearly slit his throat with his own dagger a moment ago.

"What are you doing staying still like fools, move already damn it!", cursed the blond-haired leader as he saw Kana moving towards the skinny man, even he, a bow intent type archer couldn’t do what that young girl had done with a single arrow, he knew how good was Xander at close combat, he could easily deviate arrows which were one of the most dangerous things when fighting against other human mortal level enemies, while moving and actively fighting.

But then, not only did Kana shot an arrow with enough strength to destroy a metal spearhead alongside the arrow she used for it, but she pulled off such a complex maneuver fast enough so that no one could react before she had made her shot, that means she had finished her calculations by the time the arrow was placed for her to shoot it, it was amazing.

"Wait, let’s regroup first", said the green haired female leader, to which the blond guy retorted.

"Are you kidding me, there are thirty of us and only ten of them, we’ll surround them and that will be the end".

"He is right, leader, I know that guy with the sword is dangerous but he himself said that he is not going to fight, there is no better opportunity than this!", agreed the tanned guy as he sprung into action, though he wanted to join Xander to get rid of such a "dangerous" archer, he couldn’t be seen teaming up with an evil cultivator and against such a young girl as well, so he instead went for an enemy that wouldn’t bring him shame to defeat, even if he received "support" from his teammates, therefore he chose the one who looked the oldest among the enemy’s group.

Well, it was relative, because his target which was Sarina by the way, barely appeared to be in her middle twenties, she sure had a much more mature vibe than the other girls of the group though.

’Damn those fools, don’t they realize that we were tricked, that guy with black hair sure is monstrously strong, but the others are not weak either’, thought the green haired female leader as she gritted her teeth, to make things worse she saw the subordinates of the blond guy avoid the one whom even she felt wary of, besides Aster of course, namely a tall girl with silvery white hair and crystal blue nails.

"Lauren, we’ll go in too, don’t engage heavily with any of them okay, just pay attention so that those five fools don’t die", she said to the orange short-haired girl with the reinforced gloves who right now looked a bit confused.

’Wasn’t he a dual cultivator, why did I shiver when he looked this way earlier...’, she thought, that being said she didn’t hesitate in the slightest to follow the green haired woman.

"Okay, I don’t know what’s going on but we won’t lose so easily!", she said, those two actually moved to block the ligress girl.

’Hoh, she really has good danger detection capacities, anyone but them would have been instantly killed by Mira’, thought Aster who was calmly watching how the enemies divided to fight with them.

Speaking of which, while the tanned guy wasn’t shameless enough to join Xander against Kana, the short bulky man didn’t care about such things and perhaps because Aster seemed to especially care about Kana, he decided to target her alongside another subordinate of the blond guy who also had a hammer, but his was just made out of wood without metal reinforcing it, it’s worth mention that the little girl hadn’t reached the skinny man yet at this point and those two aimed to ambush Kana from behind.

"What a shame Xander, we are going to crush that...", the short bulky man’s words stuck in his throat as he nearly lost balance because his hammer suddenly felt way lighter than before.

"Clang!", a metallic sound made the short bulky man look downwards, where the head of his hammer was, that sound was produced by it when it hit the ground and it also drowned the dull sound produced by the head of the wood hammer from the guy who was running alongside him, when it hit the ground as well.

"Did you not hear her, Kana said she was going to show me her hand-to-hand combat skills, so be a good sandbag and follow the rules", said a black-haired youth who was stabbing the ground in front of him with a sword that used to be mounted on his back.

Now that it was out of its scabbard, both the blond guy and the green haired female leader were taken aback by the clean craftmanship of Aster’s sword, he really didn’t put any details into it, but the golden metal which ran conformed not only the guard but followed into the middle area of the blade only stopping before the tip, was quite eye-catching.

That was not a sword that a blacksmith they had seen or heard about while in this place, could make, what’s more it was easy to notice that the quality of the steel was on a different level as well.

But all of that paled in comparison with the fact that just by pointing said sword, the weapons of those two were cut with dozens of meters of distance.

’He didn’t move, he just pointed that sword...’, thought the blond leader as he said.

"Hey, supervisor, isn’t he cheating, it looked as if he used spirit energy?", to which the blue flaming board directly answered.

[It was a manual’s technique, all participants have access to them, the power may vary depending on the level of the manual and the effort put in obtaining them]

’Bullshit, weren’t those manuals just a whole bunch of information on mortal fighting techniques, I have practiced with mine for a whole week and indeed my mortal archery improved but I can’t do anything like that!’, inwardly screamed the blond guy, but he didn’t say anything and instead placed an arrow on his bow to then shoot it at his target, which was one of the ones he deemed to be the weakest by the way, a pale skinned girl with platinum blue hair who looked as if she hadn’t done any physical work in her entire life.

"Clang!", a clashing metallic sound reached the blond guy’s ears as his arrow was met head on by a spear, literally, the arrowhead of his arrow had its tip met head on by the spearhead of a spear which of course stopped it.

"What!", the blond guy nearly lost it, but he was in no position to get angry, the angry one here was the ice princess.

"You just thought "she looks weak", right?", said Aria as she narrowed her eyes to then roll her spear as she charged at the enemy.

"Shoot her too!", said the blond guy to the two who were assisting him, who were also archers by the way, a bad move, since they were the only archers of the group and by strategically positioning them, they could have played a major role.

"Clang!", sparks and metal colliding sounds were produced as Aria thrusted her spear twice piercing the arrows that flew her way, by the time the blond guy had put another arrow into his bow, the ice princess had reached one of the two archers from earlier.

"Humph!", with a soft snort, Aria’s spear pierced the neck of the archer killing him on the spot, the first death had occurred and it was on the side with three times the number of members too.

"Clack!", as much as the ones who observed the previous didn’t want to, their attention was drawn towards a dull impact sound which came from a familiar position, their eyes were met with the sight of Kana’s little first being blocked by Xander’s forearm.

The skinny man actually jumped backwards getting away from the little girl who dashed his way, with her left hand ready to throw a punch.

"Hey, Richard, Roman, are you just going to stay there like fools or what!", said the skinny man as she dodged Kana’s punch, only for the little girl to take advantage of her short height to kick the skinny man’s shin.

"Crack!" and that was the sound of a metal reinforced shoe hitting an unprotected shin.

"Ack", the skinny man managed to only let out a soft pained sound while forcing his leg to move despite the shock, in order to put distance between himself and the enemy, a proof that he indeed had rich combat experience.

’What the hell is going on, I can’t feel the slightest killing intent from her so how come her attacks are so fierce...’, suddenly something clicked in Xander’s mind as he was reminded of Aster’s words from earlier, the part where he said "Kana said she was going to show me her hand-to-hand combat skills so be a good sandbag" to be more accurate.

’This little bitch is treating me like a dummy instead of an enemy!!!’, he inwardly screamed.