/////

    Vincent and Amelia walked through the stone door into… An empty room, with a dirt floor and stone walls.

    "The same room," Amelia said while looking around.

    "Yeah, but lookup. The clouds are not there anymore."

    "Mmh… I wonder why." She said, noting how the dark clouds were gone.

    "Welcome my descendant!" The voice came as before.

    "For this trial, You will prove to me that you have the strength and tenacity of the Maeth Clan."

    "This is the second trial. One more and the power you desire shall be granted unto you."

    "Your task is to survive an hour or kill the hunters."

    A timer then appeared in the sky.

    [1:00:00]

    Beneath it was a set of words.

    [1000 Bronze Warriors.]

    "Once you deal with a category of hunters, 10 minutes shall be deducted from the timer. After a set is done, they are replaced with an even stronger set."

    Thousands of bronze statues with the stature and face of humans appeared suddenly before Vincent and Amelia, Each being armed with weapons like swords, lances and bows.

    "I wonder how far you''ll go before you meet your match, My Descendant."

    "Good luck. Your time starts now."

    After the message ended, The bronze statues came to life and began to charge towards them.

    "Ahhhhhh!" Their warcry rumbled across the room as they dashed mightily.

    Those that were equipped with bows, fell into a formation. They drew upon their arrows, and let loose a cluster of them at Vincent and Amelia.

    With haste, Vincent turned to Amelia. He reached out to her with a plan to take them both into the sky. But Amelia was faster.

    All of a sudden, Vincent felt himself rising into the air. He peered below and saw a pillar of ice rising into the sky, bringing him and Amelia with it. At a certain point, it stopped.

    Amelia flicked her wrist again and a wall of ice lengthened from the pillar, which held up against the incoming arrows.

    She then began to stimulate her ether for a counterattack

    "Wait!" Vincent said

    "What?" Amelia said, glancing at him

    "Are you sure you want to kill them?" He asked

    "What do you mean?"

    "According to the voice, If you kill all the statues a stronger set will appear."

    "Instead of that, Why can''t we just stay here and survive for an hour."

    Amelia looked at him disapprovingly, "I thought you were smart enough to know that doing this would make the rewards greater.".

    "I thought you were smart enough to know that no matter how great the reward is, It will in all likelihood be suited to only a Maeth." He jabbed back.

    "And who''s the Maeth between both of us."

    "… I did not choose for this to happen," Amelia said, her eyes evading his. A glint of self-blame could be seen.

    "Sigh, I''m not saying that Amelia. I''m only curious, is this the path you want to take?." He asked again

    "…"

    "…"

    "Yes." She firmly said.

    "… I see. Ok then go ahead." Vincent said and went on to lay down on the ice.

    "…"

    She seemed to have something more to say. However, she did not.

    Amelia walked unto the edge of the ice skyscraper and looked at the battalion of bronze statues charging towards them.

    Without panic, She rose her hand to the air and stimulated the ether within her to cast a skill.

    "[Array of Ice.]"

    The area around her fell in temperature as an array of 100 massive and thick ice spikes formed above her.

    This was the maximum amount her mastery could do.

    "Fall", She let her hand down.

    The rain of ice spikes shot at the bronze army, it stab to death all those it collided with.

    The collision aroused some dust which soon cleared. The numbers dwindled but not enough.

    Amelia glanced up to the timer and noticed a change.

    [900 Bronze Warriors.]

    "So that''s what it does."

    "In that case, this won''t do. It would take a while for only [Array of Ice] to finish all of them even though they are this weak."

    "So, I might as well try my new skill."

    "[Ice Shards Explosion]" Amelia casts

    [Ice Shards Explosion: Explodes Ice targets into miniature shards over a large area.]

    Boom.

    The Ice spears that fell blew up into small but dangerous ice shards all at once. It shredded through the statues without resistance.

    In the sky, the number altered.

    [647], It read.

    Amelia went on with this set of actions and soon they were all dead.

    As she was done, 10 minutes were deducted from the timer in the sky.

    Now it reads [47:96] and [500 Silver Warriors.]

    Without a period of relief, a new set of aura-less statues appears but this time they were silver-colored.

    Neither the bronze nor silver statues gave off an aura that let Amelia ascertain their level of power. Nonetheless, She knew that this set is stronger than the last.

    ''Common ice spears will most likely not work, but let''s see.'' she thought.

    "[Array of Ice]."

    Again a set of massive ice spikes appeared above her.

    "Fall!" She ordered.

    The spikes shot straight at silver-colored statues.

    When it came close, the statues reacted. They used their varied weapons to parry the spears away. Hence, they were all unharmed.

    ''They are certainly stronger.''

    ''Since [Array of Ice] won''t work, Might as well.''

    Amelia proceeded to jump off the ice pillar.

    As she fell, She went on to bring her hands together and a ball of ice attuned ether gathered within it.

    When it was ready, she launched the ball of ether to the ground.

    "[Ice Wave]"

    The moment it touched the ground, The ball of ice attuned ether burst out across the field. A range of almost quarter the room was buried under a layer of thick ice.

    It went on to climb upon any silver statues that it met and froze about them solid.

    Amelia flipped mid-air to a straight position as she came closer to the ground.

    As soon as her feet touched the icy floor another skill was cast.

    "[Ice Movement]"

    [Ice Movement: One of the Maeth/Mammoth/Mammon family clan skills. Allows the caster to travel through the ice at sonic speeds. A trained user can travel at lightspeed across and between layers of ice.]

    Ice Movement is one of the reasons why the Maeth Clan is seen as a menace in battles.

    When coupled with their powerful defense and offense capabilities, they could become a perfect wall or a perfect spear.

    In a flash, she was gone.

    Shring~

    Three minutes later Amelia was back at her original position. However, Her face was pale and her breath ragged.

    Over 400 silver sculptures caught by her ice wave were either sliced in half or broken into pieces.

    [97 Silver warriors.]

    The pale face and panting were drawbacks of the [Ice Movement] skill. This is because when it is in use, the caster''s body is put in a state of something akin to being frozen in ice, and because of this the longer they use the skill, the colder they become.

    Although this makes the skill even more tailored to the Maeth blood line because of their natural resistance, However even that has its limits.

    Amelia lasting 3 minutes with the skill is even a testament to her genius, Her clan peers on average last only 30 seconds to one minute.

    Amelia needed a breath but could not as there remaining statues ran at her with no reserve. She had no choice but to draw out her steel sword and fight.

    Amelia drew upon her ether again to cast another skill.

    "[Ice Dance: Aifel''s Flake.]"

    At the call of the skill, snow began to fall from the sky.

    /////Vincent/////

    Vincent focused on the flakes as they fell, he raised a finger under one but the flakes fazed through it.

    "Illusion." He muttered.

    /////Amelia/////

    [Ice Dance: Aifel''s Flake: A skill and a martial footwork technique all at once. It entails the caster to be as nimble yet calm as the flakes that fall in winter. This is the first part of the ice dance skill.

    Note: Ether and Stamina are consumed.]

    Amelia fell into an open stance and countered the first strike from the sword of a silver statue.

    ''Strong'' She thought, as she felt the force behind the blade.

    From her sides, two others attacked.

    Amelia had no choice but to retreat swiftly.

    This pattern continued as the statues moved together with a strange teamwork of irregular patterns that was hard to keep up with, forcing her into a defensive stance.

    Coupled with their strengths being above A-Rank beasts, It was somewhat difficult for Amelia to deal with them. Especially just after experiencing the [Ice Movement] skill drawback.

    But still, they never managed to land a hit.

    Every strike was either dodged by a hair breath or countered.

    "Huff"

    "Huff"

    "Huff"

    ''They seem to follow a pattern.'' She thought as she blocked another hit.

    ''They don''t hit at the same time.''

    ''Although I''m surrounded, they are not overwhelming me with numbers.''

    "In that case."

    Amelia took out a stamina potion from her storage ring and drank it.

    This revigorated her being and soon she was back to almost peak.

    "I can win this."

    The scale changed in Amelia''s favor, She fell on the offensive and easily destroyed each statue one after the other.

    A few minutes passed and she was done. They were all dead.

    [28:56] The timer read, [250 Gold Warriors].

    Again another set of statued warriors appeared but they were gold in color.

    Amelia panted as she struggled to raise her weapon into a stance, When all of a sudden she felt a hand on her shoulder.

    "Leave this one to me". Vincent says, walking from behind her towards the gold statues.

    /////

    Sorry for the one week break, I got quite sick with malaria but I''m better now.

    /////