Chapter 27 - Standard Procedure

The grin on the mayor's face was getting bigger and bigger while our hands were locked in a handshake.

"Let's fight!" she said, and with a kick, she sent me back, creating distance between us before the fight started.

A big, heavy mace appeared in her hands out of thin air. Her weapon of choice. Her eyes, fiery, full of excitement. Maybe bloodthirst even.

"And don't hold back. Or you just may die."

I gulped.

How did we end up in this situation? Why did we have to fight?

Everything about the mayor was weird and I had so many questions, but no time to ask them, as a second later, the mayor was right next to me, hitting me lightly on the head with the mace's handle.

"Bonk," she said and the strike sent me flying a couple of meters away.

"That was not as bad as the slap," I said after I got up.

"Oh I know," she replied. "It's only going to get worse."

"Why are we even doing this?"

"Part business, part fun," she said as she charged and struck me once again.

I could not just stay there and get beaten to death. I had to fight back, so I got back on my feet, drew my sword and got ready to 'dance'.

The moment I did, the mayor burst into laughter.

"Are you kidding me? Everything you are wearing is black. What is that thing?"

"That thing is going to cut you to pieces," I said. It was my turn to charge this time. A quick slash of my blade was stopped by the mace's handle, a few inches away from the mayor's torso.

"A little overconfident, huh? Fitting for an idiot," she said as she was still trying to push away my sword, with me trying to push through her mace, eventually failing.

I jumped back. Regained my distance. Prepared for my next attack.

Despite being extremely muscular, she was quick in her movements. This was going to be far from easy.

She charged straight towards me and swung her mace horizontally.

I was barely able to duck and dodge it. The gust of wind this swing produced made me realize that trying to block it would make me go down and out.

While I had the chance, I did the same with my sword. I swung it horizontally, aiming just above the knee. She should not be able to avoid it when she had built such momentum.

And yet she did.

Jumping straight up would result in her losing her ankles as I aimed high enough on her legs. She realized that and jumped forward, tumbling over me and evading my sword. Illuminator's blade mere inches away from the front of her boots.

I copied her movement once again. I used my swing as a way to propel me forward and sideways. Putting my right shoulder on the ground, I tumbled diagonally. Had I not done that, I would probably end up with a broken back. The mayor would not waste a second before striking.

Sure enough, half a second after I moved, the mayor struck down, cracking the floor at the point I previously was.

"Good job evading that. I'm impressed," the mayor said.

"Thank y—"

"Though this tumble was very silly-looking. Did not expect anything less from you."

Instead of answering with words, I decided to answer with my blade. I ran up to her. Careful. As calm as I could be, given all these remarks that were coming my way.

Blocking should be awkward for her. Mace is not the most defensive weapon. I decided to use it to my advantage.

Leveraging my high Agility stat, I went for a lot of quick, light attacks, forcing her to block each one of them or get a deep wound on her torso otherwise.

Downswing, downswing, and another downswing, followed by a quick left slash and then a right one.

She was blocking everything with the mace's handle and drum, but I could tell she was having trouble. I was forcing her to fight on her back foot, making her take steps back as she was hastily moving her weapon in any way she could to block my hits.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

We were now getting close to the wall. If I could get her there, I would definitely be able to win this fight. A smile formed in the idea.

"Regained your confidence, huh?" she said.

She quickly twisted and with just a couple of steps, she was suddenly standing behind me.

"Time to bring it back down," she said. Her voice silent and sadistic.

She hit my back with her mace and sent me straight on the wall I was planning to get her on.

As I hit the wall, my sword flew away from my hands and fell on the floor a few meters away. Without it, I was weak. Or at least much weaker than I was with it. I dove to the ground and caught it as soon as I could.

Of course the mayor would not let me have it that easy. She gave me a hard kick on the stomach that made me groan in pain and curl up.

From there, she brought her mace up, only to forcefully throw it back down my way. If I tried to roll away, I would get hit by the drum, so I rolled towards her which resulted in her stepping on my head.

"Get up, you idiot," she said. She kicked my head and walked back away to create some distance between us.

I got up and held Illuminator with both hands. Panting and in pain.

"Come," she taunted with a hand gesture.

I charged, but being weaker and slower than before, she was able to easily dodge me and hit me on the back of the head.

Turning around, I tried not to waste a single second and went back in. I almost caught her off guard, but in the end, she managed to parry my hit and leave me wide open for a clean hit with her mace, which made me lose my breath for a couple of seconds as I fell to the ground once again.

I was trying to get on my feet while she was slowly walking towards me and I was barely able to do it in time before another swing of the mace landed on my left shoulder, rendering it almost useless. I tried to take advantage of that swing and went for her left shoulder too, but with a twist of her body, she was able to bring her mace close to her again, evade my sword and create distance at the same time.

"Hope you don't have any friends you need to take care of. I would feel so bad for them. They'd be doomed."

I did not say anything in response.

"Wait, were your eyes always red like that?"

I charged straight forward. She evaded me and I kept going until I reached the wall. Pushing it with my feet, I blasted off all the way, up high to the other side's wall. From there back to the floor and from there on the ceiling again, only to launch myself back to the right wall.

I kept flying around the room, reaching absurd speeds, launching myself at random directions, which then changed to me charging at the mayor every second.

The high speed and different directions of the attacks made it hard for her to block everything and it only got worse once I upped the speed once more.

"Mention my friends again, and I'll make sure you regret it," I said with an evil smile on my face during one of my strikes. This one landed. The first one to do so. She couldn't dodge it completely and I scratched her shoulder with my blade, ripping her sleeve apart and making a few drops of blood break free.

"Okay, that's enough," she said. When I came back for my next attack, she grabbed my head with her right hand and smashed my face on the ground, breaking the floor once again. Leaving me unconscious.

----------------------------------------

I woke up to a bucket of water embracing my face and soaking my clothes.

Where was I?

What just happened?

I looked around.

Right, we came to see the mayor. Wait! The mayor!

Looking at her standing in front of me, I jumped up and searched for my sword, which was a few meters away from me.

I looked at her and back at it, trying to figure out a way to go grab it without getting hit in the process.

"Relax," she said. "It's over, idiot."

"It is?"

I let out a sigh of relief and sat back down on the floor with my legs crossed.

"If it wasn't, I wouldn't have given you a health potion, stupid"

Come to think of it, I was indeed feeling fresh and well-rested. With all the hits I took, there was no way I just naturally healed while I was passed out. But how did I pass out?

"What happened?" I asked.

"You don't remember?"

"I do. I'm just testing you out. Of course I don't remember! That's why I'm asking!"

This last part earned me a hit on the head.

Dammit! I had just completely recovered!

"I remember up to the part you hit my shoulder with the mace," I said.

"Right until your eyes turned red then... seems they are not constantly like this after all," she said looking at my one blue and one orange eye.

"My eyes turned red? Oh it was probably the [Demon Rage], a new ability I got a few days ago during a dungeon crawl. It says it activates when I experience intense negative emotions. Wait. You said something fucked up, didn't you?"

"No!" she responded, crossing her arms and looking away. "You are just an emotional idiot. But, yeah, you were going berserk until I had to put you down. I mean, look at that!" she said as she pointed to a place on the wall, just above a window, close to the ceiling. "Who is going to clean that footprint!?"

"Did I do that?"

"No, it was Jack," she answered sarcastically.

I turned to Jack and looked at him with a disapproving look.

"Of course it was you, you idiot!" she continued

"Oh, sorry about that... I guess," I said, not really sorry about that. "Why did we do that in the first place? I just came here to gain a class and go my merry way to kill the Demon Lord, not fight the damn mayor."

"First of all, I knew you were stupid, but I did not expect you to be that big of an idiot. What do you mean 'kill the Demon Lord'!? Are you crazy!? And second of all, do you think anyone can just come here and get a class? We are not a charity here! You need to prove you are strong enough and deserve a class. You need to earn it!"

"Well... did I?"

"I should say no, cause you're a dumbass, but considering you were the first to be able to land a single hit on me—even though it was just a scratch—I have to say yes. You can get a class."

A smile formed on my face and I almost jumped in the air out of excitement. I was a formidable enough opponent to pass the test and not only that, but I was also one of the few to land a strike on the mayor. I bet not even Guen was able to do that.

"In fact, the last person to ever land a hit on me during this process was that prick, Guen."

Well, never mind on that last part. Still, I bet I would be able to beat her with my new class. That would make her stop calling me an idiot and hitting me on the head with every object she had within reach.

What classes were available, though? How many and what did they actually do?

There were so many questions and thankfully, I did not have to wait any longer to get my answers as the mayor told me to follow her. She walked up to her throne-looking chair and from there, she lifted part of the seat—which was apparently—detachable, and handed me a few pieces of paper she took from underneath.

I flipped page after page, checking all these cool names and descriptions.

"Tough choice. Which one do I choose?"

"Listen-o to your-o heart-o," proposed Jack.

"Yeah, thanks. It was a rhetorical question..."