Tome is now named Lyn
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Joan shuddered. Just thirty minutes had passed but it felt like three hours.

'Come on Joan, think! I've tried forty five keys but none are correct. Hmm which might be correct?' Joan thought hard.

"Having a hard time? Well it's expected." Mia told Joan.

'Ok Joan, think. The key has to be different. After all, this is a scroll world it's easy to use some technique to confuse me. Let me start looking at things in the scroll using way.' After minutes of deep thinking, Joan started trying keys until she noticed something.

'These keys have patterns! Could that be?!' Joan started fumbling with the keys with her frost bitten hands. After a while, she stood up. She had connected all the keys in a way that the patterns formed an image, a scorpion.

'Ok a piece is missing so one out of these keys is the key.' Joan fumbled with the keys until she a piece with an unusual pattern from the rest.

'She's catching on quickly.' Mia thought to her self and continued watching Joan.

Joan fitted the key in the scorpion image and the image was completed.

"Ok this is the key." Joan took the key with the unusual pattern and put it into the lock, alas it didn't open.

"Ok you've found that key now let's get down to the tacks of brass." Mia spoke in a serious tone.

Joan fell down due to the sudden drop in temperature, she was getting frost bitten.

*-*-*-*

Barry sighed.

'I really pissed Dan off.' Barry sighed again.

Barry had a plan but he wasn't sure it'll work but still he gave it a shot.

'I can keep up to Dan's speed for a while so I'll get close to Dan by throwing weapons at him while moving with my speed.' Barry sighed again then came out of hiding.

"So you've come out?" Dan asked.

"Yep, and this time I'll win." Barry grabbed a spear and a bunch of weapons one could throw.

"Oh, I see now you're fighting not running away." Dan got into a fighting stance.

"But isn't this too much, I have no idea on anything battle." Barry tried to negotiate but he fell on deaf ears.

"Well that's not allowed, I guess I'll have to fight."

Barry moved at a speed above human comprehension and threw a dagger at Dan.

Dan dodged with ease as he was about to attack some ninja stars came flying at him.

'I see, he's using a fighting style which will limit my power and at the same time put his power at the fullest. He picked up a thing or two from those novels.' Dan casually assessed Barry's movements and began to think of a counter while dodging the weapons.

When Barry saw Dan had caught on to his plan he used his trump card.

"Lightening step."

All Dan could see was a streak of purple lightening. The purple streak sped across the arena and aimed at Dan, crashing a spear effectively into the man.

"I did it." Barry panted as the purple lightening streaks on his body sizzled until they disappeared. Shock overtook his happiness as he felt a tap on his shoulder behind him. His head creaked ever so slowly to look at the man he thought he had hit with his ultimate skill.

*-*-*-*

Erza held her head in frustration, of all tests her scroll spirit had to choose, she was expecting combat or something like intense reasoning or torture but it was maths, something she disliked.

"Can you change the test please?" Erza pleaded

"No." Was the cheetah's reply.

*-*-*-*

Lyn wiped off the sweat on her forehead and turned to face the beast she was trying to placate but found no beast.

"Where is it?" Lyn asked the mist.

"That eye, I must eradicate it." The mist ignored Lyn's question.

Lyn gulped she was getting a bad feeling from the way the mist is acting.

The mist made decaying hands to hold Lyn down and another to remove Lyn's eye.

*-*-*-*

Luke thought about the choices of elements again, he had canceled lightening, fire and water. All that was left was wind and earth.

'What on earth can the element be?'

*-*-*-*

John walked around the room blind, he hadn't understood what his scroll sprit meant by better eyes but he continued with his search, after minutes of searching, Joan's words suddenly came back to his memory.

'If you can't find what you're looking for, then change how you look for it, if it doesn't work, change what you look for.'

Clearly John had been looking for nothing in particular now he stopped to think, what could better eyes mean?

*-*-*-*

Peter stared into space he had already found the ashiri no rin easily because it was one of the Aldorado family's heritage the problem was just how to open its eye, his dad never let him touch the sword or know anything about it, all he knew was its look.

'So how will I open this things eye.' Peter thought.

The swords turned itself around revealing one eye on each sword.

'We are not things Peter.' After the sword spoke the eyes opened.

*-*-*-*

Tears rolled down Beryl's eyes, she couldn't push it back any more there was pain, fear, hate, anger, she wanted to vent it out on her but there was nothing she could do.

"Please stop!" Beryl pleaded.

"You've got spunk little kid." The man threw her on the ground and grabbed a stick.

"Just stop or I'll sue you, I promise!" Beryl yelled and threatened the man but her threat only riled him up.

"Now you tried to threaten me? I'll send you to hell." The man started beating her until she coughed up blood.

*-*-*-*

Ben laughed, he finally understood the test after hours of torture.

'I now understand.'
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To be continued...
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