I woke up the next day covered in bandages and extremely sore from the special training Maldira had me do previously.
Looking around the room, I see a letter from my wife and another from my master
Dear love,
I came to visit only to find you in bed covered in bandages. Upon seeing your state, I returned to my room instead of wake you from your rest. Please try to take care of yourself when you wake up. I hate seeing you so beaten and bloody.
Love J.D
I missed my only chance to see her before the second trial. I best make it up to her when I get the chance soon. I fold her letter and put it in the drawer with my stuff, before grabbing my master's letter stating.
"Ezequiel,
I will leave town for a couple of days. The council has called a meeting of all the elders. I left another apprentice to watch and help from the shadows. Don't overdo it. Your powers are strange and I don't know how to help at the moment. DON'T CAUSE A SCENE ABOUT J.D. GETTING CHOSEN.``
As I finished reading, they broadcast a mental message through town stating, "Stage two of the universe tournament is about to start. Please, all candidates make their way to the arena."
30 minutes later, 500 candidates crowded into the small arena. "Now we will begin a 3 part selection till only 100 are left, the other 400 can pick up their prize for advancing to round. Stage one is a combat simulation against one of last year's winning candidates. Stage two will be a knowledge class and stage three will be a soul pressure test."
Today, we chose 100 candidates at random to take part in the 3 tests and the evening passed quickly. J.D was in the first group and scored rather high in the test.
Day 2 was uneventful and 20 people passed with nothing abnormal happening.
It was on day 3 that my name was drawn for the test and my opponent was a swordsman of last year, ranking in the top 15 of the 100 candidates. Her name is Miss ryoko. She is one of the greatest swordsmen of Reaper university and has advanced quickly in her skills and class. She is already a rank C and serves in a higher city when she's not in school.
"Ezequiel Keeper, please come forth for your combat simulation with Miss Ryoko." the assistant manager says calmly. I walk forward and place my hand on the platform as a small amount of my power is extracted for the simulation. I enter a trance-like state before seeing the space that I'm in, and my opponent bows and gives respect before speaking. "Our powers are equal, but our skills are different. We shall fight till one of us dies or surrenders." calmly this woman unsheathed her Katana named 'reverence'. I make an audible gulp as Rulers Bane greedily sucks up the leaking power aura.
One minute passes like an eternity before a loud gong sounds and the match begins. Both of our movement skills are activated instantly; her foot technique phantoms shade and my shadow stalking equally quick and silent onlookers could only see an empty arena. She lashes out with a quick and fierce strike to test my reaction speed and I quickly activate the desperate dance. Barely countering her strike, flicker and appear beside her lashing out, hoping to catch her off guard but like a true swordsman, she countered using her sheathe to off set my blade.
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Name : Ezequiel Keeper
Age:25
Class: blood chaos fallen,
race: unknown
Skills: abyssal absorption, nightmare, despairs dance, shadow stalk,
shadow strike.
Obtained skills: tremor sense, snow adept LV.2
Fallen skills: Chaos corrosion, Chaos blade (tier I) Gluttony, (tier II) wrath
Status: day of rest.