The girls looked at each other before nodding.
They stepped forward towards the watcher but Shiro was forced back by a barrier.
"What's the meaning of this?" Shiro frowned.
"Your capabilities far outmatch your friends. You shall take a separate test." The Watcher replied simply.
Narrowing her eyes at his response, Shiro sighed.
"Well good luck girls. I'll be cheering you on." She smiled towards the trio.
"Thanks." They nodded before positioning themselves in front of the watcher.
Lyrica and Madison took the front lines while Silvia stayed at the back with a dagger in hand.
Tilting his head, the watcher looked at Silvia.
"How did you pass? Logically you should not have passed with your lack of experience with bladed weapons. A peculiar situation but nonetheless, let us start." He said with a shake of his head.
Clicking his fingers, another sword appeared in his hands.
*BANG!
Reacting on instinct, Lyrica was able to barely parry the slash to her neck.
Madison widened her eyes in surprise before twisting her body and swung her greatsword towards the watcher.
A simple flick of his wrist allowed him to deflect Madison's sword upwards, exposing a gap in her defences.
"Burning Lotus!" Lyrica shouted out, pushing the watcher back and saving Madison in the process.
"Thanks." Madison said, retreating a little to regain her bearings.
Lyrica only nodded simply before dashing towards The Watcher once more.
Twirling her blade nimble along her body, she maximised the amount of power she could hold before slamming her sword into the ground.
*BOOM!!!!!!!!
Fissures spread outwards, forcing The Watcher to jump upwards to avoid it.
"Madi!" Lyrica shouted out but Madison was long prepared.
Jumping up, Madison landed on Lyrica's blade who twisted her body and catapulted Madison towards the watcher.
Magma erupted out of Madison's greatsword.
Twisting her body, Madison started to increase her momentum.
"Crippling Blow!"
*BANG!
Slamming the magma covered greatsword against eh watcher's blade, Madison sent him flying towards the ground.
However, he didn't stay for long as his body charged out of the crater and slashed towards Silvia.
Lyrica tried to dash back but the watcher threw a sword towards her, forcing her to parry it.
"Silvi!" Lyrica called out in worry.
Silvia narrowed her eyes and readied up her dagger.
Bending her body backwards at an impressive angle, Silvia was able to dodge the sword and subsequently slash the watcher on the chest.
Shiro was surprised at Silvia's action. Her movement suggested the goal of dodging out of danger but the way she had placed her dagger during that moment allowed her to sneak in a single attack as a bonus.
Looking down at his chest wound, the watcher shrugged his shoulders slightly as the wound closed itself up.
*BANG BANG!
Raising his sword behind him, he was able to block both Lyrica and Madison's attacks.
"Examinee Silvia has passed. Grade D." He said in a monotone voice.
A golden glow encased Silvia's body and sent her out of the arena.
"Eh?" Silvia was confused as to what had happened.
"Congratulations." Shiro said with a small smile.
"Thanks, I guess? Why did I pass?" Silvia asked as she had so many questions floating in her head right now.
"From what I can see, The Watcher will scale his strength so that it matches yours. Once you land a hit, you pass." Shiro replied.
"But didn't Lyrica and Madison also hit him?" Silvia questioned with a tilt of her head.
"They didn't get a good hit in. The watcher blocked it." Shiro shook her head.
Hearing her response, Silvia looked back at the arena and saw that it was true.
The watcher was able to block both of their attacks whilst countering with his own slashes.
Demonic Strength!
Activating her berserk skill, Madison held her greatsword as if it was a normal one handed sword and charged towards the watcher.
*BANG CRASH!!!!
Her sword was able to overpower the watcher and sent his sword flying across the area.
However, even though she was able to overpower him, it left her open for an attack.
Raising up his leg, The Watcher sent a devastating kick to her stomach.
"GAH!"
Madison's body was set flying back.
Dashing towards her as quickly as possible, Lyrica gritted her teeth and caught her mid-flight. The force sent a shock through her body but she endured.
"You alright?" Lyrica asked, stabilising their bodies.
"Yeah, sorry." Madison nodded.
She knew that last attack was a risky one that would open her up for an attack but she still went for it.
"Don't be too eager! Take your time." Shiro shouted out.
"Bystander's should just watch." The Watcher frowned before clicking his fingers. A second barrier erected around the first one and stopped any sound from entering.
"Tsk, stingy f*ck." Shiro cursed in annoyance.
"Rose Blossom! Pierce!" Lyrica commanded as she stabbed her blade forwards like a drill. Several rose thorns erupted around The Watcher and stabbed towards him at the same time.
Grabbing his sword, the watcher only smiled before slashing his sword downwards.
*BANG!!!!!
A single swing of his sword caused a deep trench to form in the arena as well as shatter all of Lyrica's thorns.
Pivoting her body to the side, Lyrica avoided the slash and tried to uppercut The Watcher.
However, her blade was pinched by his fingers just before it reached.
With both his hands occupied, Madison appeared beside him and cleaved his sword arm off.
Looking at his arm, the watcher shrugged before sending out a pulse of mana that forced the duo to step back.
"Examinee Madison has passed. Grade C+." The Watcher said whilst picking up his arm and reattached it.
Similar to what had happened to Silvia, Madison was encased with a golden glow and sent out of the arena.
That only left Lyrica along to face off against the watcher.
"Now then chosen one. Show me what you can do alone." The Watcher gestured for Lyrica to attack.
Accepting the gesture, Lyrica dashed forwards and started to cross blades with The Watcher.
Shiro, who spectated by the side, yawned a little since she could tell The Watcher was slightly biased towards Lyrica.
While it was true that this was the last test, he was also training her.
He would attack her weak spots but decrease his speed enough so that Lyrica could react to them. Otherwise, she would have lost long ago.
'Hmm… Since he called her the chosen one and whatnot, he probably wants her to be stronger. This training might take a while.' Shiro thought to herself.
The two of them continued to spar as Shiro got bored and decided to play around with her swords.
Keeping her eye on The Watcher, she started to engrave his movements into her mind.
It was the same process that she had used to learn Yin Style Phantom Arts. She would 'record' their movements into her mind and continuously simulate it until she got it right.
Looking at his sword style, she could tell that it heavily emphasises the point of attacking weak spots.
Parry then attack weak spot. Sneak around then attack weak spot. Counter then attack once more.
Wielding both swords in his hands, The Watcher continuously attacked Lyrica's weak points.
Not saying a word, Shiro hopped from her branch and walked away.
"Shiro?" Madison called out, curious as to why she suddenly started to walk away.
"Don't worry, I'm just going to practice for a bit." Shiro smiled.
Tapping her necklace, she summoned her swords and had them float as if two people were facing off against each other.
*CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!
The four swords repeatedly collided with each other with Shiro making small corrections to their course every so often.
"Hey… Don't you think that kinda looks like what The Watcher is doing?" Silvia asked, pointing over at Shiro.
"Now that you mention it, yeah it does." Madison nodded her head slowly.
However, since Shiro didn't know how much the watcher was hiding in his sword style, she could only improvise in some aspects.
Naturally, she could see the massive flaws in her improvisations but she was never a swordsman to begin with.
She used guns and giant fortresses rather than swords.
But no one was born a master of their craft. If people could become grandmaster swordsman, why couldn't she? She did become the apex after all.
'Copying 100% of The Watcher's sword arts will only limit myself since me and him are different people. I can take inspiration but I cannot just take everything. I need to mould it around my own fighting style.' Shiro thought to herself.
*CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!
The swords started to speed up as Shiro continuously analysed her sword style to erase the flaws and instead replace them with opportunities. When she included the fact that she had the chance to remaster her full body control, she could be more adventurous with her martial arts.
'I can combine Yin Style Phantom Arts to increase the lethality of this sword art. The Phantom Arts revolve around being almost undetectable as well as counter-attacking. Paired up with The Watcher's sword art that is all about attacking weak points, I'll be able to create a decent assassination style sword art that is the extremity of attack type martial arts.' Shiro thought with an excited grin.
The Watcher glanced over curiously as his instincts were telling him that something interesting was about to happen.
However, when he looked over, his eyes widened in shock seeing Shiro merging his sword arts into a mysterious martial arts.
The two was strangely compatible as they both revolve around similar concepts.
*DANG!
"Where are you watching." Lyrica said with a frown as she slashed towards his head.
The Watcher didn't reply as he would spare some of his attention on Shiro.
Moments passed as Shiro continued to refine her newly merged martial arts. It was in situations like this where her ability shined since she could create several tens to hundreds of simulations for her new martial arts. How they would work, where it would fail.
Through constant refinement, her martial arts became smoother with fewer flaws.
Eventually, she stopped and retrieved the floating swords.
"She's done it…" The watcher muttered in disbelief.
In his life, he had ever seen talent like Shiro's. Even with the chosen one in front of him, he could tell that Shiro was unmatched.
Which led to the question of why wasn't she chosen?
Just a single glance at his sword arts allowed her to merge it together with her current martial arts. With such talent, surely she was more suitable when compared to the chosen one in front of him.
Looking at her sword, Shiro smiled with pride.
[Yin Style Phantom Arts has successfully merged with ???]
[Please name the new arts in 10 seconds or the system shall give a suitable name.]
"Hmm… Surprise me."
[New Skill Set Gained: Yin Style Asura's Path]
[Title Gained: Creator of Yin Style Asura's Path]
[Creator of Yin Style Asura's Path]
+20% Damage and efficiency with Yin Style Asura's Path
+20% Stealth
+20% Critical Chance when striking a weak spot
"Hou~ Asura's Path huh?" Shiro smiled.
Knowledge on the newly evolved Asura's Path appeared in her mind as she memorised them.
Currently, there were only 2 stances in the martial arts.
Phantom Path and Asura Sword Path.
Phantom path was basically an enhanced version of her original Phantom Arts but she was slightly curious about the Asura Sword Path.
'I should test it out against the watcher when I fight him.' Shiro thought with anticipation.
Looking back at the arena, she could see that both the watcher and Lyrica were standing still.
"What happened?" Shiro asked in confusion.
"The watcher started to mutter to himself so Lyrica paused for a bit." Madison replied.
"Huh? Lyrica, why didn't you attack him?" Shiro asked, turning to Lyrica.
"I wanted to but he blocked everything." Lyrica replied. She wanted to cry but had no tears.
She tried to take advantage but the watcher only used one hand to keep her at bay while he would mutter incoherently to himself.
"You, Shiro, did you just learn my sword arts just by looking at me." He asked seriously.
"Nope."
"Don't lie."
"I didn't. All I did was 'record' your movements and get inspiration from them." Shiro shrugged her shoulders before hopping up on the tree branch.
Frowning at her response, the watcher turned back to Lyrica.
"You only have 5 more minutes to try to hit me. If you fail within that time chosen one, then you will be eliminated." He said impatiently. With such a good seedling and talent behind him, he didn't understand why he had to train the 'chosen one' in front of him.
Especially since the girl was clearly inferior to Shiro in his eyes.
Seeing his stare that looked down on her, Lyrica gritted her teeth in frustration. She understood that gaze well. It was the gaze of someone who didn't expect anything of her.
'Just like the students before Shiro came.' Lyrica thought to herself.
Taking a deep breath, she remembered the help that Shiro had offered her and resolved herself to prove her worth no matter what.
"Rose Blossom: Heart Essence!" Lyrica shouted out as flaming red aura burst out from her body.
A hollow image of a rose started to blossom on her chest. The rose itself looked like it was made from glass as blood started to drip into the glass rose container.
Narrowing her eyes, Lyrica bit her lip before spitting blood onto her blade.
"Rose Blossom: Blood Thorns!"
Blood runes started to spread out on her blade as thorns sprung out of the handle and wrapped around her forearms.
However, she wasn't done yet.
"Thousand Blade Aura! Willow Tree Aura!"
Seeing Lyrica stack multiple skills together, Shiro smiled proudly.
Even the watcher became serious feeling Lyrica's change in aura.
"Time is ticking chosen one. Prove your worth!"
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