At a seemingly implicit signal that was fully invisible to me, both Leyvin and John started doing something at the exact same moment. It looked so coordinated that it almost felt unreal.

  Leyvin was a [Windwalker], a class that should be focused on speed if you were to trust the name. He didn't run straight at John though. He wasn't a warrior and he didn't have a weapon on him either. While Leyvin had an epic class and John 'only' a rare class, the aspect matchup was unfavorable for Leyvin. is far from being known to dominate . In my imagination, I just couldn't see any wind attacks being effective against a rock.

  Leyvin slid unnaturally over the earth, his movements way too fast for the seemingly slow strides of his long legs. This had to be some kind of movement-related skill. He was probably going to try circling around John, controlling the flow of the battle.

  John didn't just sit still, though. Around him, chunks of rock and earth floated up from the ground before suddenly rocketing forward in the general direction of Leyvin. His aim was quite bad, and to nobody's surprise, Leyvin had no problems dodging the sloppy attacks.

  Instead of continuing to circle around John, Leyvin swung his hand at him, probably using another one of his skills. He was way too far away from John to ever physically hit him with his hand, after all. In the arc of his swing, a faint shimmer was visible before it shot towards John. From my sideways perspective, it looked like some half-moon-shaped distortion rapidly making its way towards John, who had seen the transparent but still obvious attack as well.

  If I had to guess, it was some kind of wind blade skill. Maybe something like [Wind Cutter] or [Air Blade]? It wasn't all that effective, though. In front of John, a rather thin wall of earth rose into the sky with a moderate speed. While it wasn't the sturdiest wall out there, it was more than sturdy enough to block the wind blade, collapsing it to nothing more than a slight breeze.

  For a couple more minutes, they continued their exchange of earth bullets and wind blades. While John did get slightly more precise with his projectiles as time passed, he still didn't manage to even graze the agile [Windwalker] he was fighting against. On the other hand, Leyvin found a bit more success, though that was only barely as well. A wind blade barely grazed John's leg, cutting through some of his pants' fabric. His skin remained unhurt though, probably due to intervention from instructor Carmelia.

  After that, John began changing his tactics. Instead of shooting stones at Leyvin, he tried creating spikes out of the ground, right in the path of where he expected Leyvin to move towards, trying to get him to impale himself with his own speed. For the first spike, it almost worked. Leyvin only saw the spike in the very last second, and in a move that seemingly defied the laws of physics, he stepped on nothing but the thin air, narrowly managing to change his direction and avoid the spike in his path.

  Walking on air, how cool is that? In comparison to that, my own skills were really lame. Who needs a point-blank flash grenade skill like [Flash] when you could walk on air? So unfair.

  John was just as flabbergasted at Leyvin defying gravity as the rest of us were, which caused him to miss an incoming wind blade, which then proceeded to hit him square in the chest. Well, it would have hit him square in the chest if instructor Carmelia hadn't blocked it.

  With a movement that I seem to have missed somehow, she appeared between the two fighters. "Great fight for a first fight, I have definitely seen worse before. Both of you have a natural talent for this. Creating a spike in Leyvin's path to utilize his speed against him was a very smart move. Finding ways for enemies to get rid of themselves is always a viable tactic. You do need to work on your precision with your stones though, they were way off from where they should have gone. Leyvin, you on the other hand, were almost unnaturally precise with your wind blades. Your class doesn't seem to have the greatest offensive potential, but you dealt well with what you had. Even though you mostly won because your opponent was in shock after your last-second dodge, you fought very well."

  Instructor Carmelia turned back to us. "Let that be a lesson for all of you as well. John lost today because he was unable to keep his cool in an unexpected situation. His opponent didn't behave in the way he predicted, which confused him. In a real fight, this would have cost him his life. A single moment of inattention and your life is forfeit. That is what it means to fight. No matter what your opponent does, you have to be prepared. If your attack didn't have the effect you wanted it to, try a different attack or run away. Both are acceptable actions in a situation like that. What is not acceptable is getting confused or freezing up. Understood?"

  We all nodded. She was right after all. If John wasn't so stuck in his stupor, he wouldn't have missed the incoming wind blade and would have had a real chance of winning the spar.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  "Great, the next up are Aurelia and Carl. Remember to use what you learned from watching the first fight. If you're both ready, you may begin."

  This was a fight I was excited about, mainly because I wanted to see Carl's abilities. [Electromancer] sounded like a really cool class. I was glad that I didn't have to face him though, I have no idea how anyone is supposed to defend against lightning.

  Despite the potential for this fight, it was pretty anticlimactic. Aurelia didn't put up much of a fight. She had already seemed nervous beforehand, but when it actually started, she basically just froze. Carl threw out a lightning bolt or something like that at her, but he missed wildly. A faint smell similar to the smell after a thunderstorm drifted by. Probably the smell of the ozone created from the lightning bolt as it ripped through the air. It seemed powerful enough to me.

  I don't know what other skills Carl had apart from the lightning bolt, but it didn't seem like he had any other attacks he could use. After one bolt of his finally veered in the direction of his opponent, instructor Carmela interfered, ending this pathetic spar.

  "Okay, that was more like what I expected from someone who has never been in a fight before. Don't feel embarrassed about this, it's more common than one might think. Since you both didn't show much of what you are capable of, I can't really judge your fighting skills. What I can see, however, are the glaring problems that both of you will need to work on before anything else can happen."

  "Carl, what you need to do is clear. Your offensive potential is way higher than that of any tier one class I've ever seen before. However, just like I said before, is incredibly volatile and thus also extremely difficult to control. It's basically a double-edged sword. Instead of forcefully trying to somehow control full-force lightning bolts, it would be better for you to try and reduce the power of your attacks to make them easier to control for now. After you have learned to control weak lightning, you can then start to slowly increase your power output. Power is one thing you'll always have, your class is seemingly hyper-focused on pure damage after all, even if you do nothing to actively try to increase it. Simply trying to further increase your power would instead make you a risk to any allies you'd have. Focusing on control will get you much quicker, safer, and generally better results than pursuing a full-power approach. Are we clear?"

  "Yes, I thought something similar. It felt weird seeing my attack go nowhere near where I aimed. Since I don't want to become a risk to my teammates in future fights, I need to get this under control first." Carl responded. He was quite steadfast in my opinion, the pathetic 'fight' he just had didn't seem to cause him any embarrassment at all.

  Aurelia, on the other hand, was practically burning up in shame. Her face was so red, one might think she had a fever. Understandable though. Knowing myself, I wouldn't look much different in her situation.

  "Great, you look like a smart guy. I'll trust you to figure it out yourself."

  Instructor Carmelia then turned towards Aurelia, who was still mostly looking at the floor.

  "As for you, Aurelia, we'll need to overcome your anxiety about fighting first. Improving your skills and abilities is useless if you can't use them effectively in a fight. As I said before, freezing up is equivalent to death. If your mind sinks into panic, you lose the ability to think rationally or sometimes the ability to think at all. The same goes for fear. Being afraid of getting hurt is a natural instinct, but it can cause your death sooner than you might think. If losing your arm is the only way of possibly striking a winning blow against your opponent, you can't hesitate to sacrifice it. With increasing level, your body also becomes way more resilient. Injuries that would have been fatal before are now only light or serious injuries, and in some cases only slight annoyances. We have healers that can easily grow back limbs and are capable of healing even worse injuries. Even that Whitney girl will soon be capable of doing just that."

  "The remaining question now is how we are going to combat your fear. There are many ways we can go about this, but there's one way in particular that would probably be the most logical in your situation. If you truly want to help and fight alongside the others, then overcome your fear through exposure. While it might be stressful in the beginning, your apprehension will diminish with time. You have great potential within you, I can see it clearly. You just need to overcome this blockade, and you will soar up to the sky."

  "I'm going to arrange a lot more practice spars for you, not just against the other hero candidates but also against me and some others who can slowly and safely ease you into fighting. What do you think?"

  "... Yes, that would probably be good. Thank you." Aurelia responded, her head still hung low.

  "Okay, then. Last spar for today, Dahlia and Miss Firefly, please step forward."

  It was finally my turn. I couldn't help but suddenly feel nervous as adrenaline began to shoot through me. Will I embarrass myself just like Aurelia did? I have no doubt that Dahlia will be a capable fighter. That rowdy girl feared nothing, the only thing she's feeling right now is probably excitement. We're both mostly fire-based as well, both our classes having the aspect, though I, as useless as it might be, also had . Hers sounds arguably more suited for combat though, it was of a higher grade than mine as well.

  Until now, I hadn't even gotten to test out my only real offensive skill, [Minor Fireball], yet. An oversight now that I think about it. Going into a fight without even knowing what abilities you had was just stupid. What was past me thinking?

  I felt regretful, but there was nothing I could do about that now. I was right about to start fighting after all. I'd have to figure it out as I go. While I didn't even dare to hope of winning, I didn't want to go out without a fight. I had already accepted my probably inevitable loss, I was basically at a disadvantage from every possible perspective.