Walking towards the caravan, Kane saw that, although he was the first one, some of the younger people of the village were also making their way there.
"So the people here are used to this... Makes sense if this is a relatively common thing."
As he got closer, he noticed that one of the people that had gotten off of the first carriage was a tall person in full armor.
He grabbed one of the teenagers that was heading for the gate and asked him some questions.
"Hey, do you know who that guy is?"
"He's one of the test administrators. A different one comes to the village every time a test happens."
Kane nodded before asking another question.
"Do you know what the test will be?"
The teen shook his head.
"No the test tends to change each time. Although I've heard that certain administrators have tests that they prefer to give."
Kane thanked him and stopped walking as he tried to determine what he would have to do to go behind a normal passing level.
"Hmm. The first one that got out was a person in armor... So perhaps a sort of combat test?" He muttered to himself as he began walking.
He quickly reached the group that was forming around the tall person in full armor.
"Young adults of the village." The armored person called out, revealing a rough male voice. "Today, I am here to administer a test. This test will determine whether or not you can enter one of the academies."
The man paused.
"Now unlike other administrators, my test is a direct measure of combat skills. For other tests, it is best to wait for different administrators."
Kane smiled secretly knowing he had guessed correctly.
The man continued to speak and explained a few of the rules of his test.
"Now for my test, I allow a few choices." He held up a finger. "First, you can duel with one of my direct apprentices. If you manage to land a blow within one minute then you pass. Of course if you somehow win the duel then that counts as well. You may even get a special prize."
He held up a second finger.
"Since you aren't the first village I visited this option is available to you. You can try and beat someone that already passed the test. This will lower the rewards and they receive and pass the ones they lose to you if you so happen to go to the same school"
He held up a third finger.
"And since I didn't prepare anything special this time, the final option this trip will be..." He paused.
"You can duel with me. If you land a hit within five minutes, you will be given special treatment at whatever school you pick. Of course that treatment doubles on the condition that you somehow manage to beat me."
Kane's ears perked up at this.
"I think I found out how I'm going to meet my clear conditions."
He smirked.
"Now then." The man continued. "We'll be doing the examinations one at a time."
Kane smiled lightly at this and It's a timingdecided to go later in the queue so that he could analyze the situation further.
Looking around he noticed that there was a total of twenty people in front of him and five behind him.
The first person to go up was a short boy.
After what seemed to be a short period of deliberation, he decided that he wanted to duel someone that already passed.
Once he heard the boy's choice, the administrator asked him which of the ten carriages he would like to choose to find an opponent.
The boy paused and looked up to the sky, as if searching for some inspiration.
After ten seconds he spoke again.
"I choose carriage four." He said as he pointed at a carriage with the number four on the side.
The man in armor clapped his hands letting out a call to let the ones in carriage four know to come to him.
In response to his call, the doors of carriage four opened from the inside, revealing a group of ten people around the same age as everyone in line.
They steadily walked out from their carriage, lining up in front of the man in armor.
"Well then." The man called out. "Choose your opponent."
The boy looked at each of the ten teenagers trying to see which one would be easier for him to beat.
From behind, Kane could only see his head slowly turn past all of them, eventually locking onto a skinnier looking pale boy.
Kane looked at the boy, attempting to see if he could detect anything special about him.
The short boy let the man in armor know his choice.
Nodding, he called the pale boy, telling everyone to back up so that they would have a reasonable amount of space to fight.
"Any weapons you prefer?" He asked the short boy.
"I prefer daggers." He responded.
The man nodded before having one of his apprentices bring a set of wooden daggers to hand to the short boy.
"And you?" He asked the pale boy.
"Same as before, a zweihänder, or claymore. Just a large sword."
Same as before, the man had an apprentice bring out a large wooden sword and give it to the pale boy.
Seeing his weapon of choice, many people were shocked, assuming he was ill and likely to choose a lighter weapon.
However, when he was handed the weapon, he lifted it with great ease, giving it a few practice swings to get a feel of its center of gravity. After a few seconds, he seemed to be ready.
Seeing this, the short boy who had chosen him as an opponent seemed to regret his choice, although he quickly recovered as a determined expression appeared on his face.
"Three." The armored man began to count the fight down.
"Two."
The contestants readied themselves.
"One."
Silence filled the grounds as the spectators gazed at the pair.
"Fight!"
The short boy, wielding daggers, sprinted towards his opponent, keeping himself low, ready to adjust his movements at a moments notice.
Seeing this, the pale boy wielding a greatsword decided to disturb his movement immediately, slamming his sword down in front of him before sweeping it to his left as an attempt at predicting the next move.
Seeing this as an opportunity, as the blade swept to his right, the boy with daggers moved swiftly to his left as he attempted to close the distance.
Although no-one could see it due to his spin, the boy with a greatsword smirked. Following through on the swing of his blade, the rotation completed with his sword slamming into the crossed daggers of his foe, sending him flying backwards. He let the sword rest on the ground and kept a battle ready stance in case his opponent got up once more.
The boy who was knocked to the ground struggled to get up for a few moments before dropping his weapons and waving his hand in the air as a sign of surrender.
The armored man gave a sign with his hand to one of his apprentices, who then rushed to the boy, hovered his hand over him, and released a soothing white light from his palm.
After a few seconds, the boy once again stood up, surprised by the lack of injuries on his body, thanked the armored man and his apprentice before turning to walk to the side.
After he had walked off, the next person in line had gone up to choose their testing method.
This time, it was a clearly athletic girl. She chose to duel one of the man's apprentices.
Nodding his head, the man called his apprentices to line up, similar to what he had done with the people of carriage four, who were now heading back to their carriage.
Looking at each of the choices, she soon settled on a man leather armor, holding a bow.
"Any weapon preference?" The armored administrator asked.
"A rapier."
Just like before, one of the administrator's apprentices came out with a wooden rapier and handed it to her.
After getting a feel for the weapons center of gravity, she let the administrator know that she was ready for the duel.
"Then once I finish the count down, you have one minute to land a hit on him. Do you understand?"
She nodded.
He began to count down.
"Three."
"Two."
"One."
"Fight!"
The man with a bow quickly distanced himself as soon as the count down finished, shooting out two wooden arrows towards her.
Swiftly slashing at the two arrows with her weapon, she knocked both of them away and dashed towards the archer.
Noticing his lack of space, he decided that it was best for him to swap to his secondary weapon. Pulling out a short sword, he ran to meet her face to face, blade to blade.
She thrusted he rapier at him
Having the rapier thrusted towards his chest, the archer dodged to the side and swung his sword at her in response.
Parrying the blow, she thrusted the rapier towards his throat.
As he dodged again, she dashed to him, dropped the rapier, grabbed him, and kneed him before stepping back and throwing a kick at his head.
He put his hands up to block it and was knocked to the ground.
As he began to recover, he saw the tip of the wooden rapier, pointed at his throat.
"I lost." He said before getting up and returning to his position at the side.
The administrator seemed to be very impressed with her movements as he called out.
"Who's next up?"