Phantasia: The Princess Knight

Chapter 25: The Trial Before The Storm

Alicia wanted to cry when she saw the demonic beasts flying back through the fire. Sword in hand, she quickly charged at the demonic beasts before they could get up from the ground. Frey who was now laying on her stomach on top of Alicia's head underneath Loeri for protection was screaming out in excitement as Alicia moved. "Wooo! Yeeee! Bleh! Not tasty!"

A drop of blood smacked into Frey's face as Alicia was doing her best to kill the demonic beasts. Hearing Frey's reactions were quite laughable since they were in the middle of battle. Alicia continued to kill demonic beast after demonic beast until finally, this wave of demonic beasts was over. Alicia sat on the ground and stretched her legs out in front of her. Everything from her golden blonde hair to her clothes was now caked in blood and dirt. She was very tired at this point. All she wanted was a bath and a good night's sleep. Berlin saw that Alicia was now fully exhausted so he did not send another wave of demonic beasts.

After resting a bit Alicia got up and started to search for a place to sleep for the night. But with no place in sight, Alicia could only make a small cave using earth magic. She carved out a small door first then opened the inside up into a small room. She added some magic balls of fire to the walls so that she could have some light before sealing off the entrance. Once it was sealed she made a small bath for Lorei, Frey and herself. Just soaking in the bath that was made with a combination of water magic and fire magic to warm it up was a wonderful thought. Alicia quickly removed her dirty clothes and slid into the steaming water and let out a long sigh. "This is the best!"

Once she was done with her bath she got dressed and then made a bed and tossed some of her clothes on to it to create some bedding before laying down on it to sleep. Frey snuggled up next to Alicia's neck while Loeri slept at the top of her head.

Early the next morning Frey woke up first and poked and prodded at Alicia until she got up. "Mother breakfast!"

"Okay hold one let me wake up a bit." Alicia stretched her arms and legs and let out a big yawn before creating a small ball of magicules in her hand and handing it to Frey. Frey excitedly took it and started to eat it right away. Seeing Frey's happy expression caused Alicia to smile. "Loeri, I will cook some food for us now. "

"Give me five more minutes..." Loeri mumbled in her half sleep state before going back to sleep.

Alicia only smiled and went to work cutting up some horned wind python meat into sections to make it easier to cook. Once it was cooked they had their meal and got ready to go. They were very close to the center of the forest. Alicia was surprised that they were almost there. It seemed, being chased by demonic beast horde after demonic beast horde really sped up their travel time.

When Alicia reopened the wall of the cave to the outside she quickly closed it back up! "Umm Am I still sleeping?"

"No, you are fully awake." Loeri answered.

"Then what I just saw was real or fake?" Alicia was confused, she was not sure if what she had just seen was real or not.

"They were real..." Loeri once again answered.

"Then there really was about a thousand demonic beasts waiting for me to exit the cave?" Alicia grumbled. This scene reminded her of one certain demonic Master. "Sigh Loeri It seems we will be having some hard days ahead of us."

"Why do you say that?" Loeri was confused as to why Alicia was saying such a thing.

"Because if I am not wrong, Master Berlin is the one sending these demonic beasts to attack me. It is the only explanation. When I first started out things were easy, so I think he decided that it wasn't difficult enough and since this was supposed to be training he upped the difficulty." Alicia remembered her training in Berlin's space and shivered. That was not an easy time.

Alicia pondered for a moment and decided the best way to do this is to just cut her way through. "Loeri when I open the door spit fire at the monsters in the immediate section then I will cut our way through."

"Leave it to me!" Loeri said proudly.

Frey chimed in asking: "Mother what should I do?"

"Frey you just continue being cute!" Alicia said as she rubbed Frey's head with her finger.

"Okay!" Frey had no idea what her mother meant but she agreed anyway.

Alicia opened the entrance to the cave once again and Loeri went to work as a long stream of dragon's breath shot out at the demonic beasts. Some of which quickly dodged while others that were not so lucky were lit on fire. Alicia wrapped Frey in her magic power and shot out of the cave with a sword in hand.

Twisting and turning her body to avoid the many oncoming attacks, Alicia gracefully struck out with her sword killing all the demonic beasts that were of lower star level quickly. Those that would take time she ignored and dodged. She did not want to get caught up in a battle like she had last night. This wave of demonic beasts seemed to be much bigger than all the others. Knowing this, Alicia decided it was best to run and fight.

Berlin watched from the side and was very satisfied with how Alicia was handling this situation. Her movements were getting more refined as she fought. She was starting to look like a veteran Knight. Only in this way would she survive on her trip to the capital. She still had to survive one last test before she was truly ready. He knew this test would be the hardest since she was such a young girl. But there was no choice, the cruelty of the outside world was much worse than the two men she had killed before. If she passed the next test he could leave her to travel alone on her way to the capital.