An invisible pressure filled the spacious room. Sweat gathered in Emery's palms causing him to almost lose grip of his knife.
Was he in over his head? Maybe, but he wouldn't be giving up now.
Konnor raised his spear in the air. The tension only grew ten times worse after that. Emery chanted his mantra, but even that didn't work. Nothing was working. He was still as nervous as a pig about to be cooked.
But the spear didn't move yet, or at all for that matter.
Two minutes.
Five minutes.
Ten minutes.
The spear remained in the air, and Konnor still stared straight at Emery. If it weren't for the constantly building pressure they all would have assumed that Konnor was messing around.
At that time, the spectators had moved over to behind the desk where Hemp sat. According to his words, it would be dangerous to watch from anywhere not behind him.
And clearly, he was right. The invisible pressure was not so invisible currently.
A large ethereal beast formed behind Konnor's figure. It was a strange mix of a lion and a man. The spirit being was a man with several animalistic features. It had lion features such as a large mane and claws. Its fur was dark in colour, and several flames emerged from its body.
Illusion. It was clearly an illusion that everyone was affected by, yet it completely enraptured them all.
Eventually, Elyn spoke.
"Hey, are you really sure that he's holding back?" she shuffled awkwardly, unable to hide her desire to jump to Emery's rescue.
Hemp picked up his unfinished cig from earlier and took a puff from it.
"Believe me when I say he's holding back here,"
No one believed him, but it was too late at this point.
Emery, on the other hand, got tired of twiddling his fingers doing nothing. Whether Konnor was holding back or not, he couldn't just sit and let the attack hit him just like that. He was fairly positive that he would die instantly if he did that.
'I need to build up strength,'
He tapped into that energy that could vaguely be felt whenever he cast his skills. It was very crude compared to when he used skills, but it was clearly more powerful from what he could see.
A bright green aura enveloped his body almost immediately. It was the first time he had done anything like that. It almost seemed second nature, but he couldn't get too engrossed in that right now.
It still wasn't enough power.
More.
SWIISHHH~!
A mysterious wind picked up within the room. The two auras clashed with each other from that alone.
The green ball of energy that was Emery faced off against the beastly image that hovered just behind Konnor.
'He's about to strike!'
Emery gripped the blade even harder as soon as he sensed that it was going to happen. And almost as soon as he did that, the spear finally fell.
Now!
He reacted at the same time and shot forward with his knife.
SKREEEE~!
The distance wasn't very long. The two of them crossed it in less than a second. His burning green energy and knife blade clashed with the spirit figure and Konnor's spear.
BOOM!
A small shockwave passed through the room from the centre of the attack. It almost pushed Emery back too.
He gritted his teeth and drove his feet into the ground. The clash only seemed to escalate the longer he lasted. By now, the seemingly unlimited energy source within him began to falter. The green aura around him flickered, and his knife hand shook at the same time.
But that was all it took for Konnor.
SHING~!
Emery flew back a few metres. The knife flew out of his hand and landed away from him. It wasn't very painful not as much as it was shameful.
'I can't believe I lost.'
He groaned inwardly, then got up from where he lay. He quickly rushed over to the knife to pick it up. As soon as he did that, his heart fell.
'Nononono. Anything but this!'
A small thin line had appeared at the middle of the knife, and a single pull was enough to show him what happened. The two parts of the knife disconnected from each other, presenting him with the situation of things.
'Fucccck!'
He should have known that would happen. Why did he use his knife? This knife of all ones to battle Konnor!
'I'm sorry, mom.'
"Em, are you okay?" Elyn yelled as she approached him from behind.
She knelt down next to him and looked everywhere on his face. Emery held her hand from moving any further and looked back to the knife.
"I'm fine, Elyn."
It was bound to happen sooner or later. He had been using the knife to fight beasts all this while. A simple kitchen knife. He was fortunate that it had even lasted so long.
'I need to compose myself. I can deal with this later. Right now, I need to finish what I started here.'
He placed the knife back in the Pantry and got back up, Elyn in tow. Konnor had returned to behind Hemp and everyone else to their normal positions.
"I'm sorry for that." he said, "Did I fail the test?"
Hemp laughed, "I'd be an idiot to fail you. Even that attack from Konnor would be enough to wipe a normal Class Nine Beast off the Earth. The fact that you managed to survive, and unharmed at that, says a lot."
He sighed in relief. Even though this wasn't in his original plans, gaining a connection with Hemp would significantly help him out in the future.
"What about the seco-" he started saying, only to get interrupted.
Konnor's eyes had narrowed down slightly. "That thing you did just now, boy. Do you know what it is?"
The well of energy that he tapped into? It seemed natural to him.
"No?"
"Come to me later. I'll explain it."
Emery gulped and nodded. That was also an unexpected development, but he gladly welcomed it.
Hemp snapped his fingers together and finally said the last thing.
"Well, as for your second test. It's simple…. I just want you to cook for me!"
[Ding]
[Mission Acquired!]
[Mission Details: Hemp wants you to cook for him! Impress him with your cooking!]
[Rewards: Commander status under Hemp. 1000 Exp.]