After waking up Sarah, they all went toward one of the biggest monoliths. It was almost twenty meters tall with a width of eight meters. Its color was similar to the others, being grey. The formation lines across its length were complex and glowing with a yellowish light.
Sarah asked, "Is this the first Monolith you chose? The aura it gives is incomparable to the others."
Yasenia nodded, "Yes, we've already created a path we want to try."
Then, she reread the challenge for Sarah, "Pay attention, Sarah. The King and Queen are returning from their diplomacy talk; protect them until you reach the Empire. If they are completely untouched during the whole escorting mission, you will be able to choose an artifact from the Grand Treasury. Time will be slower inside. The ratio is two hours to one minute. Completion rewards are: 1500 Trial Points for the Heaven Gate, 1000 Trial Points for the Earth Gate, 400 Trial Points for the Mortal Gate, and 150 Trial Points for the Waste Gate."
Sarah exclaimed, "So many points! Why is it so different from the first Monolith?"
Yasenia looked at her and said, "Probably this one is much harder. The first Monolith was about killing a lot of low-level cultivators; it was not very hard, to be honest. Most cultivators would be able to overcome it. It tested the challenger's endurance and ability to kill armies."
Yasenia turned to look at the Monolith and explained. "In this one, we are protecting someone, so the Queen and King are probably very weak. Moreover, there must be a lot of instances where the King and Queen die before you can even react. My advice is not to lose focus and be careful even with your allies."
Sarah and the others nodded, and they entered the Monolith.
Yasenia felt her body being sucked and landing on something soft. Then, she opened her eyes inside a carriage.
In front of her, a middle-aged man and woman sat. Their faces were stern, and their facial features attractive. Their hair was dark, the same as their eyes.
Yasenia was about to look outside the window when her left ear twitched. Her tail moved extremely fast beside the Queen's head, *Cling!* Only for an arrow to hit it right in the next moment.
Yasenia approached them and said aloud, "My King, my Queen, please do not move."
Her tone was calm and shoothing, but she was internally cursing. 'It doesn't even give you time to look around. That arrow would have cost me the artifact….'
Yasenia waited for ten seconds and didn't see anything more coming her way. So she approached one window and looked around. Looking around, she saw five guards, a carriage driver, and two archers on top of the carriage. "Have any of you spotted something?"
One of the guards answered, "Nothing strange, Guard Captain."
Yasenia thought for a moment and then shouted angrily. "Nothing strange!? There was an arrow that flew inside the carriage to hurt our Queen and King! All of you, stop being lazy fucks, or I will kill you myself!"
Yasenia observed their reaction. She saw they became nervous because of her scolding, but nothing more than that. She went outside and looked a the two archers' faces. Then, she asked curtly, "Did you see anything?"
One of the archers stuttered, "W-We haven't. We promise to be more aware from now on, Guard Captain."
"Useless!" Yasenia scolded again.
They were all thinking, 'Our Guard Captain is such a beauty, but when she is angry, she is too scary.'
Yasenia saw that the archer that didn't answer was somewhat indifferent. But Yasenia didn't say anything more. She just snorted and returned to the Queens and Kings side. 'Now I will have to see how skilled these assassins are… I wonder how they compare with those my maids dealt with in the past.'
Five minutes later, one guard exclaimed, "I see movement to the right!"
Yasenia shouted, "All of you move to the right and protect our Monarchs!"
The Queen and King looked at Yasenia with praise, and the King said with a generous tone, "You are doing an excellent job, Guard Captain. We will reward you handsomely when we return!"
Yasenia nodded but didn't say anything more. While the guards dealt with the danger on the right, she kept an eye on the left. Of course, she didn't ignore the ongoing battle.
The guards fought against black-clothed people with daggers. Their strength was quite similar, but the number of assassins doubled the guards.
Yasenia used [Shooting Star] to help them from a distance, managing to kill all of them easily. She observed the injuries on the guards and was relieved to see that there wasn't anything too serious. 'They aren't weaklings compared to our enemies. That's good. But, this only means that there will be much more assassins than guards. Moreover, extremely strong assassins that can overwhelm the guards will also appear. This is a challenge, after all. '
Yasenia saw a fork in front of them with lush vegetation in the middle. It was a prime position to hide an ambush. Therefore, Yasenia gathered Sun energy and made a claw with her hand. "[Sun Dragon Claw]."
A phantom golden dragon claw appeared behind her as she slashed in that direction. With Yasenia's motion, the giant dragon claw slammed onto the vegetation, consuming everything with golden flames. Yasenia didn't see corpses, and she thought. 'Strange, there aren't any ambushers in that area. I could swear that I felt something in that direction. Maybe there is a better place to hide?'
Well, our dear Yasenia was wrong this time since she had completely incinerated a group of five strong assassins. This five were stronger than the guards, so the challenger would have had to get out of the carriage to help them. Then, one of the five would wait as the other four gathered attention to sneak around and attack the Queen and King.
Yasenia asked the driver, "Do you have a map of the route? I want to see our route."
The driver asked back, "Why do you want to know, Guard Captain? I'm the one driving the carriage, hahaha."
Yasenia looked at the driver emotionlessly and said, her tone becoming menacing. "In case you die, someone should guide the carriage to our Empire. Give me the map when I ask for it, driver."
The driver laughed, "Don't worry, Guar Captain, I'm not that weak to die by a stray arrow! I'm at the beginning of the Mental Nourishing realm, after all."
Yasenia observed the guy, and to her surprise, the driver was in the half-step of the Mental Nourishing realm, not the beginning.
Yasenia was confused, 'Huh? Why did he just lie so blatantly?'
What Yasenia didn't know was that the carriage driver was using a high-level concealing skill, but Yasenia's eyes had completely seen through it. To Yasenia, it appeared as if it didn't even exist, so she was confused.
Yasenia observed the driver for five more seconds and returned to the carriage. Then, she approached the Queen's and King's sides.
She got close enough to put her head between them, whispering in their ear. "My Queen, where did you hire that carriage driver?"
Their stern faces dissipated with the wind as the attractive dragoness leaned near them.
The Queen and King were only in the Dantian and Meridian Opening realm, so they became very flustered with Yasenia so close.
The Queen's heart rate accelerated, and her cheeks also blushed. 'My heavens, the Guard Captain's voice is so attractive.'
The King wasn't much better as his pants were getting tight.
The Queen answered, stuttering, "U-Unlike you, W-We hired him before going toward the enemy kingdom. So he has been accompanying us since the beginning of our travel."
Yasenia saw their state, so she deepened her tone to tickle the Queen's hearing sense, even more. "Which cultivation level did he say he had, my Queen~?"
The Queen gulped and answered without hesitation, "H-He said he was at the beginning of the Mental Nourishing Realm."
Yasenia leaned back again and flashed a charming smile toward the Queen, "Thank you for answering, my Queen."
The Queen completely blushed, and the King was too enchanted by Yasenia to react to his wife becoming a mosquito coil.
The King said, "Guard Captain, I see that you have a lot of potential. After returning to the Empire, you should come to my study room to speak about the military arrangements."
The Queen frowned, 'This bastard wants to steal my Guard Captain!'
Yasenia saw the Queen's frowning, but she didn't care what would happen after reaching the Empire. Therefore, she answered, "The orders from the monarch are not for someone like me to go against. I will appear whenever and wherever the King summons me."
The King nodded, satisfied, but the Queen frowned even further. Her tone was cold as she ordered, "I also have something to speak to you, Guard Captain; come to my chambers before speaking with him as I will take less time."
Yasenia looked into the Queen's eyes and smiled charmingly, "Your orders are for me to follow, my Queen. I must revise our route, so please excuse me."
Then, without letting them speak anymore, Yasenia went outside the carriage again and sat beside the carriage driver. The driver looked at Yasenia questioningly.
Yasenia smirked and said, "I've gotten permission from the Queen and King to get the route map. Give it to me."
The man shrugged and took out a sheet, giving it to Yasenia. Yasenia saw that it was empty and frowned, 'What is going on? Is something wrong with this Monolith? I mean, I know this man is a spy but isn't he too incompetent?'
Poor Yasenia was almost immune to illusory magic because of her Spiritual Breakthrough and mental strength. Therefore, the Illusion map made to deceive the challenger didn't even work on her!
Yasenia looked at the carriage driver with a strange face. 'What should I do with this defective spy?'
She was about to say something when the guards revealed another ambush. Yasenia instantly moved inside the carriage and used her sword to cover the Queen and King, using it as a giant shield. Right after that, a barrage of arrows hit [Draconic Heart]. "Stay close to me until they are out of arrows."
The Queen and King took advantage of the situation and got so close that the only thing left for them to do was to place their arms around Yasenia's waist! Yasenia's eyebrow twitched but didn't say anything. 'Well, it was me who provoked them; I'm not going to complain about self-caused harm….'
Like in the previous battle, she used [Shooting Star] again to support the guards easily and efficiently. The white stars repeatedly shot from the carriage, creating explosions at the right moment and hitting some assassins squarely on their chests.
The assassins were in the early to mid-level of the Mental Nourishing realm, the same as the guards, so her attacks instantly killed them whenever they landed. Yasenia felt something speeding from the other side and lashed her tail toward it.
*Clang!*
Her tail hit a dagger coated with a purplish substance; Yasenia observed it with her sharp gaze as it flew away because of her tail ñash. 'Poison. Hmm, Angel and Kali should have it quite easy in this challenge as long as they see the trap named 'Carriage Driver.' Now, what should I do with him? I have to find the real map first.'
After getting rid of the last assassin, Yasenia looked again at the pair of monarchs that were discreetly pushing each other to be closer to her and asked, "My Queen, My King, do you have the map of the surrounding area and our Empire?"
The Queen hastily answered, trying to be faster than the King. "We do! Do you need it, my brave and beautiful Guard Captain?"
Yasenia sweated a little at her title, 'If I were the real Guard Captain, I think I could have planted a grassland on top of the King's head.'
However, Yasenia smiled tenderly and said, "Yes, my Queen. It would be useful."
The Queen blushed and was about to take it out when she saw the King already giving it to Yasenia. "Here you go. Serve us well, Guard Captain, and I will surely reward you."
The Queen gritted her teeth, 'This old bastard!'
The King gave her a side eye, 'Hmph, trying to compete with us in wooing females? You are too incompetent, my wife!'
Yasenia took it and said with another smile, "Thank you, my King."
Then, she went on top of the carriage and spread the map while looking around.
Yasenia knew how to read maps since it was a basic survival skill that her mother, Tatyana, had taught her.
As she expected, they were actually slowly going further and further away from the Empire. Yasenia turned toward the unaware carriage driver and sighed, 'What a cheeky asshole. Gaining trust when going to their Kingdom, getting rid of the enemy Monarch when coming back from it. But before I kill this one, let's try to find other snakes among the soldiers here.'
Yasenia shouted, "Stop the carriage!"