The First Step

She blasts forward again to slide and take a sweep at his legs. she gets a clean hit, bruising his ankles, but he quickly regains focus and comes down on her face with the hilt of his sword, creating a large shaped bruise she knew would disfigure her later; it's a messy and uncoordinated fight as neither have much experience, full of thrashing and anger. Xiao spins her staff, they lock weapons again, this time xiao uses mana as reinforcement, he reciprocates, his seemingly weaker.

Xiao gains the upper hand, shoots his sword back and hits him square in the face. A knick in his forehead now, blood trickles down. He spits in the Dirt and they lock eyes, he's pissed. Humiliated from this little girl; an insult to his ego. They parry blows back and forth until Xiao gets a good hit on his chest, using wind mana to deliver a solid blow.

Xiao proceeds by commanding earth mana to rise from the ground, creating whirls of dust as camouflage against him. She hits again, this time to his side; throwing him back into the dust fog. There is silence for a moment, she thinks she's won when her head is suddenly enveloped by a bubble of water, unable to breathe she grows desperate. Pawing at the water orb around her head, air bubbles escape from her open mouth. The staimnad swipes her legs out with a ruthless kick but Xiao still has her weapon. She tries to create distance between the two of them, crawling away from him on her back. A Hit of his sword breaks the rattan staff in half. The Water spell, too premature to last dismantles.

Finding an opportunity, she breaks free and blasts forward to disarms him using an old jiu-jitsu trick Gwendal taught her. She'll have to thank her later for that. The boy falls to the ground after a fiery front kick hits his solar plexus.

He stays down, breathing heavily. She heaves a sigh of relief until there's a quick movement and a searing pain in her thigh, looking down, it's the end of her wooden staff lodged a centimeter into her leg. 'Bastard! Doesn't he know this is just a match?!' He pushes harder, trying to induce more pain, Xiao's knees fail her and she falls. In a panic, she summons mana to her hand and equally to the back of the boy. Reaching up, the two points meet, crushing him. A deafening thud is heard and dirt scatters all around them. He's completely incapacitated and likely internally wounded, but he's forced her resort to this. She pulls the staff from her thigh, leaving a jagged and bloody, circle-shaped wound. Forcing back tears, she staggers over to her opponent.

Knee's to the floor, hunched in pain but still conscious, Xiao looks down at him from above and sends one final flying roundhouse to his face, knocking him out and officially winning the match; securing her a spot in Zalisthia's military training academy. The crowd cheers and howls, depraved men satisfied with the bloodbath.

"Please go to the building to the right of the courtyard to receive your instructions, hand this slip to him when you get there," one of the judges says to her.

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"Name?" "Xiao" "just Xiao?" He looks her up and down, appraising her. "Address of beneficiary" "none"

The official glances down at the note Xiao delivered to him. Catching a glimpse Xiao reads the words: 'unrefined combat, prodigy level mana control, intermediate wind, beginner earth'. A short but succinct description of her abilities. Seeing this note worried her, she knew she had bombed the test and worried she may be placed as a weakling. Perhaps in a squad with little mentoring. Or even worse, the military could view her as worthless and use her as a pawn. Her paranoia runs wild.

"Arrive at the southwest gate tomorrow at 0500." "yes sir"

"and for god's sake eat something," he spits with a judging tone.

She bows deeply, turning around to leave the tent in a hurry. Not being able to go back to the monastery in this persona, nor ever wanting to, she's forced to find a suitable place for the night. She Heads south to buy some supplies and to enjoy the last of the ocean for perhaps years.