"For a kid, having hightened senses is not too bad. In fact, it's quite impressive."
The girl spoke with a voice that sounded like of an adult. Hearing that, confuses Christa as she take a serious glance at the dagger wielder. She suddenly gave a surprised reaction as it was because she couldn't believe what she heard and what she's seeing.
"What a surprise! You sounded like a real adult, yet you look like a kid playing with a dagger around your fingers. What are--"
Not giving her a chance to finish what she's saying, The silver haired girl goes for the attack, the same attack she did to the black plated armored soldier. It was too fast and cannot be seen by the naked eye, and the spot she went for is the neck, just like what she did before.
"I may have a body of a small, little girl, but I am an adult, and I don't like brats who are nothing but all talk..."
The little girl who claimed to be an adult woman suddenly stops from moving her mouth as she noticed that her dagger appears to be clean and shiny when it was supposed to be stained by her target's blood. It was then, the voice of Christa echoed from out of nowhere. And the Christa who is supposed to be killed by a slit in her neck fades slowly out of vision.
"That was dangerous! I almost got killed with that attack."
"An illusion?"
The dagger wielder searches for the girl with the crimson red eyes, but all she could see was a road that leads to the village and the forest, tall grasses that dances around with the cold breeze of the wind. She is in the same spot Christa was before.
"Hey, they say that kids should not play with sharp things, it could be dangerous if they were not being watched carefully, after all."
After Christa spoke, the girl finally determined where she's hiding, at one of the tall branches of the tree standing alone in a rocky and grassy land.
"You brat..."
"Oh, are you mad? Did I make you mad?"
Christa looks at the girl who's giving an infuriated expression on her face, it's as if she's starting to get fed up on the black haired girl.
"So you don't just possess great senses, you also have an ability in provoking people. You, who are you?"
"Huh? You don't know me? I was entirely sure you know who I am. I mean you've been watching me since I first came into the forest, right? Back when Titania confronted the first unit of wood cutters that day."
The girl's eyes widens as she recalled the day the wood cutters was confronted by the giant snake who came rushing in after the explosion. It was the day Christa met Titania once again after being separated from each other on the time Angelika ordered her to come to Reilaea.
While Christa was watching from above the tree standing right at the cliff, the silver haired girl already found and tailing her ever since she entered the forest, waiting and determining who she was and why she came to the forest.
"You damn brat knew. To think that the Crimson Eye of Reilaea would be able to sense my presence despite me perfectly hiding it..."
"Perfectly hiding? But what you only did was to hide yourself in the shadows. Hiding one's presence is to conceal everything, not just your physical body, that entire time you were following me, your energy is flowing off in the air that even Titania could sense it. If you're an assassin, you're a failed one."
"I'll kill you!" The silver haired girl finally got fed up, Christa smirked as though she was expecting it to happen. The girl charges forward without thinking once again, forgetting the fact that she is an assassin.
Her attacks began like a repeating sequence. She dashes and attacks Christa onto the tree branch, but just like what the Crimson Eye did earlier, she left an afterimage of herself and appeared at another place, it continued for several times, probably about 8 to 9 times until the silver haired girl stopped.
It was at this point that she's starting to grow exhausted as she begin gasping for air at a fast rate, she also gave a weary look, staring at Christa.
"She's fast, my speed is not on par with hers." she whispered inside her head. "It's as if she's just playing with me all this time, me, one of Princess Celestine's henchman. No, I just need to regain my cool, then no one will be able to match me in a battle of speed!"
"You lost your cool and began attacking me recklessly without thinking, you even forgot that your fighting style is not attacking head-on, but waiting and finding the perfect chance to assassinate your target. Sorry but, you're definitely a failure of an assassin."
"That's enough...-"
In a battle that needed one's own speed to outmatch one another, to kill one's opponent without even noticing it, remaining calm and collected is an important factor in such scenarios, and the woman with the silver hair, who is an assassin, knows it all too well, she even said it to herself. But Christa, who also knew about it, uses it to her advantage, after calling her a "Failure of an assassin," though it might be a ridiculous way of provoking Christa's opponent, her provocations works really well.
She loses her control over herself once again as anger overrides her actions, attacking head-on and recklessly, a kind of attack that doesn't fit her supposed way of fighting, or perhaps her way of killing.
Out of nowhere, a wooden blade suddenly touches the silver haired girl's neck, and a face, giving a terrifying glare right into her eyes. It was so overwhelming that she could not do anything but stare into Christa's with her own two eyes, filled with horror.
"A surprise attack, an unseen and silent strike, a kind of attack that kills targets in an instant."
Christa's eyes began emitting with a crimson red light as she moved closer to her face.
"It happened to be one of my favorite fighting styles. Though, I guess, I failed as an assassin like you." Said, Christa as she spins around before kicking the girl away from quite a distance.
"I mean, unlike those true assassins who kill for a living, I don't actually kill them, just scaring them and... injuring them badly I guess?"
After that kick, the girl with the silver hair is seen aching with pain all-over her body, especially in her stomach, where Christa hits her with a kick.
"That's right, just like that."
As Christa spoke, the girl began puking with blood. She opens her eyes to see what she spat out on the ground as she whispers to herself.
"So strong... A single kick reduced me into this state. What ridiculous strength, so this is the power of the Adventurer that killed a Mother Bee that has the strength of an Emerald Rank. No..."
Struggling with pain, she took a glance onto the girl who's also glaring at her with her eyes still gleaming with the bloody red light. Right after that moment, she recognizes that Christa is a fearsome enemy.
"That eyes... There's no way that she's only an Emerald Rank Adventurer. That intimidating bloodlust, that overwhelming strength, and that aura that is like of a real demon... there's no doubt that she's on par... no, she's way beyond stronger than the Diamond Rank Adventurers and the Princess herself! This is not good, this girl might become a real threat to the King and Princess' plans, I need to retreat and tell the others!"
So is what she said, she tries to stand up in attempt of going away, to retreat from the girl who proved to be an opponent that is out of her league.
"You were following me since the day I arrived here, though you never showed yourself to me until now. That's because that soldier told me something that you don't want me to tell Edle, right? You want to silence me before I reach him."
Christa takes a slow step one after the other as she move towards the silver haired girl. While she does, the Crimson Eye pulls her sword behind her back, a sword that is made out of wood.
"Actually, that man could not tell me everything I want to know, but I did realize one thing. With magic, you can certainly do a lot of things. You clan blast and throw projectiles, summon a creature, control the elements, you can also make yourself stronger, and..."
Fire began spreading around the wooden sword she's holding, the flame also reaches into her arm.
"...you can turn ANYTHING into a deadly and powerful weapon. Am I right?"
"You..." The girl frowns.
"I guess I'm right." Said, Christa as she responded to the silver haired girl with a smirk printed on her face.
Christa was referring to the number of trees they took not just from the forest but from the place where Mitou and the villagers are hunting the vampire boars.
All this time, she was contemplating why they were taking trees from a territory of another country, she kept wondering why, if it was all about just trying to earn a living, the presence of men wearing black plated armors would be useless. Still it is logical to have armed men if you're going to a dangerous place such as a forest that is nested by numerous monsters.
Even so, for her, everything doesn't seem right. "Why would a man use himself to give time for the wood cutters to finish what they're doing?" that question troubles her the entire night in the village. But after she woke up that early in the morning, with the same question that continues to trouble her inside her head, she gazed at her wooden sword lying in the corner of the room where she sleeps along with Aina in the same bed.
She gaze at her sword without any particular reason, she just felt like doing it. It was then her eyes widens as the answer that she was desperately looking for finally hit her like thunder.
"To make weapons. Anything can be a weapon as long as there is one capable of reshaping and strengthening things to the point that they are on par with the real thing. Even a sword made out of wood can kill a strong monster, so long as it is embedded and enhanced with great amount of magic power."
Christa worded out the answer she reached towards the girl who are sitting on the ground while still feeling the intense pain over her body.
There is no need to justify her answer by asking the girl in front of her whether her conclusion is accurately correct or not, that shocked expression she carelessly showed onto her supposed victim is enough to say that it is correct.
"With that, the whole mystery of the wood cutters is finally solved. But there appears to be another one!"
"W-what?" The girl finally goes back up on her feet, but the intense pain still circles around her body.
"Though, I guess, it's no longer a mystery. In fact, it is pretty obvious by now."
"Enough with your blabbering, you damn brat! I'll make sure you're not returning to Reilaea in time! You're not the one who will stop the King and the Princess from taking over Reilaea-- Aaghh!!"
Just as she was about to strike once again, a powerful electric current suddenly came out of nowhere, electrocuting the silver haired girl.
"Ah, she actually did it. That was fast."
"So, Christa, is this what you're aiming for at the start?"
Titania suddenly appeared out of thin air, talking to Christa. The girl fell as she lost conciousness, from the powerful electric shock.
"I did say I don't kill people, but my opponents can certainly kill themselves." Said, Christa as she shrugged with a smug face.
"I don't think she's dead, she just lost conciousness."
"Then I guess, that King and Princess aren't actually too cruel." Christa walks into the girl as she replied to Titania.
After getting closer, she kneeled down to the ground and extends her left hand onto the unconscious girl's neck, where she grabbed something, but cannot be seen through the naked eye. However, as she grabs it, a strong electric current surges around the girl's neck like a collar, and the current channels through Christa's arm to her whole body.
"H-hey! Christa!"
"Don't worry, a weak electric current won't hurt me, plus, I got this clothes that Angelika especially made with a high resistance against electricity. It's weird why it has such a high resistance to a single element, but I guess that's that."
Christa lets go of her wooden sword and uses her right hand to take the electric collar out of the girl. She then stands up as she managed to pull it off the unconscious girl's neck.
"Now that there's no trouble that threatens the forest and the village, I think we can finally go to Reilaea, Titania."
"... Wouldn't it be better if you just fly to move faster to get to the kingdom?" Titania responded.
"Huh? I don't see any reason to be in a rush."
"You literally just got one..."