Corvo, Mira, and Eleonora arrived a bit earlier at the spectator's grandstands on the next day to wish Sean good luck as he would be among the first to attend todays exams. Mira, who would be among the last, nervously fidgeted with her spear while following Sean with her eyes, as he approached the rest of today's examinees.
"Don't worry and just try to relax. I'm sure you'll make it through the exam as well.", Corvo said, trying to calm down the nervous Mira, who sighed deeply in response.
"Easy for you to say...", she mumbled.
At the same time as the black magi the day before, the group of support-professions lined up before one of the white platforms in the training grounds of Rouclier, on which Irene Karm was currently standing at attention, as their exam consisted of duels in which they needed to demonstrate their prowess in their respective profession. However, on this particular day, security seemed to have received a significant boost, as Corvo noticed more than 20 guards currently stationed nearby. Reason for this was the attendance of Count Armin Crevier, as he wanted to see the achievements of his son with his own eyes.
Between the grandstands and the white platform on which the duels would be held, Félix Deloffre was standing next to a table with three seats, two of which were already occupied by Alexander Calros and Leroy Montell, and was now addressing the cadets.
"Greetings, young cadets. Today, you will demonstrate if you have what it takes to one day join the army of our glorious Empire and support your comrades on the battlefield to defend our nation, and you will do so in mock-combat, with each duel lasting exactly 3 minutes. Though, like with any other duel your task will be to defeat your opponent in this exam, it should not be seen as your priority.
Together with me, Sir Montell and Headmaster Calros will look at the way you utilize your skills and magic, as well as your decision-making skills during the fight, and thus give you points according to your performance, which will allow even the one who was defeated by their opponent to advance to the next year, as well as the victor of the duel to fail.
To ensure that each of you has a fair chance at being evaluated, I have personally created the match-ups for today's duels, and each of you will receive as second chance if we think your performance to be lacking in your first try.
To minimize injury, we have Lady Karm acting as the referee, who will immediately put an end to a duel where either of the participants can no longer continue on. Any questions?", he concluded his speech.
Seeing as no one raised their hands, Deloffre took a seat on the empty chair between Calros and Montell.
"Alright. Let us begin. First up are Cadet Zeel and Cadet Gin. Please step onto the platform."
After the first few duels, Sean looked around nervously, as the number of potential opponents started to dwindle. His worries confirmed themselves, as he was the last one who would take the exam, with his opponent being Martin Crevier once again. The grimace of Crevier upon realizing the very same thing did not help calm Sean's nervosity one bit.
"Well done, both of you. Alright, Cadet Riddar, Cadet Crevier, if you would please walk up to the platform."
The two did as they were asked, and Sean could hear Crevier whisper at him excitedly with the most sinister of smirks.
"Not only will I be able to put you in your place, I will do so while my father is watching. What a joyous day."
Sean and Crevier faced each other a yard apart from one another.
"Alright, you know the rules. No magic other than support magic, no skills other than bard skills, no items or tools other than the sword you are holding. If you leave the platform, you lose immediately. You may begin upon my signal.", Irene Karm reminded them as she raised her right hand into the air and the two duelists drew their dull practice-blades.
"Ready? 3...2...1...GO!", Karm shouted, and quickly lowered her hand in a chopping motion on 'go' to signal the start of the duel.
"You know me, I'm a less haste, more speed kinda-", Sean began to recite the phrase which would grant him the haste-buff, but he was quickly interrupted by Crevier, who jumped towards him and chopped him in the throat, causing him to stumble backwards as he coughed and gasped for air.
"Payback for last time, though I think this method to be much quicker, would you not agree?", he mocked the gasping Sean, who stared daggers at him.
'No...no problem...I practiced with Corvo for this...', Sean thought, and quickly brought some distance between himself and Crevier, as he started to form a spell-circle.
"No you won't!", Crevier yelled at him and attacked him with his sword, which was parried by Sean's.
He kept hacking away at Sean's sword, not intending to let down before he interrupted the cast, but Sean managed to keep up his concentration even as he was hit once in the arm and once in the leg while trying to parry and evade the strikes aimed at him. Seeing as he was not able to prevent the casting, Crevier opted for using bard-skills instead, and started to hum a deep tune, causing his body to glow in a faint red light. Having finished the spell-circle at the same time as Crevier had applied his own buff, Sean released the 3rd -Tier
Having his entire bodies movement increased drastically, Sean now quickly sidestepped Crevier's sword and tried to counter, aiming for his kidney with his own blade. However, as soon as the blade made contact with Crevier's body, it bounced back, as if having his a solid wall. This led to Sean now being open for a counter-attack, though he was quick to dodge due to the effects of
"You may be faster now, but this won't help you if you can't get a hit in, right? And I doubt that you have learned any other spells than
'...I may not be able to hit him...but I might be able to coax him into attacking me! That's it! ', he thought and started his plan by stepping back towards the edge of the platform.
"What, already giving up? Or do you just want the time to run out?", Crevier mocked his decision, though only until he saw that Sean had started to cast a second spell.
For a split second, Crevier believed that he might actually be in danger if Sean was to finish the spell, though moments later, he managed to recognize the spell-circle to be exactly the same one as before.
"What, are you trying to stack the haste-buff on yourself? That's not gonna work you imbecile! Here, let me spare you from further humiliation and finish you off!", Crevier called out to him, before going in for the attack.
'Bingo...now just a little bit closer! ', Sean thought as he finished the spell.
Right before Crevier's sword could reach him, he released the spell.
'NOW! '
It was true that support-spells such as
"Heh...Haha...HAHAHAHAHA! Nice try, you lowborn trash! Did you really think I would fall for the tricks of some dirty commoner more than once? Never mind, now it will be my turn!", Crevier stated. Now evenly matched in speed, but not needing to focus on defending, Crevier started his assault on Sean once more.
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Meanwhile, in the VIP balcony of the spectator's grandstands, a rather tall, middle-aged man with black, gelled-back hair which started to show strands of grey, clad in a pompous blue robe which was decorated with golden threads, became rather irritated at what he saw, causing him to grip the armrest of his seat with so much force that the wood started to creak.
"My lord, is everything alright?", one of Count Crevier's bodyguards, a man wearing the armour of the captain of Caelums city-guards with a large scar hidden beneath his beard on his right cheek asked him, but Count Crevier just waved him off, causing the guardsman to return his attention towards the fight, a worrisome expression on his face.
"Come on, Sean! You can still win this!", Michael Riddar whispered barely audibly as he tightened the grip on his sheathed sword.
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Back on the platform, Sean continued to evade and block the attacks of Crevier, whose attacks were no longer the refined swings of someone who was trained in swordsmanship from an early age but those of someone who started wildly swinging at someone to cause as much harm as possible, making his swings easier to read, but harder to endure.
'Come on, come on! It has to be any moment now! ', Sean thought as he grew more and more exhausted, knowing that any swing now could be the one who broke through his defense.
Suddenly, a loud whisteling sound stopped the two opponents in their tracks, the signal of the end of the time limit.
"Alright, time's up. Get off the platform and await your results.", Irene Karm commanded, and Sean sank to his feet in relief.
"F..Finally.", he coughed out, his throat still aching from the hit he received in the beginning.
However, Crevier did not seem to be satisfied with the result of the duel, as the anger started to take over, causing him to raise his sword once more.
This action caused multiple people to move at the same time, though none of them were as quick as Irene Karm, who removed the sword from Crevier's hand and pushed him off the platform in one swift motion.
"I said the duel is over. If you raise your hand again after being told to cease, it will be the last thing you do at Rouclier, understood?", she snarled at him, her voice being enough to make him cover in fear.
"Y...YES MA'AM!", he yelled with a deep bow as he was no longer able to look into her eyes, and quickly walked off towards the other students awaiting their evaluation.
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On the grandstands, Count Crevier sighed deeply as he sunk back into his seat after having risen in shock at what he saw, now hiding his face behind his right hand.
"My Lord?", Michael Riddar asked, stepping back from the balcony's edge over which he had almost leapt to intercept Martin's blade which was aimed at his son.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
"Ah, pay it no mind. Your name... it was Riddar, right? Was my son's opponent your child?", he inquired, and his suspicions were affirmed.
"I can't let what happened here stand. Follow me downstairs."
"As you wish."
As they went down the stairs, they could hear the voices of Corvo and Mira, who tried to hold Eleonora back as she was about to jump towards the platform after seeing what Martin tried to do.
"Calm down, I told you Karm would go in between them immediately if something was going to happen! That lady wouldn't even let the emperor himself break a rule in her vicinity if she was in charge of upholding them!", Mira yelled and dragged Eleonora back into her seat.
"Yeah, let's just all relax and wait for the evaluation.", Corvo added.
"...and then we can take out Crevier."
"CORVO! You're supposed to be the smart one among us! What if the Count heard you?", Mira asked in annoyance, causing both Eleonora and Corvo to chuckle.
"...My son seems to be quite unpopular due to his behaviour. I should have done something about this much earlier.", Count Crevier thought out loud, his mood growing ever darker as they continued downwards.
As they slowly approached the young cadets, Deloffre stopped talking to the other judges and rose to his feet and announced the end results of the first round. Of the 16 who fought, 10 passed, including both Martin Crevier and Sean Riddar, and the remaining 6 will have to fight once more as their fights were not sufficient enough to award them any points.
"In regards to the last fight, we asked Lady Karm to share her opinion as well, and, together with her, we decided to overlook Cadet Crevier's transgressions, as it was his first offense and he immediately relented. However, he will be given a punishment. For the entirety of the upcoming 2 month break, Cadet Crevier is to assist the guards of Caelum by doing chores given to him by their captain."
"WHAT? Me, the future count of Caelum, doing busywork fit for commoners for 2 months?", Martin blurted out.
"Mind your manners, Cadet Crevier, and be glad that you were not removed from this academy.", Calros added, before rising from his seat together with Montell as they saw who approached them from afar.
"We greet the Lord of Caelum! ", all 4 instructors said in unison with a bow, but Count Crevier quickly motioned them to sit down.
"Be at ease."
"Father! Have you heard what they-", Martin started, but was quickly interrupted by his irate parent.
"SILENCE! How dare you disgrace our family by insulting the people of Caelum, which our family swore an oath to protect, attacking an opponent who had lain down their arms, and then having the gall to demand to be given preferential treatment in your punishment! Has the education I have provided you with failed to this extent?", he yelled at him, causing Martin to step back in fear.
"But-but...!", he stammered out, though unable to form a coherent sentence.
"Enough! First of all, you shall apologize to the boy you have harmed and his father, the man who received the task to protect my life during this event, whom you have disrespected so openly by insulting the upbringing of your opponents family!", he demanded and pointed at Michael Riddar, who seemed to be surprised and flustered by the situation, as he had believed until now that he would be put to blame and reprimanded for what had just happened.
For a moment, Martin started to shake, seemingly on the edge of a nervous breakdown, before he managed to get himself together and approached Sean.
"My sincerest apologies. I do not know what drove me to do such a shameful thing. I hope you can forgive me.", he apologized with a deep bow, and Sean just awkwardly looked around before answering.
"Uh... no problem. We all do stupid things sometimes."
Seeing his apology being accepted, he did the same for Michael Riddar.
"I want to express my sincerest apologies to you as well, Captain Riddar. Despite you risking your life to guard my father, I have shown nothing but disrespect towards you."
"...yeah, like Sean said. You're still young. We all did stuff we regret in when we still grew up. Just see to it that it doesn't happen again.", Michael Riddar replied, and Count Crevier nodded in approval.
"With that out of the way, I want you to immediately go to my study once you are allowed to leave. You and I will have a serious conversation about today's events, as well as the consequences your behaviour will bring with it. Now then, I had my say. Please continue with your work, valued instructors of Rouclier, and know that I myself will see to it that my son will fulfill his obligations in regards to the punishment you have decided upon.", Count Crevier bid his farewell before leaving the training-grounds, together with his guards.
"...Alright. Seeing as this problem has been resolved, let us continue. Those of you who have managed to pass the exam, as well as those who failed, are allowed to leave the premises or watch the rest of the exams among the other spectators. Those who need to retake their exam will be given until the end of the sword-combat-exam to rest before having to fight once more."
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The swordsmanship exam was similar to the previous exam, though this time, skills were completely prohibited, as the students needed to show their proficiency in the Ardent-Blade fighting-style. Seeing as her turn was fast approaching, Mira began to nervously fidget with her spear.
"3 Minutes...THREE! How is anyone supposed to make it through that?", she mumbled, causing Corvo to empathically pat her shoulder.
"Don't worry, she told you that she would give you all a handicap, no? Maybe it won't be that bad?", Corvo suggested in an attempt to calm her nerves, but to no avail.
"Yeah, right. It's going to be the equivalent of taking the claws of a tiger away. They'd still be able to maul you effortlessly. No, one wrong move and I'll be done for.", Mira shivered at the thought.
After the swordsmanship exam concluded, with only 10 of 30 students failing, Mira decided to make her way downstairs.
"Wait, aren't the remaining supporters up first?", Corvo asked.
"If I want to get out of this alive, I need to get into the right mindset, so I'll be heading down early."
"Alright, good luck then!"
"Good luck!"
"You got this!"
"Yeah...thanks.", Mira responded, before slowly walking down the grandstands like a criminal to his execution.
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Of the remaining support classes, all but one passed. Having concluded their exams, Calros, Deloffre, and Montell stood up from their seats and all but Calros walked towards the grandstands, as he would be the one using the stop-watch for this exam. As the 10 students of Irene Karm lined up in front of her, she remained on the stage. To the confusion of the spectators, the 10 medics, who had been standing-by during exams and given potions to those who got hurt now moved closer to the platform.
"The last exam for today will be the students with long melee weapons. As with the other exams today, this too will be decided with a duel. However, your opponents will not be other students, but me. If you manage to either win against me or last 3 minutes without leaving the ring or being put into submission, you automatically pass. You are not allowed to use any other tools or items except for your main weapon. Since I am a seasoned veteran of the battlefield, I will face you without a weapon, and as long as you are not using a skill yourself, I shall refrain from using any as well."
Her explanation caused agitated murmurs on the grandstands from those who did not know what the exam entailed beforehand, and nervous shifting among the soon to be examined.
"We'll go alphabetically. Cadet Adelaide, you will be up first.", Karm called out to Mira, who climbed the platform and assumed a fighting stance.
She could see her spear wobbling due to her fear of what was to come, but, with a deep breath, she forced her arms to become steady.
This barely noticeable change caused a small smile to appear on Irene Karm's face, which was quickly replaced by her usual stoic expression.
"The time starts after your first attack. You may begin.", Karm stated, though instead of assuming a fighting stance herself, she just remained casually standing in place. Moments after she had declared the beginning of the fight, Mira immediately jumped forward and started her first attack, a stab towards Karm's torso, which was quickly evaded with a twist of her upper body.
Several more stabs followed the first, all of which were dodged in a similar manner, with only the bare minimum of movement necessary to stay unharmed.
"Not bad, your rhythm is pretty good, and you are trying to aim for the places I will appear after dodging, not just the one's where I am. But what if I do this?", Karm commented, before batting away the spear which had just missed her once more like one would a fly, though with enough force to almost rip the weapon out of Mira's hands.
This was followed by Karm quickly yet calmly closing the distance between her and Mira, who decided to use the momentum of her swatting away the spear to spin around and hit her with the handle of the spear. However, Karm just raised her right hand and caught the spear.
"Quick thinking, and you got some power into that strike. However, that won't be enough.", Karm stated, and countered with a quick jab aimed at her gut, which caused Mira's eyes to widen in shock.
Though she tried to evade the strike by jumping backwards, she was still hit. However, there was much less force behind the punch than Mira had anticipated, and though Mira still had the wind knocked out of her and was gasping for air as she stumbled backwards and tried to put some more distance between them, she did not feel any of her ribs break.
"Trying to mitigate the damage by rolling with the punch is a good idea, though this only works against blunt strikes. Let's see how you do while defending multiple hits.", Karm explained, before assuming a proper boxing stance and once again closing the distance between herself and her opponent in split-seconds.
Mira had recovered from the punch enough to react, moving her spear in such a way that Karm's fist was guided away from her body. However, as she tried to block the follow-up punch with the handle of her spear, she saw herself struggling to keep the pole-arm in her hands, as the shock of the hit was strong enough to make her slide a few feet backwards.
2 more hits was all it took for Mira to end up on the edge of the platform.
'Shit...maybe I can try the same as Sean earlier? ', she thought as Karm followed up with another punch.
Mira quickly ducked under her fist and stepped behind her, before trying to push Karm with the butt of her spear. However, Karm quickly spun around on the heel of her foot and delivered a devastating hook to Mira's gut, causing her to fly across the platform and touching down in it's centre.
Mira's vision began to blur, and she felt herself on the verge of passing out, but through sheer will, she managed to clench her teeth together and forced her eyes to focus, making it possible for her to stay conscious. She noticed that she still had her spear in her right hand, and used it to slowly rise back on her feet. Though her knees began to wobble, she managed to stand without aid, and raised her spear once more.
"That one had some bite in it, but you not only managed to keep onto your spear, but also managed to stand up again! Think you can keep going?", Karm asked, and Mira tried to answer, though, seeing as she had become nauseous, she just nodded instead.
"Your tenacity is admirable. Though, will it be enough?", Karm continued, and slowly walked towards her, before stopping just short before the point at which Mira could reach her.
"Ready or not, here I come!", Karm yelled out, before stepping forward, evading the spear aimed at her torso and raising her fist as far as she could as she quickly approached Mira with her second step.
However, this punch was different than the one's that came before. It was clear that Karm had held back before. This time, however, Mira could feel that if this punch were to hit her, it would likely be the last thing that happened to her. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as it inched closer and closer towards her face, and her entire body began to tense up in fear of the approaching doom. She knew she had to evade it, but not a single muscle in her body seemed to obey her anymore.
'Come on! Move! If I could just move my head by an inch, it should be enough for her to miss! COME ON! MOVE! ', Mira screamed at herself in her thoughts to force her body to move, and, with tears in her eyes and teeth clenched from the strain, her neck began to move slightly to the right, and not a second too late, as she could feel a sharp wind cut her left cheek as the fist whizzed past her like a bullet. Though it had seemed to Mira as if it was aimed directly at her head, Karm had actually never intended for the punch to hit, which could be seen as her fist had stopped a considerable distance away from her.
Karm slowly stepped back and observed Mira, who now had to support herself with her spear to keep standing, sweating and breathing labored breaths as if having just ran a marathon.
Seeing her student still conscious caused a much larger smile on Karm's face than before, and she quietly counted down the last few seconds of the exam, before Calros called out to them.
"Time's up."
Immediately after the words had reached her, Mira closed her eyes in relief and started to fall backwards, though before she hit the ground, she was caught by Karm. Two medics quickly rushed the stage and carried her off, before Karm addressed the spectators.
"An impressive first performance by Cadet Adelaide. Full points. Next, Cadet Caledon, please step forward."
Seeing Mira getting carried away caused Corvo and his friends to rush after her to find out if she was injured during the fight. However, the medics told them that she was only in need of some proper rest.
"Though Lady Karm might seem like she is going overboard with her exams, she had never once let any of her students suffer serious injury. Among all instructors, she is most likely the one with the best control over her own strength and most knowledgable of how far she can push her students, so you don't need to worry.", one of them assured them, before kicking the group out of the infirmary, as Caledon had just been delivered to them by their colleagues.
Since there was nothing else for them to do, they returned to watch the remaining fights. They only managed to witness the end of the 3rd fight, which ended in the student, who was wielding a Zweihänder, being thrown out of the ring with effortless ease by Karm, which means he had failed. Of the 7 remaining students, 3 more were failed, and the other 4 were pushed to exhaustion, with only one more student being praised for their skill by Karm herself, who declared them to have reached full points in the exam just like Mira.
Thus concluded the second day of the practical exams.