*Gururururu~

The sound of marching could be heard as the puppets slowly walked out of the gates.

Looking at the puppets, Shiro pulled forwards her hood.

*KSH KSH KSH

The puppets readied their weapon and charged towards her.

‘Fast!’ Shiro thought with a frown.

Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom – Counter Weight Phantom.

Crouching down, she grabbed one of the spears a puppet held and pulled it towards her.

*BANG!

Slamming her palm into the puppet’s torso, Shiro sent it crashing back with all of the momentum it carried.

Quickly bending backwards, Shiro avoided a swipe from another puppet.

Looking around her, she saw several chances to counter the puppets attack.

She narrowed her eyes before trapping one of the spears between her calf and thigh. Flipping her body whilst using the staff as a base, she kicked the puppet in the face.

*BAN BAN BAN!

With a single twirl of the spear, she slapped the incoming spears away.

‘I need a little bit of space.’ Shiro thought quickly.

Gathering mana at the tip of the spear, she slammed it into the ground.

*CRRRR!!!!

Ice spread out with her in the centre and froze the puppet’s legs. Whilst this was happening, Shiro was already thinking two steps ahead. Freezing up a blade on the edge of the spear, Shiro kicked the body of the spear whilst holding the pommel.

The force caused the spear to swing in a wide arch. Making sure to amplify the speed, Shiro twisted her body to increase the momentum.

*BANG!

The spear broke halfway through the attack causing Shiro to curse in her mind.

With the sudden gap in defence, the puppets charged at her with increased vigour.

“Tsk.” Shiro clicked her tongue seeing this predicament. Gathering mana into her palm, she slammed a ball of lightning into the ground.

*BZZZZ!!!!

The lightning travelled through the ice and into the body of the puppets.

While they were still shocked, Shiro made a handful of ice daggers.

She jumped up and twisted her body horizontally whilst simultaneously throwing the daggers.

*BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Colliding accurately with the head of the puppets, the sudden explosion of the daggers sent them stumbling backwards.

Landing back on the ground, Shiro wasn’t happy that the puppets were set in a way that was harder for her to take advantage of their large numbers. They were spread out just far enough so that they weren’t interfering with each other while also being just close enough to attack her at the same time.

‘Since that’s the case, this missy will come to you!’

Dashing towards the group of puppets, Shiro tilted her head and avoided the staff whistling towards her face. Pulling on the staff, she tripped the puppet over before using it as a shield.

*DUN DUN!

Blocking the staff attacks, she flipped the puppet over her before grabbing the two staffs. Lifting her body up, she kicked both puppets in the face before backflipping.

Whilst she was in the air, her mind scanned the entire battlefield and planned a few steps ahead.

Crouching down the moment she landed, Shiro aimed both palms outwards as ice spears shot out and pierced the head of the puppets.

Rolling to the side, she avoided the attacks of new puppets that joined the fray.

Slamming her palms into the ground, she skewered all of the puppets and suspended them into the air.

Suddenly feeling danger behind her, Shiro turned around and hastily made an ice shield.

“Urg!” A muffled cry escaped her lips as the attack shattered the ice shield that she made quickly.

If it wasn’t for the fact that she’s predicting their movements and acting 2 steps ahead, she would have long been buried under their attacks. The speed of level 50’s weren’t something she could react to straight away. She had to plan and predict.

What happened then was a testament on how thin of a line she was currently stepping on. One mistake and she was almost eliminated.

Sliding across the ground, Shiro could already feel her tempo being interrupted.

Quickly jumping up, she made a small platform to stand on.

Taking a short break, she examined the arena.

However, she wasn’t able to observe for long as the puppets started to throw their spears at her.

‘Oh f*ck.’ Shiro thought as she quickly dropped down from her platform.

Kicking off the wall, she avoided the mass of staffs waiting to attack her.

She landed on the ground and slid for a short moment before stopping. Leaving a small trail of ice, Shiro flicked her wrist as the ice expanded outwards.

Seeing her prep done, she grinned and flicked her wrist upwards.

Before the attack even hit, Lyrica and Nan Tian already knew what was going to happen.

*BANG BANG BANG!

Spears of ice pierced upwards, skewering the puppets and suspended them in mid-air.

For the people who were spectating her at that moment, the sight made them pucker their ass holes in fear.

With her attack, Shiro was able to have a brief moment of rest to regain her tempo. Watching the puppets fade, she knew the next wave was coming.

Waving her hand, Shiro set up a few traps scattered around the arena. These traps would help her control the crowd and limit the number of puppets that can attack her.

Within a few seconds, the next wave of puppets had already appeared and ready to attack Shiro.

Pulling a serious face, Shiro clasped her hands as ice jaws sprang up from the ground.

*BANG

As expected, the trap wasn’t able to harm the puppets too much since they were able to block the jaws. However, the jaws had already played their part.

Dashing towards the crowd, Shiro made two ice swords and slashed at the puppets who were busy dealing with holding the jaws apart.

*BAM

The moment she killed the puppets, the jaw slammed shut due to the puppets not being able to hold it open.

Pivoting on her foot, she dodged the spears that attacked her from behind.

She had to make sure that she’s always 2 steps ahead of the level 50 puppets or else she’ll be eliminated easily.

###

“Wow, why do I feel like Shiro knows everything that’s happening?” Madison muttered in awe of Shiro’s performance.

“Prediction I believe. I remember Shiro trying to teach me how to perform like how she does.” Lyrica replied.

“She what?! Where was I? I need these lessons too!”

“Well… It’s really hard and your reactions must be fast. Basically, what she does is she runs several prediction lines on where the enemies may walk to, make solutions for them and proceed to make more prediction lines. Every time a new situation arises, Shiro would make a simulation in her mind.

“Naturally, she can’t get all of the situations but just the sheer number she can predict is still incredible. Her brain is almost like a computer, constantly updating with simulations of the events and reacting to them before making new simulations right after.” Lyrica boasted slightly.

“Surely not.” Madison said as she almost couldn’t believe it. However, she couldn’t deny what she was seeing right now. Shiro was almost like a prophet. Her body moves away from the attacks before they could even make a move.

“It’s true. How else do you think Shiro is keeping up with the speed of the level 50 puppets. While they may be weaker than normal level 50’s due to the fact that they’re just puppets, the sheer number and level difference are enough to overwhelm anyone.”

“But then wouldn’t that make Shiro a computer or something? Being able to do that much while also fighting isn’t normal in the least! It’s freaking abnormal!!!”

“When was Shiro ever normal though?” Lyrica asked. She was pretty used to seeing Shiro perform abnormal feats. It was to the point that she would feel off if Shiro did something ‘normal’, as it wouldn’t be Shiro anymore.

“Hmm… I suppose. She was never one for normality, was she?” Madison chuckled.

“So I know that she simulates, but we can’t do that. So how did she suggest you learn?” Madison asked.

“She suggested that I just memorize their positions. Memorize the current layout of the battle and their positions so I always keep a mental note of where they are.” 

“Goodness, that’s not exactly the easiest either.”

“If it was easy, then everyone could do it.” Lyrica chuckled since there was no easy path. What Shiro told them was about as simple as it was going to get. The rest depended on how well they performed.

###

[Deploying level 51 puppets.]

Hearing the loudspeakers notify everyone of the increase in level, Shiro narrowed her eyes. Level 51 puppets were going to be much harder than level 50 puppets since their strength had entered the C rank.

With their tier 3 strength equivalent of one’s third class up, their stats could easily squash the stats of a level 50.

*BOOM!

A fist suddenly slammed against the ground as huge puppets could be seen climbing out of the gates.

‘Heavy power type puppet huh? Seems like I’ll need to kill them straight away.’ Shiro thought.

Seeing that she was allowed a moment to breathe due to the power type puppet blocking the way, Shiro stomped down hard. A magic circle erupted out from beneath her while the surrounding area became encased in ice.

‘This might be pushing it a little.’ Shiro thought as her body was already reacting negatively to the ability she was going to use.

Ice coagulated around her body as it hardened around her shin, forearms, shoulder and head.

Pseudo Elemental Armour.

Since her ice attunement had reached Tier 2 in strength, she was able to formulate the beginning of her true elemental armour.

However, due to the fact that her broken links were still unrepaired, she was behind everyone in her formation of elemental armour.

Even now, she could feel that it was a little too early for her.

‘But… If I don’t get my body used to the pain, then it will never adapt to this.’ Shiro thought, clutching her fists.

Her desire to repair her broken links were strong but she was helpless. The few ways she knew of repairing her links were too difficult for her to access right now and to top it all off, she had no idea if they were even available in the current world. So many new concepts had been discovered here that Shiro wasn’t sure if they existed anymore. Different worlds, different time and different concepts.

What she thought exists might not exist. Therefore, she couldn’t repair her broken links anytime soon. She had to scour the world to find these methods of repairing her body.

When the magic circle settled down, her ice amour could be seen glistening in the sunlight. They were coloured pale blue while a small crown could be seen on her head. In her hands were spiked ice chains that wrapped around her forearms.

Moving her arms around a little, Shiro realised she could extend the chains and retract them with her mana.

Nodding to herself, she looked up and saw that she was just in time since the puppets had just escaped the gateway.

Crouching down, Shiro narrowed her eyes and flung the spike chains to the power type puppets.

*Ding Ding!

Deflecting the chains easily, Shiro wasn’t surprised since she had expected this to happen.

Since the chains were the result of her magic, it meant that she could adjust them however she wanted.

Flicking her wrist, the tips of the chains morphed into claws that grabbed the puppet’s hands.

Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom + 3rd Phantom.

She pulled on the chains and launched her body towards the puppet. Making a spike on the bottom of her foot, Shiro pierced the frontal lobe of the puppet.

Twisting her body clockwise, she exploded the spike to destroy the head of the puppet. While she was doing this, she made sure the composition of the spike was strong enough to pierce the puppet’s outer shell. After destroying the head, she weakened the joints before ripping the arms off and slammed them against the other puppets to push them back.

With the power type puppet dead, she had dealt with the biggest threat.

Quickly turning off her elemental armour before it drains more MP needlessly from her, she looked around at the wave.

However, she couldn’t even look for long when a fist was about to collide with her face.

Quickly making the decision of trading blow for blow, Shiro used the 3rd phantom.

The moment the fist collided with her face, she twisted her body, redirected the force through her leg and roundhouse kicked the pupped in the head.

*BOOM!

The force caused both Shiro and the puppet to be sent back as Shiro slid on her feet. Feeling the sting on her face Shiro was livid.

“Oi asshole. Did you never learn to not punch a lady in the face?” Shiro growled with anger in her eyes. While she knew the puppets had no will of its own, that doesn’t mean the conjurer of the puppets were the same. They obviously could have hit her torso or stomach but instead, went for the face.

However, as angry as she was, she knew her limits. Fighting more would only make her sustain even more needless injuries.

Barely dodging a few attacks from the puppets, Shiro walked over to the entrance and pushed the give up button.

*BRRNNN

The green light turned red as all the puppets stopped in their tracks.

[Contestant Shiro has given up. Please leave the arena and await further instructions in the main plaza.]

Slightly massaging her body, Shiro left her arena.

‘If I find out who the hell made that puppet punch me in the face, I’ll make sure they don’t have a lower half!!!’ Shiro cursed.