*BANG!

  Watching the armour break through the prison like nothing, Shiro clicked her tongue and dashed forwards.

  Lunging towards the armour, she slashed at it diagonally with her blade.

  *CLANG!

  Seeing it block her strike, her lips curled up into a smile as petrification started to spread across the sword. Seeing this, the armour wanted to retreat for a moment but Shiro had summoned a stone wall behind it while it was trying to retreat.

  Glancing back at the stone wall, the armour looked back at Shiro and tried to grab her neck.

  However, Shiro was now fully on guard. Turning her head to the side, she managed to dodge the grab and reach out for the armour’s wrist.

  Keeping a firm hold on the wrist, she let go of Nivlim and punched up towards the elbows as hard as she could with reinforced armour around her hand thanks to Gaia’s divinity.

  *CRACK!!

  Seeing her stone armour shatter apart and blood come out of her hand, Shiro clicked her tongue in annoyance.

  ’Figures. Any good blacksmith would reinforce areas like the elbow or knee, nevermind one that’s on the level of Hephaestus.’ She thought with a frown.

  Jumping back a little, Shiro summoned Nivlim back to her side and entered a stance that she doesn’t usually use.

  Narrowing her eyes, Shiro’s smile faded as a memory surfaced in her mind.

  It was that of the training session she had with her mother. Since her mother was one of the strongest people that she had fought in terms of martial prowess, she was going to borrow some of her moves.

  Crouching down into a small stance with her sword, Shiro dashed towards the armour.

  While Nivlim probably wasn’t as light as the thin sword that her mother had used, Shiro could try to emulate some of her attacks and the way she applies pressure during the fight.

  Flickering in front of the armour, Shiro flicked her wrist and slashed towards his head.

  Parrying it with his own sword, the armour was about to strike at her when Shiro let go of Nivlim and summoned it back into her hand ready to slash out once more.

  Since her speed wasn’t enough to bring back the sword, all she had to do was let go of it, bring her hand back and summon it again. This would simulate the same actions that her mum had done while not having the same physical prowess as her.

  Lashing out at its sword, Shiro managed to deflect its attack, breaking the armour’s guard.

  Using this chance, Shiro pierced forward with her sword and struck it dead centre in the chest.

  *BANG!!!

  Sending its body flying back, Shiro brought the sword back to her side before dashing toward the armour once more.

  Exchanging a few more moves which allowed her to land some good hits against the armour, Shiro watched as it dropped its guard and slumped over for a moment.

  However, just as she was 3 meters away from the armour, Shiro felt danger from all sides as she quickly jumped back while focusing on guarding the strikes.

  "You’ve got to be kidding me." Shiro frowned as that attack just now felt similar to the one that her mother had used.

  Watching the armour walk towards her, she noticed that the sword looked lighter.

  Entering a stance similar to what she had used, Shiro watched as the armour lunged towards her in an identical manner.

  ’So it copies sword styles. Thankfully mine was a bad rip off version of mum’s otherwise I would have had some difficulties.’ Shiro thought in relief. Since this was a style that she had adapted herself, she knew some problems in this style along with the key movements that dictate which attack is coming.

  *CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!!!

  Blocking its barrage of attacks, Shiro focused on its movements.

  ’Now!!’


  Consuming all the stacks that she had applied previously, Shiro flicked her wrist and broke the armour’s guard like her mother had done previously.

  Unfortunately for her, just as she was dedicated to her attack, Shiro felt a sense of unease from the armour. As if it had a grin plastered on its face and waiting for her to take a bait.

  Gritting her teeth, Shiro trusted her instincts and backed off just in time to see a tightly knit web of slashes appear before her.

  Widening her eyes, Shiro understood that she would have died the moment she stepped forward.

  "I was wondering why I was pushing you back despite your speed and strength being above mine. So you’re playing around now are you?" Shiro narrowed her eyes before activating her True Spirit Nature.

  Without saying anything else, her body flickered forward as a piece of the ground beneath her was shattered by the force.

  *BANG!!!

  Appearing above the armour, she slammed her heel down against the armour’s shoulder as it forced it to kneel down from the impact.

  Twisting her body, she then kicked it in the chest, sending the armour crashing back before clasping her hands together and two magic circles appeared around it.

  "Freeze!" Shiro commanded as a blizzard erupted out with the armour in the centre.

  While this was happening, Shiro raised her hand and created another magic circle above the armour.

  Summoning a giant ice great sword, Shiro snapped her finger and the sword descended down on the armour.

  *BANG!!!

  However, before it could hit, a flash of light exploded out and cleaved the sword in half.

  Taking advantage of this situation, Shiro summoned Nivlim and charged at the armour.

  Feeling danger in front of her, Shiro decided to take a gamble.

  Marking the spots where she felt the most amount of danger, she managed to discover some gaps and charged towards those areas.

  Just as the slashes appeared, Shiro used Nivlim to defend herself.

  Chipping the sword further, Shiro managed to appear before the armour.

  Grabbing its head, Shiro slammed it against the ground and jammed her sword into the shoulder joint and snapped off the arm.

  Removing its main sword arm and preventing him from attacking her.

  With the arm out of the way, Shiro stabbed towards the neck joint. But just as she did this, she widened her eyes as she watched Nivlim’s blade snap in half.

  Gritting her teeth, she threw Nivlim aside for now and grabbed the helmet with both her hands.

  Slamming her foot against the back of the armour, Shiro pulled hard on the helmet in an attempt to remove it from the armour.

  Feeling the armour struggle under her, Shiro opened her mouth.

  "Error restrain it!"

  Hearing her command, Error appeared and started to wrap around the armour.

  Reaching around to the neck, the circuits morphed into a drill and tried to pierce the armour to no avail.

  "Wait for me to pull this thing off. I doubt you’ll be able to pierce this armour." Shiro squeezed out as she could feel the helmet slowly coming loose.

  Giving it one final tug, Shiro ripped the helmet off as both she and Error saw a hovering red orb inside the chest piece.

  Understanding that this was probably the power source, Shiro reached out for it and pulled it out of the armour.

  Feeling the armour slump over lifelessly, Shiro sighed in relief and stood up.

  However, before Shiro could examine the orb, Error suddenly jumped up and consumed the orb before fading away into her hand.

  "£%"£$^%$£!!!" Shouting out a string of curses, Shiro glared at the back of her hand in anger before sighing heavily and looking at her system.

  [You have defeated the armour and gained the qualifications to claim the reward. Would you like to claim it now?]

  Seeing this, Shiro paused in wonder.

  For the system to be asking if she wants to claim it now means that she could claim it at a later date. Perhaps when she exits this place.

  Narrowing her eyes, Shiro pressed no.

  [Storing two pieces of Hephaestus 10 Masterpieces into the rewards pool. Should you wish to claim it earlier, you may.]

  After seeing this notification, Shiro watched as both the sword and the armour shattered into tiny motes of light as the surrounding barriers disappeared.

  Curling her lips up to a grin, Shiro understood that since these two were now placed into the rewards pool, it meant she could access them when she returned to earth.

  However, for now, she’ll need to look for a new sword since Nivlim is now broken and can no longer apply stacks unless she returns it back to its chain form.

  Sighing softly, she unsummoned the sword and prepared to leave this place before the monsters returned to normal.