6 Unexpected Encounter

Chapter Six: Unexpected Encounter

~ One Month Later ~

I am on my way to Guildhall as I reached B1 in Guild ranking in one month. I am now ready to give the test to see If I am eligible to go for A-Rank and S-Rank missions and dungeons without any mission request or party request.

Now the missions I did to reach B1 were like kill monsters on request either for ingredients or to kill them, so they don't disturb the peace.

{People often ask Adventurers to kill the monsters for ingredients like a particular monster's horn or skin or something like that. They either use it for trading or for some other reasons.}

I did some escort missions, and yeah, I had to escort a merchant to the Occident City in one of the escort missions. That's where my home is and my family too. Unfortunately, I couldn't meet them since I was on my escort and I had to stay outside the city for some reason.

I even did missions like capturing bandits, local thugs, and slave traders. Since all these missions were B and C rank-based, I quickly made it to B1.

For today's test, I took a whole day's rest yesterday.

I arrived at Guildhall and entered inside.

"Good morning, Ms. Olivia." I greeted Ms. Olivia, who has been helping me from day one.

"Good morning, Kei, how can I help you today?"

"Actually, today I came here to take the Guild's individual test for eligibility for the higher-ranked missions."

"Sure, I will take you there."

"Okay."

"But before that," saying that she takes out a paper from the drawer and hands it to me, saying, "Please fill this form up."

After filling up the details and submitting them, Ms. Olivia led me to the training ground, which is precisely behind the Guildhall.

"Until we reach there, let me share the details about the test."

"Hmm"

"You will fight against one of the Guild's higher-ups whose rank might either be S-Class or A-Class. The fight's duration will be five minutes, and depending upon your performance, you shall be selected…."

"…. But if you fail, you need to wait for at least one month before retaking the test. And don't worry about being a spectator. The ground has an invisible barrier set around that will keep the after-effects inside the battle area and not let it go outside."

"Hmm, Okay!" I spoke.

As she was telling me about the test, we reached the area. My name has already been submitted, and all I need to do is wait until they call my name.

"Thank you, Ms. Olivia, for your help." I thanked her.

"My pleasure, then will you later. All the best." Saying that, she left.

Now there aren't that many Adventurers, but I guess it will take some time for my name to be called. I don't think Guild would make us fight an S-Class, then it will just become an unfair fight, but again fighting against an S-Class will be the perfect opportunity for me.

They fought one by one until I heard this,

"Next, Adventurer Artemis Windsward, come forward."

When I heard this name, I had flashes of my memories from my previous life, memories with her. Tears accumulated, but I held it somehow.

Who would have thought that I would meet her here, at this place, and at this time? "Chuckles"

Artemis Windsward, a wind element user. In my previous life, she was one of the members of my group. I could never forget those days no matter what, right? Artemis?

She walked into the ground and took her stance.

Actually, I am looking forward to this fight now; as I said, we heard the sound, "Beep," and it started.

As soon as they heard the sound, Artemis dashed towards her opponent with mana covering the body, increasing her speed and all. As the distance closed, she used a Tier-2 magic, "wind-arrow."

{Wind-arrow: A arrow in the form of wind magic used for a ranged attack, Tier-2 spell.}

Her opponent is a fire element user and evades the wind arrow without using any spell. Her opponent was also covering his body with his mana. He dodged it and got into her blind spot, and used "Fireball."

{Fireball: A dense fireball with a decent speed used for all close and mid-range attacks. Tier-2 spell.}

Artemis turned, and the fireball was about to hit. She used "Zephyr's Step."

{Zephyr's Step: Used to dodge any attack and also be used to close the distance faster. Tier-2 spell.}

They both stop and now start increasing their mana usage.

This time her opponent made the first move. He closed the distance between him and her in an instant and switched to close combat.

Artemis is a wind user, which totally makes her a ranged magic user and even got the advantage over the fire element. Hence, her opponent switched to close combat using fire elements (One can use fire elements in close-range, mid-range, and long-range).

Artemis uses a "Wind barrier" within the range of one meter.

{Wind barrier: It increases wind density around the user, which makes it harder for their opponents to move in and attack. This spell works well against close combat users. Tier-3 spell.}

Meanwhile, her opponent also uses the "Fire barrier."

{Fire barrier: When using fire barrier, forms a fire type shield around the user. Tier-3 spell}

Now, both had their Tier-3 spell activated and are fighting in close combat. Artemis uses "Wind-slash" on her opponent and tries making a mid-range distance using "Wind-step."

{Wind-slash: A slash of wind enough to bleed someone. Tier-2 spell.

Wind-step: An upgraded version of Zephyr's step. Tier-3 spell}

Thirty seconds remaining.

Artemis using the "Wind step," now create a distance among them. She releases her wind magic and mana around her body, making the wind blow throughout the training ground. She makes a bow using her wind magic and then uses the "Wind-arrow" as its arrow for the bow.

Her opponent didn't faze a little and stood there watching her do it.

She uses "Wind-storm" on the bow with a wind arrow upon those combined attacks.

{Wind-storm: It creates an intense storm of wind, lasting for a few seconds. Tier-4 spell.}

She fires it. "Swoosh."

The "wind-arrow" was covered with a "wind-storm," which is a strong barrier for the wind arrow. That means even if the wind-storm is defeated, the wind-arrow will still work. And upon that, due to combined attack, the "Wind-arrow" now acts like a Tier-4 attack spell.

As the attack closes in, her opponent stretches his hand towards the attack. He smiles with enjoyment and uses "Fire wave emission." An intense wave of fire wave was moving towards that combined attack.

Both the attack clashed and,

The whole training ground's air pressure increases, and the breathing becomes hard. After both the attack clashed, the fire wave literally started devouring the combined attack and "fwoosh." It nullified the combined attack.

The bell rings, and the fight concludes.

Sad that it's over. I think I didn't even blink throughout their fight. This fight is the perfect example of how one should use magic. Like when Artemis first used "Wind-arrow," it was a Tier-2 spell, but she later used the same spell as Tier-3 and, in the end, boosted it to Tier-4 just by combining the spells. In short, one should also know how to use low Tier spells efficiently.

And If I have to talk about her opponent, he is just way too experienced, that's all and of course strong as well. The difference was about the experience how but? Like in the end, when Artemis used that combined attack, to be honest, that was more than enough to defeat C-Class and, in some cases, even B-Class. But in this case, her opponent was experienced not only in fighting but in terms of using elemental magic.

Elements are nothing but part of nature, which is also in the form of magic. Each element is weak to something, right? Wind can easily defeat fire, but sometimes as per nature's rule, you could say, fire needs oxygen. But wind, when used in magic, doesn't carry oxygen. But in that last especially when used the wind-storm, it created a strong, intense wind that acted as vacuum and affected the wind with oxygen present in the surrounding and was sucked in making another wall around that attack with oxygen. So, when the Fire wave emission clashed, it helped the fire gain more oxygen and power it up, devouring the combined attack spell.

It was fun watching this fight; all the fights before were kind of boring though I shouldn't say this, but….

And even I wanted to talk to Artemis, but I guess I won't be. Well, out of nowhere, if I go and act friendly, it might be creepy and knowing her, I know how she is going to act.

Well in my case I will meet her soon, so I don't have to worry about it.