The Winston family domain's border was adorned with mother nature's wonders such as rivers, waterfalls, ocean of trees, and grasslands. Until the Winston family's young generation, they were a small noble house under Duke Marvin except now they had become one of the powerful and influential noble families in Pen Town.
Unlike Kingdom Bredia divided into four baronies, Kingdom Kethen was divided into four duchies: Rosegate, Pen Town, Flamefair, and Icefair.
The main reason for the Winston family's ascension to power was the engagement between Noah and Alicia whose family was the most powerful family, in Icefair. The two families allied together against one of the oldest and influential families, House of Bellwatch in Pen Town to destroy them overnight.
House Bellwatch tried to engage Alicia into their family, but Noah ruined their plan, resulting in a full-scale war between the two families. In the end, they were wiped out and their properties were seized by the Winston family which made them rise in power quickly.
The young generation of the Winston family was extremely talented, especially House Head Lord Angus's children. The Eldest daughter, Rowena became the holy maiden of Sky hall, the second one, Noah got into Guardian guild and the last Sabrina became the youngest disciple of Holy Trident Academy in Kingdom Dradel.
At the border of Pen town and Flamefair was divided by Maple Forest, a beauty beyond words. The forest was full of red yellow and white maple trees. The forest was calm, their colors were depleted by the winter and painted with white.
At the moment, a group of riders was galloping through the snow disturbing the silent forest. The leading rider of the group was a young girl in her late teens. Her golden hair danced around her shoulder while her hazel eyes contained a hint of anger and resolution. She was neither too fair nor too dark but she had nicely tanned skin along with the perfect structure.
Her one hand was on the reins while the other was on the sheath hanging on her slender waist. It was adorned with little blue flowers, the iconic blue jasmines of Holy Trident Academy.
She stopped her horse in the middle of the forest staring at her surroundings. In her eyes, there was nothing but snow-covered trees but the usual silence of the forest had become unsettling.
"Young Miss, why did we stop?" Despite Samuel's strong opposition, Sabrina only brought five Body Strengthening stage warriors. She thought a large group of warriors would spook the bandits into hiding.
"I know you're there" Sabrina didn't answer the guard but spoke while aiming her sword at a frozen maple tree thirty meters in front of them.
"No point in hiding, I can sense your presence" the five guards behind Sabrina became agitated as they quickly retrieved their weapons to protect the Young Miss.
"Well well well, I'm surprised" A figure wearing full white robes to blend with the snow stepped aside from the tree Sabrina was aiming her sword.
"Even though I was using a concealment spell to hide my presence, you still found me," the man in white said.
"No spell can hide your presence completely, you should have known this if you went to a school or an academy instead of becoming a bandit" seeing the man was only at the level 2 Body Strengthening stage, the guards behind Sabrina loosened up their bodies a bit. They knew that their young miss could take anyone under Body Strengthening stage level 4 regardless of her cultivation level. She was just a Body Refining level 6 warrior yet the spells she possessed and the training she got from the Holy Trident Academy made her a formidable warrior.
"Where's the rest of your group? If you surrender without resisting, you won't be sentenced to death" Sabrina said as the man shook his head, still smiling.
"What about you and I duel? if you win, I and my men will surrender"
The man said.
"Young Miss, something's not right, we should arrest him and head back to the manor"
"Don't worry Visir, I'll make this duel a quick one" Sabrina waved her hand at Visir, one of the senior guards of the Winston family.
"But if you'll lose, how about make me and my men the protectors of the Maple forest. We like this place"
"I accept, shall we start?" Sabrina asked, jumping down from her horse.
"Miss, please ask your men to put away their weapons, I fear they might interfere if I gain the upper hand in our duel," the man said looking at Sabrina's men.
"Shut up you lowly thief, you can't-"
"Tell your men to put away their weapons, Visir"
"Young Miss, please-"
"It's an order, Visir"
Visir was shut by Sabrina before he could advise her against putting their weapons away because if they were ambushed, mere seconds of drawing their weapons back might cost their lives.
However, they couldn't do anything against their Young Miss's order.
Letting out a sigh of defeat, Visir signaled the men to put away their weapons.
"I can't believe it worked" the man who challenged Sabrina mumbled under his breath.
Although he knew Sabrina was not an ordinary cultivator, he still believed that he could defeat her before they put their real plan in motion.
However, when he noticed Sabrina sheathing her sword, he frowned.
"Arrogant bitch" he cursed her in his mind.
"Call of Frost!" The man cast the spell as the snow surrounding him vibrated violently before transforming into an eight feet tall snow giant.
"Pathetic" Sabrina shook her head disapprovingly looking at the rushing snow giant.
"Holy Trident blade" when these three simple words escaped her mouth, a swirling tornado emerged from the ground between the snow giant and her. The tornado forced the snow giant back before settling down to reveal a six feet blue sword that sparkled radiance. The heat radiated from the blade melted the snow around as it hovered in the mid air between the giant and Sabrina.
"Cut," Sabrina said waving her hand as the blade cut the snow giant into two pieces leaving the bandit man startled.
The first spell was cast by a Body Strengthening warrior, the second one was created by only a Body Refining stage warrior yet the latter obliterated the first spell in just a matter of seconds. It was because the first spell was an Uncommon one while the spell cast by Sabrina was a Rare spell.
Normally a Body refining stage cultivator couldn't cast a Rare category spell as it would require so much Arch energy than a usual Body Refining stage cultivator would have but Sabrina was anything but normal.
The last couple of seconds flashed across the man's eyes over and over again. He was already warned by his leader that the girl shouldn't be underestimated yet he did exactly just that. She did fall for his boss's scheming but she didn't fall for his spell.
"Ice Daggers, come forth!" After coming out of his initial shock, he quickly cast another spell utilizing the snow around him to further strengthen his spell.
His hands shone in glimmering white as the snow beneath and around him transformed into several daggers, the number of daggers were in between fifty to sixty, all aiming their pointy end towards Sabrina.
Visir and his men gawked at the daggers, fear and worry for their Young Miss riddles their faces. Yet, there was no fear in Sabrina's eyes, only indifference.
"Holy Trident Shield, Holy Trident Arrows" She cast two spells at the same time effortlessly.
The first spell created a translucent dome around her and then the second spell created a single large arrow that shone like an arrow made of gold.
"Let's finish this, shall we?" Sabrina calmly said, raising her right hand at the man. Following her hand, the arrow slowly tilted, aiming itself at the man.
"Enough playing" his boss's voice sounded in his mind, letting him know that he should start the real battle.
"GO!" the man screamed as the daggers soared through the cold wind except they couldn't go through the translucent dome around her.
At the moment when he screamed, Sabrina thought he was only ordering the daggers but the very next moment, she saw several more figures emerge from the snow.
"Kill them all!" he yet again shrieked as a rain of arrows came down on Sabrina and her men. The dome kept her safe but before Visir and his men could cast a defense spell or draw their weapons, the arrow penetrated them, ending two of the five guards' lives in an instant.
"It's an ambush!" Visir screamed and rushed towards Sabrina who was standing several meters away from him.
While riding towards her in the horse, Visir grabbed a shield from one of his fallen comrades to shield himself from the arrows.
"Did you really think you could catch us with only five guards? How fucking stupid can you be?" The man's laughter and his words were like fuel to Sabrina's anger. The veins in her eyes popped to make her eyes blood red in anger,
"Holy Trident Flaming Palm!" the dome around her disappeared as a gigantic palm made of nothing but blazing crimson red fire appeared behind her.
Compared to the heat the palm was radiating, the heat radiated by the Holy Trident Sword was nothing. The snow around her vaporized and trees caught fire.
"A Rare spell can turn the tides between a Body Strengthening and Body Refining warrior but it wouldn't matter when a Body Refining stage warrior fights with a Core Formation warrior" suddenly another voice reverberated in the forest before a spear flew out of nowhere and struck Visir through the chest.
"Ice Storm" Before Sabrina could locate the source of the voice, a mini Ice storm emerged from the ground before Sabrina, engulfing the flaming palm.
"Boss is here!"