Advanced Training Center.

There was only one word that could describe the Advanced Training Center. It was a battlefield.

The Advanced Training Center was located in a gigantic canyon, which went from the mountain chain in the middle of the continent all the way to the ocean, a total distance of hundreds of kilometers. The canyon itself had a width that went from about fifty meters to half a kilometer at its widest point. The walls of the canyon started about ten meters height near the ocean, before reaching a height of 500 meters near the middle point, where the height started to diminish again.

The air was dry, filled with eroded soil from the violent periodic winds that ensured no life could grow at the bottom of the canyon. Kiro had actually climbed down several kilometers away and had walked until he reached the training center, which was located at the deepest and widest point of the canyon. Unlike the other training centers, it didn't even have a building. It was just a series of tents dressed near one of the walls of the canyon. The only way he was able to recognize it as a training center was the flag that one of the tents boasted, a perfect replica of the sword ensign he had seen at the Basic Training Center all those years ago.

The walls weren't smooth. Sometime in the past, something, probably an earthquake, had caused them to partially collapse in several places, which created a multitude of uneven slopes that led midway or even completely out of the canyon.

On these slopes, war was being waged.

Well… either that, or some extreme version of king of the hill.

On the bottom of the hills and climbing up were golems that closely resembled the ones Kiro had encountered in the Intermediate Training Centers.

On top of the hills were numerous humanoid shaped creatures, except they were several times taller and bulkier, as well as made out of rock. They were throwing stones downhill at the golems, causing miny avalanches that swallowed two or three golems at a time. Then, the golems would pick up the rocks and throw them right back up at the creatures, an impressive physical feat, as the rocks would fly up a few hundred meters, which nonetheless created an infinite loop, since the creatures would throw the stones back down, and etc, and etc…

(*Note: the hills are basically humongous piles of rocks and other debris leaning against the wall of the canyon. The top is relatively flat. The earth elementals are gathered there and throw rocks down the hill, which dislodges other rocks and debris to form small avalanches that trip and push the golems down and drags them back to the bottom of the hill)

In the Advanced Training Center, or camp, or whatever, there stood a woman who seemed to be intently staring at the battle being waged. Kiro made his way to her. She was taller than him, about 1.80 m tall, had dirty shoulder-length blond hair and tanned skin. She was wearing some kind of leather armor and had a short sword at her hip.

Kiro didn't want to disturb her concentration, so he stood silently beside her and also started looking at the battle.

It became apparent to him that instead of a single battle, it was more like 8 little wars going on simultaneously. The golems were surrounding 8 hills on which the creatures stood. 3 on this side and the 5 others on the opposite wall of the canyon.

The woman finally turned her attention towards him: "You must be the stranger known as Kiro, right? Don't look so surprised. As far as I know, you are still the only stranger that has completed the Intermediate Training Center, so your name is well known to the masters of the Advanced Training Centers, which I am. My name is Master Fabridzia."

"It's a pleasure to meet you." He replied. He had been wearing the ring he had gotten at the Intermediate Training Center, but it seemed that it was unnecessary.

"Likewise. Now, I assume you are here to pass the Advanced Trial, right?" Seeing his nod, she continued: "As you can see, the Training Center is in no state to conduct a trial, with the war going on and all, but at the same time, this is a golden opportunity."

He looked at her, not comprehending what she was getting at.

"I've hated these boring tests we do, where we allow people to just try and try again until they succeed. It's ridiculous!" She started ranting. "I agree that those who come to us much show great determination and perseverance, but the world isn't as kind as to allow people to try over and over again. In the heat of battle, you have only one chance. I have always thought that these trials should be the same."

Once again, Kiro chose to remain silent. Master Fabridzia clearly had a lot to say on the topic.

"As I have said, right now we are presented with a wonderful opportunity. As you can see, the facilities of this training center are inoperable. But despite this, I will still give you the opportunity to past the advanced Trial. Your task will be very simple." She gave a wide smile. "Win my war."

*****

After that rather unclear statement, Kiro was thankful that she began to explain how the situation became how it is now.

Several months ago, an army of earth elementals invaded the canyon. Where they had come from was unknown.

Attacking at night, they had almost taken the Advanced Training Center by surprise. Fortunately, Master Fabridzia had spotted them while doing a midnight stroll. She quickly summoned the golems under her command (the golems were part of the normal Advanced Trial) and fought off the invaders. After several hours of battle, the survivors had retreated to the safety of the hilltops, a defensive position which they held even now.

Master Fabridzia had used her golems to encircle the hills, to make sure the earth elementals couldn't run off to cause havoc somewhere else. Arriving at the present stalemate.

"This is where you come in." Master Fabridzia explained. "Your job will be to assist my golems and break the stalemate. Every earth elemental must be killed. The surrounding villages are populated by low-leveled villagers. Even a single rogue elemental is a terrible threat to their safety. Fortunately for us, the technique that I was to teach you at this center is very effective against these elementals. Using it, you will be able to tip the scale in our favor."

"If the technique you will teach me is so effective, why is it that you weren't able to defeat them before? I doubt my presence will make a difference if yours didn't, Master Fabridzia."

"If I were free to act, it would be a simple matter for me to deal with them. But unfortunately, I cannot act freely. The golems I use are extremely dumb creatures." She gestured towards the battlefield. "They can only follow simple commands: attack, throw rocks, defend this place, things like that. If I'm not directly controlling them, they get decimated very quickly. That's why I'm stuck here every day, replacing the golems that are destroyed during the night, and trying to control the rest of them so that they don't die so easily. But even I can't control so many golems at one time, which is why this problem has persisted."

Kiro now understood Master Fabridzia's predicament. She couldn't let the elementals escape, so she had no choice but to lead the golems in a relentless assault on their positions. But because the golems were extremely dumb, whenever she took a rest, or in other words, during the night, the golems would suffer huge casualties. So every day she had to replenish her troops (using an artifact that resembled a carpet, with a summoning circle inscribed in the middle, from which 5 golems would span at regular intervals as the Master fed it mana), while directing the rest of her forces to preserve them as much as possible.

But that wasn't a winning strategy, the most she could do was preserve the stalemate. Which was why she wanted his help. And of course he would give it.

"Very well, Master Fabridzia, I will do my best to help you win this war."

"Are you sure? If you give up, die or cause me to lose, I will consider that you have failed my trial and you will not be given another chance. Knowing this, do you still want to try?"

"Yes."

Ding!

You have decided to take part in a war: The Battle for Krisar Canyon!

This battle is being waged between the forces of the Advanced Training Center and an army of rogue elementals.

You have joined on the side of the Advanced Training Center.

The Battle for Krisar Canyon!

A fierce battle for the control of the Krisar Canyon.

Allies

Master Fabridzia (leader)

4543 Reinforced Golems Enemies

??? Earth Elementals

??

Conditions for victory

-Defeat and destruction of every enemy

Conditions for defeat

-Death of Master Fabridzia

-Successful escape of the rogue elementals.

"Why is there almost no information on the enemies?" Kiro asked.

"Because we know little about them. They attacked in the middle of the night then spend all their time holed up on their hilltop. So the real number of the enemy is unknown. Now, if you're done asking obvious questions, I will teach you the skill you'll need."

*****

About an hour later, Kiro walked out of the training center towards the battlefield, looking at the hills where the war was being waged.

After a closer observation, he noticed that there was a different amount of golems assigned to each hill. The biggest hill, which reached about 4/5th of the way up, had around 1000 golems assigned to it. The next two biggest, which were about 2/3rd of the height of the wall, each had around 700 to 800 golems surrounding them. There were three mid-sized hills, which were around half the height of the walls that each were being assaulted by some 500 golems each.

Finally, there were two small hills, about 1/3rd the height of the canyon walls. One of them had 200 golems around it and the other had 300 golems around it, although that was probably because it was adjacent to one of the two second to largest hills.

How to do this? Kiro wondered. He thought about sneaking up the hill and attacking the elementals at the top, but dismissed that idea for now. It would take too much. As his Blade Mastery rose to Advanced lvl 1, he had received a new passive skill named Armor Penetration. But its effect was still too weak against creatures made entirely out of rocks. His attacks would do little damage, as he attacked most of the time using a combination of slashes and cuts. He would be much faster than them, and he had a lot of confidence in his strength, but both would be of little use if he couldn't get past the natural armor of the elementals. The skill he had just learned from Master Fabridzia could do a lot of damage to the earth elementals, but the activation cost was enormous and he hadn't mastered it enough to be able to use it during combat.

He needed another plan, at least for now.

Observing a little longer, he realized what his first objective should be. Whenever the golems tried to climb up one of the hills, the elementals would throw rocks to stop them, making them their foes tumble back down. The golems, being the mindless creatures they were, would throw the rocks right back up the hill, which required more strength than Kiro could hope to ever match no matter how much he trained.

But throwing the rocks back, no matter how impressive it was, only served to provide the earth elementals with ammunition. So if Kiro destroyed these rocks before they were thrown back, eventually the elementals would run out of projectiles and the golems would be free to climb up and fight the elementals directly. Also, destroying the rocks would give him the opportunity to practice his new skill. A welcome bonus.

His plan made, Kiro headed for the smallest hill. It was a little apart from the others and the 200 golems around it were diligently chugging rocks upwards, just like everywhere else.

There was a lot that had to be done, so he better start.

*****

Two hours later, Kiro had to admit the obvious: his plan wasn't working. He had used his skill to destroy some 250 rocks, levelling his skill a lot, yet the bombardment hadn't lessened at all. Lifting his frustrated face upward, he looked intensely at the rock elementals, trying to figure out what he was missing. It became obvious right away, and Kiro's cheeks turned red in embarrassment.

From where he had been before, he couldn't see the top of hill clearly. Now, he had a good view of the elementals. Just as he looked, he saw one of them put its massive hand over a patch of ground, to see a rock rise from the earth like a blooming flower. It was around a meter of diameter. The elemental then took the rock and threw it down the hill.

Trying to forget the fact that he had wasted two hours running around like a madman, dodging around golems to destroy as many rocks as possible for absolutely nothing, Kiro tried to come up with an alternative plan.

In front of him, a group of golem was trying to climb up the slope of the hill, only to be caught in the avalanche caused by one of the thrown boulders and tumble down.

Witnessing that, Kiro realized what he had to do. Instead of breaking the rocks as they reached the bottom of the hill, he had to destroy them on the hill itself, before they had time to form the avalanches that swallowed the golems trying to climb.

His new plan formed, Kiro ran up the hill. To be in a position to destroy most rocks before they formed big enough avalanches he needed to climb up to a point 30 or 40 meters below the position of the earth elementals. So he had to climb up about 120 meters.

High above him, he could see several boulders tumbling towards him, but they were high up, so he had the time to move sideways and let them pass him. He reached his desired height quite easily.

Now all he had to do was catch falling boulders.

He put himself in a half crouch, both hands holding his sword. In front of him, an earth elemental threw a big boulder, which starts tumbling down towards Kiro.

Kiro concentrated. He imagines the glowing ball that represents himself, just as he has practiced doing thousands of time. But this time he doesn't imagine an armor or springs. Instead, following the instructions given by Master Fabridzia, he imagines the ball coiling itself around his sword, forming a drill bit shape.

Bracing himself for the impact, he trusts his sword at the rolling boulder. Upon contact, he pushes the coils of his power forward, into the boulder, in the form of a ring. No longer held in check by his will, the power expand outwards. The boulder explodes, sending bits of rock flying everywhere.

Kiro was hit several times, reducing his health.

This was the new skill he had learned, Piercing Aura Strike.

After that first stone, he destroyed several more. Of course, he couldn't destroy all of them, there were too many of them and they went by too fast. Instead, he concentrated on protecting a 10 meter long line, breaking all the stones in that small zone, providing a small corridor of safety for the golems. His efforts paid off: several groups of golems had already climbed higher than they ever could before. They were moving slowly, as golems couldn't move very fast, but surely.

His actions didn't go unnoticed, however, and soon the earth elementals increased the amounts of rocks they threw his way.

He had massive amounts of stamina and mana because of his training, but Piercing Aura Strike takes a lot of both and since he was forced to use it repeatedly while running around, he was reaching the bottom of both. Just then, he saw three elementals throw down their stones at the same time, directly in front of him. Knowing he wouldn't have time to break all three of them, he rushed up to meet the one in the middle, pulling out a dagger at the same time. He attuned both weapons to wind, and then, striking with both weapons at the same time, he activated his skill, making the rock explode.

One down.

He then activated Mana Strike, charging his sword and dagger with mana. Then, sweeping his weapons to both sides, he activated Elemental Wave.

Twin bursts of air shot out, like miniature tornados. They sailed away, colliding with the rocks on both sides of Kiro. The stones weren't small, or light, but when they were hit by the columns of air they were pushed aside, just enough so that they passed harmlessly beside the climbing golems.

Ding!

You have discovered a new skill chain: Charged Elemental Wave.

Ding!

You have discovered a new skill chain: Charged Mana Wave.

Kiro pushed the windows to the side. He was still in the middle of battle.

He was panting, a knee pressed to the ground. That last attack had cost him: he had no more mana left. Using his Life Force proficiency (he was at a 1:3 ratio now), he tried to restore some of his mana. At the same time he took out a piece of cooked meat, trying to restore his stamina.

But he had no times for breaks, as the elementals were still throwing rocks down. So he forced himself to continue breaking rocks, until he was completely out of energy, after a minute or so.

He collapsed on the ground, his stamina and mana both completely empty. Several rocks rolled past him, but there was nothing he could do to stop them. He turned his head sideways, expecting to see the rocks crash into the golems and push them down. But that didn't happen. By some miracle, his last frantic effort had given just enough time for the golems past the danger zone.

When the rocks hit the golems, they lacked the speed and momentum they had further down. It wasn't enough to topple the golems, with their enormous strength. Instead, the golems caught the rocks, and threw them back to the elementals, before continuing to climb. As they reached Kiro's position, they spread out, encircling the earth elementals.

The other golems, shielded by their brethren, climbed up unimpeded.

The earth elementals had no escape. The golems advance was unstoppable, they steadily climbed to the top of the hill, where they engaged the elementals in fierce combat.

The elementals were three to four meters tall. There was about three dozen of them on the hilltop. In contrast, there was close to fifty golems that had reached the hilltop and even if their height, at 2 and a half meters, and weight was smaller than the elementals, their strength was enough so that even with their ability to manipulate stone the earth elementals were outmatched.

After a few minutes laying down, Kiro had recovered enough to feel normal again. He ate another piece of meat and ran up the hill to help the golems destroy the rest of the elementals.

Earth elementals were much tougher than rocks: his Piercing Aura Strike wasn't enough to kill them in one strike. But it did cause a lot of destruction, so it was rather easy to kill them after successfully using his skill.

After killing his third elemental, his Elemental Swordsman class leveled up from Intermediate lvl 2 to Intermediate lvl 3, which confused Kiro. He figured it was because the earth elementals were closely related to nature and the elements, but he couldn't figure out why that caused him to get massive amounts of experience (for his class). As he could do nothing to solve this mystery, he put it aside for now.

After the last elemental fell, Kiro decided it was enough for one day. He was very tired. It was now close to nighttime, so he returned to the Advanced Training Center, where Master Fabridzia had lent him a tent.

*****

The next morning, Kiro decided to attack the other small hill.

The day before, he had helped conquer the other one, leaving only 7 left.

On one hand, only three dozen or so elementals were defeated, which didn't seem like a resounding victory. On the other hand, having successfully conquered the hill meant that the survivors of the original 200 golems assigned to it could be reassigned to other hills, helping to recover the losses of the previous night.

But the best consequence of that victory is that Master Fabridzia no longer had to spend any of her time focussing on that particular battlefield. Instead of dividing her attention between 8 fronts, she now had only 7 to worry about. The difference wasn't that great, but it did help with reducing casualties a little bit.

Kiro headed for the other small hill, located next to one of the three biggest one. This hill had 300 golems assigned to it, and was about as high as the first one. Kiro already knew what he had to do, so he wasted no time climbing up into position and stated destroying falling boulders once more.

It was much easier than the previous day, as he was well rested. The hill was conquered without difficulty by Kiro and some 300 golems assigned to it before noon, although about twenty of those were destroyed during the fight.

The only problem is that as soon as the hilltop was cleared of elementals, the earth elementals on the adjacent hill started throwing rocks at them from their higher position.

So Kiro once more ran up the hill to guard against them. Luckily, the height difference between the two summits was the same as the one between the first summit and the ground, so Kiro had enough mana and stamina to protect the golems from the rocks as they climbed.

There were several tense minutes after the golems reached the top, since the elementals were much more numerous than on the other hilltops Kiro had cleared while Kiro was only accompanied by the golems that had cleared the previous summit. But midway through the intense battle, the golems actually assigned to this hill joined them, which turned the tide of the battle.

Once the hilltop was secured, Kiro went back to the training center. It was a profitable day. Kiro leveled up, his class leveled up again and so did his Piercing Aura Strike.

Thee hills down, five to go.

*****

The next morning, there was a noticeable difference in the behaviour of the golems.

The biggest problem Master Fabridzia had when controlling golems wasn't the number of golems. It was the fact that she had to separate her attention between every individual battlefield. Having to constantly shift her focus like that limited the amount and quality of the instructions she could give to the golems.

But with three of those battlefields gone, she had the leisure to use slightly more elaborate strategies.

Kiro was standing in front of one of the mid-sized hills, his target for this morning. He was observing the golems.

Usually, when a rock tumbled down from above, the golems would quickly pick the up and throw them back.

Today, however, they did something different.

Groups of golems would grab the stones, and start rolling them upwards. The stones would act as makeshift barriers, protecting the golems from the avalanches. It worked pretty well, mostly because the freakish strength that they possessed made pushing the boulders up easy.

To retaliate, the earth elementals started throwing concentrated volleys of stone towards the golems, creating much bigger avalanches. It worked, but since it took more effort on the part of the elementals, the rate at which they pushed back the golems was slower, allowing the golems to climb higher than before.

Kiro decided to get to work. His last battle having convinced him that it was important to have as many golems as possible while he assaulted the hilltop he climbed slightly higher to make a bigger safe corridor for the golems.

His Piercing Aura Strike had been used a lot in the previous days. It was a lot less costly and faster for him to use, making it easy for him to destroy the boulders, even if they came in waves.

That morning, he and the golems cleared the hill, and in the afternoon they secured one of the two other middle-sized hills, leaving only three hills left.

By the end of the day, his Piercing Aura Strike had levelled enough to kill an earth golem in one strike.

****

The next morning, Kiro easily took over the last mid-sized hill. In the afternoon, after his stamina and mana had fully recovered, he decided to take on the second to highest hill. It was twice as tall as one of the small ones, but he was confident that his stamina and mana would last until the golems reached the top.

He climbed the hill, evading the boulders directed his way before taking position. He started destroying boulders, a repetitive task that had already become tedious and boring.

This trial has been surprisingly easy up till now, kiro reflected as he destroyed yet another rock with his skill. I wonder what I'm being tested on. He started reminiscing on the previous trainings he had gone through. The Basic Training had been easy too. To clear it someone only had to prove he had the tenacity to endure the 200 hours of training. The Beginner Training Center tested resourcefulness. Everything in that training center was set in a way to teach the challenger how to cope without his five senses, for those skillful enough to grasp it.

The Intermediate Training Center tested the determination of the people who challenged it. One had to be willing to endure intense discomfort to level up their Protective Aura enough to allow them to clear it.

But was does this trial test me on? Kiro wondered. Ingenuity? No, I doubt it. The solution I came up with wasn't very creative. Does this trial test me on cautiousness? It's true that I have been acting much more prudently then I am used too…

It was normal. In this trial, Kiro had no room for error, and even risked his life (even if he would just be logged out for a day). He had just one chance to pass the trial, so he was playing it extremely safe.

Nonetheless, something about the entire situation bothered Kiro. Everything was just too convenient. The enemy just happened to be a creature on which the skill he learned in the Advanced Training Center proved to be super effective.

The best strategy to defeat these creatures just happened to rely heavily on that same skill. And let us not forget that for some reason, Master Fabridzia couldn't use that same skill to destroy those elementals by herself: she needed someone, more specifically him, to do it for her. It didn't make sense. It was almost as if she had deliberately maintained

the stalemate waiting for him to come and help her.

Kiro snapped back to reality when a boulder was about to collide with him. He pushed away his questions for a later time. For now, he had a job to do.

He kept destroying rocks, and then joined the golems in their assault of the hilltop.

The next morning, the only hill left was the tallest one.

*****

The morning of the fifth day since Kiro had arrived at the Advanced Training Center, he stood at the base of the last remaining hill still controlled by elementals. Surrounding the hill were 4500 golems, every golem of the Training Center. The end was in sight.

Kiro ran up the hill, eager to end it. From his new position, he noticed several cracks in the canyon wall behind the elementals. He had a moment of panic as he wondered if it lead outside but calmed down as he figured that if they had, the elementals would have already left by now.

He once more started the routine task of destroying rocks. Behind him, the golems organised themselves to start the assault. Master Fabridzia only had this battlefield to worry about, so her control of the golems was absolute. While a group of them were in a semi-circle around the hill to prevent any escapes, the rest were forming orderly ranks, ready to march up the hill in the corridor of safety Kiro was providing. Of course, that meant that the earth elementals were concentrating all their firepower directly on Kiro, but by this point his skill was so well practiced that it was of no concern.

Minutes later, the first Golems reached his position. The golems immediately started spreading out, encircling the hilltop. Looking back down at their overwhelming numbers, Kiro felt confident of their victory. In short order, all the golems were in position. The assault could begin. Victory was in their grasp…

Instinct (or maybe Sensing Presence, Sensing Nature and/or Sensing Magic, whatever you prefer) made him throw himself to the ground.

Above him, a gigantic metallic sphere, at least twice as large as the rock boulders he had shattered earlier sailed down the slope with terrifying velocity. It collided with a golem, separating its head and torso from its lower body. Continuing down, it shattered into dozen of pieces the next group of golem it collided into, before continuing its rampage even as it rolled down the slope.

Kiro looked back up the slope. From the cracks in the wall he had noticed before hundreds of rock elementals were gushing out, reinforcing the ones already present on the hilltop. But was worst was the elemental coming out of the middle crack, which was the largest one. Shining sunlight reflected off its metallic skin, which Kiro realized must be iron, the monster was easily a meter taller than the earth elementals. It was probably the one that threw that gigantic metal ball earlier.

To make matters worse, many other iron elementals came out of the fissure, until there were about fifty of them or so.

There were just too many elementals. There was absolutely no way that Master Fabridzia would have not noticed such a large force. Which meant they weren't there before. In other words, the source of the elementals lay somewhere within those cracks.

With a flash of insight, Kiro realized something else. When he had first heard how Master Fabridzia had encountered the elementals, he had thought that they had been scattered so hazardously onto the hills because they had been fleeing for their life. But now, he realized it was not the case. The elementals had retreated to so many hills as part of a ploy to buy time: by sacrificing themselves, the earth elementals on other hills had given the ones on this hill the time to replenish their forces.

Just then, the iron elementals started creating new metallic spheres, before throwing them at the still-approaching golems. Unlike the stone boulders, these spheres were enough to shatter several golems and injure many more.

At the same time, the earth elementals joined the battle. Before, they had always used their ability to control earth to form boulders, but this time, they controlled it so that earth would cover their bodies, making them much bulkier. Then they charged down the hill, their added mass allowing them to easily smash and flatten golems.

The golems, being the mindless creature they were, kept climbing up the hill, even as they were decimated. For some reason Master Fabridzia, perhaps unaware of the situation or otherwise distracted, hadn't given them new orders, so they continued to climb upwards to their death.

It was a massacre. For now the golems still outnumbered the elementals, but more of them were being destroyed every second. It was a hopeless situation. Kiro felt the first seeds of despair planting themselves inside him but ruthlessly crushed them. It was too soon to give up.

Kiro took a few seconds to consider his options.

There were two viable ones that presented themselves to him. He could rush back down the hill to Master Fabridzia, and tell her to pull back the golems. That way, they could engage the enemy on terrain that is more favorable to them.

The other option, which was far riskier, was to charge into the wall fissures to look for the source of the elementals, and destroy it. This was probably Kiro's only chance to do so, as most of the elementals had left the cracks to engage the golems, giving Kiro a chance to slip in.

Doing this would most likely end up with Kiro dying, as he'd be trapped in a narrow space surrounded by powerful elementals.

Despite this, he easily picked that option.

It was simple. Whatever he did, there was a good chance that some elementals would escape to cause mayhem elsewhere. So he had failed the trial anyways. But if he succeeded at destroying the source of the elementals, there would only be a limited number of them to contend with. The outlying villages would still be in danger, but he was sure that Master Fabridzia take care of most of the elementals before they caused too much damage.

His decision made, Kiro activated Charged Rush. He ran up the rest of the way to the summit and, moving so fast the slow elementals couldn't hope to touch him, threw himself into the biggest opening in the canyon wall.

****

Kiro was running for his life. A gigantic boulder was chasing him down the stone passageway.

An earth elemental lunged into his path from a side passage, trying to cut his path. Kiro jumped, twisted, and started running on the wall, defying gravity for the brief moment it took him to clear the unexpected obstacle.

The crevice he had jumped into moments before had turned out to be a complex maze of twisted stone corridors, all leading deeper into the wall of the canyon. From the first moment he entered he had been chased by various earth and iron elementals. He really wasn't looking forward to the moment they would catch up to him.

Up ahead, there was another bend in the corridor. Then, a huge earth elemental. Kiro dived between its legs and rolled to his feet, landing in a huge hollowed out cavern.

He immediately knew he was at the right place. In front of him, there was a huge summoning circle with a half formed earth elemental in its center.

Of more immediate concern was the two guardians standing in front of the circle. Two humongous elementals, six meters tall, with skin made of solid steel.

But Kiro wasn't even planning on attacking them. He figured that his speed would be enough to get through them, and then he could destroy the circle with his Piercing Aura Strike. So he rushed towards them at breakneck speed… only to stop abruptly.

A heavy metallic shaft, wielded by one of the steel elementals, pierced the ground where he would have been had he not stopped. The wind of its passage was enough to flatten the hair on his skull. The elementals were fast, shockingly fast.

Kiro back stepped, considering his options. One of the two elementals walked towards him, its metal staff ready to strike. The other one stood guard in front of the summoning circle. Behind him, Kiro could feel the last elemental he had passed makes its way into the chamber, with others not far behind it.

He was boxed in, with no possibility to retreat. Yet he felt no fear, just a growing excitement. His heart was beating a hundred kilometers an hour, adrenaline rushed through his body. His mouth formed a grin.

He activated Charged Rush and Protective Aura at the same time. Using both would drain his mana and stamina extremely fast, but he needed to finish this quickly.

Twisting around, he charged at the earth elemental, destroying it with one use of his Piercing Aura Strike. Behind him, the steel elemental had already closed the distance, and once more swung its staff at him. Kiro threw himself flat on the ground, under the swing. Just getting hit by one of those would be instant death, Protective Aura or not.

He started running again, but toward the wall, as if he intended to circle around the elemental. Just as he had hoped, it followed him. He immediately twisted around once more, heading straight for the steel elemental. It swung its staff again, but Kiro dodged it and kept going.

Passing beside the elemental's leg, he delivered a blow with his Piercing Aura Strike. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough: instead of shattering the leg, it only created some hairline cracks to form on the skin. Kiro clucked his tongue.

Once again, he swirled around, facing the elemental again. It too turned around, facing him. Running towards it again, Kiro attuned his sword to earth, jumped, and used Elemental Wave to fling a wave of dirt at the surprised elemental's head, momentarily blinding it. Its counter strike once again went wide and Kiro made use of the opportunity to strike the leg once again, making use of both Piercing Aura Strike and Consecutive Single Point Strike. This time, the damage was more pronounced, the fissures in its leg wider.

Kiro's stamina and mana were halfway depleted. He could also feel several elementals nearing the entrance to the cavern. He was running out of time.

He pulled a dagger out of his inventory and attuned both of his weapons to wind. He rushed towards the steel elemental one last time. Just as he entered its striking range, he dived towards the ground, as if hopping to dive underneath the coming blow.

Just as he expected, the elemental promptly swung its staff low, trying to catch him with it. He immediately swung his two weapons downwards, activating Elemental Wave to produce twin waves of air that threw him up and over the staff. He landed just in front of the injured leg, stabbed it with his sword, using Piercing Aura Strike at the exact same place for a third time, before immediately diving to the ground and stabbing down with the dagger, activating the skill once more. It created a huge hole directly underneath the elemental's foot.

The elemental tilted to the side, its entire weight pressed on its badly damaged leg. Unable to withstand it, the leg shattered, causing the elemental to topple. Kiro hastily rolled out of the way.

He got up, and once more ran to the circle and its sole remaining guardian. Holding the dagger up, he threw it at the elementals head, causing it to lift its staff to block it. Using the momentary distraction, he went past the steel elemental, giving it a wide berth. Once he reached the other side of the circle he turned around, facing the summoning circle again, and charged straight at it.

The confused elemental turned towards him determined to obstruct his path, only to realise why Kiro had acted as he did.

The summoning circle was still in the process of forming an earth elemental, whose size was enough to force the steel elemental to circle around it. It took it only a second, but that second was enough for Kiro to close the distance. He stabbed down at the circle, putting all of his remaining strength in his Piercing Aura Strike.

The resulting explosion threw him to the ground. He tensed, expecting the steel elemental to finish him with its staff.

But nothing happened.

He lifted his head to see that all of the elementals were immobile.

Several level up messages appeared, and one that said that the war had ended. But he ignored all of them, all his attention taken by the sight before him.

He didn't know how she had approached undetected, but in front of him stood Master Fabridzia. She was smiling slightly, while clapping her hands.

"Congratulations, Kiro, on passing the Advanced Training Center's Trial!"

"…I don't understand."

"Then ask, I will answer any questions you have."

He had so many of them, but he started with the obvious ones.

"There was never any war, right? You were the one controlling the elementals this whole time."

"Yes, you're right. From the beginning, the elementals were to be included in the test."

"But I don't understand. What was the point? What were you looking for?"

"I said it in the beginning, didn't I? That it is in the midst of combat that a fighter's true value shine. Earlier, had you opted to retreat when the elementals came out from the canyon wall, I would have failed you immediately. But you kept your cool, and succeeded in destroying the source of the elementals. Therefore, you passed."

Kiro's mind was spinning around like crazy from the revelation that all of this had just been one huge subterfuge from beginning to end.

"But it doesn't make sense. Preparing all of that must have taken a lot of effort. Why go through all that trouble just for me?"

"Just for you? Kiro, do you know how many Strangers have gotten as far as you have in the training centers? None. You are the only one that has passed the Intermediate Training Center thus far. It's no surprise that we would monitor you in your travels. As for this set up, it was necessary. People act differently when they are faced with real life situations. You can learn a lot about them if you observe them carefully."

Kiro had no more questions, but Master Fabridzia had more to say: "After this you are planning to go to the Master Training Center, am I right?"

"Yes I am."

"You are not ready. Your level of skill is insufficient to pass it. You need more training. However, I suggest you go there directly. The trial itself will be the best training you could ever hope for.

But before then, I wonder if you would mind doing me a favor. As a reward, I'll even give you directions to the Master Training Center."

"It would be my pleasure, but the directions aren't necessary. I know where it is."

He had a sword at his throat. Faster than he could blink, Master Fabridzia had drew it and was now pressing it against his neck. Gone was the easy going woman from a few seconds ago. Now she exulted such an air of menace that cold sweat formed on his back. Kiro had confidence in his skill, but at this moment he realized that he was no match for this woman and that he was moments away from death.

"How do you know that?" He voice was soft, deadly quiet.

"I, I saw it on a map, by chance."

"Did you tell of its location to anyone?"

"N-no, I didn't!"

Re-sheathing her sword, Master Fabridzia took a step back, her smile back, as if nothing had happened. "That's good. I think you're trustworthy, but I don't have such confidence in others. You should know that the location of the Master Training Center is a closely guarded secret. Don't share it with anyone."

"Understood. I won't." Said Kiro, still shivering. Then he asked: "How do I get in? Don't I need some kind of token?" It had been the case for the other centers.

"Don't worry. Managing to get in is all the proof you need to be able to take the test."

That made Kiro a little curious. What did that mean? But he figured that he would find out once he got there, so he put it aside for now. "Then, Master Fabridzia, what was that favor you were talking about?"

"That's right, I almost forgot. You see, it's like this. For more than a year now, I have been monitoring a particular warrior with enormous potential. In the beginning, she showed a lot of skill and improved rapidly. But a few months ago, she claimed the top rank as a duelist in the dueling arena of the city of Lutenberg, and since then, her progress has stalled. She is now at a standstill, without improving a bit. I think the biggest problem is that she is content to remain in that small city, where there are no more worthwhile challenges for her to face. It irks me, seeing such talent being wasted. This is where you come in.

I want you to free her from the comfortable lethargy she has settled in."

"How? You want me to convince her to leave Lutenberg?"

"No, I don't want you to talk to her, nor do I want you to fight her."

"Then what…"

"I want you to crush her."