The Fearless War

Preliminary Combat

The atmosphere inside the arena turned cold almost immediately as the mist covered most of the space, but it was stopped just before touching the boundaries of the combat area. As if touching a wall, looking at the mana, there seemed to be a giant crystal surrounding the area where the mist was trapped, and the small barricades that were placed around it had inscriptions with symbols on one side that covered its entire area. The strange thing is that I could not appreciate so much what was inside the mist, it was as if my vision was covered by the uncontrolled mana that was the origin of the mist.

I had to strengthen my eyesight even more to be able to discern with some effort the instructor and his opponents. A person with a spear which I guessed to be Dean approached the instructor from the front and by turning his body managed to put the instructor in a defensive position with the side of his rapier. Eden had already recovered from the attack that had made her lose her concentration and focused on her staff.

The gem at the tip began to glow as the mana that made up the mist concentrated with the center point in it. She seemed to use the magic stone to be able to absorb the mana at an accelerated rate. Before long, the mist had almost completely disappeared and the gem on Eden's staff was covered by a thin layer of ice.

Immediately I was distracted from how Eden was preparing her next magic by the sound of clashing metal, Dean seemed to receive the attacks of the instructor's rapier with the same force he was throwing but, in his feet, I could notice how he was being pushed back each time he received the rapier and moved it to the side with the tip of his spear.

"Remember that you must not only rush forward only to then defend yourself until you faint."

The instructor kept stressing tips and flaws in the techniques of the two. On the other side Eden concentrated the absorbed mana and finished the chant that had been interrupted at the beginning. The magic was activated, and the environment became cold again but with a lesser concentration, on the other side Dean's spear began to accumulate the mana and ice layers began to grow and accumulate until they completely covered the spear. Its appearance was no longer that of a light weapon, but the ice had formed an axe whose blade ended up joining the shaft of the previous spear, the mere appearance of the new weapon was imposing and carried more weight than before.

"Oooh! A very flashy weapon huh? just remember that if your enemy has a way to counter, they will!"

The instructor concentrated mana on the guard of his rapier and received the jolt of the ice axe that fell on him head-on. The sound of cracking ice rang throughout the arena after the weapons collided and was disrupted only by ice spikes flying towards the instructor causing him to immediately move away. The source of the spikes was Eden whose staff was already activating another wave of spikes, the concentration of mana in the spikes was much lower than in Dean's weapon, she seemed to have adequate control over them despite being a magic with no chanting.

"Dean, I've got your back so just focus on getting your attacks to connect."

"Thank you! That way I have more freedom haha!"

Dean's eyes sparkled with excitement as he got an affirmation that he could attack without holding back and he clamped his weapon from the bottom of the handle thus initiating a cascade of attacks from his axe. The instructor could not move properly and despite being able to dodge the ice spikes, every time he tried to move, Dean would come through his blind spot and try to hit him.

The exchange lasted for a while until, at one point, there was a pause between the ice spikes and the instructor took advantage of it to break out of the cycle of attacks and managed to subdue Dean by standing behind him while he raised his weapon to attack again and knocked him out with a blow to the neck with the pommel of his rapier. In a last-ditch effort, Eden concentrated a greater number of spikes in front of her staff only to have them disintegrate in a few moves and the fight ended with the rapier tip aimed at her neck.

"It was a good fight, when Dean wakes up go to the front desk to finish getting your cards processed."

The instructor sheathed his weapon again and helped Eden move her knocked out partner to the side of the arena and looked at a watch he carried in his pocket. With a serene face he stood in the center of the arena and thrust his rapier into the ground.

"Unfortunately, the fight took longer than I expected, those who are left to perform the test are individual challengers so I will have you to attack me at the same time and the first two who manage to connect an attack will be able to finish their registration, the one who is left will have to retake the test on another day."

The other two approached the instructor with weapons in hand and he remained motionless. From outside the arena, I unsheathed my sword without splitting it and when I approached the center the others had already surrounded the instructor who remained calm, it did not seem that he was going to launch the first attack. One of the other two challengers raised his double-headed flail and ran to the center of the arena and tried to take advantage of the reach of his weapon to strike a blow.

The instructor raised his rapier, still sheathed, locked the chains of the flail, and pulled the attacker towards him and then threw him over his head. The second challenger threw daggers while the instructor with greater speed unsheathed his weapon leaving the flail with the scabbard on the ground and used the side of his rapier to stop the incoming projectiles. The dagger user threw himself backwards to prevent being attacked.

At that moment I strengthened my legs and propelled myself forward with a stance to perform a feint, I got the instructor to try to block my supposed attack and I slid under him placing my foot making him lose his stance and I got up quickly consuming the mana absorbed in my legs. Before he could get up again, I placed the blade of my sword on his neck and kicked the back of his leg so that he fell to his knees. The arena was filled with the noise of my blade moving so fast and as it silenced there didn't even seem to be a breath from the tension.

"I guess this means I passed right?"

I detached my sword from his neck and stood as I sheathed it, around me the other two challengers maintained a surprised attitude until one got a clearer look at my weapon as I sheathed it.

"Hey! How is it possible for him to pass with a weapon made of 'useless wrought’ That thing is useless. It's an insult for the others here!"

"Shut up, Hildred! the weapon does not define the skills! ... and to think that there are still many who think that way about damascus."

While he shouted at the challenger in the beginning, the last thing he said was a whisper too low for most untrained. I helped the instructor up and headed for the stairs so I could finish my registration. Before I started to go up, I heard them getting ready to fight again. Back in the reception area, the couple of Dean and Eden were sitting on a bench by the wall while Dean had a mana emanating ice resting on his head and neck. It seemed that he had not yet fully recovered. As I passed them, I met again the employee who had helped me at the beginning of my visit.

"Well, you certainly did better than the others, eh? Edward can be a bit intense in his testing, but if we let anyone register, we'd have more deaths on us. Ok, to finish your registration, I'll just need a drop of blood on your new card."

He pulled out from underneath a tray with a single amber card containing a black space and an opening for those who wanted to wear it hanging down. I proceeded to prick my finger with one of my knives and to the touch of blood the card began to hiss as the black space was replaced by a portrait of my face and underneath my name with the other information, I had filled in previously. It seemed that the same magic that was used to identify citizens was used for when someone registered with the guild.

"Excellent, that would be it as far as registration is concerned. You can start accepting missions and assignments through the guild from now on, if at some point you would like to advance in class within the guild, there are certain conditions."

"Just to confirm, there is no problem if I later become a knight?"

"None, as you may know, the guild is an institution outside of reigns or governments, you can even consider it as a country without a territory since there are no places where there is not some branch."

As Uncle Miles had mentioned to me, the guild was a pillar in every place as it not only helped prevent attacks from bandits or monsters and beasts by placing bounties but also helped move people around and generate jobs with the assignments that could be taken through them.

"Okay, and what quests can I except for the time being?"

"Right... since you are just barely registered, you can only take from the board with the amber plaque on the wall, as long as you demonstrate greater capabilities or a record of missions and quests that vouch for your ability. You will be able to switch classes to take on missions of greater danger or requiring greater knowledge."

The employee pointed to the boards that were by the reception area and something I had overlooked upon arrival were the metal bars on the top frame that marked what class the missions were on them. But even though I wanted to take a mission to refine my mana management a bit more, I had to return to the workshop to drop off the crowns I had received.

" Thanks, I won't be taking any for today."

Before I left the guild building, I noticed that Dean was already awake, and they were both watching me in a peculiar way. I set out to continue my way but not before being stopped by the couple and their interest in how I got through without getting beaten up.

"How did you manage to dodge the instructor's attacks?!"

"Dean, don't move so fast...you still have a swollen neck."

It seemed that the blow to the back of his neck had succeeded in damaging the muscles in the back and despite that Dean's attitude didn't seem to be that of someone who had been knocked out with blunt force.

"Well, I didn't have to dodge much, instructor Edward had us compete on who could land a hit on him among those of us who were left and while the others were retreating after trying to attack him and failing, I simply used a magic reinforcement and aimed for his neck."

"Then you just took advantage of the effort of the others!"

Dean suddenly grabbed me by the collar of my coat and his face was full of anger. Although the corner of his eye was twitching from not being fully recovered, he wouldn't let go of his grip.