"Steel, make your way to the floor!" A gruff voice called out, coming from a man with a sword strapped to his waist. He had short brown hair and some stubble, with a scar on his left cheek. He was about a head shorter than me and much more slender.
I felt Lensa give me an encouraging push and before I knew it I was down on the floor facing off against this veteran adventurer. I doubted he would attempt to seriously injure me, more to just test my abilities.
"Since you're a black core augmenter I don't expect you to use any elemental augments, though feel free to use them if you can. Are you ready?" The man asked as he held his sword down at his side.
"Yes sir." I nodded as I drew my own blade. I still wasn't sure of the proper stance so I all I could do was hopefully go for a basic stance. Sword held out in front of me with both hands.
"Very well. On your mark, Keith." The swordsman said to a man off to the side.
"Ready…. Begin!" The man shouted while bringing his arm down.
I didn't move, only watching the man across from me as he moved forward. His first attack came in the form of an overhead slash, but it seemed so slow. I sidestepped the strike but didn't retaliate in fear that it was a feint that he was using to weed out newbies, though follow didn't come.
He tensed ready for a return strike before resetting and squaring up with me once more. Then he came at me with several strikes in tandem, a diagonal slash before rotating his shoulder and bringing it back horizontally.
I dodged the first one again, but brought my blade up to meet his for the second. It felt like there was almost no weight to his trike and his moves still seemed so slow. Was he really taking it this easy on me?
We exchanged strikes again and again, slashes, parries and stabs weaved together. I began returning strikes of my own as I figured he wouldn't grade me very highly for only defending.
After a particularly drawn out exchange that left him huffing, I saw him begin to circulate mana throughout his body. His mana felt the opposite to mine, it was burning hot, and seemed to rage just beneath the surface.
Now his attacks had weight to them, I could feel the power reverberating through our blades as each powerful strike met. And while he was faster than before he still seemed too slow. I started using some mana of my own and watched as he began to augment his sword, a small flame beginning to trail his slashes.
I couldn't help but wonder if I could do that with my supposed water affinity. I knew the human body was made up with a majority being water, so it should feel fairly natural. As dodged, parried and attacked him I thought of how my mana inside my body could transform in to a water mana based attack.
I imagined the mana traveling through my body like a lake feeding many streams and tributaries. Water flowing fast and slow, straight and weaving around bends. As I focused on this I could feel my movements becoming less stiff, and for lack of a better word, becoming more fluid. My parries chained into quick strikes that morphed back into slow precise dodges.
Before long I was hardly focusing on the man in front of me and just wanting to feel the rush of my mana as it just poured out of me. The flow of my mana felt amazing and I only wanted to keep experiencing it, until
I felt a pang of pain pulse from my core.
It caused me to falter slightly and I barely managed to block a strike that I had been easily swatting away since the beginning. I could feel my body weakening, my mana running out. I fell to one knee as I gripped at my chest.
"That's the match!" I heard a voice call out and I noticed several people had gathered around me, including Lensa.
"Seems to be backlash from using up all his mana. Set him down on the sideline and he should be fine in a moment." A woman's voice said, and I felt a couple people ease me up from either side.
"Wow you really don't know how to hold back, do ya big guy?" Came Lensa's whispered jab and I chuckled.
"It just felt good. I've never felt anything like that before." I looked over to see her eyes shining.
"You've got the battle call, the lust for battle. I knew there was something interesting about you!" She replied and I just chuckled at her words.
"Mr. Steel. You showed great ability with the sword and despite being only a black core mage it's obvious your use of mana is outstanding as well. The judges have decided on C rank however. Despite the skill and ability you showed we believe it would be better if you started out at C and progressed your mana some more to keep up with your abilities. Good luck, Steel and congratulations on becoming an adventurer." The woman that had spoken before said, I looked up and nodded to her thankfully.
"Very well. When you're able to walk on your own, your guild card will be waiting for you at the front desk." She said before turning and walking back to the table the judges were sitting around.
"Alright Mr. C Rank Adventurer. Let's get out of here and start making our way to my father's house. We can take a gate to Blackbend but then we gotta hope we can catch a ride with some fisherman down the Sebz River, otherwise we'll be walking the whole way." Lensa said as she passed me her waterskin. Another examinee was currently taking their rank examine and I watched as I took several swigs of the water.
"Isn't Kalberk a big city? Does it not have a gate?" I asked while passing back the skin.
"Yes it does, but my father moved to Carn after he retired from being an instructor at Lanceler. It's faster to go from Blackbend if we can catch a boat or raft ride. Plus I just don't like Kalberk." She said before muttering the last. I pretended not to hear it and just nodded.
"Carn it is then. It's hard to wrap my head around the fact that I lived in Marlow all my life and now I've traveled between 2 major cities and heading for a 3rd all in one day. I'm assuming we'll wait to go to Carn after a night in Blackbend?" I asked finally finding the energy to stand.
"Ya, Blackbend is cheaper too, so we won't have to worry about money." I just nodded at Lensa's words as we walked to get my card and head for the gates. Today had been more eventful that I had ever meant for it to be.
I had expected that I would need to wait in Valden for at least a day, but was able to immediately go to Xyrus. Then I had planned on staying here for the foreseeable future working my way up the rankings, but now I'm leaving for Carn with a party member to be taught someone who used to train knights at Lanceler Academy. I hope my luck stayed positive and that I didn't get bad karma for all these fortunate circumstances.