CLANG!!
Syla and Swen held their sword as tight as possible, when their blade collided with each other, they tried to overwhelm the other by using their strength, however Syla soon realized that her strength was a little bit inferior to Swen, once she saw her sword slowly getting pushed towards her, Syla decided to take a step backwards and escape the clash.
Thud!
"Hoooh, you knew you'll lose in that battle of strength? Impressive." Swen said, he smiled and praised Syla's quick perception.
"Mmhh.." Syla let out a deep breath, a drop of sweat formed on her forehead before it slides down to her nose.
'He's stronger than me, then i should try not to face him with strength alone.' Syla thought.
While she was keeping a distance from Swen, she was almost caught off guard when Swen launched himself forward, he swung his sword as if he was trying to kill her, fortunately Syla was able to respond in time, she blocked the attack using her sword at the cost of her balance being unstable.
Her feet were in an awkward position, causing her to trip and fall, Swen who saw the opportunity infront of him then tried to kick Syla using his leg.
'This will end it.' Swen thought as his leg was moving rapidly towards Syla's waist.
'Hm!? What!?'
The battle should've come to an end at that point, however even Swen couldn't expect the scene that he was about to see, as moments before his leg hit its target, a raging flame began to swirl from Syla, the flame grew into a massive explosion that sends dusts and rocks flying towards the walls in the arena, engulfing both of them in black fog.
BOOM!
Swoosh!
Swen was thrown a few meters back, his pants was torn apart, and his head was bleeding. He quickly stood on his feets again incase if there was a surprise attack, however there was nothing, Swen saw the black fog that was once the source of a fire explosion and wondered where Syla had gone to.
"Magic?!.." He said.
!!!!!!!!!
Swen didn't know it, but at that time, his conciousness was screaming at him, his body froze and his eye pupils shrinked in fear. From his side, a blurry figure appeared, it blinked from its spot and before Swen could respond to it, a sharp blade was already coming at him.
'SHIT! THAT'S BAD—
Realizing that he was about to be attacked, Swen gathered all of his courage, he felt as if his life was on the line and forced his body to move, he swung his sword at the direction where the blade was coming from him, and sure enough, he blocked it.
But unbeknownst to him, there was another attack that was coming for him, once his sword blocked the previous attack, his hand was forcibly pushed to the back by the impact, then in that moment where his hand couldn't do anything, Syla appeared and spun her body to use the sword's ricochet momentum to attack twice in a row.
Syla's consecutive slash was something that she learned when she was training with her dad, it was the technique that her dad had mastered, a technique where it draws the enemy's instinct to block and then using the opening that was left by the momentum to strike back.
Swoosh!
Although Syla was planning to stop her sword right before it hits Swen, she herself was surprised just like him before when she saw Swen using magic to dodge her second attack.
Swen used his other hand and shoots out a strong gust of wind towards Syla's sword, the wind was strong enough to change the sword's trajectory, causing it to miss Swen.
"Huh!?" Syla dropped her jaw when she felt the wind disrupting her movement.
Soon after Swen dodged Syla's consecutive attack, he jumped back, growing his distance with Syla as he landed at the other side of the arena.
'He's also using magic!' Syla thought.
It was then revealed that Syla wasn't exactly uninjured herself, because of the explosion that came from her fireball magic, multiple parts of her blouse and skirt had been torn apart, although it's still wearable and didn't expose any important skin, she would still need to buy a new pair of clothes or else it'll be embarassing to walk outside, not only her outfits, Syla also suffered bleeding and burn marks on her left hand.
Even though the fireball was burning on her left hand before, Syla felt nothing until it was released from her grasp, that's because of the natural law of the world, magic wouldn't injure its caster unless it was released or launched, Syla learned about this when she was still new to magic, and although she knew about the consequences, she still went through with shooting the fireball practically to the ground below her to dodge Swen's attack.
'Wind magic!! Damnit i can't use that!' Syla said to herself. 'I should've expected it..'
Both Swen and Syla stared at each other, they seems to be wondering whether they should continue the fight or not, since they're already injured and the fact that this was just a test, ultimately, Swen was the one that ended the fight, he threw his sword to Nomi who was watching the entire time and declared the end of the test.
"I've seen enough, the test shall end here." He said as he walked to Nomi. "Bring me the bandages and potion."
"Ah, understood." Nomi replied, nodding to Swen's order before she ran out of the arena.
Swen then saw Syla approaching him, she looked exhausted and was breathing heavily.
"You're strong." Swen said to her. "I haven't had a fight like that in years."
"You too.." Syla replied, smiling to him as a sign of respect.
"Syla, right? Where did you come from?" Swen suddenly asked, he wanted to know Syla deeper.
"Ah, i'm from Demiria, you might know it as the demihuman village.." Syla answered.
"The demihuman village that the chief town Marrick visited? You're from there? That's unexpected." Swen said as he sat down on the ground, the shadow that was casted from the arena shielded him from the sun.
"Ahaha.. Not many demihumans wanted to be an adventurer like me, so i get why its unusual.." Syla responded awkwardly, she then brushed the dusts off from her clothes.
The two of them were about to continue their conversation when a voice called them from the distance, it was Nomi, the receptionist, she came back with bandages and a vial with red liquids in her hands.
"Here it is Mr. Swen." She said as he handed the bandages to Swen.
Syla was also offered a pair of bandages from Swen, she gratefully accepted the offer and wrapped her left hand with it, sealing her injuries for it to heal.
"Drink this, it can speed up the healing process, though not instant." Swen said, stretching his hand to give Syla one of the vial that has red liquids in it.
"A potion? Thank you Mr. Swen." Syla responded, taking the vial in her hands and drinking it soon after.
The taste was bittersweet, almost like a mix of horrendous plants and candy. When Syla was done drinking it, she noticed that her body became more refreshed, it's as if she had been lying down for an hour and regained her energy back.
"Woah.. So this is what drinking a potion feels like." Syla said in amazement.
"Im surprised you know about potions, do they use it in your village?" Swen asked.
"Hm? Ahh, no.. It's just that i read a lot of books when i was little, and one of them had a description about potions in there.." Syla replied.
After the two of them was done treating themselves, it's now the time for Syla's rank assessment.
"I've seen enough of your ability.. And honestly, it kind of scared me, im sure you could've defeated me if we were to fight until the end– So, i will personally give you a gold plate, for your advancement to an A-Rank adventurer, the first one to do so this year." Swen declared right infront of Syla.
Her face immediately lit up in shock, she couldn't believe that she was officially an adventurer, and an A-Rank at that, her smile was wide and her eyes sparkling like glitter.
"Really!? Thank you Mr. Swen!!" She said as she grabbed Swen's hand and shook it with her own hands.
"U- Unbelievable, to be promoted to an A-Rank at your registration– Even though you look so young!" Nomi praised Syla, she was amazed by Syla's strength despite her young age.
"Go with Nomi and meet the guildmaster, your torn clothes and injuries should be enough proof of your test." Swen said, he gestured his fingers to make Syla exit the arena as soon as possible.
Since her test was over and that there's nothing else to do at the arena, Syla decided to follow Swen's order and turned her body back before walking towards the exit.
As Swen saw the two girls leaving the arena, he couldn't help but think about Syla and her strength, she was undoubtely a great fighter, yet he just had a feeling that her unprecedented strength at such young age would bring her nothing but troubles.
'Though i gave her an A-Rank promotion.. To be completely honest, she's in the very low of A-Rank, if she ever met with another A-Rank, i don't know what'll happen.. But to obtain that kind of power at that age, i don't know if i should be impressed or worried..'