The four reapers who surrounded Gaya had their gazes locked on Gaya. They were all wearing wolf masks hence Victoria and Edith couldn't see how they looked behind the mask. The repairs weren't sure whether the girl in front of them or the two near the bushes were their targets. However, just to be sure, they decided to kill all of them.
"Energy Whip" one of the reapers quickly cast a spell as sparkling blue energy whip materialized in his hands. The whip produced a crackling sound of electricity.
"Shield of Shadows" another reaper cast a spell that formed a thin layer of dark smoke around all of the four reapers. It was obvious this was a defense spell but Gaya couldn't care less. She was at the Core Strengthening stage and these reapers were just at Core Formation level 4 or 5 according to Sarba.
"Lightning arms" the third one cast a spell as the reaper's hands illuminated blue because of the lightning bolts coiling his arms.
Gaya patiently waited for them to finish casting spells. She wanted to evaluate how powerful she has become after breaking through to the Core Strengthening stage.
The best way to find out was to battle and push herself to the limits. She wasn't worried about getting herself killed though. If she couldn't defeat four Core Formation stage reapers with her Core Strengthening stage cultivation, she wasn't worthy of being her mother's daughter, and certainly wasn't worthy of being with Ghost.
"What about you? Aren't you gonna cast any spells?" Gaya asked the reaper who hadn't cast any spells yet.
The reaper remained silent as Gaya cracked her neck. Victoria and Edith were stunned. If Victoria was in the girl's shoes, she would have attacked them before they could finish casting spells. It was the most sensible strategy. Gaya would have also done that if she didn't want to assess herself.
"Suit yourself," said Gaya,
"Shall we start?"
The moment these words escaped Gaya's mouth, the reaper with the energy whip in his hand leaped at her. He swung the whip violently as she immediately leaped into the air, evading the whip.
Boom!
Shhhhhhhhhhhhh!
In the mid-air, she shot an arrow into the ground beside the reaper. They reached her target within a second. It exploded creating a muffled booming sound. Soon thick white smoke began to emerge from the place where the arrow hit.
"Fuck" She cursed at herself. Instead of firing an explosive arrow, she mistakenly took the smoke arrow from her quiver. The thick smoke enveloped the area a few seconds after.
"Edith, this is our chance" Victoria immediately grabbed Edith's hands before running in the opposite direction of the reapers. Because of the smoke, the reapers didn't notice the girls running. The smoke irritated their eyes and almost completely blocked their views.
"Hmm, surprising" Right at the moment, a figure was standing on a tree branch from quite a distance from the reapers and Gaya. The figure wore metal armor covering his chest and legs but he exposed his beefy arms.
If one was to see him at the moment, they would definitely think of him as a predator because he wasn't a human but a beast-man. A rare breed of beastmen, striped tiger. His orange shiny fur had black stripes which gave him the look of a Bengal tiger.
This man was tasked to find Gaya by Xanali. He was one of the best trackers in the world. His services cost millions. For Xanali, one million gold wasn't a big chunk. With his tracking skills and superior senses, he was able to follow her scent to a broken portal in a ghost town. Then her scent disappeared as Jacobe could guess she had traveled to another realm. He was waiting for her to come back as his instincts told him she would.
"It seems like she's wearing a mask to disguise herself, a powerful magical artifact," He said, licking his claws.
On the other side, Gaya had no idea she was being watched. After firing the smoke arrow, she dashed away from the attacks of the reapers. Currently, only two reapers were attacking; the one with the whiplash and the other with the lightning bolts covered fists. The whiplash one swung his whip from a distance while the other one leaped into the sky to fight her in close combat.
THud!
Thud!
Thud!
In the mid-air, she fought the reaper. She used the bow to avoid his lightning bolts covered fist. The bolts of lightning reminded Gaya of Ghost. However, compared to Ghost's Ignitia spell, the lightning spell the reaper cast was weak as hell.
Both of them kept exchanging blows as Gaya managed to avoid the whip while fighting the reaper.
"Pathetically weak" After a few minutes, Gaya memorized the reaper's fighting style. Hence, she was able to form a deadly counterattack.
While dashing left to avoid the whip, she saw the reaper throwing an upper hook at her. She was expecting it as she simply bent back to avoid the punch. Then with a lightning quick movement, she took out an arrow from her quiver and stabbed the reaper in the neck.
"AH!" the reaper let out a muffled cry. Although the reaper had a dark shield to absorb attacks, it wasn't powerful enough to completely save him from her stab. The Warrior trait enabled her to infuse her arch energy into any weapon she wielded. Only the warriors were able to infuse 100% of their arch energy power into their weapons. This special trait allowed a warrior to inflict maximum damage without casting a spell. Michael was able to infuse his arch energy power into his swords because of the dual-wielding skill he bought from the system. Even he wouldn't be able to infuse his arch energy power into every weapon like Gaya or any other warriors without the special trait.
Her Core Strengthening arch energy broke through the shield covering the reaper. Blood sprayed out of the wound as Gaya twisted the arrow to end his life. The reaper fell out of the sky dead. After killing the reaper who fought her in close combat, the rest of the reapers became an easy target for her. Of course, if she used her spells, the fight would have ended in a few seconds but she always avoided using her spells as much as she could to avoid revealing her identity.
"Meteo…Grk!" The reaper who cast the shields around them tried to cast another spell. But his spell casting was abruptly stopped by an arrow through his throat.
Bang!
Another arrow impaled his head before even he could grab the arrow sticking through his throat. The next second, the arrow exploded along with his head. The red mist above a headless body put a smile on Gaya's face.
The remaining two reapers stared at Gaya without moving a muscle. For a few moments, the area was filled with an awkward silence. Only the noises of crickets and the rustling sound of the dried leaves could be heard.
"Elemental Summ-"
Bang!
The one who remained without casting a spell finally opened his mouth to cast a spell only to get struck by Gaya's explosive arrow. The reaper looked down at his chest and saw an arrow sticking through. He tried to remove the arrow but it exploded with a loud bang.
"You are a summoner, nice killing ya" Gaya saluted him with two fingers, chuckling. The last remaining reaper who had the whip shivered in fear. It was too late for the reapers to realize her true strength.
The whip in his hand dematerialized quickly. He tried to turn back and run.
"Leaving the party soon, awww. Too late fucker!"
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
As the reaper was running for his life, Gaya rapidly fired arrows one after another. Each of the four arrows hit the running reaper with deadly accuracy. Taking an arrow to each leg,one in the back and one through the head ended the reaper's life in a matter of seconds.
After killing all the reapers, Gaya descended to the ground to loot their bodies.
"So those bitches made a run for it huh? Damn it, what about my reward?" She looked around, cursing the girls.
She then made her way towards the last victim of hers to loot the body when her ears twitched.
Boom!
Just as she was about to turn her head in the direction of the rustling noise, she was hit by a powerful blast of energy. It was not lethal but it sent Gaya flying. She hit the tree before falling onto the ground. Her strong physical strength saved her organs but it couldn't prevent her from getting mad as hell.
She immediately kicked herself up to see a seven feet beast man standing near the dead reaper with a chain in his hand.
"Whoa you are one ugly cat!" Gaya cracked her fist,
"Hey you both seemed to be on the same level" She heard Sarba's whisper. Surprisingly, it sounded like the voice was coming from her voice, asthough Sarba was talking to her through telepathically.
"Says the snake in human disguise," Jacobe said in a gruff voice. Gaya was stunned by his words. She was about to deny when Jacobe spoke again,
"Gaya Ashton, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Either way, you're coming with me to meet your step sister" Jacobe swung the silver chain in his hand. Gaya noticed the glowing symbols on the chain. It seemed like the chain was strengthened by runes which would be problematic if she was tied by the chain.
"Is that so?" She snickered,
"Tell my sister she can go fuck herself. Oh wait, you can't, because you're gonna die" As these words escaped her mouth, she removed the satchel with Vedora in it and put it on the ground. The very next second, an emerald green smoke enveloped her body.. When the smoke disappeared, a seven feet purple cobra with a terrifying presence stood before Jacobe.