HQ Final Selection Test - End

"No thanks, I have to win a race here. Maybe I'll spar with you after some more years."

"Tsk, that's not how you talk to your superiors little shit. Muscle guy here, go away for a bit." said the old man before sending a strike toward Draw that sent him flying toward the opposite direction, landing headfirst on the ground.

After he was done with Draw, he moved toward Kipset with a big grin wanting to clearly slash his wooden sword toward him. However, as he moved closer to Kipset, the young man looked focused at the moving old man and tensed his legs and arms.

When the old examiner appeared in his range, he pushed toward him and grabbed his waist and later moved to his arm at a fast speed. The old man had a surprised expression on his face, then he later felt his legs being lifted from the ground and next to that even seeing the clear blue sky.

The people on the side saw Kipset grab hold of the old man and later throw him on the ground over his head.

"That's it brother. I haven't thought of doing that to that old fart." said Inorra from the side while nodding his head.

"What was that throw he just did?" asked Smoker next to Inorra, who was watching the test with close attention.

"That's something big brother taught us, is called Roman Wrestling. A very ancient style of fighting."

"Interesting. That didn't look bad at all."

Moving back to the fight down on the ground, Kipset released his hold on the old man and tried to run toward the exit, but right when he tried that, he was grabbed by a frail hand.

"That was fun lad. How come you thought of actually doing that to counter my sword attack?"

"I wouldn't dare to do that if that was a real sword. Come old sir, release my hand, I know you're stronger than me by a crazy amount, do you really have to waste your time on me? Better take care of your body."

"Haha, sure if you can escape some of my sword strikes I'll let you go, since you seem a good boy." laughed the old man getting from the ground by grabbing on Kipset's hand.

"Fine, I know that I have no chance to get away from you if you don't let me."

The old examiner, who by now was on his feet, looked at Kipset with a smile before taking a sword stance and preparing to attack the young man.

Kipset took some steps back and took a guard stance using only his hands, making the old man even more delighted.

"Come boy, let see if you can stop those attacks."

Moving toward Kipset with some relatively slow steps, he did his first strike that seemed to not hold much momentum. However, Kipset felt that if he would get hit by that strike, his body will hurt a lot.

'Dodge, I have to dodge that strike, and do the wolf step.'

Thinking that in his mind, he took some steps toward the old man wooden sword and suddenly bounced around in more directions before doing a pouncing step, getting out of harm's way.

'Now what? The old man wants to hit my upper body with a thrusting attack. I'll mask my attempt to dodge.'

Following the movement of the second attack, he took some steps back, and when the wooden sword was close to hitting him, he moved his body in such a way that the examiners sword passed from the gap made by his hand.

He tightened his lock on the sword and stared at the old man with calm yet serious eyes.

"Is this enough sir? I can try to break the wooden sword, but wouldn't that be a waste of a good sword?"

Staring at Kipset hazel eyes and face following some seconds of silence, he laughed heartily, drawing back his sword and saying to Kipset.

"You can go lad, you've passed my test."

"Thank you sir."

Some more seconds passed, and Kipset arrived toward the end of the obstacle course and encountered the old man who was checking the times with an hourglass.

"Congratulations, boy. You actually managed to please that annoying old bones and actually let you go without even giving you a beating. Ahh, right. Let me tell you your time before leaving. Your time is 5 minutes and 20 seconds.

Kipset nodded at the old guy and waited for the seconds to pass. Soon he spotted two girls running almost shoulder to shoulder with sweaty faces and with their clothes covered in mud, outlining their developed bodies.

"Not bad, really not bad. Being part of Zephyr examiner group really gives me such nice rewards. Good figures don't you think lad?"

When Kipset heard the old man actually say that, he turned to look at the pink-haired beauty who had her tied hair a bit unveiled and around her body line before saying to the examiner.

"Yes, it's really not bad sir."

"Ohh, you have your eyes on that pink-haired doll? Good luck young man, just don't get upset when you're turned down. Those girls joining the marines are quite the serious type, focused only on their professional life. I talk from experience."

"I will take note of what you said sir."

By the time Hina and Ain arrived, both Kipset and the examiner looked quite serious, masking the conversation they had.

"What time Hina got?" asked the pink-haired girl who arrived second on the finish line, followed by Ain.

"You did well young lady. 5,47(m,s) (those are minutes, followed by seconds) placed you among the top."

"The other young lady was some steps away. Arriving at ." 6,06 (m,s)

"Hmph, that's because she did a cheap trick to unstabilize my footing with her weird devil powers." commented the dark-blue haired girl, slightly annoyed.

When Kipset heard that, he looked at the two girls, especially at Hina, who unveiled her hair, and fiddled slightly while looking a bit annoyed at Ain, who revealed that.

As they were talking, the well-built guy arrived at the finish line, fuming in anger and looking at Kipset as if he wanted to fight him.

"YOU, how did you manage to get away from that cursed old fart? He didn't let me pass him even after trying everything I had."

"Who knows. Why don't you ask him yourself?"

When he said that then started walking out of the testing ground, followed by Hina, who asked him with a curious tone.

"What have you done to that old man, that he was in such a good mood that he let me and the other girl pass?"

"No clue, I just passed his so-called test and he left me alone. I'm serious, don't give me that look."

She chuckled a bit, something that Kipset still had to hear her do, and as they moved toward where Inorra and the others waiting were, she added while trying to clean her clothes.

"Hina really needs a clean bath after this. My clothes are so dirty, that it kind of feels weird having my clothes stuck so much on my body."

"You are not the only one who needs a bath. However let's wait for a bit to receive the results and further instructions from the instructor."

Arriving in no time to where Inorra was, accompanied by Smoker, he heard him say with a pleased expression.

"Brother Kip, you did well throwing that old fart on the ground. You have my respect and congratulations for taking the first place. You too beauty Hina, I didn't such a performance from you and that last trick you did on the other girl."

"Hehe, for such a serious looking girl to actually do such a cheap shot."

Hina looked at Inorra's brown eyes and only responded, showing in her tone the annoyance she held.

"As long it is for winning, Hina doesn't mind using the devil's power. You better don't bring that up too often or Hina will shackle you down."

"Now, now. No need to get angry with him, he's just jesting around with you. Come you two tell me how did your test went?"

Then as Kipset said that, Smoker and Inorra started talking about their test and timing, and both having something in common, being attacked by the old guys and having their times wasted.

Following that, the time for the rest of the people taking the test finished, and with 2 more batches, the test ended.

After 10 minutes, the young marines gathered and waited for Zephyr to come and say the ranking.

The purple-haired old man arrived accompanied by the 6 old men, and taking to a platform raised in the break time, he stared down at the young guys before opening his mouth.

"Young marines, your performance on the ground was noted down. Some of you delivered while others opted to take the test lightly, this is fine either way because you'll be trained going forward. You'll be trained two years before starting your carriers as bringers of order and justice."

A part of the crowd gulped down their saliva and kept silent as Zephyr continued with the rankings.

Until he reached around the top 20, calling out names that Inorra or Kipset didn't know that well. Yet there was a name that made Inorra nod his head and look around himself, looking for a certain guy.

"13. Yukimura"

Saying some more names, the list reached the top 10.

"10th. Karlos. / 9th. Ulema. / 8th. Binz. / 7th. Inorra."

When Inorra heard his name on the 7th place, he clenched his fist a bit happy, turning to look at the crimson-haired girl Isuka, who only scoffed when she saw him wink at her.

"6th. Smoker. "

Smoker, when hearing his name, just lit an additional cigar sticking two of them in his mouth and smoking them with a deep breath.

"That's good."

"5th. Isuka. / 4th. Draw. / 3rd. Ain / 2nd Hina"

Zephyr looked up toward where Kipset and the rest were and looked at the 5th elder of the obstacle course before saying something to him.

Soon the frail elder disappeared from the stage and arrived at where Kipset and the others were.

"Heh, good to see that you have friends lad. Hello there little doll, sneaky bastard." said the elder while looking at Hina and Inorra before turning his attention back to Kipset.

"Hey lad, let me take you to the stage and let those little shits know what the best amongst them is."

"That. Sir, I think this isn't needed. What if I offend them?"

"So what, the strong don't care about that around here, just teach them a lesson if they bark. You're allowed to rought them up a bit."

Not even waiting for Kipset to answer favourable, he grabbed him, and soon Kipset found how strong the elder was exactly when he only did some steps to arrive back at the stage.

Zephyr placed his large and calloused hand on Kipset shoulder and said only for him to hear.

"You did well lad. I don't know much about your backstory, or who trained you, body and mental wise, but types like you are rarely encountered among young recruits nowdays. Keep your head held straight lad, you'll be this batch representative."

Turning toward the crowd of young marines, he held Kipset by the shoulder and said in a high tone.

"This is Kipset, the only guy who passed the test in a satisfactory manner. He will be the standard for you little brats going forward with the training.

Now I'll let the other instructors guide you to the barracks so you can clean yourself, especially the ladies."

The time for the elders to take the say from Zephyr came and started guiding the group of young marines to the trainee's barracks.

As this year batch test of the marine HQ ended, someone in another part of the world watched along as a white-haired girl was doing some sword drills together with a young man looking to be 13 to 14 years old.

Whenever she was slashing and moving her arms with the sword in hand, she looked at a tall guy who had short jet-black hair and said while holding some frustration on her tone.

"Vlad, why do I have to practice the sword?"

"Because only using your pistols will not suffice. You are open to many weaknesses by only relying on that, so please understand me, love. I don't want to lose you against one of my enemies."

"Big sister I think, big brother is right. Just think, you'll become far stronger than you are with only your pistols and rifles if you can also use a sword in close range or in certain situations." said the young man while continuing swinging his sword and smoothly moving around his feet as he slashed the sword around.

The white-haired beauty looked at the young man who was training beside her and next to the tall guy who looked at her with calm and warm eyes as if wanting to encourage her to continue training.

"Fine, I'll try doing this, but if I don't see any results I'll drop even trying to learn your sword skills."

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Morpheus's Note: This chapter concludes the mini-arc having Kipset and Inorra in the spotlight + other canon characters (a side to how they could have been in their early days)

Give me your thoughts, it was bad or good? Or is it around in between?

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Bonus Chapter at [350 powerstones] for this new week.

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