Richard looked to the three people standing before him. he had a sharp eye for talents and he sensed a something strange in this group. the girl on the left was Masha who was letting off a sharp sword aura equal to the level of at least a two-star swordsman. which was considered high. to his right was Alyssa whose magic presence was currently hidden but Richard could still sense danger when he looked at her. he then looked at the man standing in between them in a guarding position. he was wearing simple clothes and gave Richard the impression of a village farmer but his guarding position proved he at least had to know some type of martial arts.
the group was odd because of how they were making a formation. they had a mage to Richard's right while a swordsman to his left. then there was a strong muscular man before him. although surrounding the enemy was a popular strategy In wars. the issue was of who was assigned to surround who.
Richard was an axe wielder who had the advantage of mass damage over a wide area while the group had surrounded him with two people who would naturally counter each other. he simply had to lure them in and step back for the swordswoman and the magic from the mage to collide and take out the swordswoman while she was distracted. however, there was also the chance their strategy wasn't that simple.
"Well then, I guess you must be familiar with fighting. if so then I will tell you that this test is to make sure that your capable of understanding attacking and defending manoeuvres in a battle against another person. now, if you succeed in showing me your capable of understanding a bit of what battle flow is ill write a report stating how capable I think you are in which aspects I decide are good enough to write about. with that information half, your test will be done and you will be led to the second floor for overall power recording. in other words, we will use calculation stones to measure how strong your strength is. all the different ranks will be explained when you reach the second floor."
with the explanation out of the way, Richard reached for his battle-axe on his back and flipped it in his hand. he was familiar with his axe for over three years now and had only become an examiner about two months ago. he looked once again at the three and then lifted his axe high. he then stomped the ground with his right foot and the room shook once more, however, with Richard's foot as the centre a magic field started enveloping the room and climbed up the walls. the damp stone ceiling disappeared to be replaced by a clear sunny sky. the damp stone floor under them was now replaced by the flat ground that stretched for what seemed like miles.
"This is a venue dimension and we shall do our test here to prevent unnecessary casualties outside. now then you can fully unleash your strength while we are in here."
***********
after Richard had explained everything to Marv and the others they instinctively looked at each other. Alyssa looked to Masha and slightly shook her head while Masha nodded hers as if in agreement with whatever Alyssa was communicating. Marv let out a sigh as he didn't believe they were communicating. he could imagine Richard becoming more cautious because of their nonsense and making this fight even more troublesome.
he got into his guarding position and slightly bent his knees. Marv wasn't proficient in any type of martial arts but was someone who had watched several boxing matches back when he was a teenager, even though he had never trained in fighting his punching was an instinct he had taught himself. he hated being useless and just researched a few different techniques from different martial arts melding them together into his current fighting style.
he looked at Richard who was now grasping his battle-axe tighter than ever. he then slowly moved his right leg forward and then activated his [divine rights] skill. he felt a rush of adrenaline once more and then jumped forward. he didn't wait for his teammates to get ready and they jumped back instinctively when they saw the rushing Marv. this gave him some room to work with and he quickly closed the distance to Richard.
Richard looked at the rushing Marv who was now six metres away. Richard let a smile appear on his face as he realised what Marv was doing. Richard raised his battle-axe high above his head and breathed in quickly than with strength matching an elephant stampede he leaned his battle-axe forward. a burst of magic presence enveloped the other three.
however, just as the battle axe was about to hit Marv directly on the head, the airflow that was cut by the battle-axe suddenly changed direction and formed a wall of air above Marv's head deflecting the blade from touching Marv's head. Richard was still stronger than this random airflow that appeared out of nowhere but the amount of time it bought Marvin was just enough for Marv to change his guarding stance to an offensive stance with his left arm pulled back and his hand clenched into a fist. Marv placed all his weight onto his right calf and stomped the ground leaning forward. with all of Marv's strength, he punched forward and landed a hit...on nothing.
where Richard once stood was nothing but open air. Marv widened his eyes in shock and immediately repositioned himself in a guarding stance...but it's too late. Richard was already behind Marv the second his blade was deflected by the wall of air. he knew something was being planned and immediately pulled back and got behind Marv.
Richard swung his battle-axe sideways in a wide arc. the battle-axe had already reached Marv's face when he turned around to see Richard behind him. The battle-axe had gained force in its swing and was strong enough to explode Marv's head upon impact. however, out of nowhere, the battle-axe was suddenly deflected by a claymore sword to the empty air above them. striking nothing Richard jumped back and looked to see Masha with a claymore sword in one hand a fencing sword in the other. her sword aura was twice as strong now and caused Richard to take a step back.
Richard then felt a chilly aura on his backside, he swung his battle-axe to his right crushing an icicle of ice that was heading straight for his left thigh.
Alyssa was now levitating in the air with a flow of air rotating around her feet slowly forming into a small tornado. Richard was about to jump straight towards Alyssa when he felt a sword aura quickly aiming at him from above his head. he jumped back and the place where he recently stood was now having a claymore sword sticking out of the ground. but nobody was holding onto the sword.
just as he was wondering where Masha could have gone, he felt a sudden heat temperature rise to his right and he turned to see a fireball quickly approaching him. he was about to swing his battle-axe once more when he felt a sword aura to his back. not knowing how to react he felt a sudden pain on his belly and looked down to see Marv who had landed a punch on his stomach.
then from his right his arm for struck by a fireball and was pushed sideways only to meet the force of Masha's fencing sword strike his left sending him flying through the air just above Marv.
Marv crouched down and jumped high into the air reaching the same altitude as Richard's flying body. then with all of Marv's strength, he landed a kick on Richard's abdomen and put all his force into the kick. Richard's body was quickly sent to the ground and with a loud crash hit the ground. he tumbled for a metre before coming to a halt.
Marv landed back on the ground with a wave of exhaustion enveloping him all over.
{we won...we did it!}