LXXXVIII

When he returns, he is accompanied by a… floating star? At least, that is how I would describe it. Hovering a few feet of the ground, gently bobbing up and down as if upon the surface of a calm sea, a blue, star-creature accompanies him. The color fades from a light blue into a soft yellow at the center, where a single horizontal eye rests, focused solely on me. The size of the creature is perhaps a meter in diameter, with the eye being roughly six inches tall by ten inches long.

"I must warn you, this creature has a powerful attack, be prepared. Other than that, under no circumstance should you kill this monster! The fee would be at least a hundred gold, perhaps even more depending upon the variability, it is a very rare creature. Now, begin!"

I'd rather wanted to ask why they are having me fight a creature supposedly so rare, but he calls a start to the fight before I can, so I am forced to focus my full attention on our upcoming fight. I hold Reinhart's blade at the ready, based on the assumption that this enemy could only reasonably be a magic-based fighter; after all, how could it attack me with no limbs, spin around ramming into me?

Meeting my expectations, as soon as the fight is started, the creature's eye begins glowing blue in what appears to be the most obvious tell of an attack that I have ever seen. I resolve to tank this attack, employing my sword to disperse the magic before closing in and achieving victory.

The star keeps charging its attack, long past when I would have expected it to be unleashed. At first I am happy to see that it takes a long time to charge up its attack, as a long time between attacks will surely let me in to defeat it. But as the time spent charging the attack surpasses ten seconds, I begin to worry a bit. To hold off an A-ranked adventurer, this creature would have to attack faster than this, it would be destroyed before getting an attack off if it took this long. That leads to the logical assumption that it can attack faster as well, at least to an extent that a B-ranked adventurer would be unexpected to deal with. And if it can attack quickly with that degree of power, what shall be unleashed with such an excessively charged attack?

The answer to my question comes when, without warning, the bright blue glowing eye unleashes a massive beam of light possessing the same color towards me. Too fast to react to, it slams into my sword, which has long been held defensively.

At first, I am worried that my sword's magic won't hold against such a powerful, fast blow. When I see that the attack disperses on my blade, I am filled with relief. [Seems you've got a good sword here, Reinhart. It's a good thing you never actually gave it to me, otherwise Lector may have added it to his spoils.]

Still, that relief fades upon seeing that the attack isn't stopping. For over a minute, the beam targets my sword, where it is invariably dispersed by my legendary weapon. Finally, after I have begun to worry that the attack has a duration limit and shall continue until I dispatch the enemy, it lets up. The star falls from the air, its eye closed, apparently so drained that it fell asleep.

"My, that is truly a high quality weapon you've got there, perhaps the first time that I've seen someone at their first rank examination take the full power attack. So, shall we continue on for another round, trying your luck?"

"Heh heh, I know my luck, I will accept my B ranking, there is no way that I can reasonably contend with opponents on that level, especially not so regularly as would surely be expected of an A-rank adventurer."

"Sigh. Good choice, I suppose, though I was rather interested to see how far your tactics would take you. Are you positively sure you don't want to continue? It's free, you know, and in fact you have actually already paid for it, why not try to see how high you can go? Who knows, perhaps you have it within you to reach A-rank."

"Nice try, I'm not dumb enough to fall for your tricks. Against a non-magical opponent of that star's level, I would face certain defeat. How can I be foolish enough to submit myself to such a thing? Especially when my defeat may be accompanied by death and would certainly be accompanied by the knowledge that I had been lured into failure by a man irritated with me for constantly being a source of annoyance to him?"

"Now, no need to assume negative intentions on my part, I was merely interested, that's all. If you wish to be finished, so we shall end."

"Yes, that is my wish, and I daresay it won't be changing. Now, I'll be taking my leave."

"Ah ah ah! After you pay, of course! You owe the guild one gold, you know."

"Hmph. Here," I say, flicking a single coin to him which he catches with both hands before pocketing.

"Oh? Isn't that for the guild?"

"I am in charge of all beast-related operations within the guild, in this instance, I [am] the guild."

"Oh, really? I feel as though I have heard something like that before… well, if you say so!" [Well, it's not my job to regulate guild corruption, if he pockets it, why should I care?]

"Now, where is my fancy guild identification card?" I ask.

"Ah, right. Can you give me the temporary slip you have marking you as a member of the guild?"

"Yes, here you go," I answer, handing over the requested item. He writes "B-rank" on it before signing his name. Of course, he didn't actually use the letter 'B,' this world uses a different alphabet, but it's the second character in this world's writing system, close enough to the alphabet ranking system of fictional guilds.