All present had their eyes fixed upon the center of the sparring arena where a violent physical exchanges took place. The said exchanges were between a gold ranker and a merchant. An odd pair that normally would never even considered to engage in such activity, especially for the later. Furthermore, each attack was mighty and meteoric, creating insistent noises and blustery winds.
"H-hey, is this really happening??"
"It does! But, simply, breaking common sense…I'm scared!!"
The adventurers were starting to express their disbelieves and doubts toward what they saw, some even quaking in fear.
And, Elise, a demi-human and the merchant's employee, could not understand what her boss was doing in the middle of these loud sounds and their blurry images.
"...."
On the other hand, Vanessa, the senior counselor and former silver ranker, who acted as referee for this test kept her calm and continued to oversee the situation, despite witnessing many absurdities so close to her.
The clashes of the two participants were not between metal weapons, that fact alone invited a terrible headache for her, as it deviated from the norms she knew and loved until just recently.
Right now, Alfraed, the merchant, was challenging slashes and thrusts made by the gold ranker's giant sword with his bare hands. Those very hands were capable of guarding or parrying every heavy attack that approached him.
Seeing it raw made her face twitched in discomfort.
"…Is that magic?"
Vanessa noticed soft blue light around his limbs, and guessing it was a kind of magic that hardened them, considerably. That explained how he could received the black blade which might be heavier than himself without suffering visible injury.
That being said, that protective magic was not responsible on how he was able to perform in such exceptional way. Since Vanessa could not see any magic activation on any part of his body at the moment, she came to an unlikely, yet undeniable conclusion…Alfraed was simply strong.
Up to this point, it should be evident enough he had the capability to join the quest…
"Oh, Lord…"
However, Latvian seemed fail to recall the very purpose of this test.
The branch master's expression was far from usual, full of excitement and grinning like a crazed battle-addict, no less. Stopping the spar was already beyond what her two hands were capable of, someone needed to beat some hard sense into that thick skull of his.
According to general accepted knowledge, swordsmen's attacks could not be as rapid as his martial artists counterpart since there was longer gap between each attack due to size and length of the weapon their carrying.
"Hhaaaahhhh!!!"
However, from what Vanessa saw, the knowledge did not apply to Latvian as a whole, as he was able to meet Alfraed's every swift strike by continuously rotating his whole body and guided his human-sized weapon to the targets like no big deal. On top of that, the elf had not use any magic to enhance his movement yet.
"I should re-evaluate what can be considered 'normal' for those two…"
Vanessa did not have strong enough conviction and guts to judge which one of them had the upper hand. One thing for sure, even in her active day she would have a hard time facing either of them in battle.
"…After this is over I should force the Branch Master and Mr. Logick to take responsibility for the damages…"
To distract from the abrupt changes of reality around her, Vanessa chose to instead pay attention on vandalism the two committed on the arena, and how much the reparation would cost. Unexpectedly, thinking about such normal thing within the scope of normal people calmed her down.
"This is fun!!!"
After untold minutes of intense stalemate, with his skill and abundant experiences Latvian found a tiny opening in Alfraed's maneuver not visible to others, and made a move to actively seize it.
The gold ranker adeptly drew an upward arc using his favorite sword, while the cloth wrapped-blade cut through the arena's floor like butter in order to complete that picture. Afterward, the blade was heading toward Alfraed from below without obstructed by anything.
"Ggrrhhh!"
Fortunately, the young man anticipated this otherwise uncommon show of strength and dexterity, and leapt backward to avoid it.
This happening, strayed from his prediction. Latvian was so sure the attack would connect.
Seconds later, there was an obvious opening when the Branch Master still at the mercy of his sword's skyward centrifugal force, and Alfraed ran forward to land his unrestrained fist on the foe's body, he wanted this test to end sooner rather than later.
"Not, YET!!!"
The elf refused to let the merchant had his way. Beside, getting hit by that punch would definitely, surely, undoubtedly, hellishly painful.
Everything had its first time. But, that was something he did not want to preserve in his memory.
He tightened his grips on the handle and strengthened the muscles in his arms. Later on, Latvian forcefully broke free from the force controlling his body and pulled down the wide sword to attack the incoming Alfraed.
"Not fun, AT ALL!!!"
In the nick of time, Alfraed stopped his sprint, desperately raised and crossed his hands above his head to receive the descending blade.
The instant his crossed-hands received the tremendous blade, Alfraed felt the gravity of this particular slash, only for a moment. Next, he tilted his body to the side and swept the blade with one of his hands, forcefully redirected its flow. As a result, the blade missed him completely and landed on the floor, completely pulverizing it.
…Unfortunately, the attack did not simply stopped. Turned out, the force from that move was so great it created an invisible blade wave that cut through the arena effortlessly, and that dangerous wave was now heading toward nearby crowd.
"Shoot!!!"
Latvian was too engrossed in the spar that he forgot to adjust his strength.
"Move away from there!!!"
Alfraed tried to deploy a barrier in front of the crowd to protect them from the sharp wave. However, when he was about to finish the barrier, the wave was a moment faster and blasted the crowd.
...
...….
…..
"Both of you. That's ENOUGH!!!"
A furious feminine voice could be heard from behind the flying dust and debris caused by the attack earlier. But, in spite of the harsh change in her tone, Alfraed still recognized the owner.
When all those obstacle dispersed, what laid in front of him was unexpectedly an enormous pair of knight armored-hand, which originated from vertical magic circles hovering beside Vanessa's attractive arms.
That arms managed to completely block the attack and protect everyone behind her, including Elise.
His master once told him summoning magic was not learned, but inherited, it was magic with special characteristic. With this revelation, Alfraed had a clue on who Vanessa really was. But, since she did not talk about it, then he would not ask any unnecessary question.
Life was full of surprises, and he never got bored of it.
"Should've done this at the earliest chance"
Vanessa regretted she did not make action faster, if a pair of hands was not enough to stop them, all she needed was to summon another pair to help her cause.
Finally, the test was put to a stop, and Latvian informed Alfraed he was eligible to join the quest. Tomorrow, the Branch Master asked the young man to come to his office for a briefing.
"May I bring my manager to accompany me?"
"You may, I'm looking forward to tomorrow"
Before leaving the training ground and returned to Herbs & Lotions, Elise did not forget to retrieve the sizeable prize money she won from the bet. The female manager was delighted with today's harvest, while the adventurers that lost their money had their spirit smashed to the ground.
-------
"Branch Master, you went too far with the test!"
"I have no excuse. I was too engrossed with the sparring"
Vanessa reprimanded her supervisor for his recklessness and the much taller elf admitted his childish shortcoming. A century old person should not have done that. Latvian also said he would handle the all required paperwork to restore the arena, and that was great news.
"Anyway, that's great fight. Though, with wind magic you might overwhelm him"
"...….."
Latvian's had thorough mastery of wind magic, and he could perform many deeds by utilizing the magic, such as sharpening his blade, launched a barrage of wind spears, created a tornado, and moving in the air freely. Nonetheless, he was unable to give any comment to his subordinate's comment.
"…Branch Master…?"
"Ah, sorry, I was lost in thought for a moment....And, about what you said, no, I might had it tough even with my wind magic"
"…Are you sure you didn't overestimated him?"
Latvian mentioned he had fun during the sparring because Alfraed could match his every move, and that was the irregularity. The merchant intentionally tried to be on the same level as him. The thing was, he did not see any overexertion feeling from the man.
"Wow, so Mr. Logick tried his best to keep up with you, isn't that amazing?"
"…Ms. Welsh, it was the exact opposite, he HELD BACK so he could keep up with me"
Which meant Latvian would overwhelmed if he was serious.
Vanessa simply thought the Branch Master was joking. Be that as it may, Latvian did not laugh, and he kept his serious expression the whole day.