Jade Reinhelm

The audience immediately went crazy.

"I missed his move!"

"Did he just disappeared?"

"An attack right after it begins, ha!"

"Is he a warrior?"

Vince have no time to pay attention to the audience. Earlier, he subconsciously used Enhance on his legs to move away.

His heart was beating so fast. 'Why did I want to fight? I'm a priest! Sir God of Death, please bless me. Ah, no! Don't bless me. I don't want to die.'

He felt like crying without tears.

As Vince was currently regretting his decision, his opponent stared at him intensely. This person's name is Jade Reinhelm.

He was observing Vince. Although, he looked nonchalant as if he wasn't surprised by what happened, he was actually a little shock. He never expected Vince to dodge that surprise attack.

'How did he dodge? His legs seemed to bulge earlier? I wasn't sure. I only saw a black light enveloped his legs, then he dashed away almost the instant I attacked him.'

Interesting... His eyes were shining brightly in excitement.

Vince felt a chill on his back. He have an ominous feeling. He observed his opponent, trying to guess his next move. He was on guard and his body is tense.

Jade took one look and knew that it was impossible to do another sneak attack. So he took out his dual daggers from his inventory.

This action alerted Vince. 'Daggers? He's either an assassin or a thief-'

Then in a flash, a dagger was right on his face. He hurriedly dodged to the side but it was too late, his cheek were grazed by the blade of the daggers, blood dripped from it.

After catching him off guard, Jade followed up another attack using the other dagger. His movement were smooth and every attack was deadly. This time the dagger went for the heart.

However. it was at that moment—

Bzzzt— Crackle—

Boom—!

Jade's body contorted in pain after being hit by a lightning. His clothes were turned into charcoal black and his skin were slightly burned. HIS body fell to the ground, he was on his knees with a lost expression on his face.

His body was paralyzed and he couldn't move an inch at all. 'This son of a bitch is a mage!' He didn't expect that at all.

Vince who was still in a state of panic after seeing his life flashed in front of him, immediately followed another attack.

He already got a feel of how to use it. So this time, he condensed the lightning in his palm, forming a sphere-like shape. It crackles without a stop and roared as it flashed towards Jade's direction.

A flash of light blinded the audience. Even Vince wasn't able to see anything from the light.

Boom— Crash—

A crater appeared on his opponents previous location, as if a meteor strucked this place.

The audience couldn't see anything for a moment due to the dust.

"What happened?"

"Did the mage won?"

"Fuck! I should've bet my money on that kid!"

"My money!"

They soon heard the announcement.

"The match is over. The winner, Player 089. Congratulations."

"What?!"

At the same time, the dust cleared up and the audience was able to see what really happened after.

Jade was nowhere to be found inside the crater. Instead, he was behind Vince, with one hand holding a dagger against Vince's neck while the other dagger was positioned on the back of his chest.

Vince felt like crying after feeling the sharp blade against his neck and heart. 'How can he even move this past? It's like he's teleporting!' He complained in his heart.

Although scary, the blade never reached him and was at least a centimeter away from his body. This proved that his opponent had no plans on killing him.

It was deemed as his victory as Vince was cornered and he was raising both of his hand in the air, surrendering. He didn't have any energy anymore to attack.

He lost.

The audience roared and completely went crazy at the turn of events. It's so exciting to watch this duel. At first, they thought Jade could easily win after that surprise attack. But then Vince counterattack, they thought he's gonna win after he cornered Jade. But in the end, Jade actually won!

"Players, please leave the stage immediately. If you have any injuries, the staffs will escort you."

-

Vince were inside the medical room of the Mercenary Guild. He was escorted here by the nice lady that guided him from the start.

The receptionist saw his sad expression and gave some comforting words. "Your fight earlier was good. You almost won."

'Yeah, almost.' He pouted and fidget with his hand, sulking on the bed.

In the end, she just left while smiling awkwardly. "Then I'll go now. Get your wounds treated." Then she left the room, closing it behind her.

Vince sighed. Actually, he wasn't that sad. Just at lost because he wouldn't be able to join the Mercenary Guild. He sighed once again then decided to heal himself.

At the exact moment, the door was harshly opened with a bang, surprising him.

He raised his head and met the culprit's gaze.

"..." It was his opponent earlier.

Jade was speechless. He didn't expect someone to be here and it was even his previous opponent.

But something caught his eyes. He was shocked to see the black energy coming from Vince, it enveloped his wounds and watched as the graze in his cheek, healed in a second.

There was nothing surprising to see it healed since the wound around his body was light and Vince wouldn't be affected by such things. The thing that shocked him the most, was the energy coming from Vince.

'Divine energy!' It didn't take even a second for him to recognized that energy. "You're a fucking priest?!"

Gasp.

Vince jumped out of bed with an exaggerated gasp. "How did you know?!" he asked in panic but soon realized he made a mistake again and hurriedly covered his mouth.

Jade noticed his reaction and closed the door behind them, locking it. He walked over the other who was so scared, he turned silly.

"You just used divine energy! I can feel it!" he harshly whispered.

Vince didn't know what to do. 'W-Will he tell the authorities about it? I just used a mage's skill but I can also ised divine energy! No wait, he didn't know about my license. Amd the skill earlier could be a skill given by the God I served...'

When he thought of that, a silly smile appeared in his face. As if saying, 'Hmph! I'm not afraid of you anymore. You didn't know my secret!'

His expression made Jade's mouth twitched. Blankly looking at his face, he couldn't help but wonder. 'I can't believe I almost lost to this guy.'

He sighed before plopping on the bed, laying on his back.

"Whatever. I wouldn't pry about your secrets. They're not worthy of my time," he assured the youth, closing his eyes, his body was completely relax.

Vince heard this and giggled. 'He didn't seem to be a bad person.' He thought to himself before lying beside him.

The room was engulfed in silence but it wasn't awkward at all. Instead, it was a comfortable and warm moment for both of them. The scene was oddly harmonious.

"My name is Vince Stade. You are?" he took the initiative to introduce himself.

The other scoffed. "And why should I tell you my name?" he asked with a hint of mocking in his voice.

"And why shouldn't you?" Vince blinked his eyes innocently.

Jade heard the innocent question and his mouth twitched once again. He opened his eyes to look at the young man beside him.

In the end, after meeting such untainted eyes, he just sighed, "Whatever. It's Jade. Jade Reinhelm."

Vince nodded before he flashed a small smile. 'I felt like I've made a lot of friends today.'

Yes. He was already considering Jade as his friend even though the other only said his name.

"The skill that I used to flash behind you earlier is called, Shadow Jump. I'm not an assasin or a thief. The skill was given to me by a God because he was satisfied with my battle against a monster," Jade suddenly said, surprising him.

"Why are you saying this to me...?" he asked, at lost on what to say.

Jade avoided his gaze. "Well, it's unfair to you if I know your secret but you don't know mine." his mumbled in a low voice but Vince could still hear it.

Vince's eyes widened in surprised as his gaze shone brightly. He felt warm all over.

Jade couldn't see his reaction and his ears were red from embarrassment. He turned towards him and asked in a loud voice. "What?! Why aren't you saying anything?!"

Vince didn't mind his aggressiveness as he felt that Jade might be a tsundere. He was about to answer when they heard a knock on the door.

"Who's that?!"

"Come in!"

The two went silent after hearing the opposite reaction from each other. The doorknob was twisted as it slowly opened, revealing a Mercenary Guild member.

"Are you two Jade Reinhelm and Vince Stade?" he asked.

The two looked at each other for a second, before nodding their head at the same time.

"Congratulations. Both of you passed the test."

-