Chapter 497 - An Unfair Match
Another day quickly passed, during which Eldrian didn't do all that much. Darren took care of the next round of tests, doing so in the largest branch of the adventurer's guild inside Kynigo.
Eldrian simply waited, spending the day practicing magic some more and enjoying what the city had to offer with Ceph and Vivian.
"Here are the results," Darren said, handing Eldrian a single page with a summary of each person's results.
In the end, Eldrian had everyone write the test. Though, for the six who had some sort of true insight into dynamic magic it wasn't a determination if they would be excepted. Instead, Eldrian was simply curious how they would do.
It was clearly worth it, Demilea scored really well on the strategy part of the test. Aspen on the household management and Argius on accounting.
'Mmm, I wonder what I should make of this though.' Eldrian pondered for a bit and then told Darren to inform those who had at least one talent in the fields that were on the test.
This would cut down the total number to 23, and Eldrian felt that was a decent number to actually go through personally.
...
The next day arrived and Eldrian found everyone already in his courtyard. Truly not one for speeches and feeling awkward having people actually want to follow him, Eldrian cleared his through and then stayed quiet as he searched for the words to come. They didn't.
"Ah, hum... Well done for making it this far," Eldrian pushed in a congratulation even though it felt awkward.
"The last part is simple, I want to spar against each one of you..." Eldrian paused as he considered how to make the fights fair. Of course, they would use training weapons. However, their use eliminated magic entirely.
'I'll let them go wild if they are a mage. Doubt I will lose, and I certainly should be able to survive.' Eldrian mumbled under his breath, knowing that there were three Tier 5 people here.
"Are you sure?" One of them, Armin, asked. He was a centaur of significant size. Just about as tall as Evules (3m), standing a good head above the rest. Added onto that, he was Tier 5, making him believe that Eldrian would be unable to put up a good fight against him.
"Yes, we will use training weapons. And if you are a mage you are free to use all you know. I will do the same." Eldrian smiled as he saw the confusion growing in the crowd, magic was normally not something that was done in 'normal' spars.
Normally, if one wanted to fight someone with magic it would be done via a magic duel. Conducted through only magic.
"The aim isn't for you to beat me, or for me to beat you. I simply feel that fighting someone is the quickest way to learn the most about them. It will let me know if your Tier is based on experience or training."
"How would sparring allow you to learn this?" A wolfkin just shy of two-meters tall asked, with mana sense Eldrian could easily see that this was Aspen. Tier 3, which was respectable, certainly not amazing by any means, but respectable.
Like Brazan, he also had a certain bloodline, however, Eldrian had no idea what it meant other than that his race wasn't just a plan wolfkin. The bloodline was called Xue.
"Because," Eldrian paused for dramatic effect, and then also cast a ball of ice for all to see. Making it dance as he continued, "My style isn't predictable. If you have reached your Tier without experience, you are certain to become flustered."
Even the Tier 5's were warry when they watched the ball of ice dance. It would do little damage, however, if Eldrian could morph it at will as he had shown before. Then it could suddenly change into a spike or dagger. Meaning, getting hit meant they would likely die.
"Whose first?" Eldrian asked, summoning another ball of ice and causing everyone who weren't Tier 5 to step back in apprehension.
Stepping forward, the three-meter-tall centaur announced that he wished to be first. Taking a greatsword from the training weapon rack which Darren had provided according to everyone's most proficient weapon.
Nodding, Eldrian charged forward, his speed shocking Armin and causing him to nearly fail and bring his sword to block.
'I am faster, much faster.' Eldrian realized and quickly scaled down his speed. He was quite shocked by this discovery, Eldrian was only now as fast as Vivian, who was still Tier 4, thanks to having reached Tier 4 himself. Yet, somehow, he was faster than Armin, who was Tier 5.
The reason was clear, Nelida's Flame was truly not a normal weapon. How it was just Tier 7 Eldrian didn't quite know, but the boost it gave Vivian was amazing. Honestly, Eldrian had a feeling there was something more to the sword and her. He had yet to dive into that, it was another of the investigation items on his list.
Back to the fight, Armin quickly recovered once Eldrian slowed his attacks to more or less match his own speed. Luckily for him, he was stronger than Eldrian and he made sure to try his best to leverage that to his advantage.
However, how could that work against Eldrian? He didn't go out of his way to close the gap, either through skills or his armor's abilities, instead, Eldrian just adapted.
He was so used to fighting people far stronger and faster than him, that when he had an edge on one of these fields it basically nullified any disadvantage he could have had. Especially when he had the advantage in speed, and hence in reaction time.
Grunting, Armin hated the fact that Eldrian was fighting against him with absolute ease. It stung, as someone who had actually managed to reach Tier 5, having someone below that threshold not just keep up, but seemingly dance around him. It truly stung.
With a roar, he suddenly charged before stopping just before reaching Eldrian. Changing the simple overhead strike he had telegraphed into a swift diagonal strike followed by using his forelegs kicking at Eldrian.
Surprised by the kick, Eldrian couldn't react in time. Not physically, so he summoned a ball of ice and sent it right into the centaur's ribs. The hit nearly threw the centaur off balance and caused blood to fill his mouth.
Armin spat out the blood and looked at Eldrian in shock and confusion. The spell had hit far harder than he had expected, if it had been sharp it would have done major damage.
"Right, most of you probably don't know this. But I can instantly cast, without needing to say anything. You should have picked up on it, but it is a subtle thing to notice." Eldrian said while keeping his distance and giving Armin time to recover.
Eldrian had purposefully sent the ball of ice into his side as hard as he could to make it clear to all that it could do significant damage. That trading blow for blow was not something favorable.
"How am I supposed to best you then?" The centaur asked, rubbing his side and looking at Eldrian in confusion. "You are faster than me, and you can also instant cast spells and fully control them. How am I supposed to do anything impressive against you?"
"You aren't, didn't I make that clear?" Eldrian asked, shocked at how easy it was to face off against someone who was Tier 5.
'The undead are all some type of unique class, meaning they all have higher attributes compared to normal people. I forgot to take that into account, no wonder it was so much harder to fight against them. Not to mention all the in-vulnerabilities that they have.'
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