Assessment (2)

Immediately following that, a small yellow ball shot out from the upper left-most arm of the dummy as it approached Evan speedily.

Calmly moving his head to the side, he showed great composure as the ball whistled within inches of his face.

Others may think he was lucky, as the ball was very close, but Andre, as a veteran of battle, knew otherwise.

'This kid! Impressive. Most people would panic seeing a projectile hurtling at a fast speed towards them. He, however, calmly moved his body in the most efficient way.'

The core to the reaction speed test was, of course, how fast you can react to something, but also the manner in which a person reacts.

If a person reacted just like Evan, with the minimum level of movement required not wasting any extra movement, it will allow them to have enough time to counter-attack as opposed to taking a few seconds of recovering after reacting extremely.

After using the demon reaper martial art, Evan's body stepped on the path of qualitative change of the body.

The path of using a tiny movement from tiny parts of the body to achieve an effect similar to what a larger body part would achieve.

After noticing that the ball was on course to collide with his face, Evan instinctively moved the tiny muscles in his neck to move his head as a whole.

As for whether he was surprised, only Evan would know.

A few seconds after, the first ball was sent out another shot forward, this time from its right side.

Calmly dealing with it as the first one, Evan sidestepped to the left as he felt the ball fly past his side.

Narrowing his eyes, Evan looked at the chest of the dummy as a countdown was being run.

01:49

01:48

'Only a minute and forty-eight seconds left. I can do this!'

Taking a deep breath to regain his cold, calm and murderous state which was perfect for battle, Evan's determination to succeed soared to towering heights.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Two balls were sent out in quick succession, each aimed at a vital spot which would bring a lot of pain if struck.

Reacting appropriately and with measured ease, Evan easily weathered through the two obstacles.

At the one-minute mark, the speed at the balls were shot out increased, causing the difficulty to be raised.

But this posed no problem for Evan as he weathered through it and arrive at the 30-second mark, where the speed was once again raised.

This time, though, 3 balls were consecutively released at the same time with greater speed.

Seeing this, Evan cursed inwardly as he tensed his whole body, springing into action.

Looking at the three balls coming at him one after the other, he calmly decided on a course of action as he twisted his body to the left, allowing a ball to speed past his right side.

Right after that, Evan quickly bent his upper body backwards, making the second ball whistle within millimetres of his face.

Back in a standing position, he found to his dismay that he couldn't dodge the final incoming ball out of the trio.

So he did the next best thing, tank.

Angling his body in such a way that the balls will only briefly glance at his body, Evan felt the yellow skim onto his shoulder, bouncing away to the opposite end of the room.

In this type of test, being hit caused one to lose focus and lose some precious seconds to react and dodge, causing them to be hit more, leading them to fail the test.

Therefore, extreme concentration is required. Even if one is hit, they can avoid falling back into a passive position, provided that they were calm and didn't become flustered.

Hence, a calm state of mind is imperative.

Now with the counter in the last ten seconds, Evan began seeing hope that he can become a mercenary.

Constantly weaving right and left, ducking down, Evan did everything in his power to react as fast as possible and avoid getting hit.

Alas, with the speed the balls were travelling constantly increasing, inevitably, some broke through his guard and struck his body.

Looking at the blinking timer, Evan felt as if the passage of time seemed ever so slow. Every passing second felt like torture with time, mercilessly teasing him at the last hurdle.

Finally, the timer reached zero, as the dummy stopped shooting out balls and returned to its motionless state.

'Phew! I did it,' panted Evan as he heaved a large sigh of relief internally.

"Congratulations Evan Grant for passing the assessment to become a member of the mercenary association. Actually, my apologies, where are my manners? I should treat a former member of one of the supreme families with respect. Isn't that right, Evan?"

Hearing the first part of Andre's words, a small smile subconsciously appeared on Evan's face, only for it to freeze in the next second.

Evan's pupils dilated as he felt all the hair on his body stand on end after hearing what Andre said.

Reeling in shock, his body trembled ever so slightly, but that was enough of a confirmation for a powerhouse like Andre to notice that he hit the mark with the question.

'How did he find out? I have performed none of the forms which are symbolic of the Demon Reaper Art. What if he informs the Fletcher family? Shit!'

As his mind was still in turmoil from being exposed, Evan failed to see the slight smirk that appeared on Andre's face after seeing him panic like a headless chicken.

Thump!

Thump!

Evan felt his heart hammering in his chest as his body entered fight-or-flight mode, with adrenaline crashing through his veins like an angry rapid.

Seeing that the situation was worsening and his teasing having the opposite effect he intended for it to have, Andre slowly spoke.

"Calm down. I will not inform the Fletcher family. Those bastards deserve to be hanged, castrated, and burned for all eternity."

As he spoke, Andre's eyes were practically spewing fire, a sign of the rage he was currently feeling.

Shaking his head slightly to calm down, he continued:

"Now tell me, why would I rat you out to the Fletcher family? As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, no?"

"H-How did you know I'm from the Hale family?"

"Simple, really, there were only 2 factors. The first is that I had some relations with the Hale family in the past and I know they are famous for their enchanting golden eyes. The second is the Demon Reaper martial art. This gem of martial arts enhances everything from strength to agility to reaction speed and more. Plus, seeing the state you are currently in made it more obvious, well, only to scholars like me."

'So the reason he pieced this all together is that he's a scholar and a high-ranking one at that, based on his aura, but why he is so muscular?'

Glancing at Evan, Andre gleaned something from his expression as he laughed.

"What can I not be a brute and smart at the same time?"

'No. No, you can't!' thought Evan in his mind as his lips twitched slightly.

Relaxing his vigilance slightly, seeing as Andre had no intentions of ratting him out to his enemies, Evan still kept his guard up because of his instinctive lack of trust in humans.

"Now, can you tell me the purpose for you exposing the fact that you know I'm a member of the fallen Hale family?" Evan asked as his expression turned extremely frosty enough to chill the most expressionless of people.