Chapter 30: Blade Dancer

<50th Attempt.>

7 Apprentices fall onto the platform—Alice remains in the center, quickly looking around and memorizing the current number of opponents and their locations. She sighs, as if expelling all her tension from her body.

Her opponents remain still, practically telling Alice to make the first move. However, the swordswoman smiles confidently and responds in a mocking tone: "What? Are you scared?"

The first Apprentice leaps forward, bringing his sword down in a vertical slash. Alice shifts her sword to her right hand and uses her left to block the attack and repel it with a [Perfect Block]. He is thrown back but hasn't fallen off the arena yet.

[Stamina: 180/190]

*Tap tap tap*

In the same instant, she spins with a horizontal slash, parrying the blows of two Apprentices who intended to ambush her from behind. "So, when are you going to stop warming up and fight for real?" Alice taunts, looking fixedly at her opponents, while effortlessly defending an attack from her left—where an Apprentice advances with a thrust, and the player simply uses the blade of her sword to redirect the attack.

Before he could react, the Apprentice has his arm grabbed by Alice. She then sweeps his legs while spinning at a surprising speed, using the opponent's body as a weapon and throwing him against all nearby enemies. Thanks to her strength points, the impact was so strong that it threw anyone off the platform. She then finishes by tossing the Apprentice out.

"I see you've become annoyingly confident," says old Lick, sitting in the air and leaning on his katana.

"Well, it helps to keep a cool head."

"Cool? Did you set your head on fire?"

"No!" she communicates casually while defending the attacks, "It's just a way of saying I'm calmer."

"... I have to admit. Aerion caused serious damage to the sacred language of Hillcrest."

As if a balance had tipped, Alice was more adapted to the movements of the Apprentices—just like a game, each attempt makes her more experienced—now her enemies were as predictable as slimes.

Every step of her opponent already gave away their intention, and Alice could already process a countermeasure and apply it in the same second. 5 minutes after the test started, and she had already knocked down 12 Apprentices in total.

"I think this is the one!" the player celebrates.

Suddenly, she feels the platform losing balance. 2 Apprentices fell on its edge—however, they ignore Alice and look at each other as if communicating—then the duo locks arms, and one of the Apprentices' forms transmutes into dust, which is absorbed by his partner's body.

Then, he transforms, his skin turning a grayer shade, his muscles enlarging, and now he wielded two swords at once.

"They can do that? Well, two skulls think better than one," she turns to Lick, "HEY! Do they count as two in the test, right?"

"No."

"WHAT?!"

"He he he. It was a joke, of course they do."

She sighs in relief, "Thank Goddness…" and shifts her focus to the 'super' Apprentice. "Bring it on!"

As Alice's challenge, he crouches—Alice presumes he's preparing to jump, most likely attacking her from above, and gets ready to defend—and in the blink of an eye, he was no longer there.

[Flash Step]

The swordsman falls beside Alice like a meteor, causing the platform to suddenly tip backward. She almost falls but manages to stab her sword into the inclined ground. However, the Apprentice had the same idea, but unlike the player, he had two swords.

He throws the blade at Alice, who reflexively defends the attack with her arm, returning the impact back to the Apprentice—who has his sword thrown away.

[Stamina: 170/190]

"Limit Extender: Strength!" a red, flaming aura emerges from her right arm, her fist advances like a fireball at the Apprentice's face. The force is so great that it throws him off—but Alice shakes her hand in pain, as if she had tried to punch a wall.

[Stamina: 165/190]

Still with amplified strength and using her sword, she propels herself to the center of the platform to balance it back. She turns to Lick and says in a mocking tone, "You sure this was an evolution?"

Challenged by Alice's arrogance, he snaps his fingers with a malevolent smile, "Oh, found it too easy? Let me fix that," and two more super Apprentices fall.

"Oh, free 4 points? Thanks!"

[Red Rhino]

[Description: A brutal technique originally created by Lick, consisting of placing the elbow back, pointing the sword at the target, and concentrating strength in the arm until feeling the blood boil. When ready, the user throws the arm forward, releasing a sharp shockwave at the opponent.]

The two Apprentices prepare this skill—each with their two arms—Alice notes they might be preparing a ranged attack, so she shouts: "Limit Exten—"

But in a flash, she sees small shockwaves coming her way instantly, and when she processes what happened, she finds herself falling off the platform.

[HP: 185/195]

"It was so fast...!" even while falling, Alice is determined to complete the test, so she extends her arm, creating a web from her hand that barely sticks to the edge of the arena. She breathes in relief, then, remembering a maneuver Solol did in the spider's nest, Alice swings to throw herself back into the arena with a flying kick to the face of one of the Apprentices.

[Mana: 40/50]

"Nice try, for amateurs," she holds her leg in pain, "OUCH! Is that invisible armor?!"

The intact Apprentice prepares another double [Red Rhino], but Alice already advances and spins, launching a [Wind Scrapper], "Not this time!"

[Stamina: 150/190]

Seeing the wind slash coming his way, the Apprentice stops his skill, raises his katanas, and throws them against the [Wind Scrapper] in a vertical slash. His strength was such that he dissipates the attack as if it were dust. But with that split second of distraction, he sees the player jumping towards him, holding her sword with both hands.

"Careful not to lose your head out there!"

He promptly puts his swords in front, creating an improvised defense against the aerial attack, but Alice shows no sign of stopping. The old man sighs disappointedly, as that strike would certainly be fatal. Until...

[Limit Extender: Speed]

[Speed: 25 (+10)]

[Stamina: 145/190]

The sword disappears from Alice's hands, and with her enhanced agility, she throws herself to the left side, landing near the Apprentice—specifically behind his legs. "Equip!" her weapon reappears, and with a quick and precise strike, she cuts both his Achilles tendons—he doesn't even have time to turn and counterattack—the swordsman falls like a tree to the ground.

Even seeing his fallen Apprentice later carried and thrown out by her, what shocks Lick the most is the 'technique' Alice just performed—making the sword disappear and reappear—because over all these centuries, he encountered the most diverse swordsmen, and none had an ability like hers. He was sure it wasn't magic, as he didn't even feel her mana moving, and it was unlikely that an amateur like her could perform such a complex spell.

The Apprentice who took the kick recovers and advances on Alice with his skill [Spider Thrust], which consists of anchoring his feet to the ground and throwing all his strength into his shoulders, spinning to make multiple slashes at his opponent. At the peak of the ability, the user is so fast it creates the illusion of having 8 arms.

But the player easily retreats with 3 jumps back, witnessing her opponent performing the skill futilely in the air. "Hell yeah! Show the oxygen who rules!"

Seeing he missed his target completely, he panics and tries to exit the skill, but it was as if his body was forced to continue the [Spider Thrust]. His arms don't respond, his legs are stiff as stone, practically becoming a perfect target.

Alice walks to the side of the Apprentice, "Hm, now that I think about it, that skill of yours was quite similar to the Wind Scrapper... Could it be..." she assumes the pose of the [Red Rhino], and tries to concentrate the same amount of force as the [Wind Scrapper], "Instead of spreading, I can concentrate everything into one point!"

She throws her arm forward and... a small, fragile spear of wind emerges from her blade, dissipating after advancing 4 and a half meters. "Worth a shot."

[Stamina: 142/190]

After the failed attempt, the platform loses balance, and the Apprentice slips off. Alice fights the urge to cry with laughter, while Lick puts his hand on his face, embarrassed by the humiliating defeat of his creation.

"Almost halfway through! This is the run!"