A Week Later:
"Just one more to go"
Xiao said as he looked at the arrow hitting the bird with calculated movements, its life being snuffed out as it turned to silver particles floating around, by now the skies already shinning with such particles, during this week Li Lun's growth in the bow was phenomenal, her frightening talents blooming forth.
She stood at the edge of the cliff, her small frame looking like an act of defiance against the huge abyss that faced her, her back straight, while she held onto her bow, it was stretched forth with a black colored arrow placed on it, Li Lun looked to be in tune with the world as her focus lay entirely on the one last bird flashing above the endless glittering of silver.
Each of her shots was getting more ridiculous than the next, even in the present scenario just one shot itself takes a lot of planning to accomplish, she had to feel the location where the void rift has to open, take into account the reaction of the bird and its natural movements, she would also have to calculate the win blowing from the bottom of the cliff, its heavy hits enough to make a small change in the trajectory of her arrow, making her miss.
It's mind-blowing to think that she reached such a level of her archery in just a week of practice,
"Huff....."
A deep breath left her mouth as she focused on the last bird flickering above in the sky, unlike its counterparts this one is smaller but what it lacked in size it made up in superior speed and movement, it also possess some sort of radar that seemed to alert it when danger was nigh,
'I am the void....'
A certain mantra filled Li Lun's mind as her whole focus spread to the world around her, feeling the gaps of space where she could connect with the void realm present, her eye in the middle opened up, its eerie darkness with the symbol on it lighting up and for Li Lun the world looked different, everything turned white while she felt several grey cracks across the reality she stood,
'Pull each cord as if it's my last'
She prepared herself as she recognized all the space break points to void, just one pull from the major ones and she will detribalize the whole space, bringing the destruction of the void to reality, slowly with expert movements Li Lun's void eye started to pull at the small cracks, wrapping it up in her control, while her mind started to feel fuzzy.
In normal circumstances, she's only able to control 2 of those cracks, yet now she was extending her control as she tried to master at least 10 different cracks! extreme mental pressure pushed into her mind, two lines of blood floating from her nose, touching her lips in the 'real' world yet she took in the pain, fighting through it as she tried her best to connect with all the 10 cracks.
Slowly but surely her control over the cracks started to get better, and so did the pain wrecking her mind, she bit her lips, holding in the pain filling her mind, she knew she had to take the risks, she wouldn't be left behind by Xiao, not after finally gaining a way to walk beside him,
'Connect!'
Li Lun's eyes were bloodshot, thankfully, in the end, her patience was gifted as she finally connected with the 10 grey cracks, a smile lighting up her face as her focus returned back to reality, her eyes looked at the bird's movement and just when everything was right she left the arrow go aiming forward, not towards the sky where the bird flew.
But that was more than enough for Li Lun, as a smile of victory has already graced her face. The arrow trudged forward only for a void rift to open in the front of its path taking it along, the next moment the bird in the sky trembled as if it felt danger and under its intelligent eyes about 10 different void rifts opened around it!
All the rifts were arranged in a perfect manner entrapping the small bird in a cage like an attack. Soon the arrow appeared from one but the bird dodged it in the nick of time, causing the arrow to enter another rift and be launched back again, this time to it missed causing it to enter another rift and bounce back, no matter what the bird did the arrow kept coming back and a single moment of error was enough to take the birds life,
"That's pretty brutal torturing the bird"
Xiao said as he walked up to Li Lun, she could have ended the bird in a much easier manner yet she took the harder path,
Best
"Well it deserves it, I went through a lot of difficulties just because of the small one"
Li Lun said remembering all the time that little one had intervened in her shot, causing her to make much more difficult shots to just take down a normal flickering bird, she didn't say anything else as Li Lun leaned onto Xiao who now stood beside her, Li Lun's face turned serene as she felt the warm embrace, slowly her void eye closed, while Austin with care wiped out the blood on her nose.
Feeling her state he used a certain World control that healed her body and helped her mind relax, these days had truly brought them a bit closer, it was just time spending training with each other and the 7 days felt short yet long, it was just the two of them trying to get better and stronger.
After Li Lun had gotten better the two of them had even sparred a bit, of course, Xiao won every time but it did help Li Lun to develop her power better, she also got to understand that she needed to keep giving her best if she wanted to stand Xiao, while the person in question got a nice opportunity to try out some of the understanding he got from the soul that he swallowed, he hadn't taken in the soul completely but he was getting close,
"Looks like it's done"
He said holding Li Lun in a light embrace and just as he finished speaking the cry of a dead bird was heard as the dark arrow completely served and ripped the small bird, its body turning into the biggest sparkle in the sky,
"Guess you really hate that bird"
Xiao said,
"I do"
Li Lun agreed and as such they stood like that in the same position for some seconds, enjoying the beautiful scenery of the sky as it lit with sparkles, making a breathtaking beauty, of course, the ego voice of the tower should have spoken just after the defeat but with Mia at his hands, he could delay it a bit, hence few more seconds went by after which the emotionless voice was heard,
"The third trial has been completed...."
"Scanning the situation to distribute the reward..."
"Scanning completed..."
"Achievement completion rate, Li Lun: 100%, and Xiao: 0%"
"Rewards shall be distributed based on contributions..."
'Looks like I won't be getting anything'
Xiao thought as a white light only entered inside Li Lun, leaving him empty, though he didn't mind, for he truly didn't do anything,
"Make a choice....."
"Continue or leave....."
"Leave"
The two of them spoke at the same time and once again their bodies were whisked off.