37. What the fuck is going on!?

"This kid is definitely a different kind of beast. The word that best fits him would be menace," Lewis immediately remarked as the events of the past three weeks flashed before him. A shudder ran down his back.

"I see. Nevertheless, we gotta evaluate Luz's strength," Erena commented before leading the two to the basement, where various testing grounds were.

A few minutes later, Luz stood in the middle of a field, waiting for the instructor to arrive. But Luz didn't stand idle and lightly swung his sword to get more familiar with the provided equipment. Over the last three weeks, Luz spent most of his time trying out new weapons and getting more familiar with magic.

In the end, Luz ended up continuing using a sword and shield, but unlike before, he changed his sword. Instead of the general shortsword, Luz ended up liking the falcata. That sword has a single edge while the blade is convex near the point while being concave near the hilt. This shape distributes the weight so that the falcata can deliver strikes with the force of an ax while retaining the longer edge of a sword.

Author note, I will post a picture of that sword in the comments.

After a few minutes passed, a man with messy black hair soon arrived while yawning loudly. His face was full of scars, while the man still looked like he was in his mid-twenties.

"So you wanna tell me that I got woken up because a fucking mage apprentice boy is challenging me?" yawned the man while starring daggers into Luz. After shaking his head, the man sighed while slowly unsheathing his sword. "Fine by me. I will just cripple him and go back to my bed."

Perplexed by the latter's words, Luz immediately changed his position. 'He wants to cripple me!? What the fuck is going on!? Is that truly how they test their new guild members,' Luz thought as sweat slowly dripped from his forehead.

"WAIT, NO, Nighty!" Erena hastily shouted before explaining that he was supposed to test the person.

The two immediately began bickering as the latter wasn't willing to do it. After all, it was not his job. But unfortunally for him, the one responsible for testing new members was on an expedition.

In the end, Nighty gave in with a loud groan, "Young man, I got no clue how strong people were supposed to be at each rank, but let's give it a try and see how it will end."

The man immediately sheathed his sword before taking an ax from the ground while commenting, amused, "Well, at least that greenhorn isn't using a weeb katana, so he is not that stupid. Nevertheless, let's see if you know how to use such a weapon."

Seeing how Nighty didn't pay Luz that much attention, Luz immediately took the chance to attack, sprinting at full speed toward Nighty.

A smile formed on the Nighty's face as he was ready to evade at any given time.

However that smile quickly vanished after he heard Erena shouting, "Nighty, you know that we are first testing if his strength is that of a normal untrained mortal. That is roughly equivalent to Hunter Rank H. I hope you don't go overboard from the start."

"Wait, I gotta limit myself to such a degree!?" he cursed before almost getting hit by Luz's first strike, which cut some of his hair.

"Fuck I let him succeed so early!?" Nighty groaned in embarrassment. Nevertheless, he immediately increased his pace before Erena could tell him otherwise.

However, Luz ignored Nighty's words completely and continued hacking at him, giving him no opportunity to attack with his ax.

The latter continued cursing as he had to give his 120% to evade all of Luz's attacks while keeping his speed at such a low pace. Gritting his teeth, he cursed while evading one of Luz's attacks, "Boyy, letting you attack the whole time is quite unfair."

"What am I supposed to do, let my enemy attack me?" Luz laughed in amusement and forced the latter to increase his pace further. He swung his falcata in an unrhythmic manner, attacking Nighty from a vertical and a horizontal angle.

But Nighty was soon forced to break his speed limit again after barely avoiding a chop at his throat. 'Well, at least he isn't that bad,' he thought as his smile formed on his face.

'Why is he smiling?' Luz thought, thinking that the latter had gone mad. However, Luz underestimated Nighty, and the latter immediately reappeared at his side, swinging his ax.

'What the hell is that speed!?' shot through Luz's head as he barely blocked the latter's attack with his shield.

A loud clang echoed as Luz got forced back.

"Now it's my turn to beat the shit out of you," Nighty chuckled while swinging his ax like a maniac.

Meanwhile, Lewis and Erena talked with each other while paying little attention to what was happening.

"Are you sure that that boy started training this month? Luz's attacks are crude, but he shouldn't have reached that level yet," Erena remarked while leaning on Lewis's shoulder.

Lewis chuckled before telling her, "Well, he is just fighting aggressively, waiting for the right moment to use a spell. Right now, Luz is leading the latter to believe that this is a mere sword fight."

"Oho, he is that kind of a person," Erena answered in amusement. "Hopefully, we can see him being able to land a hit with his spell on Nighty. That bastard has been acting way too arrogant lately."

Sweat ran down Luz's forehead. Since Nighty broke his speed limit again, the tide has changed, and Luz got forced to fight defensive. Whenever Luz tried attacking his sparring partner, the latter easily evaded it before returning it with an ax swing.

'I have to think of an exit strategy,' thought Luz while grinding his teeth. But needless to say, the intense fight forced Luz to focus on stopping Nighty's ax swings.

"Come on, man. Is that all you got?" Nighty laughed while casually swinging his ax. "You know I'm not even using a fighting style. I'm just swinging my ax."

Smiling, Luz finally got an idea. 'What if I attacked with my shield? I mean, that sounds stupid but hear me out. His ax and my shield are both curved. Therefore I could use my shield to hook his ax, stopping his attacks.'

"Why are you smiling?" remarked Nighty before swinging his ax at a 90-degree angle at Luz. But instead of the expected dodge, Luz swung his shield up.

'What the hell is he trying?' shot through Nighty's head, but the moment he tried pulling back, Nighty immediately realized what the latter tried.

His weapon ended up clamped at the latter's shield. But at that moment, it was way too late for Nighty.

A wicked grin spread across Luz's face as he swung his falcata, ready to chop Nighty's hand if he didn't let go.