Lillian's Score?

Lillian smiled broadened, immediately summoning back the potion and preparing herself for the tag team. Xander came at her, much slower compared to before, his hands covered in a blazing flame. (2)

Testrie nimbly followed behind Xander, knowing that he was most suited to be the frontal attacker.

Xander's hands flashed towards Lillian. The flames reflected in her blue crystalline eyes. Lillian ducked, grabbing a handful of sand and chucking it in a wide arc—some of it managed to pass through Xander's fiery defences.

Irritated by the small cloud of sand entering his eyes—he lost control over his flames, letting them go out. Lillian, seeing that it was the perfect moment to attack, slashed her sword at him—intending to lop off his head.

However...

CLANG!

It was surprisingly parried. Testrie, with her rapier, gracefully lunged forward and stabbed her blade over Xander's shoulder—protecting him against the chilling blade.

Lillian squinted her eyes at this, revealing a brief moment of shock before dashing it away. She then swiftly brought her hand before Xander's face and blasted him away with water. (2)

This caused him to fly back—knocking into Testrie.

They both roughly landed—clouds of sand rising from their position. Testrie

Hastily pushing off the still-blinded Xander, she held up her rapier and blocked an overhead swing.

Lillian pushed against her blade—scraping against it.

Testrie furrowed her brows. She was losing in the contest of strength.

She glanced to the side and watched Xander, who had rolled quite a bit away, slowly get off the floor. His eyes red from rubbing—a bit teary in the corners.

Her face flashed with concern, unfortunately for her, she wasn't able to dwell on this feeling for long because...

She watched as her arm holding her rapier was severed from her shoulder. She doubled over, clutching her stump, hissing in pain.

Blood poured out from her wound, leaving her feeling drained and light-headed.

Her face contorted in a variety of expressions, each visibly painful to look at than the last; she was glad the pain was reduced.

"Well then... I'll be taking that health potion of yours..." She stated calmly.

While this was happening, Xander had finally steadied himself. His eyes narrowed in on Lillian—darting between her and Testrie; she sat before her, seriously wounded.

"Not good..." He mumbled under his breath.

Xander's hand unconsciously caressed his wounded chest. He was glad he was quite sturdy enough to move around like this.

Without any further ado, he straightened out his hoodie and flexed his muscles. His body then suddenly went up in a blaze.

Falling down into a crouch, he shot forth.

Lillian, just about to eliminate Testrie, saw her face morph into a mischievous smile.

"Aren't you a bit too focused on me? Weren't you the one who said to keep up your guard?"

Lillian's eyes widened. (2)

Her face snapped to the side, but she was too slow to avoid Xander's burning embrace.

The flames ravished her body, scorching her alive.

She tried her best to keep in her cries of pain but eventually gave in when it became just a tad bit much. Even with the pain being halved, it was still ultimately unpleasant.

That was then... the pain suddenly increased without any given warning—becoming a bit too much for poor little Lillian.

Xander, feeling Lillian go limp, released her and put himself out. He watched as her body fell onto the sand—smoke rising off her charred body.

"I'm sure she'll disappear any moment now..." He said before scratching his head—the feeling of guilt rising inside him, "Should I have turned down the temp?"

He then faced Testrie to see her gasping. He couldn't help but let out a laugh, "Hahaha! You really should exercise more, Tes! Your element made you lazy."

Testrie glared at him but didn't refute. She really should build up her stamina a little bit instead of sitting behind her desk all day.

Clutching the stump, she winced before staring at Lillian's charred body.

Her eyes shone a respectful glint of the girl's courage.

"She was quite difficult to deal with..."

"Tell me about it! Here, I thought most people here would just be some arrogant nobleman with only money to show for their title." Xander laughed before looking up at the sky, specifically at the leaderboard.

"What did she say her name was again? Lillian, was it?"

Testrie nodded briefly, "I've checked the leaderboard. I only found one person with her name." she stated confidently.

"Oh...? And who are they?"

"Lillian Ker Arius."

"... The Arius...?" He asked again. Wanting confirmation of this shocking news.

"Shocking... I know..."

"We're talking about the family that caused a ruckus in the Royal Ball, right?"

Testrie gave a slow nod.

Xander couldn't help but shake his head—dumbfounded. "Who knew a troublesome and silly family like them to produce such a strong member? Even I'm shocked."

He then paused his shaking and asked, "What place is she and what is her score?"

After a while of searching, his previously narrowed eyes slowly opened. He then smiled in defeat.

"I see... you really are quite tough, aren't you?" He said, feeling someone standing behind him. Testrie shouted out for him to get out of the way, but...

THUD!

***

In a heavily dense forest, with trees several dozen metres tall and about an elephant or so wide, was a mountain of corpses of what seemed to be a bee-like creature.

Soon after, they all began to digitalise and disappear, revealing a tall woman with long pitch-black hair that flowed down over her shoulders and back like a waterfall of darkness. Her eyes shined a deep red that seemed to pierce through the shadows formed from the thick canopies of the trees.

In her hand, she wielded a two-metre-long guandao. Its steel curved blade was still stained in blood but was soon after cleansed of the blood drawn from the creatures it had just slain.

She looked up towards the sky, her eyes narrowing as she pierced through the canopy and directly at the leaderboard.

["1. Marionette Von Roselle: 120 Monster kills, 32 Contestant Eliminations."]

"How lucky of me to stumble upon a hive of bees..." Marionette shifted her attention to the massive hive that hung on the sides of multiple trees. Its deformed body only continued to release waves of swarms, all targetting the human under it.

She then glanced back towards the leaderboard and scanned through it before landing on a particular name.

["26. Lillian Ker Arius: 61 Monster Kills, 18 Contestants Eliminated."]

["24. Lillian Ker Arius: 61 Monster Kills, 20 Contestant Eliminated."]

"... She's doing rather well..." She mused.

Marionette then planted her guandao into the ground and pushed her hand out to the side. A mystical darkness surrounded her hand before lengthening into a black shadowy javelin.

With a twirl, she hurled the javelin at the swarm, piercing through many and pinning them into a tree. Marionette then formed another one and began to chuck each one of them at the swarm half-assedly.

"I've already passed... so I might as well enjoy myself now..."

She then paused for a few moments before sighing, "I should've drank a cup of coffee before coming in here..."