The Spider Queen

"Survive in this room for three minutes to move on…" the man's voice rang out in Sophie's mind as the hybrid girl took out a dagger from her storage bag.

Sophie stared at the severed finger on the ground and slowly took a few steps backwards as she felt her danger sense flare up.

A faint crimson mist was beginning to spread from the corners of her golden eyes and her vision shifted into a world of orangish-red.

Sophie's fangs lengthened and the nails on her hands became almost claw-like.

She could feel the bloodlust coursing through her veins as she prepared for the upcoming fight.

The severed fingertip on the ground wriggled and squirmed as if it were somehow alive and something inside was trying to escape.

Its pinkish flesh gradually expanded like a balloon and from inside the flesh one could see a vague human-like shadow expanding slowly.

Sophie flung her dagger at the rapidly expanding biomass, but her weapon simply sank into its fleshy folds and disappeared.

She immediately moved on to plan B and pulled a vial out of her pocket that contained a faint pinkish liquid.

The liquid inside the vial was an extremely deadly poison called the Melaine's Rot.

It was capable of calcifying flesh and turning organic matter into stone-like structures.

Sophie uncorked the stopper and sent a thread of her qi inside the vial. She activated one of her poison techniques and unleashed a deadly attack.

Poison Art- Serpent's Kiss!

A cloud of pinkish smoke emerged from the vial and formed the shape of an enormous serpent that towered over the gross lump of flesh.

The serpent plunged downwards, and its fangs penetrated the outer surface of the fleshy abomination.

Sophie watched in disbelief as half of the squirming lump of flesh turned to stone before its back exploded and a creature crawled out.

It was a dark shadowy… thing… it could only be described as a thing…

Chills ran down Sophie's spine as she witnessed how eerie the humanoid monster looked as it moved almost like a puppet rather than a living creature.

The shadowy creature warped and twisted until it became an identical image of her reflection.

The monster reached into its pocket and pulled out a shadowy vial.

It repeated Sophie's motions and soon an enormous snake appeared above its right palm.

Unlike Sophie's attack, this snake was composed of wriggling shadows and hundreds of human faces that cried out in pain.

The sheer horror of this ungodly monstrosity would be enough to terrify even the most battle-hardened veterans.

The creature gestured with his palm and the serpent formed from its twisted imagination lunged at Sophie.

She narrowly avoided its open maw by a hair's breadth and fully gave in to her killer instincts.

The world slowly down to a crawl and Sophie's danger sense went into overdrive.

Her body would move automatically to dodge the incoming attacks by the serpent and immediately respond to any threats.

Sophie used the blade-like appendages on her back to stab into the walls and move around unpredictably.

She scuttled up the walls almost like a spider as she jumped from place to place. Each time she was only seconds away from being hit.

The shadowy figure growled darkly, and Sophie felt something grab her ankle.

Without hesitation she used her bladed appendage to slice off her right leg.

It was an act of sheer lunacy were it not for the fact that Sophie trusted her regenerative ability.

When it came to winning a life and death fight…

There was no one among the first years who had more experience that her.

Sophie gritted her teeth and endured the burning pain as the missing flesh began to grow back rapidly.

Her severed limb had dropped to the floor and the shadowy creature walked over to it and inspected it curiously.

The abomination lifted up the limb and dark shadowy tendrils wrapped around the appendage.

Sophie watched in disbelief as a happy expression flashed across the monster's face as if it could somehow taste her blood and meat.

Her right leg had already regenerated so Sophie decided to go on the offensive.

The condition to pass this stage was to merely survive but the battle lust flowing through her body refused to be sated.

She pulled a whip out of her storage bag and dropped down from the ceiling at a startling speed.

She twisted her body to avoid the serpent that tilted its head upwards and then lashed out using her whip at the shadowy figure.

Aura Whip Art- Hell Blaze!

Illusory flames danced along the edges of Sophie's whip as she threw as much force as she could muster into the attack.

Her whip slammed directly into the shadowy creature's body, and it flew dozens of feet across the room and landed on the ground with a painful thud.

The serpent slithered over to its master and snarled fiercely at Sophie who was approaching the pair was slow steps.

It was time to finish this…

Sophie raised up her whip and the expression on her face changed in an instant.

She abandoned her weapon and dove to the side just as a large beam of dark light was shot in her direction.

Her danger sense… if it wasn't for her danger sense…

Sophie calmed down her beating heart and stared as she saw an enormous hole appear in the wall where the blast had struck.

She had narrowly escaped instant death.

That feeling that she had just felt was one that she only experienced a few times before.

No something had to be wrong…

Was the final round of the battle ranking exam supposed to be this hard?

How was it possible that the other students would be able to deal with such a terrifying foe?

The shadowy creature raised up both of its palms and gathered tiny streams of dark energy that wrapped around its fingertips.

A bloodthirsty smile flashed across its face that mimicked the expression that Sophie showed when she raised up the whip to finish it off.

The abomination stretched out its palms and launched several beams of light at the hybrid girl without delay.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Sophie's crimson eyes shifted to white, and she found herself standing inside a mysterious world as she activated her foresight ability.

Time seemed to be frozen as she saw future versions of herself make series of movements with each leading to a different outcome.

Two steps to the right… the beam would kill her…

Two steps to the right… one to the left… one to the left… she would lose an arm…

No… rush at the shadowy figure directly… the beam would end her life…

Hundreds if not thousands of possibilities flowed into Sophie's mind which caused the hybrid girl to furrow her eyebrows in pain.

She hated using her foresight ability but there was really no other choice to deal with such a powerful foe.

Time was meaningless inside the strange world, so Sophie wandered through the different future outcomes looking for the optimal path to victory.

She could feel a headache beginning to set in which indicated that she was already feeling the side effects of peering into the future.

Just when Sophie was about to give up, out of the corner of her eye she spotted one future that stood out.

Two steps to the left… one step right… one step forward… THAT WAS THE ONE!

Sophie cancelled her ability and her eyes shifted back to a crimson red colour.

She took two steps to the left and ducked her head just as a beam passed mere inches away from her skull.

The hybrid girl then followed the movements that she had seen in her vision and easily dodged the barrage of attacks.

The shadowy figure growled inhumanly but just as it was about to launch another round… the strange man returned to the room.

"Congratulations… on passing… the first… first stage …" the man hoarsely stammered as he snapped his fingers.

The room vibrated and Sophie felt her body begin to dissolve into particles as she was teleported to an unknown location.