As the sky dimmed and the sun fell behind the land, a lone girl was limply running, her breath haggard and hoarse, and her back dripping with blood and sweat.
'F-fuck.. of course I wouldn't have made it their safely! I am a fool for believing me, an inexperienced girl could safely escape a dozen and more knights! Why had they been so utterly determined to kill me!? I'm just an innocent girl..!'
Why had they been so determined to kill her? It was not as if she was some important or highly wanted criminal.. Was she?
"I need to tend to this cut and take a short break.."
She had been running for basically hours, it was a miracle she hadn't bled to death, or froze to death!
***
Ira had ripped a good portion of her raggedy shirt off and used it as a makeshift bandaid, she didn't really have anything else other than the clothes on her bottom, but she was not willing to lose what remained of her crumbling dignity for "a stupid bandaid!"
Sadly she could not start a fire, the first reason being because it was too risky to start a fire possibly close to her aggressors, and the second reason being she did not know how to start a fire without a match.
In the outskirts of the city she lived in, people had used many types of materials as currency, with one of the most common being matches, as there was no heater in the outskirts, let alone a good place to rest.
'Guess I'll have to go without warmth for the time being, though I should probably scavenge some more layers of clothing, if I can even find any..'
Clothes were expensive to make, so if knights were attacking a village like this one, it was only common sense to take all the valuables like clothes, money, and if there was something like that in this time, preserved food.
***
Ira was sitting and thinking to herself about all the things she knew about the Sprite, which was not too much, but it might help her with clearing her trial.
"Well, I know that it isn't actually a disease, though people do refer to it as one, and it does spread from person to person like most diseases. There are also seven ranks and five classes, the ranks go Wielder, Carrier, Manifestor, Spirit, Supreme Spirit, Deity, and God, though no one has ever gotten above spirit. And the ranks for skills, also called talent, goes Dormant, Ascended, Transcended, Sacred, and then Heavenly. When people fail their trial, they are overcome with a murderous rage, also gaining increased physical capabilities, there's some stories saying that some of them can even survive getting hit with a tank! From what I've heard from people, the Awakened also receive a 'system,' kind of like in a game."
Ira realized that most of this information would only help someone before and after their trial, not during. She wondered why there was so little information on trials, maybe it was because you cannot gather statistics on something unique to everyone, after all, there was no same trial, just as there was no sane trial, too!
As Ira was lost in thought, her stomach started to growl.
'Ugh.. are you kidding me? I should've ate that muffin earlier… I need to find something to eat.'
It would not be very wise to try and escape this village injured, tired, and most of all, hungry! All she needed was some food and clean water, but that might be hard with all this destruction.
'What even could've caused this..? It's not like a bunch of mundane knights could cut buildings in half, or pummel them into ruins.. I wonder, is there possibly an awakened among them? If there is, that's not good for me.. they must be at least a Carrier.'
The thought of possibly having to escape from a Carrier sent shivers down her spine, awakened all had enhanced physical capabilities and perception, she barely survived going against two mundane knights, though they had underestimated her, but two knights are nothing compared to a Carrier, a human that had overcome the second trial, when most humans fail on the first one!
The worst part about it, is that the Carrier might be her target, she would have to pray to the gods that her objective was to escape, and not to kill a Carrier. Both were difficult, but the latter was much more difficult, no mundane human had ever killed a Carrier, not even a dozen highly trained humans were capable of such a thing, so it was basically impossible to ask a mundane girl with nearly no combat experience to kill a highly trained Carrier, after all, there were no weak Carriers!
***
After rummaging through the ruins of multiple buildings, she finally found a single stale loaf of bread, it would not fill her, but it would keep her from starvation.
She decided to settle inside of one of the more complete buildings, she did not want to risk a building falling apart on top of her.
'Ew.. this is so nasty…. How do people eat such a thing!?'
What she was tasting was the mold growing on the loaf of bread.
As Ira continued to eat, she heard a noise coming from another room in her building. Quickly thinking, she hid inside a closet, she was not going to risk The Men On Horses possibly finding her.
As the door to the other room opened, three individuals came out. One of them was a striking young man with beautiful brown hair and gorgeous green eyes, another was a bulky man with large broad shoulders and a gaze that would send shivers down anyone's back, and the last was a slender, petite girl, her long raven black hair and pristine white skin made her a delicacy to the eye, speaking of eyes, they were as dark as a moonless night. Though she was not able to see any of these features due to how dark the room was.
"Someone's in here.." The Bulky man said, his eyes scanning the room until they locked onto the closet.
'Fuck..!' Ira thought to herself, she had no idea whether they were friendly or not, but one thing she knew was that they weren't as experienced as the two knights she fought, but unlike them, they would most definitely be on guard and would not dare to underestimate her.
As the man inched closer and closer to the closet, she felt a feeling of impending doom surfacing, her heart racing and her breathing slowly becoming more erratic.
As the man inched towards the door handle, Ira with a sudden movement bursts out, and then..!