Chapter 837: The first day of the evaluation trial (part 15)

"Aghhh!", what followed were the pained screams of the shield wielding enemy when Nina’s spear pierced his shoulder from side to side, the tip of the spear was large enough so that it could do that on a human’s shoulder without reaching the wings of the spear.

"Thud!", using her outstanding physical strength, the youngest of the three red-haired sisters lifted the enemy with her spear and then smacked him against the ground, making it so that she landed a solid hit on his head which halted the pained screams coming from his mouth.

’There was hesitation in his stance when he tried to cut my path of retreat, so he earned a chance for interrogation instead of dying, I made sure to cause him a strong concussion, but to prevent sis from scolding me for not directly going for the kill...’, thought Nina as she retrieved her spear from that guy’s shoulder to then skillfully pierce his feet, so that the enemy would not be able to stand on his own for a certain period of time.

It’s worth mentioning that the shield guy was out cold, so he actually didn’t feel that, Nina didn’t spare him a second gaze though, sure she didn’t kill him right now, but that didn’t mean he will live, she simply decided to keep him for interrogation, because of the previously mentioned reason, but more importantly because Kana also brought back the short bulky man to get intel from him and she didn’t want to lose to the little girl in terms of results.

"Charles, damn it!", cursed the guy with the stone axe who was entangled with Dahlia, the two brothers whose attacks had failed and created the opportunity for Nina to take out the shield wielding guy, simply retreated to get out of Nina’s vicinity.

The spear has a larger reach than the sword after all, that was the reason as to why Nina and Lina brought spears as their weapons, though not with the purpose to use them to fight but to lead the way as explorers, but it ended up working as intended as well.

Seeing the enemies regroup, Nina and Dahlia casually did the same, in fact Nina grabbed the fainted shield wielding guy from his neck and tossed him into the distance, the youngest of the three sisters might not be as strong as Mylene so she couldn’t make him reach all the way to where Aster was standing, casually with a single hand, but using both of her hands, she achieved a similar result.

"Thud!", seeing that guy landing a meter away from him and the clear "praise me" expression in Nina’s pretty face which she tried to hid by not looking Aster’s way for too long, Aster couldn’t help but chuckle.

’That little one surely is having fun’, he thought, for the enemies on the other hand things weren’t going well in the slightest.

"Hey, why the hell didn’t you try to take back Charles with you, she was alone and now because of your screw up, he is under that dual cultivator bastard’s custody!", said the stone axe guy to the brothers.

"Yeah, it seems like you two believe you are our superiors or some stupid thing like that, don’t get it wrong, we are the ones helping you, if we leave you alone the first ones to die will be your side", said the large wood club guy.

He was referring to numbers of course, if in a 3v1 situation they were having trouble, if the largest side, namely the one of the blond-haired leader was to step aside, the group from the green-haired female leader will be defeated by Aster’s group quite easily.

What those two weren’t taking into account is whether Aster’s group would focus them just because there are less of them, which wouldn’t be the case, those fierce girls will directly go for the ones that they don’t like the most, which are all mostly from the blond guy’s team, with the exception of the tanned man who had earned Sarina’s hatred, perhaps.

’Tsk, we can’t have these fools go out of control now’, thought the older brother Brett as he gazed at his younger brother who slightly nodded in response.

"Calm down you two, ultimately Charles is still alive and the brothers took the vanguard on their assault, it’s just that the red-haired girl has some tricks up her sleeve, but they’ll apologize for what happened, right?", said the spear guy as he gave a knowing gaze at the brothers who nodded in response.

"Yeah, we are sorry about your friend, to make up for it, after getting rid of these two, we’ll be the ones in the vanguard at the time of trying to take him away from that dual cultivator bastard, are we okay?", said the younger brother as he extended his hand for a handshake at the club guy.

"I agree with my brother, we honestly thought that was enough to catch that red-haired girl by surprise but I didn’t expect for the brown-haired one to be able to see through our strategy so easily, it was mostly my fault, why don’t we try a different strategy, this time you two can lead", added the older brother as he also offered his hand to the stone axe guy for a handshake.

"Now that sounds better...".

"Yeah, we can work that way...".

Both the club guy and the stone axe one stopped midway through their sentences after having accepted the handshake from the brothers, the reason is that they felt something pierce the skin of their hands.

’Don’t make a fuss you two, there is venom applied to the hidden weapon that just pierced your palms, be good and follow orders if you want to receive the antidote before we leave this place, after all you won’t have the time to find the correct herb to counter it, back at our camp’, whispered the spear guy while keeping a calm expression on his face.

Yup, the brothers had first convinced someone from the blond guy’s team to work with them, it wasn’t hard to do, they offered him to ally with them to use the other three for the most dangerous roles in the fight, in exchange the spear guy will be kept safe as well, so he accepted.

It was supposed to remain a secret, but they underestimated the friendship between the stone axe guy and the shield one, so things got messy, the club guy didn’t really care, but he wanted to use the brothers as the vanguard to avoid danger himself, so he added fuel to the fire and that’s why they resorted to poisoning them, so they now had to listen whether they liked it or not.

"What happened, just nod if you understand", said the younger of the brothers to those two who felt the urge to curse, but ultimately, they both nodded.

"We understand", they said while swearing to get back at the spear guy and the brothers for this.

"Well, now that we have sorted things out properly, let’s change strategy, the red-haired one is tough, we’ll first get rid of the other one, you three stall the red-haired one and we’ll finish the other one as soon as possible, we leave the positioning on your side to Gerard of course", said the older brother as he nodded at the spear guy.

"Sam and Will, you two will charge frontwards while I look for a chance to step in, my weapon has the same reach as hers, so you don’t have any complains about it, right?", said the spear guy with a smile that wasn’t a smile.

"We agree", said those two while they gritted their teeth, what else could they do now that they were poisoned, even if they ran and avoided the enemies, if they didn’t get the antidote, they will die after they are sent back to their camp since they don’t know with what they were poisoned.

"Ah right, if someone is defeated midway through the fight, ignore it, they want to capture hostages for interrogation, so they won’t directly kill those who are defeated on the spot, use that chance to aim for the kill", said the older brother in a low voice as he alongside his younger brother charged at Dahlia.

"Move!", simply ordered the spear guy at those two who then charged at Nina followed by Gerard.

’So, they think targeting Dahlia instead of me is easier, fools, we paired because if six charged against a single one of us, we would be scolded for not avoiding unnecessary risks by sis... and Aster, not because we actually needed it’, thought Nina as she slashed her spear at the incoming wood club.

"Clack!", the club guy also called Sam, felt his weapon being nearly smacked away from his hands due to the strong impact which forced him to move to the same direction at which his weapon was pushed in order to not let go of it.

"Swoosh!", Nina then casually stepped backwards which allowed her to cleanly dodge the slash from the stone axe guy, also known as Will, to then use the butt of her spear to hit the right foot of the enemy.

Now, the wood staff of the spear isn’t particularly heavy, but it is quite sturdy thanks to Nim’s quality selection, so the youngest sister could put quite a bit of strength into her attack to make up for the lack of offensive power of a wood staff

"Ack!", and that resulted in the stone axe guy to complain due to pain while he unconsciously lost his balance.

But the worst part, for the enemies at least, wasn’t that, but the fact that the spear thrust which was aimed at Nina’s neck, hit the limit of its reach a few centimeters away from her, very much to the disbelief of the spear guy.

’What!’, he inwardly screamed as he tried to jump backwards to retrieve his spear, only to realize that while his body moved, his arms were being forced to stay where they are, the reason is that Nina had used her left hand to hold onto the upper part of the enemy’s spear and due to the difference in strength between herself and the enemy, the thing wasn’t budging in the slightest, not to mention that she thrusted her own spear at the enemy with her other hand, which resulted in a simple two option situation for him.

The spear guy could either let go of his spear, or be pieced by Nina’s spear, which remined him of how the shield guy’s shoulder was practically destroyed by the youngest sister earlier.

"Damn it!", cursing but without much of a choice, Gerard let go of the spear and managed to not get impaled by Nina’s thrust, he landed a few meters away from Nina and directly helped Will to get up, but at the same time he took his stone axe away from him.

"Hey, that’s too much you bastard!", complained Will, to which Gerard looked at his foot, there was blood coming from the sides of the shoe, the impact of only the staff of Nina’s spear was strong enough to rupture his skin even through the shoe.

"Are you dumb, what do you think you’ll be able to do with such a heavy weapon without being able to move around properly, she’ll directly kill you if you don’t get faster now and we will lose another weapon", said the now spear-less guy.

"Crack!", the enemy’s attention was drawn towards a loud cracking sound, produced by Nina who broke the Gerard’s spear, but that wasn’t the youngest sister provoking the enemy, you probably have noticed it already but she was fighting strategically, courtesy of all the devilish training Mina has put her through lately.

Earlier Nina first deviated the attack of the club guy which was the fastest, dodged the stone axe’s slash as it was the slowest and by doing so, she put enough distance so that the spear’s thrust would be unable to reach her, taking advantage of Gerard who was overconfident in the length of his weapon, in other words she played them like fiddles.

’Ugh, I don’t want to admit it, but sis’s teachings about "space awareness" are really helpful when dealing with multiple enemies who also have different weapons and fighting styles... but that’s not what I want to show to him’, thought Nina as she held the now shortened spear which she stole from the enemy, as if it was short sword.

"Huh, what the hell is up with that set up, you are going to use a two-hand weapon like a spear with just one, just so you can wield a second weapon and with a way different length, what nonsense is that", said the spear guy as he tightened his grip on the stone axe, he took from Will who had gotten up but couldn’t put any strength on his wounded foot.

"Humph", Nina simply answered with a soft snort to then this time take the initiative to charge at the enemies, more accurately towards Will who was wounded and now lacked a weapon too meaning he was easy prey for the fierce red-haired youngest sister.

"Clack!", midway through her charge, Nina jumped to the side avoiding a wide sweep strike from Sam’s wood club which ended up landing on the ground, to then dash frontwards reaching Will’s vicinity, just in time to slightly bend her knees.

"What!", with a "swoosh", Nina dodged Gerard’s attack using the stone axe, he overestimated his strength and speed thinking that unlike Will, he could make better use of the heavy stone axe.

"Your distance awareness sucks", casually said the youngest sister as she tightened her grip on the shortened spear to then stab it sidewards, from her current position the spearhead perfectly aligned with Gerard’s thigh.

"Aghhhh...!", and with Nina’s high physical strength, the spear pierced leg from side to side, making him scream for a moment to then lose his voice as Nina fiercely retrieved the spear ripping apart the flesh of Gerard’s leg since his spear was designed to cause that.

"Booom!", he didn’t have time to faint though, Nina used her own spear to brutally pierce through Gerard’s chest, killing him before he could fall to the ground.

"Traitors are trash", mumbled the youngest sister, what happened is that she noticed the way Sam and Will looked at Gerard and guessed what happened, how was she able to do so you wonder, that’s easy, she and Lina had a similar expression every time they looked at the members of their former family, in other words the Blazehearts.

Being reminded of such a thing, made a fierce light shine in Nina’s eyes, which remained as she gazed at the other two enemies who were in shock after seeing Gerard die just like that.

"I-I surrender", said Will as he raised his hands high into the air to express his unwillingness to fight, he couldn’t properly walk with his wounded foot, he had no weapon and he was poisoned anyway, what’s more the red-haired girl seemed to have been angered by Gerard which resulted in him dying in quite the brutal way, so he judged that the chances of survival were bigger if he surrendered.

"Aghhhh!", and he was right as the lightning-like spear which hit Sam who was running to reunite with the two brothers, right on the center of his back, which resulted in his body being sent flying a few meters into the distance before he landed on the ground, he was dead because the impact ruptured his heart and lungs.

’Holy hell!’, inwardly exclaimed the stone axe guy as he lost strength on his legs and fell to the ground.

"You genuinely worried about the shield guy, walk by yourself towards the prisoner area, if you try anything funny, I’ll kill you on the spot", said Nina as she retrieved her spear from Sam’s dead body.

"Y-Yes!", gaining strength from who knows where, Will got up on the spot and rushed towards Aster’s vicinity as fast as he could, stopping a few meters away from the black-haired youth who had a young blond girl with blue eyes and a tall pink-haired girl standing at his sides, to then sit down being especially careful of keeping his hands in clear view at all times, worried that his intentions could be mistaken and that spear would suddenly pierce his body like it happened to Sam.

"Woah, that red-haired sister actually made an enemy willingly surrender and come by himself~", happily said Kana, which nearly made Nina who was rushing towards Dahlia, nearly trip on the spot.

’Why is she amused by my achievements’, thought the youngest sister, here she was trying to compete with Kana and the little girl instead was happy for her results.

Still Nina couldn’t help but brightly smile when she saw Aster nodding in approval at her, certainly she avoided further conflict by successfully intimidating the remaining enemy, without exposing herself to any danger because she decided to instantly kill the guy who tried to run away.

’Sis was right~’, happily thought Nina as she continued on her way towards Dahlia who was still clashing with the two brothers.

"What the hell, let go of me already damn it!", speaking of the two brothers, they naturally were looking at the other battle, and the very moment Nina killed Gerard they tried to get away and look for new teammates or join someone else’s fight, to keep themselves safe.

But while Dahlia certainly was a bit lacking in terms of attack power, since she couldn’t use her physical enhancement, the same couldn’t be said of her amazingly high comprehensive capacities, therefore she made up for it with complex and powerful fighting methods instead.

Which is why the two brothers as well as their swords were full of round "bruises" as of current, as in they had been hit by Dahlia’s hammer multiple times.

What’s more, every time they tried to get away from her, Dahlia was faster and blocked their path of retreat, so they were forced to continue clashing with her, whether they liked it or not.

’Damn it, if that red-haired bitch joins the fight, we will die, but this one is not letting us go, let’s...’, the older brother’s thoughts were interrupted by Dahlia who casually said.

"If you use that thing in your pocket, you’ll both die", said the brown-haired girl which made the younger brother grit his teeth.

"I said let go of us already!", he shouted as he took out a small pouch form his pocket and then threw it at Dahlia, not without loosening the knot which kept it sealed.

As a result, the pouch opened midair, releasing its content, small metal beads with many sharp edges which were dyed in some kind of liquid, one didn’t have to be a genius to know that was poison.

’It’s not the same smell I detected earlier when they shook hands with those two, another type of toxin’, thought Dahlia as she darted right into the rain of sharp projectiles.

Multiple "clinking" sounds could be heard as Dahlia casually used her arm which was protected by her brigandine to block the poisonous projectiles to then roll her hammer with which she hit the younger brother’s collarbone.

Dahlia might not have access to the high physical strength she uses as a cultivator, but that doesn’t mean she is weak or fragile in the slightest, it wasn’t really physical training, but she is used to dig and work with soil, both when she is helping in the garden of her aunt or when she is gathering herbs outside of the sect, so even as a mortal she is not lacking when compared to an adult male that is not used to physical work.

"Crack!", not to mention that the clavicle is a superficial bone with little to no underlying protection, so the concentrated impact of a hammer alongside Dahlia’s strength, was more than enough to snap it.

"Brother aghhhh!", Blake screamed for help but was welcomed with a second and third hammer strikes, this time aimed at his knees which caused his eyes to roll as he fainted.

"Thud!", just like that he fell to the ground, easily defeated by Dahlia who then turned around and pointed her hammer at the older brother who actually stopped midway through his plan of stepping in to help his younger brother.