Saintess? Not Anymore! I'd Rather be a Destroyer-Chapter 83 - 70: Tough Training 2
Aurianna spent her next thirty-six years, a third day, in the real world in a strange forest, which Carol left her in.
The forest had a gloomy look, but what made it more ominous were the branches, which appeared to be twisted into various weapons, some resembling guns.
"This is the forest of combat weapon trees," Carol’s warning echoed in Aurianna’s mind as they stood together, "When they consume any form of weaponry, their body metamorphoses into that weapon, and they attack anyone who dares to enter their territory."
Carol’s words sent chills down Aurianna’s spine, and she looked around apprehensively, notching the trees were snoring. The forest seemed to pulse with a malevolent energy, and Aurianna’s heart raced with excitement at the thrill of a new upcoming battle.
"Today, you will fight these trees. Be warned, there are over a hundred thousand of them, and Eva fed them all manner of weapons. If fortune favors you, you may discover a new weapon to wield," Carol explained, her tone laced with caution.
"Shouldn’t Leila be the one doing this?" She asked, raising an eyebrow, and Carol shook her head.
"Oh she is in a different and much stronger forest, you’re here to train your gun skills and feet skills," Carol stated.
"Your feet must become durable to withstand the blow of any weapon, and so must your body. Your shooting skills should be precise and accurate, and you should learn how to manage your magic," Carol explained as she held Aurianna’s hands and added an extra set of three more bracelets on each of her arms and feet.
"I think I’m fine with my shooting magic," Aurianna said as she summoned two revolvers into her hand.
"No, you shoot like an idiot," Carol criticized and Aurianna glared at her.
"What do you mean?" Aurianna asked and Carol grinned.
"You’re always blasting large outputs of your magic, not taking notice of your huge mana depletion. If you don’t take care, and you’re in a battle with a group of people, your mana would run out faster than you can kill them," Carol explained.
Aurianna nodded thoughtfully as she knew what Carol meant, ’So my feet and body would need to be as resilient as steel to endure the blows of these weaponized trees. My shooting skills would need to be precise and accurate, and I would have to learn how to wield my magic carefully in order to survive.’
"Remember," Carol’s voice whispered ominously, sending a shiver down Aurianna’s spine, "These trees will show no mercy. You must fight with every fiber of your being if you hope to survive, and not just keep dying like an idiot."
Aurianna gazed around the eerie forest warily, her eyes darting to the twisted branches that resembled deadly weapons. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched, and the faint rustling of the leaves only added to her unease.
"Now then, with that out of the way, good luck," Carol’s tone was almost mocking as she soared up into the air and bellowed, "Wake up you stupid trees!!!"
Carol’s voice echoed through the entire forest, causing it to tremble, before she flew away.
A deafening roar filled the forest as the trees stirred, their gnarled limbs transforming into a myriad of weapons, ranging from swords to guns. Aurianna’s heart raced as she noticed the trees opening their eyes, each one more menacing than the last. Suddenly, a sword slashed towards her, but she swiftly dodged it and retaliated with a shot from her revolvers.
She noticed a particularly fearsome tree approaching her, the tree running on two feet which made her dumbfounded for a moment, its eyes glinting with malice as its sword-like branches scraped against each other. Summoning all her courage, Aurianna summoned an arsenal of guns around her and charged at the trees.
Aurianna’s heart raced as she unleashed a storm of bullets upon the twisted trees, the sound of gunfire filling the gloomy forest. She deftly dodged their attacks, her body moving with fluid grace. Despite the danger, she felt a rush of excitement coursing through her veins.
"This is too easy," she smirked, relishing the power she felt with each shot. The trees writhed in pain as her bullets tore through their twisted bodies, rendering them motionless and some weapons being dropped on the ground.
But as she continued to fight, Aurianna began to sense that something was amiss. The trees seemed to be laughing at her, their twisted branches writhing in a macabre dance. A chill ran down her spine as she realized that she had underestimated the true nature of this forest.
Undeterred, Aurianna summoned her hover gun and unleashed a barrage of blasts upon the trees. But to her surprise, the trees dodged her attacks with ease, moving with an unnatural speed and agility. She knew then that this was no ordinary forest, and that her powers alone may not be enough to overcome the malevolent forces that lurked within.
Aurianna’s heart raced with fear as the trees laughed at her, their dark and twisted amusement echoing through the forest. She had thought she could defeat them easily, but they were proving to be more formidable opponents than she had anticipated. Her head became dizzy every time she heard their laughter, so she gritted her teeth and shot her hands several times for her senses to return back to normal.
But before she could fully recover, she noticed a huge blast heading her way, but she was too late. She got hit by the blast that burnt her skin immensely and made her unable to move. She gritted her teeth and healed herself back to normal.
Furthermore, she then dashed towards the trees to attack them again with a barrage of kicks, but Aurianna immediately noticed another version of herself that parried her attack with its leg, which surprised her.
Aurianna was taken aback as the doppelgänger of herself grinned with malice.
Aurianna looked around to see how most of the surrounding trees transformed into her as they wielded all sorts of weapons. She was surrounded, and the trees cackled with a unified voice, their anger palpable.
"How dare you copy my beautiful image, you filthy monsters?!" Aurianna snarled, enraged by their audacity.
"Monsters? Who is the monster," a tree asked, its face twisted 180 degrees. Its voice sinister as its hollow eyes stare at Aurianna from afar.
"You came into our territory and caused and disturbed our beautiful sleep," another tree from the other side spoke, visible anger could be seen on its face.
"You attack us, kill our siblings and yet when we rebel we are called monsters?" Another tree added, its voice laced with bitterness.
"Don’t you hear how foolish your words sound?" A chorus of sinister laughter echoed through the forest, as the trees taunted Aurianna with their words.
’Why do these words remind me of the war with the demons?’ Aurianna frowned as she heard those words and remembered more of her past, ’I can’t blame the demons for hating Humans because it was humans who initiated the war, stole their children, and we called them monsters. I have no idea what to feel in a position like this. But it’s not so bad,’ Aurianna grinned.
"I guess I’m the monster, but does that really matter?" Aurianna asked in a chilling tone, "In one’s journey for strength there must always be sacrifices, and I don’t mind killing people just to grow stronger. Because becoming strong is what all matters to me," A wicked smile spread across her face as she summoned two shotguns into her hands.
"You overestimate yourself, you foolish being, we’re going to make you regret ever stepping into our territory!!" The trees growled in unison as they all charged at Aurianna at once.
"Bring it on you foolish trees," Aurianna grinned as she fired many bullets at the trees as she spun around aiming at each one of them heads, blasting them off. She didn’t care if it was her face they were wearing, in fact, that made her more angry.
The trees may have appeared like her, but Aurianna did not hesitate to shoot them down, regardless of their resemblance to her. She relished the sound of their heads exploding as she fired her rifles, the taste of their flesh in her mouth as she devoured their remains.
But as the battle raged on, Aurianna began to realize the true strength of her opponents. They were able to surround her, shooting bullets and stabbing her with swords. Aurianna was killed again and again, but she refused to back down. She rose from the dead each time with even more bloodlust, determined to take out as many trees as possible.
The trees grew angrier with each of Aurianna’s resurrections. They killed her with increasing brutality, but Aurianna never faltered in her quest for power. She enjoyed the feeling of her opponents’ pain and relished in their suffering and confusion.
Aurianna smirked as the towering trees emerged from the darkness, their imposing presence sending shivers down her spine as she beamed excitedly, "Finally, the stronger ones reveal themselves," she muttered under her breath, her heart beating faster with every passing moment.
The trees began dashing towards her way at an immense speed, which alarmed her. So summoning her sniper rifle with a flick of her wrist, Aurianna aimed at the oncoming trees and fired, watching with satisfaction as the bullets blasted parts of their bodies. But her joy was short-lived, as the trees regenerated themselves, mocking her futile efforts.
One of the trees threw down its massive hand, made of vines, crushing the ground around her and smothering her to paste. But Aurianna wasn’t one to give up easily. Her body revived in the sky, and with a single thought, she summoned over thirty guns around her, using them to run in the sky towards the monster’s head.
The sky above Aurianna began to warp and twist, as if some unseen force was tearing at the very fabric of reality itself. The air crackled with energy as a white portal was torn open. From within the light, twenty colossal white hands emerged, each clutching a wicked firearm that glinted malevolently in the dim light. With a deafening roar, the hands opened fire, unleashing a merciless hailstorm of bullets that rained down upon the tree monsters, tearing through their thick bark and splintering their massive trunks. Aurianna could hear the agonized cries of the monsters as they fell one by one, their bodies torn apart by the relentless assault. The sound of gunfire filled the air, drowning out Aurianna’s battle cries as she fought on with renewed vigor.
Suddenly, a massive sword materialized before Aurianna, its ominous presence filling the air. Without hesitation, Aurianna countered the attack with a swift kick from her leg, but the force of the blow was too much for her to bear. She was thrown back several meters, her body slamming into the ground with a sickening crunch. Several of her limbs broke under the impact, sending waves of excruciating pain throughout her body.
But within moments, her shattered bones began to knit themselves back together. With a deep breath, Aurianna pushed herself up from the ground, determination etched onto her face. Despite the pain that surrounded her, she refused to give up.
"I’m not going to lose to a bunch of trees!" Aurianna yelled as she dashed towards the trees again, her eyes burning with excitement as she shot down numerous people who looked like her and dashed on the bodies of the larger trees. Reaching the base of the nearest tree, Aurianna unleashed a torrent of blasts from her bazooka, the explosive magic blasting chunks of wood and foliage in all directions. Blood seeped from her eyes and ears, but she refused to back down, driving herself ever forward until the trees lay broken and defeated at her feet.
Aurianna fought on with savage determination, her body battered and bruised, yet still standing. The trees towered above her, twisted and malformed, their branches reaching out like gnarled claws.
For years, she slashed and kicked, tearing through their twisted bodies with brutal efficiency. Each blow she landed created a gaping wound, but still, the trees kept coming, an unending tide of monsters.
"They seemed endless," Aurianna hissed through gritted teeth, her eyes blazing with a fierce determination. With a final burst of energy, she launched herself at the nearest tree, her leg arcing through the air with deadly precision. The impact was devastating, sending shockwaves through the earth and tearing a massive hole into several trees’ trunks.
"But it doesn’t mean I will give up." Aurianna landed on her feet, her body trembling with exhaustion. But still, she did not falter. She turned to face the next wave of trees, her eyes gleaming with a fierce, unquenchable fire.
For every tree that fell, another seemed to take its place, rising up from the darkness with an otherworldly hunger. But Aurianna would not be deterred. She fought on, her broken body twisting and writhing as it healed itself again and again, until at last, the battlefield fell silent.
