Phantasia: The Princess Knight

Chapter 16: Demonic Forest

Alicia looked at the seven stars on the water bear's forehead and wondered what god's foot she stepped on to be running into such bad luck as soon as she was back in the outside world. Berlin, who had quickly caught up to Alicia, face sank when he saw the water bear. He was now glad that he had followed her! But he held back from helping her since this was supposed to be a training mission for her. He would not help unless she was about to die.

The water bear wasted no time in opening its mouth and firing off a few water needles that pierced through the air at an amazing speed. Alicia reacted quickly and dodged to the side and watched as the water needles smashed trees in half as they passed through them almost unhindered. Alicia did not let this disturb her as she quickly casted protection magic on herself and readied her sword.

"I do not know why you are so mad Mr. Water Bear but I did not mean to make you angry. So why don't we just call it a truce and I will be on my way?" Five star demonic beasts and above are able to understand human speech. So Alicia asking the water bear for a truce although abnormal was not something that was completely wrong. If the water bear was only protecting its territory it might allow you to pass through. Unfortunately, Alicia's question seemed to have fallen on deaf ears.

*Roar!*

The water bear once again roared out and shot out another round of water needles. Alicia agily dodged them before firing off five fire spears at the water bear. This action of not only dodging its attacks but also attacking it at the same time, caused the water bear to become even more enraged. Seeing how its water needles were not hitting its target the water bear dodged the fire spears and then charged at Alicia.

Alicia stayed calm. She was not as scared as she thought she would be. She chanted to herself "Kill it before it kills me! Kill it before it kills me!" Alicia got into her serene state and readied her sword and charged forward.

Berlin, who was watching everything from the side was nervous but astonished at the same time. Although Alicia could be considered what's called an Infinity Star Magician due to all her Magi Points. She was still young and inexperienced in real combat. The dummies he made for her to fight against did not have real intelligence. The seven star water bear had the intelligence of a fifteen year old. So it was actually very smart! But from what he was seeing was a little girl who was now eight years old, was going toe to toe with a seven star water bear like it was the easiest thing in the world to do!

Alicia had no idea why but she was finding the fight very fun! She was able to move her body so freely thanks to the training she received from Berlin that she was easily dodging the swift attacks of the water bear. Because of this, she decided to use this water bear to train a bit for the battles ahead! So every slice of her sword on the water bear's skin was very shallow and would only draw a bit of blood.

At this point, Berlin who watched Alicia fight did not know if he should feel bad for the water bear or not! She was literally using it to train! He actually had to give Alicia a lot of credit for having the courage to do something like this. Most squires were barely able to take on a three star demonic beast, never mind a seven star demonic beast and on top of it all, use that said seven star demonic beast as a training partner! Berlin shook his head and kept a watch over Alicia just in case anything happened.

The water bear's eyes were bursting with rage. It knew that the little human in front of it was just messing with it and using it as a practice tool! Finally after being slashed once again by the little human the water bear jumped back away from her no longer wanting to attack her.

Seeing this Alicia felt a little disappointed since she was having fun. But she did learn a lot from the exchanges she had just now. She was using wind magic to adjust her position mid air in order to dodge the barrage of attacks from the water. This allowed her to seem like she was floating on the wind with every pass of the water bears claws. But now seeing the water bear back off she could tell the water bear was no longer interested in fighting. She simply bowed her head to the water bear and said: "Thank you for the exchange just now. I have learned a lot."

The water bear snorted and motioned with its head for her to go. It had not felt any killing intent from the little girl this entire time. Although it was mad it did not want to make the little human want to go all out in a fight to the death. The water bear did not know if it would be able to kill it or not. It just wanted the little human to go away so it can wash its shame of not being able to win against a little human away.

Alicia bowed her head once more before waving at the water bear, sheathing her sword, and continuing on her way. Berlin, who witnessed the whole scene was shocked. He had never seen such a scene before! Humans and demi humans were considered at war with the demonic beasts. Those demonic beasts that are twelve star demonic beasts and up that are one step away from becoming holy beasts are able to take human form and hate humans to death. They wage war on all humans and demi humans all the time. But here there was a kind of mutual exchange between demonic beast and human! There was no battle to the death, just a simple sparring match!

Berlin looked at the water bear who was licking its wounds and smiled. His body flashed and reappeared next to the water bear startling it. "I do not know why you stopped fighting with my little disciple but I thank you for going easy on her. In return as a show of thanks, I will heal your wounds." After finishing his words a green glow surrounded the water bear which scared it at first but soon saw that its wounds were slowly closing up. The water bear gave Berlin a nod before walking off.

"My dear Alicia, my daughter, you have shown me so many amazing things since I first met you. I wonder what you will show me next... " Letting out a sigh and forming a smile on his face Berlin looked up at the sky. He wondered what the future would hold for his new daughter and how she would react when she finds out that he had adopted her without her knowledge. Not to mention that she was now the Third Princess of the Kingdom of Alastine. Pushing his thoughts aside he chased after Alicia once again