As the two brats stopped talking once a few seconds had passed, they seemed to ignore the two instructors completely, choosing to do as they wanted.
"Who would like to go first? Keep in mind, you must stay until the end of everyone's evaluation," said Master Malbeze.
Then one of the brats stood up; he was blonde, the one who seemed to be the rudest. He was wearing a blue shoulder cape on his left side with his hands in his pockets. "I will volunteer to go before any of these peasants," he said.
"Please state your name, your class, and age," Malbeze responded.
"I am Theo Vallion of the Vallion house. I am a mage who specializes in fire magic, and I am 17," he said with a voice of pride.
'He is quite young, you aren't allowed to even take the test until you're 16, most people wait until 18, like Anemone did,' Anemone thought.
(Author's note: I do not know if I mentioned her age before chapter 6, but from this moment on, her age is 18.)
"Please step up here," Malbeze said.
As the young man known as Theo stepped up to the dirt arena, Mistress Eline was on the opposite side in a fighting stance.
"Mistress Eline will dictate your rank after battling you. Please do not hold back," said Malbeze.
Before Malbeze began to count down, Theo pulled out a dark wooden wand with red opal, one of the rarest gems for a wand, costing 100 gold. Then a large swirling fireball began to form at the tip of his wand, and it flew at Eline.
Eline quickly countered with a mud wall; her wand was nearly identical but with a blue gem, unfamiliar to Anemone. It had a lot more magic power, and the mud wall grew to about three meters tall (10 feet) and five meters wide (16 feet). The wall then caved into its own weight after blocking the fireball, splashing down and spraying onto the legs of Theo. Eline stepped back so the mud would not get on her.
"Avoid the mud; if mud gets on you, it may weigh you down, even a little. It will want to form to the earth and will seem sticky, causing more energy to be wasted in every step from normal," said Eline.
She was teaching in the middle of a test. Theo then flew in once all the mud dispersed and hardened back into dirt from Eline, casting a wall of fire behind Eline about half the size of Eline's mud wall. Eline seemed to read his mind, and she instead erected a dirt pillar beneath her, arching it to where she flew over Theo's head, behind him, pointing her wand at him. Simultaneously, she had a swirling object in front of her wand, and she called it out.
"Earth Arrow," Eline said.
She then fired it at Theo. It must not have been solid, as it quickly dispersed over his neck, splattering him with mud.
Anemone then chuckled while looking at his pitifulness, soon realizing that, from Eline's skill, she might be similar to him.
"E-Rank. Always be wary of the environment you are fighting in, always think it will be advantageous to the opponent, it will keep you cautious," said Eline in a firm tone.
Anemone could see Theo's anger rise as he opened his mouth. "E-Rank is only one above F! I deserve to be higher!"
"Please go sit down, sir, so that we may continue the test," interrupted Malbeze.
Theo then surprisingly stormed off. Anemone thought he would have fought more, using nobility against them.
'I guess the testers, or examiners, have all the authority when it comes to this,' Anemone thought.
"Who wants to go next?" Malbeze asked.
The young man to Anemone's left then stood up after responding and walked down to the arena.
"Please state your name, age, and class," said Malbeze.
"My name is Kin, I am twenty, and I am a swordsman who also dabbles in earth magic," Kin replied.
"Excellent, you will be facing me then," Malbeze said.
Both the young man named Kin and Master Malbeze took different fighting stances on opposite sides of the arena. Malbeze had a knightly sword; he had his right foot in front of him and his left foot slightly behind, his sword was straight in front of him while pointing at Kin. Kin unstrapped the Greatsword on his back, his muscles bulging to hold up the weapon as he oriented his legs in the same position, but had his weapon on his left side, the tip of it lying on the ground.
"Three.... two... one... go!" said Eline.
Kin quickly narrowed the gap, swinging toward the head of the disappeared Malbeze, who dodged to the left. Malbeze then tried to counter by swinging his sword in a crescent moon shape.
"Earth wall!" Kin yelled.
Suddenly, a wall of dirt was erected between the two people, blocking the sword. Kin used this time to thrust his sword toward the wall.
'Why thrust into the wall that was used to block the enemy's sword?' Anemone wondered.
A hole then appeared in the wall where he was thrusting, allowing his sword to go through.
'He has great skill,' Anemone thought.
She then heard a loud clang, which must have been Malbeze blocking it. The wall then began to disintegrate and fell down. Malbeze sprinted through the dust, reenacting the same motion, a crescent moon.
Clang!
The two swords collided again, Kin was forced to one knee to block the attack, and eventually gave in; his strength wasn't enough, and Malbeze was on top. Malbeze then put his sword away and reached a hand for Kin, helping him to his feet.
"D-Rank. Great job, I have high hopes for you," Malbeze said.
As Kin stood back up, putting his sword onto his back, he shook hands with Malbeze and then bowed. "Thank you! I will look back on our battle and learn from the mistakes I may have made," Kin replied.
Kin then walked back up, sitting to Anemone's left again with the same distance between them. The man who seemed to be a healer of some kind then stood up and walked down.
"Hello, my name is Tasim, I am nineteen, and I am a healer, so life magic, and I also do water magic," Tasim said.
"A dual elemental user?" Eline then cut in. "I personally do not know how to test your healing magic. We will save you for later, then. Please go sit back down. Would another swordsman or warrior step up?"
Eline then turned around and whispered something to Malbeze that Anemone could not hear. She then left the arena as a new man stepped down, and Tasim went to sit back in his original seat. This time, it was the other blonde man who was sitting right beside Theo.
"My name is Veo Vallion. I am sixteen and I am a swordsman who also uses fire magic," Veo said.
There was only one distinction Anemone could tell from the distance kept between her and the two brats. Veo had half his hair blonde, and the other half red, with a Balato that she could now see stuck to his left side. Veo unsheathed the Balato, then put himself in the same fighting stance as Malbeze. Malbeze then did a countdown, and they rushed at each other just like everyone so far had.
Veo put up a good fight; he had his sword on the attack with it put vertically, pushing down onto Malbeze, while Malbeze had his one-handed longsword blocking the attack.
Malbeze then suddenly backed away by three meters (10 feet). Anemone was curious about why, but she quickly found out why; flames erupted right where he was standing.
'Based on the way they were speaking, Anemone thought Veo would have been worse than his older brother, but he is quite talented for his age,' she thought.
The flames quickly dispersed, and Veo lunged forward, sweeping his sword at the feet of Malbeze. Malbeze then, instead of jumping or backing away more, closed the distance, and was suddenly on the left side of Veo with his sword pointing at Veo's neck.
"D-Rank, if you made one less mistake, it would have been C-Rank. The major mistake you made was sweeping at my feet; you should have thrusted your sword or shot a fire spell of some kind right before your sword attacked," Malbeze said.
Veo then just quietly stepped back, sitting beside Theo.
'It seems Veo is only a brat around Theo,' Anemone thought.
Eline then entered with another man, who seemed to be a priest.
"Tasim, would you please step down here. We have an S-Rank healer here to rank you," Eline said.
Tasim then stepped down and approached the man.
"Hello, I have given Elize a small, minor injury somewhere on her body. I would like to see how quickly you can locate the injury and then heal it. I am not telling you directly, as if you are in a crisis with a person who has lost consciousness, it is your job to determine where the injury is that is most crucial to heal. Now, please begin," the man said.
Elize then stepped up, and a green light enveloped her; it surrounded her entire body, but then on her right upper arm, it quickly went away.
"It is located on her right deltoid," Tasim said.
Tasim then looked at the injury and focused his magic on it. The cut quickly closed and completely healed; all the blood on her arm was sucked into it, and the wound closed.
"Twenty seconds, that is excellent. I would say B-Rank, but Elize must make the final decision," the man said before walking out the door.
Elize then stepped up, "We will now battle, and you must use only water magic. Please do not heal yourself during the test."
"Yes, Elize," Tasim replied.
"Please, call me Mistress Elize," she corrected.
Both Elize and Tasim then stepped on the field. Tasim then pulled out a wand that had a crystal that had a gradient from green to blue, indicating life to water. Elize then pulled out her similar wand, which had a pure dark blue gem on top.
"3... 2... 1..." Malbeze counted down.
Tasim quickly launched a ferocious beam of water at Eline while Eline simply dodged. But the beam then moved to where Eline dodged to, continuing to put pressure on her. Tasim quit the beam of water and launched a water ball. It was very quick and spinning so ferociously that not all the water could be contained. Some water splashed out, colliding with the other participants sitting down.
Eline responded with a water ball of her own, which was much more powerful, dominating Tasim's, dispersing his, and then continuing to rush at him. Tasim then launched a water arrow, which pierced through the water ball, which lost most of its momentum, and rushed toward Eline.
Eline seemed to disappear and appeared much closer to Tasim.
'She is very fast,' Anemone thought.
"Remember, water can be used with the earth; you may not know earth magic, but always remember you can destroy the ground people may stand on when in a stationary battle," Eline said.
The ground beneath Tasim then began to sink like he was standing in quicksand until it was up to his waist. Eline used this time to conjure a small, non-deadly water ball, and then just splashed Tasim's face.
"C-Rank. You did well, just try to use your magic more diversely, do not always aim at the target directly, aim at their surroundings as well," Eline said.
"Thank you for teaching me," Tasim replied.
The magic was then released as Eline helped Tasim up, and he soon walked back to his seat. Anemone used this time to stand up and begin her descent toward the arena.