Waiting just outside of the cave, Shiro started to frown.
[Player: -Silvia- Has been eliminated.]
[Player: -Madison- Has been eliminated.]
Furrowing her brows, Shiro started to shake her leg up and down restlessly.
'Two of them have failed, would Lyrica pass?' She thought with uncertainty.
However, another problem appeared. With both Silvia and Madison now out of the trial, they lacked a tank and healer. Since this was a team trial, you were supposed to complete it as a team.
Shiro would look back and forth from the cave and her system. Thankfully, however, she saw Lyrica slowly walk out of the cave. Her body was entirely inured with blood and wounds all over her.
"Lyrica!" Shiro cried out in shock and dashed over to help her.
Looking at Lyrica's injured, Shiro didn't even know how she was still standing.
"I passed." Lyrica smiled tiredly whilst relaxing in Shiro's embrace.
"Un, good job. Rest for a little bit." Shiro smiled and patted Lyrica's head.
Scooping her up into a princess carry, Shiro took her over to a tree and sat her in the shade.
Lyrica would have normally burned the feeling into her mind but right now, she could barely feel the rest of her body.
A single movement would send a pulse of pain through her body.
"Do you have any healing potions on you?" Shiro asked gently. She knew that injured people normally wouldn't like to have loud noises around them.
"I do but I can't take them out." Lyrica replied with a shake of her head.
Frowning slightly, Shiro decided to try her luck in town.
"Wait for me here, I'll go buy some medicine for you."
However, before Shiro could leave, a new concern popped into her head.
'With a beautiful girl like Lyrica injured and defenceless near a tree, isn't that asking for her to be *ahem* attacked?' Shiro thought to herself.
"Actually, let me move you to somewhere more suitable." Shiro said, changing her mind.
Lyrica only nodded her head obediently.
Scooping her up into a princess carry once more, Shiro made sure that Lyrica was comfortable by using Third Phantom.
By transferring all of the momentum and recoil into her own body, she can avoid harming Lyrica.
'It's like a bed…' Lyrica thought to herself. Apart from the wind blowing on her face along with subtle shaking to inform her that they were moving, Lyrica felt like she was currently resting her body on a small ice bed.
Looking around the area, Shiro found an obscure cave that was situated at the side of a mountain. To get to the cave, one would need to parkour from one side of the mountain to the other.
'This should be fine. Not many people can get up here.' Shiro thought to herself.
"This should be quite safe for you. Wait for me here ok?" Shiro smiled.
"Un." Lyrica nodded her head.
Walking back to the entrance, Shiro looked back at Lyrica before leaping out of the cave.
Dashing through the forest, she soon found herself back at the entrance of the town.
"Now then, where is the pharmacy." Shiro muttered with a frown.
Walking to the first stall she saw, she called over owner.
"Hel-"
"Where can I buy medicine?" Shiro asked, cutting her off.
"Eh?"
"Where can I buy medicine. It's urgent." Shiro repeated. Considering the severity of Lyrica's wounds, there is the possibility that she was inflicted with a bleed status. If she doesn't get medicine quickly, it would rob Lyrica of this golden chance.
'Since she said she could sense something in the north, I can't let her fail this trial.' Shiro thought to herself.
"Ah, medicine. Right, erm, go down the road and take the right alley next to the tavern. You should be able to spot old man Gu's medicine shop-"
Before the woman could even finish, Shiro was long gone.
Following the instructions of the owner, she saw a wooden door with the sight, 'Old Man Gu's Pharmacy'.
*Don Don
Shiro knocked on the door and waited patiently. Of course, that was a slight stretch since if the person didn't respond in 30 seconds she was going to kick the door down.
"Coming…" A weak voice called out.
*Creak~
A wrinkled hand opened the door.
Looking at the small old man in front of her, Shiro wondered if adventurers could even age like that. It was due to the fact that while adventurers did age, they would retain quite a lot of their fighting power even at the last stages of their life span.
For a person to look this feeble and weak, it was truly a first for Shiro.
"Ah what a surprise. A young girl like you would visit this old man." He chuckled whilst checking out Shiro.
'A slender waist, smooth skin, thin limbs and a beautiful face. While the white hair is a little weird, it's not bad I suppose hehe.' He grinned inwardly.
Pulling a face of absolute disgust, Shiro already knew he was nothing good.
"You got any medicine for treating a large amount of sword wounds? Oh and also some disinfectant and some medical bandages." Shiro asked whilst suppressing the disgust in her heart.
"Hou hou, I do but they're expensive. From the look of things, you're quite desperate for them aren't you? From your description, your friend must have suffered quite the injury from the sword trials right?" He said with a grin.
"Hais… I swear the amount of guys I've seen that act the same way as you." Shiro said whilst glaring at him with disdain.
"Old man, let this princess teach you something…" She continued as she grabbed him by the throat.
"This princess ain't something you can obtain. F*ck that, you're not even worth a strand of my hair." Shiro said coldly.
Her eyes radiated merciless killing intent that would destroy everything in life that she hated.
The old man paled slightly before his body started to convulse.
Reeling back in disgust, Shiro threw his body against the wall.
*SPLAT!
The force of her throw turned his body into a meat paste that sent blood and flesh all over the room.
Walking into the room with disregard of the meat paste, Shiro started to shuffle through all the drawers for something she could use.
"Why doesn't he have anything?" Shiro narrowed her eyes in confusion.
Before she could continue her search, she instinctively jumped through the window and rolled a few times before stabilising herself on her feet.
She saw a black figure standing near her previous spot.
"Kekeke, as expected. Your instincts are sharp." The black figure said with joy in his voice.
Looking at the shadow, Shiro realised it to be the blood of the old man that she had killed.
"Che, what's a blood demon like you doing at this place?" Shiro questioned with narrowed eyes.
"Ohya? You know of my race? Well I can't help but admit that this is quite the surprise kekeke." He grinned.
Flicking his hand, he coagulated a sword made from solidified blood.
'Eh? He's not using lethal blood magic?' Shiro thought with a mix of surprise and suspicion.
Blood demons were known for their dangerous blood magic that is almost impossible to defend against. However, if the blood demon in front of her was using a blood crafted sword instead of lethal blood magic, that could only mean it was restricted to the rules of this world as well.
'Then that means he's not a true blood demon in essence. But rather just a swordsman with the form of a blood demon.'
Tapping her necklace, Shiro summoned her Ascendant Dream and grabbed one of the swords while the other three orbited her.
"Four swords huh? Let me give it a try as well." He chuckled before creating three floating swords as well.
However, before he could taunt Shiro, he widened his eyes when he saw her right in front of him.
*DANG!!!!
Locking swords with her, he retreated a few steps.
"Has anyone told you about taking the initiative and not waste time? No? Let me acquaint you." Shiro said whilst shifting her grip into a reverse grip and twisted her body.
*BANG!
Giving the demon a devastating roundhouse kick to the head, Shiro threw her sword towards him.
*KLING!
The demon was able to raise his hand just quick enough to deflect the sword. But due to the fact that all four swords were linked to her, controlling the sword in the air was an easy feat for Shiro.
Flicking her fingers, Shiro controlled the sword to stab through the back of his hand.
"GAH!"
Grabbing his wrist, Shiro grinned before stomping the back of his elbow.
*CRACK!
The demon gritted his teeth and tried to slash at her but Shiro dodged easily.
Crouching down, Shiro made eye contact with the demon and grinned sadistically.
She stabbed out with her elbow and jabbed the demon on the spine. This caused him to kneel forward.
Shiro took this chance to grab both his wrists and step on the back of his head.
"How dare you! How can a weak human overpower me! A monster!!" He cried out in anger.
"Hahahaha, did this princess not tell you? You're not the only monster here boy~" Shiro grinned before putting force into her legs and ripped his arms off.
Snapping her fingers, she controlled the swords to stab into his shoulders and lift him up.
He opened his mouth to speak but a sword plunged into his throat and through his heart.
However, his body broke down into a pool of blood before coagulating itself back together not too far from her spot.
Looking at the demon panting heavily, Shiro made a blank face before tilting her head and smiled sadistically.
"Seems like you can regenerate. Feel free to entertain this princess ok?" Shiro said with a small chuckle.
Glaring at her in anger, a creepy laugh started to seep out of his lips.
"Hehehe, let's see how long you can keep this up. My companion has your friend, and he'll be arriving soon."
This caused Shiro to lose her smile as her face became that of a cold assassin.
"Speak of the demon and he'll appear." The demon grinned before pointing behind Shiro.
"Shiro…" Lyrica muttered weakly, grabbing Shiro's attention.
Turning around, Shiro saw Lyrica being held by another blood demon.
*DANG!
One of her swords collided with the blood demon's sword and stopped it from stabbing her head.
Even though she had turned around, it didn't mean her guard was dropped.
"If you want your friend to pass this trial, you better drop your swords right now." He grinned.
"You know, since this is a trial, death doesn't mean much." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Why get so hung over a trial? Plus, I think I'll spare my friend the humiliation of being held captive with her not being able to do anything."
Shiro flicked her wrist before allowing her swords to run rampant around the area, slicing up everything it touched.
"ARE YOU CRAZY!" He shouted out in shock.
"Yes~"
*PUCHI!!!!
Both of the demon including Lyrica was stabbed by the swords and ripped apart. However, Lyrica was still conscious with only her upper torso.
"Why?" She asked with tears in her eyes.
"Stop that. My friend won't act this way." Shiro said blandly before stabbing her sword into 'Lyrica's' head.
*Ping~
The sound of glass shattering rang out as Shiro realised she was still outside the cave.
"Test of heart huh?" She muttered with a frown.
Looking around her, she saw that Lyrica, Madison and Silvia were sitting in a lotus position with sweat on their faces.
"So they're in the same test."
During that test, she didn't even know when it had started nor did she know she was inside one. However, when she saw the demon bring in Lyrica is when she understood it was a test.
If she was put into the same situation as Lyrica, she would choose to struggle till her death in order to not implicate her teammates. It was only a trial after all. It didn't matter in the sense that it's not a case of life and death.
Not to mention, Shiro understood Lyrica well enough to know that she wouldn't be fixated by a trial so much so that she would implicate her teammate's chances. She was just like that after all.
However, if it had turned out that Lyrica really was like that, picking trial over friends, then she could only blame herself for misjudging her character.
Looking at Lyrica, Shiro narrowed her eyes as a question popped into her head.
'If the same situation happened in real life, would I still choose to kill the demons?' She wondered.
She was a selfish person in a way that she only had a look at things that interested her. Other things didn't matter.
To her, Lyrica was one of the things that interested her hence why she spent so much effort on her.
However, she didn't think she would actively use her life to protect something that only 'interested' her.
As cold as it was, she could always move on in life and find more things that interested her.
Of course, that was what she would have thought a while back. But now, the being that had interested her so far had evolved into something precious like family.
Lyrica was almost like a child she watched grow up from her timid self. Following her every step of the way.
Shaking her head of these thoughts, Shiro smiled softly.
'No one knows what they would actually do in that situation. No matter what they say, no matter what they make themselves believe, no one is sure until the moment actually comes.' She thought to herself since she was the same.
She could say that she was selfish and would preserve her own life, or she could say she was selfless and sacrifice herself. She could also say that she would make her own path and avoid both of these options. But nothing was certain.
"Goodness, this trial of the heart really messes with ya." She muttered whilst laying on her back. She was going to have a short nap whilst waiting for them to pass the test.
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