- 4 Days Later
Monica wiped her brow of imaginary sweat as she finished hauling a creature she'd killed back to her 'den'.
In the few days that she'd stayed here in the icy bio, the lakeside cave she had first stumbled upon had beco her ho away from ho.
Since her near death experience a few days ago, her luck had drastically improved.
With the discovery of these weird new blue flas of hers, she hadn't felt an uncomfortable chill ever since.
Not only that, but she had also developed a bit of a new talent.
After pulling herself and her kill into the small den, she turned towards the opening and unfurled a wave of blue flas from her palms.
Normally, this would have been one of the dumbest things she could possibly have done, but her flas themselves were a bit different from normal now.
Miraculously, the wall of blue fire changed it's composition slowly, and beca a wall of ice as thick as a bank vault that sealed the young fire spirit inside.
"Still gotta get used to that..." she smiled to herself.
Turning back around, she finally got to work skinning the creature she caught.
To the best of her ability, she would identify it as sothing like a polar bear but with horns and rows of teeth like a shark.
Not to ntion the fact that it was over fourteen feet tall on it's hind legs.
'Father-in-law sure likes creating so strange new creatures...' she thought to herself, unaware of the fact that she had referred to Abaddon as her father-in-law for the first ti.
In her ti out in this wilderness, she had co across all manner of creatures.
Whether they were big or small, they were all dangerous and had so sort of way to defend themselves or procure food.
However, since that first day, she hadn't co across any more abyss walkers, which was slightly concerning to her.
Were they hiding? Waiting to ambush her? That didn't seem quite right.
Or perhaps there was so other attraction out here that'd captured all of their focus.
Either way, she knew that she couldn't just hide in here forever.
This was still an exam after all, and eventually she would have to go out and prove that she was more than capable of joining the ranks of the Euphrates.
But just because she knew that she would have to fight didn't an she was going to go out looking for them just yet.
This was a marathon, not a sprint.
She had to make smart decisions, and not just run around blindly when there was still over a month left to spend on this planet.
Finally, Monica finished separating the viable at from the inedible parts and got to work skewering it over a small bed of coals.
To be honest she still had rations left, but Monica didn't really want to eat them if she could avoid it.
The jerky was tough and flavorless and the little saltines made her feel like she was in prison.
As she roasted the at over a normal orange fla, she had a lingering thought of ho.
'I miss everyone else's cooking...'
As Monica thought about the family that wasn't her family whom she had left behind, her mood beca slightly sour.
"Guess I'm more attached to them than I thought... Who knew?"
At the mont that Monica finally raised the first skewer of at to her mouth, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up as the ice wall locking her inside was suddenly obliterated from the outside.
Covering her face to prevent any debris from striking her face, she backed away until her back was touching the wall.
Before the dust settled, Monica heard a familiar sweet voice that she knew all too well."Oh? Slls nice in here, darling."
"Grandma K?!"
When the smoke cleared, she could see Kirina and Hajun standing outside with friendly smiles like they hadn't just obliterated her little ho.
The pair were standing together holding hands while wearing the esteed armor of the violet legion.
Slung over their shoulders were two completely different weapons; a double-sided great axe for Hajun and a very long katana for Kirina.
Seeing the look in their glowing purple and black eyes, Monica knew they hadn't just co here just to hug her and wish her luck.
"...Already?"
"'Fraid so, lass." Hajun smiled wryly.
"But it's only for four minutes, though. Shouldn't take up too much of your ti, right?"Kirina smiled coquettishly.
"A-Any chance you'd be willing to let eat first...?" Monica asked with extra big eyes.
"Not happening, sweetie."
Monica wasn't even given an opportunity to grab her staff before the pair struck.
Brandishing the large axe that was eerily similar to the one he'd given his grandson, Hajun leapt into the air with minimal effort; yet splintering the icy ground beneath him.
While in the air, he began rotating his body like a drill before he flung his axe at the cavern roof.
In total, his first strike took an entire half second to pull off.
And the effect was absolutely devastating.
Not only was the cavern obliterated, but the axe crashed into the ground like a teor and caused the ground to splinter into shards of jagged rock.
Monica was flung through the air like a pilot ejected from their cockpit and was nearly impaled by debris.
Quickly winking at her husband, Kirina suddenly vanished from the place where she once stood.
With faster steps than lightning strikes, she ran up the displaced jagged pillars created by her husband like they were a stairway to heaven.
She leapt off the top of one to arrive directly above Monica while smiling in her sa friendly manner as always.
Monica had barely enough ti to summon her three segnted staff and raise it up to protect herself.
Kirina brought down her shining silver Katana against Monica's weapon and the resulting collision was like seeing a mosquito get smacked with a tennis racket.
She shot down towards the ground so fast that she not only broke the sound barrier, but her backside also caught fire from the friction.
However, at this speed Hajun could still more than keep up.
Before Monica could plumt from the sky and hit the shattered ground, Hajun hefted his weapon over his shoulder like a baseball bat and struck her with the flat side of his blade hard enough to powderize every bone in her body.
She finally crashed into the side of a mountain over a mile away.
Though after all of the abuse she suffered, she pulled herself out of the wall she had caved herself into relatively quickly.
Cracking her neck a few tis and dusting herself off, she was practically as good as new.
Kirina and Hajun showed up in the sky above her not long afterwards and prepared to string together another combination when Monica took them by surprise.
"I love you guys too."
Hajun: "…Eh?"
Kirina: "We didn't say-"
"I know you didn't, but I can tell. Babying makes it kind of obvious."
The old dragon couple glanced at Monica with wry smiles.
"…We aren't babying you, Monica. We're just giving you a chance to fight back."
"Pretty big chances…" Monica muttered as she inspected her staff.
As she expected, the spot where her staff and Kirina's katana t had a small indent in it now, but no other damage.
She lived with these people 24/7.
And while she never trained with the old couple specifically, she had spied on them as they engaged with their grandchildren on several different occasions.
She knew exactly how sharp Kirina's sword was, and the fact that it should have cut through a simple weapon like hers with no real effort at all.
She had watched it even cut through even Thea's armor at one point.
And if she fed magic into the weapon, she could make it even sharper.
Hajun was a similar case.
Forget just using his strength to shatter bones, he could turn most creatures into a red mist with power coursing through that muscular old body of his.
If the hit from a few short mont ago was at full capacity, no doubt the sa thing would have happened to her.
Monica clutched her weapon tight as she gave the pair a warm look.
"Look… I know that I might not be as strong as everyone else taking the test but you guys can't go easy on because of that…
I want to prove that I can do this whole thing on my own, without handicaps. That I can still stand among the best, dragon or not a dragon.
I don't need you or anyone else to fix the odds to suit . Just get ready to congratulate when it's all said and done."
Kirina and Hajun smiled at each other like a couple who were watching their baby stand up for the first ti.
"Silly us… I didn't think she'd notice." Kirina chuckled.
"Well she's a smart girl… I guess it's ti to stop playing gas with her."
"Indeed. Are you ready?l"
"Always, my wife."
If Monica had any regrets about her words, it was already too late to express them.
Because from the mont that they reached the sa conclusion, a monstrous and unbelievable pressure filled the air for over fifty kiloters of land.
'Here we go…!' Monica thought excitedly.
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