From behind her desk, the instructor scrutinized the three novices that stood before her. She always hated screening the beginners. In her opinion, you either got it or you don't. Plain and simple. However, since the Swordsmen Association doesn't work like that, she had to endure giving the same instructions to novices, day in and day out.
She was examining the three novices until the messenger came. He dutifully gave the scroll to the instructor and left as soon as he came. He composed himself, fixing his silver hair and arranging his jacket. He glanced over the recruiting scroll and cleared his throat.
"Welcome to the Swordsman Association Training Test. I will be your instructor for today. I am Lady Tofa. When I call your name, state your name, your place of origin, and you intentions to join the Swordsman Association. Candidate One, Tryten."
"Alexander Tryten. Prontera, East District. Like all members of the Tryten Family, I am to be a Knight of Prontera. In order to do so, I must first be a swordsman like the rest of you, much to my own dismay."
"Candidate Two. Krissa."
"Bea Krissa. Mt. Mjonlir. I want to be swordsman to protect our village. Swordsmen represent strength and honor. These are the qualities I want to have and bring to my home."
"Candidate Three. Pectus"
"Leon Pectus…of Comodo. I am simply here because I was told to be here. Could you also lower your sword?"
"Candidate Four, Zolan?
"Zolan. Will Candidate Four, Amel Zolan, please show yourself."
Suddenly, through the office doors burst out a panting swordsman. Sweat was pouring from his brow as he stood to his full height, an average 6 feet. He had a raggedy hair and had a stubbly beard around his mouth. He wiped the seat from his forehead and took a minute to catch his breath. Despite his rugged appearance, he had a soft voice.
"Am I late?" asked the tired man.
"Late? I'm sorry, but you are intruding in a private training session. Please exit
the premises before we must call security."
"But this is the alpha swordsman training meeting, right?"
"Yes."
"And you are Lady Tofa of the 3rd Brigade, correct?"
"I am."
"Then I'm in the right place," said Amel, with a sigh of relief.
"You are Candidate Four, Amel Zolan?"
"Yes ma'am," said Amel, saluting her. "Candidate Amel Zola, Al de Baran Proper. I wish to join the ranks of swordsman association. I'd like to try once more, for old times sake.
"IF you are a novice, where did you a acquire a swordsman outfit. Impersonating a swordsman is a crime and you can be imprisoned."
"Au Contraire, I have my swordsman license here," Amel said, showing her the license. "But as you can see, it has long since expired. I stopped being a swordsman a long time ago, and after much decision, I'd like to try again."
"Aren't you a little too old to start from square one? How old are you anyway," asked Tofa with a mocking tone.
"Life's too short to think you're too old," replied Amel with a laugh. "I'm an active 30 1/2 year old, ready to take this test. This is the 'special training session' right."
"Correct. You four have been gathered here today because of each you have show considerable talent. We, at the swordsman association, wish to foster that talent. After much deliberation, we have decided you are all worthy of taking the special swordsman test. This is a toned down version of the knight test. It will be difficult. Each you will enter the test, but the catch is you may go in by yourselves or with a partner. There is a chance that you may all go in at once. All that is random. The test will start in 5 minutes. You will know your groupings by then."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Minutes seemed to fly as the three sat, waiting for the Tryten, the unfortunate novice sent on his own, to come out from the test room.
The doors to the training room swung open. A tired, yet proud Tryten stepped out. He tried to keep himself calm but the fatigue got the better of him and he dropped to one knee. Lady Tofa walked toward him.
"Well done. You have done well in dispatching all the monsters before. High points for your skill. That, however, is all I can credit you for. You did not keep your patience and you let your anger got the best of you. Though it did help you, your lack of control made you reckless. We cannot risk someone like that risking the lives of your fellow swordsman. I am sorry but you failed. Good Bye."
Tryten said nothing. He picked up his sword and, with a few harsh interjections, left.
"As you can see, skill is not enough to pass. I am sorry that I cannot spare any advice. Best of luck to the three of you."
The three novices walked into the darkness, their green, blonde, and brown hair disappearing into the darkness. They walked together silently through the darkness. Amel could see that the green haired one was scared. Even through the darkness, he could see her visibly shaking. The other novice seemed unconcerned; his blade in his sheath.
A buzzing sound was heard. All three of novices stood still. Leon finally took out his blade and pointed into the distance. "Chonchons."
Bea held her sword out and told the others to take a closer look. "Not chonchons, steel chonchons."
Bea and Leon readied themselves to charge the steel chonchons. They motioned to Amel to get ready as well, but when they did, they saw him stooping low to the ground.
"What are you doing?" scolded Bea.
"Collecting stones. Doesn't this one look pretty," replied Amel.
"How on earth do you plan on beating them with stones? They're steel chonchons, if we don't work properly, we might not be able to beat them."
"Leave him be," said Leon. "If he doesn't take this thing seriously, he won't pass."
They were getting ready to attack, when they saw something shiny fly pass them. A stone. And the stone hit a steel chonchon, making it very angry. The two watched as more and more stones flew past them, getting the attention of the other steel chonchons.
"Hide in the corners," whispered Amel to the two. "When they fly past you, cut them down."
The two novices did as they were told. Amel stood up and screamed at the angry steel chonchons. As the steel chonchons charged at Amel, the other two novices were able to attack the chon chons at their flanks, catching them off guard. One by one, they were defeated, unbeknownst to the other steel chon chons.
"Watch out!" yelled Bea as she missed the last steel chon chon.
"Don't worry…" said Amel. He cracked his knuckles and with a swift movement, his fist met the steel chonchon, sending it flying.
"Not bad," commented Leon.
"Simply genius. By getting the attention of the steel chonchons, they didn't realize that we were there too. Strike the flanks," said Bea.
"You've been studying. You really want this don't you," Amel said, patting Bea's head. "And you," gesturing to Leon, "should have more faith. Let's go."
The trio walked forward and a boom was heard behind them. They turned around and saw a giant Elder Willow. It threw itself at Bea who was trailing behind the other two. Amel and Leon pushed Bea out of the way, blocking the Elder Willow's attack with their swordsman. Bea was able to pick herself up and get ready for action. The Elder Willow threw the others and roared. It charged at each of the novices, dealing serious blows to Amel, Bea, and Leon.
"We might have some difficulty with this one. You guys all right?" asked Bea.
"We're all right. But it caught us by surprise. I got a few bad cuts and bruises. What do you think?" asked Leon.
"Stay back and wait." With those words, Amel charged at the Elder Willow.
The other two stayed put, confident of Amel's skill. They also needed time to recover from the wounds from the surprise attack.
Amel kept his sword before him. The elder willow and Amel exchanged blows with each other, attacking and parrying. The elder willow was slowly being cut down, but each time Amel went for the killer blow, his sword would get stuck on the elder willow's wooden body. Each time that happened, he would lose his momentum and have to fall back again on the defensive. Neither elder willow nor Amel realized that they were inching closer toward the resting Bea and Leon.
"There! An opening!" yelled Bea, pointing at the elder willow's legs.
Amel took her advice and swung at its legs. Direct hit. The sword should have sliced through, but instead it got stuck in the wood. The elder willow raised its massive arm and crushed Amel, pinning Amel to the ground. The elder willow advanced toward the other two novices.
"I'm not going to let this thing beat me," declared Leon as he took sword and attacked the elder willow.
Leon was on the offensive, but the elder willow didn't budge. They were battling over the fallen body of Amel. Leon was able to push back the elder willow, but then Bea screamed at him not to do that. She told him to do the opposite, to stay on the defensive. Reluctantly, he fell back, passing over the body of Amel. Though he was on the defensive, he was able to get the elder willow to one knee.
"Now, strike now!"
Amel brought the sword over his head and drove it into the elder willow's head. It dug deep, but not deep enough to defeat it. Then, Leon saw Amel get up, and drive his sword where Leons' sword was. Together, they were able to force their swords through the elder willow, ripping it in half.
"I didn't get what Bea said at first. Only when you got up again did I get it. None of us had the strength to do permanent damage, but by combining our forces, we could cut through its tough wood."
"You're catching on. But I didn't tell Bea my plan. It was supposedly a one man thing."
"You didn't have to," interrupted Bea. "I could tell by the way you fought, that you weren't intent on beating it. You were looking for a weak point. After finding the weak point, you'd leave up to us to find it and once we exploited it…"
"You'd get up and stab it from the back," said Leon.
"Good, now I think the last challenge, is right before us," said Amel pointing at the giant Argos behind them.
It wasn't like the other kinds of Argos. It had a considerably small body, compared to the others, and had long legs. It had massive fangs and the black and orange colors common to most Argos.
"All right. Now it's time to test your mettle. Bea, can you identify its weakness?"
"It's obvious."
"Leon, can you guess, how we can take advantage of that weakness."
"I was chosen for a reason you know."
"Good, now that we are all on the same page let's show them why we are not your average swordsmen."
'Ehem…" coughed Bea.
"Swordsman and swordswomen. Sorry"
Amel drew out a second sword from his back. Screaming and swinging both swords in a berserk-like fashion, he charged the body of the Argos head on. The light bouncing off the swords and the screaming caught the attention of the Argos. To it, Amel was the greatest threat. It used its forelegs as giant paddles, slamming the ground. Amel dodged these pair of legs, only to be met by two smaller legs. The argos used these smaller legs like spikes, trying to stab Amel.
Amel had quite the difficult time defending from the spike like legs and the giant club like legs. One sword to strike. One to parry. Two swords to attack. Two swords to defensive. The fight between the Argos and Amel became like a dance. The fighters executing their attacks like scripted moves.
Amel looked over at Bea and Leon, motioning if they were ready. Bea gave the thumbs up while Leon mouthed, "almost ready." Amel took that as his cue. He threw one sword to the side. Blocking the legs that were I his way, Amel slashed one eye and drove his sword in another. He ran, taunting the Argos and picking up his sword.
The Argos shrieked and charged at Amel. Suddenly, it stopped running, it's foot was stuck. Bea ran out of her hiding place and cut the imprisoned leg at its base. "1 LEG!"
The Argos turned toward Bea only to get two of its legs stuck in two other holes. Amel and Leon severed the unfortunate legs. "3 LEGS!!!"
The injured Argos was flailing madly by this point, trying to crush the three novices.
"Argos!! Over Here!!!" yelled Amel.
The Argos raised one of it's spike like legs and tried to impale the nosiy human. The leg went past the human and right into another hole. Leon ran up to claim his second leg from the Argos' body. "4 LEGS!!!"
"It's off balance!!!" yelled Bea. "Distract it on its right. I'll take care of the one left leg."
The Argos was going in circles trying to get Leon and Amel. One of it's legs were caught in another hole. Amel took the liberty of reliving the Argos of it's fifth leg. "5 LEGS!!!"
Bea also took the opportunity to take off the last leg on its left side. "6 LEGS!!!!"
By now the Argos was effectively immobilized, only one walking leg and one spike leg left.
"Let's take it out of it's misery" declared Leon as he climbed on the Argos.
"NOOO!!!!" yelled Amel.
One of the argos' spike legs rose behind Leon. Amel ran up to Leon and pushed him out of the way. Bea went off to remove the last legs of the Argos.
"Are you all right?" asked Leon.
"If it weren't for you, I'd still be alright. Don't worry. It's only a slight gash on my arm. Watch!"
Bea and Leon watched as Amel placed his hand over his wound and spoke a few words. Amel's wounds were healed.
"But how?" asked Bea
"He's…" started Leon.
"Let's keep it a secret ok?" said Amel as he nudged Leon to be quiet.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Congratulations to the two of you," said Lady Tofa. She turned to Amel.
"You on the other hand. Have plenty to explain. Throwing stones from a distance? Very dishonorable. Playing dead? How cowardly. Backstabbing? Conduct unbecoming of a swordsman. Placing traps? Very devious. And that little thing you did at the end…"
Amel could do nothing but give a little chuckle. He had quite the list of demerits.
"But madam," interrupted Bea. "You can't deny that without him, none of us could have passed."
"That's right," added Leon. "I don't think anyone could have gotten through those monsters at our levels. You really should reconsider this test."
"Perhaps, but still, Candidate Zolan's actions are very questionable," said Lady Tofa with a scowl.
"However, you are a team palyer. You have kept your cool in times of surprise. You used your surroundings to your advantage. You were able to get Bea to get over her nervousness and Leon's soloist attitude. It is unfortunate that you couldn't do the sam for the proud Tryten. Welcome back, Swordsman Amel Zolan."
"Nice to be back."