Chapter 45: Chapter 45 - Qualifying Exam(Part 3)

Damn, she’s relentless! She’s attacking non-stop, it’s all I can do just to keep dodging! And the prongs of her blade keep nicking me, I’ve been able to avoid taking on any serious hits, but this’ll wear me down quickly if it keeps up for much longer.

Her movements aren’t half-bad either, there’s barely any wasted motion in her attacks, they’re swift and concise. I see, it’s because she isn’t focused on putting much force into her swings, she’s relying more on speed and accuracy instead. She isn’t trying to finish me in one shot, she’s instead trying to wear me down bit by bit.

And with the shape of the prongs at the end of her blade, not to mention how sharp they are, she doesn’t need to put much strength behind her swings to begin with. Not bad, not bad at all.

Guess I don’t have a choice, letting things continue on like this isn’t gonna help me, plus each time I get cut, it hurts and I don’t like it. I can’t openly heal myself, so I’d rather not get too badly hurt.

Fuck it, time to use some Magic. As I activated an Elemental Earth Spell, and a Magic Circle appeared below her, she quickly halted and sprang back in alarm, right as a pillar of earth came shooting up towards her.

It grazed her chin and the tip of her nose as she managed to avoid taking a direct hit, backing away several steps and keeping her distance as she rubbed her chin with the back of her left hand.

I was aiming to hit her between the legs...yeah, I know, that’s way, way, WAY more effective against guys, but it isn’t completely ineffective against girls, so it was worth a shot. Gotta say, she reacted pretty well to that, considering that there’s no way she could’ve seen it coming.

"I knew it, you were holding back," She frowned warily, as I let the pillar of earth I formed crumble down.

"Yeah, guess the cat’s out of the bag now. Oh, well. Might as well cut loose a bit," I shrugged, as I took a couple of steps forward to get her within the range of my Distance Casting, before several Magic Circles appeared all around her, "Hope you don’t mind if I show off a bit."

Blasts of fire, lightning and plasma erupted out of the Magic Circles around her, converging in on her from a few inches shy of point blank range.

She leapt away as her eyes widened, grimacing as she got zapped and burnt badly, a pained look on her face as she ran away at a rapid speed. Wow, she’s pretty fast, isn’t she? I inflicted some pretty severe damage, and she was still able to move that well.

And I’ve already lost sight of her too. Guess I’ll run wild a bit more...I’ll probably regret this later, but I’m way too caught up in the heat of the moment to care right now. I have to admit...I’m having fun right now.

My Distance Casting has a range of about four meters at the moment...but that range only refers to the initiation point of the Spell I’m Distance Casting. Once I’ve initiated the Spell, depending on its nature, I can spread it out as much as I want so long as I still have Mana to spare.

I then planted my palms onto the ground and activated an Elemental Earth Spell with Distance Casting, several Magic Circles appearing around me, facing away.

And then, the ground rapidly rose up in the form of several towering, massive spikes, spreading out by the dozens as I extended the Spell. Damn, this looks amazing, it’s like a forest of spikes is forming all around me at an incredible speed!

Before too long, as my spikes continued to burst out from farther and farther away, a small figure in the distance shot up into the air, a barrier wall beneath them.

I had this thought after my previous duel too, but this barrier is pretty flawed. I mean, once she starts to plummet back down again, she’s gonna get totally skewered by those spikes.

I can turn them into sand, but to do that, I’ll have to recast a new Spell and spread it out, she’ll be long dead by the time I reach the spot she’s falling towards.

Guess there’s only way to keep her from dying, I’m not interested in killing someone whom I don’t have a grudge against or isn’t getting in my way. This is gonna cause some painful whiplash, but hey, it’s better than dying, right?

I arched my arm back and swung my whip out towards her with all my strength while blunting and extending it rapidly. It struck her hip and wrapped around her midsection, before I quickly pulled my arm back, swiftly yanking her back in this direction.

She let out a sharp, startled cry as she came flying this way with my whip wrapped around her, and as I gauged her trajectory and got an idea of where she was going to land, I activated another Elemental Earth Spell and turned the ground into a thick pool of sand.

She let out a gasp as she landed in the sand with a crash, a puff of dust bursting out upon impact and several grains of sand raining down on me. She sat up with a groan before spitting out bits of sand that had gotten in her mouth.

"Ow...my back. And my neck...I thought my body was going to snap in half," She groaned wearily, as she stood up with a wince.

"Sorry about that. It was the only way I could think of to keep you from getting impaled," I grinned sheepishly.

"I’ve never seen someone cast a Spell like that with my own eyes...just who are you?" She inquired in bemusement.

Ah, there it is, here comes the regret. What the hell was I thinking, I could’ve easily won that fight without dialing things up to eleven! But at the moment, my focus was divided onto something else...

"There! Hah, you didn’t sneak up on me this time!" I declared triumphantly, as I swiftly turned around and locked my gaze onto the receptionist.

"Wha-...ahem, I had no such intention," She smiled in response, but I didn’t miss the hint of saltiness in her expression.

"Sure, you didn’t. Also, you really should’ve warned me about the limitations of this barrier, if I hadn’t reacted in time, both my opponents so far would’ve probably died," I informed her.

"Yes, I noticed. And on that note...congratulations, you’ve qualified for a Silver rank now. Would you like to keep going?" She asked me.

"Sure do."

"Hm, you must have used a lot of Mana, do you want to request a rest period?" She offered in response.

"Nah, I’m good. I’d say that was about, maybe...a quarter of my Mana?" I replied, after taking a rough estimate of my remaining Mana.

"Huh? After casting a Spell like this one?" She responded incredulously.

"Uh...so, on a totally unrelated note, how exactly does confidentiality work when it comes to guilds?" I inquired sheepishly.

"Well, any breach of confidentiality is a serious violation, and talking about the abilities of others is strictly frowned upon. But most people don’t ever worry about that...that said, there aren’t a lot of people who can cast Spells without incantations, use Distance Casting, and cast multiple different Elemental Spells at the same time...," She muttered, looking bewildered, before adding, "Adventurers using Magic is rare to begin with, let alone at such a high level of mastery. It’s not unheard of, but it’s close to it. Your ability level is more like that of a Noble training to be a Kn-..."

"Huh? Did you just compare me...to a fucking Noble?" I cut her off icily, her words triggering a surge of irritation in me, making me blurt that out a lot more aggressively than I intended, before I caught myself in alarm, "Oh, uh, sorry about that, I didn’t mean to be so rude."

I messed up, my intention was to have a friendly relationship with the Guild and avoid causing any friction.

"No, uh, I should be the one to apologize. It wasn’t my intention to pry into your circumstances, it goes against our policies. I was just thinking out loud. Anyway...if you’re ready, I’ll go get your next opponent shortly," She replied, changing the subject.

Guess I have no choice but to put my faith in the guild’s policies in regards to confidentiality, huh?

"Sure, sounds good," I nodded in response.

As she left, my opponent hurried after her. Can’t say I blame her, my little outburst probably made things really awkward.

Well, it’s too late to take it back now. Wish I could turn back time or something. But there weren’t any such powers in the list of Skills that the God who reincarnated me presented me with, otherwise I’d have almost definitely gone for it. Guess time travel isn’t a real thing, at least not in this world.

Anyway, I wonder what my next opponent will be like? My first two opponents were pretty easy to deal with, especially when I stopped holding back. But I doubt a Gold rank will be so easily defeated.

My best bet might be to overwhelm whoever my next opponent is with a large scale Magic Spell, like the Earth Spell I used in the previous duel.

Oh, looks like the receptionist is back, and with my next opponent in tow. Guess I’ll find out how strong they are soon en-...hm? It’s...an old man?

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