Trial

"You have a ten-second rest." Sonia exhaled a long breath of turbid air, racing against the clock to recall every detail of the battle just now. Although she believed she hadn't lost any memories from repeatedly dying, if she truly had forgotten something, she would never realize it. All she could do was strive to prevent such a worst-case scenario. She had long lost count of the exact number of deaths, nor did she bother trying to keep track. Her mind held no extraneous thoughts now. Her mother, classmates, exams, and ambitions back in reality had all been swept into the furthest, most desolate corners. Her entire focus was fixed on the enemy before her, named "End Watcher." She racked her brains to break down every nuance of his movements, using her body to engrave each of his brutal ravagings into memory! She discovered that the End Watcher possessed no extraordinary abilities whatsoever, and did not even hold a physical advantage over her. Compared to her, the Watcher was merely an enemy who knew how to use a sword—at most, an enemy who was very skilled with one. Sonia had once seen swordmasters who had cultivated swordsmanship to the peak of perfection. Even their ordinary swings exerted an oppressive weight that felt like needles stabbing the backs of onlookers; merely holding the hilt was enough to make the weak bow in terror. Compared to those truly towering peaks, the Watcher was merely an ordinary stepping stone. Yes, just a stepping stone. Although she had died once more, Sonia's desperate, all-out strike had successfully countered the Watcher just now. Yet just as a thrown sword would return to his hand, the Watcher, who had taken a sword through the chest only moments ago, was now fully restored, seemingly healed in an instant. If there were any recovery period, Sonia would have gladly traded her life to stack wounds upon him until he died. Unfortunately, this duel was fair, leaving her no such loophole to exploit. A fair duel. Sonia felt a twinge of irony inside. Yet she also had to admit that everything was indeed fair. All manner of unreasonable constraints made her understand that she had only one choice: in this duel, she had to defeat the End Watcher with absolute strength. Ten seconds elapsed. In that instant, time felt like a tangible, solid entity. The moment it ran out, Sonia's entire body tensed, and sword in hand, she charged at the Watcher! In the first second of battle, the Watcher would inevitably maintain a ready draw stance, then dash forward and draw his sword into a spinning slash. The farther Sonia was from the Watcher, the fiercer the attack she would face, to the point where her weapon might be sent flying from her grip! This move closely resembled the fabled iaido quick-draw slash, and the method to counter it was simple: under no circumstances should she dodge; she had to take the initiative to close in and interrupt his spin! *Clang!* Sonia's arms went almost completely numb from the shock, but she ultimately halted the Watcher's spin, successfully dragging him into a close-quarters brawl where risking one's life was easiest! Having died so many times, Sonia had long stopped caring about getting a few extra holes in her body. As long as she could kill the Watcher a step before dying herself, victory was hers! *Clang! Clang! Clang!* After several rapid, airtight exchanges, Sonia silently counted the clashes. When she reached five, her strike cleaved through empty air. With an eerie, abrupt motion, the Watcher evaded in the exact opposite direction, stepped forward with the momentum, and slashed toward Sonia's head! No warning, utterly lethal! Sonia had once assumed this was some kind of supernatural ability, but through experiences bought with repeated deaths, she had realized it was merely a form of combat footwork. Yet even after seeing through its nature, Sonia was powerless—she could not tell which direction the Watcher would evade in! Because the Watcher usually evaded only after seeing Sonia attack, and immediately followed with a return slash, Sonia had dubbed this move "Foresight Slash." A quick-draw was easy to parry, but Foresight Slash was difficult to defend against. Thus, Sonia simply gave up on defense. Raising her arm, she used her forearm bone to wedge against the Watcher's blade, closing into his chest and attempting to sever his head with a single stroke! The greatest weakness of Foresight Slash was its lack of power—it was nowhere near enough to chop off her arm! However, the instant the Watcher struck her arm, both his legs abruptly glided across the sand. He evaded toward yet another direction, dodging Sonia's blade by a hair's breadth, and stepped forward again to slash toward her neck! A double Foresight Slash! "You have a ten-second rest." Sonia patted her cheeks, gripped her hilt tightly, and looked at the Watcher. "Come on!" The Watcher was indifferent. Entering his ready draw stance, he unleashed the quick-draw slash— There was no metallic clash of blades meeting. The Watcher remained in his spinning slash posture, but he had hit nothing. Just before the Watcher was about to strike Sonia, both of her feet suddenly glided across the sand, evading in another direction with an eerie grace! At this moment, the Watcher was still caught in the recovery of his spinning slash, whereas Sonia could seamlessly press her attack! Yet Sonia instead took the stance of sheathing her blade! "After dying so many times, even if I were a pig, I would've learned your moves!" With Sonia's fierce shout, she stepped forward, lunged with a spin, and drew her sword in a wide cleave! Foresight Quick-Draw Slash! Using the quick-draw as the follow-up to Foresight Slash to compensate for Foresight Slash's lower offensive power! In truth, Sonia had learned the quick-draw slash long ago, but had held it in reserve until she was confident in mastering Foresight Slash. Only then did she unleash them together, aiming to cut down the Watcher in a single stroke! Carried by tremendous rotational momentum, Sonia felt almost no resistance. Her blade smoothly cleaved open the Watcher's chest, like a hot knife slicing through butter! It wasn't that she didn't want to sever the Watcher's neck, but she wasn't tall enough. Raising her arm even slightly higher during the spin placed an immense burden on her body, so she had to settle for the next best thing and cut his chest. *That smoothly?* Sonia found it hard to believe. She hurriedly adjusted her balance from the afterglow of the spinning slash and looked warily at the Watcher. "Does this count as me defeating you?" "Yes," the Watcher said. "Congratulations." "You have successfully defeated me wielding only a single sword." A single sword... While Sonia was still slightly dazed, the Watcher kicked the tip of his boot into the sand and flicked upward, hooking a longsword out from beneath the grains. "The first half has ended. The second half begins." The Watcher raised both blades into a cross stance. "By the way, there will be no ten-second rest going forward." ... ... "Sonia, we have morning class today. Aren't you going?" Sonia held her head and sat up, discovering that only Ingrid remained in the dormitory. Ingrid was already fully dressed, getting ready to leave. "What time is it?" "Seven-thirty," Ingrid said. "There's a general elective this morning. I remember you usually get up an hour early on mornings with general electives to do your skincare and makeup... The others have already left... You don't look well." "Really?" Sonia unconsciously touched her neck, then snapped back to her senses and shook her head. "Maybe I had a nightmare..." "A nightmare? You'll forget it soon enough," Ingrid remarked flatly. "Remember to come to class. Don't be absent, or they'll deduct dorm points." With that, Ingrid closed the door and left, leaving Sonia alone in the dormitory. On any other morning when she slept in, Sonia would have scrambled out of bed to wash up and do her makeup. Today, however, she had no heart for it, sitting on the bed in a daze. It was bizarre. Even though it had been a dream, it was so real; stranger still, she showed no signs of forgetting it. She remembered every detail with crystal clarity, from her first death all the way to her ninety-ninth, vivid in her mind's eye. Even every pang of pain remained fresh in her memory. Once the End Watcher entered dual-wielding mode, the intensity of their battle had multiplied severalfold in an instant—Sonia was given virtually no room to breathe. The moment she opened her eyes, she would see the Watcher lunging forward. Her arms grew so numb with exhaustion that by the end, she had faced the Watcher's tempestuous ravaging almost purely on physical instinct. Foresight Slash, quick-draw, Foresight Slash into quick-draw, quick-draw into Foresight Slash, triple Foresight Slash, triple quick-draw... Relying solely on these two moves, Sonia had maneuvered against the Watcher, exhausting nearly every possible variation. When she finally defeated the Watcher, she felt nothing special. She had simply chained Foresight Slashes and quick-draws without stopping, dodging every attack from the Watcher and striking at every flaw, until the Watcher collapsed. Yet after defeating the Watcher, Sonia felt no joy whatsoever. Because the Watcher had spoken a single sentence: *"This trial has ended, but your life has only just begun."* Though she could not see his face and could not hear his tone, Sonia was utterly certain—this was by no means a blessing. "End Watcher..." Sonia chewed over the name silently, as if grinding it beneath her teeth before swallowing it down to digest. *** Meanwhile, in the luxurious grand suite at the bottom of Shattered Lake Prison in Kaimeng City. Yaxiu yawned and sat up. For some reason, he felt exhausted after this sleep, as though he had been thoroughly beaten up. Activating his light screen, he opened *Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook*, and a brand-new notification met his eyes: *"Through the trial, the bond between Death Frenzy Sword Princess and you has deepened."* Yaxiu scratched his head. "...Arranging a trial can increase bond? There's actually such a good deal?"