The Spider Queen

Chapter 492: The Mysterious Technique

(Hydra Star System- Planet Eleron)

(Training Field No.12- Special Arena)

“What is that technique?” Sophie muttered quietly as she focused her attention on the screens that showed multiple replays of Qiana’s actions.

From the beginning to the end, none of the students that the quiet girl targeted had been able to react before a sharp blade sliced their throats.

If Sophie was a bloodthirsty beast, then Qiana was a silent ambusher.

Her methods were quick, efficient and deadly.

Celestia hummed happily as she powered on her wrist communicator and began to take several pictures of the arena below.

The Servie girl’s fingers moved like lightning as she uploaded more videos to the Zrudread University forum along with some written commentary.

Meanwhile Qiana had once again disappeared into the shadows, and no one could tell where she had gone.

A team of three sword cultivators were currently walking along the outskirts of the arena while searching for any easy targets.

“Is it just me or is there like… no one here,” Parker frowned heavily as he rested his hand on the hilt of his longsword.

“Maybe they all went deeper inside the forest?” Anya lazily suggested as she swung her blade forward to chop a tree in half.

“Should we take a break then?” Kyle asked softly as he pointed towards a nearby boulder.

He received nods of approval from his teammates and soon the trio sat down near the large rock.

Anya closed her eyes and whistled softly. Her voice echoed through the empty forest as she whistled a simple nursery rhyme.

Parker pulled a well-worn cloth out of his storage ring and began to polish the tip of his blade with familiar movements.

He was obsessed with cleanliness and hated to even see a speck of dust on his most prized possession.

Sword Cultivators treated their weapons as an extension of their own bodies.

The way of the Blade was one of extremity.

Sword Qi was incredibly painful to train and only those with strong willpower would be able to persevere and continue on that path.

Kyle looked up at the floating holographic display and discovered that the floating lines of text had suddenly changed.

[Remaining Students: … 72… 71…]

[Leaderboard: Qiana Abazin- 8 eliminations]

“Are any of you familiar with Qiana?” Kyle questioned with a solemn expression on his face.

“Nope… never heard of her…” Anya replied with a casual shrug.

Parker remained silent but it was clear that he also didn’t know.

But as he gave the matter some more thought, Parker assumed that Qiana was probably the leader of a hunting party and taking the final blows for herself.

“Well, we probably don’t need to worry… she’s probably in a large group… we will be able to detect them coming from a mile away,” Parker boasted arrogantly.

“Can you shut up? I’m trying to rest not listen to your bullshit,” Anya teased playfully as she continued to whistle.

The familiar sounds of arguing erupted between the pair and Kyle shook his head helplessly as he saw his teammates’ antics.

The three of them were all students in the ordinary class who had been invited to the training camp before the semester began.

They had just missed the cut-off to become members of the elite class and none of them were reconciled.

Together they had formed a pact and trained hard every day in order to cement themselves as the brightest talents in the freshman year!

Well… right now Kyle would settle for claiming a spot in the elite class.

Their dream of becoming the top students would be a reality if they could pass the first round and then excel in the following rounds of the competition.

Kyle opened his mouth to tell his companions that it was time to move out when he noticed something strange.

All sounds in the forest had ceased.

The crowd in the background could no longer be heard nor could he hear the noise of his teammates fighting.

Kyle unsheathed his blade and glanced around with a cautious expression. The proud swordsman did not realise that the shadows inside the forest seemed to darken.

A humanoid figure slowly emerged from behind Kyle’s body with silent movements and an aura that could not be detected.

Kyle’s instincts flared up and he hurriedly ducked his head just as a knife narrowly passed mere inches away from his neck.

“What the…” Kyle stuttered in shock, but his opponent did not give him the opportunity to counterattack.

Shadow Art- Cursed Palm of Death!

Qiana’s palm shot forward and slammed into the center of Kyle’s chest with a heavy thud. An illusory figure in a black cloak appeared in the air around her body.

This figure held a deadly scythe in their right hand which gleamed eerily under the sunlight.

Kyle spat out a mouthful of blood and staggered forward. He dropped his weapon as he felt his vision slowly fade away to darkness.

Not… not… not like this…

Kyle summoned the last of his strength and lashed out a kick backwards in the direction where he assumed his attacker was lurking.

Qiana’s easily dodged his reckless attack and her blade flashed forward. Kyle fell to the ground motionless with a thin red line around his neck.

His dream of entering the elite class died in under two minutes.

“Good instincts,” Qiana quietly complimented as she took one last glance at the corpse before returning to the darkness.

The forest returned back to normal except now there were three corpses laying on the ground with shocked expressions.

A few minutes passed and then the temporal reversal formation took effect.

Blue runic circles appeared around their bodies and time began to rewind.

Blood and chunks of flesh came back together, and life returned to those empty eyes. The three students all gasped as they sat up from the ground.

There was now a strange purple rune hovering over each of their bodies which marked them as being out of the competition.

They stared at each other with crestfallen expressions when they realised what had just happened.

“As the team leader… I will take responsibility for my negligence,” Kyle quietly spoke as he walked towards his sword and picked it up.

“No! We were all killed by that strange girl!” Anya retorted firmly as she stood by his side.

“Yeah… it was just some bad luck… we’ll train even harder and get revenge next year,” Parker vowed as he stared with hatred at the floating holographic screen.

[Remaining Students: 68… 67…]

[Leaderboard: Qiana Abazin- 11 eliminations]

In the stands above the arena, several students began to pay more attention to what was happening in the forest below.

Sophie’s power and strength was terrifying but as least they could see that the reason why she was able to defeat so many students was by relying on her high cultivation level.

Qiana on the other hand…

Only a few elite students in the assassination class were able to recognise her technique which brought a frown to their faces.