15 Exam (3)

Iske used Release and his mana left his mana core and started running all over his body, granting him a boost in physical strength. At the same moment the examiner felt the mana from Iske and adjusted his posture. And Iske launched himself towards him.

He closed the distance between them in an instant, and threw multiple blows in a single second, but for no surprise, the examiner dodged them all. Observing Iske's blows, the examiner found countless ways to counter attack, but decided to extend the fight a bit.

Iske continued with the meaningless close combat, trying to hit the examiner instead of grabbing the flag, and in the beginning it was good for the examiner, but eventually he got angry.

Iske didn't even see his arm moving, he only felt a strong force hitting the side of his face and throwing him back in the air, and then he felt the impact of his body reaching the ground.

He looked up and saw the examiner looking down on him, "I thought you would have a plan, but you are only using close combat, you are not using magic, not even your innate magic, are you expecting to defeat me hiding your powers? And on top of all that you are not even trying to grab the flag but to hit me instead"

He was interrupted when he felt Iske's mana moving and then an explosion of fire occurred. Iske used fire magic against the ground to create an explosion and launch himself towards the examiner.

The speed was much greater than what Iske previously had, using the fire explosion to boost his explosion and trying to kick the examiner, but he was not having it, he caught Iske's leg in the air and threw him back with a lot of strength on the ground, which made Iske spit blood.

But he didn't give up and tried to trip up the examiner, but he didn't even budge and accepted Iske's strike, the boy's kick hit the man's leg and Iske was the one who felt pain.

The examiner aimed a kick on Iske's chin, but he managed to block it with his arms, but he was thrown a few meters away by the blow.

The examiner was already quite irritated by Iske's attitude, and was about to end the fight right there, but then he felt mana coming from below him, it was when he realized a small magic circle drawn right below his foot.

'When did he…'

Then a pillar of flames erupted devouring the examiner, but in vain, the man completely put out the flames with a single swing of his arm, but when the flames disappeared, so did Iske.

It was when he felt a presence behind him, a totally unexpected move, he couldn't have predicted, and couldn't dodge on time, Iske's fist was an inch from the examiner's face, connecting right on his jaw.

In the same instant Iske tried to grab the flag, but then felt an immense force holding his wrist, and the next thing he felt was an blow in his stomach coming from below, Iske was almost knocked out with that blow, but the examiner didn't ended there, with his other fist, He punched Iske in the back, causing him to collide face-first with the ground

Iske was immobile, which gave the examiner time to breath.

'This kid is good, he didn't even use his innate magic, and only showed a bit of his affinity with fire, and yet he managed to hit me, and that last attack, how did he manage to reach me so quickly without me noticing it? Was he hiding his true speed?'

The examiner's thoughts were interrupted when he felt Iske's mana rising again, and a second after, he heard.

"Smoke Screen"

And a dense and totally dark smoke involved and surrounded both of them, the examiner expanded his mana around, but found nothing.

'He's using Hide, but he can't keep that up for too long'

As he kept expanding his mana around more and more, he eventually caught Iske's presence inside that smoke, and closed the distance between him and Iske in a second, with his hand he caught Iske. Or what he thought was Iske.

But it was not, "Hey man, I'm not your opponent" Ian complained.

'It's not him'

Remembering what happened the last time, the examiner immediately looked back waiting for Iske's ambush, but there was nothing, it was when he felt mana moving behind him.

He turned around expecting to find Ian with his guard down, but Iske was there, and the examiner only saw as Iske's finger reached for the flag and touched it, before his fist connected with Iske's jaw and sent him flying away where he only stopped when he hit a tree nearby.

'He almost got it, the kid is a monster… Wait, is he fine?'

The examiner then approached Iske and checked his pulse, Ian followed him behind.

"Is he alive?" Ian asked.

The examiner didn't even need to answer.

"I'am" Iske answered.

The examiner, seeing that Iske was fine, retreated a bit and then said.

"You were really good, don't be disappointed, only a few in the whole history of the World Academy managed to defeat an examiner in the entrance exams, your defeat was inevitable"

Iske chuckled hearing that, then asked, "Who said I've lost?"

The examiner then checked his pocket and saw that the red flag was still there, then he asked, "What are you talking about?"

Iske didn't answer in words, instead he grabbed a tiny piece of wood that was destroyed because of the impact of Iske against the tree, and spread his mana in it.

Then he said, "Exchange"

As he said those words, the piece of wood disappeared, and in the place appeared the red flag, the examiner, shocked, looked once again to his pocket, and there he encountered the tiny piece of wood.

He looked towards Iske shocked, and the boy explained, "I didn't inherited any traditional and sophisticated Innate magic from the Grace family, my Innate magic is called Exchange, I can switch places with anything"

It was after his explanation that the examiner understood what happened earlier.

'His speed didn't increase out of nowhere, he simply switched places…'

"The first few minutes of the fight I just wanted to irritated you using only close combat, so that I could lower your guard, and then use fire magic to cause a distraction to hit you in the face and also get the flag"

"You could have reached for the flag and use your magic if you didn't chose to hit me"

Iske shrugged , "I know, but I wanted to hit you, anyway, I was not able to catch the flag, and was almost knocked out, but you didn't noticed my Innate magic, so I had another chance"

"And you used this boy as distraction, knowing that when I saw it was not you, I would look back thinking it was like the time you hit me"

Iske nodded, "Yeah, then I switched places with Ian, and then I touched the flag, then I won"

'He controlled the whole fight, I underestimated him, no, he made me underestimate him, it was all part of his plan'

"That's ridiculous, another monster came this time"

Iske felt intrigued with his words, then asked, "Another monster?"

"Two of the same generation defeated the examiner, it was something that I never saw before"

Iske was about to question who he was referring to, but the examiner was faster, he extended his arm to Iske and helped him standing.

"It's my loss, the red flag is yours"

Iske then shook his head, "No, it's not" then he threw the flag towards Ian.

The examiner and Ian himself were dumbfounded.

Seeing Ian's expression Iske asked, "What? I told you I would find your flag, there it is"

Ian was about to complain, but the examiner's laugh stopped him. The man laughed for a good two minutes.

"Only so you know, the reward of the red flag is passing directly to the World Academy, without the need of taking the other two exams"

"It doesn't matter," Iske answered.

The man chuckled again, "Very well, then Ian Baker, congratulations, and welcome, from now on you're a World Academy's student"