The next day, Tahir, Hasio, and Shukri made their way to the Redclouds headquarters in Balrech. Meti would go shopping to see if she could find any exotic materials, and Theo would stay with Callipho to work on the elixir. Even after the ordeal with the princess the previous day, the two of them all but locked themselves in Callipho’s lab so that they could begin to tinker with the formula. Tahir had scarcely seen the two of them so excited, but he supposed if there were anything for the two alchemists to be giddy over, it would be an elixir like that. The only issue from that lay in the variety of smells that wafted through into the rest of the shop from their lab, even in the middle of the night, but he could deal with that to some degree.
Now, he and Hasio just needed to qualify for platinum, and Shukri would join the Redclouds and try to begin as platinum. Given what they dealt with at the Blooming Grove, Tahir felt sure that he could take on whatever test they could throw at him- that they reasonably expected the average platinum Redcloud to be able to handle, at the very least. Even if he misjudged his strength, he could summon Mikharma at tier three to deal with the test, with a couple of days of recovery needed afterward. He’d only do that as a last resort, he certainly did not want to have to rely on something that actively harmed his body to use unless the situation truly called for such a dire action.
Once they arrived, they made their way to the receptionist’s desk, letting her know that they wanted to take a trial to advance to platinum. While they waited a few minutes to determine if anyone was available to administrate one, they helped Shukri sign up for the Redclouds. The receptionist helped her along, telling her which forms to fill out and where to sign, and had a look of surprise when the question of whether or not Shukri wanted to qualify for a higher rank than the starting rank of bronze came up.
“Are you sure you would like to qualify for platinum? Not that I am doubting any of your skills, but it is typically a rank reserved for those who’ve been in gold for a good while-”
“I have hunted more in the past year than most of your ‘gold’ ranks will in their entire lives.” Shukri answered. Politely, thankfully, since Tahir and Hasio warned her that kind of response would come up to someone suddenly asking to join the Redclouds as a platinum ranked member. “I am sure. Put me to the test.”
Shortly after, someone confirmed that an administrator was ready for the three of them. To Tahir’s relief, Elder Carlsen, along with two more Redcloud staff members that Tahir didn’t recognize, sat off to the side of the field that would make up the testing grounds. “No Ester this time?” He joked, as he made his way toward the field.
“She’s gone on to Osni.” He answered flatly. Though he seemed to lean forward in some mix of interest or anticipation when he noticed Tahir. “Probably one of the only ones they’d let help with their preparations. If I wasn’t privy to your events in Isanthyr I’d ask why you weren’t making your way down there. I’ll give you a pass for advancing so quickly, and supposedly bringing us new talent. Now, which of you are going first?”
“Are you sure we should be doing three platinum tests in a row?” One of the staff members asked the elder Redcloud. “According to our records, one of them is testing into Platinum, and the other only reached gold a month and a half ago-”
“Don’t worry about it.” Elder Carlsen waved them off. “In fact, answer a question for me. What tests are the ones that get the most failures?”
“Er-” The staff member paused for a moment, seeming to think on the answer. “I believe it's gold and mithral, why?”
“Right. Overconfidence gets the better of many when they go for those two ranks. I’m not sure about that Liberalis boy, but I personally watched him-” He motioned toward Tahir. “-qualify for gold. This is after he was thoroughly trounced by Ester when he first joined, so I think he’s well aware what his current capabilities are.” With a shrug, he added. “At least, he’s aware enough to make the attempt without any issues. Now I ask again, which of you are going first?”
“I might as well get mine out of the way.” Hasio said, stepping forward onto the field. Tahir and Shukri watched intently. The test could take a number of different forms, but they could expect to get a similar one since they were taking them back to back. Hasio nodded to the elder, who began the process to conjure a fabricated creature. A partial illusion that could only affect Hasio and the area where he was taking the test. It took the form of a towering giant, easily twenty feet tall, with stone gray skin and holding a club that looked more like the trunk of a small tree.
“As the tests you’ve taken before, you simply have to dispatch this creature using any means you have available to you.” Elder Carsen. “Assuming you are ready, you may begin, and you can call to surrender if you feel at any point that your life is in danger” The latter half of his statement had the tone of someone who’s read and said the same thing hundreds of times before, and had gotten utterly bored of it. He imagined most people who took a combat test to increase their rank wouldn’t surrender at the very beginning, or might be knocked out from the monster itself so they wouldn’t surrender mid-fight. At least to Tahir, he had no idea how the majority of tests went.
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Hasio unsheathed his daggers, and disappeared. Immediately, the giant reached forward and slammed down on the ground with an earth-rumbling strike. Tahir swallowed hard, but when the dust cleared, Hasio was nowhere to be found. It swung like that a couple more times, seemingly having an idea of where Hasio moved, but never an exact one. Hasio remained camouflaged, so Tahir had to assume that the giant never managed to land a direct hit, though it certainly tried with its massive club,and the occasional stomping of his feet.
While Tahir himself looked around for any sight of Hasio, the giant let out a pained cry. Its ankle had been slashed, and as it raised it in alarm, the other followed suit, bringing the giant to its knees. Hasio then reappeared next to it, long enough to stab his dagger into the ground and have a green flash of magical energy envelop him. The power of the dagger that Metilia made him, after they killed the maligno and the cairn lord and harvested their cores. Plants sprung up from the ground, thick and strong roots that wrapped around the giants limbs and body, keeping it from rising up. A powerful ability, but only one the daggers could do a couple of times a day at most.
Still, the giant flexed its powerful body, beginning to snap and break at the roots, but it couldn’t break out of them immediately. Hasio didn’t even bother hiding once more, he leapt, hopping up its back and bringing his daggers across the giant’s unprotected neck. In that swipe, he nearly beheaded the giant from the amount of aura he put into it. A second later, the giant fell limp, its body crashing against the ground, and then fading away. Hasio walked back to stand beside Tahir and Shukri, not even sparing a glance back, and the roots he conjured with his daggers also faded away to nothing.
“Very good.” Elder Carlsen said. “Perhaps you lucked out. The giant was a poor match for you with those roots, but a test is a test. Who’s next?”
The combat test was only one of a few that a Redcloud could take to advance. It also happened to be the quickest and, depending on the Redcloud’s skill set, the easiest. Tahir and Hasio probably could have gone with a more investigative test, which certainly would have worked especially for Hasio who’d done mostly scouting quests with his camouflage. They took more time, potentially multiple days, to set up based on the rank one was attempting, however. Since they didn’t know when Murabi might contact them, they wanted to get the rank up out of the way as quickly as possible.
“I’ll go.” Tahir said, and walked past Hasio to stand on the field. His test was the most in-flux. Hasio very handily qualified, and Shukri failing to win when her qualification came around would surprise Tahir more than anything, but he had yet to determine if he would qualify for platinum with tier two spirits. He didn’t want to force a win with tier three - though he would if he needed to. He wanted to use this opportunity to truly test himself, since his last couple of fights using tier two spirits had been too hectic for him to really get a good read on his abilities. Other than the daily sparring with Shukri on the trip back to Balrech, he also wanted some kind of controlled fight with his life on the line, but maybe he’d find something like that when they made their way to Osni.
As he drew his blade, and nodded to the elder, he contemplated what spirits to summon. The giant would prove difficult for anything but powerful strikes. Hasio had the benefit of powerful strikes being his specialty, but he also had the aura pool to support it. As the illusory form of the giant sprang to life, Tahir made a decision. He called upon Mikharma, but didn’t summon her directly, only granting himself her power. He also summoned the air, water, and fire spirits. What an amusing fake. Mikharma spoke within his mind, looking up at the giant through his eyes. Good Luck hunting.
Just from Tahir seeing it slam into the ground when it fought Hasio, he knew he didn’t want to get hit at all. Such a blow would rapidly deplete his aura, even with the earth spirit. He’d go for avoiding it completely and using magic instead. He waited as the giant noticed, and rushed over to him to slam its massive arms down. As soon as the arms raised, Tahir rushed forward, giving a shallow cut across the giant’s stomach as he rushed behind it. First things first, the advanced spells that he wanted to cast tended to have a longer cast time. He moved to the opposite edge of the field, while the giant grabbed its stomach, and looked around until it could find Tahir. It rushed over, this time reaching to grab him instead. He dodged out of the way of the grasping hand, and ran around its side, trying to get out of its reach again. It seemed to realize that Tahir moved fast and attempted to stay out of its reach, so it all but dived to the side, trying to crush him with its pure weight.
Tahir managed to leap back with a hefty use of aura to boost his speed, avoiding getting crushed by the giant. He could only imagine the embarrassment from someone who failed their test that way. He backed up to the edges of the field once more, managing to finish his chant as the giant rose on all fours. A torrent of water conjured out of thin air, and swirled around it. The giant’s arm slipped as it tried to stand, and Tahir willed the water to swirl around it. With a snap of his fingers, it froze, keeping its limbs in place.
Unfortunately, Tahir didn’t think he quite had the power to take it out in a single strike like Hasio, but while it struggled in the ice, he could begin to cast his second spell.