Tang Sheng looked at the girl in an amused expression. He had no intention of taking in a disciple originally. This impossible task was to dissuade the young warrior from following him, he has enough disciples already, he thought.
Mia Gritted her teeth, tightening her fists whilst thinking about ways to take the giant Orc down.
Not once had she thought this was an impossible task, if the Saint had set it, then she must pass it.
"I accept, Saint" She spoke
"That's what I th- Oh?" He looked on in a bemused expression. After furrowing his brows, he spoke again
"Little girl, I don't have time to play with you, but if you insist, the least I could do is make it a fair fight".
Tang Sheng lifted his finger and swiped down air. At the same time, a ghastly scream was heard from the Orc, his arm detached at the shoulder and lying limp on the floor.
The Orc fell on his knees in agony, before pulling himself together. He could understand what these humans were saying, and knew this was his chance to get out alive. -If I could take this little child hostage, wouldn't this man let me go?- he thought. The Orc had slaughtered countless humans of different worlds over the years, and understood well human emotions and how they value each other. He was certain this human, although powerful, would be the same inside.
Feeling the loss of his dominant right arm, the Orc was in constant pain and stared ferociously at the girl.
Although it was the powerful male that had done this, he would only show restraint and resist the temptation of eating him alive as his rational instincts told him he had no chance - his only chance was this girl!
Watching this scene, Mia was once again shocked. -Slicing an arm off by raising a finger? Who was the real monster here?- She thought, but quickly composed herself. She had to kill this Orc, not only to pass the test her teacher set her, but also to avenge the countless villagers this monster likely slain.
Raising the Spear she held in her hands, she spoke with determination. "Saint, I'm ready."
----
Tang Sheng sighed, "Kids are really brave these days" he spoke. Immediately after speaking, Tang Sheng snapped his fingers, loosening the restrictions on the Orc's movement.
Mia lifted her spear as the always practised, through the fluid movements of her training regimen. This had been passed down through her family for thousands of years. Although she was living in this village, she was never born here, nor close by, she was instead found on the roadside close to the village by the elder and took in as an adopted child. Training herself throughout these 10 or so years, she was confident that she could incapacitate this Orc, and afterwards, end it's life. Although she inherited vague memories of combat techniques and her homeland, she wanted to further improve her power in order to find her parents that had abandoned her.
After raising her spear, the Orc moved.
Raising his only remaining arm, he dashed towards the small human with a grin, enjoying the look on her face. -She may act calm, but I can smell her fear!- he thought.
Korz, the Orc, reached his target almost instantly. Utilising his body weight within his swing, he threw a fist with the power of a vehicle at Mia.
Mia felt this punch was far stronger than she thought it would be, understanding that if hit by this, she would die. "This Saint is seriously sadistic! How am I supposed to kill this thing, even with one arm!?" she inwardly screamed, while dodging the fist with a barrel roll.
At a moment notice, the the Orc raised his foot, slamming down on her left leg by catching it during an opening after she barrel rolled.
"AAARGH" She screamed, feeling the bones in her foot snap and blood gash from the opening the Orc's foot created.
Tang Sheng flinched, although he had plenty of battle experience, he didn't exactly enjoy watching a little girl in this much pain. The fact she didn't immediately lose conscious at the moment of the snap, and kept a determined expression on her face, with her eyes filled with vigour, meant she was a true natural born warrior.
Tang Sheng never expected her to pass this test, nor did he believe she would take it.
Mia bit her lips and rolled to the side once more, avoiding the Orc's other foot. Taking the opportunity, she lunged the spear from a prone position into the leg of the Orc.
Korz, after slamming down his second foot, had no opportunity or room to avoid this well placed spear, directed to his above average sized ankle.
Piercing flesh, and oozing blood from the spear wound, Korz raged. "I'm so weak even a little girl with no experience can injure me?? Even if I survive this, I'll never live down this humiliation!"
Korz turned to the girl, grabbed the spear and pulled it out of his ankle, without even flinching. He was truly enraged.
Snapping the spear in half, he threw himself at the girl still in the process of picking herself up with one working foot, whilst the villagers were staring in horror. "This is too cruel!" one of them yelled. "Please help her, Saint!" another one pitched in.
Tang Sheng sighed. -It really was unrealistic to set this challenge in the first place- he thought.
Just as he was about to snap his fingers and end the life of this Orc, a strange sight occurred in front of him. The girl stood up hopping towards the Orc, shortening the distance between them. Standing up straight, she yelled "Please don't interfere, Saint! I'll kill this beast myself" her voice filled with determination and oozed confidence.
Lifting her spear once again, she established herself in a purely defensive stance. This was a stance she had never needed to use, against only the prey she hunted and other warriors in her village, there was no one to push her to a defensive position, but she knew it well from arduous training.
Korz ran toward her at full speed in mad rage, he was quickly losing his sanity, a common defect of the Orc race. Once in battle, bloodthirst could overtake reason.
His plan was to rush towards the little girl, quickly fainting the direction at the last moment and sidestep to close the distance, ignoring the spear altogether.
As he performed his sidestep, an anomaly occurred. The spear, with inhuman like reflexes and speed, changed angle and directly pierced the Orcs abdomen. At almost full speed, with the exception of decelerating a little to sidestep, this was a fatal injury that would be difficult to recover from, but he had no chance to avoid the tip of this spear. "How could it be so fast?!" he bellowed.
Piercing the enemy's flesh, Mia felt invigorated, just before the injuries, loss of blood and fatigue fell over her. Although this battle only lasted 40 or so seconds, the damages and stress she took were abnormal.
After collapsing to the floor in exhaustion, Tang Sheng finally opened his mouth. The calm look on his face disappeared, and was replaced by bewilderment. He could now confirm that this girl wasn't normal. The precise and fast reflexes she shown were high even for grandmaster martial artist standards, and she was a child!
Tang Sheng made his mind up, to take in his fourth disciple!