Chapter 166 - A Shocking Twist

When the assassin was rushing toward her, Sheila had already knocked out the mage hiding within the crowd by overwhelming him with the intimidation skill solely target on him before pulling the unconscious mage into the shadow. The intimidation is a powerful mental attack skill if her opponent is weaker than her, it becomes even more potent when a target is just a single person. It felt like a huge fearsome monster was staring at you, desiring to pounce at you, to feast upon your flesh. That was how scary it is.

Sheila only required to lock the target within her mind before unleashing her skill at him at full power, rendering him useless within seconds. She could have done the same to the assassin, however, seeing his tenacity in person, Sheila is sure that the man can resist against her skill. Although he is weaker than her in the strength department, his will, however, might be comparable to her. It would be much better to use the skill when they least expect, it will be more impactful that way. If that isn't possible, she can just knock him out with her strength instead.

Upon seeing the assassin trying to escape, Sheila immediately immobilizes him on the spot by binding him in place with his own shadow. The crowd, however, can only see a tentacle-like shadow suddenly bursting out of the ground before coiling tightly around him. 

"Guh! What is this?! Get...OFF! Shit! I can't get away!"

"You think I'll let you go that easily? I think you look down on me too much, so as a lesson..."

Before the assassin utters a single word, he was shocked to see her figure suddenly appeared right in front of him in the blink of an eye. He swore that there was quite a distance between them and if she had made a move, one should have at least be able to see her movement but, to their disbelief, her figure simply vanished out of thin air before reappearing somewhere else as if she had just teleport between those two locations. Most of the students below the platform also dream of being able to use teleportation magic but, they learned the hard way that such a convenient spell didn't exist. No, it does exist. A way to 'teleport' from one location to another but, it required a tremendous amount of resources to build such a thing, so only the rich can afford it.

Even if one is wealthy and loaded, they also need to have a connection with the Mage Academy as, even with all the resources in their hand, there's no way for them to produce the device without having a skilled mage and skilled craftsman. Mage Association does have a teleportation device in each of its branches all around the world, including the Headquarter. But it can only be used for either VIP or on rare occasions where the Mage Academy organized an event for their young mages with limitless potential. For that, the Mage Association didn't mind losing their money if they can get a loyal mage working for them soon in the future.

Also, the teleportation device only works if both locations have the device installed properly on the location. After all, it couldn't possibly teleport people to an unknown or specific place, like a parallel world without having a correct coordinate. It was entirely different from the one in people's imagination of what almighty 'teleportation' can do. Of course Sheila and Mia didn't know about this. If the former somehow managed to get this information right now, she might have done reckless things such as trying to steal the device, so that she can do a thorough investigation at home.

Anyways, when Sheila appeared in front of the bound assassin, she gently struck him in the neck with her hand. It promptly knocked him out of commission for the next couple of hours. If Sheila didn't hold back her strength, his head might have been separated from the neck instead. With this show of strength, even an idiot can tell that she's just playing around with them. Mia began to get worried and nervous. After all, someone as powerful as 'Shiro' to have gone as far as to save her from the assassin, there has to be a reason for it, right? Nothing is free in this cruel reality. Everything, even the air in the surrounding, has their own reason for their existence.

After securing both of her targets into her shadow, Sheila turned her back facing toward Mia. When she slowly walked toward the latter, Sheila could faintly hear Mia gulping her saliva in nervousness. 'Well...if an unknown person with a powerful strength appeared before me, even I would be afraid of him/her, so it's understandable why she's nervous. As for the assassins and his friend, I have a use for them.' Sheila thought for a moment before nodding her head in understanding. Arriving in front of Mia, Sheila was about to open her mouth and speak when suddenly, everyone be it above or below the platform, felt a tremor. 

While everyone began to look for a place to hide under since they thought it was an earthquake, Sheila looked up at the distance, grinning as she thought, 'Finally, they came. I knew a student escaped the moment I brought everyone's attention to me but, it seemed that he didn't break my faith in him at all. Good, it was just as I expected.'

But still...never in her mind, not even in her wildest thought, did she expected this kind of thing to appear, even more, in this kind of place instead of somewhere else. Though she believes the Mage Association should have the information regarding 'that,' seeing how they even have one of their branches over here but, this is really astonishing. They did it.

"Is that..."

"My god.."

"...This is a lie."

One by one, the students started to fall on their knees with a despairing look on each of their faces upon beholding the cause of the tremor. Even Mia, who is much stronger than everyone else on this floor, tasted the fear for the first time when looking at the huge shadowy figure in the distance. Each step it took, caused a tremor both literally and mentally. A small number of students who were on the weaker side even started to crackling as if they have lost their minds from the fear.

Upon taking a closer look into Sheila's brown eyes, in the reflection of her eyes, one can see a large and bulky creature with little clothing of a single rag covering its lower half, but Sheila thought it might as well be nude. The creature she's currently staring at is none other than a Troll. What, you thought it's Ogre based on the description of its appearance? Nah, jokes on you.

But still, though the Ogre were known to be more powerful than a Troll, both of them can be quite troublesome in each perspective. If one happened to met a Troll in RPGs, they have to kill it without giving it a chance as that would give it a chance to recover the lost health. They were known for their specialty in quick regeneration, after all. 'Does the one in front of them work the same as in the games? If that's the case, interesting.'

"Look! What is that on its temples... is that a shining symbol?"

Sheila narrowed her eyes. And exactly as the student said, there's indeed a shining weird symbol on the Troll's forehead. She thought the symbol looks like the rune that appeared on her pet's note but, there a few lines different. Nonetheless, when she tried removing those lines from the symbol in her head, it looks almost identical to the rune. When that thought appeared in her mind, something suddenly clicked. 'No way... But, the evidence is there, right in my effing face. if it's true, then I need to be careful and prepared..' 

"Hmm? Did that girl ran away already?"

Sheila whispered when she looked around, yet not finding Adalia anywhere in her sight, she concluded. Or perhaps, Adalia might have gone hiding within the small crowd, praying to god so that the Troll would ignore her. But who are we joking here? There's no way the Troll won't take notice of the crowd below the platform. If it decided to massacre the helpless students, what will she do? If all the students ended up dying under its hand, she will have nowhere to hide anymore. She had never seen this creature before, but she did hear of it. But if that was true, why is it here? Shouldn't it stay put underground and only summon it when an emergency emerged?

Adalia couldn't understand but, she hopes that the ring is enough to protect her from it, in case it attacks her. It's a shame that the orb has shattered to pieces, if she has it, there's no nothing to be worried. Whilst she was looking at the trembling students around her, she noticed that someone is missing. She turned her back to look up at the platform but, there's only the suspicious fox masked person, Mia is nowhere in sight. Her face turned to a frown and began to consider whether the masked person had secured Mia just like she had done previously to the assassin. After all, there's nowhere else for them to hide.

"Huh? Is she looking for Mia? And here I thought she hates her or something."

Sheila muttered upon noticing Adalia with her eyes darting around as if searching for someone with a worried expression on her face. What an unexpected twist. She wonders what kind of history do these two have, and if this is a soap drama, the plot might be about them being separated from birth. And when Adalia accidentally found about Mia, she didn't even need to search for her when they both go to the same academy. And then, perhaps she found something to her dislike about Mia, thus, she decided to bully the latter. It does make sense considering Mia was an orphan once before she got adopted. But then again, that's just her wild imagination if it turned out to be a drama, not the cruel reality that we all know. 

Sheila chuckled at her ridiculous thought before shaking her head and decided to focus on the problem she's currently facing. Even though her face is hidden behind the fox mask, Sheila had also disguised herself as someone else so that no one can tell her real identity if the mask accidentally slipped off or break apart while she's in the middle of a battle. This also covered the fact that she can go all out without any worries if she wanted to! Just the thought of fighting a stronger monster at full power caused a smile to appear on her face. it seemed her combat instinct had been lit.

"Let's test out how strong this Troll is, shall we?"

With that speech as a parting gift, Sheila immediately jumped off the platform before speeding up toward the Troll with a crazed look on her face. She didn't bother looking at the students passing by, the only thing in her mind right now is to beat the bulky creature in her sight. Nothing else matters to her right now.

Roar!

When the Troll noticed her sprinting toward it without showing any fear, it let out a hair-raising roar. But to Sheila, the Earth Dragon's roar is more frightening than the Troll. Without giving it any chance, she immediately throws a double slash at it using her sword(APW). But it goes as she expected, the attack didn't do much damage to it as it starts to close up the wound at a visible rate to the n.a.k.e.d eyes. Since it was within her expectation, she isn't too disappointed at the result. The Troll's angry smashed hit the ground, leaving it with a spider-like crack on the floor since Sheila managed to dodge it by backing up at a good timing upon noticing its movement.

'As expected, this 'Fox' person most likely a monster. Only a real monster can fight against another monster, it all starting to make sense now.' That was the thoughts of people witnessing Sheila fighting the Troll as if the two were equal.