Chapter 438 - Illusions

After the match between the brother and sister ended in a tie, General Osmond ordered the soldiers to gather in a single group. As this was the test phase of the training to check the effectiveness, there were only a total of five thousand soldiers on the ground right now.

All of them were facing the empty side of the battlefield. They were all glaring at that barren side of the land as if they were seeing enemies.

Osmond then briefed the soldiers, "Listen up! The drill is the same as yesterday. You are not to draw out or use any of your weapons in this training exercise. All you have to do is try to locate the illusions that are coming your way. Try to keep your eyes on their movements. Get used to their speed."

And he also added, "And today, Princess Adeline will also join alongside the guests from Aberdeen."

Adeline excitedly glanced at Theodore. She was ready to see how real Theodore's illusion would feel.

Theodore didn't tell her anything at the moment because he wanted her to be as surprised as the soldiers were on their first day. He didn't want to spoil the fun for her by warning her beforehand. So he simply smiled at Adeline. "Do your best."

"I will," Adeline smiled back at her husband and also at Osmond. Then she ran after the werewolves who were already heading towards the training area on their two feet.

Adeline, Nigel, Rhea, and Fenris went and stood at the front of all those soldiers. They could have stayed at the back of the soldiers but Adeline didn't want to give herself any privilege.

After all of them were in battle-ready position, General Osmond glanced at Theodore and asked, "Shall I give the signal?"

Theodore gave a nod and Osmond hit a warning gong.

The moment Adeline heard the sound of the gong, she saw a whole army a little far away from her. She focused her irises to get a clear view of the enemies. A cold shiver crept under her skin when she saw that everyone's eyes were glowing red in color.

Adeline breathed out slowly and mentally prepared herself for what was about to happen next, which she guessed that whatever it would be, she was going to hate it.

Another loud gong spread throughout the training area.

And the moment it was heard, all of the soldiers behind Adeline started to charge straight ahead. Adeline also began to run in the direction of the red-eyed illusion after seeing that the wolves had already reached halfway to the enemy.

As she had expected, the vampires also began to charge towards them at their full speed. "All I have to do is get my eyes to get used to their speed, right?"

Adeline had thought that she would just see a blur running towards her but to her surprise, she could see every one of those illusions very clearly. "I guess my eyes are already good at keeping up."

Adeline soon caught up to her brother. The wolves had already turned themselves and were running on all their fours.

Adeline flashed a smile to Nigel and then surpassed him. Nigel wanted to warn Adeline seeing her running blindly right in the middle of the army of the 'vampires'. However, he couldn't telepathically communicate to Adeline in his wolf form unlike with other wolves.

A few of the keen soldiers noticed that their Princess was not just strong but fast as well. Her speed looked impossible to be attained by a human.

"Is she even human? How can anyone run that fast?" one of the soldiers thought while trying to keep track of the Princess with his eyes.

It didn't take long for Adeline to be surrounded by the fake vampires. She had thought that they would simply run past her or run through her as they were just illusions.

But could she be any more wrong?

A vampire tightened its fist and punched Adeline right on her chest.

"Arghh!" Adeline crouched and growled in pain.

Before she could even recover from that strike and try to think what was actually going on, Adeline felt a punch on her cheek and a kick on her thigh.

The vampires not only didn't run past her, but they also didn't lose the opportunity to strike the unguarded Princess. And when those vampires hit her, she could feel their touch as well as the pain as if they were a hundred percent real.

"Damn it!" Adeline gritted her teeth and finally came to her senses after getting hit by at least five vampires at once.

Adeline then tightened her fists and gave out a loud and frustrated cry. And she slammed her fist on the chest of a vampire that was standing right in front of her.

Goosebumps ran all over her body when she felt her fist inside the ribcage of that vampire. She even felt cold liquid dripping on her fist as though it was very real.

Before she was grossed out even further, that illusion vanished from in front of her. She quickly glanced at her fist but to her relief, she didn't see any blood. "It felt so real…"

Adeline immediately focused her attention on a horde of vampires that were surrounding her. Without wasting another second, she kicked and punched those illusions. Some of them vanished with her single punch in their heart while some of them took four to five punches.

After a while, she cleared the small patch around her and took a breather to look at the wolves and the humans around her.

She noticed that the wolves were biting and clawing those illusions and were making them vanish with no problem. "As expected of them," she whispered with a faint smile on her face.

However, that faint smile faded when she realized that out of those five thousand soldiers, not even some five hundred were still standing.

Her eyes widened and her body shuddered when her eyes fell on the ground. "No… nooooo…" The ground was now almost full of the soldiers who had fallen down from the attack from those illusions.

None of them were bleeding or injured. However, they seemed to be in a lot of pain. Some even looked as though they were already dead.

Adeline felt a painful hammering in her heart. "Will this be our fate if we go against those vampires?" she thought while lightly beating her chest with her fist.

She was having a panic attack at the sight of those 'fallen soldiers'. She struggled to breathe in that battle armor. And her feet refused to move an inch. She even started to get cold sweats and was visibly panting.

While she was letting her guard down again, she heard the voice that she thought she would never hear again, "Hello, murderer! Are you ready to get your payback? Because I am so ready to get it..."

Adeline felt a piercing sensation in her heart and shrill pain in her head. Her whole body went numb when she raised her head to look at the source of that familiar voice.

"Princess?" Adeline panicked even more when she saw the half-dead body of Princess Rebekah.