"…Thank you. Next time I hear someone screaming in a dungeon, I hope they're half as lucky as I was."
You're just lucky I happened to hear you. And care.
Claudia watches from an ice platform in the sky a few hundred feet away from the young man. He's just bowing at the broken sculpture now.
Well, I did get to try a new move, so I guess this works out for both of us.
Mist Born. A technique that transforms her body into pure mana and then converts it into mist. Good for precise and quick attacks.
She looks at her surroundings and frowns. In the distance, she can see trees falling down and explosions of magic—basically needless destruction all over.
It's kind of funny, really. If everyone simply decided to do what she is doing and just avoid monsters, they could all pass this test with ease.
Unfortunately, people can be selfish, and through their greed, they will make things harder for themselves and others.
She looks up toward the sun on the horizon. In a few hours, the sun will set and night will fall in this dungeon.
In the night, it will be easier for people to steal others' bracelets. Not to mention, monsters will also attack in the dead of night.
It's just bothersome.
Oh. Why don't I just eliminate all the magic beasts in this area? Better yet, why not the whole forest? Yeah, that's not a bad plan.
"Okay, I've got a goal now."
She stands and starts dashing through the sky. With each step she takes, a platform of ice forms beneath her feet.
She runs and runs until she sees another participant struggling against a stone golem.
"Small fries," she quietly mutters to herself as she smirks.
Her body begins to convert itself into mana, then from mana into mist. With a single step, she launches herself downward toward the golem.
Once in range, she swings her sword through the glowing core in the golem's chest.
A blue line appears horizontally across the core and the golem's body. The upper half of the golem's body falls to the ground with a loud thud.
She doesn't stop and instead continues to run through the thick forest in Mist Born.
From then on, she uses her skill Thermal Perception to track down the heat signatures of any monsters within a 200-meter radius of her.
She encounters monsters as low as goblins to as high as wyverns. With each one she meets, she uses the same technique and cuts their vitals in one go.
There are occasionally a few monsters who manage to dodge a direct hit. When that happens, she uses her skill Sub-Zero and drains the heat away from their body. After that, she goes for the kill.
There is one beast who managed to survive through all that, so she simply just goes for the brute force approach and uses her aura (energy emitted from the soul) to cut away at the beasts soul.
An hour passes. By now, she's killed about seventy-five monsters in all. Twenty were S-rank, while the rest were B-rank or C-rank.
If she had to guess, she's probably eliminated maybe half of the monsters around the area. Maybe more.
It might not be the whole forest, but she has cleared a good majority of them. It's probably best to stop and make camp. Within a short time, night wil fall.
She runs until she comes across an empty campsite. Or at least it looks empty, but her Thermal Perception says otherwise.
There's a monster hiding somewhere. She can sense it the way a person can sense bloodlust, but she can't pinpoint exactly where it is.
She walks slowly, sword up, keeping an eye on everything around her—from the rustling of leaves to the tiny chirps of birds in the trees.
Whatever this monster is, it should just show itself.
One way or another, I will kill you.
She waits and waits, but the monster doesn't reveal itself. It's just watching from somewhere.
By the time she notices, the sun has set and the moon is slowly rising on the horizon.
Then she senses it. A sudden movement from the monster. It's heading straight for her. But where is it?
Without knowing where it is, she can't dodge it, nor can she defend herself. Unless… she allows herself to get hit.
Right now her Mist Born is still active, which means she won't suffer any damage from a direct attack. The only thing that can affect her is an attack using wind, since it can scatter her across an entire area in one go. Who knows how long it would take for her to reform.
Bottom line, if the monster hits her directly, in that moment it'll be vulnerable to an attack from her.
But it has to be quick. If the monster realizes what she's trying to do, it's all over. It'll probably run away and come strike her when she turns off her skill. It does consume a ton of mana. She can probably keep it up for half an hour at least.
So she intentionally lowers her defense and allows the monster to pierce her through the chest.
Strangely though, she can feel something sharp pass through her chest, but she still can't see it.
Strange as it is, she doesn't allow that to stop her.
She quickly surrounds the monster by trapping it within a dome of mist. Since the mist is from her body, she's able to analyze whatever's inside.
And yet…
Nothing. No matter how much she tries, she just can't get any information out of it. It's as if she's dealing with a ghost.
But that's impossible.
So instead of analyzing, she begins to freeze it, hoping that she can at least see its physical form.
But alas, it doesn't seem to have an effect.
What am I dealing with here?
Something she can't see, something she can't analyze, and something that she can't even attack.
Seeing it as a waste of mana, she immediately separates from the dome and reconstructs her body. The dome begins to dissipate.
Maybe it somehow escaped. Yeah, that has to be it. There's no way I'm fighting a literal ghost. Maybe I'm simply getting rusty and I've lost my touch. Cause… cause…
She starts walking toward the mist.
Then—
Tick.
An audible tick sound can be heard.
The very moment she hears it, the world changes to a more… reddish kind of color. Everything still has its original color, but the outer lines have become red. It's as if someone drew a picture and then colored the outer parts of the picture red.
The only thing she can say is completely red is the sky.
It's not just the scenery that's changed. The very birds who were flying in the sky mere moments ago have now stopped mid-air. Their wings are still flapping, but very, very slowly. Her body as well has also slowed down.
The mist from the dome is now slowly fading away. Much, much slower than before.
Simply put, time has slowed down.
If her heart could still beat, it would probably be racing right now. The sheer terror she feels is enough to kill her a thousand times over.
But what can cause something like this? As far as she knows, the last instance of time slowing down was on the day the vampire princess was born. But she's been dead for sixty-five years.
No… the better question is, how can she remain conscious while time itself has slowed down? She doesn't have any resistance to time-related abilities, so how? Is someone keeping her conscious on purpose? If so… why?
Click. Click. Click.
Claudia hears the sound of footsteps from behind her. Someone is coming.
Click, click, click.
The sound of the footsteps gets louder as the person gradually makes her way toward her without a care in the world.
Finally, the person passes by her and stands right in front of her.
...Your alive?!
Long black hair, as dark as the night sky. Fair skin that seems to glow under the moonlight. Ruby-red eyes that glow like a crimson moon.
These are features Claudia knows all too well. It could just be a coincidence that the person she is thinking of and the person in front of her have a similar face.
That is, until the person pulls out the katana attached to her waist.
Claudia instantly recognizes it. How could she not? After all, both she and the person she's thinking of made that katana together.
The hilt has small intricate raven designs on it along with a small diamond keychain attached to it. It has a raven-winged guard and a dark crimson blade with a curved edge.
That sword is called Raven's Talon.
The person Claudia knows would never allow anyone to take it.
That person is someone who Claudia admires, who she considers to be just as precious as her younger brother.
…Big Sister?