The area they were battling was near to the cliff that reached to the abyss who knows where.
"Looks like I should stop conserving my energy..." Evelynn instantly judged the situation was not in her favor as she stood her ground. The greyish aura glowing around her body started to gleam brighter as if it were purified.
"Tyrant Aura Amplification..." Evelynn inwardly uttered to herself as she concentrated her battle aura towards her shoulders, hips and her thick legs, rus.h.i.+ng forward with an explosive step.
The momentum she used to charge made her seem like a train charging ahead to take down any obstacle blocking its path.
The armored figure who possessed a s.h.i.+eld was. .h.i.t with her entire explosive speed and knocked back into the cliff but before it could even fall down, it turned into a speck of energy and disappeared.
Evelynn smiled as the remaining three were scattered away from each other from the sheer impact of colliding with her rush.
Her arms were slightly hurt from the impact but she used this opportunity to lop off every single one of their heads while they were staggered.
As the last head fell with a loud thud, Evelynn took a deep breath while inwardly heaving a sigh of relief, feeling that she had acted smart against these opponents, making her clear the trial without much effort.
But before she could even catch her breath, a voice resounded out again, "Let the second level begin..."
Evelynn froze! She actually forgot the warnings of being given no time to rest and relaxed in a moment of carelessness.
She hurriedly concentrated and released her battle aura to go back to get peak state again.
Evelynn"s expression changed as she failed... Even if she couldn"t return to her peak state, she could still enter a focused state which is near to a peak state in terms of battle prowess.
Numerous figures once again climbed out of the surrounding cliff, and it was clear that each of them released the same battle aura as her; Low-Level Iron Stage.
Her expression turned solemn once again as she couldn"t truly underestimate their prowess.
When she battled with the previous armored figures, she realized that they were more or less utilizing techniques that were of Sky Grade to battle, just like her.
She had a vague thought swirling around her head, "Wouldn"t that mean the armored figures in the King Grade Trial might possibly use techniques that are of... King Grade?"
As the thought quickly came, she launched herself towards an armored figure, adopting the same strategy.
Kill before they group up!
Arriving near the armored figure she targeted, just before she could attack, she hurriedly dodged as she felt danger!
*Clang!~*
One spear struck the location where she had been before and the moment she landed, she suddenly sidestepped!
*Ripp!~~*
A tearing sound echoed and blood splattered on the ground. A sleek cut on her arm appeared while poured out from her wound.
Evelynn paid it no heed and stored the spear which created a wound on her arm and landed beside her.
She quickly approached the other spear which was first aimed at her, but her target quickly blocked her way.
Evelynn activated Tyrant Aura Amplification again and slashed at the armored figure with her sword.
*Clang!~*
*Clang!~*
The armored figure retaliated and their attacks clashed, sprinkling sparks due to the friction.
Her eyes moved and she saw five of them quickly moving in to surround her as one of them launched an attack.
Evelynn retreated again, but as she back stepped, she neared the edge of the cliff.
Taking a deep breath, she took out the spear she had retrieved before and positioned herself for a throw while steadying her hips.
Seeing the armored figures coming at her in more or less a straight line, she inadvertently cracked a smile.
"Absolute Enhancement!"
Her bones gave off a cracking sound as her joints echoed. Her arm slightly bulged while her veins stuck out.
She took a step forward and with a resounding boom echoed through the ground as she threw the spear at them with deep focus.
*Bzz!~*
The spear traveled in a straight line but missed the first target however, the next few armored figures were pierced through like tofu, rendering at least three of them dead.
One of them was the one who retrieved the spear when Evelynn retreated due to their prowess from ganging up.
Evelynn did not stop her movements after she threw the spear, but quickly arrived at the center of them and wreaked havoc from ruining their close formation.
The spear thrown at them had disrupted their rhythm but also let them fall into chaos as they unconsciously blocked each other"s line of sight.
She slashed and pierced creating numerous cuts on the armored figures surrounding her. She also targeted their joints, making their movements slow down to a few notches.
Her intentions were clear; weaken them before they regroup!
It was possible to kill some before they regrouped but it would let the remaining opponents who were down, gang up on her after they had regained balance. She couldn"t let that absolutely happen or her battle aura would deplete faster than ever.
As she danced around while swinging her sword, using their line of sight to her advantage while cutting them down one by one, it didn"t take long for the first one to fall.
She had already killed three, so this made four of them to the dead list at this level.
She killed another one before they finally regrouped, surrounding her into a dead-end!
There were still five of them left!
Even so, Evelynn smiled as she had weakened the five of them to a degree by wounding them.
Besides, as she killed, her confidence increased as time pa.s.sed by. They weren"t as bright as humans, nor were they stupid as humans.
They acted all according to a certain pattern, and if she can see through them, she can make them run around like fools for some time.
It was just like Davis said. The strategies he gave her were immensely useful when fighting against opponents who were like puppets.
Kill them off before they group up! Retreat if they try to surround! Maintain distance as you slash them apart one by one while trying to not get injured! Make them weaponless as that would decrease their battle prowess a lot!
She narrowed her eyes and looked at the two armored figures who possessed s.h.i.+elds.
Other than the dead armored figures who wielded spears, these two were the ones who were giving her a headache because she needed more strength to defeat them.
The s.h.i.+elds were firm, st.u.r.dy and wide. She could only defeat the previous s.h.i.+eld user in the first level because the weapon"s grade was lower than her own cultivation. Rus.h.i.+ng into that st.u.r.dy Low-Level Earth Grade s.h.i.+eld wouldn"t work this time.
But if this situation prolonged, then she knew that she would not be able to clear the third level, which would clearly be difficult than this level.
Keeping her sword inside, she took out a spear again, and it looked like the one of the two she gained during the first level.
She eyed the spear that was at Low-Level Earth Grade stuck in the mountain surface and charted the shortest route possible.
She took a step forward and dashed in the opposite direction.
An armored figure with an axe came close and cut down her path.
Evelynn antic.i.p.ated it and moved sideways, switching to the direction where a hole in their formation had formed due to the axe user"s offense.
Quickly das.h.i.+ng away, she almost got away from their blockade when suddenly an armored figure slashed at her with a sword.
Thrusting the spear at the sword, she deflected it and the resulting force sent her flying out of the blockade.
It wasn"t that she was weak but she let herself be propelled away by the force from their clash.
Once she took a step on the ground balancing herself, her bones once again made a cracking sound as she launched the spear at the sword user.
The spear traveled at a speed where the sword user couldn"t react in time.
*Puchi!!~*
It pierced the opponents head and nailed itself on the ground, and in the next moment, the sword user faded into nothingness.
Without turning away her back on them, she back stepped as she neared the Low-Level Earth Grade Spear.
Her seductive yet serious eyes searched for any possible attacks that might catch her off-guard.
In a few seconds, she arrived and took the spear that was nailed on the ground with sheer force.
She scanned the area once again and made sure that there were only four of them left.
The armored figures slowly neared her as they adopted a different method to fight her.
From this, Evelynn garnered that the lower the armored figures left, the more they acted defensive.
Propping up the spear towards them, she dashed forwards awaiting a collision that might result in one of them getting injured.
Or so one would think...
Evelynn performed a jump once she arrived near a s.h.i.+eld user and thrust it.
*Puchi!!~*
The s.h.i.+eld user"s head was pierced through and it quickly turned into a speck of energy before disappearing from the place.
Evelynn smiled as her feint worked. These opponents were easier to fool as they followed a certain pattern.
The s.h.i.+eld user propped up its s.h.i.+eld, preparing for the incoming collision while blocking its own line of sight. This allowed Evelynn to jump over that armored figure and kill it
As soon as she landed, a two-handed axe almost diced her body into two but because she took a sidestep, she managed to successfully avoid it.
She hurriedly retreated and thanked her reflexes for the impending close call.
Once she created a small amount of distance between those three, she heaved a sigh of relief.
There was too much s.p.a.ce for her to maneuver and as long as they don"t surround her, she imagined that everything would be fine.
During this time, she thought of taking a pill but too bad, any form of supplements weren"t allowed in the trial.
This is why most of the candidates failed to clear the trial in the first place.
Without energy to replenish or battle aura in this case, one can"t expect to continuously fight numerous experts at the same time. Not only would they have no chance to replenish their energy, but they should also try to conserve it as well.
Making a mistake while conserving their energy would clearly result in them being ousted from the trial at the end.
Evelynn still hadn"t even used half of her battle aura, yet she came this far just by running around as she created opportunities for herself to exploit.
What she did was deadly and could land her in a pinch but she learned that unless one"s battle prowess was abnormal, they wouldn"t be able to make an even a small ripple in this place.
She understood this very well!
In a few staggering minutes, she managed to kill all three of them. And once she did that, she heard that voice she came to dislike again.
"Let the third level begin..."
In a split second, numerous armored figures appeared in her view again as she did a 360° turn.
She sighed thinking that she would have to face ten experts one level above her own, meaning all ten of them were at Mid-Level Iron Stage.
Evelynn clenched her fists reluctantly.
In this one month of Body Tempering Cultivation, she felt that she was very close to breaking through the Mid-Level Iron Stage, yet she hadn"t been able to...
If she doesn"t breakthrough right now, then it will be almost an impossible task for her to defeat these ten armored figures.
Evelynn understood that she wasn"t a genius and so, considered if she should give up right here and now.
She clenched her teeth as she thought of the days where she had shamelessly, yet guiltily received cultivation resources just for being his woman.
It wasn"t that she hated it but felt that she didn"t deserve it because she had once ignored his direct advances to agree to become his wife in the near future as if she wasn"t interested.
It was only through her cousin"s provocation did she realize about her true feelings in the Grand Sea Continent Meet.
Even though she understood herself more or less after that event, she hated the fact that she was powerless and selfish.
Being near a figure of power only served to increase her sense of inferiority complex even more.
She didn"t want to experience that feeling one bit...
A faint light of determination shone in Evelynn"s eyes as held the spear.
The speed that they had moved in on her... She realized that she had no chance to fool around by maneuvering around them.
The greyish battle aura surrounding her radiated as her eyes emitted a glint while her lips moved!
"Tyrant s.h.i.+eld..."