Chapter 197 - The Three Monsters

"Hmm? Who are you?"

The moment she slides the door opened, she was greeted with a bloody scene straight out of hell. Upon closer look, she could see horrendous wounds all over the corpse on the ground. Judging from the wounds, they must have suffered before eventually falling into eternal slumber. Since they are a member of a Church, this was completely out of her expectation. She had initially thought they would have already gone by now as she had spent around 5 minutes, reality time-wise, in the Trial Tower, but look and behold, they were still in the classroom.

It's easy to tell what caused them to delay when she observed the interior of the classroom. Glancing at the pale-looking students trembling at the corner before the bloody corpse on the ground, Sheila quickly assumed they must have tried their best to resist. However, they are way out of the league. If they had cooperated, they might have gone by now. 

"Oi, I ask you. Who are you?"

Turning her eyes toward the guy calling her out, she can only see the man hiding behind a cloak resembling Rodrick on the same level of pride. Among the three cloak figures, he's the only one who didn't hide his face. Remembering what Rodrick told her, this guy must be the one with the weakest strength among the three, yet so prideful that he always wants to pick a fight with people's weaker than him. His name is Henry. Though they were considered allies, the guy didn't care over such a thing as, so long as you're weaker than him, he would definitely step on you. After all, Rodrick did suffer under him for a short while.

Moving on to another, even though she hides her face really well, one can easily recognize her as a female based on her womanly charm that couldn't properly hide under the long cloak. Though she gives off a gentle aura around her, one shouldn't underestimate her. Like a snake sneakily slithering at the distance of a frog, once the latter let its guard down, the snake would immediately devour it on the spot. She's exactly like the snake. Her name is Nyoka.

To her left, there was a man with a solid build standing calmly to the side. His name is Ivan, the leader of this small group of three, and the most dangerous of them all. His aura alone surely would make anyone frighten if they ended up locking their eyes with each other. Since Rodrick was afraid of him, the man must have a powerful strength to back him up. And no joke, if she were to fight him with just normal skills without using any trump card, she would, without a doubt, lose. Ivan's aura is almost as suffocating as Rodrick when he surpassed his limit, that alone speaks of his strength.

Though Rodrick is the one that leads them here because of his petty revenge, this small group of three also couldn't be left aside, that's what her rational mind was telling her. However, to fight them on her own is just reckless. Although Henry is the weakest of them, he still couldn't be underestimated. 'Do I have no choice but to use that? The day hasn't even passed, and I'm going to use yet another trump card...'

"Oi! You dare to ignore my question?!"

Before she entered the classroom, she had worn on a disguise to hide her real identity. Though they are a possibility that they knew her real identity from Rodrick, she still doesn't want to waste it. If they knew of her real power and managed to escape here alive, there would definitely come back, but when that time comes by, it won't be just her that would be in danger. 

Because she keeps on ignoring his questions, Henry finally couldn't himself back anymore and charge toward her at a speed that the human's eyes couldn't follow. However, before his punch could land a hit on her, he was sent flying backward because of her swift kick.

"You should introduce yourself first before asking others. Don't you know common courtesy?"

Said Sheila, but instead of her feminine voice, what comes out of her mouth is a deep and masculine voice that one would expect from a man. With the same half-mask of a fox covering his face, it is time for 'Shiro' to make his appearance known. Although she had made a debut on the Mage Association's branch, there's no way they would let the news to the public that they were under attack by a single person and even let him escape unless they want to be shame by others. 

"You bastard."

While wiping the blood that slips out of his lips, Henry muttered in an agitated tone. When he ran forward, he didn't expect to get a counterattack since he thought the guy wearing a mask was nothing but a weirdo with average strength. However, he now understood the confidence in the latter voice. 

"Fine then, I'll introduce myself. I'm Henry, a Priest. Now, tell me who you are."

"Why should I? You must be an idiot for believing in my word."

Sheila said while shrugging her shoulders in response.

"What did you say!"

As if she had stepped on his invisible tail, Henry immediately cried out, visibly agitated by her words. Before he could charge recklessly at her the second time, the man standing near the woman in the cloak interrupted him by saying.

"A half-mask looking like a fox covering only the eyes, so you must be the guy who trespassed the Mage Association's branch in this district, right?"

When she was analyzing them a moment ago, she also noticed them doing the same. However, it seems Henry and Nyoka didn't know about her recent exploit, or maybe they just didn't care about it. Either way, since Ivan recalled the rumors about her 'persona,' this makes things easier for her.

"Unlike the fool over there, you are very smart. Yes, you're precisely right. I'm Shiro, a man who will kill the three of you right here and now, so you better remember my name."

Along with her words, Sheila didn't waste any time to joke around and directly discharged a powerful killing intent toward them. As if their mind were blown apart by it, the three immediately shown a visible sign that they were affected by her aura. Ivan, as expected of the dangerous one of them, awoken from his stupor a few seconds later before the other two also follow along, though a bit later. With sweats dripping off his forehead, Ivan mutter.

"That's some impressive killing intent you have, however, you underestimate us a bit too much, don't you think so?"

"Enough talking. Come, attack me all at once."

"Fine by me!"

Instead of Ivan, Henry answered her challenge before sprinting toward her with incredible speed. The woman didn't remain silent either, she also started whispering in a low voice with a language Sheila never heard of. While avoiding Henry's punch after punch, she also noticed the mana around the woman has started moving, which she assumed the latter was actually chanting for her spell. While the two were making a move on her, Ivan didn't seem to do anything, and just stood calmly on his spot as if the fight didn't matter to him.

However, just as she thought he won't attack her, suddenly, she was hit by something invisible hard in the guts, forcing her to put a distance between her and Henry. When she looked back at him, her mana eyes detect his eyes glowing even brighter than her. When his eyes move, she quickly stepped to the side by instinct. Though she didn't know what sort of skill was that, she did knew he can hit her from afar with just his eyes, which makes things harder for her. Heck, if possible she wanted to learn that skill, it looks pretty cool and all!

"Ora!"

With the three of them attacking her in their own ways, Sheila didn't have the leeway to think of other things at the moment or she would get hurt terribly due to the momentum. If she didn't do anything to change the current situation, sooner or later, once she got exhausted, her fate is decided. 

"Hahaha! Take this!"

Just as Henry thought he caught her off guard, a hologram-like shield suddenly appeared, stopping his punch from reaching her. It feels as if he was punching a solid shell of something the moment his fist came in contact with it. Seeing the chance that the man let his guard down for a momentary shock, Sheila immediately went behind him before swiftly piercing through him with a single stab of her hand. When Henry awoke from his trance and notice her presence right behind him, it was already too late.

*PSH!*

"Guh! No...way..."

"One down, two more to go."

Sheila calmly said before pulling her hand out, which prompted the blood to splatter all over as the corpse fell to the ground like a puppet having its string cut. Unexpectedly, it went much smoother than she thought it would be. 

"I thought you guys were comrades, but you didn't interrupt me from killing him."

Indeed, if they had done that, especially Ivan, she might not be able to kill Henry just like that. The fact that the two didn't do anything was a surprise to her. It was as if they didn't care whether Henry dies or alive. 

"I have never liked him." 

Said Nyoka, Ivan also gives a curt nod in agreement to her words. Whenever there's a mission for them, Henry was always the one making trouble out of nothing as if without doing so, he would die or something. Even a man with high tolerance like Ivan couldn't tolerate him anymore. If not for the rule of the church, they might have killed him by their own hand. 

'Ah, you poor soul, even your comrade didn't care about your death.' While that thought crossed her mind, Sheila suddenly senses something amiss and quickly turns around, and there, she witnessed a small orb of red light flowing out of Henry's corpse before passing through her body and broke into two bits before bolting into Ivan's and Nyoka's body. Surprisingly, the moment the small orb entered their body, she quickly discovers both of their aura rising to a higher level than before. Did they get power up just now? Or so she thought.

"I have to thank you for this as if it was us who kill him, rather than getting stronger like right now, we would get punished instead. You have my gratitude."

'So they actually did get stronger?! Isn't that bullshit? I know I don't have the right to say that since I have the almighty leveling system with me, however, these people are still amazing. Imagine you teach martial art to someone and when he died or something, you gain his experience or proficiency of the skill, isn't that crazy? To make it easier to understand, you level up your newly created character till high enough, and then, you take some of its experience and send it to your old character, leveling it up just like that. There's no way such a broken game exists though. And fortunately, there's a requirement for it.' Whether his words speak the truth or not, she didn't know, at the very least, that's what Ivan said.

Although the students were relieved that the insane guy is now gone for good, they still couldn't take a breather as at the moment, there are three monsters in their classroom, including Sheila. After all, in the eyes of average people, she's also considered as inhuman or monster, at the very least, her strength is. Without knowing who she is behind the mask or her intention of being here, the students couldn't relax their nerves. Heck, it's also possible that she's one of them! If Sheila were to know what they were thinking of her, she would have knocked them on the head. 

However, she currently doesn't have the time to ponder on such useless thought as if she let her guard down for a moment, she would totally get swallowed by them. With the increase in their strength, Nyoka chanting becomes much faster, and Ivan's invisible force also turned out to be more impressive. What's even scarier is that their teamwork has gotten better, it was to the point where she would get a single hit within three of their attacks.

At last, she was totally exhausted with sweats all over her body. The two mercilessly sent their attack on her, which Ivan's attack caused her to crashed deep into the wall, and before she could make a move, a fireball engulfed her whole. 

"Hmph, all talk but no bite."

Once the smoke caused by the explosion dispersed, the two could finally see her lying motionless on the ground. Ivan couldn't help but mocked her when he remembers her bold announcement a moment ago. However, just as they turn around and face the student, they felt something solid grabbing on their leg which caused them to look down, and to their disbelief, she was there smiling at them. 

"Yo."

Before they could even utter a single word, they were helplessly pulled into their own shadow without being able to do anything to stop it. The student could do nothing but stare at the scene with their eyes wide open.