Of course, last but not least, the one who got the most screen time above all others was none other than Blair Frosthart from the Arctic Aurora Guild. Seen by many as the prodigy among prodigies, she was the one whom everyone expected to win. Because of this, everyone wanted to be just like her. Because of this, everyone was also scared of facing her.
Up atop of a mountain, one that was the highest peak within the area of the Scavenger Hunt, laid one of the 5-star monsters—a skyfury dragon. That was what Blair aimed to defeat. She didn’t need those extra runes. She just wanted to challenge herself. Even though she could easily acquire her star runes elsewhere, either through hunting one of the weaker monsters or solving one of the riddles (of which she knew the answer to 15 out of 20 of them), killing a 5-star monster in the first trial of the competition was not only for the purpose of winning, it was for the purpose of making a statement.
That statement was that she had devoted her entire life into winning the Pentacle Trials. And anyone who did not also devote the entirety of their life to winning this competition might as well get out of her way.
For the majority of the journey towards the peak of the mountain, the blue-haired sorceress did not travel on foot. Instead, she rode on her mount, which was a Cerulean Phoenix, a rare species of phoenix whose feathers were of a radiant blue instead of the standard fiery reddish-orange. However, the turbulent winds surrounding the mountain peak had prevented her phoenix—or any flying animal mount, for that matter—from reaching any closer to the actual peak.
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Once she’d gotten close enough, she decided to walk the rest of the way there, travelling for about several more minutes. As she continued walking up the mountainous path, she could feel the strong, violent winds blowing against her in every direction.
She could sense that this was not a natural kind of wind, instead one that was caused by the ambient magic emitted from the skyfury dragon itself—a dragon which was known to have great mastery over the wind itself. Just a breath from its lungs was enough to create a strong gust. Just a whip of its tail was enough to create a whirlwind. Just a flap from its wings was enough to create a storm.
Even a platoon of mages had trouble fighting against a skyfury dragon. And Blair was going to do it alone.
Once she’d reached the top of the mountain, she could see the silhouette of a large creature in front of her—obscured by turbulent, dusty, grey winds that surrounded her on all sides. Even though she couldn’t see a clear image of her adversary, she could sense its aura—one belonging to a great, majestic beast, one that demanded respect and reverence from anyone who came across it. Despite that, Blair remained adamantly undaunted from the encounter, her nerves practically made of steel.
With a flourishing twirl of her staff, she stomped the end of it into the ground—exerting her own mana to overpower the magic of turbulent winds, thus making them recede. As the winds receded, the dragon began revealing its true form. A large reptilian creature—about five times as big as a regular adult human—with jagged, slate-white scales. Its wings were massive, its claws were sharp, its teeth were daggerlike.
Once its true form was revealed, it let out a thunderous roar before flapping its wings and taking off to the sky. This was where the battle began.
