The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

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Although their location was quite a distance away from where she had expected, Evelyn knew that the trio she had found hiding in the cave was definitely Craig and Professor Dane's group.

Aurora didn't bother asking her how she found them, and directly flew them over to the location she had pointed out. 

"Here?"

Evelyn nodded. "Mhm."

The pink-haired girl thought that her teacher would call Craig out, but Aurora simply waved her hand destroyed the upper layer of the cave using spirit power, exposing the dumbfounded trio within that was now staring blankly at platinum blonde floating in the air.

Professor Dane was the first one to regain his wits as he pointed at Aurora indignantly. "Y-You—!"

Before he could say anymore, however, Prince Craig gave him an imploring look as he cleared his throat, making the expelled senior professor grudgingly hold his words as the Terran Prince gave Aurora a polite bow. "Lady Aurora, it's our great fortune to have you rescue us. I cannot express just how grateful I am—"

Aurora waved her hand to interrupt him. "I'm not here to save anyone. Tell me, boy, why are there a bunch of Terran soldiers scuttling around in the wonderland? Depending on your answer, I might reconsider your position as a student of the Ancient Academy…"

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Prince Craig had known the situation was dire the moment he heard Aurora mention the Terran forces in the forest.

After all, he knew that Aurora was someone who had already been through several of his kingdom's failed attempts at capturing the academy. Although the academy itself remained 'neutral' on the matter, considering that all five of the major powers had attempted the same thing at one time or another, Craig didn't believe they would tolerate anyone's encroachment of their territory.

The Wonderland of Doom served as a natural defense barrier as well as the first layer of protection for the Ancient Academy, and stationing their forces at this zone required anyone to pay a hefty price.

Craig knew it was impossible to convince Aurora that the Kingdom of Terrazyme would be willing to pay such a price for just one person, even if it was their crown prince. 

And it was indeed true, because they would never sacrifice so much just for him. Even the King's aide who had perished before was only a little less valuable than him, and the total cost of this expedition was sure to be many times greater than just that.

Aurora furrowed her brows as she wrapped Craig's left leg in a bubble. "Speak!"

Craig opened his mouth in shock, realizing that he couldn't mobilize his spirit power under Aurora's gaze at all. He didn't know when the small little bubbles of water had started floating all around the area, but going by the cold sweat that was now soaking Professor Dane's forehead, his situation was likely to be the same as well.

But he still kept his mouth shut. Even when he felt the bubble on his left leg implode, completely obliterating it from knee down, the boy only let out a whimper as he collapsed to the ground.

Professor Dane gulped. The most he had been worried about at first was the Aurora would humiliate him again, considering she had let him live before, but she looked almost ready to kill the Terran Prince!

What did that mean? Did she want the ancient academy to go to war with Terrazyme? Had she gone completely insane?!

More importantly, regardless of what kind of retribution she would bring upon herself and the academy, didn't this mean that he was going to die as well?!

After all… if she was going to murder Craig, she would certainly not let him live when he already had a grudge against her and had witnessed this scene.

Just as Aurora was about to continue interrogating Craig, however, a thunderous roar tore through the area as the ground below the Terran Prince burst open. Before any of them could react, a giant stone spear was already just inches from Aurora's face.

The platinum blonde quickly floated back with Evelyn as she flicked off the spear, instantly shattering it with just her palm as she turned her stare to the source of disturbance - a giant brown beetle followed by dozens of cloaked men.

Evelyn couldn't help but sigh. 'I can't believe it… if this cockroach Craig really manages to escape from Aurora, I'm gonna flip a table!'

Aurora frowned as she made Evelyn float behind her, obscuring most of her vision, much to the girl's regret. "Ah, I remember you… daring to call yourself the 'Guardian Beast of Earth', you think quite highly of yourself, right? Well, you saved that crippled prince, but was it a worthy trade for your life?"

The beast responded by shooting dozens of stone spears from its mouth as the men quickly scattered and started setting down arrays.

Unfortunately, they seemed to have vastly underestimated their opponent. Even Evelyn couldn't see exactly what happened, just that everyone but the beetle beast seemed to spontaneously choke and collapse, their eyes turning lifeless moments later.

The beetle seemed unaffected, and unwrapped the giant wings on its back as it started flapping them rapidly.

Watching the stocky body of the huge bug ascend to the sky was quite horrific, and as her vision became obscured by dust, it became even more ominous. The only thing that brought Evelyn relief was the fact that Aurora looked calm, and the situation should still be under control.

Evelyn didn't know what the strange beast was trying to do, but it became clear moments later as the 'sandstorm' thinned out a little, and she spotted the thing already quite far from their location, still flying away at full speed. It was still quite slow when compared to Aurora, or even Bree, or it should have already disappeared from her sight.

Considering Aurora's earlier words, she couldn't believe that her teacher had just allowed it to escape. "You're gonna let it go, just like that?"

The platinum blonde blinked curiously. "Well, it took him so long to grow to grade eight, you know, it would be a shame if I didn't give him a chance at all. Mhm, I think it's far enough away now. How about it, you have a bow and arrow, right? Wanna shoot it down?"

Evelyn stared at Aurora in disbelief. "M-Me? Can I even hurt that thing?!"

After all, she knew her limits best. A grade eight beast meant that the thing was at least level 80, and even if she poured in most of her soul power into an arrow, she wouldn't be able to make a fatal wound on that thing at all.

Aurora smiled. "Don't worry, just shoot when I tell you."

As she allowed her to float down to the ground, Evelyn quickly took out her 'Compact Iron Bow' and carefully took aim. She didn't even bother imbuing it with her new trick, because a Soul Searing Arrow with a few points of her soul power and a normal arrow... they were probably just the same to that thing.

Evelyn watched as Aurora's whole body started to glow with a strange blue aura and a small sphere of water slowly took shape in front of her.

The platinum blonde moved the sphere closer to Evelyn's face so she could take a closer look. "Look, this is a very basic spirit construct, and techniques that utilize such a basic thing may seem weak and useless. This causes many to discard them after learning more advanced constructs, limiting their growth in the future."

Evelyn nodded, though she felt a little exasperated in her heart. 'Is she seriously trying to teach me about all that right now?'

The water sphere looked flimsy and weak at first, but the amount of spirit power it could hold seemed to have no limits at all. Aurora kept pouring more and more power of her spirit power into that thing, and just staring at it sent shivers down Evelyn's spine. 

Aurora smiled. "See? This is the advantage of this simple structure. The more complex ones can amplify your spirit power more, but there is a limit to how much power they can handle. What is better, hundred times four, or thousand times two? You see—"

Evelyn finally couldn't help but grit her teeth. "I-I can't shoot it if it's too far away, okay?!"

Aurora blinked in surprise as she nodded.

Just as Evelyn was worried that the beast really would move out of her range, Aurora finally pushed the water sphere to the tip of her arrow. "Okay, ready! Just shoot whenever. Don't worry about it moving, it won't be able to sense your shot."

Evelyn trusted in her words, and just took aim and let the arrow go. 'Please hit!'

And moments later, an unholy shriek echoed throughout the Wonderland of Doom.

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~ To be continued ~

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DustyDream:

Thank you for all your support!