With her dagger being blocked at the last moment, Shiro immediately understood that it was going to be hard to sneak in some small attacks against this commander. To win, she’d need to disarm him of his spear.

  With that goal in mind, she flicked her dagger up and reached for the handle of his spear.

  Using it as a pole, she swung her body in front of him and wanted to knee him in the chin.

  Unfortunately for her, his armour was rather sharp in areas and the chin was one of those areas.

  Halting her attack due to the fact that she would disable her leg if she continued, her next best bet was to stab him in the shoulder area where the armour is slightly exposed.

  Catching her dagger, she wanted to stab towards him but he pushed out with his spear, launching Shiro into the air such that it was risky to hold onto the weapon.

  With his target flying defencelessly in the air, the commander jumped up despite the weight of his armour and pierced towards her.

  Widening her eyes, Shiro brought out Artemis’ Bow and used it as a parrying tool for now.

  *CLANG!!!!

  Slashing against the crystal bow, sparks could be seen as Shiro felt a large amount of force being transmitted through her body.

  Gritting her teeth, she flipped her body in the air and landed roughly against the ground.

  Rolling a few times, she reorientated herself.

  "How do you have a blessed weapon?!" The commander interrogated as his spear was also a blessed weapon. Whenever someone tried to block his strikes, their weapon would be destroyed and the only exception was blessed weapons that were reinforced thanks to a god’s blessing.Obtaining these weapons was extremely hard and for Shiro to have one was something he didn’t take into account for.

  "What can I say, I’m a lucky woman." Shiro chuckled and pulled back on her bowstring.

  Firing some arrows, she used this chance to throw a dagger towards his shoulder.

  *CLANG CLANG CLANG!

  Deflecting the arrows, the commander saw the approaching dagger and quickly ducked down, allowing it to hit against his armour instead. After all, if it injured his shoulder, fighting would become rather difficult.

  "Tsk, you got nice instincts." Shiro clicked her tongue and dashed towards him.

  "I don’t need your praise demon!"

  Twisting her body, Shiro slammed the edge of her bow against his spear.

  During that short exchange, she understood that her bow was the only weapon strong enough to contest against his spear at this moment in time.

  Pushing her bow down, she raised her leg and kicked towards his head.

  Leaning back slightly, the commander avoided her kick but realised that it was a trap. With his upper body leaning back, it was hard for him to pull back his lower body.

  Using this chance, Shiro stabbed a dagger towards his crotch.

  "Have you no shame!?" The commander roared out while trying his best to bring his spear down.

  But with the bow in the way, it was going to take a moment before it could protect his crotch area. The best he could do was shift his hip to the left so that it slashed against his waist instead.

  *KLING!

  Slashing past parts of his chain mail that he had under his armour, Shiro’s dagger dug into his waist as she could feel her dagger come into contact with his bone.

  While she missed her initial target, this was good enough for now.

  Quickly retreating so that the spear didn’t pierce her head, Shiro narrowed her eyes at the commander.

  ’He is one slippery f*ck. His instincts are good. Is this how people feel like when they’re fighting me?’ She mused to herself while shaking the blood off her

  "I ask you again, have you no shame?" The commander glared at her while ignoring the pain on his waist.

  "Nope. Listen here, if it wasn’t for the fact that I couldn’t attack your ass, I wouldn’t have gone for your crotch to begin with. However, it is a combat tactic used by my beloved big sis so it’s your honour. Plus, who told you not to guard such an important area to begin with?" Shiro snickered and readied her bow once more.

  "Shameless!" The commander cursed.

  "Thank you."

  Dashing towards him once more, Shiro stomped down and kicked up a sword that was half buried in the ground.

  Grabbing it with her spare hand, she twisted her body and flung it towards him. Firing some arrows to accompany the sword, she ducked to the left as she could see the commander raise his spear.

  Swiping it horizontally, a wave of energy exploded out and kicked the arrows and sword out of the air.

  Stabbing towards Shiro with the tip of his spear, the commander made sure to keep in mind that the opponent he was facing was no ordinary person. Ignoring the fact that her fighting prowess was incredible, her nonchalant attitude towards the use of dirty moves was something to be cautious about.

  Dodging the spear tip, Shiro stabbed towards him once more but watched as he vaulted over her body with a surprising amount of flexibility in that armour.

  With her back exposed to the commander, Shiro quickly did a handstand and kicked him in the chest, forcing some distance between the two of them.

  Landing gracefully on the ground, she had to quickly duck down to avoid his spear piercing her.

  Holding the shaft of the spear, she swept her leg out in an attempt to trip the commander up.

  With his weapon restrained by her, the commander wasn’t able to react in time and fell back.

  ’A chance!’ Shiro thought to herself and quickly leapt onto his body.

  Drawing her dagger, she stabbed towards his neck area.

  Unfortunately, before the dagger could hit, she saw a sword cutting towards her stomach and backed off quickly.

  In the commander’s spare hand was a short sword that had barely missed its mark.

  If she had stayed, she would have had a huge cut cross her stomach which would have definitely ended her life. A mutual death.

  "Well, I didn’t expect you to pull a sword out. Wanting to die along with this lady huh?" Shiro grinned.

  "Bah, what lady? I only see a demon in front of me." The commander spat out in disdain.

  "Rather hurtful to my feelings. I’m such a delicate lady and you call me a demon? You’ll stay single forever you know."

  Ignoring her provocation, the commander sheathed his sword and grabbed his spear with both hands.

  After a few exchanges with the white haired woman, he knew that there was a low chance of surviving this fight despite having the advantage of a divinity.

  His body was stronger, his attacks could demolish large areas but the woman in front of him could shift the direction of his attacks with smart use of her body. Even without a divinity, her skills allowed her to bridge this gap and he didn’t want to imagine how one sided this fight would have become if she had a divinity.

  "What’s your name demon?" He asked.

  "Oh my, how polite."

  "Don’t think too much about it. I want to know your name so I can curse you if I fall in this battle." The commander chuckled.

  "Fine fine. It’s Shiro and yours?" Shiro asked with a smirk.

  "Adonis." Adonis replied while taking a deep breath.

  "Nice name." Shiro praised.

  "Thank you."

  A moment of silence ensued as the two dashed towards one another for the final time.

  Twirling his spear, Adonis stabbed it into the ground as black energy suffused over the ground.

  Hands created by this black energy reached out to grab Shiro by the ankles but she managed to dodge them with ease.

  Pulling his spear out, Adonis stabbed towards her chest only for his spear to be parried by her bow. However, this is exactly what he had wanted.

  Letting go of his spear, he pulled out his sword and slashed towards her.

  "Nice try." Shiro grinned.

  Grabbing the shaft of the spear, she stabbed it into the ground and vaulted back.

  Sliding her hand down to the pommel, she twisted her body and slashed out with the full reach of the spear.

  Feeling the cold metal of his weapon cut through his throat, Adonis paused for a moment before smiling in admiration.

  Before he could do anything else, Shiro had already taken this chance to close the distance.

  Stabbing her daggers into his neck that was wounded by the spear, she used the daggers to snap his vertebra in half.

  Using her daggers as a handle, she ripped his head off of his body and threw it into the air.

  Without his head, the corpse of Adonis stumbled for a moment before crashing against the ground.

  With the commander dead, Shiro had completed the Trial of Victory.

  Glancing over at the spear which was clearly much better than other weapons, she figured that she might as well collect some loot for herself.

  Grabbing the spear she could see one of her sigils light up ever so slightly on her forearm. But faded away after a short moment.

  [You do not have the requirements to obtain the Spear of Ares. It shall return to its trial grounds.]