73: Balar Rank Exam (Patreon)

“There will be two parts to this test,” the helmed warrior said as he took up his position ten paces away from Vir. “First, we shall duel without the use of our Talents, magic, or any other special abilities.”

“And the second round’s a free for all?” Vir guessed.

“Exactly,” the warrior replied. “In both rounds, we’ll fight to first blood or surrender. Life-threatening wounds and fatal wounds are not permitted. Are there any questions?”

Vir shook his head. “No questions, but I’d like to shake your hand before we start. I mean, if you're amenable. As a gesture of good will.”

“Oho! We’ve got an honorable one, do we? As you wish,” the warrior said, removing his gauntlet and approaching Vir. He kept his helmet on. The man hadn’t even offered his name.

The Brotherhood wasn’t joking about their dedication to secrecy…

Vir similarly removed his black half finger cutoffs, and shook the man’s hand, taking a very good look at him… with Prana Vision.

The man’s armor interfered somewhat with his ability, but unlike the princess, his opponent lacked magically enchanted armor. The colors were slightly dimmer, and Vir had to be closer to learn what affinities the man had, but it wasn’t impossible.

Strong Earth prana, but diluted with a smattering of other trace affinities. Not a mejai, then, Vir thought. He’s got Talents, and some strong ones, too.

The denser someone’s prana was, the more brightly it shone to Vir’s senses. With his armor, it should have appeared less bright, which cued Vir as to the man’s true strength.

“Alright then, here’s to a good fight,” the warrior said, retaking his position. He pointed to the racks of weapons at the edge of the arena. “You are free to use any of the weapons we have here, or you may use your own. I’ll be using this talwar and shield.”

“I’m good,” Vir replied. “I’ve got my katar, chakris, and chakrams.”

“A katar and chakrams, eh? Interesting choice. So be it.”

Riyan had Vir train with a variety of weapons, both on the obstacle course and in duels, but Vir had never been as proficient in those as he was with the katar.

Despite it being a poor choice against poleaxes and other weapons with reach, katars simply came naturally to him. Besides, he’d learned that longer weapons fared poorly once inside their ideal range. His style was all about speed and mobility, and katars fit that ethos perfectly.

“Fight!” barked the Kin’jali proctor, backing away to give the combatants room.

Neither Vir nor his opponent made any sudden moves. If Talents had been allowed, Vir would’ve closed the distance in an instant with Leap to gain the element of surprise. Without them, he had to be more careful.

The two enemies circled around the arena, keeping ten paces between them, their eyes looking for any small twitch that might give away an impending attack.

Vir used the time to gauge his opponent. The shield posed an issue for his weapons. He’d need Empower  to break through that defense, and even if Talents were allowed, he’d only mastered that ability in his legs.

Which means I’ll have to slip around him. If I can take his back and then bring the fight to the ground, I’ll have the advantage.

The warrior made the first move. Seamlessly switching from caution to aggression, he charged Vir, opening with an overhand talwar strike.

Vir dodged the blade—barely.

He’s fast!

With the armor and his build, Vir hadn’t expected such mobility.

Even so, it wasn’t anything Vir couldn’t match. He moved like water, flowing around the bigger man.

The man fell into a flurry of strikes, tactically using his shield to prevent Vir from exploiting any opening, keeping him on the defensive.

Realizing he’d lose if he let the pressure continue, Vir leveraged his agility to balance the scales, ducking and dodging around the man. His opponent wasn’t quite as skilled as Riyan, but he wielded an advantage that negated those weaknesses: his shield, and the skills to go with it.

Vir flitted around the man like a bird, but the shield was there every time, blocking his every attack. He attacked high, he swiped low with his legs, deploying his toe blade. But the man either defended or stepped away to safety.

Feinting with his katar, Vir threw a chakri at point blank range, forcing his opponent to raise the shield in defense.

Gotcha.

Vir snaked under the shield and swept his katar upward.

To no effect; the man’s brigandine negated any damage.

An armored knee forced him to block, pushing him away. The shield returned, resetting the fight.

With throbbing arms, he gazed at his opponent. Vir had always struggled against armor—his answer had been to rely on Talents, specifically micro-Leap and Empower, but those tools weren’t available to him right now.

If he was going to win this, he needed a better strategy. What’s more, he’d have to use every trick he knew to score highly.

So he switched things up. It’d be a risky play, but if he didn’t give this everything he had, he’d rank poorly, and that was unacceptable.

They reengaged, the clang of metal resonating through the still night air. Vir’s breath grew ragged, his form sloppier.

Each time the man attacked, Vir dodged, neglecting to parry, escaping by a hair’s breadth. With each dodge, the man’s talwar came closer and closer to nicking his flesh.

Vir’s haphazard katar strikes against the man’s shield only emboldened his opponent, who grew aggressive, paying less and less attention to his own defense.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

A dozen times, Vir was forced to block the man’s unrelenting series of attacks.

Does this guy have unending stamina, or what?

But Vir wasn’t waiting for the warrior to tire.

Just a little more.

With a roar, the man attacked Vir with his most powerful strike yet—a vicious downward slash.

This time, Vir neither dodged nor parried. He used an old trick—dirt. He threw a fistful at his opponent’s help, distracting the man for a split-second.

With explosive force, he jumped right at the man, arresting his attack. Vir wrenched his shield aside and tackled him, sending them both to the ground.

They crashed into the dirt, locked together in a tangle of limbs. While the warrior was winded, Vir was ready.

He threw his weight on the man, weaving his legs into his opponents’, binding them in place.

Vir brought his katar to bear, but seeing his plan, his opponent grabbed his arm, trying to hold the katar away from his neck.

The man’s two arms overpowered Vir’s one, but Vir had an advantage his opponent lacked. Leverage.

Bracing the hilt of his katar against his chest, Vir leaned forward, driving the blade down. Down to the man’s neck.

Inch by inch, he gained ground. The man’s desperation grew. He kicked with his legs, he struggled with his arms. His actions became more haphazard.

The katar slipped into the gap between the man’s helm and cuirass.

“My loss,” he said immediately, ceasing his resistance. “Were this a real fight, I’d be dead. I yield.”

Vir immediately rolled off of the man and offered him an arm up, which he gladly took.

“You say that, but you were holding back, weren’t you?”

Vir couldn’t see the man’s face from behind his helm, but he thought he sensed a grin. “My job is to test you, not to beat you down.”

“Well done,” the Kin’jali proctor rasped, suddenly appearing between the two combatants. He spoke in a low baritone almost as boomy as Riyan’s.

That wasn’t Leap… Must’ve been Blink, Vir sensed. To this day, he’d been unable to learn that Talent. After endless hours of experimentation, he’d concluded that it simply required more Ash prana than was available.

Ash prana was more potent than the other affinities, but that advantage only went so far. He’d learned that several Talents were simply impossible without more prana, and Blink was one such.

“Many newer warriors are often overeager, leaping at their enemy with misplaced courage. Not you. You began by scoping your enemy. Then, when pressured, you pretended to give ground, luring your opponent into a trap. Not to mention that trick with the dirt. This was an excellent application of the element of surprise.”

“Does that factor into my ranking?” Vir asked.

“Absolutely. Physical prowess is but one element of combat power. Wit, cunning, tactics, and strategy are all equally—if not more—important. Many warriors boast a superior Balar Rank to those more physically capable than them. Mejai are a prime example. Without their magic, they often rely on their cunning and wit to keep themselves safe.”

Vir thought of Maiya, hurling her Ember spell at him as a show of brute force. Sounds like she has a way to go…

“Well fought, Apramor,” the warrior said, casually brushing off his armor.

Knew it.

He’d felt it during the battle, but the man’s had felt restrained. Even his movement speed seemed to come with a slight delay. An artificial delay. Vir wondered what his opponent’s Balar Rank was. He guessed the man was merely playing a role, matching his own skills to Vir’s level.

“Now, we move onto the unrestricted portion of the exam. I don’t know if you can use magic or Talents. Similarly, you know nothing of my abilities either, so we are on equal footing.”

Except, not really, Vir thought with a smirk. He already knew there would be no magic hurled his way. The man was a Talent user. While Prana Vision might not have the same direct combat applications as his other abilities, it was by far the most useful of them all.

For this round, they faced off thirty paces away. Both Talent wielders and mejai gained from more distance. Introducing these abilities completely changed the way the duel would be fought, and their starting distance reflected that.

This time, there would be no scoping the enemy out. Vir would move in right away, hurling everything he had. Because while he knew the opponent wielded Talents, he couldn’t tell which Talents he had. And some of them could end a fight in an instant. Riyan had spoken of metaphysical blades that could travel through the air, slicing enemies apart, or even warriors who could cause localized earthquakes.

His opponent’s prana signature made any of those unlikely, but Vir knew his enemy had more up his sleeve than he let on. The issue this time was that Vir had to show off all of his Talents in a way that synergized and harmonized them with his physical capabilities. All while fighting off his opponent.

He’d never be able to do that if he let his enemy dictate the flow of the fight.

Vir pressed his hands upon the ground in anticipation, sucking Ash affinity prana into both arms and both legs.

“Fight!”

Vir and his opponent acted simultaneously. Vir shot forth with Leap, closing the distance in an instant, while the man… roared. But this was no ordinary roar. It reverberated through the air, slamming into Vir’s chest with the force of a great drum as a torrent of prana rushed into his enemy.

Then it passed, seemingly having done nothing… Vir used the opportunity to touch the ground. An Empowered katar slammed into the man’s armor. A normal katar strike wouldn’t have done anything against Brigandine, but an Empowered one? Vir was sure it’d at least have thrown the man off balance.

And yet, it was Vir who was sent reeling as the shock of impact shook his very bones. As if he’d taken the force of his own blow.

Prana Vision showed what had happened—the warrior had flooded every inch of his body with Earth Affinity prana. Like Toughen, but which affected his entire body, making him far sturdier.

Bulwark. Riyan had mentioned it offhand once. Another Talent that consumed an enormous amount of prana.

Vir processed all of this in the split second after his attack was nullified.

He immediately followed up with an Empowered toe blade, but the man’s shield was to meet him. Blow after blow, they fought, neither side gaining an advantage; a stalemate.

But Vir knew well who would win a battle of attrition. His opponent had an ocean of prana to draw from. Vir did not.

Slowly, Vir lost ground, being pushed closer and closer to the tree that reigned at the center of the arena.

It was just a split-second. The barest distraction, but his opponent took it. When Vir looked behind him to avoid hitting the tree, the warrior pummeled him with an Empowered punch.

Vir flew back at tremendous speed. Right at the tree.

His ribcage shuddered, and suddenly he couldn’t breathe.

But instead of crashing into the tree, he disappeared into its shadow. If he couldn’t breathe, he might as well flee to a realm where he didn’t have to.

Vir used up five seconds to regain his composure. Then he looked at the warrior, arm still extended.

Bet you weren’t expecting this!

Vir jumped out from the man’s shadow behind him, Leaping as he emerged. His Empowered katar struck the back of the man’s helm with immense force, disorienting the man for a split second.

Vir launched into a flurry of attacks, trying to slip his blade into a gap in the man’s armor. But in combat, such feats were easier said than done.

His opponent turned, and they were back to square one, trading blow for blow.

While micro Leap allowed Vir to bypass the previously tricky shield, he still couldn’t do damage. His hacked together Empower might have given him the strength and speed to bypass normal armor, but against Bulwark, Vir’s attacks had no effect at all.

Let’s change the game.

To win this, he needed something more. He needed one of the tricks up his sleeve. Tricks he’d spent the past many months honing to perfection.

He’d already shown his trump card, but there was another element to Dance. His opponent had no inkling about. A property that, when properly leveraged, would allow Vir to win with ease.

He charged Dance, sucking prana from his feet into his legs… but this time, he deferred its activation.

The warrior swiped at Vir’s legs with a speed he hadn’t seen from the man before, forcing Vir to jump. But his jump wasn’t an ordinary one. It was a High Jump. Ordinarily a terrible move to use during combat, but this time was a little different.

He threw out a chakram, preventing his opponent from striking him. Aided by gravity, the disk hurtled silently through the air, but the man somehow dodged.

Leap? Or Haste? he wondered as he sailed high into the air.

Vir lobbed chakram and chakri one after another as they fell, but each missed their mark.

Haste, then. And possibly Preternatural Grace as well. Both Talents would prove problematic if his ploy didn’t work.

Better make it work, then, Vir thought as he reached the apex of his jump, hanging for a moment before falling back to the earth.

He took a deep breath as he picked up speed, hurtling downward.

It had taken him an enormous amount of pain and grit to perfect this move, and even now, it gave him the jitters. He’d nearly broken his neck more than a few times, requiring Riyan’s immediate aid.

The ground rushed up closer and closer. Vir forced himself to keep his eyes open—timing was everything for this move. Even a slight miscalculation would end in a painful fall.

His opponent braced for Vir’s impending attack.

Vir straightened his legs and, leveraging the prana he’d sucked into his body earlier, disappeared into the ground.

Dance of the Shadow Demon activated a split second before the force wrecked his body, welcoming him again into the Shadow Realm.

From deep within the time-frozen shadows, he regained his composure, taking his time to select the perfect exit.

Vir had spent a great deal of time experimenting with Dance of the Shadow Demon. In that time, he’d learned that the ability was far more versatile than he’d initially thought. He’d learned that whatever momentum he carried into the shadow… came out with him when he left it.

The uses of such an ability were myriad, but here, it allowed him to attack with a level of force no armor could resist. When matched with the inherent thrusting strength of the katar, even the gods couldn’t have created a more ideal pairing.

Vir leaped from his opponent’s shadow, thrusting upward with the full force of his falling momentum behind him… and drove his blade right into the armor protecting the man’s crotch.

He held back, of course, deflecting the blade such that it didn’t pierce through, but even then, the man was sent hurtling upward.

While his opponent sailed, Vir charged Leap.

He met his enemy in the air, driving his katar into the man’s breastplate. Again, he held back, opting to undercharge the Talent.

So, instead of penetrating the man’s armor, Vir’s attack sent the man sprawling onto the ground.

Not sprawling, Vir observed. Whether intentional or instinctual, the man’s true abilities manifested for an instant as he rolled to dissipate the impact.

But Vir was on him before he could recover. He charged into the man just as he righted himself, taking them both to the ground in a repeat of their previous duel.

Vir slid his katar through his opponent’s eye slit.

“I yield,” the man sputtered, winded.

Silence stretched between them until it was broken by the Kin’jal proctor.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

“Now that is a performance I’ve not seen in a long time,” said the Kin’jali proctor. “You do realize that one does not generally best their opponent in a Balarian Ranking exam, yes?”

“No,” Vir said, “he held back.”

“And of course he did! What candidate could hope to best a Balar 150 warrior? His task was to match your abilities, then push you slightly to test your limits. You should know that it is rare for these duels to result in a stalemate, let alone a loss for the proctor!”

“O-oh,” Vir replied as he sat back, letting the adrenaline wash over him. Yesss!

“Now,” the proctor said with a grin, his eyes dancing with the reflected light of the Magic Candles, “let us discuss your performance.”