Chapter 22 Combat Assessment

The Imperial Mages had arranged 12 stages for the assessment. Cao Guang, Gao Xuan and Song Xia all had a battle in the beginning.

Each battle had a time limit of 5minutes as well. Winning or losing were not important but the examinees had to show their skill.

Cao Guang was faced up against Zu Mingli an Advanced mage. His opponent would only use intermediate spell or lower. His job was break his opponents defences.

Cao Guang took his position at the south end of the stage. As soon as the judge indicated the start of the match, he cast his most used spell and summouned Fenrir.

A/n: For anyone who's feeling confused. Cao Guang's opponent is the judge and the judge declared the start and end of a match as well.

For the advantage of the examinees their opponents would not be allowed to know their information before the fight.

Fenrir rushed out to fight and charged towards his opponent in a straight line while Cao Guang prepared his spell.

"To the right"

Fenrir quickly did a feint as a spell emerged towards the judge from the direction he was running.

Greater Fire Burst

The judge prepared his spell and defended against both the spell and the beast at the same time. 

Rock Barrier Stone Ridges 

Pieces of earth flew up from the ground and formed a wall in front of the judge. Cao Guang's spell lacked any form of thrust infront of the judge and dissipated quickly. But Fenrir emerged towards the rock and smashed it completely.

Cao Guang had passed the level.

Song Xia and Gao Xuan had passed it too. The entirety of the first round would only take half an hour. It made sense all Imperial Mages were Advanced mages they would not spend more than a few hours on assessing juniors.

In the second round they would face the same opponent but their opponent would use their spirit grade seeds as well.

Cao Guang quickly greeted his opponent again and cast his spell Summoning a massive fire stream that flew to judge's defensive barrier. 

But didn' managed to break it this time. He cast a new spell that he was looking forward to fore some time as Fenrir kept the judge busy. 

Fiery Fist Exploding Heavens

Cao Guang slapped his hand on the ground and a geyser of Fire emerged below the judge nullifying his defences. 

He had won again. 

Song Xia had failed in her attempt while Gao Xuan had passed. It was obvious if one thought about it. Although Gao Xuan lacked Song Xia's or Cao Guang's belligerence or ruthlessness, his skills were the real deal.

His talent allowed him a spirit grade seed and it's control. While Song Xia's second element was not all that useful right now. These tests weren't designed to have a lot of passers even in the first round. 

Without an innate talent or Soul seed it was not actually possible to pass the first round in reality. 

The third round was still against the same opponent but the judges weren't limited to their roles of defending or attacking. A normal fight the judge would still be restricted to the intermediate spells but couldn't use Soul grade seeds.

Zu Mingli was rather impressed with this applicant not only did the guy reach intermediate level but he also could use his secondary element to summon a Advancing stage Servant. This placed the guy among the top anyway.

In fact rather than calling it a Sergeants exam, it may be more accurate to call it a path to becoming a Sergeant but then again only first tier cities could offer this level of grooming to even Sergeants.

Cao Guang and Zu Mingli took their positions.

This time around Zu Mingli opened the match by blasting off on a trail of wind towards Cao Guang and a swath of lightning was fired from his hands towards Cao Guang.

Cao Guang lacked any real experience with or against the lightning element. He could only dodge by jumping on Fenrir.

Earth Wave Delay

Zu Mingli cast his next spell and Fenrir was held up in the swampy ground for a second. Cao Guang had no chance other than to seperate from him while releasing his prepared spell.

Fiery Fist Exploding Heavens

Fire broke out from the ground and stopped Zu Mingli from advancing forward towards Fenrir, leaving him time and space to delay Zu Mingli but the fight was not efficient for Cao Guang his opponent had casted two primary spells and forced him to use an intermediate spells. 

Yep it's true these assessments are designed to be passed at all.

Cao Guang reassessed his situation thanks to Fenrir. But Fenrir couldn't keep Zu Mingli any longer. The guy rode on a stream of wind and approached him and was about to end the match when Cao Guang seemed to have caught fire.

A fire mage's spell won't hurt themselves right?

Zu Mingli was bit uncertain about the situation but decided that the match had to end even more now. As prepared to place his arm infront of Cao Guang's neck.

Cao Guang seemingly came back from the dead and smacked his arm on the ground yet nothing seemed to happen beneath Zu Mingli. A fiery fist hit the guy from behind him, but before it could make contact with him his equipment had activated and protected himself.

Some expensive equipment were designed to activate in the presence of danger. Cao Guang had realised that Zu Mingli was a member of the Zu family, he also seemed young and was part of the Imperial Mages. Odds were this guy had such an equipment on him.

And this was Cao Guang's only avenue to victory. Thankfully Soul grade seeds were not allowed and Intermediate spell of Earth did not have mobile properties like the Light spell without extreme control. 

He had used these facts to his advantage and Flame Belle's control over the flames to draw out a Fiery Fist from a different location, catching the unsuspecting guy off guard.

"Your good" Zu Mingli stated plainly because of his embarrassment.

"Your good, you pass" said the judge again calming himself down and appreciating Cao Guang's wit and talent.

" Consider me a sore loser, but I hope to fight you again" he said while leaving. 

---

The combat assessments for this exam had come to and end and the Imperial Mages submitted their reports to the military combat instructor Fei Jiao on his latest batch.

Cao Guang was the only who gained Master Sergeant rank off the bat, even Gao Xuan had failed not only third round but also his written exams. Song Xia would become a Sergeant while Gao could become a Senior Sergeant as long as he managed to pass the written exam. But that was all the purview of the combat instructor and had nothing to do with the Imperial Mages who were happy to be done with that chore.

"Brother Zu, I didn't know you had gone soft. Letting one pass like that" mocked one of his fellows.

"Go on mock, but there was something different about that guy, I didn't think he would have such an exceptional Spirit grade flame. I wonder which family he is from" replied Zu Mingli hiding his embarrassment. 

"Did he catch your interest?" asked Ren Meihui another of his teammates.