-Tuesday Morning, 8th Of the 1st Month, Year 910-
AOD Chapter 11: Beginning Of The Combat Test
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After leaving the Inn, I head for the Academy. Johnny and Jasmine were already there, waiting for me at the front gate. I greet them and we go in together with the other Applicants to meet up with our Examiner. We spot Mrs. Janson and the rest of our group, under a tree on the right, so we go over and join up with them.
“Good Morning Mrs. Janson!” We call out before taking a seat like the others.
A couple of minutes later, Mrs. Janson announces, “After the last person comes, we'll head to Arena D for your final test."
'Arena D?' She must not have mentioned this until we came because the rest of the applicants were looking at her the same way we were.
Seeing our expressions, she explains, “Our academy has multiple arenas which we use to hold competitions and special classes. Students are also allowed to use them as training fields so long as they get permission from a teacher and it’s not already being used. Since we have so many applicants this year, the Vice-Principal decided that each group will use a different arena for the test.”
I nod with the other applicants, feeling that her explanation made sense. Not wanting to waste any time, I decide to meditate until the last applicant comes.
●●●
“Good Morning Mrs. Janson.” The last applicant, a tall boy with light tan skin and short gray hair finally shows up after a while.
“A minute later and you would have been disqualified!” Mrs. Janson tells him with a frown.
“Sorry, I overslept,” Although he says that, it doesn't look like he rushed to get here. He isn't sweating and he's breathing calmly.
“I don’t want to hear your excuses, it’s time to go, the other groups are already leaving.” I look around and realize that a couple of groups are already gone, and the other two are walking off to their arenas.
“Follow me!” We all get up and follow her to Arena D.
●●●
After walking for a while I can see the Arena up ahead, it doesn’t give off the same feeling as the Brilliant Sun Arena, but the designs are similar. Inscriptions are engraved on the walls and there are three entrances, one for fighters and the other two are for spectators. I think they're made of the same material, but this arena is a little smaller than the Brilliant Sun Arena.
Mrs. Janson leads us into the fighter's entrance, but we didn't go straight to the platform, instead, we went into one of the rooms on the left side of the hallway. Inside of the room, there's a variety of weapons hanging on the racks on the walls. Mrs. Janson tells us, “Before you enter the platform, you can take a weapon from the rack if you need it. They're all made of a soft metallic material, so they're durable and safer to use than normal weapons because they're blades are duller."
We all nod and Mrs. Janson takes us out of the room and back outside of the arena.
This time we go in through the spectator's entrance. We walk up to the spectator seats and she points to the sections to the right and left of her, “You can sit anywhere in these two sections.”
I walk over to the section on the right and take a seat in the third row with Johnny and Jasmine. After everyone is seated, Mrs. Janson starts explaining how the test works, “The Combat Test is divided into three rounds, there are normally 100 fights in each round. Every fight can go on for a maximum of 5 minutes. The purpose of these fights isn’t to win, but to show off your skills to the Examiners. So even if you lose it won't negatively impact your evaluation depending on how you fought back.”
“Um,” An applicant in front of me raises his hand nervously, and asks, “Mrs. Janson, you’re the only examiner here, so how are the other Examiners going to see our fights?”
Right, she did say “Examiners”, but there’s no other examiner around.
“Good observation,” Mrs. Janson praises him and points upwards, “Your fights will be recorded with that device.”
I follow her finger and look into the sky. A mirror-like object is floating above the Arena. Ir reminds me of the mirror I saw in one of the inns that I stayed in on my way here, except it's almost double the size and the edge is lined with a thick whitish-gray material.
“What’s that!?” Johnny and a few other applicants shout out.
Feeling surprised and confused like the others, I look at Mrs. Janson for an explanation. She tells us, “That's an Intermediate-Grade Mystic Artifact, the Crystal Mirror. It’s part of a High-Grade Mystic Artifact known as the Crystal Records. It records the scene reflected through it and sends it back to the main body of the Armament where it is stored for the other Examiners to go over later. There’s also a Mystic Artifact around the borders of the walls that transmits sound up to the spectator seats.”
I don’t understand how that's possible, but I do understand that it's helpful and that it will record our fights.
Mrs. Janson holds her hand in front of her seeing a couple applicants raise their hands, “I know you guys have more questions about it, but we need to start the test because there are a lot of fights we have to get through and not a lot of time.”
I nod my head wanting to start the test already.
“Alright, I’ll explain the rest of the rules of the test now so we can start the first round. As I said before, every fight is timed so if you just want to show off your abilities you can aim for a draw, but I don't recommend that. You should all try to overcome your opponents rather than just fighting until time’s up," She scans over all of us with her fiery red eyes, "There are three ways you can win. The first way is by knocking your opponent off of the platform. Second, you can try to force them to surrender. Lastly, I judge them to be unable to continue. Don't overdo it and badly injure your opponent. If I judge that you're overdoing it, I will disqualify you."
I gulp feeling weak in front of her eyes, although it's not as bad as the Vice-Principal's, Mrs. Janson’s gaze scares me. I feel like if I look at her for too long I'll get burned.
“I hope I don't have to disqualify anyone this time. Now, let's start the first round. Number 701 and Number 756, you're up first. Go down to the stage and wait for my command to start.”
The two applicants stand up and leave the spectator area. A few minutes later, they both enter through the Fighter's Entrance. They both have weapons, but the girl has two weapons. One from the room, and her own, ‘Now that I think about, didn’t she have that weapon yesterday too?’
I didn't think too much about it, but yesterday she had that Katana too. She stood out because she was the only one in my group with a weapon.
“Ryner, don’t you think that Katana is weird?” For once Jasmine speaks up, so I take a closer look at her Katana.
‘Aren’t those inscriptions?’ On the sheath of her Katana, there are a few inscriptions, not only that but the hilt of the Katana is chained to the sheath, 'Can she even take it out of its sheath?'
Taking a closer look at the chains, they have inscriptions too. Just like the sheath, the chains are giving off a heavy aura like the Vice-Principals gaze. But with both of them together, I think that feeling is even stronger than her gaze.
“Yeah,” I nod at Jasmine, taking my eyes off the Katana, and take another look at the girl carrying it.
Her long blonde hair dances in the air with every step she takes. One hand on the practice katana’s sheath and another on its handle as if she's ready to draw it at any moment. I don’t know how she's doing it, but her footsteps don’t make a sound. It's like she's walking on air. With slow steps, she passes her opponent and takes the first step onto the platform. She walks to the center of it and closes her eyes waiting for the signal to begin.
‘Pretty.’ She was probably one of the prettiest girls I’ve ever seen.
The moment her opponent walks in front of her, she opens her eyes halfway, revealing her clear blue eyes. She isn't showing a single sign of nervousness, it's as if it's all-natural to her. On the other hand, her opponent is fidgeting all over with his sword in hand.
“This must be his first actual fight,” Johnny comments.
“I don’t think he can win.” Honestly, I wasn’t even sure if I could win against her as for the boy down there, I don’t think he stands a chance.
“Mhm,” Both Johnny and Jasmine nod agreeing with me.
“BEGIN!” I guess Mrs. Janson doesn’t care about the girl’s katana since she started the match without commenting on it.
“Wait! How is this fa-” Without giving him a chance to talk, the girl kicks at him, forcing him to guard.
She whispers something into his ear, before backing off and drawing the training katana. The boy charges at her recklessly with his sword, but she easily parries it and cuts at him. But he somehow manages to fix his stance and jumps back.
“Enchant!” The boy shouts and his blade gives off a light blue aura.
He tries to charge at her again, but before he can take the third step, she flashes in front of him with her katana back in its sheath.
“So fast!” I could barely catch her movements when she dashed towards him.
“Enchant.” Her sheath and katana shine with a light blue aura as she draws it once again.
Before he could raise his sword to defend, her katana was already pressing against his neck.
“I- I surrender!” The boy drops his sword and puts his hands up admitting defeat.
The fight didn’t even last a minute before the boy was forced to surrender.
“Number 701 wins, good job girl!” Mrs. Janson announces the results and praises her with a smile.
Author's Note: Pyris
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! There's a lot of fights in this arc so, I hope you're looking forward to seeing Ryner fight again, as well as Johnny and the other new characters! Also if you like the chapter, you can always let me know by favoriting it! It lets me know what you think, and gives me some motivation to keep going!
Read it on our site: https://deceitfixation.wixsite.com/mysite
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