Chapter 28: Magic Exam

Over the course of two hours, Aaron remained asleep still recovering, Ash was busy eating cookies and milk while reading a book about the different guilds, Saffiyah and Gloria chatted about Aarons physical exam. The two women would occasionally take a glance at the two young ones, making sure they were okay. 

Once the two hours passed, Aaron woke up, he was in a slight daze due to his fast recovery. He stood up and wobbled over to his mother, "Are you ready for the next exam?" asked Gloria. Aaron nodded, Gloria led everyone back to the courtyard. "Saffiyah, there have been changes to the Adventurers magic exam, it no longer looks at overall mastery and power, but rather the individual's ability to use it in combat" said Gloria, "Is this related to new magical talents dying because of lack of experience?" asked Saffiyah. "The death rate of new Adventurers has been increasing to the point that the overall population is taking a huge hit, in fact, there is going to be a conference soon between the higher ups of the Adventurers guild to discuss this problem. There might even be a new rule which people at, lets say C-Rank in power can only be a D-Rank Adventurer. This is because of the increase of cursed monsters who are sensed to be at a certain rank of power but they can display power of the next realm" said Gloria. "My, my, that sure is scary" said Saffiyah. 

Saffiyah and Aaron walked into the Guild courtyard, "You may begin when you wish, I will start up the barrier" said Gloria who activated the courtyard barrier. "Are you ready Aaron, I won't be going easy on you like your dad did". Aaron was slightly stunned but nodded, "I'm ready", and as soon as he said that, Saffiyah bursted with an intense aura of mana. This shocked Aaron, giving him no chance to react to a magic projectile heading straight at him. This attack was a neutral mana attack, it hit Aaron straight in his face sending him back to the wall which welcomed Aaron back into its embrace, albeit Aaron rebounded from the wall and fell face first into the ground. Gloria's mouth dropped down, threatening to fall off her face due to the shock. 'Poor kid' thought Gloria, Aaron stood back up, albeit there was a difference, Aarons eye color took a deep shade of red, looking like blood. 

Mana slipped off of Aaron, flowing similar to water as it spread around him. The mana took on the color of blood, Aaron swept his hand upwards, suddenly the blood mana swept like a sharp blade towards Saffiyah. Saffiyah smiled at this, conjuring wind disks around her, she pushed her left hand forth and the wind blades moved freely to meet Aarons attack, the two different attacks caused cuts and turned the ground to rubble before they even collided. Not long after the wind blades were unleashed, a glint flashed in Saffiyahs eyes, a small bubble was forming behind her, more and more water converged within the bubble but it remained small. Its aura contained a lot of power but Aaron who was focusing on the earlier wind blades did not notice the abnormality. The wind blades met with Aarons attack, the single blood wave was cut continuosly and dissipated not long, Aaron swept his hands again repeatedly, not stopping until the wind blades were close to the point they were extremely dangerous. This forced Aaron to side step and use the already conjured up blood to stall the wind blades. He had succesfully dodged, thats when two enormous streams of water appeared behind Saffiyah as he charged towards Aaron giving him no time at all to conjure up an attack to defend him, this situation pushed Aaron into a state which allowed him to react. 

Through his peripheral, Aaron noticed the wind blades he narrowly dodged curve in middair like a boomerang heading straight towards him. Aaron stood still for a second, then he made a small ring of blood around him, floating just a little below his waist, then he dashed towards the water stream towards his left, both the streams of water and wind blades neared, Saffiyah did not put any slack on her son and kept the course of her attacks. The wind blades were faster and caught up to Aaron, leaving a whole foot on each side inbetween the water and the wind blades. The blood ring around Aaron shit out towards the ground, pulling his body away and letting the wind blades clash with the water. Due to the density and amount of water the wind blades dissipated and left a small opening in the water. Aaron used this split second and used his movement technique to its fullest rushing through the small hole, once he got through, due to the confusion the two streams of water converged, giving Aaron time to act before they were on his trail again. Saffiyah was heavily surprised but still smiled, the ring of blood around Aaron stopped its motion and began to form a spear, the blood started emmiting a strange steam, Aaron did not hesitate to throw the spear straight at his mother.

Saffiyah saw this and waved her left to the right, all of a sudden, the converged wave unleashed a sideways pillar, the blood spear clashed with it and was actually making a small hole, the water pillar dissipated but the spear disappeared much faster, eventually the spear was a small orb and managed to get through the water, this displayed Aarons boiling blood ability's firepower, managing to get through a higher realms attack. The blood bullet charged straight, aiming at Saffiyahs abdomen, before colliding Saffiyah waved her wand once more and a huge amount of mana splashed against the bullet blowing it to nothing. "That's enough" shouted Gloria as Saffiyah dissipated all her mana on the field, Aaron stopped his movement and passed out on the spot, returning to his friend of the day, the ground.