"Ahhh!" I sighed. "I was beginning to wonder where you were." I turned in the direction the arrow was fired from, and there he was, the lean archer. "After all, we do have a score to settle." I smirked.
I left a few specters in my wake as I darted towards the guy, and even though it was a principle of mirage steps for one to be as silent as a specter, the sheer speed at which I moved was anything but subtle.
I was going to go all out for the first time since ranking up to the Eta rank. The two reflections I made earlier had 25 percent of my aether each, which meant they were just as strong as I was, stats wise.
But I wasn’t planning to use reflections for this fight. ’It’s another part of training.’ I had said to myself. If I were to use reflections in every fight, the instincts of my main body would dull down eventually.
An arrow whistled towards my head, I tilted my head to dodge it, but then noticed something off, the guy’s lips had curled slightly.
My body blurred as I darted to the side.
Boom!
"Seven hells." I cursed. So the arrow didn’t have to hit something to explode, he could make it exode regardless of if it hit something or not.
"Tsk." I clicked my tongue. Still, it was only a minor inconvenience. I just had to move at speeds even a sharp eyed archer couldn’t react to.
Just as I thought that, five more arrows shot at me in quick succession.
"Third art: Fall" I casually swung my sword at them. A massive shockwave generated from my center, blasting the arrows back to where they came from.
Boom!
They exploded simultaneously among the trees, sending burnt bark and debris flying.
I darted there in an instant, the speed at which I moved parting the dust and smoke due to air resistance.
But the bastard had either been eliminated, or he had already changed directions. Though I was quite leaning towards the latter.
My eyes scanned around, but I saw no sign of him, but just as I was about to conclude he was gone, my ear detected the sound of something moving towards me, extremely fast, I quickly darted two meters to the side.
The arrow exploded right in the space I occupied a moment before.
My mouth twitched. Seriously, who was this guy? Surely someone like him would have been notable in the novel, if he didn’t die in one of the countless skirmishes with the heretics that was.
Still, I caught a glimpse of him again this time, and I clearly wasn’t letting him escape. The fight 2as supposed to be an insta kill, and had gone on for quite longer than it should have, and it was mainly because I wasn’t utilizing my skill set, and I wasn’t really being serious like I said I would.
WHUM!
I left a human shaped vaccum, which the air felt compelled to refill, resulting in a deep hollow boom.
Weaving my body to avoid the arrow coming at me, I had reached him before the arrow that was supposed to explode at me finally did.
He began stretching the bow string, perhaps to conjure another arrow, to take us both out, but I was way faster. I grabbed the husk of bow, and used the heel of my boots to deliver a crunching kick at his chest.
I could have sworn I heard his sternum crack as he flew through the air. I then zoomed past him, and just before he landed, gave him another kick that launched him vertically upwards.
Then bent my legs, and leapt into the air, so fast that I surpassed the height he was, I spun wildly in mid air, then with all the grace I could muster, shot my leg towards his head as if it were a ball.
But alas, his body disappeared just as my boot was an inch away from his head. My leg didn’t stop though, the sheer force of the attack created a jet of air that left the tree branches in the vicinity swaying, as if hit by a hurricane.
"Tsk." I clicked my tongue, somewhat disappointed at not being able to complete my move. But it seemed like my last kick would have blown his head off, so I stuffed my disappointment away.
Along the way to where the fight had started, some idiot suddenly launched at me from a tree branch, his sword pointed straight my neck.
I slightly shifted my body, just enough that both he and the sword would move past me. Then kicked at his back, sending him crashing into the dirt, where he skidded on his face for a bit.
"Your head will do." I muttered as the idiot rolled up, and tried to run. I spun in an anti clockwise morion, then delivered a crushing kick to his jaw.
That seemed to do the trick, as he disappeared soon after crashing into the trunk of a tree.
’Rose should also be done by now.’ I thought looking at the direction where fire and thunder were clashing before, but had now ceased.
----------------
*Some minutes earlier*
Rose swung her sword in a wide circle, sending a circle of her golden flames everywhere.
Levi knew there was no avoiding those flames, unless he went to Rose herself.
The bark of the tree he stood on exploded into bits as Levi shot towards Rose, lightning coating his body and his sword.
"Third art: Fall" Rose called out, swinging her own sword at Levi’s.
A cacophony of booms resounded as Levi was sent hurtling backwards from the sheer force of the impact. Rose meanwhile, only got sent skidding a few meters.
"Damn it." Levi muttered. He had been using his ability to hold the edge over Rose in speed, and while he was slightly faster, it didn’t help much since he was just needlessly wasting aether for nothing.
"Second art: Summer blaze." Rose meanwhile didn’t have much thinking to do, she simply attacked. Out of all the main casts, Rose was the only one fighting someone in the same league as them.
Alistair and Fabian fought with people much weaker than they were, and as for Anastasia, she wasn’t a main cast. And even if she were, she completely outclassed Aric when they fought.
Delilah was also fighting some unmentioned extras, and so was Damon himself.
Levi avoided the searing crimson arc. While not as intense as Rose’s flames, the arc had a cutting power. Levi darted to the side immediately, but that was a big mistake as Rose anticipated that, and already zoomed there immediately after she sent the attack.
Her sword raced for his neck, but still, Levi with surprising agility, twisted his body in a way the human body wasn’t supposed to, and barely avoided the attack, making rose overextend. But she quickly corrected the mistake and transitioned into a reverse diagonal slash.
Shiiing!
Blood splattered in the air as her sword cut a massive gash, visible till the bone on Levi’s ribcage. Not to mention, the speed at which the attack came, sent his body flying after that.
Levi’s body disappeared before he could touch ground.
This was the best fight rose had had in a while. The Spira city event wasn’t part of it obviously, that wasn’t a fight, that was just a tenacious worm running from her.
But this was an actual fight, both going for the kill, especially since they knew no one could actually die, and that they could go all out. Though, frankly, Rose wasn’t really going all out. If she wanted, she could have also increased her speed the way Levi did, and use the explosive speed of her flames.
Who knows? she smiled. Maybe she wanted it to be a bit more entertaining, that was why she refrained from doing so.
"Huh." Rose let out a hazy air as she looked around at the way they had shaped the terrain. The once lush forest had became almost barren, and blackened.
Now that they had cleared most of the forest around them, Rose could see the castle, and the flag still nestled above it. She wasted no time in making a beeline for it.
Just like Anastasia, she was already tired of this mock exam, and wanted to end it as soon as possible.
When she reached the castle, two individuals, a guy and a girl, stood guard, pointing their swords at Rose even with the clear stroke of terror present in their eyes.
Rose didn’t utter them a word, instead, she wave her hand sending a blast of her flames at them, trusting whatever mechanism it was that was teleporting the students out of here to take them away before the flames reached them.
As she expected, they were nowhere to be seen when she flames cleared. Rose than leapt to the top of the castle, and seized the flag in an effortless motion.
Still, even after that, Rose didn’t rush to leave the place. She decided to wait for the others to arrive, and around ten minutes later, she sighted Damon and the others approaching.
***********
Hello everyone, this is the second to the last Chapter of the mock exam mini arc.
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