Chapter 5

Arthur wasted no time as he launched straight at the man. He slashed the sword straight down towards the man's head.

The man had, of course, seen through this attack and avoided it easily. The man did not stop at just avoiding it as he gave Arthur a provocative smile. His aim was to anger Arthur.

Arthur did not care about the provocative smile as he followed the man at the same speed. He started slashing his sword in many different directions at great speed but with no success. The man kept on dodging and blocking every strike that came. It gave off the same feeling as fighting his dad. He felt a little helpless.

After a few minutes of slashing his sword at the man, he began to feel tired. He had not been holding back in all of his strikes, as he had wanted to teach this man a lesson. In the end, he did not have the ability.

Arthur stopped his random slashing and took a step back, away from the man. He had determined that this would end in complete failure if he continued. He wanted to save the little energy he had left, to try another tactic.

"Not bad, kid, you have some strength! Let us end here!" The man saw Arthur's heavy breathing and thought he had stopped the barrage because he was too tired.

"I still have more strength!" Arthur suddenly said before the man could continue.

He calmed down his heart and controlled his breathing. Slowly catching his breath, ready for some more fighting.

The man, of course, saw this and was impressed. There were not a lot of people who were able to do this. This was something one would usually only learn after a few years of battling on the battlefield.

"Interesting!" The man murmured to himself with a satisfied smile.

Arthur did not hear this. He once again took his battle stance, ready to attack the man. Before he could do that, the man rushed to him, slashing his broadsword towards him with great speed.

Arthur only barely reacted in time by putting his sword above his head, catching the broadsword. The broadsword slit down the knight's sword while Arthur took a stepå to the side, making him avoid the frontal strike from the man.

Before he could even react, a kick suddenly came toward his breast. It hit him perfectly and sent him flying a few meters, crashing to the ground with a big explosion of dust.

Everyone in the hall was able to hear the explosion and looked over to where Arthur had landed. They then saw the man walking towards Arthur and were shocked to see who it was.

"Damn, what an unlucky guy!" A man said at the side.

"This rookie has no chance of joining the army …" Another man said while facepalming.

"He is done for!"

Many such comments came when they saw who the man was. Everyone in this hall knew him as a ruthless man who had never let a rookie complete the test. He had always thrown them out. Everyone thought that Arthur would not be able to stand up from that crash since it came from that guy.

"You actually stood back up!" The man saw in the dust could a figure standing tall. He had not expected him to get back up.

Every person in the hall was shocked. They had never seen a rookie stand up after getting hit by this person. This was a first for everyone.

"Haha, yeah … You can't be so weak if you want to join the military, right?" Arthur stood in front of the man with a confident smile. He had fought his father many times. This was just like one of their practices.

"It seems I underestimated you in the beginning!" The man smiled. He did not want to admit it, but Arthur was exactly the type of person he liked the most. "let us keep fighting!"

"YES!" Arthur replied in earnest.

BOOM!

As soon as the man launched from his position, a huge explosion happened where he had been standing, and it had formed a small crater with lines going around which looked like a spider web.

Almost at the same time that happened, the man appeared in front of Arthur while slashing down his sword at Arthur.

All Arthur had time to do, was move to the side, sacrificing his shoulder. It was only training swords, so the man did not cut into Arthur, but the blow still broke his shoulder.

Knowing his shoulder is done for the fight, Arthur chose to use this opportunity to swing his sword with the other arm towards the man's stomach. This caught the man off guard and even connected.

It did not have a perfect connection. Nevertheless, it did hit the man. This was another feat he had done today, which had never happened before.

"Haha, I hit you!" Arthur stood tall in the middle of the battle arena with a massive smile on his lips. He was in a lot of pain because of his shoulder, but he was satisfied with hitting the man.

The man stood silent for a few seconds before he laughed. "HAHA, you did! I am impressed. Good job, kid!" The man was very surprised by Arthur. The decisiveness of still wanting to fight, even after knowing he had lost a shoulder. This had impressed the man the most.

"I have a question for you, kid!" The man suddenly had a serious face as he looked at Arthur. "Do you want to join my division? I will directly make you a squad leader!" Seeing the talent Arthur had displayed today, he could not pass up such a talent.

"Uhm … Is that how this works?" Arthur was caught off guard and had no idea what to say. All he could do was smile wryly.

"It is, kid, the people who do the exam are all high-ranking commanders, and if we want, we can recruit the rookies!" A tall man came walking in from the side while explaining.

This man was around 190 cm tall, with a muscular build and a long scar going across his bald face. He had an overbearing air around him, which made most people feel small.

"That being said, we all can give you an invitation to let us join us!" The man suddenly smiled. "I will give you the same offer as this guy!" The man said as he was also interested in Arthur's talent.

Arthur was a little overwhelmed. Two strong guys, who were in a high place in the army, had invited him to join them. Even letting him lead a small team. He did not know how many people he would have under him as a team leader, but a leading role was already a great start for him.

"Uhm, two sirs … I am flattered, but I don't even know your names yet …!" Arthur already knew he had to join one of them, but how could he be under someone he didn't even know the name of?

"Gary!" Said the man who he had fought.

"Tim!" Said the big guy.

Arthur could not help but laugh a little inside when he heard Tim's name. He would have never thought a big guy like him would have such a timid name.

"Well, from the beginning, I wanted to join Gary … so I am sorry, Tim!" He said with a wry smile while looking at Tim.

"HAHAHA, good choice, kid! As a team leader, I will let you have ten people under you. I will let you pick them yourself from the rookies who will be joining my division!" Gary said as he laughed out loud. He was very happy with Arthur and thought that Arthur was getting more and more pleasing to the eye.

"Many thanks, commander!" He said, saluting Gary with a serious expression.

"Jasmine, come show him to an empty room in the barracks!" Gary looked to the side where a woman was standing and ordered her.

"Yes, sir!" Her expression was nervous when she was looking at Gary. She did not work under him, but she still knew the reputation of him and the force he was commanding. He was ruthless, and the force he commanded was one of the strongest this country had.

"Please follow me, sir!" She then turned to Arthur with an admiring gaze and asked him to follow her. She had never personally seen Gary pass the test, and after seeing the battle Gary and Arthur had just fought, she could not help admiring this rookie.

Arthur was led down a hallway that they could access from the battle hall they were just in. There were a lot of rooms on each side, and it seemed it was all different rooms for the soldiers.

His room was at the end of this hallway. His room number was 201, and getting inside was not big at all. There was a single bed with a window above it. A bit of cabinet space for clothes, but that was all.

"Is this the kind of room all the soldiers get?" Arthur could not help but ask. After all, this would require a huge amount of space.

"No, sir! You get your own small room since you are a small team leader! The higher your rank is, of course, the better your room will get! You are also welcome to buy your own place to stay, which is what most of the higher ranked commanders do!" She started to explain. She was a secretary in the army and would answer any question Arthur had.

"Oh, so it is like this! How do the normal soldiers live then?" Arthur was curious, as he was quite new here. He also wanted to know this, as he would be the leader of a few people. He wanted to know how they lived.

"A normal footsoldier will live with their team members, which would mean they live ten people together when they are in the army, while when they are off duty, they will have to find their own accommodation!" She answered with a small smile.

"Thank you for telling me!" Arthur smiled at her and gave her a small nod of appreciation.

"Of course, if you have anything else you want to know, you can always ask! I will take my leave now. Gary will contact you when the tests have been completed in a few days!" She said with a small smile as she saluted and left Arthur's new room.