Chapter 154: Eliminating Potential

The young Princess Zoerina felt Piri's killing intent and instinctively went on high alert. She had been trained by the royal instructers from an early age and had a large amount of combat experience for a 13 year old girl.

She trained harder than both her brothers, and also had more talent than the two of them combined.

Piri crouched down low and launched herself towards the princess. She drove her fist towards the pit of the princess' stomach, an attack that is incredibly difficult to dodge.

The princess glared back as she deflected Piri's attack with one hand and struck back with the other. Piri's fists exploded in fire and sparks as they collided, her mana coating her fists in the fire element.

"Daring to use fire on me? Naive!"

"We will see!"

Piri was more agile and skilled than the princess, who relied on her overwhelming strength to supplement her attacks.

The fire drake tried to attack Piri as well, but the latter's shadowkin expanded from her shadow and counterattacked.

The dark elf managed to finally land a solid backhanded strike to the princess' temple and sent her tumbling across the grass.

"Princess!"

"Your highness!"

Many of the students from the kingdom hurried over to help the princess, a girl who was widely praised and esteemed throughout the kingdom. They blocked Piri's path as the silver haired girl climbed back to her feet with a grimace.

"You will pay for that!"

"Hmph! I see you are in your rightful place, cowering behind your vassals."

Piri wasn't threatened by the princess' support forces as she had confidence to defeat them all regardless, it would just drag out this battle, so she taunted the prideful girl.

The dark elf had a strong pride herself, so she could easily recognise similar traits in the opposite party.

Princess Zoerina ground her teeth and charged at Piri. Her bloodline boiled in her veins and inflated her strength to higher than anyone her level should ever reach. Her eyes also seemed to briefly change to be almost like those of a dragon's, but it was merely an illusion caused by her aura.

The two crossed fists with skilled movements, deflecting, defending or avoiding the attacks they can whilst trying to deal as much damage to the opposite party.

Piri wasn't messing around as her hand was coated in lighting and stabbed towards the princess' throat. The fire drake charged up and spewed a fire breath over the dark elf that caused her to abandon the attack and avoid it though.

The princess followed up with a roundhouse kick that sent Piri flying into a trunk with fractured ribs.

The shadowkin retaliated from Piri's shadow erupting with shadow spikes and teeth to lacerate the princess. One of the shadow spikes pierced through Zoerina's leg and caused her to wince, while she twisted her body agilely and only received minor cuts and abrasions from the others.

Her clothing had been ruined though, revealing her hidden armor and a generous amount of healthily tanned skin.

*Cough* *Cough*

Piri vomited blood onto the ground, one of her ribs having snapped and pierced her lung.

The other students attacked en mass too, causing her to take cover beneath the arch of the great oak's roots.

Arrows and steel projectiles flew at her, but the shadowkin formed a shield to block most of them whilst Piri swatted the others out of the air. She focused on controlling her body to reset the broken rib and heal the other fractures.

She was forced to keep taking distance until she could heal the damage.

Once she could breath properly, she fought back. With her mana coated arms and reinforced body, the students that were the best in their city's struggled to keep up with her. Zoerina fought too, but with an injured leg, her movements had become slower.

She had drunk a rare and expensive restorative potion, but nothing was instantaneous.

Piri's greatest strength was the same as the other women of the dungeon, especially the dungeon wives, regeneration. She could control the mana in her mana network to heal her body at an accelerated rate in exchange for mana.

The longer she fought against the other students, the more and more injured they became whilst she remained in optimal form. Her mana was depleting quite quickly, but she had a large enough reserve to sustain her for another half an hour at the current rate.

Two more students, a brown haired boy and blonde girl with a bronze staff, were knocked out cold and left to their fate on the lava riddled ground.

Eventually, it was just Piri and Princess Zoerina fighting alongside their spiritual beast companions. A few of the local spiritual beasts attacked too, but most of them were more intelligent and left the two to exhaust themselves so they could easily kill the weary victor.

Princess Zoerina lasted the longest out of everyone. She dealt blow after blow to Piri, but the latter was like a zombie whilst she could no longer keep both eyes open. Her once beautiful face was bruised and lacerated, blood trickling down her chin and dripping onto the ground.

Even in her condition, she continued looking at Piri with anger and a determination to destroy her.

"You! Who are you to defy the kingdom!?" Zoerina dug at the ground with her bloody fingers, her entire left gauntlet broken to pieces. "Do you not have any gratitude?"

"Gratitude? I was never considered a member of your kingdom. Your people hunt us, **** us, and enslave us. And we are supposed to be grateful?!"

Piri screamed in disbelief as her anger flared up and fueled her killing intent, causing her to punch the princess' face into the ground with a dull thud.

She too was exhausted and her mana drying up. The shadowkin was providing the largest support at the moment, wrapping her under her clothes and strengthening her. It clung with affection and even shared its mana with her.

"? A nationless village? Is that the problem? Whose fault is it that you refused to become a part of the kingdom? If you become citizens, you are protected under all of the kingdom's laws."

"Hmph, you are just shifting responsibility to excuse the actions of your people. Because we refuse to abandon our culture and lifestyle to integrate with you, we aren't people and therefore it is okay to treat us as objects for your lust and greed, Listen to yourself!"

Zoerina grit her teeth and spat a globlet of blood at the young dark elf's face.

"How about you listen to your own words. Where are you living now? Ruled by a dungeon lord that uses women to breed monsters. Do you think I don't know? That I haven't heard of the vile deeds that take place there? Where are you living now, is it still this so called lifestyle that you refuse to change. You are a hypocrite."

Piri was lost for words and didn't know how to respond. Instead, she resorted to violence. With the princess on all fours, she kicked her in the ribs and sent her tumbling several meters. She also felt a rib cracking under her foot, and given the wheezing the princess started making, seemed to have dealt a serious blow.

"You are a danger to Lord Styx," Piri hardened her heart and forced her anger to drain from her body, looking down at the half dead princess with an ice cold gaze. "I won't kill or cripple you now, that would spark another war before it is time. However, your future potential is too high. You will become a great danger in the future. Therefore…"

Piri stepped over to where the unconscious and bleeding fire drake lay on the ground, its body limp and defenseless.

"No… *cough* No. No! Stop! *wheeze* NOOOO-*cough**wheeze*!!"

Princess Zoerina cried out despite the pain it caused her. Piri coated her fist in lighting and struck down on the defenceless drake's head with all the strength she could muster.

Blood and fragmented bone splashed out as her fist drove a hole into the ground, the corpse of the fire drake twitching twice before falling completely silent.

"Therefore, I will destroy your future potential."

Princess Zoerina stared with her one good eye in frozen shock, tears marring her face. Everyone only had one spirit beast companion, and would not be able to receive nor tame another one, this was the law of the secret realm.

"...Whore… Whore… *wheeze* YOU FUCKING WHORE!!"

The princess' face twisted in pure madness as she glared at Piri with an unrivalled wrath. Piri only glanced at her before completely disregarding the princess on her hands and knees in tattered clothes and covered in blood.

The young dark elf turned her head and wandered towards where the spiritual fruits were and had her shadowkin devour them, ignoring the collapsed princess' voice.

"You will regret this," Zoerina fixated her one good eye on the dark elf's back with wrath, her bloody fingers clawing at the dirt.

The native spiritual beast had been completely intimidated by Piri's viscousness and the killing aura still emanating from her body. None of them continued to vie for the fire element spiritual fruits and simply watched as the shadowkin ate them.

~~~~~

⠀

Princess Zoerina's entire body was heavy and consciousness heavy as she sat on the ground, the corpse of her fire drake on her lap.

The riverlets of lava along the ground had dried and crusted with the spiritual fruits no longer present to fuel them with their essence. She mumbled to herself over and over under her breath, almost like a chant.

"...Hero? Hero, where are you? Why didn't you come? Hero?"

A student approached behind the princess before nervously raising his voice.

"P-Princess? Are you okay?"

Zoerina looked up at the young man with lifeless eyes, all her emotions spent and leaving her empty within.

"Are you my hero?"

"Princess, let's get away from here and recover. I will keep you safe."

The young man saw the princess was gravely injured and couldn't currently stand, let alone walk. The blood had crusted up, but her legs were severely damaged. In a bout of momentous courage, he wrapped his arms around the young girl and picked her up in a princess carry.

Zoerina watched the headless fire drake tumble to the ground before turning her head back to the student.

"Why didn't you get here earlier?"

"Princess?"

"You are not my hero."

Her hand suddenly stabbed forward and pierced into the young man's defenceless chest. He stared as if unable to comprehend what happened as the silver-haired princess crushed his heart under her immense physical strength.

~~~~~

⠀

The next two days passed by as Piri and her shadowkin spiritual beast grew in strength. It peaked at the maximum <Lv. 19> and there was very little within the Fae Forest Realm which could threaten it.

Piri's shadow normally seemed completely normal, albeit a bit darker than a natural shadow, but that changed rapidly once the shadowkin attacked.

Her shadow shot out like an ancient Lovecraftian god, the shadows stretching across the entire field as it erupted in spikes, or grew mouths to eat, it could even cover the target and cling to them, slowly eating away at their defense.

It hid in the shadows produced by clothing, coating the body. The only way to dispel it would be to erase all shadows on one's body with light, but that was near impossible. Piri had made it climb into a person's orifices too and attack from inside the body, but the feedback she received was revolting so she never made it repeat that action after the first attempt.

Piri's reputation had erupted like a wildfire thorugh the Fae Forest Realm, and most students simply fled at the sight of her. What she had done to the princess frightened them all, and they feared the kingdom would seek retaliation for the damage she caused. They didn't want to get in the middle of the kingdom and the dungeon fighting by any means.

The dark elf had definitely harmed the kingdom in a way that couldn't be forgiven, but she had also restrained herself by not killing the princess directly and instead leaving something to allow hesitance in erupting into full war so soon.

What surprised her the most, was that during her time here, she never ran into the princess again. She had absolute confidence that the princess would be chasing after her to seek vengeance as soon as she recovered, she probably had enough expensive potions to do so after all. Contrary to her thoughts, the latter almost seemed to be hiding from her instead.

~~~~~

⠀

Three days after entering, all the students who were still alive were teleported out of the secret realm without any warning signs.

The portal glowed with a deep blood-like crimson and spat them out one after another. The students quickly returned to their respective camps as the hostility between the two forces was much greater than when they entered. Over a thousand people didn't return either, meaning a lot of blood had been spilled within the Fae Forest Realm.

"Styx!" Piri called out in her mind in excitement as the connection between the dungeon and herself was restored to its full service.

"Little Piri, I see you have gotten your little companion. How was your trip?"

Piri explained everything about inside of the secret realm, which Styx didn't have access to, and all that transpired.

"There was no need to spare the princess' life. The kingdom isn't ready to go to war nonetheless. If anything, it would just alienate people in future cities that I take over. Rather than kill her future potential though, it would have been much better to capture her. Her imprisonment would have been much better."

Piri had an epiphany after Styx's words and realized that she had been too narrow minded. Styx could have even trained her to become on of his forces, taking her potential and making it into his own force.

"T-that, Lord Styx, forgive me. I was too naive and didn't realize that at the time. Lend me the monster forces and I will capture her immediately!"

"I fear you are a bit too late for that, little Piri."

Just as Styx said, the kingdom force had already condensed their group and were retreating from the site at a fast pace. They had moved so fast that half their belongings had been left behind.

The kingdom teachers had acted rapidly after hearing Princess Zoerina's circumstances and foresaw the princess suddenly being captured just as Styx mentioned. They brought her into the core of their force and hurried back to where the kingdom's forces were stronger and Styx's weaker.

Therina was currently coordinating the group from Lagoon Porter City and the dungeon. Even if Styx told her to mobilize everyone and the monsters, it was already too late.

The teachers and guards of the kingdom's side weren't weak by any means, and a rushed and careless attack would allow them to potentially overturn the situation. They wanted to protect the students and was the main reason they compromised in the first place. Once that vow was broken, not even Styx was confident to be victorious with the present forces.