Ray was strolling through the forest in the direction of the magic circle.
He wasn't really worried about the group catching up to him. The only real threat was the Saintess, and she didn't seem to have any intention to fight.
As soon as the young man mentioned a duel, Ray knew it wasn't worth it. In the single moment that took, the young man, to take off his glove and throw it at Ray was enough for him to understand his opponent's strength.
It was weak. Even for this era's criteria, he was weak. Ray wasn't even bothered comparing him to people of his era. The young man didn't even fit amidst the countless other participants and their strength.
A duel with him would be even more unsatisfying than fighting with that group of barbarians, at least they had required him to make the first move before getting into disadvantage.
That young man, on the other hand, Ray didn't believe he would need to use any of his elements. In order to make it fair, he would probably be forced to not use mana at all, using only aura, which was quite weak ever since he gained a new body.
Normally, someone that was so many layers below average they would at least have some level of skill, but, the way that man walked and moved, was of an untrained swine. It wouldn't be a surprise if it turned out that he never exercised in his life.
Such a fight would be no fun. So he walked away, keeping the glove to himself.
It had been around an hour ever since that exchange, and Ray was close to his objective.
"Hey, you! Where do you think you are going?!"
The same voice he had heard an hour ago sounded, making Ray let out an exasperated sigh.
"What do you want now?"
The young man was accompanied by most of the group that Ray had met before. They all seemed pretty discontent.
"We are here to make you pay for your disrespect to Lady Arianne!"
"Does she know about this?"
"Ah! Afraid of fights? No wonder you are just a weakling, you are probably heading to the first island to drop out, right? Don't think that we are going to let you go scot-free!"
The young man signaled with his hand.
Right after, with the whistle of the wind, an arrow flew in Ray's direction, aimed directly at his face.
A sudden pulse of mana was sent from Ray's body. The arrow's trajectory was changed, and it flew past his head. He remained standing in the same position, looking at the group calmly.
They seemed surprised that their surprise attack had failed.
"Q-Quick! Attack him."
Each member of the group unsheathed their weapons and charged in his direction.
Ray wasn't bothered, not even in a little. Instead of reinforcing his body and meeting their charge head on, he swung his hand in a horizontal motion, his hand covered in mana.
Flames engulfed each of the attackers, making them scream in pain and roll in the ground.
'It still isn't enough to kill them, but it sure must hurt a lot, let's leave them like that for a while.'
He turned to the direction the arrow had come from, and with a slight burst of aura, he rushed forward.
Several arrows appeared, trying to stop him in his tracks. They curved in unpredictable ways, snaking around the trees.
Ray dodged them skillfully, but they would just make another curve and fly straight at him again.
'The archer is using wind magic to change their trajectories, a simple and common way of using the wind element in archery.'
Five arrows flew in various curves, encircling him, but he was not bothered, he jumped over them before they could reach him and activated his gravity affinity.
Gravity magic was quite the powerful magic, the warping of space in relation to bodies of mass, that was the core of gravity magic.
In essence, with this affinity, Ray could alter the gravitational pull of anything with mass, including air itself.
By changing his own gravitational pull, he could successfully divert projectiles away from his body, that's what he had done against the first arrow.
Now, he changed the gravitational pull of a certain portion of air in the place he had just been.
Instead of following him upwards, the arrows continued to travel towards their original destination, clashing against themselves.
Ray continued to travel in the archer's direction.
The archer was a young girl that was perched on one of the tree branches, firing arrows non-stop in fright.
She had been convinced by her companion to attack Ray, mostly motivated by the latter's attitude towards her idol, Lady Arianne. How could she have guessed that their opponent could deal with them so easily?
Most of the members of their group fell with a wave of his hand. The leader and the one who had convinced them to attack the guy didn't even charge forward and instead ran away as soon as his companions fell and Ray charged in her direction.
She had been left alone, and now she was done for.
"There you are."
His voice sounded calm, but it oddly felt quite frightening.
Letting out a whimper, she nocked an arrow on her bow and activated the rune on its tip. It was exploding rune, surely it would at least give her time to run away, right?
Before, she could let the arrow fly, a single sliver of mana was shot from her target, hitting the arrow at the tip, activating the rune.
"Ah-"
Without even time to scream, the rune exploded, knocking her out of the branch tree and into the ground.
She was still conscious but in tremendous pain. She looked up, just to find a pair of red eyes staring coldly at her.
Ray was standing above, a threatening smile on his face.
He extended his hand and formed a fireball in his palm. With just a thought, the flames shot in her direction, threatening to swallow her whole.
Before she could scream, a sudden explosion resounded.
She looked up to find a golden barrier between her and her attacker.
"Could you explain yourself, Ray?"
"Saintess Arianne."
The Saint had come to save her.
The archer looked with enormous gratitude towards Arianne, she then noticed a young man behind her.
'Oh! So he ran away to call for Lady Arianne! Thank the Goddess.'
"Why are you attacking them, Ray?"
"It's merely an act of self-defense. That's all I have to say as an explanation, I don't owe you anything."
Arianne frowned. One of the members of the group she was gathering called Joshua had come running from somewhere claiming that he and others of the group, who had separated from the main group to scout, had been attacked by Ray, who they had just crossed paths with.
She turned in Joshua's direction.
"Is this true?"
"No! How can that be true? Lady Arianne, please look at him, he is clearly enjoying tormenting our comrades!"
Arianne glanced back at Ray. He was sporting a provocative smile, he seemed to be enjoying more the fact that Joshua was going against him rather than enjoying causing suffering.
Normally she wouldn't have any problem judging a person, but-
'Why can't I see his Karma?'
'She must be trying to read my Karma.'
It was easy to tell that the Saintess was feeling troubled, after all, one of the best tools to discern a person's intentions that she had, was now useless.
In this case, a normal leader should put their trust in their own group, however, this group was not a group built on trust but on needs. Arianne was not some gullible and naive girl, she was aware of others' opinions of her and how it affected the way they addressed her.
She also knew that one of the best strategies for survival was to join or form a group, she decided to form one, not only because her influence would help attract members but also keep them in check, preventing problems.
She was wrong.
In the same way, people could force themselves to do good to please people in higher standings than them, the opposite was also true.
Joshua was the type to do the opposite. Due to his pathetic strength and ability, he couldn't play the courageous knight or the valent warrior who defends the weak, so instead he decided to play the victim and attract her attention that way.
From the start, he probably could tell that he alone could not defeat Ray, so he convinced a number of people to confront him, not only to serve as witnesses when he attacked, but also to subdue Ray.
But how could he predict that not even that many people were enough to make him sweat?
She was now in a difficult situation. Joshua would never admit to being in the wrong, and Ray seemed to be enjoying Joshua's pleas. With the lack of feedback from her Karma reading ability, it was hard to judge the situation.
"Ray, I hope for you to never engage in fights such as this for the remainder of the test, otherwise I won't be kind."
She decided to leave the matter at that. She couldn't make a decision about who was right or wrong. Both parties would contradict each other, and there were no impartial witnesses, so she decided to leave this clash as peaceful as she could.
"Lady Arianne! You can't him go with just a warning! Look at him smiling, he clearly will disrespect such an arrangement-"
Before he could finish speaking, a thin stream of flames flashed across a small distance in less than a second, piercing through Joshua's skull.
Joshua was "killed" and therefore disqualified from the Practical Test.