Steven took his spot in the arena and The instructor repeated to him the same thing that he said to Brian, summoning the dog again and waiting for Steven to get ready. The young man went ahead to the weapon rack, but he didn’t look at the weapons with as much detail as Brian, picking a short sword almost right away.
Once he was ready, the instructor gave the order to start. Steven, instead of waiting for the dog to attack, rushed ahead and started swinging and swiping at the dog without doing much to it as the dog easily moved away from the inexperienced fighter.
“Come on! Weren’t you going to show me!?” Brian shouted after a couple of minutes.
“S-shut up!” Steven replied, and in doing so, the dog took the opportunity to leap.
Steven panicked and tried to back away, effectively avoiding the bite from the dog while doing so, but still being tackled by it. He stumbled backwards a couple of steps and readied himself for another round with the dog.
“Use your magic, dumbass!” Brian shouted.
“R-right,” I heard Steven whisper to himself.
Luckily for him, the dog didn’t press on and allowed him to focus on his magic for a moment. After a few seconds, the sword started glowing with a dim blue light that could hardly be seen, and he rushed again at the dog.
With a shout, and an extremely predictable vertical swipe, he attacked the dog. To my surprise, however, the dog didn’t move and allowed itself to be hit with that attack. I could tell that despite this attack being slightly faster than everything the young man had done so far, it wasn’t so fast that the dog couldn’t just move aside and bite the young man.
The dog glowed for a second after that strike and dissipated into blue particles. The instructor clapped a couple of times and nodded. “That’s it. Well done. You may go back now.”
“T-thank you!” Steven excitedly replied, putting the sword back on the rack and going back down with a brisk pace.
“Tch, that was bullshit. They let you win,” Brian argued, while looking to the side with a pout.
Steven looked back with a mocking smile, and I stopped caring about whatever bickering started between them as I focused on the people at the back working on their strange phones. I expected them to have some other reaction to the outcome of the test, but it was no different than how it was for Brian.
“Victoria Graciani!” the instructor shouted again.
I turned to look at the girl. I hadn’t paid much attention to her, but she was a fairly pretty girl. Her hair had dark brown roots that turned blonde the longer it went, which was a weird trait to see on someone so old. She had wheat colored skin that leaned more on the lighter side; she was a bit shorter than me; and her eyes were brown.
I kept looking at her, but she just closed her eyes and took several deep breaths before she moved to the arena. However, just as she started moving, Doctor Fraga moved with her, going up to the arena and going to the instructor.
I couldn’t quite hear what they were saying, but judging by the surprised expression of the instructor, it seemed like something out of the ordinary was happening. Sure enough, the instructor made his way out of the arena, leaving only Doctor Fraga and Victoria on it.
“I’ll be the one to do the test,” Doctor Fraga announced, stunning the girl that looked even more frightened than before.
“B-but, is there something wrong?” the girl asked, her voice almost shaking.
Doctor Fraga chuckled and shook his head. “Not at all. But the results we got on the previous test got me interested in you, Miss Victoria, so I want to see personally what you can do.”
“U-um…” the girl replied, looking around at the people working behind the arena, and the instructor, who only shrugged.
“He’s part of the professors that design these tests, so there’s no issue in him doing it as long as he does it properly,” the instructor said without any worry.
“Well then. Same as before, go pick your weapon and prepare yourself,” Doctor Fraga said, arranging the disks in his hands while the girl hesitated to move.
After looking at the man for a moment, Victoria eventually moved to the weapons rack, picking a long spear without looking at anything else and moving back to the starting point of the test while awkwardly holding the weapon.
“Now, show me what you can do!” Doctor Fraga shouted, throwing the disks in the air and summoning a much larger Mana Beast than the dog.
There was a bright orange glow that covered the disks, which then transformed into a fiery gorilla. Its eyes glowed orange as it looked down on the terrified girl, and I couldn’t help but frown at the idea that perhaps this old man was trying to do harm to the girl, so I also readied myself to jump into the arena—should anything wrong happen.
Victoria took a fearful step back, staring wide eyed at the gorilla, but before she could even have the chance to pick between fighting or running away, the gorilla slapped the floor a couple of times before roaring in a rumbling voice.
“Start!” Doctor Fraga shouted, which did nothing to move the startled girl.
I readied myself to jump in and save the girl, but the gorilla didn’t move, it was just walking around Victoria while keeping the same distance, bothering only to stare at the paralyzed young girl.
“Man, good thing I didn’t have to fight that,” Brian exclaimed and Steven slowly nodded.
“Come on, girl, show me what all that magic power can do,” Doctor Fraga said while raising a hand, gesturing to Victoria to move ahead.
I was expecting this old man to mock the girl, but he seemed to be eagerly awaiting for something impressive to happen, but as for me, I didn’t feel any kind of magic movement from the girl, so I didn’t quite understand what he was looking for.
I took a couple of steps closer to the arena and the spot that Victoria was paralyzed on. “Come on, fight. Have faith—” that the Holy Gods are looking over you, I wanted to say, but I knew that they weren’t, at least not for anything good.
Still, somehow my words seemed to resonate with the girl as she whispered to herself, “Have faith… in myself. You’re right.”
Victoria closed her eyes and started to focus. I also felt the movement of mana in her body. It was much higher than the other two young people—closer to what I currently have—and I could feel it moving to the weapon.
She opened her eyes, and I noticed that they had a dim blue color around her brown irises; her expression turned from one of fear to one of determination. She aimed the spear at the large gorilla, and with a sharp step forward, a lightning bolt fired from the tip of the spear.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
It was loud, almost as loud as the weapon that Brian used. The blinding light and the speed of such a spell made it impossible for the gorilla to dodge, who took it and stumbled backwards as a large hole in its fiery shape was created on the point of impact. However, the gorilla being a Mana Beast, meant that while it took some damage, it could be repaired by the mana of the summoner.
“Yes! Impressive! Keep going!” Doctor Fraga exclaimed, extending his hand to the gorilla and feeding it more mana to reform itself. “But I’m not going to just let you use magic!”
The gorilla roared and started rushing Victoria. The girl panicked slightly, but held her ground as she prepared the spear to defend herself. I was expecting her to just use it to block, which would’ve sent her flying, but she focused more magic on the tip of the spear instead. When the gorilla prepared to slam on the girl, an almost transparent blue shield appeared in front of her, similar but not quite as strong as the one I used before.
The gorilla slammed on the shield, creating a shockwave across it and forming a fracture on top of it. Another hit and it would be gone, leaving the girl open to an attack, so I took another step closer to the arena.
“You have to move out of it,” I said, worried that she would expect that shield to be enough.
Without turning to look anywhere or acknowledging what I said, Victoria leaped to the side, and just as she did, the shield broke apart like glass, disappearing in the air, and causing the gorilla to slam on the ground where she stood before.
“Hey!” the instructor shouted from the side of the arena in my direction. “This is her test! If you try to help her again, we’ll disqualify you!”
I had forgotten about that part as I was worried that perhaps this girl would be hurt, so I took a step back. “Sorry.”
Victoria had landed a few steps away from the gorilla, and it wouldn’t allow the opportunity to strike at a fallen enemy to pass. It quickly turned, its large fiery fists ready to strike her down. I worried again that this time she wouldn’t be able to react in time, especially for someone not trained for combat, but when the gorilla was just about to strike her, another lightning bolt fired from the tip of the spear, hitting the gorilla in the head.
The head disappeared, leaving the Mana Beast to slowly topple down on top of the girl. She started to desperately run away from it, but the Beast disappeared completely mid air, leaving behind nothing more than motes of fire that also disappeared soon after.
“Well done!” Doctor Fraga shouted while clapping his hands, a big smile plastered on his face. “Just as I had hoped! You may go back now.”
The people behind Doctor Fraga started murmuring between themselves, nodding and smiling, just as he was, while working on the artifacts that they carried. Victoria dropped a heavy sigh before standing back up and making her way to the weapon rack, leaving the spear where it was, and walking down from the arena.
She walked over to me, a bright smile on her face as she did. “Thank you for cheering me on.”
I returned a soft smile that didn’t quite match hers, but I still felt happy for her. “It was nothing. You did all the work.”
The girl giggled. “I’ll be sure to cheer you on when you go up there.”
I smiled but refrained from saying anything as I prepared myself to be called up to the arena.
“Althea Sanctus!” the instructor shouted almost right after.
“Good luck!” Victoria said to me.
There was also a loud scream coming from the stands where I turned to look with a frown, thinking that perhaps someone was attacked, only to find Nicole standing and waving her arms at me. I sighed and kept going up to the arena. I watched Doctor Fraga, and I also realized that he was the one doing the test for me as well as he simply looked back at me with a half smile.
“Now, let's see if we get another one in this batch,” he said while tossing up and down the few disks in his hand. “I don’t think I have to repeat myself on what you have to do.”
“No, I understand,” I replied and made my way to the weapon rack.
I considered what to use for a moment. There were plenty of weapons to use, and some of them I had learned to use while training to be a Holy Knight. However, among the ones that were displayed, I couldn’t help but look at the largest sword. It wasn’t by any means as big as the Holy Blade, but it would be the only one here that would match more my fighting style, so I reached for it.
“Huh,” Doctor Fraga exclaimed. “Are you sure about such a large and heavy weapon? Remember: you’re supposed to use what fits you better.”
“Yes, this is what fits me better,” I replied, no hesitation in my movements as I effortlessly picked up the large sword.
“So be it…” Doctor Fraga reluctantly accepted.
I could see in his expression that he was either disappointed or concerned for what I had picked, even more so for the way I carried these kinds of large blades; something that my old masters would shake their heads at as well. But it worked fine for killing a God, despite dooming the world by doing so.
The way that I carried these large blades was by either resting it on my shoulder when I was flying at high speeds or simply moving—like I was doing right now as I made my way to the starting point of the test—or by resting the tip of the weapon on the floor a couple of steps ahead of me, like I did when I readied myself for the test in the same spot as the others had done.
My masters didn’t like me doing either of those things because they believed I wouldn’t be in optimal form if I didn’t grip the weapon with both hands at all times, because not doing so would leave me open and weak to the enemy. However, as a Holy Knight chosen by the Holy Gods to wield their power, I needed to be able to use Holy Power and magic at any moment, which is something that I always was prepared to do with my open left hand.
Doctor Fraga frowned as he looked at me for a moment and my strange stance, but he eventually shook his head, throwing the disks in the air before the same large fiery gorilla appeared around them. Same as it did with Victoria, it roared and slammed the ground a couple of times, but I didn’t flinch nor react to it as I focused myself on circulating mana around my body and reinforcing the blade with it.
“Start!” Doctor Fraga shouted, and the gorilla did the same it did with Victoria at first.
However, I wouldn’t allow the gorilla to do much as I rushed ahead with as much speed as this current body and my magic would allow me; fast enough to appear in front of the Mana Beast in the blink of an eye.
I swiped down with the blade in a diagonal motion, trying to hit the disks that were poorly hidden inside the fiery body. I didn’t get all of them but I managed to slash the ones that were in the way to cut the beast in half with one fell swoop. The Beast disappeared even faster than it had appeared, barely able to even notice what had happened before it was split in half.
I stood in place, the blade resting its tip on the floor as the last motes of fiery mana dissipated in the air. There was silence from everyone around the arena. I turned to look at the people working behind Doctor Fraga. They were stunned as they blinked their eyes several times, seemingly impressed by the little thing I had done.
I wasn’t nearly as fast as I was before. Salrak would’ve killed me ten times over in the time it took me to approach the beast, and he would’ve killed me another ten times in the time I took to swing the blade, but for this test, it seemed to be more than enough.
“Doctor Fraga…?” I said to the old man that was staring wide eyed at the surprisingly tough disks that laid on the floor.
“Y-yes? Yes! Test over!” he finally snapped out of it before chucking to himself and shaking his head. “I didn’t expect such a thing. Very impressive, Miss Althea.”
“It was nothing, but thank you,” I replied, turning around to leave the blade in the same spot that it was before.
Once I made my way out of the arena, I found a just as impressed Victoria looking back at me. “That was incredible! Where did you learn to do all that?!”
I half-smiled and stood next to her. “Well… Lets just say that—”
“I’m delighted!” Doctor Fraga exclaimed while clapping and making his way down from the arena to us. “You’ll be the future for sure with those abilities!”
“What do you mean?” I asked, frowning as I did.
“The academy—and the country—have been having issues when it comes to getting valuable resources from the Magic Red Zones due to dangerous beasts and not having enough of our own to get them,” Doctor Fraga explained, pausing for a moment to look at both me and Victoria. “We need talents like yours to compete, and I for one, I’m more than happy to aid you.”
“I just wish to learn about this world, nothing more,” I replied, frowning deeper at the idea that I might be used for other people's ends.
Doctor Fraga chuckled. “That is part of it all. I’m sure that with time you’ll see how important this is,” he turned to look at both Steven and Brian bickering some distance away. “Come on! I’ll hand you your results and Magic System Watches to formalize the registration!”
The young men stopped talking with each other as they both rushed over to us, and we all started going after Doctor Fraga; back to the same building we first met.