Combat Test
Leaving the room she arrived in another large room, in the middle lay a stone arena. Looking around she found no one else in the room, she was the only one.
The stone arena in the middle lit up without warning, "Step onto the arena."
Ireya looked at the stone arena and tried understanding where exactly this voice came from while she stepped onto the arena.
"You must perform everything you have learned to a minimum of Introductory, that is the passing level."
Nodding she unsheathed her sword, 'I shouldn't reveal my complete talent, mummy, and Raya have warned me enough already.'
Moving into her stance she quickly performed all 12 moves at the Small Accomplishment level, each time her sword was swung the walls were damaged, by the time she was done the wall had many small cuts all over it.
She then sheathed her sword once again and waited, while she was waiting she watched the walls repair back up. It was just like a miracle, she couldn't wait to find out how it was done.
"Spiritual Talent analyzed, Peak Third Grade."
"Peak Third Grade?", Ireya asked but the voice didn't respond, instead, the wall ahead split open revealing the man and woman again.
The middle-aged man then spoke, "All of your tests have been completed, now step out."
She listened to him and stepped into the hall that the pair were in, around her all of the other contestants were also stepping out. Some had sour looks on their faces while others had prideful looks. Looking in the middle of the room she found what looked like a ritual alter used to sacrifice to the Gods.
"Well done, this time we have 20 people who are all beyond Mid First Grade, 3 who are in Second Grade and one who is Third Grade.", this time the woman spoke up, by the time she was done she looked at Ireya for a moment before moving on.
"Third Grade!"
"Someone reached the Third Grade, it's said that all of the Rankers are also only in the Third Grade in Spiritual Talent, some are even Second Grade!"
"I wonder who it is! I got Firs-"
"Silence!", the young man in the middle of speaking was quickly blown away.
He slid down the wall and coughed up some blood, he was bent over in pain.
"None of you are allowed to mention what you have gotten, nor are you allowed to ask what others have gotten, understood!"
All of them nodded hurriedly.
"Now the next test is the Combat Test, all of you step up and sit cross-legged around that alter.", he then pointed at the altar behind him.
They listened to him and gathered in a circle around the altar and took a seat each, "Now close your eyes, when I say so you can open them back up. The moment you open your eyes the combat test will begin, don't tell me that I didn't warn you after you fail, got it?"
He waited for all of them to get ready, then he injected his energy into the altar. Blinding lights flashed as the runes on the altar flew up and began spinning around at a slow methodic rate, then once the blinding light had dimmed down each rune sped into the mind of each contestant. But then another 4 runes rushed towards Ireya's forehead and stacked on top of the original one.
A rune appeared on the forehead of each person, once the man had confirmed that they all had it he raised his voice, "You may open your eyes now!"
Opening her eyes she saw herself standing in an endless white room, 10 people standing before her, all of them wielded a normal spear. Each one opened their eyes the moment she opened hers and dashed towards her, a spear came flying from every direction.
Looking around she saw plenty of openings, her sword crashed at one of the spears send it flying towards another person, Splurt!, the spear cut directly through that man's head. Her sword sliced through the neck of another giving her enough room to escape.
Clang!
Looking back she watched as the spears entangled with each other, the sound of metal clashing pierced into her ears, 'All of them have reached Ablution, only 5% each.'
She took this chanced to slice 3 of them in half before they could react, after dying all of them disappeared and broke apart as black ash.
Only 5 remained now, she then quickly took care of them. After they all died a cloud of ash formed on top of her, this ash then formed into 10 different figures, all of them with a spear.
'The same people? No, they're at 10% Ablution each now.', this was still a walk in the park for her and she quickly dealt with all of them.
Throughout the fights she only used normal sword skills and no techniques, she was using this chance to refine her skills and practice fighting against groups. Back in Hades Ring she couldn't take the risk and fight many enemies at once but now she finally had the chance.
---
On the altar, people woke up and were blown off the altar one by one as they failed the test.
"What the fuck! That was so hard, how is that even fair!"
One man blew up in anger and came raging at the instructors, "Hmph!", he didn't last long as he was sent flying into the wall within less than a second.
"Disqualified! Don't make the same mistake as him, he may have not even failed the test yet his immaturity lead to his early finish."
Crash!
One by one they fell off the altar, after just 10 minutes only 7 people were left on the altar, this included Ireya and the 3 Second Grade Spiritual Talents alongside 3 other talented fighters.
"What do you think about these contestants Charlotte?", the middle-aged man turned to the woman next to him and asked.
"Good so far, we haven't had a Third Grade contestant in a while, the last time was 2 months ago and they were only Mid Stage, this one is at the peak.", she continued to talk.
"Plus she's brave, we haven't had someone argue back at us in a while. Plus she was able to anger you, Ryle.", she continued to mock him at the end.
He agreed with her analysis but couldn't help but turn to her and sneer momentarily, she saw his sneer and smiled it off.
---
Ireya was in the middle of fending off 10 men at 40% Ablution at the moment, one spear slid past her defenses scratching her face.
"That's enough practicing my basic sword skills, time to fight!", she licked her lips and her momentum flew out, her hair broke open from her original ponytail. She had begun to run out of stamina after fighting for so long, she had only just reached Ablution so she wasn't able to fight for long periods yet.
"First Move: One Sword!", 40 sword shadows flew out, taking advantage of her momentum she slew one man after another. One spear flew towards her back, side-stepping, she swung her sword towards his wrist cutting it off.
Bam!
She kicked him in the chest sending him back by a few centimeters, Thrust!, she pierced her sword through his chest splitting his heart in half. The blood landed on her face, forming a slightly demonic image.
That was the last enemy, the man turned into ash and the ash flew up into the sky.
"I can only last up to 50% Ablution.", she was confident in her strength but her main weakness was her cultivation. She couldn't last very long in fights.
"Let's end it then.", she prepared her next move before they appeared.
"Third Move: Piercer!", her sword dimmed slightly then exploded outwards in a marvelous fashion.
The moment it exploded out the next 10 men had formed. Before any of them could react,
Splurt!
Ten bodies dropped with a loud thud, their heads went rolling and blood flew up in fountains from each person staining her black robes with red blood.
Swoosh!
The wind only moved after the bodies had dropped and crashed everywhere, Ireya stood on the other side with her sword sheathed blood dripping down her face.
"Hooo... That used up 30% of my total energy, it's gradually regenerating but not fast enough. I only have 30% left now, enough for one more round.", she turned back around and prepared the same move again, she didn't have enough to perform the Fourth Move, which used up 50%, and the Fifth Move, which used up 70%.
The next wave would be 50% Ablution, the 50% point was a turning point in the Ablution Realm. At this point, your energy stores would double and your regeneration speed would double, not only that your energy would thicken producing more power and speed. If she only faced two people each round she could have easily lasted until 55% Ablution maybe 60% but because of the higher difficulty, she couldn't.
She didn't regret it in the slightest though.
She took a deep breath and said forcefully, "Third Move: Piercer!", she felt the energy drain out of her, and her muscles grow weak.
Ten more figures slowly formed.
---
On the outside, only 3 people were left on the stage.
"How has that girl lasted for so long, isn't her combat test meant to be much harder than ours?"
"Exactly, I bet they didn't make her test harder but were just bluffing!"
"They have to be!"
Listening to the kids talking Ryle and Charlotte silently laughed to themselves, they knew that they had made the test much harder. They made it 5 times harder than normal.
In the beginning, they thought that she wouldn't last long but now that she had lasted for so long they couldn't help but admire her combat ability.
"How far do you think she's reached, 20% Ablution?", Ryle asked her.
"Probably further, she was able to resist our force even when you concentrated it on her, she must be stronger than that, I say 30%."
He shrugged, "If you say so."
Suddenly the crowd grew louder, "Look, that guy is about to drop!"
They all turned to an average young man with blonde hair, the moment that person shouted he flew off the altar and dropped onto the ground with a thud.
"There's only two left!"
"Who do you think will win?!"
---
Slice!
Her sword grew even more powerful than before as her momentum built up strike after strike, her sword cut 7 of them in half easily but on the eighth...
Crash!
A spear crashed onto her sword, the other two dashed around surrounding her in a triangle.
"Entanglement!", They all shouted at once and thrust their spears at Ireya.
She tried jumping up but felt a force pull her back down the moment she jumped, 'This is bad!', she moved to the right by an inch avoiding one of the spears.
Splurch!
One of the spears pierced through her left arm leaving a gaping hole, her blood sprayed over the spear and onto her face. She flinched at the pain and grabbed the spear with her right arm and pulled, the man flew over with shock written all over his face, her sword cracked through his skull sending him to the netherworld.
Swoosh!
The two other spears gradually approached her chest and head respectively.