Everyone gets to spar

Kiara wants us to have a little sparring contest among ourselves. We can even use our skills on each other if we want. The first pair are me and Wendy.

This one should be pretty easy. I’ve just been practicing against her, so I know her strengths and weaknesses. I also don’t have to worry about her throwing knives at me because she has both her hands full with a short sword and a shield. The only thing that works in her favor now is her [Null Field], which prevents me from using water magic on her. Then again, I don’t have enough serious training in water magic, so I wasn’t even planning on using it.

The fight goes as I expected. I easily dodge Wendy’s attacks and my strikes on her shield show that she is off balance. She did manage to move faster than expected. Looks like her B rank strength is being very useful there.

After a short sparring match, I manage to get past her defense. I press my sword against her belly and then I pull my sword back. If Wendy had been one of the monsters outside my village, she would have a huge gash now. But since she wore chain main, my sword didn’t cut anything at all. After all, swords can’t cut metal.

Kiara of course calls the match after that. Then she explains to Wendy how her armor protected her. I guess pointing out to people how they would have died without it is a good way of making them appreciate having it.

After that, I congratulate Wendy on all the things she has learned in the two days of our training.

“Thanks.” Wendy says. “I’ve had a lot of help from Kiara and Leona. But you helped a lot too.

Wendy then stand on her toes, places a kiss on my cheek, and walks over to Miranda.

Next up are Ryul and Shalia.

Ryul gets into his battle stance and raises his fists. Shalia readies her quarterstaff, but instead of keeping it ready to defend with, she instead holds it like she’s about to cast a spell with it. When Kiara gives the sign to start, Ryul runs straight towards Shalia. The pink haired mage holds her hand out towards the urn with water and summons a bunch of it to splash it towards Ryul’s face. Thanks to his [Sixth Sense] skill, Ryul manages to dodge it. When he gets close to Shalia, she activates her [sunlight shield]. While it does mitigate damage and softens Ryul’s blows, it doesn’t stop them completely. Shalia then tries to run away while swatting at him with her staff. It was honestly quite comical to see. Kiara then calls the match in Ryul’s favor. I guess Shalia is going to have to focus training in her staff skills.

After the duel between Ryul and Shalia, Leona says she wants to go. To show everyone how a real battle is fought. Unfortunately, I don’t think any of us is at Leona’s level, so I don’t think she’s going to get the real fight she wants. Then Kiara decides to be her opponent.

Leona holds her shield up and sword ready. Kiara takes a stance similar to Ryul’s, like she’s about the fight Leona with her fists. When Miranda gives the start signal, Leona rushes forward while keeping her shield up. Kiara bring her right arm low and her hand grabs at something. All of a sudden Leona falls to the ground. Then I see a shadowy hand coming up from the ground to grab Leona’s heel.

“Shadow is weak against light!” Kiara shouts at Leona. “Now get yourself free!”

Leona quickly casts a ball of light at the shadowy hand and gets back up. By then Kiara has already snuck up behind Leona and created a new shadow construct. A sword. Leona barely has a chance to block it with her shield. Then Kiara changes the sword to an armor that covers both her arms and her shoulders. She then grabs both Leona’s sword and shield, pulls them aside and leaves Leon’s center wide open. Shen Kiara gives the catgirl a kick on her chest plate and sends her to the ground.

Leona recovers quickly though and gets back up. Even though Kiara has taken her sword and shield from her, she still has her fists and closes it ready to punch Kiara. That is when Kiara cancels her shadow constructs, holds her right hand towards Leona and suddenly a bright white flash appears.

Those of us at the sides have to shield our eyes, but since it was not directed at us, we can at least still see. Leona instead, is covering her eyes with her hands while screaming in pain.

“Fuck! What was that! I thought you were a dark sorceress! Where the hell did that light magic come from!?” Leona curses.

“Did you forget our first lesson? The one about the ranks?” Kiara asks. “I did state B rank mages possess 2 magic elements, right?”

“You also never said you had light magic.” Leona complains.

“You will find many adventurers hide some of their magics, spells or even their skills. Especially during the annual tournament every gets very secretive about all that.” Kiara explains. “As long as you can keep some of your abilities a secret, you can surprise your opponent and claim victory.”

With the match over, Kiara garbs hold of Leona and leads her to a bench.

“Honestly, I much prefer you losing like this from me and learning a lesson from it, instead of getting tricked by someone else and ending up with a sword through you.”

I get that Kiara is trying to help Leona get better. But I doubt Leona is going to see it that way. She did just try to ‘show everyone how a real battle is fought’ and I don’t think this is what she meant.

The last one to have her turn is Miranda, but she has no one to spar with. That’s why I volunteer to go a second time. After all, Wendy was not that much of a challenge to me. Perhaps facing a more challenging opponent like Miranda could help evolve my adventurer card.

I keep my sword defensively in front. When Kiara starts the match, I try summoning some water like Shalia did. But Miranda grabs one of her throwing axes and throws it at me. I have to interrupt my own spell and let the water fall to the ground while I defend myself with my sword. Miranda then grabs another axe to throw. I can’t afford to stay here and cast spells, I need to move in.

I rush towards Miranda and dodge the next axe coming my way. Once I get close enough for melee, Miranda starts swinging her bigger axe. Since my mother always used a sword I don’t quite know how to defend against an axe. I notice she’s using a bearded axe, that means the axe head has an opening between the blade and the handle. It is on Miranda’s side though. So, I maneuver my sword close enough that I get it past the axe head. It is my intention to then pull the axe our of Miranda’s hands. Unfortunately, Miranda had the same idea. She pulls as well. Thanks to her B rank strength she pulls my sword straight out of my hands. Crap.

I quickly move back and try to use my water magic again. It’s the only thing I’ve got left. Miranda doesn’t want to let me and closes in. I have no time to waste. I need to go all out. I summon all the water from the urn and send everything with as much **** I can manage towards Miranda’s chest. The water takes on the shape of a large ball, too big for Miranda to block. She fries to shield herself with her arms, but the impact sends her on her butt anyways.

As I am watching the drenched girl try and rub the water off of her face, I suddenly feel a rush come over me. It fills my endurance, making me feel like I just woke up, ready to start training. I also sense that my mana, which I pretty much used up on that huge water ball, instantly refill. As I am feeling all this, a golden light surrounds me. Just briefly, but it is there. I am just in time to see my hands glow just before the light fades away.

“What the fuck?” I ask.

While I am still staring at my hands, Ryul comes up to me and says, “Dude, what happened? You started glowing all of a sudden.”

“I don’t know.” I say. “This never happened before.”

Everybody else comes over too. Aside for Leona, whose eyes are still adjusting, and Miranda, who complains about being drenched.

Eventually Kiara gets the idea of asking me to check my adventurer card. Maybe the light has something to do with that. I take the card out of my pocket and take a good look at it. She’s right. Something has changed. The question mark next to my rank. It had become a letter now.