Only You - Chapter 2: Chapter 2

‘ No, it didn't cause any trouble. It was well-behaved. Miss Sara did not return to the Sara Pavilion last night, so I do not know of her thoughts about Rubygon. And she knew about it since the last time you brought Rubygon here, anyway,’ Su responded.
‘ The last time?’ Ana blurted out. She immediately remembered that she also came with Rubygon when she attended the Army Flag Contest last time. She felt flustered at a thought that crossed her mind.
‘ Is it possible that Sara already knew that I have two spirit-manipulated beasts?’
‘ Ms. Frank, are you alright?’ Su asked when she saw that Ana's expression suddenly changed.
‘ Yes. Of course, I am fine. Watch the competition together with Rubygon! Well, I have to go now!’ Ana said and then affectionately tousled Su's hair while smiling affectionately at her.
She then turned to walk towards the platform.
In the meantime, Lance walked towards the platform from the opposite side with a group of officers and commanders. The people in the crowd watched him with admiration as he walked.
Some of the people in the crowd then noticed that Ana was also approaching the platform from the opposite side. When Lance saw Ana's approach, he walked towards her as the people in the crowd watched them both.
‘ Commander in Chief!’ Ana greeted politely and bowed to Lance the moment she saw him.
‘ I was impressed by your performance yesterday. I am looking forward to another impressive performance from you today,’ Lance said calmly, slightly smiling.
Everyone who walked with Lance stared at Ana with a feeling of surprise and envy. It was rare for the Commander in Chief of the Crimson Dragon Group to voice out his admiration as well as say encouraging words.
‘ I will do everything I can not to disappoint you, sir!’ Ana replied calmly, stressing 'disappoint' deliberately.
Lance smiled contentedly and slightly nodded. He then continued his walk as his officers and commanders followed him closely.
Seven spirit manipulators including Ana were qualified to join the second round.
All of them had gathered in front of the high platform. Six of them were all deputy commanders of their respective military camps. Ana was the only exception.
Lance slowly walked towards the front of the platform and scanned the entire training field with his sharp eyes. He was like an eagle looking across the plains in search of its prey. When the crowd saw Lance was scanning the training field, everyone fell silent. None dared move nor breathe. Everyone waited for Lance to announce the rules for the second round of the competition.
‘ Two red spiritual crystals are hidden at two separate places within the camp. The two contestants who can bring these two red spiritual crystals here will be the winners and will also be qualified to proceed to the third round. All participants are not allowed to attack any of the other participants. They are only allowed to utilise their spirit-manipulated beasts to find the crystals. Once the crystals are found, the spirit-manipulated beasts should also be the one to bring them back to the training field. There is no other restriction other than the ones I have mentioned. The owner of the spirit-manipulated beast who succeeds in bringing back a red spiritual crystal will be the winner!’ Lance announced the rules for the second round of the competition.
He continued after the short pause, ‘ In the depths of a foggy place near water, flowers flourish and fade in secret. These words contain the clues on the places where the two red spiritual crystals are hidden. Understand the meaning behind these words and you will know the locations of the two red spiritual crystals. And the second round starts...now!’
The six deputy commanders exchanged puzzled looks as they tried to fathom the meaning behind Lance's words that bore the clues to the locations of the red spirit crystals. But even without a clear idea of what the words meant, they set out at once to find the two red crystals.
‘ So the round is a combination of a riddle and a treasure hunt. The Commander in Chief is really an expert at designing games. And to make it more complicated, we are only allowed to utilise our spirit-manipulated beasts to search for the crystals. This round is obviously designed to test the abilities of our spirit-manipulated beasts. And the only way to win the round is for our spirit-manipulated beasts to bring back one of the crystals. I suspect that there will be unexpected danger waiting!’ Ana thought to herself. She was the last to leave.
After looking around for a while, she dashed off towards a direction. Many of the spectators also left the training field.
They intended to watch the seven competitors as they were searching for the two crystals. They dashed towards the different directions where the competitors went. When everyone had gone to their respective target locations, only a handful were left in the training field.
‘ Since Sheridan had taken Ana as his disciple, it means that Ana is skilled when it comes to manipulating beasts. I just have to see how skillful she is,’ Lance murmured to himself as his eyes followed the direction where Ana  headed to.
Ana exited the training field with Ananta and saw that there was a watchtower in the camp. Her eyes lit up with an idea. She and Ananta went to the watchtower and climbed all the way to the top. From the top of the watchtower, Ana could see the entire camp.
‘ The two clues: depths of a foggy place near water and the flowers flourish but fade secretly... One of the clues has something to do with water, so one of the crystals would be at the river or lake. The second possible location would be a garden or a similar location that involves flowers.’ Ana thought about the clues and scanned the camp to look for locations that would match the locations described in the clues.
She soon found a small lake on the south side of the camp that was surrounded by various buildings.
‘ One of the crystals should be there,’ Ana said with confidence as her eyes scanned the details of the area.
She and Ananta then went down the watchtower without further delay and headed towards the lake on the south side of the camp.
Three of the deputy commanders were also headed towards the same direction including the red-clothed Deputy Commander who fought against Ana yesterday.
At the same time, another three Deputy Commanders from the east-southeast military camp started to search for all the places that were related to flowers within the whole camp.
In truth, it was not difficult to find the two red spiritual crystals because the spirit-manipulated beasts had their own sense of recognition that was attuned to the crystals.
The real challenge of the second round was bringing the crystals back to the training field.
The rules and limitations of the second round did not state that the crystals couldn't be grabbed from the spirit-manipulated beast who found the crystal first.
This meant that after someone found a crystal, someone else could snag the crystal and bring it to the training field themselves in order to win the round. And even though the participants were not allowed to attack each other, their spirit-manipulated beasts were not prohibited to fight each other.
It was clear, then, that the strength of a spirit-manipulated beast was the first key to winning this round. But even though the strength of the spirit-manipulated beast was important to win the round, it was equally important for its owner to have the necessary beast-manipulating skills.
When a spirit-manipulated beast found a red crystal, it was obvious that the other spirit-manipulated beasts would give chase and try to take that crystal from it.
The owner of the beast who found a crystal needed to have the skills to take advantage of thier beast's strengths in order to defend the crystal until thier beast reached the training field.
Groups of people followed the seven competitors around as they searched for the red crystals. And since Ana had a remarkable performance yesterday, the biggest group of people followed her around.
On the way to the area that Ana meant to go, a graceful figure slowly landed like a feather on the roof of a nearby building.
It was Sara. She stared at Ana with her beautiful yet cold, calculating eyes. ‘ Sheridan once said that you have a rare and outstanding ability of manipulating beasts that only manifests once in many generations, which surpasses even mine. I would like to see it today,’ Sara declared arrogantly. She had long suspected that the second round would be mainly a competition between spirit-manipulated beasts.
Her father knew that Sheridan had accepted Ana as his disciple and that she had almost learnt all of Sheridan's skills.
Her father was then eager to see Ana use those skills. The second round was mainly designed to see how many of Sheridan's skills had Ana mastered!
Sara could remember a time when Sheridan told her that she was the most qualified talent. It was a source of pride for her as well. But now, all he could talk about was how talented Ana was. She wanted to ask him who he thought was better, Ana or her.
Unfortunately, a part of her was afraid that if she did, she might not get the answer that she wanted at all.
‘ Sara?’ She turned towards the voice and saw Marcia approaching.
‘ Here you are!’ Sara looked at Marcia, smiling warmly.
‘ You weren't with the Commander in Chief, so I thought you might be here,’ Marcia said, smiling back at her.
‘ I just want to see for myself if Ana is as good as Sheridan said!’ Sara told her quietly, voice as soft as the gentle flow of water in a deep pond.
‘ Oh? Could you be jealous of Ana?’ Marcia said teasingly. It was the first time she had seen Sara like this. She had been close to Sara for a long time, and being her cousin, she could say that she knew her very well. It was the first time she seemed affected by something and not her stoic self.
‘ Why would I be jealous of her? No way!’ Sara exclaimed vehemently as if it was the worst thing she had ever heard.
‘ We all know that Sheridan has a strange preferences. He used to praise you a lot but now he thinks very highly of Ana. So, you must feel you're being compared.’ Marcia smiled knowingly at her.
‘ You think so?’ Sara would never admit to it but that was exactly what she was feeling.
Her father, who never praised others, spoke highly of Ana. Ana must have something extremely special to get all these special treatment. Something she didn't have...
‘ There will always be someone out there who is better than us. It seems, my dear cousin, that you have finally met your match. And that is Ana!’ Marcia looked smug and amused as she waited for her cousin's response.
‘ That's impossible. She could be no match for me!’ Sara said in an arrogant voice.
She seemed annoyed that Marcia would even suggest something like that. Instead of answering, Marcia just smiled at her silently.
She turned back to where Ana was, but found that she had left while they were busy talking.
After a while, the two beautiful figures on the roof faded into the darkness.
Meanwhile, Ana had reached the lake located at the south of the base camp. As she looked around, she found there were a lot of buildings and pavilions around the lake.
It would take a lot of time to find the red spiritual crystal. Almost at the same time, three spirit-manipulating Deputy Commanders appeared nearby the lake too.
‘ Depths of a foggy place... What could it mean?’ Ana talked to herself as she surveyed the scene around her.
On the other hand, the three Deputy Commanders had sent out their beasts to search the area around the lake.
Ana decided not to let Ananta join the search. Instead, she looked around and focused on interpreting the meaning of ‘ in the depths of a foggy place near water’.
Lance had said that the one who decoded the meaning of the words would know the exact location of red spiritual crystal. All of a sudden, a spirit-manipulated beast roared. Soon, two others roared in succession.
Ana ran to investigate and found that three spirit-manipulated beasts were nearby. They were snarling and pacing around a building like they had found something.
In response to the roars and snarl, three figures gathered around the building. They stayed wary of each other even as they entered into the building to investigate.
‘ Ananta?’ Ana suddenly noticed the lack of Ananta's presence. Ana frowned and went to look for Ananta immediately. She had no idea where to start looking but she knew she had to find Ananta fast.
After a while, the three manipulators who went into the building, walked out dejectedly. They seemed to have found nothing and started to search again in different directions.
As soon as the three manipulators left, Ana heard the Ananta roar. She immediately investigated and discovered Ananta at a shabby hovel near that building.
Ana walked into the hovel along with Ananta. She stopped on her tracks when she realised that the hovel was full of mist.
‘ In the depths of a foggy place? Could this be the place?’ Ana's gaze flickered around before narrowing as she seemed to have come into a conclusion.
The thick mist enveloped the room and her. She tried to observe her surroundings but it was impossible with the thickness of the mist.
‘ Could you find where it is?’ Ana asked Ananta.
The beast grunted and moved away. It walked towards where the mist was thickest and motioned for her to follow.
Ana followed it hurriedly. She needed to make sure not to lose sight of Ananta in the thick mist. She walked while holding onto the wall and knocked several times.
It seemed most of it were empty walls but abruptly stopped. There seemed to be a narrow gap between two walls. Without any hesitance, she stepped into the narrow space and found herself inside a hidden room.
‘ No wonder they couldn't find the red spiritual crystal. It seemed they didn't find the hidden room between the two walls,’ Ana said to herself with a relieved smile. She thought her Ananta was better and could easily see through the trick, enough to help her out.
Ananta followed her into the hidden room. It drifted about the room then came up to her with a shiny red spiritual crystal in its mouth.
She could not help the gleeful sound that escaped her mouth when she realised it was one of the two red spiritual crystals.
‘ Good job, Ananta!’ Ana said happily. She reached out and patted Ananta's head in appreciation.
Ananta roared twice in return, and it seemed that it was quite happy too. Ana cut off their celebration since the mission was not finished yet.
She had only found the red spiritual crystal. She still needed to bring it to the martial pitch. Without wasting any more time, Ana left the hovel immediately with Ananta.
Spectators who followed her were gathered around the lake. They noticed Ananta came out with a red spiritual crystal in its mouth and began to excitedly talk with one another.
‘ What a great spirit-manipulated beast that is!’ Sara exclaimed. She had been observing as well among the crowd. She noticed that not one of those three beasts found the red spiritual crystal, but Ananta did.
Marcia nodded in agreement.
Ananta had exhibited its astonishing talent as a spirit-manipulated beast and its unique abilities. Many spectators considered it as a spiritual beast. Since spiritual beasts were rare, some conjectured that maybe Ananta was a variable spirit-manipulated beast.
When Ana saw the crowd, a bad feeling suddenly overcame her. Her brows furrowed and stared warily around them as she looked for the threat that she could feel in her guts.
Just as she feared, the three Deputy Commanders came back along with their beasts and laid greedy eyes on the red spiritual crystal in Ananta's mouth.
All of spirit-manipulated beasts of those three Deputy Commanders were at the second grade of three stars. Not one of them could defeat Ananta.
However, if they worked together against Ananta, things would be different.
If other manipulators went here, Ananta would be outnumbered and overwhelmed. They would have little chance of winning despite how powerful Ananta was.
Ana subtly motioned to Ananta and they turned swiftly away to the opposite side.
They flew off with the red spiritual crystal before anybody could move.
The three Deputy Commanders looked at each other as if they had not expected her to run away. Their eyes met each other and moved as one, chasing Ana along with their beasts.
They knew that none of them could win over Ana, thus they had no choice but to form an alliance.
Curious and eager to know what would happen, the spectators followed after them. And thus, a fierce chase had started...
Ana immediately noticed that three Deputy Commanders followed her closely with their spirit-manipulated beasts.
She was unable to shake them off. She then looked around to observe the terrain before whistling to Ananta.
Ananta quickly went into a gap between two buildings as Ana flew to the top roof of another building to have a better view of the terrain and better direct the way for Ananta.
The three Deputy Commanders and their spirit-manipulated beasts followed behind and prepared to attack Ananta.
Ananta quickly left behind two spirit-manipulated beasts with Ana's directions. But the third was a three-headed Hallucinatory Bat that took advantage of its flying ability and caught up with anany.
Soon afterwards, the Hallucinatory Bat attacked Ananta.
Ana soon saw the master of the bat approach. A Deputy Commander in a blue robe. A fierce fight immediately followed.
The bat attacked first. It used the wind from its wings to throw dust and wind at Ananta.
Ananta responded by charging towards the bat. The bat flew higher to avoid Ananta's attack while hissing at Ananta.
Ananta missed its attack and fell to the ground. It looked hurt.
‘ The Hallucinatory Bat uses the sound of its voice to create illusions in its opponent's minds. This disrupts their actions and makes them lose their sense of perspective.’ Ana recalled the battle information about the bat.
The bat had the advantage against Ananta. If she did not come up of a counter attack, Ananta could quickly get into trouble.
The other two Deputy Commanders were on their way. If Ananta didn't defeat the bat before the other two Deputy Commanders arrived, Ananta could be easily overwhelmed.
Ananta started attacking the bat with fireballs that the bat avoided easily. Ananta then easily became more irritated and threw another huge fireball towards the bat. But Ananta couldn't throw fireballs indefinitely.
It consumed a lot of physical energy and spiritual power.
The spectators watched seriously as Ananta battled what seemed like a losing fight.
‘ Although Ana's spirit-manipulated beast is skillful, it seems to hold this advantage only against opponents on the ground. When it fights against an opponent in the air, it quickly loses its advantage. If the fight continues on this course, Ana's beast will likely lose this fight. I wonder if they have come up with a solution.’ Sara analysed the situation and stared at Ana with slightly furrowed eyebrows.
‘ She is really at a disadvantage,’ Marcia agreed.
Ana was thinking of a strategy when she noticed a group of buildings not far from where they were. An idea crossed her mind.
She immediately called Ananta.
Ananta struggled to get out of the fight and went as fast as it could towards the building complex as Ana instructed.
The three-headed Hallucinatory Bat followed Ananta immediately at the command of its master in blue robe.
A minute later, Ana and Ananta reached the area surrounded by tall buildings on four sides.
It was dim there and people felt that they were isolated from the outside world.
The Deputy Commander in blue robe followed Ana into the dim place and thought that Ana had made a fatal error because she chose an area with no means of escape.
‘ You made a wrong decision,’ they said with a sneer.
The Deputy Commander in blue robe urged thier three-headed Hallucinatory Bat to continue its attacks on Ananta with its voice that could disrupt Ananta.
To thier disappointment, Ananta did not retaliate but decided to run along the walls in circles instead.
The spirit manipulator in blue thought that Ananta had lost its will to fight so they immediately ordered thier beast to chase Ananta.
Sara and Marcia arrived at the scene and were confused when they saw Ananta running in circles.
‘ Surrender. Your spirit-manipulated beast cannot hope to beat mine,’ the Deputy Commander in blue robe said smugly, confident that they was going to win.
All of a sudden, the three-headed Hallucinatory Bat flying in the air suddenly shook violently and started to fall as if something had hit it hard. It was completely falling out of control.
‘ Ananta, now!’ A slightly confident smile crossed Ana countenance after giving Ananta the order.
Ananta twirled its two tails and formed a huge fireball and then threw it towards the falling three-headed Hallucinatory Bat without hesitation.
The Deputy Commander saw the giant fireball rushing towards thier spirit-manipulated beast but it did not do anything to avoid it.
‘ Get out of the way you useless thing!’ they screamed angrily. But the three-headed Hallucinatory Bat didn't seem to hear the Deputy Commander and kept losing its altitude. It was soon engulfed by the fire and fell to the ground unconscious.
‘ How was that possible?’ the Deputy Commander murmured in shock and disbelief and stood motionless in place.
They recovered from thier shock and glared at Ana and shouted, ‘ What did you do?’
‘ Did you really think I came here without a tactical purpose? It appears that you do not know your own spirit-manipulated beast. The sound wave emitted by the Hallucinatory Bat can bewilder its opponents and cloud their judgment. But sound bounces off solid surfaces. So in a place like this, the more sound waves your bat produces, the stronger the reflected sound will be. Your own spirit-manipulated beast was the center of its own attacks. In the end, it was overwhelmed by the constantly reflected sound waves and lost its own sense of judgment. It was you who made the wrong decision by coming here!’ Ana explained.
She stared emotionlessly at the Deputy Commander and then stared at Ananta.
The Deputy Commander's face turned pale after hearing Ana's explanation. Thier spirit-manipulated beast had completely lost its ability to fight.
Ana successfully removed one opponent.
‘ That gurl was really...’ Sara and Marcia looked at each other in wide-eyed amazement. They had also heard Ana's explanation. They could not believe that Ana knew every bit of the characteristics of the Hallucinatory Bat. She even managed to use this knowledge to her advantage and eventually defeat it.
What surprised them even more was that the Hallucinatory Bat was the spirit-manipulated beast of her enemy, and yet Ana knew it better than its owner. This was not something that anyone could master.
‘ It seems that she really learnt a lot from Sheridan!’ Marcia marveled in amazement.
Ana also noticed Sara and Marcia as they talked. She turned to them with a smile to put them at ease. However, the two girls replied with a roll of their eyes, in order to pretend that they weren't watching her.
They left soon hurriedly as if they were merely passing by.
Ana led Ananta away as well and headed for the main road where they had previously fought their way to the martial pitch. However, she had noticed that the other two spirit-manipulated beasts did not come after them.
Her instincts told her to be wary, that this could only be a scheme to catch her off guard. She commanded Ananta to be careful as they ran, not letting her guard down.
Not long after, the outline of the martial pitch came into their sight. That meant they were likely to be the one to snatch the victory.
As Ananta ran across two giant rock formations, two beast figures appeared unexpectedly.
It seemed that they had been waiting behind the rocks to ambush them. They flanked on the right and left of Ananta to charge it with a powerful attack.
Ananta pranced and dodged the pincer attack from the two beasts. Even though it managed to escape narrowly, the two beasts had firmly blocked their way forward.
Ana slowed to a halt as she observed their surroundings. She saw two figures when they emerged from the back of the rock formation. The shadowed figures stood side by side with malicious smiles on their faces. The clouds parted and Ana finally saw the faces of her opponents.
They were none other than the two Deputy Commanders and their spirit-manipulated beasts.
‘ Hey, bastard, thank you for annihilating one of the competitors for us!’ The Deputy Commander in red who Ana saw yesterday smiled at her smugly, as if she knew something that Ana did not.
‘ You did that on purpose.’ Ana realised it the moment that she heard the comment of the Deputy Commander in red.
The two Deputy Commanders obviously formed an alliance in secret. They purposely set the Deputy Commander in blue robe against her. They knew that it would be a lot easier for them to win the battle if they would have only one enemy instead of two.
It did not matter who won the fight, the result was the same to them. As the saying went, ‘ When the shepherds quarrel, the wolf has won’.
‘ That's right. But unfortunately for you, it's too late to do anything about it. Hand over the spiritual crystal now or we will make sure your spirit-manipulated beast will suffer!’  The Deputy Commander in red barked at Ana as if they had already won the battle.
Ana glanced at the Deputy Commander in red and then eyed the two spirit-manipulated beasts that blocked their way.
One of them was the spirit-manipulated beast of the Deputy Commander in red which she saw yesterday.
Its scientific name was Celestial Star Porcupine, a beast at the second grade of three stars. It was covered by thorns like a hedgehog which served as a good defense as well as an aggressive weapon.
On the other side, the beast had the shape of a leopard. Each of its four legs was covered by one row of fins, as sharp as a blade.
Its scientific name was Razor-fin Leopard and was known to be ferocious. The four rows of the fins could act as four effective weapons which collapsed the defense of the challenger. It was also a beast at the second grade of three stars.
From what she knew, these two spirit-manipulated beasts were good at melee attacks.
Ananta would not be able to get a leg up on the combo attack of the two beasts.
On top of that, Ananta had had a hard fight with the three-headed Hallucinatory Bat.
It had also run with its utmost speed all the way until then. It had worn itself out by spending too much energy and spiritual power. It would be an extremely difficult fight if it had to engage the two spirit-manipulated beasts at the same time.
There were two options in front of Ana at that moment.
One was to think of a way to separate the two spirit-manipulated beasts and then, defeat them one by one.
The other option was to sally forcibly. Either way, they would win the competition if they could arrive the martial pitch.
However, the chance to separate the two spirit-manipulated beasts was next to zero since the Deputy Commander in red and the other Deputy Commander had formed an alliance.
She did not doubt that they would fight aggressively to make sure that they would not be separated. And yet, the risk of the other option was even worse. They would be trapped in a dangerous impasse if they failed to break through the alliance.
Ana swallowed and breathed heavily to calm herself. There was no reason to flinch. The martial pitch was at hand. She just needed to collect herself.
‘ We have to break through by force!’ Ana exclaimed at Ananta as she finally made up her mind.
Ananta's big eyes glared at the two spirit-manipulated beasts which blocked their way.
It feinted in different directions, moving in order to find the right timing and right angle to break through.
In a flurry, it kicked its hind legs and lunged to the left. It forcibly passed by the left side in breakneck speed as the other two beasts hastened after them.
The two spirit-manipulated beasts had responded a step too late and Ananta had almost gotten away.
Ana caught sight of an insidious smile on the Deputy Commander in red. Her spirit-manipulated beast, the Celestial Star Porcupine at the second grade of three stars suddenly rolled up into a ball covered by sharp prickles and rolled towards them fast.
It accelerated on the ground and spun swiftly in the air, aimed at the back of Ananta as it dived speedily. Ana realised what the Commander had planned and directed Ananta to change its direction. But the Razor-fin Leopard predicted Ananta's next move and stopped Ananta from changing direction.
It brandished its fore legs, forcing Ananta to stop before it was hit by the sharp blades.
The Celestial Star Porcupine descended at this moment and took Ananta by surprise. It hit Ananta right on the back by the down thrust of the Celestial Star Porcupine.
Blood ran all over Ananta's back as it was severely damaged by the sharp spines. Agony reflected on Ananta's eyes but because of the spiritual crystal in its mouth, it braved through the pain without a sound.
It rolled on the ground swiftly to get rid of the Celestial Star Porcupine. The Razor-fin Leopard seized the chance to pounce on Ananta who had risen from the ground.
The Razor-fin Leopard straightened its body, then moved its legs so fast that only blurred shadows were visible. It attacked Ananta with these sharp waves with a blood-thirsty growl.
Ananta tried its best to dodge the attacks but the wound on its back and the blood loss had taken the toll on its speed. It was not able to dodge fast enough and got cut on its left foreleg. The cut was so deep that the bone was laid bare and blood surged heavily.
‘ Ananta! Hang in there!’ Ana shouted in worry. She saw that her precious beast was hurting but still it soldiered on despite the injuries.
In fact, Ananta seemed to be pissed off. It lowered its head to hit the Razor-fin Leopard full on.
Ananta struck it so hard that the Razor-fin Leopard was thrown far away. Ananta turned back to look at Ana.
Its big eyes were brimming with determination and perseverance.
It hastily continued to dash forward to break through. The Razor-fin Leopard and the Celestial Star Porcupine had not given up yet.
They chased Ananta desperately. They caught up to Ananta and the three beasts grappled all the way towards the martial pitch.
At that time, a throng of spectators waited at the martial pitch to see the outcome of the contest.
They looked towards the commotion and noticed the figures of the fierce beasts locked in fierce battle. They could not help but come closer to the field to watch the battle between the three devoted beasts.
Su and Rubygon were among the throng. As the three beasts drew closer to the martial pitch, the officers and commanders together with Lance were engrossed in the battle, watching from the high platform.
The three beasts were getting closer and closer to the martial pitch. They were less than one fifth of a mile away, but Ananta was severely hurt and bleeding. Nonetheless, it not only survived the pincer attack of the Celestial Star Porcupine and the Razor-fin Leopard but also kept its fighting spirit high as it fought bravely.
Its amazing physical and fighting spirit amazed all the spectators. Despite this remarkable strength, Ananta gradually grew slower because of the pain and blood loss from the injuries it had suffered.
Ana followed closely behind Ananta but could not do anything to help it. She could only look as Ananta fought on its own. Her brow furrowed and her fists clenched in worry. As much as she wanted to cease the competition because she could not bear to see Ananta getting more injured, she could not.
It was Ananta's fight and she could tell from the determined look in its eyes that Ananta wanted to fight until the very last moment!
Neither of the two Deputy Commanders had thought that Ananta could escape from the tight encirclement of their spirit-manipulated beasts and could even get that close to the martial pitch.
They were grim-faced, worried that Ananta would succeed with the impossible task.
Jealousy ate at them from the inside, wondering why their beasts were not as good as Ana's great spirit-manipulated beast.
Although Ananta was rushing with all its strength toward the martial pitch, every move seemed harder and harder for it to do. Finally, due to excessive loss of blood, Ananta abruptly fell to the ground and lost conscious.
It was only a few meters away from the martial pitch.
Seeing this, the Celestial Star Porcupine and Razor-fin Leopard rushed towards Ananta's fallen frame. It was their best and last opportunity to steal the red spiritual crystal from its mouth.
‘ The red spiritual crystal is mine now!’ the Deputy Commander in red exclaimed triumphantly. She looked at Ana as if she had already won.
Ana frowned deeply, but she knew that Ananta had done its best. From the start to now, Ananta alone had fought against three spirit-manipulated beasts, which had consumed a great deal of its strength.
Ana had already foreseen that this would happen. As the Celestial Star Porcupine was about to take away the red spiritual crystal from Ananta's mouth, a deafening roar suddenly rang out of the crowded audience.
A shadow of a beast as high as half of man's stature, rushed into the field like lightning. Its limbs were muscled looking strong and firm.
In a blink of an eye, it had stepped in front of the Celestial Star Porcupine and opened its mouth, revealing its sharp teeth.
It tore through its opponent's neck with its large maw. The defensive prickles over the Celestial Star Porcupine's neck were broken off by the beast's teeth like paper.
Blood surged out from the Celestial Star Porcupine's neck, and sprayed at the beast's furious face. It roared louder as if the taste of blood had excited it further.
The audience sat in silent shock, overwhelmed by the violent scene in front of them.
‘ Whose spirit-manipulated beast is it? How dare you let it interrupt this game!?’ The deputy commander in red did not expect what happened. She was intensely infuriated by the spirit-manipulated beast which got in her way to get the red spiritual crystal.
Every spectator began looking at each other as though wondering,
‘ Whose spirit-manipulated beast is that?’
‘ Rubygon!’ Su yelled out in surprise. She hastily got out of the crowd, gesturing for the beast to come to her.
Apparently, the spirit-manipulated
beast which suddenly intervened was none other than Rubygon!
After witnessing how the two spirit-manipulated beasts worked together against Ananta, Rubygon could not control its fury.
For Rubygon, Ananta was as important as its own mother. How could it withstand seeing Ananta be hurt in front of it? As a result, Rubygon rushed out to rescue Ananta without hesitation.
‘ It seems that I've seen this spirit-manipulated beast in the Sara Pavilion last time,’ Sara said as she recognised Rubygon at once. She had come here with Marcia to see the fight.
‘ Sara, what do you mean?’ Marcia asked with a confused look.
‘ The spirit-manipulated beast which suddenly appeared... I saw it in the Sara Pavilion last time, and I thought it was Ana's spirit-manipulated beast. I asked Su to confirm my assumption, and she told me it was Ana's. When I saw the spirit-manipulated beast Ana took out in the first round, it was so different from the one I saw last time. I thought I remembered it wrong. Until now, when I saw this spirit-manipulated beast. I remember it from last time and I'm sure that it's the same beast,’ Sara narrated with a shocked face.
As she talked, she realised something. ‘But Ana's spirit-manipulated beast is...’ Marcia was about to say something looking at Ananta, but she stopped when she saw Rubygon come out to help Ananta. She looked perplexed, like looking at a puzzle she did not understand.
‘ Are both of them Ana's spirit-manipulated beasts?’ Sara thought out loud the explanation in her mind.
Marcia looked even more confused at this theory. ‘ How is that possible? A spirit manipulator is only able to be the master of one spirit-manipulated beast. I have never heard such a case that a spirit manipulator can control two spirit-manipulated beasts’
Sara had no answer for that. She turned once more to Ana, hoping to see something that might explain what was happening.
Ana hadn't thought that Rubygon would dash out to protect Ananta. She knew she was in big trouble.
Rubygon would never leave the injured Ananta aside. No matter what happened, it would stay there to protect Ananta.
Rubygon's sudden appearance would be considered an interference in the game and would most probably affect the result negatively. The only solution she could see was if she confessed that Rubygon was also her spirit-manipulated beast, and even then, she was unsure of what the result would be.
However, if she did that, the fact that she could control two spirit-manipulated beasts would definitely be exposed. A fact that she had been keeping a secret.
‘ Whose spirit-manipulated beast is it? Take it away now!’ The Deputy Commander in red kept yelling at everyone. She was so close to get the red spiritual crystal and win the game. She was so frustrated at the interruption.
‘ Whatever! I will win this fight first!’ Ana finally made up her mind after being silent all throughout the Deputy Commander's shouts.
She figured that she would rather confess it since it could not be hidden any longer. She took a deep breath and stepped forward.
‘ It's mine! It is my spirit-manipulated beast!’
‘ Yours? Ha-ha! Are you kidding me? If it was your spirit-manipulated beast, I would change my name!’ the Deputy Commander in red sneered, obviously not believing her.
Almost everyone present found it hard to believe since nobody had encountered anyone who was able to control two spirit-manipulated beasts at once.
Seeing their incredulous looks, Ana scoffed and whistled. Upon hearing the whistle, Rubygon raised up its head to look at Ana.
The audience were taken aback, unable to comprehend what happened.
The only explanation why Rubygon would respond to Ana like that was if she was telling the truth. And yet, instead of accepting, the people only looked on in doubt.
Ana gestured at Rubygon, who let go of its hold on the Celestial Star Porcupine and retreated beside Ananta.
Their jaws almost fell to the ground as they saw Rubygon obey Ananta.
Marcia and Sara looked at each other, mouths agape as well.
Although none of them believed what Ana claimed, their eyes confirmed the fact that Rubygon followed Ana's gesture. Every eye was widened in shock, every eyebrow high up on their foreheads.
‘ Did I really see or did my eyes somehow deceive me? She really can control two spirit-manipulated beasts!’
‘ God! Is she really a human being?’
‘ How could she do that? That's hardly possible! But she just did it! That's a miracle!’
the crowd murmured among themselves, slowly getting louder in their excitement.
At the same time, Lance, the commanders and officers in the high platform had jumped to their feet. They still found it hard to believe that Ana was the master of two spirit-manipulated beasts.
‘  She can control two spirit-manipulated beasts!? How does she do that? Even Sheridan couldn't do that, and he is the best beast breeder of the Holy Dragon Empire.’ Lance, although his somber expression did not betray anything, was as shocked as the others. He concealed it well but inside he was eager to talk to Ana and discover more of her secrets.
‘ Ananta, can you still get up?’ Ana asked Ananta with concern.
Ananta struggled to raise its body. Although it was weak, its determination was still there. It lifted its injured foreleg.
Rubygon covered Ananta and Ananta moved using its other three limbs.
The scene shocked the spectators. The two Deputy Commanders were surprised. They couldn't believe that Ana was able to manage two beasts at the same time.
They also realised that if Ananta reached the martial pitch with the red crystal, they would lose.
‘ Stop it! Stop it now!’ The Deputy Commander in red ordered her Celestial Star Porcupine that was hurt earlier by Rubygon to stop Ananta.
The badly injured Celestial Star Porcupine rushed toward Ananta.
The other Deputy Commander also commanded his Razor-fin Leopard to attack Rubygon to cover the Celestial Star Porcupine.
A long whistle went off and Ananta and Rubygon exchanged glances thoughtfully.
They faced their opponents and then switched places at the last minute, completely throwing their opponents off.
Ananta began to channel its spiritual power and then formed a fireball. It then threw the huge fireball at the Razor-fin Leopard that rushed towards Rubygon.
The leopard as well as the Deputy Commander did not expect Ananta and Rubygon to coordinate their attacks.
The leopard was caught by complete surprise as the fireball flew towards it. Even its owner was not able to bark a command. It was hit squarely by the fireball and fell to the ground in a painful howl.
Rubygon went after the Celestial Star Porcupine and bit it wildly. Its mouth was full of razor-sharp iron teeth and the porcupine simply had no defense against it even with long thorns all over its body.
It was not long before the porcupine had bald patches all over and had to give up the fight in pain.
Ananta and Rubygon brought the red spiritual crystal to the martial pitch as everyone stared with shock and amazement.
Everyone knew that it was impossible for anyone to be able to manage two beasts at the same time.
‘ Commander in Chief!’ Ana took the red crystal from Ananta's mouth and called Lance on the platform as she raised the red spiritual crystal in her hand as the rays of the sun playfully rolled across its shiny surface.
Lance looked at Ana from where he was sitting. His eyes gleamed with admiration and gladness. He appeared like a man who just discovered the most valuable treasure in the world and he took his time in admiring his find. His body shivered slightly from delight.
He never expected that anything could surprise him so much after seeing a lot in his lifetime. But Lance held back much of how he truly felt because of the many eyes that were transfixed at the center of the grounds as well as on him and on Ana. Only his gleaming eyes gave out any clue on what he truly felt inside.
He nodded at Ana then he slowly eyed all the people in presence and then declared in an authoritative voice,
‘ Ana from the northeast military camp is the first to bring the red spiritual crystal to the martial pitch. She is thus the winner of the second round and is qualified to enter the third round.’
Shouting and cheering filled the spectator platforms. Everyone who was present stood up from where they were sitting and screamed at the top of their lungs as they cheered for Ana.
Even though some were jealous at what Ana had accomplished, they couldn't help but cheer with the rest of the crowd for they too were surprised at what Ana was able to do.
The Deputy Commander in red and the other Deputy Commander who failed stared helplessly at Ana. They found it hard to accept how the competition turned out and yet they knew that they couldn't do anything about it.
It was not long after that Dunn returned with another red spiritual crystal along with his spirit-manipulated beast and became the second winner.
Ana and Dunn were lined up to face each other for the final face-off at the third round.
The two red spiritual crystals were rewarded to Ana and Dunn respectively for winning the round. Everyone in the crowd hushed as they stared at the two with envy.
‘ Hey. If you are unsure if you can beat me, better pack your bags and go home! ’  Dunn had a vigorous figure and walked towards Ana with an arrogant attitude.
Ana stared back at Dunn and an intense, heavy air hung between them.
The third round had not started and yet the atmosphere of rivalry had already grown between them.
The crowd knew that they would soon witness a fierce battle between the two competitors.
‘ You did a good job searching and retrieving the crystal. But that won't be enough next time!’  Dunn said and then laughed haughtily. He walked slowly away with his beast walking close by him.
The third round would be held in the afternoon. The spectators stared at Ana as they left the area.
Ana surprised the crowd with her skills and abilities since the first round. And just when they thought that Ana couldn't surprise them any further, she shocked them once more by managing two beasts at the same time.
‘ Ms. Frank, I'm truly sorry...’ Su said as she rushed towards Ana.
‘ You didn't do anything wrong. Why are you apologizing?’ Ana asked.
‘ I didn't take good care of Rubygon just now and it ran off. It's lucky that the Commander in Chief didn't disqualify you because of this. Otherwise, I will never be able to forgive myself,’ Su said sadly.
‘ Don't worry about it. Rubygon ran off to help Ananta because it doesn't like anyone bullying Ananta. It was not your fault. Stop feeling sorry for what happened.’ Ana said to console her.
‘ That is right Su. If something went wrong it would be Ana's fault because she didn't tell us that she had two spirit-manipulated beasts ahead of the competition,’ a sweet and gentle voice said, seemingly from nowhere.
Both Ana and Su turned their heads to see who spoke and saw Marcia and Sara walking towards them.
They walked with the look of amazement and admiration painted across their beautiful faces.
Sara was shaking her head slightly as she walked. She found it hard to believe that Ana could manage two beasts at the same time. How was she able to do it? No one else was known to have achieved this feat before.
‘ Miss Sara and Commander Marin, how are you both?’ Su greeted as she bowed down to the two approaching ladies.
‘ Ana, did Sheridan teach you how to manage two spirit-manipulated beasts at the same time?’ Sara asked in a curious and accusing tone.
Marcia looked at Ana as her mind tried to analyse how it was possible for Ana to manage two beasts at the same time when it was widely known to be impossible.
Ana replied to Sara' s question with a mere smile and said nothing. This made them even more curious.
‘ Come on. Tell us...’ Sara requested in a voice that was both pleading and commanding at the same time.
‘ I would be so lucky if I was the one who taught her this. My heart almost popped out in excitement when I heard about her skill in the contest,’ a wizened voice replied back to Sara.
They all turned towards the direction of the voice and saw Sheridan was smiling broadly as he walked towards them.
Sheridan was escorted by a tall man, Lance himself. ‘ Commander in Chief!’ Everyone bowed down immediately.
‘ But Sheridan, if it was not you, then who taught her? She didn't learn that by herself did she?’ Sara said in an agitated voice.
‘ I don't know. But I definitely didn't teach her that skill,’ Sheridan said seriously. He was drunk the night before and was up until eleven in the morning. He reminded Ana that he was going to watch the second match and hurried up for it. When the match was over, he met Lance. Lance informed Sheridan that Ana could manage two beasts at the same time. He was shocked by the news and felt sorry that he was not able to see it in action himself.
Lance asked the same question from Sheridan as Sara did and Sheridan replied with the same answer.
They then decided to go to the small group that gathered just beyond the martial pitch. Lance was curious to know how Ana achieved the technique.
‘ So are you saying that she developed this technique herself? How is that possible? Even the best beast tamer like you was not able to achieve something like this! How did she do that?’ Sara still found it hard to accept the possibility that Ana was even better than her teacher. But deep inside her she also couldn't admit to herself that she admired Ana so much.
‘ I told you before, Sara, that this gurl is a genius. She can turn the impossible into the possible. Have you forgotten that she was even able to heal Snowy? Even I doubted that I can do something like that and yet she actually did it!’ Sheridan said to Sara.
He then turned to Ana and asked, ‘ I am also curious. How did you manage to do that? Only the master of a spirit-manipulated beast can control it, but a spirit manipulator can only be the master of one spirit-manipulated beast. It is impossible that a spirit manipulator can be the master of two spirit-manipulated beasts at the same time.’
Everyone turned to Ana after the words left Sheridan's lips. They all waited for the answer that would relieve them of the heavy burden of curiosity that they carried with them. How Ana was able to manage two spirit-manipulated beasts at the same time.
‘ All I can say at this point is that it is a secret, and that there is nothing impossible in this world.’ Ana's reply was so calm and confident that those who heard her reply were stunned and taken aback.
In their minds, they were confronted by the realisation that Ana had an ability that was beyond what they originally thought possible.
‘ Well, all I can say is that this is the best time to teach the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill,’ Sheridan suddenly said while looking at Ana with determination.
He no longer cared what secret method she used to control two spirit-manipulated beasts at the same time. What mattered to him now was Ana's shocking brilliance. Now that he knew just how talented Ana was, he believed that Ana could learn and master the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill, the most advanced Beast Taming Skill.
‘ Sheridan, are you sure about that?’  Lance was surprised by Sheridan's words. He knew that one needed to master the Beast Taming Skill with high proficiency first before becoming qualified to learn the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill.
The Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill allowed the user to connect with a spirit-manipulated beast to the highest possible level and obtain a power that was stronger than Spirit Possession. If a spirit manipulator mastered the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill, he or she could communicate with a spirit-manipulated beast directly. And because of this, the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill was considered as one of the most amazing skills in the whole Wild Spirit Land.
‘ I've wanted to teach her that skill a long time ago, but it was not the right time then. Other than her, I can't find anyone else who is qualified to learn it. I don't want such a priceless skill to disappear because I have failed to pass it down to a successor. Lance, I will take her with me first.’ Sheridan then nodded at Ana and then walked away with his hands on his back.
‘ Su, could you take care of them for me? I will be back soon.’ Ana asked Su to watch over Ananta and Rubygon for her, and then she bowed to Lance and the others and then followed Sheridan.
‘ Father, is the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill really that great?’ Sara recalled that Sheridan once mentioned the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill before.
There were many stories about this technique but very few people had actually had the chance to see it in action.
‘ Of course. It is more than a great skill. That skill can perfectly combine the powers of a spirit manipulator and a spirit-manipulated beast. It is said that the ultimate objective of every spirit manipulator in the Wild Spirit Land is to achieve that perfect integration. And I am not an exception to that. The conditions to learn the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill is extremely strict. There are only two spirit manipulators in the entire Wild Spirit Land that have achieved the capacity to utilise the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill. Sheridan is one of them and the other one is Priest Dean,’ Lance explained with a light of admiration in his eyes and tone.
Sara and Marcia were taken aback with what they heard Lance say. They looked at each other agape and with eyes wide open.
‘ Except for the creator of the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill, nobody has ever truly understood and mastered it completely. Even Priest Dean and Sheridan can be considered as mere novices when it comes to the mastery of the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill. To put things in perspective, now that Sheridan has decided to teach Ana that skill, that means that Ana's qualification and talent in the field of beast taming are the best of the best!’ Lance said with excitement brimming in his eyes. If he could get Ana under his wing, it would greatly benefit the Crimson Dragon Group.
‘ Wait! We still have no idea how Ana managed to control two spirit-manipulated beasts at the same time,’ Sara exclaimed suddenly.
Lance and Marcia looked at each other after hearing Sara's words.
‘ Relax! We have plenty of chances to ask her that question. Be patient. We can ask her later,’ Marcia replied calmly.
In the meantime, Ana walked silently with Sheridan through the headquarters. Wherever they passed, people stared at them and murmured among themselves.
Sheridan remained silent and walked with a grim look on his face as if he worried about something truly grave.
‘ What is it Sheridan? It is not good to keep things within yourself,’ Ana said as she reached out her hand to stop Sheridan from walking.
Sheridan turned to Ana with trembling eyes and then said, ‘ Do you have any idea what you just did? Why did you reveal that? Don't you realise that it will only get you into trouble now that others know the secret that you can control two spirit-manipulated beasts at the same time?’
‘ I know that. But I had no choice at that time. I didn't know that Rubygon would run off to protect Ananta.’ Ana answered with a bitter smile.
She knew that she truly was in big trouble now that this secret of her was out in the open.
‘ Then why didn't you tell me about it before? Am I not your teacher?’ Sheridan said hardly concealing the pride that he had in his eyes.
He expected that Ana would not disappoint him and now Ana not only mastered the skills that he taught her, but she was able to develop her own technique.
‘ Can we forget about that now? Let's talk about the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill you mentioned. What is it exactly?’ Ana asked with keen interest.
‘ Just follow me,’ Sheridan replied and motioned Ana to follow as he continued walking.
After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at the headquarters' beast farm. Ana's jaw dropped wide open as she saw just how grand the headquarters'beast farm was.
It was even comparable to the Super Beast Farm of the Imperial City. Beast stables lined around the central ground.
There were at least three hundred beast stables in there. The area was filled with the noisy roars coming from several different beasts.
‘ Not bad, huh? And I am the one in charge of this beast farm, ha-ha!’ Sheridan said laughing as he showed off the beast farm with pride.
‘ And since you've mentioned it, let's talk about that. How could you run back to the headquarters to enjoy this fine beast farm and leave me to take care of the mess you left?’ Ana yelled at Sheridan with wide open eyes and both arms on her sides.
‘ Ha-ha, Girl, you proved yourself enough. From now on, the beast farm of the northeast military camp is under your care. I'm very impressed of how fast you learn things. With your skills, you're more than capable to manage beast farm of a small military camp. Marin told me that you even saved many spirit-manipulated beasts from the battlefield. You started to get the hang of it. I have a reason to believe that you will find you're true calling sooner or later. You did a great job so far!’  Sheridan said with a satisfied expression.
He was apparently pleased about the outcome of his arrangements.
‘ Bullshit,’ Ana grumbled with eyes darted toward Sheridan.
‘ Actually, I did it to test you. Otherwise, how could I teach all the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill to you?’ Sheridan explained.
‘ Tell me, what on earth is the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill?’ Ana couldn't help but to ask in curiosity.
This caught Sheridan's interest. He sneered and said, ‘ The Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill is somewhat similar to the Spirit Possession, but is more advanced and ingenious. To learn the basics of the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill, one should master the Spirit Possession first then reach the Beast Possession.’
‘ What are the differences between the Spirit Possession and the Beast Possession?’ Ana questioned in detail. She knew that something set the two apart but she couldn't put her finger on it.
‘ The Beast Possession is superior to the Spirit Possession. You use the latter to fuse the power of the spirit-manipulated beasts. While the Beast Possession can have power without the need to fuse with the spirit-manipulated beast or take any other measures. With the spiritual power, you and the spirit-manipulated beast can communicate without talking. Which makes you and the latter as one.’ Sheridan explained to Ana in one breath.
‘ It sounds very easy. Do you think you and your spirit-manipulated beast are able to do that now? However, one can only understand the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill with practice. Besides, the most striking part of the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill was the fact that you can use the spirit-manipulated beast directly without making a fuss. Just like this...’ Using his spiritual power, Sheridan stretched his arms and gave them a light shake.
Suddenly, a gap burst out on his left side and a sickle-like arm appeared from inside the gap. It's a half meter long and roughly the width of a human palm.
Then Ana saw Sheridan pulled the sickle-like long arm. Right-after, with the hook blade flashing, a sickle-like long arm loomed ahead. However, this sickle-like long arm, rather than the one in the gap, was formed by one of Sheridan's arm.
As a result, Sheridan's arm was exactly like the one in the gap. In other words, they had been combined as an integrity. The scene was really breathtaking.
‘ This...’ Ana was breathless, and her face filled with amazement and confusion.
‘ What you just witnessed is the unique feature of the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill. It enables the spirit manipulator to combine their body parts with the spirit-manipulated beast as an integrity. More than that, the spirit manipulator would also obtain the special ability of the spirit-manipulated beast. Let's use your spirit-manipulated beast with the special ability of Fire nature as an example. Once you grasp the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill, you can easily use the ability of Fire nature without the help of the Spirit Possession. In addition, there is a system of tricks about taming and driving of the spiritual beasts. Whenever you get a chance to encounter them, the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill will come in handy,’ Sheridan elaborately explained.
Though he seemed bragging, Ana was hooked and had shown her interest in the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill. Her eyes glistened as she recalled one spiritual beast. She couldn't wait to acquire the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill and use it on Rainbow Glow Unicorn.
‘ It is the most powerful special skill among beast manipulation in the Wild Spirit Land. One of the greatest that people are willing to die for. Aside from me, my junior and Priest Dean of the Holy Dragon Empire knew very little of this. However, the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill is divided into nine levels. I've reached third level so far. Most people who practice it are at the same level as me because it's hard to make breakthroughs,’ Sheridan sighed, suddenly ashamed of his level.
‘ Why did you not tell me about such an advanced special skill before? Are you afraid that I will surpass you if I learn it and make breakthroughs constantly?’ Ana said playfully to comfort her old teacher Sheridan.
‘ I couldn't be happier if you could beat me! Why should I worry about it? I have nothing to be afraid of! You were too young back then to learn the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill. One of the qualifications is to have a strong capability for beast manipulation. And in order to achieve that is to have a good understanding of the spirit-manipulated beast. In which you should determine which power you want to have. Otherwise, all efforts will be in vain,’ Sheridan explained as he laughed. He felt better knowing that Ana's playful side was back to cheer him up.
‘ So what changed your mind? Why are you willing to teach me now?’ Ana asked with her arms across her chest.
‘ It's obvious. No one in Wild Spirit Land can simultaneously control two spirit-manipulated beasts but you. Even the skillful Bryant couldn't do that. I have no idea of how you managed to do so. The fact that you can do it is more than enough reason to train you. If the word gets out, many empires will compete over you. You are bound to do great things in the future. You may disappear someday and I hate to miss the chance of teaching you. To counter my worries, it's best that I teach you the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill now before it's too late!’  Sheridan spoke his mind sincerely, though a little pretentious.
‘ It's surprising of how certain you are about my plans to disappear someday,’ Ana smiled.
‘ It's reasonable for you to leave when you become stronger,’ Sheridan said with deep significance.
‘ Since you volunteered to teach me, I will learn it as you wish,’ Ana said in a reluctant expression. She smiled inwardly in an attempt to mask her excitement. She herself was extremely curious about this skill. She even projected the possibility of failing. She would lose nothing if this would fail.
The Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill required time and dedication to achieve better results.
‘ Ha-ha, you are really a bastard.’ Sheridan taunted.
‘ I had a fine wine in my room. How about us teaching over it?’
‘ But I still have a competition this afternoon!’ Ana said, giving a hard look.
‘ Brat, you can go to the competition drunk and trust me when I said that no one could still match your skill. No one will dare. Ah, I almost forgot! You're a heavy drinker!’ Sheridan burst out laughing.
‘ Are you sure?’ Ana asked while lifting her eyebrows.
Then, they entered Sheridan's room with their arms around each other.
It's already afternoon, the third round of competition was about to start. The third round assessed the leadership just like the Army Flag Contest. However, the competitors this round had to fight alone.
Everyone walked on eggshells, anxious because one false move might lose the battle.
At the Army Flag Contest, the competitors led ordinary soldiers. While this time the competitors on both sides led spirit manipulators. Undoubtedly, the battles of the third round would be more intense and brilliant!
Consequently, many people had been attracted and gathered around the training field.
The third round was to be held at the area where the Army Flag Contest was held. And each side led a team with matching strengths of thirty spirit manipulators each. The two teams were divided into an attacker and a defender.
The rules of the final round were simple. If the attackers managed to capture the flag from the defenders, their commander would be considered victorious. Similarly, if the defenders were able to defend their flag from the attackers within a given time then the commander of the defenders would be declared the winner.
Spirit manipulators were limited in number so the side who had the least number of casualties would receive advantage. The competition allowed the leader to join. Thus, it could be a battle between the teams or a duel between their commanders.
One of the leaders was Dunn from the east-southeast military camp. His leadership skills were comparable to that of a Frontline Commander and he had established brilliant achievements in war. From that aspect, he was not too far from a Frontline Commander of the Crimson Dragon Group. And Dunn was seasoned in actual combat and very decisive.
He was known as one of the deadliest in the battlefield. Compared to Dunn, Ana was inferior from a military experience perspective. Even though she was praised by Lance and showed excellent skill in the tactical deployment of troops during the Army Flag Contest, she had never led any actual army herself. What made matters worse was the fact that she had only 30 people in her team.
This required more precise tactics and more war experience in order to quickly adapt to the rapidly changing conditions of war and to minimize the losses for the team. Ana was unlikely to win and many could tell this easily by the mere comparison of battle experiences between the two combatants.
People thought that the wise move for Ana was to pick the defender side. Once she picked the defender side, she only needed to choose a highly defensible location. Once she picked the ideal defensible position, she could also minimize the casualties that she could incur from the battle and minimised losses had advantages.
Lance, the other Commanders and officers arrived at the platform and waited for the start of the competition. Sara and Marcia were there too.
Dunn arrived early and stood with full confidence. He seemed more than prepared for the final round.
‘ Where is Ana? This is unbelievable!’ Sara was annoyed by Ana's delay, especially since everyone but her was already there.
‘ Maybe Sheridan took her to the brothels?’ Marcia said.
‘ Brothels?’ Sara stared at her in disbelief.
‘ Yes. She was there yesterday,’ Marcia replied nodding.
‘ How could she do that? What was Sheridan thinking? He knew Ana had to compete today,’ Sara complained.
Even the Commanders and officers started to wonder why Ana had not arrived yet. Whispering started among them.
It was the time to start the competition but Ana had not arrived yet. The people started to become uneasy with the waiting.
‘ Is she scared? What is taking her so long to come over?’ Dunn said in an arrogant tone.
‘ Hey Dunn, wouldn't it be better if she doesn't arrive at all? You can win without a fight!’ Sara said and then stared at Dunn.
‘ That would not be fun! But it would be clever of her if she decides not to come. Because the competition will not end well for her if she appears!’ Dunn was a crazy guy and he offended many people in the Crimson Dragon Group. And that was one of the main reasons why he remained a Deputy Commander despite his talent.
‘ Don't jump to conclusions, Dunn. It would be unfortunate if you get embarrassed in the end,’ Marcia added.
‘ Marin, you seem to have quite a lot of confidence in Ana. She is only the beast breeder of your camp. But what confuses me is why she is still a beast breeder if she's so brilliant? Or maybe you just don't take this competition too seriously,’ Dunn said sarcastically.
Marcia said nothing.
‘ Or maybe Ana offended you, so you treated her like that? Some commanders are just afraid that they'll be replaced by someone who is more powerful than themselves. So those commanders would do anything to keep their positions.’ Dunn implied that Marcia was simply jealous of Ana.
The Commanders who kept Dunn at his current position were annoyed at his words. They knew that Dunn referred to them so they decided to stay silent.
‘ Dunn, behave yourself in front of the Commander in Chief!’ But there was one commander who was prepared to give him a lecture.
‘ I am just telling the truth.’ Although Dunn was unruly, he was still afraid to face Lance. He knew he couldn't afford to offend someone like Lance.
Lance remained still and glanced at Marcia. At length, he said, ‘ There is actually a good reason why Ana was appointed as the beast breeder in the military camp. Of course, Marin does not mean to humiliate Ana. Actually, she is the apprentice of our new beast tamer. And I believe you all know how important a beast tamer is to a military camp and I do not need to elaborate on that matter.’
There was an uproar among the people all of a sudden.
‘ Is the newly appointed beast tamer that Sheridan? The most powerful beast tamer of the Holy Dragon Empire? He had rejected the invitation of the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire to the Palace City several times.’
‘ I heard Sheridan used to report to the northeast military camp and it took a lot so that the Commander in Chief can invite him over.’
‘ And as he just said, Ana is the apprentice of Sheridan which means she is an excellent beast tamer too, right?’
‘ No wonder she could manipulate two spirit-manipulated beasts at the same time.’
Everyone present was astonished, amazed that Ana surprised them yet again after the ones she showed before. Who had ever thought that Ana was the apprentice of the most powerful beast tamer in the Holy Dragon Empire!
‘ I didn't expect that. Interesting! Haha!’ Dunn who never took others seriously was yet surprised by Ana. Then he laughed out. Now that Lance had mentioned it.
There were stories that Dunn and Sheridan knew each other well. They shared their love for alcoholic drinks. It was said that they would not stop drinking until they were completely drunk.
‘ She's coming!’ A figure walked towards the competition area with a spirit-manipulated beast.
They all turned to look at the approaching figure. They were surprised that the figure was barely able to keep her balance as she swayed on both sides as she walked.
The figure was Ana. A drunk Ana to be exact.
Everyone who watched Ana walk towards the competition area was confused. The last round of the competition was about to start and Ana decided to arrive in that state. What was she thinking if she was thinking at all?
‘ I apologize for keeping you hanging on for a long time!’ Ana said and arched her hands to the crowd after treading on the audience platform.
Her eyes looked blurry as if she was a little unsteady. The congregation was taken aback, and they all thought automatically, ‘ What? She is late for the ultimate competition just because she had indulged in some liquor?’
Still, what made them even more shocked was Ananta. They saw that it had recovered from its injury suffered in the morning. What a powerful self-healing ability it had!
Marcia got up instantaneously and dashed to Ana. She furrowed her brows and mumbled to her furiously, ‘Did you indulge alcohol?’
‘ Yes, just a little,’ Ana replied tipsily as her face was full of smirk. She beamed like the cat that got the cream.
‘ What the hell are you doing? Aren't you apprehensive that you have a competition in the afternoon? It's not straightforward for you to get into the third round of the competition. How can you consume alcohol at such a crucial juncture? It's hard to believe you...’ Marcia whispered and gnashed her teeth.
‘ Are you worried like a cat on hot bricks that I will lose the competition?’ Ana asked and looked at Marcia with her eyes blurred.
Marcia's pulse stopped. The passionate moments when Ana's lips pressed on hers that day came back to her mind. Suddenly, she found it hard to sustain her poise, and her face flushed.
‘ If you fail, I will teach you an excellent lesson!’ Marcia groaned and swiftly walked back to her seat.
‘ Marcia, are you okay?’ Sara asked with great concern for her cousin. She instantly detected something was awry when she paid attention to her blushing face.
‘ Oh, I'm fine. Don't get worked up!’ Marcia repudiated as she shook her head fast as light. Yet, Sara felt that her cousin was not feeling quite well. It was as if she had done something guilty.
Sara, became more doubtful and thought involuntarily, ‘ You are concealing something from me. I have never come across such a conduct from you. You look like you are engrossed in something. Perhaps something has transpired between you and Ana.’ Although it seemed not obvious, her frown got even more profound. She then drove her attention to Ana, who looked under the influence of liquor.
‘ Hey, brat, though you use liquor as your crutch to aid your prowess, you are still not my match!’ Dunn immediately had the audacity to declare, although he was also perplexed by Ana's behavior.
He was sure of himself because he thought that since Ana got drunk like that, she was only seeking for a crushing overthrow in the coming competition.
If Ana was intoxicated to play an array of drunken fists, she might do it relatively well. However, if she was about to lead a battalion under such a condition, it would merely make her army more perplexed. And without doubt, she would lose to Dunn within a few moments.
At that moment, Ana tilted her head and had direct eye contact with Dunn with a drunken grin.
As she turned back, her initially blurry eyes suddenly reflected a touch of bright light. Someone who recognised this abrupt transition would notice that this wasn't a person under the influence of alcohol.
When Lance saw Ana got drunk before the competition, he sculptured his brows and his eyes flickered a hint of puzzlement. His thoughts came to a screeching halt, a slight crease across his forehead, which was the sole signal indicating that he was trying to figure out what game Ana was playing.
With such a suspicious mind, he instantly said to Ana and Dunn, ‘ If you both are ready, let's launch the final round of the competition now! Since Ana was first to get the red spiritual crystal in the second round, she has the priority to decide to be the attacking party or the defending party!’
Everyone drove their consideration to Ana. They all thought that the defending party was more secure and convenient and that Ana would prefer it.
‘ I choose the attacking party,’ Ana replied at once.
Once again, the crowd's jaws dropped. They exchanged stunned glances with each other, the sparks in their brains, desperately trying to connect the dots, but instead just causing a short circuit.
They thought wildly, ‘ Ana has already transgressed the boundary and broken a taboo by getting herself drunk before the final round. Now she has the guts to choose the attacking party. It was indisputable she wasn't sober at all!’
‘ What's on her mind now?’ Sara contemplated with great bewilderment and frowned.
According to Ana's previous performance at the Army Flag Contest, she was informed that she had comprehensive knowledge about the two parties' advantages and disadvantages on the battlefield. Despite that, she chose the attacking party. This made her more puzzled.
In the interim, Marcia looked  calm compared to Sara's reaction.
In a twinkle of an eye, Ana and Dunn took their own spirit-manipulated beasts and walked towards the competition area from the side of the audience platform.
The two teams with 30 spirit manipulators in each group were eagerly waiting for them there. All of them were well-prepared to attend the coming competition.
Although the strength of these spirit manipulators ranged from fourth to eighth grade of the Mortal Stage, the average power of the two teams was equal.
After Ana and Dunn each selected a team, they began to make preparations for the competition.
‘ Hey, Girl, you are bound to lose this time. I didn't expect that you would pave the way for me to be the defending party. Even if you are given twice the time, you and your team can hardly break my defense,’ Dunn said provocatively when he led his spirit manipulator team and stopped by Ana.
Ana remained silent as a grave. She just nodded to Dunn and walked towards a different direction with her spirit manipulator team.
In the meantime, Lance was standing at the front of the audience platform, with his hands on his back. Watching the two spirit manipulator teams enter the battlefield.
‘ Father, is this Ana really drunk, or pretending to be drunk?’ Sara went to her father and popped the question.
‘ What's your opinion?’ Lance didn't respond but popped another question.
‘ I think she is probably exaggerated to be intoxicated. This gurl has constantly been good at playing dumb. She may have deliberately gotten drunk to make Dunn baffled and defeated,’ Sara speculated slowly.
‘ But, if she is pretending to be intoxicated, why would she prefer the attacking party? Logically, in the plot that two parties' strength was corresponding, the defending party will be in a further auspicious position than the attacking party,’ Lance questioned directly.
‘ Well...’ Sara hesitated and was befuddled. She couldn't will her lips to move. She also found the whole situation quite weird. The further she mulled it over, the more her brain became a spinning top, always finding more questions than answers.
Then, she grumbled unhappily, ‘Maybe she is really drunk. Sheridan must have dragged her to drink!’
‘ It doesn't matter if she is intoxicated or not. The most fundamental fact is whether she can win the competition in the end... But unless she possesses an ingenious strategy in mind, succeeding this occasion will be like drawing blood from a stone!’ Lance said, composed and firm.
It was once in a blue moon to see Lance be so negative about Ana's triumph.
Lance was cognizant that Dunn was an exceedingly formidable challenger. Ana was not in her best condition and to add salt into an injury, she even chose to be the attacking party.
This caused the situation more disadvantageous to her. No matter how special Ana was and how Lance had applauded her before, she had no slightest chance to dominate the battle, let alone break Dunn's defense and win the flag.
Even Lance had the above opinion clinging in mind. It was no wonder that those commanders and officers were less optimistic about Ana.
The third round of the competition was officially inaugurated, after Ana and Dunn led their respective spirit manipulator teams into the competition field.
Thirty minutes or so later, the first report of the competition was delivered to Lance. Yet, the content of the report made everyone on the platform stunned.
‘ What did you say? Ana and her team members were having a barbecue party in front of the defensive line? She is really horsing around!’ Sara said with a bemused stare. The situation was both ridiculous and agitating.
The other commanders and the officers were shaking their heads and sighing. It was a hard pill to swallow to imagine that such a severe and significant competition was merely regarded as a funny game by Ana.
Lance was mute and had no emotions. He felt that Ana went overboard. His sunken eyes could tell it all.
Under the cool shadow of several big trees, Ana and the thirty spirit manipulators gathered around several campfires. They were conversing, chuckling, and having a big barbecue party. The fire was roasting the meat of the wild animals they had captured from the nearby forest.
‘ This place is really a good place for a barbecue party!’ Ana howled as she was biting the meat of a big thigh of an animal.
Her laughter exploded, not a chuckle, or a smirk, but blissful, whole-hearted laugh.
Encouraged by their leader, the other spirit manipulators were also biting the roasted meat with grins on their faces. They had thought that the battle would be intense. On the contrary, they found out it was totally out of their expectation!
On the one hand, they didn't have to fight against the other team; they could also enjoy themselves at the barbecue party. They had no slightest clue that their attitudes had spawned so much turmoil. It was unlike a battalion to dare pull such a stunt in a significant confrontation. It was just unbearable.
On a hillside a fair distance away, Dunn had set up a defense line.
Thanks to the geographic advantage of that area, they could look downward and have a good view of everything within a few hundred meters.
‘ What's going on here? Doesn't that bastard want to fight a battle?’ Dunn mumbled angrily when he found Ana and her team members were having a barbecue right in front of his defense line, fury written on his face.
‘ Deputy Commander, what should we do now?’ a spirit manipulator asked Dunn immediately.
The spirit manipulators with Ana seemed to enjoy the barbecue very much. As a result, quite a few spirit manipulators who were with Dunn drooled with envy as they fixed their eyes on those who were eating, not to mention the smell that drifted up to them was heavenly.
‘ There must be a trap! Don't bite at the bait and get fooled by them. Just cheer up and ignore them!’ Dunn ordered in a cold voice. His eyes were furious at the sight of the drooling spirit manipulators.
To make matters worse, the hot sun shone brightly at its peak. Since Dunn's defense line was located at a higher altitude without any tall tree or other kind of shade, the thirty spirit manipulators were on guard under the blazing sun.
All of them were bathed in sweat with their tongues hanging out in thirst.
In contrast, Ana and her team members were eating meat while enjoying the cool under the trees. The defending spirit manipulators could not help but envy them.
The spirit manipulators by Dunn's side began complaining. Gradually, they had less and less desire to fight.
‘ It's so hot. Come on, leave a few people here with our flag. All the rest go to the river together with me to have a bath,’ Ana said as she stood up all of a sudden.
Immediately, all the spirit manipulators cheered excitedly at Ana's proposal.
A moment later, most of them had taken off their outerwear and went towards the river together with Ana.
Only a few people were left, ordered to guard their flag.
Standing within his own defense line, Dunn was surprised to see Ana lead a group of spirit manipulators away. He had no idea what was going on.
‘ Follow them! Find out where they are going and what they are planning.’ Dunn snapped at one of the spirit manipulators by his side.
It was not long before the spirit manipulator came back. He reported to Dunn, ‘ Deputy Commander, they are bathing in the river not far away.’
‘ Bathing?’ Dunn asked in disbelief. He really couldn't understand that woman's strategy, if she was even using one.
‘ Deputy Commander, the flag is just over there. We can rush and take it easily.’ Dunn heard one of his spirit manipulators suggest. The others looked at each other, no doubt in the same confused state as he was.
Although Dunn's team was supposed to be on the defensive, it didn't mean they could not launch an attack. If Dunn rushed downward with his team members, he would be sure to get Ana's flag.
In that case, Ana would lose the contest. Dunn was big and tall, but contrary to his physical attributes he was known to use caution in his fighting strategies.
He found it hard to believe that Ana would surrender the flag to him so easily. However, the flag was right there, almost within their reach. It was truly a rare chance.
Dunn thought it was worth it to get the flag right away regardless of the cost of certain casualties if Ana planned an ambush. With these thoughts in mind, Dunn immediately selected ten of his strongest spirit manipulators to strike Ana's front line by surprise.
He swiftly ordered the surprise attack as soon as he was sure that Ana and her team were still at the river.
At full speed, the ten spirit manipulators rushed towards Ana's front line.
At that time, there were only a few spirit manipulators guarding the area. They fled away as soon as they caught sight of the attacking enemies. In the end, there wasn't anybody but a flag in that place.
The ten spirit manipulators from Dunn's side looked quite proud of themselves. One of them walked forward to pull the flag from the ground.
‘ Damn it! The meat smells so inviting. These bastards seem to really enjoy themselves. They not only ate venison but also had a bath,’ one of the spirit manipulators sighed. When he saw that a few wild birds were being roasted over the bonfire, he felt like eating them too.
Failing to resist the temptation, he tore a drumstick and began eating. Seeing that, the other nine spirit manipulators joined him too.
They believed that they had already won the contest because they got the flag. All the ten spirit manipulators began eating the wild birds happily, believing themselves to be victorious.
However, one of them collapsed on the ground. At first, the other spirit manipulators thought that they had fallen into an ambush when their comrade fell down. Hastily, all of them stood up and looked around warily.
However, in succession, they felt immobilized and fell on the ground, incapacitated.
‘ My barbecue is delicious, isn't it?’ Ana mumbled when she appeared soundlessly.
All the ten spirit manipulators had fallen on the ground, unconscious and unable to defend themselves.
Her mouth twitched in a suppressed smirk at the sight. She had added some seasonings to the wild birds on the bonfire before she left with her team.
It was absurd how experienced soldiers had eaten her bait without the least suspicion and fell into her trap easily.
Ana raised her head to look up towards Dunn's defense line. As she expected, Dunn had already found out his spirit manipulators had fallen in a trap. He looked furious, which absolutely amused Ana.
Dunn's sudden loss of ten spirit manipulators was immediately reported to the auditorium.
Everybody, including Lance, was stunned to hear the news. They couldn't imagine how this had happened.
‘ Ana already had a plan before the contest began?’ Lance asked, as he realised what had happened all of a sudden.
‘ It seems that we were all fooled by Ana. She wasn't actually drunk. She just pretended to be drunk and acted unreasonably at the same time, so that we would not suspect her. Then she set a trap and Dunn bit the bait.’ Sara uttered her analysis. Neither she nor her father had expected that Ana would give them such a surprise.
‘ This women...’ Marcia 's  beautiful eyes sparkled when she realised what was happening. It annoyed her, being caught off guard. But it entertained her as well.
Obviously, the third round of contest had begun as early as when Ana appeared like a drunk woman. However, nobody but she herself was aware of that.
‘ What a wonderful scheme! She deceived everybody else! A military officer should know how to make use of tricks.’ Lance could not help but praise her cunning.
‘ But Dunn still has twenty spirit manipulators. Maybe he can hold the defense line until the contest expires if he tries his best’ Sara said.
‘ How much time is left?’ Marcia asked. Her face was blank, but in her mind she had already gone though many possibilities of what each leader was planning to do.
‘ About one and a half hours. Dunn has an advantage. If Ana wants to win the contest, she needs to act right away,’ Sara answered, her eyes narrowing in thought.
Ana figured out that there was not much time left for her using the sun's position. Promptly, she called her team members together.
Since the thirty spirit manipulators had eaten barbecue to their satisfaction and had a bath, their morale was incredibly high.
In contrast, the spirit manipulators by Dunn's side had been on guard under the burning sun, without food or bath, so they all looked tired. On top of that, they had lost ten buddies. As a result, all of them were in no mood to battle.
In this way, it seemed that all was in Ana's favor. Through her careful planning, she had stacked the odds to her advantage. Ultimately, victory was within her grasp.
‘ OK buddies, let's do this! If we win, I will buy all of you drink and food tonight,’ Ana said as she tried to improve morale.
Thirty highly-motivated spirit manipulators launched a fierce attack on Dunn's group under the command of Ana.
Without any signs of weaknesses, Dunn deployed impressive defense tactics against the attack. Then came the intense battles between the offensive and defensive sides.
‘ The first squad covers the second one. The second squad lures the enemy deep from the front. The third squad breaks through the sides and cracks them down...’ Ana directed her team calmly.
With irresistible force, Ana's team finally broke through Dunn's defensive line.
Dunn decided that the fighting was unfavorable, so he called for a retreat to buy his troops some time. It was not long before Dunn realised that his field was a dead end road. His initial purpose of selecting the location was to limit Ana's options.
To his surprise, he was the one trapped instead of Ana. After that encounter, only a few spirit manipulators were left around Dunn. On the other hand, there were more than ten people left with Ana.
‘ Damn it!’ Dunn couldn't believe that he ended up so miserably compared to Ana.
‘ Your weakness is arrogance. It is true that you have a good position and an airtight defense. But you are too impatient. The only thing that you care about is winning! You started with a bigger chance to win than me. If you only defended until the last possible moment it would be me who would be on the losing end and not you.’ Ana stared at Dunn and revealed her power. It was completely different than when she was intoxicated.
‘ So you want me to give up and admit total defeat. That will never happen! You only have one hour now. I don't think you could beat me and take my flag,’ Dunn said with confidence.
‘ We wouldn't know unless we try!’  Ana waved her hand and her spirit manipulators behind her rushed into Dunn's position immediately.
Seeing the incoming attackers, Dunn gave out the order, ‘ Defend the flag!’
Dunn, his spirit-manipulated beast and a few spirit manipulators all scrambled to defend their flag. Dunn showed no trace of fear even in a weakened state.
At length, some of Ana's spirit manipulators lost their capability to fight. On the other hand, only Dunn and his spirit-manipulated beast remained to defend their flag.
‘ All of you, go and rest!’ Ana said to her spirit manipulators. The spirit manipulators looked at each other and then they went off to rest.
‘ Only the two of us are going to battle it out in the end!’ Dunn said as he looked at Ana.
‘ You have consumed a lot of spiritual power. We are now at the same level. I don't want to fight you with the help of others,’ Ana said and shrugged her shoulders.
Ana had anticipated this situation. Thus, she kept Dunn's fighting capability impaired.
‘ You are so naive!’ Dunn sneered at Ana while his spirit-manipulated beast walked forward a few steps and stared at Ana with a sinister look.
Ananta leaped between Ana and Dunn's spirit-manipulated beast. Ananta was then almost face to face with Dunn's beast.
Dunn's spirit-manipulated beast was a second grade of three star Sirius Bear with a height of half a man. It was armed with iron claws that could break stone in addition to its powerful physique. It looked larger than Ananta. The Sirius Bear growled with a grimace. It looked as if it was suffering from an injury.
Soon afterwards, Ana saw the skin of the Sirius Bear burst open like it was shedding it. Soon afterwards, the Sirius Bear stood up and arched its back.
It spread its front limb claws like multiple knives that pointed upwards. It improved itself from a second grade of three stars to the third grade of three stars.
‘ It improved and evolved into a Razor-claw Wolf Bear?’ Ana was shocked that Dunn's beast had the ability to evolve into the third grade of three stars. Although Ana planned the situation very well, she did not expect this.
Ananta was close to third grade of three stars, but it didn't reach the third grade. Unlike the differences in power between spirit manipulators, one grade gap between spirit-manipulated beasts represented a big difference. After evolution, the spirit-manipulated beast's body mutated.
For example, Sirius Bear's iron claws turned into steel claws after evolution.
‘ I have prepared for this contest for a long time. And I am determined to win! So that the people who looked down upon me would understand I could go higher than them!’  Dunn exclaimed as he stared at Ana with red eyes.
‘ I will not show you any mercy! Make sure you understand that well!’ Dunn's pupils constricted with violence and malice.
Razor-claw Wolf Bear roared loudly and charged at Ananta slashing from every direction with its steel claws. Ananta dodged the claws as it sought out an opening for a counterattack.
After the upgrade, Razor-claw Wolf Bear's speed also improved greatly.
Ananta's injury during the match in the morning made it slower than its normal speed. With Ananta's current status, it had no advantages over the Bear.
‘ Now let's see who is better!’  Dunn's left foot dug deep into the ground as he dashed toward Ana like a bullet that had found its target.
In a second, he was right in front of Ana. He attacked Ana by throwing a fist that was encased with spiritual power at Ana's face.
Ana focused and stepped back before Dunn's attack had reached her.
The attack passed her face but missed. Ana suddenly felt a stinging pain on the right side of her face.
Ana touched the part of her face that was painful and was surprised to see blood on her hand. Ana suspected something and immediately turned to Dunn's fist.
Dunn's spiritual power covered the fist with a dense layer that looked like tiny blades.
Before Ana could fully recover, another attack with Dunn's fist came at her. The second attack now went for her shoulder. Dunn's attack approached Ana with amazing speed.
A ripping sound filled Ana's ears as her sleve were slashed apart. Her skin broke and her shoulder bled.
Ana was immediately forced to go on the defensive and kept away from Dunn. Ana was now aware of their difference in spiritual power level.
Dunn's strength perplexed Ana. She couldn't make sense of how Dunn's spiritual power be so powerful, considering that he hadn't used any spiritual martial arts so far.
It was a natural reaction for ana to be confused. It was the first time they had met and she didn't have any experience in fighting him.
It would be a correct assumption to think she knew nothing about Dunn's strength.
To those who knew him, Dunn's special spiritual power was remarkable. He was really well known among the members of the Crimson Dragon Group. Some talented Frontline Commanders had learnt their lessons about it from personal experience.
That did not mean he had no mystery in him. Even if he was well-known, no one knew how he'd learnt to master this special spiritual power.
The only information would be the rumor that Dunn had come from a mystical family and was trained under the family since he was a child.
Ana soon pulled away from Dunn. She had mastered two spiritual martial arts, the Nebula Cloud Transformation and Nebula Arrow Force, which enabled her to keep up in her fight against Dunn.
They traded dozens of blows and had reached an impasse.
On the other hand, the battle between Ananta and the Razor-claw Wolf Bear was one-sided. Ananta was completely suppressed by the Razor-claw Wolf Bear, whose strength had reached the third grade of the three-star level.
Ananta couldn't freely use its power of Fire nature to attack since that consumed too much spiritual power. It could prove to be a disadvantage later on if it was not able to defeat the Bear quickly.
The Razor-claw Wolf Bear hit Ananta again and sent it flying back several feet.
Ananta gave a long wail and slumped onto the ground near Ana with more cuts over its weakened body.
Ana saw this and narrowed her eyes. She knew she didn't have much time left. The clock was ticking and if she wanted to win this fight, she had to take a gamble. And then it hit her.
She reached into the silk bag she carried with her and took out the red spiritual crystal Lance given her as a reward just this morning.
‘ Eat it, Ananta!’ Ana threw it to Ananta swiftly before the Razor-claw Wolf Bear could interfere.
Ananta caught the red spiritual crystal in its mouth and swallowed without hesitation.
‘ Are you out of your mind? I can't believe you did that. Have you got any idea what would happen to a spirit-manipulated beast if it eats spiritual crystals like this?’
Ananta had swallowed the spiritual crystal before anybody could intervene.
Dunn could only stare at Ana in astonishment. The spiritual power stored in the spiritual crystals were extremely powerful but volatile. Even the lowest level spiritual crystals could cause harm this way.
Normally, it would take several times to absorb the spiritual power in one spiritual crystal. There were too many risks for a spirit-manipulated beast to take too much spiritual power at the same time.
The advantages it could give were overshadowed by the dangers it could cause, death included.
On the other side, the audience on the platform was watching the fight closely through the Illusory Mirror. The duel of two talents, Ana and Dunn, had turned a lot of heads.
Everyone was aghast as they saw how Ana made Ananta swallow a red spiritual crystal whole.
‘ What is she thinking giving a whole red spiritual crystal to a spirit-manipulated beast?! Is she trying to kill her own spirit-manipulated beast?’ Sara  murmured in disbelief.
However, she herself doubted this because she knew Ana cared about her spirit-manipulated beasts too much to hurt them on purpose.
‘  Only she knows what she's doing. Let's wait and watch’  Marcia smiled at the familiar scene  .
Ana could have her spirit-manipulated beast killed by what she'd done.
‘ It seems that Ana's making a desperate try. Dunn's spirit-manipulated beast has reached the third grade of the three-star level. Ana has a good spirit-manipulated beast, but not good enough to ignore the level gap. Meanwhile, Ana is weaker than Dunn and she wasted more spiritual power in the fight than Dunn. No matter how smart or conniving Ana is, she can do very little in this fight. Strength will be the key to victory.’ Lance analysed the situation, his eyes cold and grim.
‘ Father, do you think Ana will lose?’ sara asked.
‘ The fact that she was able to enter the third round is already an achievement. I think she has already passed my test. I have seen her potential and excellent performance in every aspect. She is definitely the rarest genius I've ever seen in my whole life. I will take her in, regardless if she will win or lose this match,’ Lance said, a determined glint in his eyes.
Ana was very talented, and she would greatly improve if provided with the right guidance and opportunity.
People around him heard what he said and exchanged surprised looks. They had never seen Lance so eager to recruit someone.
‘ Commander Marin, I assume you won't have a problem with that, right?’  Lance looked in Marcia's direction and asked.
‘ Ana is a member of the northeast military camp. It's my honor that the Commander in Chief wants her. If Ana is willing then I have no objections for that,’ Marcia replied with a faint smile. She tried hard to sound proud and pleased but the thought of not having Ana around her in the future brought an odd, empty feeling in her heart.
‘ Look at that spirit-manipulated beast!’ Someone called out, capturing everyone's attention.
Everyone's eyes once again focused on the Illusory Mirror. Eyes widened and hearts thundered in eagerness and suspense.
On the other side of the Illusory Mirror, Ananta had swallowed the red spiritual crystal.
Its body had begun to glow with bright red light, as if swallowed in flames.
It didn't bode well for Dunn. He ordered the Razor-claw Wolf Bear to stop whatever was happening, his orders shouted frantically at the beast.
The Razor-claw Wolf Bear let out a deafening roar and charged at Ananta, who was then wrapped in the red light.
Ananta was dimly visible in the light. Its face was distorted in agony. It whimpered and trembled repeatedly as if it had lost control of its body. It was clear that it didn't have enough strength or control to defend against the Razor-claw Wolf Bear.
Just an instant before the Razor-claw Wolf Bear's claws would've touched Ananta, an arrow of blazing light cut through the air and plunged onto the ground right before the Razor-claw Wolf Bear.
Boom!
The explosion of light forced the Razor-claw Wolf Bear to back away from Ananta. A towering figure emerged in front of Ananta. It was Ana!
‘ You will have to get past me first’ Ana looked cold and devilish with her entire body shrouded in spiritual power. Her face was dark and shadows danced around her.
Dunn's face darkened. With a subtle gesture from him, he and the Razor-claw Wolf Bear both rushed towards Ana.
The Bear reached Ana first and pounced on her, its sharp claws struck her in a blur.
Ana raised her hands and summoned spiritual power on her palms. It formed a huge shining shield she used to defend against the attack.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A dazzling light exploded in front of the Razor-claw Wolf Bear.
As Ana defended against the Razor-claw Wolf Bear's attack, another figure closed in on her menacingly like the gust of a strong wind.
A massive wave of spiritual power engulfed Ana.
Ana reacted fast but was still sent flying back by the impact. As Ana tried to recover, the figure reappeared beside her.
His hands clasped together and shimmered as they smashed Ana's Chest. Spiritual light exploded where the strike had landed.
Blood poured from Ana's mouth, her chest a ruin as if it had been stabbed and twisted multiple times by a knife. Her body slumped on the ground, sending up a cloud of dust.
‘ Ha-ha-ha! You are defeated now, young woman! I am the winner!’ Dunn laughed loudly and proudly.
He looked at Ana's beaten state and felt really proud of himself. Beating Ana felt like a huge achievement to Dunn; a seemingly insurmountable mountain that he was able to climb despite the odds.
‘ Ana is seriously injured after getting hit by my spiritual power. She will not have the strength left to even stand back up,’ Dunn thought.
To Dunn's surprise, Ana started to move and got herself up to a semi-standing position with the help of her hands.
Ana was standing shakily as if the slightest wind could knock her back down. The mere action of standing up seemed to have drained Her of all of her remaining strength. But she did it. Beyond Dunn's expectations, Ana was able to stand up again.
‘ That is impossible! How are you still standing even after my deadly attack!? I am sure that I have injured you severely and you have almost no spiritual power left!’ Dunn said as he tried to get over his initial shock.
Dunn stood mute and shocked as he tried hard to rationalize what had happened. He was sure that Ana should now be so close to death that the slightest of movements would be impossible for her.
He attacked Ana with full force mere moments ago. Any other spirit manipulator would have died or would be in a coma from that last attack. To stand up once more after that attack was something that was beyond impossible.
But Ana was able to do the impossible many times before.
After she got hit by the maximum force of Dunn's attack, Ana was able to stand up once more beyond the expectations of everyone who watched the battle unfold before them.
A hundred questions crossed Dunn's mind regarding Ana.
Questions that were brought by Ana's ability to survive an attack that could have easily killed any other spirit manipulator.
‘ Never be too sure of anything. A situation can change at any time. You are not the winner. No, not yet. The true battle is just about to begin!’ Ana said coldly with a smile of contempt.
She wiped the blood from the edge of her lips and gave Dunn a challenging stare that made Dunn feel like Ana was belittling him.
‘ Don't worry. My next attack will kill you and end this battle completely!’ Dunn was brought into a state of anger by Ana's arrogant statement.
His face was flushed red with anger and frustration. He wanted to just reach for Ana's neck and strangle the life out of her. He felt so angry at Ana right now that it was all that he could do to hold it all back.
Ana stood unsteadily as she stared at Dunn. It looked as if she would lose her balance at any time and fall over. Ana looked as if she exerted all of her strength just to stay standing.
Everyone who watched the confrontation was sure that Ana would be completely defeated or even killed by Dunn's next attack.
The people who watched the developments of the battle through the Illusory Mirror, were at the very edge of their seats.
They all admired Ana's tenacity. Even though she displayed great stamina throughout the final round, everyone was sure that Dunn would win the final round.
There was a great difference in strength between Ana and Dunn and everyone was convinced that the game was already decided. They all felt pity for Ana for losing to Dunn. But Ana had constantly displayed an outstanding willpower.
She was brave and resourceful throughout all of the three rounds of the competition. She was definitely not an ordinary person even though she seemed to be one at first glance.
Everyone was astounded by her incredible performance in the contest and they regarded Ana differently now than before the start of the competition.
‘ And now everything must come to an end!’ Lance was calm and collected. He was very pleased with Ana's performance in the three fierce rounds of the competition.
He never planned to put a lot of weight on the outcome of the third round. The single important thing for Lance was knowing that Ana was a truly talented young woman. Although she started as a mere beast breeder in the northeast military camp, Lance felt it was wise to harness and cultivate Ana's potential.
Lance slowly raised his hand to give the order to end the third competition. When his hand was halfway up, a huge, deep red flame burst forth and shot into the sky.
The bursting flame shot forth in a pillar of fire that radiated great heat energy.
Everyone who watched the battle through the Illusory Mirror had a hand or two up in front of their faces to shield their eyes from the fierce bright red glow of the flame pillar. They couldn't understand what just happened.
The flame pillar moved suddenly as if it was controlled by someone. It swiftly changed direction and flowed like a huge tentacle that was controlled by a sentient mind.
It then moved and shot directly towards Dunn just as Dunn was about to attack Ana.
Dunn was surprised when he suddenly felt an intense heat that grew hotter with each passing second just as he was about to launch another attack at Ana; an attack that he planned to kill Ana with.
The red flame pillar charged towards Dunn in a terrible blast of fire. Dunn was shocked and he felt cold sweat all over his body even though the temperature in the area rose into a sweltering heat. Only his battle experience and strength saved his life.
Dunn stopped advancing towards Ana and the red violent flame also stopped attacking Dunn and moved towards Ana's side.
‘ Great job, Ananta! I knew you could do it!’ Ana exclaimed excitedly.
She smiled proudly as she looked at Ananta. No one had any clue what Ana had truly planned.
Dunn fixed his eyes on the deep red flame blast and realised that it came from a beast.
The beast now glowed with reddish-brown scales from head to the tip of its tail. Small flames burned steadily from the gaps between its scales.
It looked like a scaled beast that was made of flame.
‘ It appears that the spirit-manipulated beast has reached the third grade of the three-star level. But, how is that possible!? How did it evolve all of a sudden?’ Dunn was surprised as he recognised the beast with reddish-brown scales.
It was Ananta!
He felt his hope of beating Ana slowly burned within the fires of Ananta's body.
Ananta emitted an energy sheath that was stronger than the Razor-claw Wolf Bear which was also of the third grade of three-star level.
Ananta's unexpected evolution transformed it into a more powerful spirit-manipulated beast. And this change took everyone by surprise. Dunn was not the only one who was surprised by Ananta's sudden evolution.
Even Lance and everyone else who was watching the developments of the third round were totally caught by surprise.
They all thought that Ana was truly defeated but Ananta's evolution at the last crucial moment suddenly shifted the tide of the final round.
No one expected anything like this would happen. It was normal for beasts to have physical changes after their evolution; claws grew longer and sharper, limbs became stronger and more agile, they could run faster and so on. All were partial changes to the beast's body.
Everyone present, including Lance who had a deep experience with beasts, had never seen any spirit-manipulated beast that had its entire body transformed after its evolution.
Ananta was obviously an exception. It transformed its entire body when it evolved from the second grade of the three-star level to the third grade of the three-star level. And this surprised everyone. They called this kind of evolution as mutation.
Mutations of spirit-manipulated beasts were always related to their natural body.
People thought that Ananta's mutation occurred normally when it reached a higher star level.
When spirit-manipulated beasts reached a higher star level, they could transform their body into a new shape. They might get one more head, or two more limbs, or another tail and so on. Some spirit-manipulated beasts could get wings, and in very rare circumstances, some changed their entire body into a completely new form.
There were some spirit-manipulated beasts that transformed their inner body; they could get an extra lung or an extra heart and so on. However, it was not possible for the general evolution of a spirit-manipulated beast to cause a mutation. But Ananta was able to achieve a mutation.
Ananta turned the impossible into the possible.
‘ Oh, the Flaming Shell...’ Lance muttered suddenly, his face changing expression.
‘ Father, what's the matter? What are you talking about?’ sara quickly came to her father's side, concerned as she noticed the emotions flashing across his face. She wondered what he was thinking of and why that caused such changes.
‘ From what we're seeing here, the new morphology that Ana's spirit-manipulated beast has changed into bears a striking resemblance to the Flaming-shell Tiger!’ Lance replied, unable to conceal his surprise at the spectacle.
‘ Wait, do you mean the Flaming-shell Tiger, the one at the seventh grade on the ranking list of spiritual beasts?’ Sara asked in surprise.
‘ Although they both differ in appearance from one another, I'm pretty sure that the new morphology that Ana's spirit-manipulated beast has transformed into is the Flaming-shell Tiger. I've only seen it once before, impressive,’ Lance remarked, his tone flat and noncommittal. Yet he was still unable to prevent the expression of surprise on his face.
‘ Oh, I see. Could it be possible that Ana's spirit-manipulated beast is a descendant of the spiritual beast and the war beast?’ Sara surmised out loud.
And there was a distinct possibility of it: under normal circumstances, the most of  the powerful war beasts were born from the spiritual beasts and the war beasts. And such an offspring would almost certainly have inherited some abilities and characteristics from its spiritual beast parent. Because of that, they could be much more powerful compared to other beasts.
‘ Well, probably,’ Lance nodded contemplatively, his expression still noncommittal.
‘ However, even if Ananta, Ana's the spirit-manipulated beast, has upgraded itself, it might still be unable to help Ana to win the competition. It's been hurt badly as far as I can see. Once Dunn orders his spirit-manipulated beast to attack Ananta again, and he himself takes the opportunity to attack Ana, then there will be little chance of winning for our favored fighter. It's certainly an unfortunate situation,’  Lance murmured as he looked at Ana through the Illusory Mirror. From the look on his face, he was clearly concerned.
‘ Commander in Chief, competition time is running out’  The officer who was in charge of timing the competition reported to Lance. He had paid strict attention to the limited time frame of the contest all this time.
Seeing that Ananta had now transformed into another powerful morphology, Ana took out the bottle of magical saliva from her silken bag in a hurry.
She swallowed two drops of the magical saliva as quickly as she could. Before Dunn could notice and be startled by the sudden change from Ananta, Ana took that moment to process the spiritual power within her body and put the magical saliva to use immediately.
‘ Go! Razor-claw Wolf Bear!' Dunn commanded as he finally noticed Ananta's upgrade. At the sight of its highly strengthened morphology, he could not help but feel a twinge of doubt and hesitation. But he kept it all to himself, remaining confident and steeled outwardly, as all his focus went to defeating Ana in this contest.
He decided to hold Ananta through his Razor-claw Wolf Bear, which should stop it from assisting Ana in fighting back. Then, he could take the chance to pool all his strength to give Ana one last blow, thus finally defeating her.
Everyone carefully watching could clearly see that Ana was in great danger as she was already badly hurt and seemed unable to fight further.
Meanwhile, Razor-claw Wolf Bear had heard its master's order and immediately threw his weight into Ananta, giving off a whizzing sound in the air.
Its sharp claws sliced through the air in a speedy and powerful attack towards Ananta, preparing to deal a critical blow.
Ananta's eyes opened wide and the upgraded spiritual beast sensed the attack. The flame which surrounded its entire body flared up in a flashing prominence.
Ananta looked like it was enveloped with rippling, eternal flame. And the fires that surrounded its whole body kept expanding, growing like a brushfire.
At the sight of that beast galloping right to it, Ananta fearlessly met it head on.
Wherever Ananta passed, the trail smoldered and blackened under its feet. A terrifying, merciless battle immediately began between Razor-claw Wolf Bear and Ananta.
As soon as the two of them engaged in combat, the difference between them became evident.
Razor-claw Wolf Bear's razor claws used to attack and hurt Ananta badly just moments earlier now seemed completely ineffective against Ananta now. And at Ananta's end, the flames surrounding it's body kept Razor-claw Wolf Bear at bay and unable to come closer.
Although Razor-claw Wolf Bear was still looking at Ananta menacingly, pouring its strength into fighting him, it was evident that it was unable to move closer to Ananta's position. Soon, Razor-claw Wolf Bear was losing ground, with the smell of its burnt fur wafting in the air.
It was simply too difficult for the beast to continue enduring this fight. And it was simply unable to beat Ananta. Unlike Razor-claw Wolf Bear, Ananta  was now completely different from what it used to be, with far stronger powers than ever before.
Seeing that Razor-claw Wolf Bear was about to lose the fight, Dunn's face colored a vicious purple in rage. However, he pulled himself together and determined that he would still be the winner if he managed to defeat Ana.
Keeping his head in the game, Dunn glared at Ana with his ferocious eyes and immediately targeted an opportune moment to attack.
Ana still hadn't moved, giving off the appearance that she'd been seriously injured. And for Dunn, this was the perfect moment to strike Ana with a finishing blow. With a truly murderous expression on his face, Dunn instantly vanished from where he was standing just one second ago.
Meanwhile, Ana had felt a strong energy trace heading towards her, with a true killing aura. Furrowing her brows, she braced herself to counter-attack.
Suddenly, Dunn materialized in front of Ana as a ghost, with one of his arms enveloped in spiritual light. The spiritual power emitting from him had transformed into endless swords, surging all around his arm. With this razor weapon, Dunn swung his arm straight at Ana's chest.
‘ Go to hell!’ Dunn roared with his bloodshot eyes focused on the kill like the devil himself.
At the sight of Dunn getting closer, a smile cracked on Ana's face.
Eyes narrowing, spiritual power surrounded her whole body as she rose to the eighth grade of the Earthly Stage. And furthermore, the spiritual power simply got higher and higher. It kept going until she mounted the ninth grade of the Earthly Stage.
Several days earlier, before the competition, Ana's power had upgraded to the ninth grade of the Earthly Stage.
Barely three months earlier, she was close to the sixth grade. Three months was considered too short to go up three grades for anyone.
Ever since Rainbow Glow Unicorn had moved to where Ana stayed, it had brought Ana rare treasures many times in order to get the magical saliva from her in exchange.
Thus, given all the rare treasures she found in these three months, her power rose up to the ninth grade of the Earthly Stage rapidly. However, Ana did not want to show her true power at the Earthly Stage's ninth grade to others just yet.
It was well known that the ninth grade of the Earthly Stage was only one step beyond to the Heavenly Stage, a level previously considered an unreachable realm for countless ordinary spirit manipulators.
She didn't want the undue attention of jealousy or make too many enemies. But push had come to shove and she felt that she wouldn't be able to beat Dunn with the power of the eighth grade of the Earthly Stage.
At such a moment, there were only two choices left for Ana: to admit defeat or to finally show her true strength. But she'd decided she was here to win the competition.
Defeat was never an option in this critical moment.
And so right before Dunn's arm struck her at full force to the chest, a star shaped light surged before Ana, replete with the power of the Earthly Stage's ninth grade.
Ana had waited for precisely this moment to time her release and fight head-on against Dunn.
At the next instant, with powerful bolts of energy crackling from either side, the combatants hit impact and dust imploded around them.
The reserve energy of strong spiritual power created a dustbowl. And the two of them were enveloped by bright and dazzling light.
Boom!
With another huge crash that sent sparks flying, one of them was sent sprawling down on one knee. And in the end, the person collapsed heavily onto the ground with anguish.
The other figure emerged out from the bright light as it faded away. It was a broken body of an injured fighter. And the expression on thier face was one of determination and confidence in spite of thier condition.
Lance and the others who were standing on the high platform watched in anticipation on who would emerge the victor. A ripple of shock and surprise flooded over the platform when they recognised the person stepping out.
It was Ana who had won.
‘ I really can't believe it! She won the competition!’ Sara exclaimed in pure shock.
The fighting had been so fast, so complex, and so intense that not all of them were able to see that Ana beat Dunn by using the power of the Earthly Stage's ninth grade. Due to the confusion, they found it hard to accept the fact that Ana suddenly turned the tide and won the final victory.
All they had seen was that Ana was at the disadvantage and almost lost the game just a few seconds ago. And with that, the third round of the competition finally came to an end in a thrilling fashion.
It didn't take long before the news of Ana's final victory spread throughout the headquarters.
The reality rocked the whole Crimson Dragon Group. Once again, she had somehow become the day's hot topic.
Both Ana and Dunn had been sent to a quiet place so they would be able to rest and recover from the staggering injuries accrued in combat. As for the one who got the final promotion, that piece of news had been also postponed until the next day.
Now that the contest was finished, Ana thought she could finally relax. Sadly, she was wrong. Despite the conclusion of the contest, she still had a lot of loose ends to tie up.
The two beauties stood before her were an excellent example.
But at that moment, she was a little scared by the strange glint in their look as they stared at her with narrowed eyes.
‘ What are you two planning?’ Ana stepped back with a shudder when they only leaned towards her and looked at each other instead of answering her.
Ana felt like she was a student once again, waiting for a punishment after she had done something wrong. Which was just wrong because she was an adult who could control powerful beasts.
Ana even crossed her arms defensively and puffed up her cheeks to cover up the discomfort she felt.
Sara and Marcia rolled their eyes at Ana's reaction.
However, Ana's obvious discomfort made Marcia realise as well the strange vibe that surrounded them. Maybe she had stared too much. Marcia coughed slightly to conceal her embarrassment.
She straightened her posture as if nothing had happened, and made it seem like she was only there for important business. She took out a little bottle from her sleeve and handed it over to Ana.
‘ What's this?’ Ana asked as she took the bottle from her and looked at it with doubt.
‘ That's a healing elixir, very effective for body injuries including traumatic and internal injury.’ Marcia answered in a casual way, acting as if she didn't care about it at all.
‘ That's the top elixir Marin treasures for herself.’ Sara whispered to Ana when her cousin was distracted.
‘ You didn't have to, thank you!’
‘ Ana, do you have any idea what you did? Why did you continue fighting after getting badly injured? You don't have to risk your life. It's only a contest. What if you were disabled or even killed just then? Did you even think about that?’  Marcia really had been worried for Ana during the match, especially when she saw that Ana was truly in danger. She could still remember how blood rushed to her head and how her heart thundered in her chest.
‘ It's not a big deal’ Ana  answered guilty.
‘ I'll go talk to father. You guys can continue talking ’ Sara walked out quietly .
‘ I'm sorry for making you worry’ Ana whispered quietly after Sara left the room.
‘ I'm sorry too’ Marcia suddenly said.
‘ Why are you sorry ?’ Ana asked curiously.
‘ For what I'm about to do...’ Marcia whispered slowly as she leaned towards Ana .
‘ What do yo...’
Before Ana could finish her sentence Marcia gently cupped  Ana's cheek and softly brushed thier lips together.
Ba dum! Ba dum!
Ana could hear her heartbeat clearly. Her cheeks felt like they were on fire.
A brand new sensation flowed through her body.
She felt more aware of her surroundings than she ever had.
Those soft, warm, delicate lips on  hers were so inviting to dive in .
It took quite a few seconds for Ana to realise what just happened. She slowly closed her eyes and kissed back.
Thier lips started to move softly in sync together.
Ana's hands glided up Marcia's back as she gently grabbed Marcia's neck as she pulled her towards herself as close as possible.
Marcia's tongue asking for permission to enter Ana's mouth.
Ana gladly allowed it.
Thier  tongues dancing together in a sultry yet sweet innocent dance.
Forgetting thier surroundings ,the two  women were busy feeling eachother.
Gradually, they pulled away due to the lack of oxygen. Only a string of saliva connected their swollen mouths.
As if spellbound, both of them smashed their mouths together again and gnawed at each other's lips. Breathing heavily, they finally parted with glistening eyes and flushed faces, panting.  As thier foreheads touched, their heavy breaths mingled together in the air.
‘ Wow...’ Ana whispered as she slowly opened her eyes.
‘ Wow indeed..’ Marcia was already looking at her with a sweet smile.
Ana could see a dimple forming on Marcia's cheek.
‘ You have a cute dimple’ Ana slowly said as she couldn't get her eyes off those pretty flushed lips which were on hers just a moment ago.
‘ Thank you ..’ Marcia chuckled.
They looked at eachother's eyes with so many unspoken words... so many emotions.
‘ Ana, I...’
Suddenly,  there was a loud knock on the door. And the words were left unspoken.
They immediately moved away from  each other, the door bursted open and Sheridan came in.
He rushed hastily to Ana's side and felt her wrist for a pulse.
‘ Phew, what a relief! No internal injury! And still in one piece. Great! You're not going to die then. But why is your heart beating so fast?,’ Sheridan said . His hands were steady but his eyes wandered all over Ana, looking for injury.
‘ I assure you that I will live safe an sound until you croak, old man! Ha-ha’  Ana said in her flippant manner ignoring  Sheridan's question.
‘ Good for you, brat! You defeated Dunn, the strongest deputy commander in the Crimson Dragon Group. That's a great achievement. And I've also heard that Ananta leveled up during the contest. Is that true?’ Sheridan asked out of curiosity.
Ana nodded at him, and turned to look at Ananta that was still sleeping in the corner. Sheridan followed her line of sight and saw the sleeping Ananta.
The scales around its shell had changed into a fiery ruby in color and Ananta had grown twice its previous size. Although it had already withdrawn its flames that flourished during the contest, it did not look less formidable.
Ana looked at Marcia. Who was already looking at her with a weak smile.
Marcia slowly turned around and started to walk away.
Ana wanted to run desperately and ask Marcia ‘ What was that about? What did you wanted to say? ’
But no words left her mouth as she slowly saw Marcia leave.
The unspoken words were left unspoken.
‘ It's indeed the Flaming Shell! ’ Sheridan marveled as he observed the sleeping Ananta.
‘ What did you just say?’ Ana asked As she was not paying attention to Sheridan at all  .
‘ Do you know about the Flaming-shell Tiger? That spirit-manipulated beast ranks number seven on the Spiritual Beast List. It earned its fame and its name because of its flaming, red shell. The ruby shell of Ananta is extremely similar to the Flaming Shell. What's more, the fire Ananta's shell released in the contest resembles the flames of the Flaming-shell Tiger. Your Ananta may be the descendant of the Flaming-shell Tiger,’ Sheridan suggested.
Ana tried to remember the information about the Flaming-shell Tiger she had read before. As she compared what she remembered and what she had seen, she could not help but agree with Sheridan.
Ananta and the Flaming-shell Tiger did share many characteristics in common.
‘ I should study the new changes Ananta had undergone later.’ Ana murmured to herself.
‘ Where did you get this spirit-manipulated beast?’ Sheridan asked.
‘ I just ran into it,’  Ana lied. She didn't want Sheridan to find out too much.
‘ Bullshit!’  Unfortunately, Ana was a pretty bad liar. Sheridan immediately knew she was hiding something.
‘ Whatever! Do you have anything else to say? If not, please leave and close the door on your way out. Thank you!’ Ana didn't want to say it that directly, but she did want Sheridan to leave.
She could see that Sheridan was reluctant to leave. They stared at each other in tensed silence before Sheridan finally turned and left the room.
Now that Ana was alone, she sat in bed with her legs crossed as she tried to figure out the previous interaction with  Marcia.
Ana slowly touched her cheek where Marcia previously touched.
If anyone walked in that room at that moment they would definitely be shocked to find a red tomato faced Ana smiling like a giddy child .
The next morning, Su brought Rubygon over.
‘ Ms. Frank, do you feel better now?’  Su asked as she looked at Ana worriedly.
‘ Yeah! I'm all right now.’ Ana answered with a faint smile. It was a bit of a hassle to keep on assuring everyone she was alright, but she appreciated their kindness.
‘ I've heard what happened to you from Miss Sara. I've been wanting to see you since last night but Miss Sara told me that you needed to rest. I didn't want to disturb you so I came for a visit today instead,’ Su said, and her face scrunched up in worry.
‘ Never mind. I'm sorry I worried you.’ Ana smiled at Su kindly.
She was about to say something else when the door suddenly burst open.
Marcia entered the room authoritatively. She looked ready for battle except she carried a set of clothes in her hands.
‘ Commander Marin!’ Su bowed to her immediately.
Marcia nodded at Su and then addressed Ana, ‘ How do you feel now? Do you still feel sore?’
‘ Yes, of course! I'm aching all over. Commander Marin, could you do me a small favor? I want a massage so badly!’ Ana said as a devious smile crept at the corner of her lips. She exaggeratedly winced and whimpered suddenly, to gain her pity.
‘  Well, I don't mind. I could do you a favor... and send you to heaven now! Go change! And then come with me.’ Marcia ordered.
Ana pouted and said mischievously, ‘Commander Marin, are you gonna send me to heaven like yesterday when you passionately k....’
Marcia threw the clothes she was carrying at Ana's face.
Su looked between them and asked innocently ,‘ Commander Marin, what did you do passionately to Ms. Frank yesterday?’
‘ Um ... massage. Just like Ms. Frank said ’ Marcia glared at  Ana.
‘ To where are we going?’ Ana asked, to change the topic.
‘ Both you and Dunn were seriously injured yesterday, so the result hasn't been announced. They will announce who can be promoted to the Frontline Commander today. Everyone has already gathered up in the training field, waiting for you,’  Marcia explained and then she left the room with Su so Ana could change.
Once Ana finished changing her clothes, she walked out to join Marcia.
‘ Do you know what it means that you have won the contest yesterday?’
‘ Of course I know! Now I'm a Frontline Commander, the same position as you are,’ Ana said proudly, puffing her chest out and smirking at Marcia.
‘ I'm glad you understand. The Commander in Chief told me that you would be transferred to the Supreme Headquarters when you get promoted to a Frontline Commander. Behave yourself. Don't act like a punk. Your actions will reflect on the reputation of the northeast military camp,’  Marcia said seriously.
‘ Do I act like a punk? A Beautiful punk, though, right?!’ Ana said jokingly.
Su, who stood close by, couldn't help but chuckle so she tightly covered her mouth with her hands.
Marcia rolled her eyes at Ana and hummed as if she was so bored.
‘ Su, please take care of Ananta for a while’
Soon they arrived at the training field of the headquarters .
Thousands of people lined up in the seats as they eagerly awaited the start of the ceremony.
A flag with ‘ Crimson’ and a glorious dragon embroidered in the middle was erected on stage.
Lance sat in the middle of the stage. The Commanders and the officers of the Crimson Dragon Group stood on both sides of Lance. The six Deputy Commanders, including Dunn, who were qualified for the second round were also present.
Strangely, Sara was nowhere to be found.
Ana and Marcia's arrival created a ripple effect on the people who were present.
Heads turned towards their direction and everyone's eyes watched their every move. Whispered conversations went on as they walked.
Ana brilliantly turned the battle from a disadvantaged position to finally defeat Dunn whose power was at least a grade higher than her during the last round of the competition yesterday.
People still talked about her victory a day after and likely even in the days to come. They admired her for her unflinching courage and unswerving determination. But only Ana and Dunn knew the entire truth.
It appeared that Dunn hadn't told anyone that Ana actually reached the ninth grade of the Earthly Stage. If he told anyone, it would create a stir in the headquarters.
Some of the Frontline Commanders were hostile towards Ana; most notably Flank.
He was badly beaten in the Army Flag Contest by Ana and was disgraced ever since.
Beyond everyone's expectations, at the competition between the different military camps, Ana showed her remarkable skill on all aspects and won the ultimate victory.
Ana went from rags to riches.
She was a breeder who jumped to an equal footing with the Frontline Commanders. This made some of the narrow-minded Frontline Commanders angry and jealous.
‘ Commander in Chief...’ Ana and Marcia saluted Lance after they walked through the crowd.
‘ Since everyone is here, I will now announce the people who will be promoted to Frontline Commanders. Ana, the winner of the final round, will be promoted to Frontline Commander and transferred to the headquarters. Due to his outstanding performance, Dunn, the Deputy Commander of the east-southeast military camp, will also be promoted to Frontline Commander. As for the other Deputy Commanders, although you finished the competition to the best of your ability, you still need to make up for your deficiencies!’ Lance said bluntly.
‘ Commander in Chief, thank you very much for your appreciation! I will dedicate all my strength to the Crimson Dragon Group. I won't hesitate to go through fire and water for the Crimson Dragon Group!’ Dunn said in excitement at his promotion. He then saluted Lance to show his respect. His disappointment for being kept as a Deputy Commander all these years vanished in a flash.
The Commanders who once had been in conflict with Dunn looked as if they swallowed a bitter pill.
‘ Hey...’ Marcia nudged Ana with her elbow to remind her to say something to the Commander in Chief since Ana seemed to have no intention to say anything at all.
After taking a look at Marcia, Ana saluted Lance and said, ‘ Commander in Chief, I really appreciate your recognition, but I never planned to be promoted to Frontline Commander. I hope that you will allow me to go back to continue my job as the breeder of the northeast military camp.’
Astonished at Ana's words, the crowd burst in an uproar instantly.
All the people stared at Ana with incredulous eyes. They all thought that she was crazy. She refused the opportunity that was offered her for her victory, an opportunity that every spirit manipulator would willingly kill and die for!
Everyone present felt afraid for Ana's audacity. Her refusal had embarrassed Lance in public.
However, no one knew that the real reason why Ana fought so hard to win was to ask that her request be granted.
She wanted to show Lance that she was not a woman that could be forced to do what she did not want to do.
Lance clenched his jaw as his heart rate increased. A powerful aura started to radiate from his body; like a freezing wind that made the skin of the Commanders and officers near Lance shiver with cold. They were aware that Lance was enraged at Ana's response.
‘ Commander in Chief, I am sure that Ana is not yet ready for the promotion.’,Marcia said as she bowed to Lance.
‘ I'll give her three days! After three days, she must go to her new post!’  Lance replied back to Marcia and then glanced at Ana with a disappointed look.
He stood up immediately and left the area followed by the Commanders and officers.
The people present stared at Ana as they shook their heads. Some thought that Ana was a woman who did not know how to properly respond to favors that must be appreciated instead of refused. The crowd then left the area as soon as Lance had gone.
‘ So you have planned all of this since the beginning?’ Marcia asked.
‘ I have no intention to be promoted to Frontline Commander. If I will be promoted to Commander in Chief then I will probably consider it. If there is nothing else, I need to go. I still need to do something,’ Ana  said and walked away leaving Marcia to ponder her words.
Lance reached his study after a short while. He was greeted by his daughter as soon as he entered.
Sara sat on his chair and played with an ink brush.
‘ If I am not mistaken, I think Ana refused your offer once more,’ Sara said with a faint smile, seeing the vivid anger on Lance's face.
‘ That little brat is so arrogant that she had the audacity to refuse me in public! She is as cocky as she is talented! I really wanted to kill her right there in public. That contemptuous genius,’ Lance roared angrily.
It was only Marcia's words that stayed his anger when Ana refused him once more. He wanted so much to punish Ana out of fury.
‘ I did tell you before father. You can't bribe her through a well-paid job as an officer,’ Sara said calmly, as if she already knew what would happen.
‘ Then why did she work so hard in the contest? If she did not reveal her true power, then I probably wouldn't be so depressed and angry.’ Lance hadn't figured out why Ana fought with such intensity during the competition.
‘ Simple, she wanted to raise your expectations of her first. So that you will become more irritated of her when she refuses you. She wants you to be so irritated that you'd give up on trying to recruit her. And her plan worked. It was a genius plan, really,’ Sara explained plainly as she transfixed her charming eyes on her father.
‘ You mean to say that getting me this mad was all part of her plan?’ Lance's eyes lit up as if he finally understood what Sara explained.
Ana had planned to refuse from the start and yet she fought hard in order to increase her chances of throwing Lance off and completely discouraging him in trying to recruit Ana.
Lance nodded slightly as he saw the plan. ‘ I actually told her that you held the contest for her on purpose after her first round,’ Sara admitted.
‘ Why did you do that?’ Lance was caught by surprise. He could not believe that his daughter would sell him out to Ana.
‘ Because you wanted to see her true power and potential. I told her that in order to force her into action. If she found out that you organized the competition for her, she would defy you further and fight at her best to make you angrier once the competition has been concluded,’ Sara explained cleverly.
‘ Now I understand. Telling her the truth made her want to go against me even further. She then wanted to win the competition in order to make me angrier at her refusal.’ Lance was a clever man.
It did not take long before he understood the trick that his daughter played on Ana. He then laughed out loud uncontrollably. He shook his head as he laughed.
‘ You even got your father this time, daughter! Good girl!’
‘ The truth of the matter is that Ana is so much stronger and much better than her peers in every aspect. However, it is really hard to recruit a genius like her. She is like a wild thoroughbred stallion. If you really want to recruit her, you cannot resort to a forceful approach.’ After a brief pause, Sara added,
‘ You should play smart to win her allegiance. Convince her using a different strategy! She can easily see through a military strategy. Use an approach that she will not see coming.’
‘ And it sounds to me like you already have an idea,’ Lance remarked. He knew his daughter so well.
‘ I will deal with her. Don't worry about it, father. I can convince her to join, but I'm not sure whether she will agree to work at the headquarters,’ Sara said confidently.
Lance gave it some thought and then nodded. Although Ana did embarrass him, his aim to recruit Ana had barely waned. He was a master in observing people, so he knew that Ana's potential was beyond what she allowed other people to see. He wanted to give Ana one more chance.
Sara left her father's study and went back to her place. She immediately saw Marcia as soon as she entered the Sara Pavilion.
‘ Sara, I think you already know that Ana has refused uncle. And uncle is really mad. Can you convince him to let this go on my behalf?’ Marcia pleaded.
Sara bursted into a loud laughter when she saw Marcia in that distressed state.
‘ Sara, why are you laughing?’ Marcia asked with a confused expression.
‘ Ha-ha-ha! Oh, nothing, nothing. I have never seen you worry about a person that much, Marcia. Are you in love with Ana?’ Sara asked, teasing her cousin.
‘ Come on! That is not funny, Sara! You are overthinking!’ Marcia said blushing after she heard Sara's question. She forced herself not to freeze in place and not to look too awkward.
‘ Oh, really? Then tell me why do you care about her so much?’ Sara continued to bombard Marcia with questions about her concern over Ana.
‘ Well... Errmmm... That's because...’ Marcia stammered. After a while, something suddenly occurred to her and she immediately yelled out, ‘That's because she saved snowy! That's it! I owe her for that!’
‘ Just because of that?’ Sara questioned, squinting her left eye at Marcia with a faint smile.
‘ Actually, my father  agreed to let me take over changing her mind,’ Sara said as she smiled evilly at Marcia.
‘ What? Why did you agree?’ Marcia could not help but ask.
‘ If I didn't agree then father would definitely take out his anger and punish her . I don't think you want that. And don't you want Ana to grow stronger? You know it will help her a lot in the future too. If you really care about her and you want her future to be safe. Don't you think you should encourage her too to give this a chance’
Marcia was quite for a few minutes because what Sara said made a lot of sense. If Ana wanted her revenge she needed a strong back up . Only her army won't be enough for Ana. If Ana gains Crimson army's trust . Then they will help Ana in the future too.
‘ You are right... But Ana has refused. How will you convince her?’ Marcia asked slowly.
‘ Don't worry about it! I already have an idea. I am sure that I can convince her.’ Her lips curved upwards into a creepy smile.
A true problem awaited Ana and she didn't even realize it. Ana said goodbye to Su before leaving.
She took Ananta and Rubygon and walked out of the headquarters unnoticed. She then took her carriage and her luggage from the Super Beast Farm and then drove the carriage back to her place.
When Ana arrived, the Rainbow Glow Unicorn jumped out in front of Ana before she even got off the carriage. It whimpered sadly at Ana as she got down from the carriage.
It was because it hadn't had the magical saliva for days. It yearned to have a drop of that delicious liquid so badly.
‘ Holy molly! You really like the magical saliva, do you? How about this, buddy? You let me be your master, and I will feed you the magical saliva every day!’ Ana said to tempt the Rainbow Glow Unicorn to be her spiritual beast. But she knew that it was too soon for it to agree.
It was never easy to tame spiritual beasts. Even though the Rainbow Glow Unicorn craved for the magical saliva, it still couldn't accept to trade that with allowing Ana to be its master. Spiritual beasts were naturally proud, so they couldn't be tamed easily.
Ana expected the Rainbow Glow Unicorn to refuse. It changed its stance immediately. It raised its head up in the air that signified that it refused Ana's offer.
A short moment later, it left without a warning and disappeared.
Ana did not mind that the unicorn refused her offer and left. She knew well enough that the Rainbow Glow Unicorn would return on its own. After she unpacked everything, Ana went to her lab and started her study on Ananta's upgrade.
She let out a sigh when she realized that she hadn't returned to her military camp for two days. She had been too caught up in her research.
She thought that Marcia, could be looking for her desperately. If she didn't show up again, she was afraid that Marcia would find her and the secret lab she had built.
With this in mind, she stood up and stretched slowly. She put her research on pause and left her lab to go back to the northeast military camp.
Just as she entered the northeast military camp, Ana was greeted with the entire northeast military camp in an uproar. All the soldiers and spirit manipulators were either busy packing or carrying what looked like heavy boxes.
‘ Hey, what's going on?’ Ana grabbed a passing soldier in an effort to know what was going on.
‘ You still don't know? Our whole northeast military camp is going to be relocated.’ Ana gaped at the soldier's response.
‘ Relocated?’ Ana was stunned.
She couldn't help but wonder why the whole camp needed to be relocated so abruptly when nothing special had happened.
‘ If the military camp is relocated, then I will have to follow as well. What should I do? What about my lab?’ Ana's mind raced with questions.
‘ Where are we going to move?’ Ana asked the soldier who looked like he was ready to bolt. Unfortunately for her, this was a critical concern and Ana needed answers desperately.
‘ We will be moving to the front line. Our northeast military camp has now been appointed as the major force by the Commander in Chief, and our camp will temporarily become the main camp. I can't believe I will be able to see our Deputy Commander in Chief every day at the main camp!’
Ana narrowed her eyes at the solider, who seemed to be drooling.
Ana's heart lurched and she furrowed her brows in thought. Things were going to get really tricky for her.
After a slight hesitation, Ana immediately went to Commander 's camp.
She knew it was impossible to decide the relocation of a military camp so abruptly, and yet Marcia had not said anything to her before she left the headquarters. The only possibility was that the relocation had been decided a long time ago.
It meant that Marcia had hidden that from her on purpose. Once the northeast military camp moved to the front line, she had to move as well. But at the moment, it was impossible for her to move so abruptly.
One reason was that she had no way to move those Dark Heaven Insects and the Dark Heaven Insect Queen. Another concern for her was that it would be very tricky and troublesome for her to build another lab.
In short, if the northeast military camp was really going to be relocated, it would be equivalent to killing her! She just couldn't leave her treasures and her lab behind.
As Ana walked closer to Marcia's tent, a giant creature flew over her head and cast her under its enormous shadow.
The silver scales over its body glinted gloriously under the sun. A closer look at it revealed the silhouette of the breeze that blew against the creature. It painted an intimidating but wondrous picture for all to see.
The soldiers who had been busy packing previously left their tasks and gawked unabashedly at the glorious beast.
Work in the northeast military camp came to a halt as everyone's attention was taken by the creature. Their eyes followed it in its magnificent flight until the giant creature slowly landed on the open field. It gave out a deafening roar as if it enjoyed everyone's attention.
‘ Is this...’ Ana scrutinized the creature. It looked awfully familiar to her but she struggled to remember where she had seen it.
‘ Silver Wind!’ Ana exclaimed as she finally remembered from where she had encountered the majestic creature.
This was Sara's spirit-manipulated beast named Silver Wind.
‘ This war dragon should be at the fourth grade of the four-star level,’ Ana remarked.
She had deduced this when she observed Silver Wind's body characters and the aura around it.
Sara had named it Silver Wind, but this war dragon's formal name was Celerity Wind Dragon. The top ones of this kind could reach the five-star level.
Although Sara's Celerity Wind Dragon was only a four-star one, it was still a rare spirit-manipulated beast if we considered that superior races like dragons were few and far between.
Despite the fact that the Celerity Wind Dragon was officially categorized as a war dragon, the Beast Encyclopedia revealed that it was a descendant, and thus, a crossbreed of both spiritual dragon and war dragon.
In this way, the Celerity Wind Dragon was substantially more powerful than ordinary war dragons with its inherent special power that came from its spiritual dragon lineage.
Ana was snapped away from her thoughts as a slender figure jumped down from Silver Wind.
She moved with grace and poise that captivated the soldiers' eyes.
This charming figure was none other than Sara.
As Sara walked towards Ana, uproar broke out among the soldiers who had gathered around.
They all stared, slack jawed as they wondered, ‘ What could the Deputy Commander in Chief want from Ana?’
‘ What a coincidence, Deputy Commander in Chief! I didn't think that I would run into you here, ha-ha!’ Ana laughed awkwardly. Now that she had no way to avoid Sara, she had to force herself and faced her directly.
‘ It's not a coincidence. I'm here to see you.’ Sara told Ana directly. Her business-like manner showed in her posture and tone of voice.
‘ You are here to see me?’ Ana's eyes widened in panic. It seemed that the foreshadowing she felt earlier was right on the money.
‘ Deputy Commander in Chief!’ Marcia greeted Sara warmly as she came out of her tent. Ana almost forgot that they were standing right in front of her tent.
‘ Commander Marin, can I borrow your tent for a while?’ Marcia glanced at Ana, and then turned a questioning gaze at Sara.
They seemed to talk without words, which ended when Marcia nodded her permission to Sara.
Ana could tell from the duo's body language that Marcia knew what Sara was here for.
‘ Let's go inside.’ Sara instructed to Ana before she left them and entered Marcia's tent first.
Ana glanced at Marcia and waited for her to say something. When she didn't, Ana turned away and followed Sara into the tent.
Inside, Sara sat comfortably in Marcia's usual place. They sat in awkward silence, and Ana waited for her to talk while Sara seemed at a loss for words.
‘ Deputy Commander in Chief, what do you want from me? I'm sure you didn't invite me here just so we can sit and stare at each other?’ Ana joked clumsily as she covered up the discomfort she felt.
‘ Do you have a problem with that? You have seen me naked but I'm not allowed to stare at you for as long as I'd like?’ Sara refuted, which rendered Ana speechless.
‘ To tell you the truth, my father's original plan was to banish you to the front-line battlefield,’ Sara started.
Ana thought Sara was kidding at first, but when she saw her solemn face, she knew that she meant it.
‘ Did I cross the line this time?’ Ana wondered as her brows frowned slightly.
‘ You refused my father's offer in public. Do you really think that you can get away with that easily? You defied the order of the Commander in Chief which is as good as going against the military law. You would have been punished according to the military rule. If not because of Marin, you would have been seized and thrown into prison for days,’ Sara said as she observed Ana's reaction to this revelation.
Ana, however, still remained calm, as if she didn't care it at all.
‘ Besides, you should appreciate me.’ Sara suddenly told Ana and changed the topic.
‘ You said I should appreciate you. That means that I don't have to go to the frontline. Am I right?’ Ana answered.
‘ Smart people are so boring!’ Sara remarked as she pouted. She originally wanted to see Ana flustered but she remained calm as if she could already tell what she would say. It pissed her off a little.
‘ You have two options. You can either go to the front-line battlefield as your punishment or accept the position I have arranged for you,’ Sara offered.
‘ Well, it sounds like I have no choice at all,’ Ana remarked as she frowned in frustration.
‘ That's right! You have no choice.’ Sara smirked at Ana.
Even an idiot would choose to accept the second option. Who else would want to go to the front-line battlefield voluntarily, where they could die at any moment?
Sara counted on that to make sure Ana would accept the position she had arranged for her.
‘ How about this, Deputy Commander in Chief? Let's make a deal. If you can help me get out of this trouble, I will keep our little secret between us forever. Otherwise, you can't blame me if rumors about your size and your moles in secret places spread among the Crimson Dragon Group. I know a lot of people who would definitely enjoy that.’ Typically, Ana was not the kind of person who used threats like that but now that she had been pushed into a corner, she had no choice and threatened Sara.
Ordinarily, she would never consider such a cowardly plan but desperate times called for desperate measure.
Sara smirked at Ana to show she was not at all bothered by her threats.
‘ I knew this would happen sooner or later. I have already prepared myself not to mind at all. If you dare to tell others about that, I will tell my father what you have done to his precious daughter. My father will definitely kill you and then throw your corpse to some covert place to feed wild beasts. If you desire death so much, why don't you do it?’ Sara challenged Ana.
As the Deputy Commander in Chief of the Crimson Dragon Group, Sara would not be easily shaken, especially not by a threat as empty as Ana's threat.
From Ana's sour expression, she knew that she had succeeded in turning the tables under such a circumstance.
Ana was taken aback by this declaration and marveled at Sara's boldness. Last time, she threatened her and accused her that she stole Sara's underwear. And her threat had definitely intensified this time. If she executed this plan, Ana knew well the grave consequence that awaited her.
‘ Well, I can accept the position you offer. But under two conditions. What do you say?’ Ana might have been cornered but she would not give in that easily.
‘ Spill it!’ Sara prompted, annoyed at her stubbornness.
‘ First, I will not work at the headquarters. And second, I need you figure out a way to let me stay here. I heard that the northeast military camp will go to the front-line battlefield, but I don't want to leave. As long as you fulfill those two requests, I will accept the position you have arranged for me,’ Ana stated.
‘ I've always been curious to know the reason why you insist on staying at the military camp. I wonder if you are still hiding something from me,’ Sara said suspiciously while trying to guess Ana's intention of staying at the military camp.
‘ Am I?’ Ana said innocently.
‘ Forget it. You are never honest with me anyway,’ Sara said coldly.
‘ Well, this place will be turned to a logistic camp, and since you want to stay here now, I name you the captain of the transportation squad of the logistic camp. You will be in charge of delivering army provisions. I heard from Marin that you used to be a captain. I believe you will be worthy of this position,’ she continued.
Ana narrowed her eyes. She didn't want to be the captain, but it now seemed that she had no other choice, otherwise she would have no reason to stay at the military camp. If so, she couldn't carry out a lot of things.
‘ I also heard that you are good at curing spirit-manipulated beasts. So you can serve as a military vet too. I will send the injured spirit-manipulated beasts to you,’ Sara said slyly, determined to exploit Ana to the maximum.
‘ Do you want me to work around the clock?’ Ana asked unhappily.
‘ You can say no!’ Sara said with an obvious smile in her eyes. She had totally understood Ana now, and knew that Ana would agree to do whatever she asked.
‘ Deputy Commander in Chief, it seems that I have no choice but to accept that,’ Ana said disdainfully with a snort.
‘ I am glad to hear that. So work hard!’ Sara said with a tone of command, pretending not to notice Ana's irony at all.
‘ If you don't have anything else, I should leave.’ Ana stood up and nodded at Sara before turning around to leave.
The moment she stepped out of the camp, Ana saw Marcia standing outside the camp. It seemed that she had been waiting there for a while.
‘ Has the Deputy Commander in Chief told you everything?’ Marcia asked
Ana said directly. ‘ It looks like I fell into the trap she had set for me,’ Ana said with a bitter smile.
She had expected Sara would say something like sending her to the front line, which she knew was a lie. Sara had had everything planned out. But she had no choice but to listen to her. Although she had known it was a trap, she had to fall for it. But of course, Ana knew what she was doing. Once she reached the Heavenly Stage, she wouldn't have to worry about moving home anymore.
This was because spirit manipulators who reached the Heavenly Stage were able to open the Magic Spiritual Space which could accommodate everything. So by that time, she could do whatever she wanted without having to consider her feelings. But now, not listening to her was not an option.
‘ The Deputy Commander in Chief did that for your benefit. Do you really think you can escape from the Commander in Chief so easily without her help?’  Marcia said seriously.
‘ Okay, then! I would like to send my thanks to you and the Deputy Commander in Chief,’ Ana said with a sarcastic smile before leaving.
At the same time, a soldier went into the camp of the commander on the border of the Timber Deity Empire holding a letter in his hand.
‘ Your Highness, there is a new message,’  the soldier said while presenting the letter to the princess.
Alyssa took the letter and gestured for the soldier to leave.
‘ Is Sara, daughter of Lance, the leader this time?’ A hint of malicious calculation flashed across Alyssa's eyes upon finishing reading the letter.
‘ We used to prevail against the Crimson Dragon Group, but that was before Sara was in charge of the army. After she became the leader, the Crimson Dragon Group managed to win us. It seems that Sara is good at military tactics.’
‘ It's said that Lance has rarely managed the army in recent years because his daughter has taken over his work. Lance trusts his daughter in commanding the army in such important battles. It's obvious that he wants to train his daughter to be the successor of the Commander in Chief of the Crimson Dragon Group.’
‘ Sara's strength is near the Supernal Stage and she is also talented in military tactics. She will be a formidable opponent for our Timber Deity Empire in years to come.’
Some Commanders of the Timber Deity Empire in the camp discussed.
‘ Your Highness, which Commander are you going to send to the battle ground?’ asked a Commander of the Timber Deity Empire.
‘ I will lead the army to the battle ground myself this time,’ Alyssa said, surprising everyone.
‘ Are you going to go to the battle ground?! This may not be a good idea!’  some Commanders said immediately. Their faces were covered with worry.
‘ And why exactly is that?’ Alyssa's cold gaze frightened the Commanders.
‘ Your Highness, the battlefront is dirty and it stinks. You may not eat or sleep well there.’
‘ That's right. I remember you used to command the army in the camp. Why did you decide to go to the battlefront?’
‘ My plan is to give the Crimson Dragon Group a deadly strike. And Sara is my target. To defeat her, I have to confront her myself. That's the only way for me to know her weakness,’ Alyssa said in a determined tone.
All the Commanders exchanged looks. They had rarely seen Alyssa so serious in dealing with an opponent. This made them realize that Sara was not an easy opponent.
‘ It's settled. Go and prepare for it,’ Alyssa said, waving her hand as a gesture for them to leave.
The Commanders immediately went out of the camp.
A few days later, armies of the two countries confronted each other on the Gehenna Border.
Sara led the army herself this time, planning not to give the army of the Timber Deity Empire any chance for winning. However, the army of the Timber Deity Empire, led by Alyssa, also showed morale.
Several battles were fought between the two sides within a few days. The battling zones were seen everywhere, and both sides adopted a lot of tactics.
At this time, Ana was cultivating herself in the abandoned house. Her power now had reached the ninth grade of the Earthly Stage, very close to the Heavenly Stage. But now it was hard to reach the Heavenly Stage using the intermediate and primary Dark Heaven Eggs in a short time.
What's worse, she had to wait for forty days to get one intermediate Dark Heaven Egg. So she needed to find some priceless treasures to assist the cultivation.
Four hours later, Ana opened her eyes and stepped out. She found that her beasts had just returned back.
She guessed they might have bullied other spirit-manipulated beasts because they looked very excited.
Ananta looked very excited after it reached the third grade. It looked cool with the deep red scales. Rubygon looked almost as tall as Ananta.
The red spiritual crystal had been used on Ananta. Otherwise she could have fed it to Rubygon, which would have definitely improved Rubygon a lot.
As for the Rainbow Glow Unicorn, it had completely become a member of Ana's family.
She had been tempting the Rainbow Glow Unicorn several times these days, hoping that it could cooperate with her in collecting data. But the Rainbow Glow Unicorn refused her. So she had to find out a solution.
‘ Oh, I need to go to the logistic camp to check in at work and announce my arrival today!’ Ana said, remembering she had promised Sara to be the captain of the transportation squad and military vet. Although, truth be told, she didn't really want to be the captain of the transportation squad.
She'd accepted the position as a means to remain in the northeastern military camp. The trade-off would pay dividends later. After the northeast military camp moved to the frontier, the original area was remodeled into the logistic camp.
A multitude of army provisions and weapons were moved from base camp to the logistic camp. Today was her first day on the job as captain of the transportation squad.
She arranged for her beasts to stay at their positions, guarding her home, and left for the logistic camp.
When Ana entered the logistic camp, there was an abundance of activity. Soldiers and spirit manipulators came and went, preoccupied with their business.
Ana knew none of them. But she was not surprised by the number of people or the commotion. Since Sara re-established the logistic camp to shorten supply time during the war with Timber Deity Empire, this was to be expected.
The move meant the frontiers could receive army provisions and materials rather quickly. Such things could be the difference between defeat and victory.
The variety of uniforms and crests said the soldiers and spirit manipulators in the logistic camp were transferred from other military camps. Although they were all new faces to Ana, they still knew about her.
The moment she entered the camp, she heard the whispers, and saw the glances her way, the gestures, and pointed fingers. Her name preceded her from her performance in the last contest. And she'd also refused the Commander in Chief in public. That in itself drew attention with some regarding her as if trying to figure out exactly what she was about, what kind of a woman she might be.
Throw in the news that Ana had chosen to be a captain of the transportation squad instead of Frontline Commander and the confusion and assessment was more pronounced. Compared with Frontline Commander, the captain of the transportation squad was a grueling and trifling job.
No one in their right mind would choose as Ana had. But those choices and achievements had turned Ana into a celebrity in the Crimson Dragon Group. Everyone was talking about her all the time.
‘ Ana...’ two excited voices called at the same time.
Ana turned around to see Joss and Isis.
The two of them were happy to see Ana as if they had found some treasures.
‘ Why are you two here?’ Ana frowned at them.
‘ We heard you were the new captain of the transportation squad, so we applied to be with you. Commander Marin transferred us here. We heard about your great performance in the contest. And how you were so cool that you turned down the Frontline Commander post.’ Isis gave a Ana a nod of approval, admiration twinkling in her eye.
‘ Really?’ Ana gave them a skeptical glance. She had a feeling something wasn't quite right.
‘ Where is your Camp Director?’
‘ He is at Commander Marin's tent,’ Joss responded Ana nodded and headed toward Commander Marcia's tent.
After Ana left, Isis whispered to Joss, ‘Hey, do you think Ana suspects anything?’ Joss shook his head.
‘ I doubt it. Commander Marin certainly wouldn't tell anyone that she has us spying on her for her. Or that she was the one who transferred us here without us asking.’ Isis nodded.
‘ I agree. But remember we have to be extra careful. If she finds out, she'll kill us. And there'd be nothing we could do to stop her or even slow her down. She's reached the eighth grade of the Earthly Stage. Killing us is like stepping on an ant.’
They looked at each other before casting a terrified look in Ana's direction.
There was no guard when Ana reached the Commander's camp, so she entered.
Several people were gathered inside the tent having a discussion. A man, with a too smooth face and innocent eyes that spoke of inexperience, sat in the Commander's old spot. The man was young. Ana doubted if he was even thirty.
Everyone in the camp turned to look at Ana as she entered.
‘ You must be Ana.’ The young man stood and dipped his head slightly. Ana nodded without a word.
‘ Nice to meet you. I'm Louis, the new Camp Director of the logistic camp,’ the man said with a smile.
‘ Nice to meet you, Camp Director.’ Ana matched the man's smile with one of her own.
‘ This is the Deputy Camp Director, these are captains, and these are...’ Louis pointed at each person and introduced Ana.
‘  I see,’ Ana said in return.
‘ I came to check in for work. Unless you don't have anything for me, then I can go.’ Ana made to turn to leave.
‘ Hey, that's disrespectful. The Camp Director hasn't said you can go,’ the Deputy Camp Director yelled.
‘ I heard you were arrogant, but this is worse than I expected.’
The others nodded in agreement.
Ana knew what they had to be thinking. They had heard about her, about her exploits, her achievements. They knew she had refused the Commander in Chief. Most likely they figured she was a woman man of great ambition.
‘ The Camp Director hasn't said I couldn't go either. So, why are you so angry?’ Ana glared at the Deputy Camp Director.
‘ You're just a captain. How dare you speak to a Deputy Camp Director like that?’ The man scowled at Ana. His face flushed with anger.
‘ Stop it this moment, for my sake,’  a cool voice said.
Ana and the Deputy Camp Director turned their heads and found it was Louis.
Ana realised Louis wasn't an ordinary man. A camp director would not be tolerant in a situation like this. He would have reprimanded Ana. But Louis didn't show any superiority.
‘ This new Camp Director isn't someone to take lightly, ’ Ana thought.
‘ Captain Ana, we are checking the transportation route from our camp to the frontier. Would you like to join us and see?’ Louis pointed to a map on the table.
Ana stepped forward to look at the map. Then she frowned, shaking her head, and said, ‘ This roadmap isn't feasible. I'll get a better one done.’
‘ Captain Ana, did you know that our Camp Director worked around the clock to complete this map after several sleepless nights?’A captain fixed Ana with a cold stare.
‘ How dare you say 'I'll get a better one done'! Who do you think you are?’ Another captain said,
‘ I think the roadmap is perfect. It's clear and every line is the shortest route.’ He eyed Ana then offered the Camp Director a flattering smile. Others echoed his opinion.
‘ Why do you think this map isn't good enough?’ Louis regarded Ana with a frown but his words were even.
‘ Here... And here... These places have lots of wild spirit-manipulated beasts... There are frequent landslides and falling rocks on this road. And...’ Ana traced her finger along the map and continued with her assessment.
Ana smiled at the sight of Louis and the others in shock. They knew she wasn't making up any of it. And the way she recited everything was as if she were a dictionary.
Before Louis was transferred to the logistic camp, the Deputy Commander in Chief met with him.
Their conversation had, of course, touched upon Ana's presence. It was not technically an official briefing but an informal directive from one leader to another.
The Deputy Commander in Chief wanted to make sure that she would not be entirely clueless about Ana's...uniqueness.
In this way, he knew and expected that Ana was a little peculiar compared to his fellow soldiers.
During their little chat, he found out that Ana's talents were highly praised by the Commander in Chief and the Deputy Commander in Chief. He also heard about Ana's remarkable performance at the Army Flag Contest and when she competed among the six military camps of the Crimson Dragon Group. This little tidbit came not just from the Deputy Commander in Chief but from every person who witnessed the events.
Everyone unanimously agreed that Ana did excellently in the contests. He thought that all these knowledge would ready him for the force of nature that Ana was. He was wrong. He ended up slack jawed as he stared at Ana. He observed how astute Ana was. Ana cleverly pointed out the flaws and mistakes on the route map. No wonder that the Deputy Commander in Chief wanted him specifically in charge of Ana's care.
‘ Camp Director, were our army provisions and materials frequently intercepted when we were at war with the Timber Deity Empire last time?’ Ana asked with her arms across her chest, deep in thought.
Louis nodded. His mouth opened to say something but thought quickly of it and opted to say nothing at all.
‘ How many times have they been intercepted?’ Ana prompted. She had an idea of what the problem was but she needed more information before she could accurately conclude.
‘ The war lasted for three months. During that period, we have been intercepted about ten times,’ Louis replied after some thought.
‘ So, we were intercepted three to four times a month on average. This indicates that the frontier suffered a loss of at least three times less the intended amount of army provisions and materials. Am I right?’ Ana analysed brusquely without sugar-coated words.
Louis winced but nodded. ‘ Ten times is the normal situation,’ Louis explained as he tried to save face.
‘ It is impossible to avoid the army provisions and materials being looted by the enemy. This is basic strategy and they are not fools!’ Ana raised an eyebrow at the Deputy Camp Director's aggressive defense.
‘ If I am the Camp Director, I will not allow anyone to loot our army provisions and materials,’ Ana claimed confidently. She could be presumptuous when she had an idea in mind.
When they heard what Ana said, Louis and the others gaped at her in surprise. They were astonished by Ana's blatant audacity.
‘ Since you are so confident, would you care to help me do that?’ Louis said quickly as he saluted to Ana.
‘ If you exempt me from the transportation missions for a month, I will consider your suggestion and draw a new route map for you.’ Ana smiled as she stated her condition. Obviously, she had planned everything in advance.
‘ Camp Director, don't believe her. She must intend to slack off on the job. She's not planning on drawing us a new route map!’
Ana smirked outwardly when the Deputy Camp Director shouted in opposition.
‘ Okay, I give you my word. But I hope I can see the new route map in three days.’ Louis nodded his acceptance after a short deliberation. He wondered if Ana was as talented as hearsay.
‘ No problem. However, I will be needing several materials and the records of the previous transportation of army provisions and goods.’ Ana nodded in conclusion to Louis.
‘ I'll assign someone to send them to you,’ Louis replied.
Ana was thankful that he was cooperative. She had gotten used to people who treated her badly and challenged her before they realised her brilliance.
Thereafter, Ana spent three days as she collated the materials and the records she was provided with.
A few days were expended when she hunted for spirit-manipulated beasts where she also familiarised herself with the terrain further. With this knowledge, she created a multifunction transportation route map that included multiple routes, emergency routes, retreat routes, and so on.
When Louis saw the multifunction transportation route map, he was totally taken aback with his mouth wide open.
‘ Ana, did you make this all by yourself?’ Louis asked. He found it interesting that Ana finished the perfection that was the new transportation route map in three days.
‘ Is there a problem?’ Ana asked with an eyebrow lifted.
‘ No, of course not. I will personally hand it to the Deputy Commander in Chief at the front and ask her to look it over,’ Louis said promptly as he shook his head in astonishment.
‘ You are going to send it to the Deputy Commander in Chief?’ Ana asked with her eyebrows furrowed in surprise. She was not expecting that. She knew that Sara would be curious who made the new transportation route map once she laid her eyes on it.
She lingered on that thought. But since she wouldn't remain at the logistic camp during the next month, nothing could bother her, not even if the moon and stars fell from the sky.
‘ I sure will!’ Louis replied and nodded. He was silent for a minute but noticed something strange on the route map.
‘ What are the dots at the center of the circles?’ Louis asked as he checked each route. He noticed that every route had this feature.
‘ These dots at the center of the circles refer to the coordination spots. We first send army provisions and goods to the coordination spots halfway, which should remain confidential and secured. Once there, the armies at the front will supply us an escort and transport them to the frontline,’ Ana explained patiently.
‘ But isn't the transportation of army provisions and goods the responsibility of the logistic camp? If we just transport them halfway, that will be too...’ Louis trailed in confusion. He had never heard about a transportation method like this before. It would seem like they did their job halfway and abandoned it. That would be trouble for them.
‘ I wrote the plan in detail here. Read this carefully.’ Tired of the usual question and answer, Ana handed a pamphlet of instructions to Louis.
Satisfied that her work was done, she turned and left.
As soon as Ana left, Louis set out for the tent of the Deputy Commander in Chief at the front. He carried with him the new transportation route map, tucked in his robes like treasure.
‘ Deputy Commander in Chief, I have brought with me the newly made transportation route map,’ Louis announced outside Sara' tent.
He entered and saluted Sara, eager but still respectful. When she nodded her permission, he immediately set the map on her table.
There were seven to eight Elite Commanders and Frontline Commanders, Marcia and Sara not included, when Louis entered the tent.
They looked on curiously from him to the map he had laid down.
When Sara unfolded the new transportation route map, she was shocked and asked,
‘ Louis, did you make this?’
‘ Deputy Commander in Chief, I'm not competent enough to draw that. It was Captain Ana who made it personally.’ Louis told Sara honestly.
‘ Captain Ana? Ana?’ Sara confirmed, astonished.
Once again, Ana had lived up to her expectations which she had deliberately planned for. Ana even exceeded what she had in mind. When they saw her expression, the Elite Commanders and the Frontline Commanders all shifted their attention to the new transportation route map she had clutched in her hand. It did not look anything out of the ordinary to them and they wondered what made her sound so amazed.
‘ Deputy Commander in Chief, is there anything wrong with the new transportation route map?’ Marcia asked immediately when she saw Sara' reaction and heard Ana's name.
‘ Come, see for yourselves.’ Sara gestured for them so they moved closer as she passed it to them carefully.
At first, they weren't able to recognise what it was for. They were all dumbfounded when they got a closer look.
‘ Is this just a transportation route map? It looks more like an attack illustration with so many routes, even including retreat routes...’
‘ That's right. I've never seen such a complicated transportation route map before.’
‘ I think one route is enough. Why take the trouble to do that?’
The Elite Commanders and Frontline Commanders expressed their views respectively after they saw the transportation route map.
‘ Commander Marin, what's your opinion?’ Sara asked as she looked at Marcia.
‘ I think the transportation route map is well planned. It will be able to deal with different kinds of emergencies. Compared with the previous one with only one route, this one is more secure. We had been looted dozens of times by the Timber Deity Empire during the last war. That made a significant impact on the Holy Dragon Empire. It can be said that the new transportation route map made by Captain Ana has taken all these hidden dangers into consideration. But what do these dots at the center of the circles mean?’ Marcia commented when she also noticed the dots.
‘ Oh, that ones. Captain Ana said they stood for the coordination spots,’ Louis explained immediately.
Everyone seemed perplexed about what he meant. Louis was not surprised since this was how he reacted as well.
‘ Coordination spots? What are they for?’ Sara asked Louis. Her head cocked to the side inquisitively. This idea was something she had never seen before.
‘ Captain Ana said this was a new transportation method for the logistic camp. We shall first transport army provisions and goods to the halfway coordination spots. Then the armies at the front will come to our aid and escort us as we transport them to the frontline,’ Louis replied. He made sure he repeated Ana's words accurately since he knew this was not something the others would take lightly. As he expected, his words created a racket in the tent.
The Elite Commanders and the Frontline Commanders were of the opinion that Ana had gone insane. They had been used to the fact that the logistic camp always transported army provisions and goods to the frontline, so it made no sense that they would only send them halfway.
‘ This time, Captain Ana is really out of line! Is she in charge of army provisions and goods delivery? Why should she deliver halfway through the journey and require other troops to coordinate with her?’ An Elite Commander protested heatedly.
Ana's suggestion seemed to evoke the ire of the majority in the tent. Currently, the room was in an uproar as nobody seemed willing to listen to any explanation. They were busy as they aired out their complaints fiercely.
‘ Does Ana realise how full she is of herself. If you look for hubris in a dictionary, her picture would be right next to it. It's a joke how she thinks she can do this to us,’ Flank sneered. He had not forgotten what Ana had done to him. He felt vindicated as he heard how most of the Commanders insulted Ana.
‘ Captain Ana said she has explained why she wanted to do this in this paper. She said she wrote it very clearly as it was of utmost importance for us to understand it.’ Louis felt sweat roll down his spine as he talked. The Commanders weren't angry at him but that knowledge did not help when most of the Commanders were intimidatingly glowering at him.
Despite this, he focused on his task and tried to maintain his calm. He took out the paper written by Ana and handed it over to Sara. Sara opened it carefully and grinned.
‘  I wonder what she was thinking when she did this,’ murmured Sara.
When they heard that, the Commanders looked at each other, but it was obvious not one of them knew what Sara was talking about. Well, except Marcia.
‘ Commander Marin, please look at this and explain it to everyone.’ Sara passed over the paper to Marcia as they exchanged a knowing glance and a smirk that disappeared as quickly as it had come.
Marcia nodded and read the paper loudly so the others would also hear. A look of pleasant surprise and understanding quickly spread across her face. ‘ I devised this method to reduce the chance of interception by the enemy when the army provisions and goods go through the perilous areas. As is known to all, the transportation squad has weak fighting capability and no ability to compete with the troops in the frontier. Based on transportation records from the last three months of war with Timber Deity Empire, the most vulnerable area was close to the frontier. This was where the enemies blocked and intercepted a lot of the supplies and could be considered the most dangerous place. Enemies intercepted our army provisions frequently by using their mobile troops. As a result, the front suffered scarcity of provisions which caused their morale to lower and the soldiers to weaken. We have to be careful of the lack of food or the soldiers could start a mutiny. In dangerous areas, transportation squads could only protect themselves and have no ability to protect the army provisions. If we use this method and our troops are able to escort the supplies from the place close to the frontier, our enemies could not show their insolence through intercepting our army provisions. They would have less to celebrate, and their confidence in battle could even decrease. In this case, the risk of being intercepted declines drastically. Our army provisions will be safer and the consumption during the journey will be reduced too.’
‘ We would be fools to let our troops be scattered. If there is any emergency in the frontier, I am worried that the frontier troop wouldn't have sufficient time to recover and travel back. If the enemies somehow find out about our plans, they might use it to ambush us and defeat the smaller groups easily.’ One of the Commanders shared his doubt after Marcia explained Ana's method.
‘  In this paper, she explained the emergency condition. If the coordination squad doesn't arrive within four hours, the transportation squad will escort the army provisions by themselves,’ Marcia added.
‘ If the transportation squad will only escort the supplies halfway to the destination, it's evident that it will burden the troops at the frontier. The transportation team will have an easier time, yes. But that's a good idea for Captain Ana and not the whole army!’ Flank said with cynicism.
‘ Commander Flank, I haven't finished yet!’ Marcia glared at Flank and continued,
‘ With the original transportation plan, the squad was only able to transport supplies to one front at once. There are only three transportation squads but more than ten fronts. It would take at least two days to transport the supplies to one front. If all three squads worked at the same time, it would take half a month to transport to the ten fronts. The army provisions and supplies delivered by the transportation squad each time could only sustain one front troop for ten days. So, the soldiers in the frontier have to lead a meagre life; on some days, they don't eat at all. How could our soldiers fight properly when they are hungry?’
Several of the Commanders nodded. It seemed that they were finally persuaded by Ana's words.
Marcia knew that this condition was not only factual, but was also a usual way of life for the troops. Most of the soldiers in the frontier did not have enough food and warm clothes. If the war lasted for a long time, there would definitely be a shortage that could greatly affect the result of the battle.
‘ If we adopt this way of transporting the army provisions, we would be able to stabilize the food supply so that our soldiers could fight in a functional state. In this new way, a squad could supply army provisions for three frontier troops in one go. So it would take less days than the previous for these three squads to transport the goods for all troops. We could avoid the shortage of army provisions. On the part of the frontier troops, they could just dispatch a team to the coordination location every couple of days and it would take half a day to reach the coordination location. I think it's better, than to wait and starve until the transportation squad arrives with provisions,’ Marcia explained as she stared down each Commander, as if ready to kill any opposing opinion.
Surprisingly, the Commanders were startled but still accepted her explanation.
They praised Ana as they realised what a big help she had provided. If it worked, it would solve the constant shortage of provisions at the front. Everyone knew that the shortage of provisions was an issue that needed to be addressed.
‘ I think you all understand this method very well now. Our previous method took longer time to supply army provisions for all the frontier troops. Additionally, we couldn't guarantee that the supplies that were transported would make them to the frontiers. In this new way, we can guarantee that each frontier troop can get their supplies in a timely manner and our opponents will not be able to intercept our supplies,’ Sara said firmly with a pleased smile. She felt that this was a really brilliant idea which considered the actual condition of frontiers. Ana made an elaborate and thoughtful roadmap. ’
‘ If you don't have any other concerns, we will use this method from now on. Please arrange teams to receive your supplies according to this method,’ Sara ordered. Her voice demanded immediate obedience and all the Commanders stood at once.
‘ Yes!’ They all responded with a stiff salute.
‘ Considering the excellent performance of the logistic camp and that you just solved a big problem for us, I therefore award them a merit citation second class,’ Sara added. She was strict with the rules and executed disciplinary measures when needed, but she was fair when she deemed the troops deserving a reward or two.
All of Commanders looked at Louis sharply. They were obviously jealous and envious, convinced that Louis had only gotten this citation because of Ana's brilliance.
They thought of him as a beginner, who had taken office just a few days earlier and now had a merit citation second class. They all thought they could do better, if they were also in the right place at the right time just as he was.
‘ To be honest, Ana worked out this plan and we owe everything to her. I couldn't take this credit. It should be Ana's,’ Louis said modestly as he arched his hands. He would not dare to take the credit for himself.
‘ I think Ana could not care less about the second-class merit. It belongs to you so take it. She might have done this for something else,’ Sara said.
She understood Ana very well and knew that she would refuse this second class merit anyway, just so she would not be promoted.
Louis smiled awkwardly and thought that he had promised Ana a month of holiday for this plan. Obviously, Ana got what she wanted and lost nothing at all.
Sara knew the answer as soon as she saw Louis' reaction, but she opted not to ask him any further questions.
She just asked the Commanders and Louis to leave with the exception of Marcia.
‘ What did I say, Marcia? ’ Sara said to Marcia with a confident smile on her pretty face.
‘ She is the kind of woman who will amaze the people with a brilliant feat once she promises to do it,’ Marcia said and then continued, ‘ When do you plan to transfer her to the frontier?’
‘ I'm still waiting for the appropriate moment. I can feel it's not the right time yet. We need to wait patiently...’ Sara said, a pensive expression on her face.
Marcia nodded in agreement. Waiting was always the most difficult part.
Given that Ana had a one-month holiday, she organized a journey of cultivation. After she arranged everything for her journey, she set off with Ananta, Rubygon, and the Rainbow Glow Unicorn.
Reaching the Heavenly Stage was the prime reason the journey was established.
Ana had no other rare treasures to assist her cultivation. She had only the Dark Heaven Eggs and the magical saliva. Although the two treasures she possessed were miraculously effective, she yet needed more of such a kind. Progressing through to the Heavenly Stage was not a walk in the park. That was an upgrade between two stages. Except for proficient vigor, one still required some rare treasures to provide aid.
At a life and death moment, they would save a spirit manipulator one-half of the effort during upgrading. Seeking rare treasures for such a juncture became her most essential task. For ordinary spirit manipulators, this would be being in cloud cuckoo land.
This was unlike Ana's case, where it would be like shooting fish from a barrel. The reason was that she had a helper that was so perfect at such an occasion. It would be a tremendous loss if she did not grab the golden opportunity and make good use of the Rainbow Glow Unicorn.
After all, she could not authenticate whether the unicorn would surface next time.
Her other purpose during this trip was to assemble the specimens of different spirit-manipulated beasts. She needed to investigate the genomes of spirit-manipulated beasts of distinct types based on the data analysis of immense information.
That was an arduous task, and accomplishing it within a brief duration of time would be like drawing blood from a turnip. Therefore, Ana's purpose for this trip was to collect the samples of twenty kinds of spirit-manipulated beasts.
Myriad Beasts Ground was Ana's destination as she planned to head for the northeast. It was by sheer luck that Ana heard of that place. She heard it when she was leaving the headquarters and picking up her carriage and things from the Super Beast Farm.
It was discerned that no one was in the limelight on how massive the Myriad Beasts Ground was.
The main reason was no one had succeeded in passing through that place. As one entered it and progressed further, they would discover more disconcerting aspects of it. Numerous wild spirit-manipulated beasts of all kinds were all present in the Myriad Beasts Ground.
In the same instance, that was an exceedingly dangerous place. Nearly all of the spirit-manipulated beasts in there were three-star ones.
Ana also discovered from the others that someone had set her eyes on the four-star and even five-star spirit-manipulated beasts in that place. Thus, even the spirit manipulators above the Supernal Stage didn't dare to get in the Myriad Beasts Ground alone. Usually, they merely strolled around the outside area of the Myriad Beasts Ground in case of a disaster.
Ana was conscious that such a place where plenty of spirit-manipulated beasts lived, rich spiritual power, and rare treasures were in existence.
In other words, the Myriad Beasts Ground was unquestionably an outstanding choice for her to discover and pick up clues on what she required for cultivation.
Time moved quickly like greased lightning. Ana and the three beasts had kicked off for half a day already.
Having the three beasts as her bodyguards to guard her, she gathered quite a few weak spirit-manipulated beasts' specimens with ease like clockwork.
Currently, there were no wild spirit-manipulated beasts posed a threat to her. Meanwhile, the three beasts often rambled around and became a thorn in the flesh as they tormented them. Thus, most of the spirit-manipulated beasts nearby didn't have the guts to stroll out frequently.
If any beast was unfortunate to bump into the three, it would be harassed by the three in turn before Ana had a snowball chance in hell to fight it.
They still required twenty-four hours to reach the Myriad Beasts Ground.
Ana decided to have a break. After she led the three beasts to a cozy sight, she hunkered down and closed her eyes to recharge her batteries. However, the Rainbow Glow Unicorn suddenly began moving restlessly as a cat on a hot tin roof. Taking heed of that, Ana perceived that there must be some rare treasures around.
She was acquainted with such a reaction from the Rainbow Glow Unicorn. This was a clear indication of one thing. It had found a trace of rare treasures.
‘ Bad boy, what did you discover?’ Ana uttered to the Rainbow Glow Unicorn as she reached out a bottle of the magical saliva.
The magical saliva Ananta generated shot up from five drops a day to seven. This was after it upgraded. The setback that demand outstripped supply was finally overcome.
Upon viewing the bottle in Ana's hand, the Rainbow Glow Unicorn's eyes lit up with an inkling of wistfulness, while the soft glimmer of his lucid eyes betrayed the poet and the dreamer. Afterwards, it got close to her.
‘ I will gladly supply you two drops only if you guide me to have a peek of the marvelous thing you have discovered,’ Ana said, trying to sweet-talk it with the magical saliva.
The Rainbow Glow Unicorn seemed to get a grasp of what Ana was talking about, and it regularly cast darts at the magical saliva in her hand.
After being on the fence for a while, it roared like a lion. Suddenly it rushed in a precise direction.
Upon seeing that, Ana bellowed Ananta, and Rubygon pumped their legs, gaining momentum with each push. They quickened their pace until steps became leaps after the Rainbow Glow Unicorn.
After some time, Ana and the two beasts, led by the Rainbow Glow Unicorn, came to a valley that had a wild outpouring of vegetation and was inundated by three cliffs.
In the center of the valley, there was a tranquil green lake. The Rainbow Glow Unicorn halted by the lake and again spun around to glance at Ana and the two beasts.
After Ana walked to the Rainbow Glow Unicorn, she peeked at the tranquil lake. She then turned to the Rainbow Glow Unicorn to ask, ‘Is the exceptional thing you've discovered in the lake?’
The Rainbow Glow Unicorn raised its head and gave out a loud awe-inspiring roar, and then blinked at Ana.
‘ Well, I presume I require to dive into the lake for the treasure you've discovered’ Ana said as she stroked her chin.
She took out everything from her pocket and took off her tops. She promptly jumped into the lake after finishing everything.
Ana inhaled a heavy deep whiff and held it on, and then she dived into the lake. The lake was more profound than her expectations.
After diving down for meters, she eventually captured a peek of the bottom. There were plenty of water plants and sludge at the bottom. What baffled Ana was she did not see any fish or creature in the lake.
The lake was as quiet as a church mouse. After searching around for a while, her search bore no fruits since she discovered nothing at all.
Ana threw in the towel and swam back to the surface.
‘ Hey you! Are you certain as monument of brass there is a wonderful thing in the lake?’ Ana inquired the Rainbow Glow Unicorn, snorting for air. The Rainbow Glow Unicorn nodded.
‘ Well, then I'd better give it another shot.’ Ana shook her head and dived into the lake again. An hour afterward, she yet discovered nothing at all.
‘ I can't believe that even you will make a mistake sometime,’ Ana said to the Rainbow Glow Unicorn with wide eyes after she went back to the land.
She was accustomed to such a scenario. Previously, she regularly found nothing following the Rainbow Glow Unicorn. Out of the very depths of the Rainbow Glow Unicorn, flowed all its emotion, and as the groaning flow passed its lips, it became a cry of confession, a wail reaching out for redemption. The Rainbow Glow Unicorn then looked at Ana innocently.
‘ Very well, then! Don't stare at me that way. I will give you one drop, okay? It's your tip.’ Ana took out the bottle and pour a drop of the magical saliva in her palm, and then she reached her hand in front of the Rainbow Glow Unicorn.
However, the Rainbow Glow Unicorn didn't take it. Instead, it turned to peer at the serene lake.
Ana felt awkward about that, and she followed its sight to peer at the lake. All of a sudden, a turbulent vortex appeared at the center of the lake and continued whirling. The original serene lake now became furious. In a moment, a water pillar spurt out in the center of the whirlpool and sprinkled water in every direction.
Suddenly, a wild spirit-manipulated beast slowly rose from the vortex. It looked like a giant lizard with three tails. Its whole body was covered with a thick film like a bizarre water gloss, which could function as a natural disguise. Its three tails swung in the air haphazardly.
The spirit-manipulated beast was like a chameleon, its color changed and adapted to blend with its environment.
‘ A Three-tailed Aquatic Lizard!’ Ana exclaimed excitedly when she saw the spirit-manipulated beast. Her eyes sparkled with eagerness and curiosity.
As stated by the Beast Encyclopedia, the Three-tailed Aquatic Lizard was a special spirit-manipulated beast, similar to the Dark Heaven Insect. What differentiated it from the Dark Heaven Insect was that the Three-tailed Aquatic Lizard could not lay eggs.
In its stead, it produced the Water Essence Pill as it absorbed the spiritual power continually since it lived under water.
The quality and power of the Water Essence Pill were heavily associated with the level of the beast. The highest grade for the beast was four stars. And a four-star beast could produce the highest-level Water Essence Pill.
Although the beast in front of her was only a three-star one, she could tell that the power of the pill inside the body was much stronger than that of a medium-grade Dark Heaven Egg. And the Three-tailed Aquatic Lizard was just as rare as the Dark Heaven Insect due to its innate hiding ability.
If they did not want to show themselves, even the master of the Supernal Stage could not find any traces of them. It was often said that even if the beast stood right in front of the master, she would still be unable to sense it. That was definitely not an exaggeration.
‘ It looks like it's only at the lower third grade of three stars, but it has amazing strength equal to the spirit manipulator of the preliminary level of the Heavenly Stage.’ Ana analysed the beast quickly. Her mind scrutinized each feature as she decided how she could defeat it.
‘ Let's get started!’ Ana firmly commanded Ananta and Rubygon. Since Ananta and Rubygon had cooperated with each other plenty of times in the past, they already knew each other's fighting style well.
They separated immediately after they received the order from Ana.
Meanwhile, the Rainbow Glow Unicorn suddenly headed to Ana instead of the enemy and took all of the magical saliva in her hand. When it finished that, the Rainbow Glow Unicorn seemed to glow in satisfaction and disappeared.
‘ What a yellow-bellied but gluttonous kid.’ Ana shrugged but she really could not do anything about the beast.
In fact, that was not first time that the Rainbow Glow Unicorn did that. It behaved like a rascal when the Rainbow Glow Unicorn started getting along with her. Ana was kind of annoyed by the Unicorn but she had not come up with a solution to that problem yet.
That wasn't her priority. Her priority at that moment was to kill that beast. She needed to attain that Water Essence Pill which was more precious and more powerful than a Dark Heaven Egg.
Ana was confident because she had prepared herself well. She seized the bottle of the magical saliva she had and hurried backwards. The Three-tailed Aquatic Lizard was successfully lured by the magical saliva and followed Ana.
But when they had come close to the shore, the beast stopped with its eyes still fixed on Ana. When she noticed that, Ana stayed where she was and gestured for Ananta and Rubygon subtly. Obediently,  Ananta and Rubygon rushed towards the beast, their fangs bared in a snarl.
However, the Three-tailed Aquatic Lizard was not even surprised by the attack of the two beasts. It calmly swung its giant head and two water bombs flew out towards Ananta and Rubygon.
The bombs looked powerful and reached a length of two meters.
Bang! Bang!
The bombs exploded in front of the two beasts. Ananta and Rubygon were knocked back due to its tremendous impact.
‘ It's a pretty tough nut to crack, huh?’ Ana frowned at the whole situation. After a short deliberation, she took out the Frozen Wind Dagger and whistled for Rubygon.
At once, Rubygon advanced towards the beast again. The beast reacted quickly and was able to dodge Rubygon. It threw two more water bombs to Rubygon in retaliation. Rubygon dodged the water bombs effortlessly. They missed their target and flew off past Rubygon.
At the same time,  Ananta whole body was covered by a red armor that looked like a burnt iron sheet. Moreover,  Ananta's body was on fire, the air heated up around it. The fire extended from  Ananta's sides like a pair of fiery wings.
These wings started beating hard, and Ananta  took off towards the beast. The beast sensed the danger from the other side. It intended to send out another water bomb towards Ananta  and Ana but the two were quick to act.
Ana threw the Frozen Wind Dagger to the beast and watched as it blew up like an ice flame with thick spiritual power.
To Ana's surprise, even before the blow reached its body, the beast had been enveloped in a shining light and water film. The blow collided with the film with a loud bang. It created several ripples on the film before it got quiet again.
Then the beast sent out three water bombs at the same time to Ana. It was so fast that Ana didn't have enough time to escape and was trapped in a sticky situation.
Ana's heart dropped but she kept moving. She activated the Nebula Cloud Transformation that could resist several water bombs all at once. The problem was that the Nebula Cloud Transformation only cancelled out two of them.
Another bomb was about to reach Ana in under a minute, one that could not be cancelled out by the Nebula Cloud Transformation. Just in time, a fire ball cut in and hit it.
Ana quickly stepped back and let out a relieved breath.
She had broken into cold sweat, droplets of sweat gathered on her forehead and nape. She would have gotten badly injured if not for Ananta's timely assist.
Ana knew she needed to break through that water film to get that pill. Unfortunately, the film was so strong that even the Frozen Wind Dagger enhanced spiritual power could not penetrate into it.
‘ Ananta, have a try.’ Ana ordered Ananta after she recovered from the last attack. She was more cautious now and she needed more data before she could strategize properly.
She made her spiritual beast hit that water film. If her beast could not succeed, then it was impossible to get the pill.
Ananta activated all of its power and the flames around it burned brighter. Powered up, Ananta rushed towards the Three-tailed Aquatic Lizard. The beast did not stop either.
It sent out several high-speed compressed water bombs to Ananta. Through the gap between those attacks, Ananta dived down and got closer to the beast. It struck hard against the water film. Steam sizzled out from where Ananta had dug its claws.
At first, the steam gave Ana hope. But when she noticed that all Ananta's fire power accomplished was that it made the beast steam, she realized she was in big trouble. Despite the fact that the Three-tailed Aquatic Lizard was only at the third grade of three stars, it seemed that it was more powerful than any other beast with the same level.
Nothing Ananta did seemed to have an effect on the beast and she was at a loss.
Ana ordered Ananta and Rubygon and they attacked continuously.
This way, the beast was sufficiently distracted as she tried to think of a plan.
Ana rattled her mind for everything she knew about the beast.
‘ If we can't break down its shield even for a short time, we at least need to block its attack. It seemed that water bomb was its only way of attacking. If we can block the water bomb, there is no other choice for it but to give up,’ Ana muttered to herself.
She once again consulted the Beast Encyclopedia in her mind for the information about the beast.
According to the book, there was a special organ that enabled the beast to compress water into a bomb. And obviously, the source of the water was not its own body but the pool.
If she could just separate the beast from the water, she could stop it from producing bombs. Yeah, that was a good plan. Now to the hard part, how was she supposed to do that?