Sneaking her way out of Teriu with relative ease, Shiro looked for a spot where she could observe the battlefield and see where the enemy main camp was. After all, there was a high chance of Rialin being in the main camp.
Unfortunately for her, the only high ground she could spot that wasn't in Teriu city was the forest that was the opposite direction from where the enemy camp would be.
Furrowing her brows for a moment, she decided to expend a bit of her energy since scouting was a key part of the battle after all.
Making sure that no one could see her, she activated her Celestial Raiment and teleported herself high above the ground so that hardly anyone could spot her.
Floating in the sky for a short while, she managed to capture the entire enemy camp within her sigh as she made sure to memorise it down since this information would be quite helpful.
"Let's see… where's the main camp." She muttered while scanning the base. There were quite a few large tents and the base didn't have a 'biggest tent'. Meaning, the main camp could be in any one of these tents. Of course, there was also the chance that Rialin wasn't in there and she could instead be in one of the smaller ones.
Taking a few moments to observe the movements in the base, she narrowed down the number of potential spots to three tents. With the amount of guards stationed around these tents, she could guess that they were of high priority. She could also spot a few of the tents that had quite a bit of traffic meaning it was a public area of sorts.
'I can probably eavesdrop near those areas to get some information. I'll need to be careful of being spotted though since there aren't too many blind spots I can take care of.' Shiro furrowed her brows before teleporting back down to the ground.
Cancelling her raiment so that it wouldn't use up more energy, she started to walk towards the direction of the base.
With the bird's eye view of the map ingrained into her mind, she could easily find the best spot for infiltration.
Located near what seems to be the temporary kitchen, there was a small gap that she could make use of to sneak into the base. The hard part is getting to each of the tents without being seen.
However, Shiro had confidence that she could do it. Even if things did go south, she could use her shadow element to quickly conceal herself or teleport out. Whichever was most beneficial.
Arriving at the location, she waited for a moment for a few of the soldiers to pass by before entering the base. With the map ingrained into her mind, she had also memorised some of the patrol patterns for the guards. If her estimations were correct, the next soldiers to pass by this area would take around 3 to 5 minutes. While it may not sound like much, 3 to 5 minutes was more than enough for Shiro.
Sneaking inside the base, she quietly made her way to the first checkpoint that she had set up in her mind.
'Damn, the soldiers here really are of a higher calibre. A few of them are keeping their energy ready to be used at a moment's notice.' Shiro thought with a frown. When she was scouting in Teriu, hardly any soldiers would do this, making them easy targets. While some may say that it burns energy, they're only circulating the energy rather than using it so none of it was wasted. Of course, not just anyone could do this since if they lacked control, the energy would start to leak out and it would just defeat the initial purpose.
Making her way to the first eavesdrop location, Shiro crouched down near the edge of the tent and tried to pick up any useful information that could help her.
Within the countless conversations happening in the tent, she could pick up a few key topics such as rewards from the royal family, a special team and princess Rialin.
Understanding that princess Rialin must be the person who she had fought previously, she tried to listen for more information but unfortunately, there wasn't much passed around about her.
As for the other two topics, it seemed like Rialin was making a special team to capture/kill a certain woman he fought on the way here.
'Damn, she's actually quite eager to get my head huh?' Shiro thought with a frown. She couldn't help but feel thankful that she had decided to do some scouting or else she wouldn't have even known about this mysterious team that she was making.
Apparently, the team was composed of special individuals who would halt a person's body movement so that they couldn't fight back. If she had a full team of them activate their spell on her, Shiro would literally be a fish on a cutting board.
'I should probably kill her and the special members as soon as I can.' She thought with narrowed eyes.
But before that, she'd need to find out where Rialin was or else she couldn't kill her.
Changing locations, Shiro proceeded to scout out a few other eavesdropping spots as she got a general gist of where things are.
'Let's see… Rialin is positioned further in the back, surrounded by guards while the special members are not too far away from her. If I want to get to her, I'll need to deal with the guards since they are quite good at their jobs. I have no hope of entering her tent without being spotted by the guards.' Shiro furrowed her brows before looking into the sky.
Estimating the time to be around 2 to 3 in the afternoon, it'll take a while before night falls so she struck assassination in the night off her list.
'Well I guess I can just wing it. I'll need to deal with the guards as quickly as I can before stabbing Rialin in the throat and cutting her head off. I'll make an orb now so that I can see what's happening in the tent.'
Pinching her fingers together to form an orb, she made her way towards Rialin's tent before some patrols arrived at her location.
Upon arrival, she saw the aforementioned tent with quite a few guards surrounding it. If she wanted to have this orb enter the tent, she'll need to make a distraction.
Looking around, she saw nothing that she could use.
'In that case then I might as well make one.' She thought with a grin.
Making another orb, she had it roll towards one of the nearby tents that had the special members and waited for a moment before detonating it.
*BOOM!!!!
Suddenly, a void opened up as a jaw descended down from the portal and dragged the tent away.
Shocked at this situation, the guards quickly rushed towards the portal with their spells ready since it was an enemy attack.
Using this confusion and that the guards were now using their celestial energy, Shiro activated her armour and hid her body in the shadows.
Moving into the tent without being seen, she looked around to see if she could spot Rialin. Seeing her currently putting on her armour, Shiro narrowed her eyes with a grin.
This was a perfect moment for her to assassinate Rialin but she couldn't help but feel as though something was wrong. For an experienced warrior such as Rialin, she would know better than to not wear her armour at this time of day.
Since her instincts had never failed her before, Shiro decided to wait for a moment and be patient.
###
'Hmm… seems like I'm worried for nothing.' Rialin thought to herself since she had decided to remove her armour and slowly put it back on when she felt the surge of Celestial Energy not too far away from her tent.
Understanding that it might be an assassin, she deliberately created this gap so that she could kill them without too much hassle.
Sighing softly, she quickly donned the rest of her armour and prepared to move out. Unfortunately, despite her cautiousness, she was too quick to dismiss the danger as Shiro's figure flickered behind her. With a twist of her body, the sword pierced deeply into Rialin's neck.