72 Combat Test

Styx went through the residents and selected two of the rare Second Step rankers. One of them was one of the humans, whom was one of the sole two Second Step ranker that wasn't one of the tiger beastman. The other was one of the female tiger beastmen, who was formerly a prowler, their term for a village guard.

Therina and Beatrice stood opposite the two of them in a wide open space in the current training area. This training field was an enormous area with a smooth stone tiled floor and enormous octagonal pillars in a grid pattern.

There was even footholds on different spots of the pillars, which meant moving around on the ground wasn't the only option.

"Please go easy on us," The human male called Kristof said with a helpless smile, not fearing his life but definitely fearing an extended period of time lying down.

This was the same human who had been flirting with the beastmen for the past several days to no avail. This female tiger wasn't one of the ones he dared flirt with, however.

All of them used plan steel weapons and sturdy armor of their choice. Kristof was especially nervous and had chosen a heavy armor and shield set which would provide him better protection at the expense of some mobility.

"Begin!" Styx called out with a steadfast expression.

Therina charged forward first, moving like phantom drifting through the void. She instantly locked onto the human ranker and held a sword poised to impale him.

Kristof was an experienced ranker and took a step back to cushion the damage before retaliating. He immediately used spatial piercer, a powerful spear subskill, in retaliation, but Therina dodged to the side as soon as her strike was blocked.

She hid behind his shield and struck with her smoke like tails. The tails passed directly through the shield and his armor before constricting around his neck and torso.

Kristof panicked as soon as this happened and desperately tried to break free, but the tail rapidly shifted between illusory and solid. He wanted to fight off her actual body, but his brain wasn't getting enough oxygen and he rapidly begun to lose consciousness.

Therina reluctantly released the human ranker when he fell asleep, but she still had other skills to test out.

She had already cast dream mark on him whilst she had him captured in her tails, a skill which only required her to be in physical contact with some one for a period of about 10 seconds. Styx and all the women could see how her mana churned and left a deep crimson imprint on him that he himself couldn't detect.

The next skill to test was dreamgate.

Her illusion attribute mana shifted and passed through a specific set of mana channels as one of her tails stabbed into the air in front of her. The mana passed down her tail and congregated at the tip before causing the air to seemingly become viscous as the tail pierced through an imaginary veil.

Therina went according to her instincts as she stirred the air with her tail and created a vortex that only appeared as if everything in that spot was constantly twisting in a way that made one's eyes hurt from looking at it.

She barely hesitated before stepping through that portal and vanishing altogether.

On the other side, Beatrice had clashed with the female tiger beastman in a far less domineering way. Whilst she wasn't weak, and her training was very strict, the tiger beastman had the advantage in physique and experience.

The female tiger beastman used a set of steel claws as she dashed under Beatrice's attack with ease and cut through thin armor and flesh alike as she carved a set of giant gashes across her waist.

Knowing that she was one of Styx's direct women, she immediately panicked and looked apologetic.

"Continue," Styx stated without hesitation as he saw her expression.

He could tell that Beatrice was far from gravely wounded, and even Therina or the other girls could heal from this kind of injury easily. Even the female beastmen would be able to once they learned to control their mana networks.

Golden flames erupted from the cut and Beatrice rapidly healed. This barely used any mana at all and her immense lifeforce wasn't harmed in the slightest.

The female beastman no longer hesitated and went for the throat.

Beatrice instinctively knew her body, but even Styx had difficulty watching as she didn't even try to dodge. The steel claws gauged her throat wide open, but the dark phenelf used this chance to grab onto the agile beastman and dig her dagger into the latter's shoulder.

She grunted and struggled to get the dagger in further than two inches deep, but had managed to cause some damage at least.

The female tiger beastman threw Beatrice off her body and pounced again, her claws piercing straight through her heart with a form of savagery.

"Enough," Styx said as the test was completed.

Beatrice, despite having her heart pierced, stood up without issue. A golden flame burned on her chest and the damage was repaired.

~~~~~

⠀

Therina stepped into a seemingly infinite space filled with chaotic thoughts and images. Some bubbled up out of the aether, others shot across like rays of light. Some clung to the fabric of space itself like dark, black sludge.

She immediately detected the dream mark, which was the human ranker's mind. The mark was an infinite distance away, yet at the same time, only within an arm's reach. All other substances flowed off her like water on oil as she stepped into the mindscape that was Kristof's.

Kristof was on a quest to kill a horde of jackal carnivores which had been terrorizing a village. He was his younger self, and this was a reflection of his past adventures playing out in his mind.

He had just returned to the village and given them the good news. Everyone was celebrating and cheering the adventurers for their fine work.

Therina walked past doors which refused to open, or otherwise didn't even have hinges.

Some did, and the inside's varied.

"Is this inside someone else's mind?" Styx asked Therina directly through their mind link, which was undisturbed by the separation of planes.

"I believe so, yes."

Therina walked into another house and found herself in the middle of a forest. The door behind her had vanished but she could feel the energies of the dream realm flowing around her and instinctively knew how to twist them around her finger. She could see the connection with the previous area and merely walked behind a tree before reappearing from the house she had entered to get to the forest.

In the town, she heard countless cheers and followed the noises to find the villagers praising a group of nine adventurer's who had a wagon of monster heads.

Styx, who was watching all of this couldn't help but ask, "Is this his memories? If so, it will help us greatly in interrogating any prisoners. Not that many would dare to challenge us after meeting Aura, but they could still provide wrong information."

Therina scrunched her brow before explaining her feelings.

"No… this isn't a memory in particular. It's a group of thoughts and intentions. It carries references to memories, but aren't memories in particular. If I was to explain it… urgh… this is hard… It like a chaotic group of thoughts and memories are jumbled together and this is where those thoughts are inserted into the dream realm, while the natural energy reads it and constructs everything based off of it."

"I see, so it's like the demon's magic system. It has a strong factor of intention and feelings."

"That sounds relatively close. I can put my intention in and changes in his perception will cascade into more changes… like this…"

Therina scrunched her brow in focus and from within the cart of monster heads, a monster who had been "hiding" jumped out and roared. It caught the party and villagers by surprise and the priestess closest to the cart had her throat torn out before they could defend.

Therina then jumped into the fray and killed several villagers and another adventurer.

The sky seemed to darken as all the villagers ran off in a panic while the adventurer's quickly and fearlessly fought back.

"Evil woman, where did you come from?! You even managed to hide a monster among the corpses. Is it yours?" A younger Kristof valiantly challenged her with his spear ready.

Therina merely smiled as they quickly killed the 'weak' monster and charged at her.

As she sucked in a breath full of dream realm energy, she felt her body was full of energy and brimming with power.

This was her racial trait of being a Lithic Naiad, which made her 50% stronger whenever inside of a dream, or for the same purpose, the dream realm.

Unlike when she was in the physical plane, she easily dominated Kristof and the other adventurers.

~~~~~

⠀

Therina walked out of the same uncanny swirling vortex of space where she entered the dream realm. This occupied laws of magic which were simply far too advanced for Styx to even begin to fathom.

Kristof was still unconscious, but now beading with a cold sweat on his forehead.

Beatrice and the female tiger beastman watched her with awe as she walked out of thin air, an ability beyond everyone's understanding.

"So, you can't kill someone through their dreams?" Styx asked out of curiosity.

Therina shook her head and apologized.

"Sorry, what is in a dream is just a representation of oneself, not oneself directly. Rather than saying it is the mind or soul, it is just a projection."

"It is of no matter, I was only curious."

"But…"

"Yes?"

"I may be able to alter someone's perception, people they like or hate, even memories."

"Is that so? That needs to be tested."

At this moment Kristof woozily stood up after regaining consciousness, his body rapidly recovering. He looked at Therina and immediately went readied his spear.

"What are you doing here evil… wait, what?" He shook his head to clear the stray thoughts and had his brain wake up fully. "Apologies, Miss Therina, I was muddle-headed."

Therina just looked at Styx with a shy smile and said, "I can do it."