The Spider Queen

(Hydra Star System- Planet Eleron)

(Training Field No.12- Special Arena)

"Speculum illusion," Astrid softly whispered as she felt the mana flow through her body.

Blue runes floated above her right palm as the Mendolesa mage closed her eyes and felt the steady beating of her heart.

When she reopened her eyes, Astrid saw four mirror images of herself that were completely identical.

She gestured using a series of simple hand signals and the mirror images nodded in acknowledgement.

These images were mere illusions and did not have any offensive capabilities. However, they could serve as a useful distraction.

They rushed forward and approached the beast that was still roaring loudly amidst the snowstorm.

Astrid jumped up on a nearby rock to get a better position to view the upcoming fight.

In ordinary circumstances, the headstrong girl would have been the first to dive into battle, but this exam was too important.

Astrid knew that she could not afford to drop out of the elite student class, so she was prepared to act more cautiously.

The beast's three snake-like heads turned in the direction of the incoming figures and fiercely hissed in a hoarse growly voice.

It crouched down and then leapt forward. Its middle head opened up wide and an enormous torrent of blue fire emerged from its maw.

This fire made the temperature drop even further and Astrid could feel the chill from a few hundred meters away.

One of her clones was instantly frozen and with a casual swing of the beast's tail, it was shattered to pieces.

The remaining three clones ran off in different directions, so the beast was left momentarily confused and disoriented.

It roared several times as if to say to come back here.

Eventually it focused on the mirror image running to the north and its slender body slithered on the ground towards its target.

"Spatium lamina!" Astrid chanted as she stretched out her left palm.

The space around her fingers rippled slightly and an invisible wave shot forward.

This wave continued uninterrupted and slammed into the creature's exposed back. It roared in fury as a long gaping wound was opened up in the middle of its back.

It turned in the direction of the attack and saw a clone waving at it with a teasing expression.

The beast lost its mind and rushed forward with green blood spilling out of the open wound.

Astrid quietly shifted her body behind the large rock and moved towards a different location before firing off another attack.

This time she took several minutes to gather the mana flowing through her body as she prepared to invoke a high order spell.

"Flamma… gehennae…" Astrid softly muttered as she felt the hair on her arms begin to stand up.

"Eum… conburet… ad… mortem!"

A large red circle appeared below the body of the animal. The beast barely had any time to react before a massive pillar of flame rose up from the ground.

The beast screamed in pain as it felt its dull and rotted skin burned away under the high temperature of Astrid's flames.

Astrid continued to channel her mana into the spell but just as the beast was about to die, she quickly jumped to the side and cut off her mana.

Swish!

A thin needle passed mere inches away from Astrid's neck. The Mendolesa girl turned around and saw dozens of tiny furry creatures staring at her with thin red beady eyes.

These furry enemies had long spikes along their backs with sharp barbs that gleamed dangerously under the sunlight.

They were around the size of her paw and had faces that resembled the rodents on ancient Earth.

"Spatium lanuae!" Astrid quickly chanted as she wrapped her body with disrupted space.

Her figure blurred and then vanished from the spot.

She reappeared quite a significant distance away and kept a wary eye on the tiny furry creatures that began to sniff the air.

They immediately found her new position and a barrage of sharp spines were hurled in her direction.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Astrid ducked and weaved through the endless barrage and quickly casted a barrier spell to deflect the ones that she could not avoid.

The three headed monster now lay helplessly in the snow with its green blood spilling on the ground.

It was approaching death, but Astrid could not spare any extra energy to finish it off.

Hopefully if it died then she would still get the maximum number of points.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Astrid let out a low growl as she turned her attention to the wave of tiny enemies scurrying towards her location.

The spines of their backs seemed to be regenerating rapidly so there was no end in sight to the barrage.

"Ignis pila omnia conburet!" Astrid roared in anger. Dozens of floating balls of flame appeared around her body.

She pointed her finger at the incoming wave of enemies and numerous fireballs flew towards them.

A loud explosion erupted when the fireballs came in contact with the ground.

Astrid dashed forward and quickly pulled out a crossbow from her storage ring. She loaded the bolt in the weapon with familiar motions and aimed it at the large fallen monster.

The Mendolesa mage gritted her teeth and fired the bolt.

She enchanted the bolt with death magic, so its sharpened end was covered in a thin layer of black haze.

Astrid bent her knees and jumped forward several meters. She used the cover of the chunks of ice and snow piles to conceal her figure.

It was hard to know what the criteria was for gaining points when it came to defeating the enemies inside the tundra biome.

Were all creatures worth the same number of points? Or was it based on size or perhaps the danger rating?

Astrid's fireball spell had eliminated most of the furry animals but dozens more were emerging from the ice and staring at her with hungry expressions.

It was time to get out of here.

Normal mage apprentices did not possess large enough mana pools to sustain constantly casting spell after spell.

Even Astrid was beginning to feel the strain of casting so many spells in a row.

The Mendolesa mage pulled a glass bottle out of her storage ring and swallowed its blue contents in one smooth gulp.

She could feel her mana pool slowly begin to regenerate.