The Spider Queen

(Hydra Star System- Planet Eleron)

(Training Field No.12- Special Arena)

Cleo continued to jump and move around unpredictably as the hooded figures flung explosive devices in her direction.

Large areas of the forest were instantly destroyed in the fiery explosions and the once lush greenery had now become blackened and burnt.

The princess stared at the barrier shield as a thought flashed across her mind.

She had never attempted something like this before but there was a first time for everything.

Mental force could be used to manipulate objects in the real world. It was known as telekinesis and Cleo was decently proficient at using her mental force to pick up small objects.

What if she controlled the plasma shots that came out of her rifle?

Cleo narrowed her eyes as she began to gather up the mental force inside her mind.

It was quite the difficult task.

She had to constantly avoid the incoming attacks while ignoring the thunderous booms that were produced from the explosions.

Sophie's face flashed across Cleo's mind, and she felt a sudden burst of determination to implement her risky plan.

The princess took in a few deep breaths and lined up her rifle above the top of the barrier shield. Her finger gently stroked the trigger before she pulled it with a soft touch.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three plasma rounds were fired off from the tip of her rifle and flew slightly above the enormous barrier.

Cleo concentrated and felt a sudden burst of pain in her temples as she wasted a decent chunk of her mental force.

The three bullets flew in a straight line above the shield before plunging downwards at a ninety degrees angle and striking the creature who controlled the device.

The N'grean tribesmen could not believe what had just happened and were only able to look at each other with expressions of shock as the barrier disappeared.

Cleo was not going to waste this opportunity and her finger continued to mercilessly press the trigger.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Each of her shots were subtly guided by her mental force and struck the creatures in the middle of their foreheads.

They collapsed on the ground one after the other and soon the forest returned to its peaceful atmosphere.

Well except for the fires that were currently raging in the background.

Cleo wiped a few beads of sweat from her brow and staggered towards a nearby tree where she took a short two-minute break to recover her strength.

She had to keep moving since the quest wasn't over yet.

Cleo glanced up at the leaderboard and saw that Qiana had already completely a medium difficulty quest.

She was in first place and was joined by a handful of students who had just completed easy difficulty quests.

Cleo forced her body to move forward, and she walked through the jungle with a steely glint of determination in her eyes.

First place was hers…

It was fortunate that she had chosen to wear a battlesuit to the arena since the vines in her path were covered in thick spiky thorns.

Cleo trekked through the forest and eventually returned to the beach where the robotic android man was still standing.

"Did you rescue my daughter from that wretched tribe?" the android man hurriedly asked as he rushed over.

"No… your daughter didn't need rescuing… she is their queen and from what I saw… I'm pretty sure that she is their beloved ruler," Cleo hesitantly replied.

The android man froze in place and an expression of rage flashed across his metalloid face as he stared at Cleo.

"Why didn't you fulfil my request?! I thought that I gave you an assignment to complete," he roared in anger.

Cleo was too lazy to care about his reaction and simply ignored him as she ran towards the sea and jumped into the water.

The android man trembled in fury and stretched out his right arm. His hand was transformed into a miniature plasma cannon which he then aimed that the figure of the princess.

BOOM!

An enormous wave of blue light flew towards Cleo at a frightening speed.

She quickly ducked beneath the waves and barely avoided the beam as it passed mere inches away from her head.

A qi tide cultivator was able to hold their breath for hours at a time, so Cleo decided to stay underwater and swam for around ten minutes in a northern direction.

She resurfaced once she saw the faint outline of her boat above the waves. The princess hurriedly climbed into the sea faring vessel and the boat hummed to life.

The boat began to sail away from the island and the android man's energy attacks could no longer reach Cleo from that distance.

Buzz! Buzz!

Cleo's wrist communicator vibrated, and she saw that a notification had appeared in her inbox with details about her current quest.

[Hidden Objective: Survive The Wrath Of The Queen]

[Difficulty: Hard]

[Quest Status: Completed!]

The lines of text that appeared on the floating holographic screen above the arena changed and now Cleo was in first place.

The princess smiled proudly when she saw her ranking but knew that there was still quite a bit of time left.

Every student had been given a map of the archipelago on their wrist communicators, so Cleo pondered her next destination.

Her original plan was to try an island that was classified as 'insane' but after completing a hard difficulty quest, she decided to take a small break to recover her mental strength.

Cleo browsed the list of islands and finally found one that was not too far away from her current location.

It was an island with a tundra biome and an enormous mountain range with snow capped peaks.

The difficult was only medium so hopefully it would this would be a much easier experience than her last quest.

Cleo checked the coordinates on the map and inputted them exactly into the boat's navigation system.

The boat sailed automatically as Cleo looked forward to her next adventure.

The NPCs had been quite unique so far and it was exciting to know that the decisions she made on the islands would affect the kind of quest that she would be offered.