Chapter 30 - Class III

"Rock. Paper. Scissors. Go!"

"Rock. Paper. Scissors. Go!"

"Rock. Paper. Scissors. Go!"

"Aaah! Damn it! You are good, I lost again!" I said to Ersalon, defeated, as I lost yet another round. "Come on, one more time!"

"Young Anthir, the score is already 153-2 in my favour. I don't think you will end up winning even if I try to intentionally lose."

"Try me!" I told him angrily.

"I already did. I already did that 155 times, in fact."

"Yeah, you're right. I lost. I guess I am not going to get a class after all..." I sighed, disappointed.

I waited all this time to get a class. Not only that, but I also put up a worthy fight against the mayor for it. And as if all these were not enough, I even sat down and thought about which class would be the best for me before choosing. All these for nothing.

"Who said you are not going to get a class?" Ersalon said. "This has not been decided yet."

"But you said we were playing for all the marbles."

"Exactly," he responded. "And having all the marbles allows you to sacrifice them to the gods so that you get what you want..."

He gave me another punch to the face, making me fall backwards once again.

"...and I still want you to fight me."

I picked myself up from the sky and looked at the sky above.

"I guess I have to do it after all," I said.

I wiped the blood off my mouth and with a swing of my arm I threw it to the left, towards the sky.

He is just an old man. How hard could it be? I thought to myself, but then I remembered he was not just any old man. He was the first [Skirmisher]. Which meant he was a really old man. It also potentially meant that he was quite strong.

Placing my hand on Illuminator's hilt as I charged, the old man did the same thing with his sword.

I unseathed mine and with one fluid motion, I slashed upwards. At the same time, Ersalon unseathed his own sword and, with a motion even smoother than mine, placed his weapon in the proper position to nullify my strike.

He was stronger and I was unable to push through with my strike, which eventually got deflected to my left, making me lose grip of my sword, which landed a few meters away. While he was doing that, I saw an opening and took advantage of it, landing a kick with my right leg on his wrist, throwing his sword away next to mine.

I pushed him away so he could not reach his sword and then charged once more. We would continue this fight with our bare hands.

Punches were flying left and right, from both sides, both of us trying to dodge, but both of us being equally bad at it.

While I did manage to land some good ones on his right cheekbone and on his liver, I also realized why I had stopped fighting with my fists and was using a sword instead in the first place. I was attracting punches to my face the same way [Odd Meat] was attracting flies.

But at the same time, I felt that if I let the man hold his sword, the fight would be even more one-sided. So, I decided to keep things as they were and try to find a way to beat him with the power of my fists.

Ersalon had other plans. He wanted to run right past me so he could get to his sword. He was showing signs of separation anxiety and I was going to take full advantage of it.

As he passed from my left, I turned around and dived, catching him by the ankles and making him fall to the... sky.

I tried to close the distance between my fist and the back of his head, but a left elbow to the neck stopped me in my tracks and knocked me to the side, giving him enough time to dash forward and grab both his and my sword.

With him having two swords in his hands and me having only my arms to protect myself, I was pretty sure I was done for. Surprisingly, he decided to give me my sword back, and threw it at my feet, which made me less sure about being done for.

I crouched to grab it and it. Apparently, it was a trap, because I was immediately met by a kick to the face by Ersalon, knocking me slightly up in the air.

But I did manage to get Illuminator back in my hands and while I was up high, I lifted the sword and threw it down with all my force as I was falling back down to the sky at the same time.

Ersalon realized that blocking a strike like that would not only be unwise but also potentially lethal if I managed to somehow get through and slash his skull open. Instead of blocking with his sword, he jumped backwards and regained some distance. But I was not going to let him go that easily.

"Time to end this," I said with a grin.

The moment I landed, I used this force to propel myself forward and charge full speed towards him.

Leaned forward. Arms cocked back. Illuminator parallel to the ground sky. Eyes on the target.

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"[Gale Slash]!!"

The upswing of my sword created an air current between us, but that did not stop Ersalon from using his sword to block mine. He pushed Illuminator down and kicked me on the face sideways, making me roll away.

"I agree," he said. "Time to end this."

A moment later, he was right in my face and an unstoppable onslaught of attacks was coming my way. I kept trying to evade and block and dodge out of the way, but I was getting cut after cut after cut until I could not move my arms any longer. I fell to the ground, powerless, and Ersalon's sword stopped mere inches away from my neck. A healing potion landed on my face right after.

"Drink this to stop the pain, though you don't really need healing," Ersalon said.

"What do you mean I don't? I'm bleeding from thirty-two different places over here," I responded, struggling to grab the small bottle that was next to me.

"Well, yeah, but not really. This is because it's only your spirit that is here. Your body is safely sleeping wherever you were before you came here."

"If my body is back there with her, I don't think it's very safe. But it's good to know that I'm not about to die, at least," I responded, finally managing to stand up after drinking the entirety of the bottle's contents. "Anyway, this kinda sucked. I lost at both the fight and at rock, paper, scissors... When can I try to get the [Skirmisher] class again?"

"Never," he replied.

"Never? Really? That sucks... I guess I should go for [Warrior] next time..."

"Oh, you can't go for [Warrior] either. Even if you could, I would advise against it. That guy is a dufus."

"So I'm left without a class forever!? No! I can't have this happen! I need the class if I am to defeat Bastildon as soon as possible!"

"You want to defeat the Demon King? Well, that's going to be a pain in the butt to do without dying in the process..."

"Tell me about it..."

"...but in that case, it's good that you're getting the [Skirmisher] class to help you out."

"Yeah, it sucks I will be class-less... wait, what?"

"Just because you lost, it doesn't mean you are a loser," Ersalon said.

"I am pretty sure it does," I responded.

"Yeah, you're right. It does. This did not come out right. I mean, you are still getting a class, even though you did not beat me in a fight. Defeating me would be kinda crazy. Doing it without a class would be that much more unusual," he said.

"Wow, I fell for the same thing again. That is what happened when I fought the mayor, too. Maybe losses are not real losses, after all."

"Maybe the only loss is the friends we failed to make along the way, young Anthir," Elsanor said.

"I don't know about that, old man. I am not planning on making any friends. Maybe a few enemies"

"This I doubt that is the right path, youngling. You may want to rethink some things."

"Thank you, old man in the sky. I am sure your wisdom is unmatched; I can tell by the hair. But I don't think I will. I have to do this by myself."

"Someone is afraid of fri~eee~nds," Elsanor said in a lighthearted, mocking way.

"Shut up! I've made up my mind!" I yelled at him.

"Okay, okay, you know best, I guess. The only thing that saddens me is that if you ever change your mind, I probably won't be there to say 'I told you so.'"

"Nevermind that, aren't you supposed to bless me with the [Skirmisher] class somewhere around this point?" I said.

"Oh, right, of course! I almost forgot," he said, searching in his pockets for something.

"You did completely forget"

"Look, do you want the class or not?"

"Thinking that you were the first [Skirmisher] ever, I am losing my desire by the minute," I joked.

"Too bad, you are getting it anyway!"

He gave me a hard, open-palm slap on the face that stung and definitely left a red mark on my cheek.

Suddenly, I started levitating. I felt a seemingly endless amount of energy flowing through my body; warming up every inch of me.

A faint, red aura appeared all around me. The energy was overflowing. It engulfed me completely and flowed upwards, lifting my hair. The aura was getting darker by the second, and the darker it got, the more energy was flowing, the more intense the upward current was. I felt strong. I felt energized. I felt the urge to fight. I felt I could take on the whole world and come out victorious. I felt confident.

The aura subsided after a few seconds as I landed back on the sky. I could still fill the same energy flowing through me, but to a far lesser extent. And then a notification popped.

Congratulations!

Obtained the [Skirmisher] class!

You gained +5 Agility!

You gained +3 Strength!

You gained +2 Vitality!

Congratulations!

Learned New Ability: [Manic Wielder - Aura - Lvl. 1]!

Finally! I had a class! My profile screen was slowly filling up, so I was probably doing at least one thing right. I opened it up and just looked at it for a couple of minutes.

Name: Jinden

Race: [Anthir - Lvl. 11]

Class: Skirmisher

Affinity: None

Attunement: None

Stats:

[Available Stat Points: 0]

[Vitality]: 12

[Strength]: 23 (+3) {=26}

[Endurance]: 15 (-1) {=14}

[Wisdom]: 16

[Agility]: 32 (+2) {=34}

[Perception]: 16

Skills:

[identify]

[Item Throw]

[Active Rest]

Abilities:

[Gale Slash]: Lvl. 1

[Demon Rage]: Lvl. 1

Class Abilities:

[Manic Wielder]: Lvl. 1

"Wow, it worked! Thanks, old man!"

"It was my pleasure, young Anthir," Ersalon answered. "Especially the rock, paper, scissors part. You can leave now if you want. Or you can stay and fight me again."

"I'm good, I think I'll leave. I'll test the new class out elsewhere. Speaking of leaving, how do I do that?"

"It's very simple," he replied. "You see that patch of grass over there? Step on it and it will either take you where you came from or make you fall to your demise, since we are too high up in the air to survive a fall. But I don't remember which of the two."

"We have to find out," I said. "You go first."

"I don't need to use this contraption, youngling. I am a spirit, I can just do this," he said and flew up and away to the distance. I kept looking until he was so far he looked like a spec of dust in the blue sky.

I mean, he must have been kidding about the falling part, right?

I assumed it should be safe to walk on the patch of grass without dying, but still, I should better be careful. It would be a good idea to test it out first somehow.

I got my pouch and took out a violet [Spherule of Power].

They can't be that valuable, can they?

From a distance, I threw it on the patch of grass, where it landed and... wait. It landed?

It landed? It was supposed to fall... or go back to Jack and the mayor. Why did it do neither of those?

I threw another one of these violet balls to test it out once again, and of course, the exact same thing happened. Now there were two spherules on the grass and I was sitting there looking like I was playing marbles by myself.

Was it maybe because they were too light to fall? This could be a possibility, so I threw my entire pouch on the patch of grass, expecting to see it fall to its demise. I assumed I would be able to get it back just by thinking about it anyway.

Still, nothing happened.

It was now my turn. What if it had to be something living and breathing? Maybe then it would take me back. I went up to the patch of grass, partly to test what will happen and partly to pick back up the items I threw.

Nothing.

I was confused. Why was it not working? I even tried jumping up and down. Maybe with enough force, it would work.

Then, as I was jumping, I looked straight ahead and saw it.

A big, wide, wooden door in the middle of the sky, just existing there. And a big sign above it that said "Exit"