Someone you'd never expect (and not the Spanish inquisition)

Turning around, John saw a man he hadn’t expected to see here. It was the Patriarch of the Gjoskenholm clan, but instead of his wide robes and the animal skull, he was wearing only a pair of cloth pants and some bindings around his fists. To say he was ripped would be an understatement, he was in excellent shape, even for the apparent old age. Just like last time, John felt like Observe would yield nothing. But shouldn’t he still try though, maybe that was just another trick to stop people from gathering information? Fighting against his own urges, he finally observed the old man:

Wotan Gjoskenholm
Lv. 53 Grand Shaman (Current Power: Lv. 10)
<Spirit of the Woods>
RP: +65 (You have shown dedication and some balls, you have aided his family, and apparently you’ll potentially be his grandson-in-law at some point, so you seem pretty good to him)

And that was supposed to be his opponent?? And what did the Current Power mean? This seemed like an awfully bad idea…

Magoi then clapped his hands together and spoke with an enthusiastic voice, “Yes, your opponent this time will be Mr. Gjoskenholm. Since his family was one of the ones vowing for you, he volunteered to help in this evaluation. Most of his powers are obviously locked away so that we can properly evaluate your skill. The goal of this fight is not to win or lose, but to see how well you can fight without your more arcane skills. Take a weapon of your choice from the stands, it is required so that you don’t get any wounds.”

As the Fateweaver spoke, a rack of weapons rose from the ground, displaying many different weapons, most of them foreign to John. He walked towards the rack and picked up a wooden spear. Its weight was pretty similar to the Spear of Armamyris, as was its length, so it didn’t take long for John to get the hang of it. Using a quick Observe showed him what the Fateweaver meant with ‘getting no wounds’:

Ironwood Training Spear (Moon Dojo)
1-Hand Weapon
1 DMG
Will always deal exactly 1 DMG, no matter for different effects
Creates a Shield around the user with 5 HP. Once these 5 points are gone, it will send a static shock to the user, forcing him to drop the weapon. The same will happen to the opponent(s). Only works inside the Moon Dojo.

Huh, so this was to protect him from any damage, that was smart. Wotan meanwhile took a staff from the rack, twirling it with an uncanny speed in his hands. As the rack disappeared again, Kwang spoke up, “Now then, the rules for this one are simple. No magic, 5 hits to win a round, 3 rounds. Both of you, ready?

Melee Mode of Moon Dojo activated, can’t use skills consuming mana until deactivated. Skills detailing melee maneuvers can only be used in non-magic ways.

Okay, so he could still use his skills, but he would likely fall flat on his ass using them because he had no idea how to do them without empowering them with his Mana… Okay, so it was probably the best to mostly rely on his Melee skill. To respond to Kwang's question, John nodded his head and slowly slipped into the stance that he felt most comfortable with. His hands and the weapon were raised to eye level, parallel to his look while his legs went into a bit of a crouch so that he could move forward with speed.

Wotan nodded as well and slipped into his own stance, which was broader and more static than John’s was. The older man’s weapon was firmly by his side, tucked away in a way so that he could quickly deflect a strike from any side.

“Then… Begin!”

John instantly pushed himself forward, closing the gap as quickly as he could to get the strike. Once he had been close enough, he slipped down on the ground and swung his spear in a low arch, trying to hit his opponent’s legs. The hit was immediately dodged with a sidestep while the staff went straight to his head. John could barely dodge the strike to his head as the other end of the staff hit him squarely in his stomach while he tried to recover from the dodge.

4 to 5.

Using the rest of his momentum to push himself up, he surprised the older man by using his leg to kick him in the sides.

4 to 4.

The retaliation came quickly as his extended leg was immediately struck by the wooden staff.

3 to 4.

Shifting his weight, John rolled back and once his feet touched the floor, he pushed himself forward again. Wotan expected it to be another strike aimed at him, so he simply extended his staff so that John would jump into it.

But that wasn’t John’s plan. He shifted his weight just enough so that he actually didn’t jump directly towards Wotan, but to the side of him, coming to a stop behind him, where he swung his spear again. He hit his opponent on the head, while he received a strike to the chest.

2 to 3.

Wotan wasn’t done though, as he brought up the side of the staff that just hit John in the chest and struck him again against his chin.

1 to 3.

John stumbled back from the strike, even if he didn’t feel any pain, and while he was momentarily unconcentrated, the older man used that moment to turn around and smack him against the side of his head with the staff, making him fly and lose his weapon in the process.

0 to 2.

In the last moment, John was able to stab the patriarch with the end of his spear. It was mostly a lucky strike, but it was a strike nonetheless.

As he rose from the ground, dusting off his coat, the older man looked appreciatively at the boy, “I am surprised. I had not expected you to be this good. I expected you to be a lot less creative in your approach. Some of those moves really surprised me. Now, ready for round two?” he asked while throwing the spear towards John.

John just grinned, caught the spear and readied himself again. Even if he had no chance in hell, this was really fun!

Melee, Lv.11

The next round didn’t go better, matter of fact, it went even worse. In the end, he lost 0 to 4, because he found himself in a situation where he was pretty much with the back against the wall and get relentlessly struck by the older man.

The last round went better though, and John could end it with a 0 against 1 finish, but he was getting aware that the older man was pretty much toying with him. It made one thing clear to John: Just because someone’s level got lowered, didn’t mean that their experience was in any way diminished. Wotan simply had superior reflexes and his body moved on instincts honed in years of fighting, so even if his current power was only a bit above John (or it might actually be lower and the level accounted for the difference in experience), he was miles above him in terms of fighting prowess.

But, John was glad that one, he had gotten this opportunity, and two, that he somewhat held his ground against the older man.

The people overlooking the fight went down from their platform. Magoi and Kwang walked towards Wotan and spoke with him in hushed tones, while Kim and Kaen went towards John. Hannah simply remained at the back of the room and kept looking at John.

Kim was the first one to speak up, astonishment evident in her eyes, “I am amazed how much you refined your fighting style in the matter of a single day! Yesterday when you fought against that giant Wolf, you were a lot more clumsy and slow in your movements. Your power is obviously truly something to behold!” Kaen meanwhile seemed to sniff at John’s clothes and looked at him with a curious look.

“You’re sure he’s a late bloomer who only had his powers for… three days now? He’s pretty damn strong for that.” There was a soft Asian accent in her voice, which wasn’t really that surprising, given her Asian name. It was very subdued though, meaning that she had been in America for a while now.

The three older men were apparently done with their talk as they approached the group. “We have shared our thoughts between each of us, now it’s time for the next test. Now you will have to fight someone with your more arcane powers. Any volunteers?”

Kaen immediately raised her hand, barely a breath of a second before Kim did. Apparently, both of them really wanted to test John themselves.

Kwang sighed, but nodded, “Very well, Kaen, you will fight against John next. But please, keep the damage to a minimum.”

Huh?

As John thought about what the man just said, the ‘Ordinary Highschool Student’ went through a major change in front of his eyes. Her unblemished skin quickly turned a dark blue, like the deep sea. The ears on the side of her head grew outwards and into something more akin to cat ears and on her backside an equally blue tail began to grow.

Her outfit changed as well, changing from a school uniform to a dark, scaly armor that revealed a lot of leg. The armor had attachments that went over her tail, making it seem like the tail had big scales. This major shift made John unconsciously use Observe again:

Kaen Otoshidane
Lv. 18 Dragon-Kin
<Kindling Flame of the Emperor Dragon>
RP: +87 (You look soooo cool, and the way you moved was awesome! She might have a little crush on you.)

Huh??

As if to finish her transformation, a pair of giant gauntlets appeared out of nowhere, encasing her fists. Slamming them together once, she looked excitedly at John, “What are we waiting for? C’mon!” The rest of the spectators quickly left the area, retreating back to the platform above.

Melee Mode deactivated, Skills are available to use again.

Huh?!?