Battle Test (2)

"Shit!"

Liam instinctively took a step back to evade the scorching assault of the initial creature approaching him, which resembled a bird featuring lengthy brown talons.

Beads of sweat dripped from his forehead as he told Thal'Korr to attack using Power Amplification right at the beginning of the fight.

The ten-foot tall, ebony-skinned, blood-red eyed demon grew visibly larger as he consumed his mana with his special power. Instantly, he raised his aura to a level higher than that of a simple Spirit at the 3-Star of the Second Realm.

It flapped its long bat wings and flew to attack the three enemies in the back.

'That... What is he doing?'

Cyrus narrowed his eyes, not understanding how Liam could order the Spirit to attack the other enemies while he was being attacked by three opponents!

'He didn't call his second Spirit either... Is he underestimating the test?'

First Officer Cyrus pondered, the corners of his lips turning up.

'Interesting.'

As Thal'Korr launched himself at the three opponents in his path, flapping his wings and moving much faster than his opponents, he swung his claws in search of their vital points.

As far as Liam could tell, his opponents today were Spirits. He didn't understand how, but they resembled Thal'Korr in many ways. And if they were Spirits, they could be injured or even killed!

Eliminating a Spirit was not as straightforward as killing a beast. In certain aspects, Spirits posed a greater challenge to eliminate compared to their independent counterparts. However, similar to their independent forms, Spirits could sustain injuries to their spiritual bodies akin to those they would experience in their independent states.

The distinction lay in the outcome for them, the impact it would have on their strength, and the process of recuperation. Simply put, in the Spirit form, it could recover at a much faster rate, whereas the same injury that could prove fatal in its animal form would only render it temporarily incapacitated in Spirit form.

However, if left untreated, the wound had the potential to worsen and ultimately result in its demise.

A lethal attack to the jugular vein, such as the one Thal'Korr had just made against a Spirit in bear form, would kill the opponent if it were a beast, or force the Spirit to withdraw from the fight if it were a Spirit.

Once he reached the bear's neck, Thal'Korr had no trouble overcoming his opponent's thick layer of skin, slicing through the flesh until he reached the Spirit's main blood conduit.

In the Spirit version, this bear would not bleed, but it would lose the mana in its Spirit body. At the moment it was struck, that being revealed a colored essence at the top of its body. A second later, it exploded like broken glass!

Liam's eyes narrowed as he dodged the attacks of the enemies rushing towards him, feeling deeply what he had just witnessed.

'Is this how a Spirit gets seriously wounded?' He asked himself with a curious look, seeing something like this for the first time.

Liam didn't quite understand the logic behind what he was seeing and feeling. But he could tell the bear had been brutally attacked and forced back into its 'master's' body or it would die. It now could not fight, but it wasn't dead.

'The Spirit Master's body is like a defensive and blessed temple for Spirits. The Spirit can cultivate inside it without restriction and recover at an sped up rate... An injury that would take a week to heal in the outside world for independent beings would take a third of the time for the Spirit version inside the Spirit Master's body.' 

As he remembered what he had learned from the books during his journey here from Violent Lake, he used his own abilities to attack for the first time in this test.

Dodging the bird again, this time pressing harder, Liam fearlessly leaped forward and attacked with his fists.

Just like Thal'Korr, Liam's muscles bulged an instant before its shadows formed small creatures the size of common hamsters.

'Fighting with his own fists?' 

All four of the Demon Gate's inner disciples wondered, seeing in Liam a courage that few would have.

Unlike Spirits, who could suffer fatal attacks and return to their masters' bodies to recover, Spirit Masters didn't have that option. If mortally wounded, Spirit Masters would bleed to death!

Spirits of the same level as Spirit Masters could threaten their life!

Liam's fist reached for the winged creature's face, and a second later, it slammed it into one wall of the room.

A small colored wound opened up on the creature's face, but Liam's attack wasn't enough to bring the opponent down in one fell swoop.

Crack!

But at that moment, Thal'Korr appeared in front of the cracked-face bird and used its weakness to take down the next enemy.

Having just defeated the second enemy before this move, Thal'Korr saw another Spirit explode into his clutches.

Liam moved, dodging the two remaining enemies pressuring him as the other two advanced against Thal'Korr.

'As expected. Fighting without Mary's help is really complicated.' The black-haired young man thought as he felt his mana dwindling, with 20 seconds of strength left before he lost his fighting state.

Thal'Korr wouldn't last much longer, either. With the thought of taking down at least two more opponents, Liam used his knowledge of martial arts by using the wall in his path, spinning his body in the air before landing a kick on the chest of a werewolf Spirit.

The creature flew several feet toward Thal'Korr, crashing into other Spirits who were fighting the Shadowfiend demon.

While outside their masters' bodies, Spirits were just as corporeal as when they were independent magical beings. They couldn't pass through things unless they had that ability as one of their special characteristics.

The moment the two Spirits collided, Thal'Korr saw the perfect situation: two enemies temporarily unable to defend themselves against him.

Liam sensed the two remaining opponents would probably gain the upper hand after the next move, but thought it worthwhile to order Thal'Korr's attack.

'Do it!'

Thal'Korr ignored his opponent attacking his back, using his elongated claws to strike the bodies of the two Spirits, slicing through them like a madman, leaving several cuts on the bodies before they exploded.

Crack!

Then two more Spirits exploded, just before Thal'Korr was destroyed by the one that attacked his back.

Liam felt a pang in his heart, and a taste of blood came into his mouth.

For a moment, his body was paralyzed, falling to the ground as a Spirit attacked him.

'Shit!'

He feared something worse, not his death, but an annoying injury that he would have to deal with right at the beginning of his journey in Demon Gate.

As the Spirit with a black scythe was about to attack him, Liam saw the creature break apart, its mana blowing against his body.

The wooden puppet fell to the ground, losing its previous position, as the door to the room unlocked.

Mary watched as she breathed a sigh of relief, having thought for a moment that it would mortally wound Liam.

"I don't know whether to admire your courage or worry about your insanity, uh, Liam Porter."

First Officer Cyrus' voice reached Liam's ears, bringing the young man back to reality.

'This is just a test. But if it were real, you would have died today.' Cyrus closed his eyes and smiled, not bothering to tell Liam. 'He will die on his first mission out of headquarters, if it doesn't happen before that.'

Shaking his head in disappointment, he recorded Liam's score. "Another 20 points for Liam Porter."

Liam left the room feeling pain all over his body, strangely wounded even though he hadn't been hit in the entire test.

Cyrus saw the doubt in Liam's eyes and said before calling the next candidate. "Your Spirit is wounded. If this is the first time you've felt like this, you'll feel pain all over your body for a few hours. As you get used to it, the pain will subside, although it won't get to where it doesn't bother you."

"That..." The other four hesitated when they heard his voice.

"Don't think too much. Newcomers to the sect have 48 hours of protection. During that time, no one, not even powerful Spirit Kings, would act against you," Cyrus said, to the relief of the five.

They felt less afraid to enter the sect wounded, so they followed the order from strongest to weakest in this second test of the promotion exam.

After 20 minutes, Mary would have defeated three opponents, while Seth would have defeated two, and Amias and Ajax, one each.

At the end of Ajax's test, Cyrus would record the Aspirant's result before announcing the ultimate test of the Promotional Exam.

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