- Stepping Up 2

"Mr. Evaluator sir, I'm a light mage so my battle prowess is terrible at best. Is this evaluation going to be purely on my fighting ability or my magic skills as well?" She asked with an embarrassed expression.

"A light mage huh? Well even if you can't fight, you need to know basic self-defense in case of an emergency. I'll lower the requirements a bit because you're a support mage. Now attack me." He said while pondering something in his mind.

Lily started running at the old man while casting her vitality-boosting spell. When she arrived in front of the evaluator, she fainted a vertical slash with her dagger and threw it at him. Of course, he easily caught this but Lily went in to punch him square in the chest.

He just caught her fist with his other hand, giving her a chance to stay on the offensive instead of demolishing her as he did with Corey. Lily pulled herself in the air upside down on the man's arm that had grabbed hers, and she twisted her body to land a square kick to his head.

He leaned back, making Lily miss and lose her balance. She fell to the ground and twisted her arm backwards, effectively trapping herself. "That was a nice try, but I'm not sure if it can pass for E ran-" Before he could finish, Lily jumped in the air spinning backwards to un-twist her arm while also landing a powerful kick to the man's skull.

"OOOWWWW!" However, the old man wasn't the one that took damage from that attack. Lily ended up hurting her own foot and crashing into the ground awkwardly since the old man let go of her hand. "Alright I changed my mind. You both pass for E rank, good job." He said while trying to hold back his smile.

"Now for the main event!" He shouted while taking up a fighting stance. "I should warn you, my speed has risen dramatically old man." I smiled and charged at him while pulling out my two scythes. I cast [Electric Field] for good measure and [Dark Cloak] because I knew he would be hitting me pretty hard.

I coated both my scythes in dark aura, ready to spam [Dark Slash] at him from many different angles. "After Image!" I shouted, making my identical clone appear beside me, his weapons also covered in a dark slash, although it was just for show. 'Here I go!'

'EXTREME SPEED!' I shouted in my mind while ordering my clone to attack and distract the old man for as long as possible. I darted around in the air, slinging my scythes around from their handles that had been extended thanks to the long chains. I attacked from every direction as fast as I could making some slashes horizontal and others vertical.

The speed at which I was moving and the speed of me swinging my scythes was too fast for Corey and Lily to keep up with, making it look like I disappeared in their eyes.

However many dark slashes started coming from everywhere, all aimed at the old Man. Instead of moving or even playing with my after image, he just stood there.

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

My dark slashes started landing on him, I didn't stop slinging them until my mana had hit 50. I cast [Thunder] twice at the area the dust cloud had formed, hoping to hit the old geezer.

My dark cloak disappeared, making me put up my guard. 'Why didn't he attack me? He could've easily taken my clone out and dodged most of those slashes.'

After the dust finally settled, the old man was just standing there with just a few scratches on him, no blood had even been drawn.

"When facing an opponent that's stronger than you, full offense is always a terrible idea. You need to learn when to stick with defense and retaliation as well as offense." He said while dusting his shoulder off.

'I'm fucked.' I thought right before he disappeared from the spot he was standing, leaving a small tornado of dust in his place from the speed.

I didn't have time to guess which direction he would attack me from, I had to guess. I pulled up both of my blades and held them in front of me, but my guess was wrong. Or he was just so fast he changed where he was originally going to attack me.

"I can tell you've gotten stronger." He said before kicking me into the sky. He hit me so hard I was flying straight up for several seconds before I could move.

He knocked the wind out of me and almost rendered me unconscious. I finally extended my wings and slowed my speed down before falling back to the ground.

[Hp - 276]

'I'll act like I'm seriously injured on my way down, and when he lets his guard down I'll sling my scythe at him!' I thought while descending back down to the earth, passing through some clouds on my way.

I pulled out my wings and started gliding down slowly when I was around 100 feet off the ground. I made a face of pain and defeat to throw the old geezer off.

It worked because he turned around and started lecturing the other two on something. 'It's now or never!' I threw my scythe at him, making sure to grasp the handle so I could retract it if necessary.

Extreme speed had worn off a long time ago, so the element of surprise was all I had. Before my scythe hit his back, he kicked it to the side without even turning around.

'Yeah, I should stop while I still can.' Now with a serious face of defeat, I walked over to Corey and Lily.

"That was amazing! You disappeared then a shower of dark slashes started hitting the old man out of nowhere!" Lily said while making weird sounds with her mouth and crazy hand gestures trying to reenact what she saw.

"Maybe, but I still got my ass handed to me," I said while limping back. Somehow my right leg had got damaged pretty badly without me realizing it.

"You're sloppy with those weapons. It would be best if you start practicing the art of swordplay in the Institute if you want to utilize your weapons with your magic." The old man said while looking at me.

His clothes had gotten pretty wrecked, but his body was just fine. 'My attacks did hardly any damage to him...' I thought before making all the energy my slashes had built up go towards my Hp.

"I'll start practicing with a coach during our training period, thanks," I said, wanting to fall asleep. "Alright, I'll see you three when you rank up to D rank. Good luck on your adventures" He said before walking into the guild, probably to change clothes. "I'm going home, I'm tired," I said before turning around to leave the guild.

"Me too," Lily said, joining me. "I'll see you two tomorrow. I'm going to do a quest on my own this afternoon." Corey said while spinning his staff in his hand. "I'll see ya, Corey."

I left the city and went to the little hole I called home. I climbed in and passed out almost instantly. 'It doesn't matter how long I can go without sleep, If I keep overexerting myself fighting that old man I'll want to sleep every time.' I thought before letting my desire take over.

---------------

The next day at school was the usual boring lesson about the best way to utilize certain types of magic. While it was useful information, one could easily learn it themselves with a bit of experience.

After class ended, I parted ways with Corey and Lily to go find a teacher that could train me in weaponship. Strangely, my system recognized my scythes as Shortswords even though they can't be used as such.

'Hopefully, someone in this institute uses a scythe.' I thought while heading to the principles office.