A deafening silence followed Mahon’s words as the people training stopped what they were doing to look at Mahon and Jorik.

Mahon hadn’t moved from his initial position in the slightest. Jorik, on the other hand, was standing over Onas, a few meters away. The young man was lying unconscious at his feet, a sword still in his hand. As for the two other swords, they were still stuck in the ground between Jorik and Mahon, where Onas had thrown them first.

The instructor stopped walking and slowly turned to see the situation. For a man of his experience, the implied meaning of such a scene was more than obvious. Jorik had defeated Onas on his own, without a sword and in mere seconds. A frown barred his face, but he didn’t hesitate before barking another order.

“Saida! Ayen!”

A woman and a man immediately left the training group after their comrades who were dueling gave them their training swords. They started to split to target both Mahon and Jorik individually, but Jorik moved swiftly to stay between Mahon and them. As he passed by the two stucked swords, he grabbed them both and pointed them to the two incoming trainees.

The man and woman stopped a short distance away from Jorik, a weird look on their faces. The woman spoke first.

“Although you easily defeated Onas, he was the newest recruit and the weakest of us. But defeating him proved you at least deserve to be tested by us. You shouldn’t be too confident, however, we’re both close to the five-star already. Call your friend to fight with you.”

“Not yet five-star?” Jorik echoed with a predatory smile. “It seems you’re still not taking us seriously.”

“You!” The male trainee made an ugly face before he rushed forward to meet Jorik.

Although with a slight delay, the woman followed just behind him.

Too rushed.

Mahon saw from the corner of his eyes the instructor shook his head ever so slightly, clearly thinking the same thing.

They’re set for some extra training. Mahon smiled, as the inexperience of the young recruits reminded him of his time as an instructor in Nightmare.

Even though their cohesion had been a bit rushed, the two people were still close to the five-star rank, and to Finem’s standards it was already pretty high. They didn’t show much openings, and their steps were both swift and assured as they went for a pincer attack.

Jorik calmly waited for them. As the swords closed on him, he finally moved. Once.

He sidestepped the woman’s attack while parrying the other with one sword. He deflected it in a way that the man’s sword continued forward into the woman’s direction. Caught in an awkward posture, the two stopped abruptly in their tracks before they impaled themselves onto the other sword.

Their reaction was very fast, and they were already pivoting to continue their assault when they felt the cold metal of Jorik’s sword on their skins. He had been much faster than them, and both his swords were already on the two trainees’ throats. For a long second, they didn’t know what to do until they finally realized they had been defeated in just one move.

They dropped their swords and surrendered the next moment, a glimmer of awe in their eyes as they looked at Jorik.

In the meantime, Mahon had kept an eye on the instructor, and even the bald man had been flabbergasted by Jorik’s speed and precise execution. From the instant Jorik had started moving, it was clear that the instructor had immediately understood the issue of the fight, but even if he had successfully read its ending, he had still appeared shocked during a small instant.

He then walked forward and bowed very low in front of Jorik and Mahon, surprising even the whole group of trainees that had now completely stopped training to watch the show.

“I’m truly sorry.” He said while still bowing. “It seemed our own arrogance had blinded us not to recognize true experts. I hope you accept our sincere apologies.”

“No harm done.” Jorik commented. “We only hope you’ll properly test us, now.”

The instructor rose and immediately acquiesced. “Of course. Please give me a moment to gather the other instructors for the test.”

Jorik nodded, and the instructor ran away under the stupefied looks of the students.

“Thank you for your mercy and pointers, my lord.” The woman who had previously fought against Jorik bowed and walked backwards to her group.

Through whispers and hushed tones the trainees immediately started debating and commenting on the fight that had just happened and their instructor’s reaction.

Mahon hid a smile behind his hand at their reaction while Jorik leisurely walked back to him.

“It seems we’ll finally know what we’re worth in this world.” the noble said. “I’m eager to fight their best warriors, and especially if they don’t plan to trick my senses with their magic.”

Mahon chuckled at the comment. “On the other hand, I hope to be able to train against fire magic. It seems I still have many things to learn about the Flow.”

A couple minutes later, two men and two women entered the arena alongside the instructor they already knew. The bald man introduced himself as Ailluin, and he was actually the head instructor of the Protectors Circle. The four other instructors also introduced themselves before Ailluin started to explain the test.

“Given you have easily defeated two top four-stars simultaneously, we could assume you’re already six-star yourself, but allow us to assume we know nothing and test you normally. We usually test a wide range of skills in different scenarios to gauge a candidate to the best of his abilities. Please don’t take offense. We aren’t underestimating you anymore, we just want to understand your talent in depth.”

“No offense taken. We came here to be tested after all.” Jorik smiled.

“Good.” Ailluin nodded. “Then let me explain the first test, which will give us a rough idea of your fighting skills and senses.”

The instructor grabbed a thin rope and, placing it on the ground, he formed a circle roughly three meters wide.

“You have to stay within this circle for the entirety of the test. We’ll start attacking you and place more and more pressure on you until you simply cannot endure anymore. Attacks will come from everywhere, and although you’re allowed to retaliate, we’ll primarily gauge your defensive capability and fighting sense. After all, you can’t go out of the circle, so the usefulness of a counterattack is quite limited. This test’s main focus is on defense and perception. We’ll test you one after the other. Who wants to start?”

After a quick look at each other, Jorik stepped forward and entered the circle. Immediately, Ailluin gestured to the instructors, and they placed themselves around the circle, far enough not to be a direct threat to Jorik. Then one of the instructors came forward and started his attack.

It was clear the woman wasn’t going all out, and she simply chained a few simple attacks that Jorik easily parried. She then stepped back, away from Jorik’s range. A second later, another instructor came from Jorik’s flank to attack him.

Jorik stepped to the side and counterattacked immediately, touching the instructor at the arm. The blow wasn’t strong enough to truly hurt someone, and especially since the instructors were wearing training leather armors. The instructor stepped back, and another started his attack from a different angle.

Like that, the instructors took turns attacking Jorik. Each time, they gradually increased their strength and techniques to force Jorik’s out of his comfort zone, but the noble was strong enough to withstand every assault without much of a sweat.

The instructors hadn’t yet spoken to each other since the battle began, but suddenly, as if they were sharing the same mind, they started attacking in pairs. At first, they were both attacking from the same side, and then, given Jorik’s still stopped their attempt with practical ease, they started attacking from the front and back at the same time. Jorik had no choice but to dive into the Flow soon after they employed such a strategy.

With the help of the magic, he had no blind spot, and he continued sending back every assault with the same efficiency. So the instructors moved on to attack with three people.

From the side, Mahon could observe their reaction, and he could see they were already very impressed by Jorik. It wasn’t much, but a satisfied smile here and there, or a flash of surprise at a complicated pattern being properly read and parried, was enough to know they were both impressed and very enthusiastic of Jorik’s performance.

When three instructors started attacking from any direction, Jorik began to show signs of faltering. He still managed to parry everything, but it was more often at the very last instant. He could afford to make mistakes before, but now a single one would directly lead to his death, should they be in a real fight.

Jorik’s Flow helped him see everything, but his fighting abilities were limiting his options, and he couldn’t parry or dodge all the attacks effortlessly.

Sweat started dropping from Jorik’s forehead, but the noble clenched his teeth and managed to hold on until the instructors added a fourth one to their assault. Jorik maintained a perfect defense for some time, but it was clear there was only so much he could handle on his own.

When the four instructors started widening their range of attack and came from both flanks, front and rear, Jorik finally crumbled under their assault for the first time.

Although he had been touched by a sword once, the test didn’t stop. The instructors performed the same attack pattern a second and a third time until Jorik managed to deflect it. They then switched to another attack, and for five minutes they continued to test Jorik even though he now failed to block the attacks more often than not.

The cooperation between the four instructors was very impressive, but Jorik’s ability to dodge or block half of the time against people that were very strong and used to work together was even more spectacular. He was running out of breath, but with a commitment very characteristic of him, he didn’t falter nor slow down.

Pushing in his last remnants of energy, he moved nimbly between the instructors swords. He tried again and again until he managed to parry the instructor’s attack and they moved to the next one. Then it would start all over again.

Relentlessly Jorik tried his best to continue fighting, but in the end, when the instructors fought to the best of their abilities and plainly exploited the fact Jorik was forced to stay within a short area, then there was really nothing he could do.

When it was clear Jorik was already too tired to continue at his best, the instructors stopped attacking simultaneously, and Ailluin spoke.

“I’m very very impressed.” He started clapping and the other instructors joined him. “What impressive perceptions! You were never surprised, and it was as if you knew perfectly from where each attack would come. If not for a slight lack of speed and better positioning you would have probably held until we had to attack as five, and we’ve never done this before!”

Realizing the instructor was both complimenting him and imparting his wisdom on how to improve, Jorik bowed his head slightly in thanks.

“I think even I would probably not be your opponent in a true duel, even though you could fall for one or two of this old fox’s tricks. You might be the best fighter I’ve seen in the last decade… You’re still lacking in some areas, but by our standards you should already be a high seven-star. With focused training, you might even reach the pinnacle of seven-star, or even eight-star given enough dedication and time!” The head instructor added with a bright smile.

The comment surprised the trainees who were now watching Jorik with even more awe than before. Although the five instructors were seven-star, they were all old monsters that hadn’t much room to grow. Jorik was much younger than them, however. If he was already a seven-star then he could very well reach eight-star in the future and become a legend in Finem!

“Ok, let’s test you next.” Ailluin then said while pointing to Mahon.

Mahon grabbed a sword Jorik handed to him and stepped forward into the circle. He switched the sword from one hand to another and performed a few warm-up swipes at lightning speed. He then proceeded to include more complicated patterns, using his free hand to grab his sword and perform unusual motions with practical ease. The instructors eyed him warily as they witnessed Mahon’s fighting style.

“Don’t tell me you’re also capable of pushing us to such an extent?” The head instructor asked out loud while he wiped a drop of sweat dripping along his cheek.

Mahon flashed a taunting smile. “Come and see for yourself.”