The warrior examination took place in an arena that suppressed the use of magic, and though the suppression was not perfect, the rules or the test dictated that any spells cast would lead to disqualification of the examinee. Skills, meanwhile, were fair game. By definition, spells were the manifestation of magic using mana as a medium, taking the form of one of the ten elements in order to accomplish a goal. The quality of mana was denoted by the amount of impurities mixed into it; if mana was water, impurities were dirt, and mana capacity was a container, then an average mage’s mana pool would be a pond of watery mud. The “water” was all that could be used in a spell; the impurities simply took up space. There were two requirements to cast a spell: the first was to be able to move the mana into a spell formation, which required control of the mana, and the second was to have enough mana to form the formation. Skills also had two requirements; first, one needed to have enough control over either the body or the world’s laws to execute the skill, and second was to have enough energy to do so. World’s laws, however, were only necessary at a certain level of proficiency with skills, such as [Fortress], which could the caster to be practically invulnerable for a short time at high levels. Meanwhile, at a low level, it was simply a defensive stance.

[Avīci: Immortal’s Hell] was a skill created personally by Fenrir when he was training to capture, rather than kill, one of his rivals for the throne. The skill was named by the laws of the world, which were created based off of the experiences of its god; according to Sera, the name was that of one of hell’s levels in a certain religion of her home world. The premise of the skill was simple, and reflected Fenrir’s thoughts when he created it: anything’s fine as long as they don’t die. While the skill was active, the enemy would not be permitted to die even if they wanted to; if they were beheaded, dismembered, or even burnt to ashes, they would remain alive… technically.

It had been a while since he last used it.

Upon their entry into the arena, the a cubic barrier enclosed the contestants, approximately 10 cubic meters in volume. The barrier was a translucent blue, with its boundaries defined by four stone pillars. Each pillar was inscribed with two glowing runes, one at the top and one at the base, each of which designated a corner of the cube.

And so the fight began. Both Fenrir and Jusen seemed evenly matched, Fenrir using a spear and Jusen using a curved sword. The design of the sword seemed somewhat like the katana that Sera had once described, and Jusen’s use of the blade was rather proficient. Every time a stray skill struck the barrier, the impact sent a pulse of light through the barrier, which was then absorbed by the runes. Yerin watched, her mind completely occupied; half in chaos about how Fenrir had grabbed her hand earlier, and the other half worrying about Fenrir getting hurt. There was no room for reason, and as such she temporarily forgot that Fenrir was far more proficient in the spear than even her father, who was the best spearman in the whole kingdom.

Within the barrier, Jusen and Fenrir faced each other.

“This is a warning: you are about to experience extreme pain.” Fenrir’s voice was cold, and yet it still retained its Fae beauty.

Jusen grinned. From the voice of the examinee, he could tell that she was likely a beautiful girl. In this situation, he already knew what was going to happen next: he would completely destroy her in the duel, and her crushed pride would lead to her acknowledging him as the only person worthy of being her husband. Perhaps she would be surprisingly strong, and he would have some difficulty at first; but then he would make use of the “Hollow World”, and defeat her with overwhelming power.

Jusen grinned.

He couldn’t wait for the beatdown to begin.