Chapter 47: The Trial Stages 13 and 14

Mira was standing in the middle of a small blizzard that was around 20 meters in diameter, swinging her scythe around as she fired off several different ice attacks. She was shooting extremely sharp and dense Ice Blades with every rotation of her scythe. In her Ice Domain, she also had Ice Needles formed all around her, swirling in the air around her, and streaks of blue lightning shot across them. Mira also seemed to be wearing some type of ice dress around her body. She was just testing out the functionality of this ice-dress armor and how well she could move in it. She was already able to make a chest plate out of her ice that didn't hinder her movements. The dress was harder to make though as making it able to be more flexible was a difficult thing to do with ice. She ended up having to create a bunch of thin layers that allowed for more flexibility. She did enjoy the dress, but it wasn't very practical and it was also very eye-catching.

Mira finished up her practice and nodded in satisfaction. Her ice was definitely a big part of her battle prowess now and she knows the direction she has to take to go down the Absolute Ice Dao. Mira had also been able to manipulate small ice shards, but nothing more than that. She was satisfied with just this though. She has gained basically no insights into manipulating another person's ice, all she can do is gain insights into her Dao and try to make her ice stronger.

"I'm finished with this stage! Take me to Stage 13!" Mira yelled out.

"Congratulations on passing Stage 12 of the Trial. Please proceed to start Stage 13."

Mira was dragged to a new place. Mira got a quick look around and noticed that she was in something that looked like a weapon training area or a dojo of some sort. She also noticed that she couldn't feel or utilize her Qi here.

"Welcome to Stage 13. This is the Weapon Stage. In this stage, you will choose a weapon to use and will have to use it to defeat enemies in 1 on 1 combat. There will be 100 enemies. You have a total of 10 hits that you can take over the course of fighting the next 100 enemies. If you get hit more than 10 times then you lose and can't continue with the trial. To proceed to the next stage you must defeat all 100 enemies. Begin!" The mechanical voice explained. It seems that she won't be able to use her own weapons, but she looked around the room she was in and did see a wooden scythe with a steel blade at the end. Mira walked up to it and picked it up. A few seconds later, her first challenger appeared.

It was a shadow person that held the exact same wooden scythe as her. The shadow charged at her and Mira just casually swung this crappy scythe and instantly stabbed through the enemy.

"I see. They probably start off easier and get harder as I defeat more enemies. This seems like a stage that is meant to eliminate people who only try to use their weapon arts to defeat people. Lucky me. I only use one scythe art and that is my double-bladed scythe. Usable scythe arts are hard to make and come by as a scythes strength is in the momentum of both the user and the opponent. I've been using nothing but my weapon ever since I started using a scythe!" Mira exclaimed as she figured this might be a boring stage.

She was right. She defeated every single shadow in a single strike and never got close to taking a hit. She might not be a master with the scythe, but she was not an amateur! This stage seems like it's meant to weed out the amateurs that have no finesse!

Mira soon heard the mechanical voice again as she was taken away from this area.

"Congratulations on passing Stage 13 of the Trial. Please proceed to start Stage 14."

***

Maria is currently sleeping in the world that is filled with light. No, she has not been sleeping the whole time either. Maria has been meditating hard on her Unfettered Light Dao. She gathered and meditated on every insight that she had been gathering up until this point along with every insight that she could get from the various different lights in this world. Her Dao made incredible progress too. She was now able to bend and control her light beams and Light Sword a bit more freely now. She was able to come up with a new move. She would gather her Light in her eyes and shoot rays of light out of her eyes which would allow her to be able to catch a glimpse at what is inside or behind an object. It wasn't perfect, but it could be very useful. She created a light bomb, the would explode after she threw it and was able to use light in her limbs to increase the power behind her sword swings. She was resting right now because 7 days was not enough for her. She wanted to be able to get at rest without the added stress of a time limit. Even though she slept for almost 7 days before this, her body still had some stress in it due to the time limit.

Maria was able to get a great sleep. So great that she was drooling everywhere. She looked like a little puppy that played too much but was forced to keep playing even after they were tired.

"Ahhhhh *Yawn* hehe." Maria woke up and took a refreshing breathe before she yawned and giggled. She was extremely happy right now and even somewhat looking forward to the next stages. She ate a few of her rations and looked at the world before her then nodded.

"Alright Boss! Take me to the next hell-hole! Hehe." Maria giggled.

Maria was dragged away from that stage and dropped into a training grounds-looking area.

She may not be an expert in the sword, but she wasn't a brainless idiot who only utilized her sword arts. She used them on more difficult beasts quite often, but would still incorporate her skill in the sword into her sword art.

Maria noticed that she couldn't utilize her Qi, which meant no sword arts, but she wasn't too worried even if the enemies were a bit more difficult. Maria walked up and picked up what seemed to be just an ordinary steel sword and the first shadow enemy appeared and immediately charged at her while full of openings.

She slightly dodged and slashed, killing it instantly. Maria continued doing this until she reached the final enemy. It never took her more than 10 strikes to kill the enemy before her. She was even able to improve a little bit with her sword as well. Maria decided to use this last enemy as a training dummy as its sword skills were very good and Maria felt that she could improve her sword skills by battling this guy. The battle went on for almost 200 moves before she almost got hit by the enemy. Maria decided that she had learned enough from this guy and waited for an opening. As soon as she saw a flaw in his swordplay, she took it and immediately cut the shadow in half through the stomach.

"Easy!" Maria said to the vanishing shadow as it vanished.

"Congratulations on passing Stage 13 of the Trial. Please proceed to start Stage 14."

Maria was then taken to the next stage.

***

Mira appeared in another dojo, except this one didn't have any weapons and Mira was immediately able to spot a shadow enemy in the center with no weapons. She also couldn't utilize her Qi again.

"Welcome to Stage 13. This is the Unarmed Combat Stage. In this stage, you will have to defeat enemies in 1 on 1 combat using only your body. There will be 100 enemies. Every time you get hit by an enemy 5 times, then you must restart this stage. You will lose the stage if you restart 10 times. To proceed to the next stage you must defeat all 100 enemies. Begin!"

"What the hell? An unarmed combat stage? I guess in case we lose our weapon or something? Well, no matter. When I lived in worlds that didn't have Qi or cultivators, they used their bodies instead of Qi and weapons to kill people. I used some of my time there to practice these techniques and got pretty good at it too as that was the only thing in those worlds. If this world has developed these skills to a higher degree than those worlds, then I will be extremely shocked." Mira said as she walked up to the center of the training area. The shadow immediately dashed towards her and went to punch her, but Mira just dodged it and punched it in the jaw. The shadow vanished as her second enemy appeared.

As Mira expected, these people were terrible in her eyes with their fists. Mira had lived 10 lives prior to this and it wasn't an exaggeration to say that she had reached a point to be called a grandmaster in unarmed combat. She practiced many different styles as well to broaden her horizon in the field. Mira actually loved un-armed combat in these worlds as it allowed her to let loose a bit.

Mira just steamrolled the 100 enemies in this challenge. They couldn't even put up a fight. The shadows in this stage weren't just some average dude that could throw a punch too. These shadows definitely trained or practiced a bit in unarmed combat. It seemed that it came from experience rather than training in a particular style that focused on different aspects of fighting without a weapon.

"I wonder if Maria will be able to beat this stage. Or maybe she already has haha. Maybe I'll have to train her in unarmed combat after this! It's a decent skill to learn and you never know when you might need it. She does seem like the type that would forget her sword or something stupid like that. Alright! I will make sure to train her hard in the way of hand-to-hand combat!" Mira exclaimed as she heard the mechanical voice pop out. Maria felt a chill up her spine, this chill also felt like it came from Mira. Maria had just entered the unarmed combat stage and hoped that Mira didn't think of something that would be worse than the stage she was about to face.

"Congratulations on passing Stage 14 of the Trial. Please proceed to start Stage 15."

***

'Please! NOOO! Mira, don't do this to me! I know you just thought of something to do to me! You are the only one I know that would give me this feeling of dread!" Maria thought as she started to panic. She then heard the mechanical voice.

"NOOOO! Mira, do you plan on training me in hand-to-hand combat? Why?! Is this stage not enough for you?! Was it too easy or something?! DAMMIT! I will do my best in this stage so that I don't get my ass beat for weeks on end in order to soothe the devil!" Maria screamed in panic as she felt like this was the stage that Mira had just beaten and planned to make her learn these techniques as well. It also won't be a simple trial like this! She will just get beaten up until she learns it! She won't have the option of backing out in a one-sided beating. Maria knew that she had to pass this stage now, or she might as well forget about resting after the trial! Mira will surely drill her in unarmed combat as soon as they exit.

Maria charged at the first shadow and immediately punched it in the gut then punching it in the cheek as it started vanishing. She was now onto the next challenger.

Maria was… a complete amateur at unarmed combat. The only thing that kept her from getting hit more often than she was, is that her instincts were getting honed, and were very wary towards danger. This seemed to not fit Maria's character at all, but in reality, this fits her perfectly. Maria didn't like to make decisions or use her mind to come up with solutions. Being able to hone in on this instinct was very suitable for Maria, someone who doesn't like to make split-second decisions especially in a fight.

She's had to restart 5 times now. 4 times were on the last enemy and the 5th time was on the first enemy because she was frustrated and not paying attention after she lost for the 4th time. She still wasn't good at unarmed combat, she was worse than all 100 people in this stage. She was only able to make it to the end by trusting her senses and instincts on when to attack and when to dodge.

On her 6th try, she finally managed to beat the last guy. It was an extremely boring fight. Almost the entire time, Maria just ran around the shadow. She just kept doing this until there was a big enough opening before she strikes with full force and continued punching it. She actually got hit 4 times by it before it vanished. Maria was extremely happy that she passed the stage, but she could foresee her inevitable future of learning unarmed combat with Mira after this.

She got taken out of her thoughts when she heard the mechanical voice again.

"Congratulations on passing Stage 14 of the Trial. Please proceed to start Stage 15."

***