Chronicles of the Seven Realms

After completing the warm-up phase, Kled and Sylvana stepped back and took their positions opposite each other. Their breathing was still under control, and not a single drop of sweat was shed. It was the beginning of an intense fight that had been anticipated for a long time. Sylvana thought this might be the last one. She could have arranged the trial to be just between the two of them, but that wouldn't have been enough for Kled to showcase all his abilities.

"What have you prepared for us..?"

Kled spun the odachi in the air and rested it on his shoulder, glancing at the fog clusters behind him.

"Oh... Just a few surprises... I'm sure you'll enjoy them."

He let out a short laugh with a sly smile.

"You know I like trying new things."

"Like the gifts you just sent?"

Sylvana raised her eyebrows and gestured behind her.

"I must admit, I was surprised. I've never seen you use long-range weapons before, and I don't recall us training you in that."

"Surprised, aren't you? It's one of the ancient weapons, and I had to dig through quite a few dusty shelves to find it." Kled looked on with a meaningless sense of pride.

Of course, by "finding," he didn't actually mean the weapon itself. The weapon he found was designed around the same time artificial intelligence was discovered. Therefore, compared to more complex weapons, it was easier to load into the system and summon. Additionally, since it was made with simpler and more common materials, it consumed less energy.

The weapons hidden in the mist, if they could be called weapons, were more complex in structure. Thus, it took a long time and a lot of energy to make them. Thanks to a new material he developed, he was able to prepare his big surprise.

"If you want to pass the trial, you'll need to surprise me more!"

Sylvana took a stance with her heavy sword, ready to attack. Kled responded with a burst of acceleration at his feet. Sparks flew as their swords clashed again. As time dwindled, Kled glanced around.

'I need to involve the others for a short while,' he thought. If everything went according to plan, he could incapacitate the others perfectly in a short amount of time. For this, the other guardians needed to arrive in the exact sequence he had calculated. Yes, it was very risky. Did he have a chance to make a plan that wouldn't tolerate the slightest mistake? Of course, but he needed more than 30 minutes for that.

"Did you think long and hard to keep the time this short?" Kled taunted.

While trying to draw Sylvana's attention to the conversation, he didn't forget that the person in front of him was a warrior who had lived for thousands of years. At that moment, Sylvana managed to pin Kled's sword to the ground with her heavy sword. Allowing his sword to slip from his hand, Kled spun around and attacked again. Sylvana thought about responding, but unexpectedly, Kled had already lost his sword early.

Kled had let go of his sword in a very fast and unpredictable manner. Sylvana was caught between taking a risk without letting go of her sword or releasing it to deflect the kick coming rapidly toward her face. After a short hesitation, she let go of her sword and countered with the thick armor on her elbow. At that moment, a smile appeared on Kled's face, which he didn't bother to hide. Sylvana realized she had made a mistake, though she didn't understand what it was.

In his next move, instead of strengthening his kick with his other foot, Kled used Sylvana's distracted attention to place his foot on her chest. Every move was outside the fight's usual actions. Maintaining his speed in the air, he pulled his knee toward his chest. As Sylvana braced herself for the impact, Kled used her chest as a support and propelled himself in the opposite direction, soaring into the air. As Sylvana was thrown further away from her sword by the delayed impact, Kled moved toward the now more dispersed mist. As he advanced, the last capsule he had left in the area activated.

By the time the board he had summoned reached him, he had already grabbed it with his hands instead of his feet. Preparing a powerful kick with the momentum of the board he spun around himself, the last capsule silently illuminated the surroundings with a sudden flash of light. At that moment, Aeris, who had come to catch him unprepared in the air, was caught in her own trap due to the flash and received a kick to her neck. Aeris, caught with a look of surprise on her face by this precisely calculated blow, tried to turn herself in the air at the last moment to avoid a critical hit and was thrown downward, taking the blow on her shoulder.

"Kleeeedddd!!!"

Aeris, opening her white wings to slow her downward fall, wiped her tearing eyes with her arm and tried to open them.

"You won't get away that easily..."

Before she could finish her sentence, long, bright threads shot out from the mist below. The sticky threads, which first wrapped around her wings and then all her limbs, were strong despite their thin appearance. As all her movements were restricted, she was being pulled down into the mist. She made one last attempt to fly away, but the threads stretched and extended without letting go.

"HHHHIIIIII.. I'll kill you..!!"

With her face flushed with the anger of being sidelined for the second time without being able to do anything, Aeris disappeared into the mist. Without waiting, Kled dove into the mist after Aeris.

"Six left," he whispered.

His brain was working frantically. To avoid being caught by Sylvana and Seraphine simultaneously, he tried to lose his position by transitioning between the mists. When he emerged from the last mist he entered, it was his turn to be surprised. By the time he noticed the object speeding toward his face, it was too late. When the cold steel cannonball exploded on his face, he momentarily lost consciousness. His body fell back into the mist from the impact.

A few seconds earlier, Gaelia was following Kled's transitions between the mists from a distance, juggling the cannonball that had bounced off her shield and fallen in front of her.

"Ahh, my hair! This outfit was brand new!"

Right next to her, Emberlyn was on her knees, complaining with her hair and clothes in disarray. They were all covered in dust and smoke.

"Watch out, Gaelia, that okra's death will be by my hand!"

Marella was cleaning her body, muddied by the water puddles left from the shield she had formed around her, with new water droplets. Blue lightning flashed in her eyes from her anger. Lucina, who had been thrown far from the group, was calm. At the last moment, Sylvana's movement had caught her attention, and she had managed to protect herself. The others weren't as lucky.

"Oh no, he's mine! I'll hang him from his feet in the square!"

Gaelia wasn't as good at fighting or swordsmanship as the others. But thanks to her terrifying strength, she was excellent in defense. As she threw the ball with great momentum, the cracking of her joints could be heard as her muscles tensed in her arms. As the ball left her hand, a windstorm blew around it. With a sharp whistle, the ball disappeared from sight.

Kled had lost all harmony due to the impact he had taken.

"They're definitely, definitely very angry," he groaned.

Even if he won this fight, he began to doubt whether he could get out of here alive. It was impossible for them to let him go without making him pay. Women were truly difficult beings. He forced his brain again to salvage his disrupted plan. The blood flowing from his forehead seeped into his mouth, and the taste of iron filled his breath.

The thoughts in his head, which had begun to ache from the impact, were interrupted by a second blow. This time, he felt a hard punch on his back. The blow was so intense that as his body flew and disappeared into the next mist, the dust clinging to him hung suspended in the air like a copy of Kled for a moment.

Seraphine laughed heartily as she watched his flight. As she gathered her disheveled hair with both hands, she hopped on both feet to keep her energy up. She pulled her flowing hair back and secured it with a thin golden stick she quickly pulled from her waist.

"Now, let's repeat this, darling."

As she bent forward to regain her speed, she felt shell-like objects under her feet. When she glanced down, a scream she couldn't recognize as her own erupted. While she was jumping on the ground, a spider the size of her legs had already started wrapping her up with its elastic threads. She wanted to bring her fist down on the spider's head at lightning speed, but she was too late. The threads wrapping around her hand and arms also enveloped her body and face, bringing her to the ground. As she writhed on the ground, wrapped up, she silently began to be pulled underground.

In the other mist, Kled, who was trying to cope with the pain from the blow he had received, smiled with his eyes closed and sighed. With his teeth stained red, he tried to straighten up. As he got up and stretched his back, his eyes opened with determination.

"Five left."