Siege

At a certain point in time, Fran felt a gravitational pull that caused her to momentarily lose her senses. When she regained consciousness, the first thing she felt was light.

Sunlight streamed onto the Stone Tablet road, surrounded by a slightly messy street, and a number of oddly dressed people were staring at him.

They wore leather clothes, and although the fabric was grayish-yellowish-brown, their clothes were adorned with several uniquely colored stones, making them look much more attractive.

Fran looked to the side and found that she seemed to be surrounded only by those people. Not only Velint not by her side, but she also did not see any Spirit Realm Traveler.

"Who is she?"

"They seem to be outsiders."

"Outsiders? Did you notify the guards?"

Fran had just sorted out her thoughts and before she could react, a commotion suddenly broke out in the crowd.

A gap appeared in the crowd, and several people dressed differently walked out.

Their clothes were covered with spikes made of various stones, distributed on their chests and arms. Strangely, their clothes seemed to be made of cloth, as if they had no armor at all.

They were carrying weapons, which were significantly larger than any Fran had ever seen in the Material Realm; she could feel the weight of the broad Axe.

Fran instinctively reached for her longsword, but after a moment's hesitation, she realized that bringing the weapon into the Spirit Realm required special handling.

However, she couldn't find the relevant craftsmanship in the City of Apprentices. Even when Teacher Ichi wanted to bring the weapon into the Spirit Realm, he had to send the item to another place and then send it back, which was very troublesome.

Therefore, she did not bring her longsword; she only has a purple short blade on her now.

Fran drew her Short Sword directly from her waist with her left hand, and held the book in her right hand to prevent it from falling if the fight broke out.

Fran believed she was taking precautions, but the other side didn't see it that way. A leader spoke sternly:

"Outsiders, lay down your weapons!"

Fran certainly couldn't lay down her weapon on the first strike. In her understanding, even if the two sides eventually resolved the issue peacefully, it would take several scuffles before she would put down her weapon to show that she was friendly.

In her view, her goal was to save the city, so naturally it had nothing to do with the people in the city.

"No, I can't lay down my weapon."

As she spoke, she brandished her weapon, indicating that she would never put it down now.

But something she didn't expect happened: the other party simply sneered.

"Then don't put it down. Go for it, just don't kill it, capture it alive."

Then the other person picked up the Axe, raised it above their head, and charged straight at her.

This left Fran somewhat bewildered. Why did they just start fighting? Shouldn't they have faced off for a while, then shake hands and make peace? Why did they just start fighting without any hesitation?

Since the opponent launched an attack directly, Fran had no choice but to prepare for battle.

She gripped her dagger tightly and blocked the attack as the opponent's Axe was about to fall.

The purple blade jammed the Axe, preventing it from moving downwards even an inch. The axe, still moving forward due to inertia, paused for a moment, barely maintaining its balance.

Fran felt the force of the attack; she almost couldn't block it. The opponent's strength was greater than she had imagined.

"Is this Trial really that difficult? How come even the passing soldiers have such great strength?" Fran wondered.

She also noticed five or six other people dressed similarly hurrying past behind the other person, indicating that these guards were just ordinary soldiers, not elite monsters or anything like that.

Although she suffered from the disadvantage of the weapon's size, the opponent's strength was immense; even with her physique, she could only barely withstand it. What about the other Spirit Realm Traveler?

According to her observations, the physical constitutions of other Spirit Realm Traveler were generally lower than hers, with only a few being comparable to hers or at most slightly exceeding it.

She dared to say that if those Spirit Realm Traveler didn't have very powerful Combat Technique, they probably couldn't even defeat a single soldier.

Still engaged in battle, Fran suppressed her thoughts and began to focus on the fight.

What the other party found even more unacceptable was that Fran had blocked his giant axe attack with a small dagger.

"This is impossible! I drank the Divine Water, so why is the opponent's power greater than mine?"

This prevented him from taking any further action, instead causing him to mechanically apply force to the Axe.

Fran sidestepped forward, the force that had blocked the giant axe vanished instantly, and the Purple Shortsword flashed forward from the side, leaving the giant axe only able to slide downwards due to inertia, unable to make any other reaction.

Fran stared at the man's neck and decided it was better not to use the dagger to finish him off. What if they made peace? It would be difficult to talk things out if she killed him.

So she moved her left elbow forward, the Short Sword downward, her wrist reaching her chest, and with a burst of instantaneous force, she slammed her elbow into the opponent's face.

The man gripped his weapon tightly and was knocked back a few steps by the elbow, but he regained his balance and used one hand to rub the spot where he had been hit.

Fran, however, was savoring the feeling of her strike on her opponent and something felt off.

"It's too hard! How can someone have such tough skin?!" Logically speaking, if Fran had hit someone who was only slightly stronger, they would probably have fainted on the spot, and their skull would have been deformed.

Fran, on the other hand, felt as if she had hit wood, and when she looked at the spot where the other person had been hit, there was only a slight bruise, and it seemed that they had not been injured.

"How are you?" another enemy asked, helping the fallen man up.

"It's alright, let's attack together. The guy's pretty strong," the man said, regaining his senses. He put his hands back on his weapon, seemingly preparing to fight again.

"We can talk," Fran suggested.

"What's there to talk about? Let's talk after you put down your weapons!" Fran's response was to have the other party charge at her again, about to launch an attack.

Fran frowned; judging from the other person's expression, it seemed they had no intention of communicating.

She glanced around and decided not to waste any more time. Another guard in the same uniform noticed the situation and was about to step into the crowd.

"Let's go find Velint; let's not waste time with these people."

Fran knew that staying here would be a waste of time, as enemies might keep coming.

So she activated her Breathing Technique and Mental Power, which greatly improved her physical fitness.

However, due to the existence of the Spirit Realm, she dared not add all the enhancements to her Mental Power, so after the enhancements, her constitution level reached around 5.5.

When one of the guards, who was still outside, squeezed through the crowd, he saw only this: his three colleagues were lying on the ground groaning in pain, and he saw no one else.