Chereads / Grail / Chapter 7 - A Brutal Test II

Chapter 7 - A Brutal Test II

After I got back to my seat I watched the other applicants. From what I could see it was only that orc that was ferocious, every other orc was extremely weak in comparison. Thankfully no one else died so I was happy with that.

Once that test was over it was lunchtime so the academy staff let us go to the cafeteria for a meal. I looked for a table that no one was sitting at and started eating. I chose to eat some roast chicken with mash potatoes along with a nice glass of lemonade.

'Man that really hit the spot.' I let out a small burp after chugging the lemonade. There was one problem though, now I didn't have anything to wash down the rest of my food with. I sat there and looked at my food, I proceeded to eat the roast beef, which while it looked good before now it was dry and unpleasing. I needed to eat for the following test so I stuffed it down with much difficulty. When I was done I looked at the mash potatoes with glowing eyes and devoured it.

Man the food here tastes so good! Back on Earth I only ate food that was dirt cheap and my parents didn't even cook for me, so I only ate lunch at the school cafeteria. Come to think of it, did I eat breakfast this morning? While I was worrying about my eating habits and how to let them go a man entered the room.

'Applicants please follow me to the next exam.' Our next test was to duel an instructor. They weren't allowed to kill which I was thankful for. The swordsmanship instructors would be limited to only using basic swordsmanship while the magic instructors were limited to using first tier magic. You didn't need to win, you just needed to show enough skill to pass.

Soon enough we were led to a field, on the other side of the field there were the instructors. A blonde man holding a rapier, maybe 30? Went onto the middle of the field. He called out a name.

'Oscar von Avalon please come out onto the field.' Oscar had killed his orc almost immediately in the last round.

He was strong, probably stronger than me right now. He and the instructor looked each other dead in the eyes. Then Oscar made the first move, he charged straight at the instructor, the instructor parried his attacks with ease.

Oscar dodged to the right but the instructor caught him and kicked him straight in the stomach. Oscar was sent flying back and dust flew up into the air. The instructor was sheathing his rapier

'Oscar von Avalon, fa-.'

At that moment Oscar sped towards him at an unimaginable speed and put his sword at the instructor's neck. Oscar had won. The instructor sighed and declared him a pass.

Another instructor came forward, she looked about 20, she was quite young to be an instructor. She called out a name.

'Mordred Xander please come forward!' From the mention of my name people started whispering, gossiping behind my back.

'Hey isn't he the failure of the Xander family?' one said.

'Pfft he's just a dud.' Another said.

I didn't care at all, after all I've put up with these insults so much I don't care anymore. I'll show them who I will become.

'Hey, if you have something to say to me, say it to my face!' I yelled it out and everyone went quiet. I took a parry knife from the rack in addition to Clarent which I will use. I think that learning the parry skill and talent will be useful going forwards, so I'd like to use a parry knife here to help me out with the fight too.

The parry skill and talent when levelled up was the ultimate skill to use in a one-on-one fight, it would give you such an advantage it was crucial in late game.

I stood in the middle of the field, parry knife in hand and Clarent sheathed.

'You make the first move, I want to give the failure of the Xander family a chance at least.' To this I activated Clarent's ability.

Her eyes widened for a moment and her footing faltered. Wait will it work so easily? As suspected it wouldn't work so easily, she regained her footing a moment later. Clarent Eclipse Mode. To my command Clarent changed form and I pulled it out of its sheathe. 'You have a nice sword there, put it to good use. I hope you entertain me.'

I immediately charged towards her with Clarent in my right hand. She blocked with her sword and immediately counterattacked. I tried to parry her with my knife but I wasn't able to, I was pushed back and tried to regain my stance.

She then charged towards me, and started her relentless assault. I kept trying to parry her but it kept failing and I got cut a few times, but luckily they were only shallow. I couldn't feel the assistance that I felt with sword with my knife. Though it was obvious I really hoped that my skills would help me with my knife but it seemed that Swordsmanship and One-handed Sword Mastery didn't affect my skills with a knife and that I needed to evolve my own skills for that.

She punched me in the stomach and my face, while they weren't strong punches I could tell that a couple of my bones were on the verge of breaking. Damn this Glass Cannon shit. I resented this ability even though it was the core of my character.

I tried going on the offensive with Clarent. She looked confident but was pushed back when she tried to block my thrust. She was obviously surprised at how heavy the attack was. I tried to ride this small victory as much as I could and kept thrusting and slashing relentlessly, but I didn't expect anything.

This woman was an expert martial artist in addition to being a swordsman. She got out of the way of my barrage and kicked my straight in the stomach,I was sent back a metre or so. She then went in for the finishing blow, she flew forward and did a slashing attack. I lifted my parry knife and at the last second I caught her blade in one of the knife's serrations. I twisted my hand and put all my strength into it and redirected her blade away from me, I then took Clarent and put it up to her throat.

'I win.' I was exhausted and out of breath while she obviously was not, I barely won and I won by luck. She looked a tad bit annoyed for a second but her mouth turned into a wide grin.

'Heh, you little shit,' she whispered, 'Mordred Xander pass!' The audience was silent as I went back to it, I could hear whispers but I didn't care enough to listen to them. I saw a new status window to my right. It read Knife Mastery talent obtained, it would help a huge amount later in the future. Meanwhile I had to get treated by the medical team because I had some broken bones so they got a trainee healer to come over and heal me. My ribs had broken when she kicked me.

'Thank you for healing me.' The healer had a pretty face with green eyes and cream coloured hair. She was the epitome of cute.

'D-don't worry a-b-bout it I'm just doing my job.' I looked away from her for most of the process. I was bad at socialising with others and socialising with girls was even harder, it was awkward to say the least.

She completely healed my broken bones, she was quite good at healing but it took her a while to heal me so she'd need to quicken the time it took to heal. When she finished she looked at me and said.

'You were really cool when you fought, your parry at the end was c-cool.' Her face was beet red and I blushed as well. I'm hopeless aren't I? I'm blushing at a mere compliment.

'T-thank you, your healing is q-quite good too.' She turned even more red at that compliment and faced the other direction.

'Thank you very much.' She said it in a very quiet voice and hurried away. She must be embarrassed, haha I'm a piece of shit. After I got up I saw it was a magic user's duel, I couldn't make out the face but she was using ice magic. The magic instructor was being constantly pushed back by the ice magic and the girl wasn't giving the instructor a moment to breath. It was incredible to look at. After a minute or so the instructor declared that the girl had passed and moved on.

She's powerful as hell, stronger than me. With that I walked off to prepare for the last and most hellish exam.

The duelling tournament.