Chapter 841: The first day of the evaluation trial (part 19)

Now, despite her fierce nature, Mira’s normal neutral attitude is quite that of an aloof and cool girl, when it comes to enemies, she becomes pretty much indifferent and well, with allies and close ones you have seen how her cold façade melts away to reveal her warm inner self, Aster finds her quite cute which is why he likes to tease her.

But, there are two things that can actually make the ligress girl become quite aggressive, the first one is normal, despicable acts aren’t liked by any decent person after all, Xander and Kyle fell in this category given that they were actively targeting Kana, and you saw how Mira was planning to rip them to shreds.

Even so, that angered ligress still remained composed, she simply had some "trash" to clean and got a bit heated due to it, that’s all, however the second thing that can bring out Mira’s aggressiveness, is personal.

Due to the ligress girl’s circumstances, anything negative with a yang nature triggers a violent response from Mira, you can’t blame her, after what she went through, the fact that she doesn’t go wild by yang in general is more than enough to show how strong is her willpower.

What’s more, she doesn’t show any rejection towards positive yang either, for example, she might openly complain about Aster being an eternal source of yang energy, but she enjoys the calmness and warmth that he brings to those that remain in his proximity, as a proof of it, Mira was going to sleep on the roof of the log cabin before a room for the other girls was built next to Aster’s one, because she wanted to continue to enjoy the though reduced, still noticeable benefits that as a mortal, Aster’s strong yang provides.

And that brings us to the bright yellow substance applied to both the needles that the blue-haired woman threw at Mira earlier, and that now completely wrecked shield which was pierced by the ligress’s hand, before she snapped the neck of its wielder.

You must have noticed it by now, but even if we are not including cultivators in the picture, the mortals in the cultivator world don’t live in a similar reality as that of the earth from which Aster came, herbs with magical effects and materials that can produce extraordinary phenomenon exist even in the mortal world, their level is just too low to result in anything at cultivator level, but mortals from earth would find them magical nonetheless.

The same applies to the mortal level materials that can be found in this place, not to mention that yin and yang are present even in the most average of the mortals, so it’s not hard to see it in materials as well.

And well, the thing which was applied to those needles and shield, was a poison, and that is already "despicable", but Mira is not naïve, she would expect it from an enemy, so it’s not that what angered the ligress girl, but the fact that it was arsenic which is a... yang nature material.

It’s well known that cultivators didn’t always exist, given that the paths developed at different times, first came energy path cultivators, then those that struggled in the energy path developed the body one and something similar happened with the soul one.

The origin of everything is unknown, but given that even back at earth, traces of the cultivation world could be found in fantasy media and obscure stories and records from the past, it’s not weird to think that cultivators have had influence even in such a planet as earth where spirit energy is nowhere to be found.

And there is another thing that has put Aster to think about that, words, many words referring to different things have the same meaning in the cultivation world and on earth as well, for example the term arsenic originates from an old word which means "potent" or "masculine" and curiously enough, arsenic ore presents a bright yellow color, and for cultivator aspects, it is a yang nature material, truly mysterious right, but let’s not get sidetracked here.

’Tough luck, you could have gotten a less brutal death by using any other kind of poison, on the other hand, our pretty ligress needed to vent some stress so thank you for volunteering’, jokingly thought Aster as he saw Mira whose hand grip had increased so much that she actually "squeezed" the neck of the enemy.

"Thud", the sound of that guy’s head falling to the ground, accompanied by Mira tossing his headless corpse to the side, broke the silence that had taken over the battlefield.

"R-Rufus, what the hell!", exclaimed the blue-haired woman as she unwillingly took a few steps backwards, breaking a neck is not that hard, but separating one’s head with physical pressure alone, that’s not something a mortal can do, it required physical strength above what is needed to throw a male adult thirty meters into the distance as Mylene did.

Not to mention that as small as it was, Mylene did use a throwing motion, Mira’s arm was static at the moment, so yeah, long story short, the blue-haired woman was right to be afraid of the ligress in front of her.

"Crack!", especially because Mira who very much had remained in a passive stance during the fight, this time actively charged at the enemy, her legs tensed a bit and she produced a small crater when she lunged at the blue-haired woman.

"D-Don’t just look, I came to help you on lady Vera’s orders!", shouted the blue-haired woman as she rushed to where Cassandra and Lauren were.

"Damn it, sister Cassandra!", shouted Lauren as she gazed at the green-haired female leader who while gritting her teeth, after seeing the clear killing intent in Mira’s eyes, nodded at the short orange haired girl.

"Ha!", with a loud battle cry, Lauren’s previously short orange hair, grew all the way to middle back length, but that was just an aesthetic change, the real important aspect were her dark orange nails which had enlarged and curved downwards, apart from that, her expression became quite wild, as if she couldn’t wait to clash with Mira.

"Clang!", Lauren met the ligress who was radiating such an intense killing aura that it was suffocating, without showing even the slightest sign of fear, her claws clashed with Mira’s ones and produced sparks and loud metallic sounds as they continuously clashed a few times before a soft cracking sound, made Lauren step back and Cassandra step in with her whip.

"Crack!", that was the sound of the Lauren’s claws suffering damage due to clashing so many times with Mira’s ones.

"Boooom!", and that was Cassandra’s tensed whip landing on the ground in front of the ligress girl who casually dodged it.

"Even like this, she is so tough, how amazing!", said Lauren as she pounced at Mira.

"Crack!", her right foot heavily landed on the ground creating a small crater, which was followed by Lauren slashing her claws at Mira’s side, despite her wild change, she wasn’t aiming to kill the ligress girl, well, to be fair Lauren herself didn’t think she could do it even if she wanted to, right now she just wanted to extend this fight as much as possible.

"Don’t you dare Jen!", midway through Mira and Lauren’s clash, Cassandra’s voice reached Lauren’s ears making her look from the corner of her eyes, just in time to see the blue-haired woman throwing out a dozen of metal needles at them, yes in plural, the attack didn’t distinguish friend from foe.

’Damn it, I’m not going to make it in time’, cursed Lauren, her eyes then contracted as she felt as if a mountain was pressing down on her from above.

"Boooom!", before the orange haired girl could react, she was smacked against the ground by Mira, who then proceeded to lash her right hand frontwards.

’She is so strong, how cool!’, was the last thing that Lauren thought before she lost consciousness there.

"Crack!", the ligress girl’s pretty crystal blue nails casually ripped the needles to shreds upon contact, but that wasn’t all, Mira’s legs tensed and then she propelled herself into the air, landing in front of the blue-haired woman.

"W-Wait...aghhh!", Jen couldn’t finish her sentence before her throat was blocked by Mira whose hand was wrapped around her neck now.

That being said, the blue-haired woman was actually braver than the shield guy, despite being strangled as of current, she managed to take out one last needle from a hidden pocket in her chest area to then thrust it at Mira’s left eye.

"Clang!".

"W-Whhhattt!!!", exclaimed Jen as she saw the needle not even breaking the outer layer of the ligress girl’s eyelid, she had closed her eye before the needle reached her of course.

’Why, she dodged my needles earlier!’, exclaimed Jen to her insides, unfortunately she had confused that with Mira being "forced" to dodge weapons with focused strength designs, such as needles, as well as being "afraid" of poison.

It’s not a bad theory, that shield guy was right in something, you shouldn’t try to defeat someone who is abnormally strong with normal methods, clashing head against someone with brutally high strength is not a good idea, poison is a much more effective method.

Unfortunately, both were wrong this time, to begin with, the ligress has a strong immunity system, not at Aster’s level, but her resistance towards toxins doesn’t lose to that of a dragon descendant like Alice, which is normal, her spirit beast parent comes from a race on par with dragons after all.

Not wanting to be touched by a yang nature poison and being afraid of it were two completely different things, not to mention that besides her violent reaction, Mira actually recovered her compose on the spot.

The "wound" in the heart of the ligress girl has been mostly healed with a combination of Kana, Aria and other girls of the group, not to mention that as much as she won’t admit it, Aster played a major role in helping her recover from that trauma so that her instincts won’t go crazy after being exposed to negative yang stuff anymore, ultimately the ligress is an incredibly strong and stubborn girl who didn’t break despite all the years of torture she went through after all, she just needed some time and good people to overcome the shadow that such an event had casted in her mind.

Why did she pierce through that shield and behead that guy in such a brutal way if she was fine you wonder, that’s simple, she wanted to confirm whether Cassandra and Lauren were in cahoots with Jen and the shield guy, to define whether she should kill them or not, so she showed real killing intent when she charged at them to see how they reacted.

Then she saw the clear reticence in Cassandra’s face when she allowed Lauren to use her lineage, which actually surprised the ligress girl in a good way, as it shared some familiarity with one Mira knows about, that’s why she didn’t hesitate to use both her lineage pressure and a strong concussion to leave Lauren out of combat back there, that was also to save her from the poisoned needles of course.

"I don’t think it would be the case, but you don’t have anything to say about me killing this one, right?", said Mira to Cassandra who had rushed at Lauren’s side to confirm if she was fine, because though her danger senses didn’t scream when Mira smacked Lauren against the ground, the impact sounded too strong and there was some sort of invisible pressure involved as well, so she didn’t trust her own senses for a change.

"If you don’t kill her, I will", said Cassandra as she gritted her teeth.

"Bit...!", before Jen could finish insulting the green-haired female leader, her voice became high-pitched for a fraction of a second, before a loud shattering sound could be heard.

"Crack!", Mira casually broke the blue-haired woman’s neck, but she didn’t toss her aside and instead held her by the neck of her clothes, apparently, she was planning to bring her corpse along.

"She’ll be fine, I only moved her out of the way of those needles because she is too young, her lineage hasn’t developed properly, otherwise even as a mortal, she could have ignored them just like me", said the ligress girl at Cassandra who was tending to Lauren to see if she had fractures or other dangerous wounds.

"You... you know what her lineage is?", asked the green-haired female leader, to which Mira nodded.

"Yes, to begin with, races that can clash head on with me at a similar or lower level without turning into bloody paste after a few rounds are not high in number, she has a bit of bad luck though, her hair and claws are different than what I know, so I took a bit more to recognize it, she is probably a mixed race which explains why her lineage is still at its earlier stages despite her age... anyway, we can leave that for later, I don’t really want to kill you two, but this is still a fight and I am responsible for a lot of things, so do I have to knock you out as well?", said the ligress girl to which Cassandra shook her head as she let go of her whip.

"Forget it, I don’t care what happens to me, but if you really have some fate with this girl’s race, please keep her safe...", said the green-haired leader to which Mira sighed.

"Don’t worry, he just looks like a piece of dual cultivator scum, but as much as it burns my soul to say it, he is a decent guy, so what is going to happen is nothing like what you would expect", half-jokingly, half seriously said the ligress girl, which made Aster chuckle from the distance.

’Cold on the outside but warm on the inside as always, how cute’, jokingly thought Aster, to then say in a voice loud enough for Mira to hear.

"Wouldn’t it be a nice moment to try that little "gift" from before, those pretty claws of yours might need to be polished a bit after giving them such a rough use, right?".

"Grrrr", to which the ligress girl softly growled in response, that being said, at Aster’s discretion, she did bring the nail file which Aster had gifted her, instead of an energizing potion, because the olive wood file had a both relaxing and invigorating effect on Mira.

’Looks like I was right, he must be insanely strong if he can joke around with someone that treated Lauren like a little kid in a close-range fight... those two and Andre are alive as well’, thought Cassandra as she took out a piece of dried fish from her pocket to then place it close to Lauren’s nose.

"Sniff", the orange haired girl moved her nose a couple of times before her eyes opened as she munched on the piece of dried fish, her transformation burned a lot of nutrients so she actually reacted to the smell of food which helped her regain her consciousness faster than what it should have been, well, to begin with, she has a tough body so she wasn’t going to be out cold for too long, even when Mira used some serious strength when she smacked her against the ground.

"Ahh, I got destroyed in a fight, how embarrassing", said the orange haired girl as she used her nails which similar to Mira had remained of a different color than a human’s ones, though they shortened to a much more comfortable length, just like Mira and Alice’s ones as well, to cut the extra length of her hair which had grown earlier.

"I could somewhat listen to your conversation, are we surrendering, sister Cassandra?", asked Lauren to the green-haired female leader who nodded in response.

"Everyone on our side is alive, so we have no reason to continue fighting, besides that damn Jen was Vera’s lapdog, she wouldn’t have dared to attack you as well, unless Vera told her she could do it, Kyle, Brett and Blake are also dead so let her fend on her own", said Cassandra.

There was the rift in the group mentioned by Sarina, the brown-haired woman who was the "vice" leader of Cassandra’s group, had her own faction, which consisted in the tanned guy, that blue-haired girl as well as one of the two pairs of brothers.

Originally, the green haired Cassandra didn’t discriminate, she told everyone to not fight with the intention to kill, but those that didn’t directly follow her, of course didn’t listen and as a result they died, even then Cassandra didn’t abandon the fight, she and Lauren still stalled Mira so that she wouldn’t go and kill everyone.

She even overlooked that Jen suddenly appeared with someone from the blond guy’s group, but she was furious at the fact that they were using poison and absolutely cut ties with Vera when Jen threw those poisonous needles without caring if Lauren was hit or not.

"It’s good that you are awake, here you carry this, also bring back that guy’s corpse as well", said Mira as she threw Jen’s corpse at Lauren.

"Yes, big sister!", enthusiastically said the orange haired girl, which made Cassandra sigh.

’We are prisoners now you know, why are you admiring the one who smacked you against the ground a couple of minutes ago’, she thought, but didn’t say anything about it, as she knew it was a racial trait of Lauren.

She respected the strong, that doesn’t mean she’ll overlook other aspects though, even when Aster unsheathed his sword and gave of that overwhelming feeling of dread earlier, she didn’t change her stance towards him, because she thought he was an evil dual cultivator.

That’s why the brothers said that she was going to be pissed when she learned that probably wasn’t the case.

In Mira’s case, she was strong and based on the fact that she was still alive, didn’t suffer any severe wounds and what she half heard when she was half conscious earlier, Lauren could tell that she was a good person, so she was already calling the ligress girl as her big sister without any reservations.

Speaking of which, the reason as to why Mira’s stance towards Cassandra softened was because of the way Lauren treated her, she called her "sister" not "big sister", was close and respected her, this meant that their closeness wasn’t originated by strength like in her case.

’I honestly don’t want to go back now...’, thought the ligress girl as she felt the annoyingly teasing gaze of a certain black haired dragon youth, but she ultimately sighed to her insides as she said.

"Let’s go", and so, Mira accompanied by Lauren and Cassandra who unlike other captured enemies, walked next to their captor, arrived at Aster’s area.

"I-I brought back one of the enemy’s leaders, so I can ask for a big reward right!", exclaimed Mira whose face was slightly red due to having to follow Aster’s little game.

’I would like to tease her a lot right now, but she might scratch me if I take it too far, amusingly thought Aster as he said.

"If you are going to ask for them to be spared it, then don’t bother, it wouldn’t be fair to use your reward for something I was going to do anyway after all", the first part of Aster’s sentence made Mira’s heart contract a bit, only for the latter part to bring a sensation of relief.

All of that was eclipsed by the annoyance she felt as she saw the teasing smile on Aster’s face though.

’This tease-loving perverted dragon!’, she exclaimed to her insides, that being said and as the old saying goes, once one is riding on the tiger’s back, there is no way out, so Mira bit the bullet and added.

"Is that so, then I want you to take them with us, you get along with that flaming board right, I want that as my reward", said the ligress girl, who went princess mode out of nowhere.

’I like that she is acting spoiled and all, but that’s quite the request’, thought Aster as he bitterly smiled to his insides.

"It can be done... right?", added Mira with a softer tone, the ligress is quite a prideful girl, and thus she would rarely take the initiative to ask anything of anyone, much less from Aster, whom despite not admitting, Mira felt nothing but gratitude, given that he ultimately liberated her from her prison and never once tried to take advantage of her, at this point she considered Aster, as annoying as his teasing was, as his friend and benefactor.

So, the fact that Mira was asking something from her friend for a change, was quite meaningful.

’That orange-haired girl’s must come from a race with whom she is really close’, thought Aster to then say.

"I can only promise to try on my end", he said which made Mira’s eyes glow for a second.

"Mm, thanks Aster", said Mira, she didn’t especially smile or anything of the like, but the clear happiness in her voice gave her away.

’How cute’, thought Aster as he jokingly added.

"No problem, everything for our "big sister Mira", right?", he said.

"Grrr", which earned him a soft growl from the ligress.