Chapter 9: Earned Victory

The trees stood tall, watching over the prey and predator that keeps darting between them. Sometimes, helping the prey by being an obstacle for the predator, shading Rhian with the absence of light as the Abberant loses sight of her.

'They don't look like they're fighting..' She observes from behind a tree, peeking around as she sees the two heads of the Abberant sniff the air trying to pinpoint her position.

'What can I do..?' She looks at her hands, noticing fidgeting before taking a deep breath as she wipes off the sweat in her eyes.

She looks around, spotting trees, shrubbery, and some stones. 'Maybe the rocks..' Silently, she crouches down, avoiding the dead leaves to pick up a rock. She peaks around again, seeing the heads now sniffing in her direction, inching closer to the tree behind her. 'Phew.. alright!' Without looking, she hucks the rock as hard as possible around the tree in a completely different direction, successfully catching the attention of one of the heads.

The movement of the Abberant halts as one head suddenly snaps itself toward the sound of the thrown rock. It barked, announcing the disturbance to its brother, which seemed to have called its bullshit, grumbling as it wanted to continue toward Rhian's direction. But the other disagreed, starting to drag their body the other way. Now-

This is confusing. 

Rhian hid, holding her breath as barking and growling ensued, crouching down again to get another rock before hucking it in the same direction as the last one, prompting both heads to snap toward the sound.

'Alright.. they're going away.' She peeks around again, seeing the bickering Abberant slowly walking to her distraction. 'Now... what do I do? I need to kill them but.. I'm so damn weak!' The footsteps of the Abberant leave her hearing, causing her to relax as she sits down, lying on the tree.

"I can't brute force this, definitely not an option. But then, how? I have no weapons.." She sighs heavily.

[You need a weapon, Smyra?]

A blue panel appears in front of her. "Kurayami?"

[Yeah. Forgot to mention killing Abberants by hand is nearly impossible. What weapon do you want?]

Kouki was typing the messages using the panel beside the stage, bypassing the automatic system Doru assigned to help whoever wanted in the simulation.

"A.. sword?"

[Here.]

The panel disappears as fog appears in front of her, shaping into a sword before dispersing as an actual sword drops onto the ground. 'Well.. better than nothing.' She picks it up, swinging it around randomly with both arms, causing her to hack the tree she hid behind.

'SHIT!' She quickly peeks around the corner, scanning the area for the Abberant as she sighs in relief. 'Nothing. But, I should probably find another area to hide in.' She stands up, intending to dash away but fails to because of the sheer weight of the sword. 'Why is this thing so heavy?!' She peeks around the tree again, now seeing the Abberant growling as it makes its way here. 'Shitshitshitshitshit.'

She curses herself for trying to wield the weapon, gripping it tightly. She tries to pave a way out of her current predicament.

'I can't peek around anymore, else they'd see me. What can I do?' She thinks, reminded of how Kouki enchanted his cane with fear. She tries to do so for the sword, using her vibration.

And now, following her, for some reason mandatory, steps to activating her Runes, she successfully does so. The same vibrating arcs slither over her body, coating the sword's blade as she feels it slightly shaking, though her eyes are still closed.

Does she not realize she doesn't need to do that?

Impaired by her lack of knowledge, she encourages herself to battle. But now, she realized, she's blind.

I- how? How is she still alive?

'Maybe... I can try to enchant the ground...' Tightly gripping the grip of the sword, she thrusts it into the ground, planting it firmly as she silently prays the Abberant doesn't come.

She takes a deep breath, gripping the sword even more tightly. 'Desire..' Her body tenses as her heartbeat becomes louder, echoing in her body as she completely disconnects from reality, only being able to focus on herself and what she wants.

Spread across the ground.

No thoughts, no words, but she ordered. More crimson arcs surfaced on her chest, slithering over to the blade to replace the ones that sank into the ground, enlarging themselves as they surrounded Rhian as the center, encircling and vibrating around her in a large radius.

'I.. can see?' She feels her own feet vibrate from her enchantment along with the trees, the rocks, the shrubbery, and the Abberant. She could see the Abberant without opening her eyes.

Gleeful and proud of her achievement, she dims her success, focusing on the light vibrations surrounding their feet. They were moving slowly, alerted by the sudden appearance of rotating arcs, the constant vibrations of the ground, and the trees.

The forest was lit up with crimson, contrasting the pale moonlight that shone into the forest. 

'Alright. They don't know where I am, but I know where they are.' She breathes in deeply, holding the sword in front of her before dashing to the side, concealing herself behind the bushes while she takes advantage of the constant vibrating to hide her footsteps.

It was completely oblivious, trying to find her scent, they were split where to head as barking drowned out the vibrating forest.

'They really bicker a lot.' Rhian was now behind a large boulder, slowly waiting for some sort of opportunity that'd give her the safest way to eliminate it.

'Can I.. increase the vibration?'

She held the sword high, trying to pinpoint the vibrating sounds of the sword, ignoring the beat of her heart and the other images compiled by her vibrating zone.

'Just.. let this one noise drown you.' Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to close her eyes harder, hearing the ringing of clashing swords. 'THERE!'

The arcs of the sword glow brighter, enveloped in numerous more blood-red arcs. She found it hard to hold it well.

'Alright! I can do this!'

Weaken.

The arcs' glow was dimmed while the numbers reduced.

Strengthen!

She heard the sounds of a swaying tree, commanding her Runes as the ones surrounding the tree she previously hid behind shone blood-red before causing the tree to tremble aggressively, alerting the Abberant as they snarled at the extravagant swaying tree.

'Good!'

She had a wide smirk, following their erratic footsteps that suddenly disappeared and appeared closer to the tree. She knew they were investigating it and this was the perfect time to eliminate it.

She made her way behind it, standing behind it as they continued to growl at the tree.

She brandished her weapon, creeping behind the Abberant and raising the sword above her head.

"RAAGH!"

The Abberant was bamboozled. First, the sudden disappearance of the disorienting crimson arcs. Second, the ceasing of the tree's swaying. And third, the loud exclamation from Rhian as she drove the residue of the vibrating blade into its hind leg.

SKEEEEAAA-

It released a piercing screech, but Rhian wasn't fazed.

They were in a final stand and the Abberant desired life.

A head shrieked at her while another tried to move their body away from her. But, its hind leg was impaired.

It was nothing but prey now.

Schk-!

Blood splattered out the wound as she pulled the sword back, holding it up as high as possible before smiting the head shrieking at her, silencing it as she quickly removed the sword from its shattered skull.

"Go to hell." She had a wide smirked as she faced the terrified head, pulling the handle down with all her might.

[Rhian Smyra's Current Task: Completed.]

[Terminating Simulation.]