Upper Yard, Trial of the Swamp Area.
The roots of the towering trees were intertwined like sleeping serpents, and a heavy scent of decaying humus choked the air. Eerie purplish-gray bubbles occasionally surfaced from the muck, popping to release a sulfurous, dangerous aura.
Leona carried her twin bone-cleaving knives—the black Stellar Obsidian blade and her surgical silver blade. Her gaze was locked onto the man with the slicked-back hair and the vacant stare.
"Hey, idiot. How long do you intend to bite your lip and roll your eyes?" Leona flicked her dark red ponytail, her brow knitting in annoyance. "If you want to fight, do it. I'm in a hurry to find higher-grade ingredients in these mountains."
The Priest Gedatsu suddenly released his bloodied lower lip, gasping for air like a drowning man reaching the surface. "Hoo-ha... hoo-ha... I forgot how to breathe for a second."
Gedatsu adjusted his aviator sunglasses, his eyes turning cold as he pointed down at Leona. "Ignorant Blue Sea monkey! You dare address the Priest of the Swamp in such a tone? In this Trial, the survival rate is 50%. Under my Mantra, your death is already a fixed point in time!"
Before the sentence finished, Gedatsu pulled his elbows back. Two peculiar shells hidden in his sleeves erupted with high-pressure air.
"Jet Iron Fist!"
With the terrifying thrust of the Jet Dials, Gedatsu's massive body blurred. He crossed ten meters in a heartbeat, his fist shrieking through the air toward Leona's face.
Fast! Leona's pupils thinned. Years of hunting Sea Kings gave her a predator's reflex; she raised her Stellar Obsidian blade horizontally across her chest.
CLANG!
A dull, heavy impact. The kinetic energy slammed into the blade, shattering the soil beneath Leona's boots. She was forced back several meters, leaving deep furrows in the Vearth.
"Strength is passable," Leona said, steadying her stance. Her silver blade lashed out like a viper, sliding up the back of her black knife toward the artery in Gedatsu's wrist. "But an attack this linear isn't even as good as a wild boar's charge."
Gedatsu leaned back in an awkward, gravity-defying posture, barely avoiding the strike. He rolled in mid-air and landed on a branch. "Useless! Under the perception of Mantra, every contraction of your muscles reports your next move to me! You can't touch me!"
He spread his hands, and a viscous purplish cloud condensed in his palms. "Swamp Cloud Burger!" He hurled the cloud like a cannonball. Leona dodged, and the cloud hit a giant Sky Wolf attempting to ambush her from behind. The beast's head vanished into the high-density vapor; it couldn't breathe, struggling for seconds before suffocating into stillness.
"A swamp cloud that cuts off the air," Leona noted.
"You dodged one, but what about ten!" Gedatsu's Jet Dials roared. He became a flea in the jungle, bouncing off trunks and raining down Swamp Clouds until the sky was filled with purple death.
"Tch. Flying around like a fly."
Leona took a deep breath. Instead of retreating, she closed her eyes. The "Six Powers" intuition she had honed against the Marine Commodore resurfaced. She stopped trying to "see" the afterimages and instead immersed her consciousness in the airflow. The hiss of the Jet Dials, the weight of the clouds, the localized malice—she "saw" it all.
Leona snapped her eyes open. She moved like a leopard, weaving through the gaps in the falling clouds.
"I see you!" Gedatsu pounced from a blind spot. "Jet Big Iron Fist!"
"Is it you who sees me," Leona's voice was cold as the silver in her hand, "or am I just waiting for you to walk onto the chopping board?"
She lunged forward. Her Stellar Obsidian knife met the iron fist head-on. "Bone Cleave: Guillotine!"
But at the moment of contact, she didn't resist. She exquisitely deflected the frontal impact, allowing the heavy black knife to slide up Gedatsu's arm in a shower of sparks.
"What?!" Gedatsu's Mantra had predicted a head-on clash; this momentary redirection shattered his rhythm.
"Your movements are too stiff."
Leona closed the distance. The silver blade in her left hand cut into the gaps of Gedatsu's elbow joint with the terrifying precision of a master butcher.
"Boning: Instant Strip!"
Blood sprayed. Gedatsu shrieked as the tendons and muscles of his right arm were sliced clean. The Jet Dial, losing its muscular fixation, popped out and fell into the dirt.
Without his speed, Gedatsu tumbled into one of his own Swamp Clouds. He struggled, but the pain made him sluggish. Leona walked to the edge of the mire, looking down at him.
"Relying on shells means you don't understand the essence of muscle. On my table, you aren't even scrap meat."
She flipped her wrist, slamming the back of her black blade into his skull. THWACK. The priest went silent.
Shandora, the Ancient Ruins.
Sunlight pierced through stone pillars, illuminating gold coins and moss-covered treasures scattered like trash.
"Rich... I'm going to be so rich!" Carina's eyes were practically Berries. She scooped gold bars into a sack while Berries preened his feathers above.
Suddenly, Carina paused. She closed her eyes. Her "Avis-Net" sent back a suffocating visual. Two kilometers away, her scout gulls were fleeing in terror from a bio-electric signature so massive it felt like a mountain moving.
"Berries, look up," she whispered.
The Macaw blinked. "Big bug! Very, very big bug! Crawling this way!"
Carina pulled out her map and drew a red 'X' over her current location. "A cold-blooded predator, nearly 400 meters long. An island-level overlord." She wasn't flustered. She zipped her sack and threw it over her shoulder. "That's a job for the Captain or Leona. I'm just the treasurer."
She vanished into an underground passage. Minutes later, the Master of the Sky, Nola, slithered over the ruins. Finding nothing but half-looted gold, the giant python flicked its tongue in fury, smashed a few pillars with its tail, and moved on.
Deep underground, Carina checked her map, using her bird-radar to plan a 100% safe route to the next hoard. Unhurried, she continued her work.
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