Staring in a stalemate, both Shiro and the giant used their aura to probe the opposition in order to see what they should do.

  Shiro’s goal was to stall for time so this situation was actually quite beneficial for her. During their staredown, she noticed that the dragon and the giant seemed to be glancing at each other every now and again.

  ’They must be talking to each other. Though I wonder why they haven’t attacked me yet……’ Shiro thought with a frown.

  Looking around her, she spotted the guards moving towards the forest while protecting what seems to be a spear.

  ’Hm? What are they planning to do?’ She furrowed her brows.

  Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to make her way towards them so that they can deal with the giant and dragon instead. She could tell that Kuromi had gone far enough and the shadow guards had already reconvened at the spot where she had placed down one of her orbs.

  Making eye contact with the giant one more, Shiro smiled before immediately dashing away towards the city guards.

  Seeing this, the dragon and the giant quickly came to an agreement and charged after her. Regardless of what happens, as long as she died in the end, they didn’t care.

  ###

  "Sh*t! They’re coming this way!" One of the guards shouted out in a panic as they saw a black-haired woman flying towards them with the dragon following behind her.

  "Quickly! Shoot her down while the captain readies the spear!" One of the deputies cried out as he activated a few spells.

  However, they did not expect the woman to only swipe her hand as a portal appeared and the spells started to bombard the behemoths chasing behind her.

  *URAHH!!!!

  While it didn’t do any damage, it served to annoy the dragon further.

  Opening its mouth, it breathed out a torrent of blue flames in an attempt to burn her up into ash.

  Unfortunately for it, Shiro jumped into the rift in order to dodge the fire breath before reappearing in the middle of enemy ranks. Crouching down slightly, she dodged their attacks before grabbing the spear.

  "Interesting toy you got here. What does it do?" Shiro asked with a smile.

  "Let go of the Celestial Spear!" The deputy shouted out in anger as he quickly slashed towards her hand.

  "Hou~ Celestial Spear you say?" Shiro raised an eyebrow before jumping back to avoid his slash.

  Since it was a weapon with the Celestial tag attached to its name, it might give her a clue on the Celestial Queen who was supposed to be in this trial.

  After all, at the start of this quest it did say that one of the key conditions which changed the difficulty was her Class Ascension. With some of the items that she needed; this spear may be the key to finding all of that.

  "So why don’t you tell me about who gave you this Celestial Spear before the dragon kills us all?" Shiro chuckled.

  "Young lady, please hand over that spear since I don’t believe that you have the power to activate it." A deep voice rang out as a middle-aged man, dressed in full armour, stepped out from the crowd.

  "And you are?"

  "I am the captain of this squad and I’m the designated user of the spear. I can see that you are enemies with the dragon and giant so why don’t we work together? The spear only has one more charge left so I want to make sure that this charge is used to kill both giant and dragon. Only then could it offset the sacrifices that we are making. With this, we can both benefit from the situation." The captain suggested as the guards quickly moved into a formation to fend off the two behemoths.

  Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro narrowed her eyes at the man and realised that he seemed to be pretty honest about his intentions. However, being honest and being ’good’ were too different things.

  Sure, he may be honest about killing the dragon, but he never said anything about what they’ll be doing afterwards. He may just turn on her the moment she runs out of energy.

  "Sure, I can give you the spear back. But just so you know, I can’t offer much help anymore since my energy levels aren’t exactly pleasing right now." Shiro replied while throwing him the spear.

  Little did he know, she had already attached a small shadow orb into one of the crevices of the spear’s design.

  "I appreciate your understanding of the situation. Now please stand back since the activation of the spear is quite…… devastating to say the least." The man smiled.

  Raising her eyebrows, Shiro watched as the guards moved aside while making sure that the giant and the dragon were being held off by their barrier spell.

  "HOLD IT DOWN!" The captain shouted as a golden aura flared around him. Spark of starlight could be seen as it started to gather towards the tip of the spear.

  Holding the spear as if it were a javelin, the captain gritted his teeth as his muscles swelled with energy.

  Aiming the spear towards the giant and the dragon, the captain waited until the two were positioned perfectly for a single strike to pierce them both.

  Seeing the spear and feeling the power that it was currently generating; the first instinct of the dragon was to run while the giant wanted to destroy the spear before it could even be thrown. He knew that even if they tried to run, the spear would either track them down or pierce them faster than they could react. After all, why else would the captain be preparing such an obvious attack.

  Unfortunately, their desires seemed to conflict once more as the dragon wanted nothing to do with that spear.

  Gritting his teeth in anger, the giant decided to dissolve the contract and take some of the backlash. It was better to take some damage now than to be killed by the spear piercing their bodies.

  With the contract being dissolved, a holographic chain seemed to snap in half as both the giant and the dragon coughed up a mouthful of blood from the backlash.

  Ignoring the pain, the dragon immediately flapped its wings and tried to get as far away as it could.

  "Stop him!" The guards shouted out one after the other since they knew how precious this spear was. If not for the fact that both the dragon and the giant had posed a significant threat against the city, they wouldn’t have even brought out such a weapon.

  ’You know what? I think I’ll give them a bit of my support. My bindings aren’t exactly the strongest right now, but I can spare some energy to slow the dragon down.’ Shiro thought with a smile before snapping her fingers.

  Suddenly, misty tendrils shot up into the air from the various shadows and started to wrap around the dragon.

  Clutching her hand into a fist, she controlled the shadows so that they would try to pull the dragon back onto the ground.

  Feeling some resistance, the dragon looked back and saw that Shiro was the one responsible.

  Growling deeply, the dragon released a pulse of fire as the shadows were weakened before snapping apart.

  However, her goal of slowing the dragon down for a few moments had been achieved since the guards managed to land their binding spell.

  *URAHHH!!!

  With the dragon being restricted and the giant trying to break the barrier forcefully, the captain quickly charged up as much energy as he could into the spear before the time was up. The barrier was barely holding on and the dragon had monstrous strength so the bindings could only do so much.

  Soon, five magic circles could be seen spread out across the handle of the spear as the captain smiled in relief.

  "Drop the barrier but keep a hold on the dragon!" He shouted out.

  Seeing that the shield had been deactivated, the giant immediately ran into the area and tried to slam his axe into the captain.

  However, before the axe could even hit, the captain had already twisted his body and thrown the spear with as much force as he could muster.

  *BANG!!!!!

  Piercing a hole through his chest, the spear left a trail of starlight which slowly burned away at the giant’s body.

  Following which, the spear only managed to graze the dragon, but a single graze was enough for a large chunk of his flesh to be torn off as blood and scales were thrown into the air.

  Narrowing her eyes at the power of this spear, Shiro jumped into her portal and left the area. She was going to collect that spear once it calms down but for now, she wanted to regroup with Kuromi and the guards.