Chapter 2: The Trial

In order to join the guild, Rhys must face off against them in combat.

I wake up the next morning. Today's the day I finally get to show my skills to them. However, she mentioned tomorrow night being when the test will happen, so I have 12 hours, roundabout. I decide it would be best to go somewhere to practice my skills a bit before heading out to the fight. I grab my weapons and head out into the city.

It takes a while to find a good spot, but after an hour I find a warehouse that won't gather suspicion if gunshots are heard. I find some old bean cans to use as targets and set them around the warehouse. I then spend the next hour shooting cans like a freaking hobo. After a while I decide to work on my form in sword duels. I pul out my sword and get started.

"Practicing alone?" A voice said behind me. I jumped back and raised my sword at them. I recognize her as the girl with the death in her eyes, making me keep the blade up.

"Yeah, need to get ready for tonight." I say, going back to formation practice, with her still watching me.

"Nice." She says, followed by a long beat. "Say, where do you come from?" She asked with genuine curiosity.

"Carther City, down south." I say, continuing to practice.

"Mmm, nice.." she says, though now I can't tell if she's sarcastic or not. "Might as well get to know you." She stuck out her hand. "Name's Mirella Makatza, but people call me Rel cause it's easier." I stuck my sword in the ground and shook her hand back.

"Rhys." I introduce myself to her.

"I already know who you are, dimwit." She said, chuckling as I look down. "It's ok, though. Say, can you show me some sword tricks? I'm not really a swordsman. Er, swordswoman.."

"Sure." I say happily. I grab my sword and hand it to her. I help her get her form correct. I walk nearby and pick up a dirty aluminum bat. This should do.

"Now," I lead off, raising up my bat. "The sword is often confused as just an offensive weapon when, in reality, it can also be a defensive weapon as well as an offensive weapon. You can block back strikes against you, and as they're taken back, you use that opportunity to strike back at them. Now, I'm going to try and strike at you, and you need to block me then strike at me, ok" She nodded, and so I swung at her and she was able to block it and as I stammered back, she got me off my feet and had the sword at my throat.

"Is this just revenge for yesterday?" I asked, soon breaking down into laughter. She also began laughing as she helped me up. We went through that a few more times until evening when the sun was going down.

"Time flies when you're having fun." I say, wiping away sweat.

"Yeah.." Mirella says, out of breath. "Oh, we're meeting up at The Blaze club. Can you find it?"

"Yeah." I say, putting my weapons away.

"Ok, see you there." She says, walking off. And I go back to my place to take a quick shower and to eat dinner.

It's nightfall, and I walk eagerly to The Blaze. I hear the music from the club blasting outside. I feel bad for those who live in the apartments next door, having to endure this insanity. I reach the bouncer who asks for my name. I tell him my name and he just stands there. I look at him funny, and I just decide to walk in regardless of if I'm invited or not. I walk down the hallway and my heart races me to the door. I know the techniques. I know the fighting styles. I know the moves. I got this. These thoughts play in my head as I enter the club. I look down at everyone and look for the guild. I'm looking for thirty seconds until I spot them. I walk down and meet up with them.

"I'm ready." I say, and that's all I told them.

They all look at each other and nod. Mirella says a chant and everyone else in the club simultaneously leaves. I notice that Azura isn't here. She's probably late, but the guild doesn't want that to stop them. They all gather at the dance floor and beckon me to come over. I walk over slowly and I pray for luck quickly. After that, I pull out my sword, motioning to them that I'm ready. And with that, the main event begins.

The two men both charge at me from behind and hit he forwards. As I tumble, I dodge the sword swing of the other lady and I bounce back up and slide the sword back into my hilt and pull out my two pistols: Deadlock and Flintlock, and open fire on everyone. After the bullet shower, the two men are still on the dance floor while the ladies have retreated. I walk down towards the men with pistols at my hands. The younger man starts swinging at me, and he lands a good number of hits on me. He tries to swing at me with another set, but I use my pistols to block him. After one swing, I pull him back and shoot at the other brother, and he falls limp. I stare at him, kinda worried. I wasn't supposed to kill him, was I? The other brother gets some shots on me as I stood there confused.

"It's ok if you kill us." He reassured me. "Rel set up a charm that lets us revive elsewhere. You're fine."

After that reassurance, I shot at him as he dodged away. Hey, he said it was ok. I made sure to say thanks to him during this. As he prepared to send a mean sucker punch onto me, I dodged it at the last second, pistol-whipping his neck and causing him to fall. I shot him to made sure he stayed down. As I walked away, putting my pistols away, the lights began to dim, and at this point the ladies came out. One had a sword, which means fun for me, and Rel had lightning coming from her hands. I rolled out of the way as she shot lightning my way and pulled my sword out to block the other girls sword attack. I swung at her, causing her to backtrack and I backflipped to dodge more lightning.

I know I can't fight Rel straight on with her magic. Luckily, the lights are getting lower, so I'll use that to my advantage. However, I want to show them something neat. As the lights go out, it's completely dark. But sparks illuminate the room. Sparks that are coming from by blade rapidly spinning against the ground. No, I'm not spinning the blade that fast (do you have any idea what that would do to my wrists?), the blade is mechanically designed to rotate and spin via mental connection. The ladies are taken back by this. I hear one of them say "impossible", and I wanted to correct her, but I have a plan set. So I stop spinning the blade, and moments later, the lights come back on, and I'm not there.

The ladies look around in confusion. They get together, thinking that'll protect them. But soon I come out from a pillar, shooting at them. I run in a circle around them, continuously shooting at them. They're getting hit by them, but they're still standing. So I disappear into the pillars once again. The ladies turn, believing I'm still running, but I prove them wrong by sneaking up behind Rel and striking her in the back, sending her into the electronic wall. She's getting fried up there.

"Sorry!" I shout, but the other girl slashes at me when I got distracted. I get up and into stance. As the sparks rain on top of us, we fight. I block her attacks, but she always seems to get a few cuts on me. I start to believe that's her attention. She swings her blade with such precision and accuracy that I wish to applaud her, but we're fighting, so maybe later. I get rather annoyed at these cuts building up that I start swinging the blade as it rotates. She stands her ground, not sure of what to do. I take the moment and take a big swing down on her, but she blocks. As I push down, Rel apparently explodes with the wall and debris comes towards us. As she gets hit by it, I go in and start beating down on her. I finish her off by impaling her. Four down, one to go.

A minute later, Azura comes running in, late. She looks at the wreckage we've made, and soon lays her eyes on me. I look at her back, my eyes flaming with adrenaline. I drop my weapons and motion to her, wanting to settle this in fisticuffs. She drops her weapons in agreement and starts running over. We begin swinging. I land two punches on her, but she blocks a kick I have and throws me down. I get up and we throw a punch that we both block, but she head butts me and kicks me back. She's pretty well trained, probably better trained than I am. I go in with a series of kicks and a finished punch, but as I run towards her, she gets me up in the air with two kicks and sends me back with a punch. Ok, screw it, I'm tapping in.

With that, my body goes into flames. She can tell that I want to finish this, so she changes stances. I run in and punch the ground, creating a sound wave and sending her back. I run towards her, but she greets me with a kick. Before she can send a second kick at me, I grab her leg and send her in the air and to the ground. I jump up and light my fist on fire, and it comes down on her, creating another shock wave, but with flames. My flames die out, and Azura lays there, beaten.

"Good... job.." Azura says weakly, coughing. I help her back up and shake her hand. But at that moment, whips grab my arms and pull me back. Another person kicks the back of my legs and makes me kneel. The culprits show themselves as the guild members, now looking better after reviving. They open my Robes to reveal my chest. Rel hands Azura a brand. It glowed a fiery red.

"Welcome to the guild." Azura said, and she branded my chest. It burned for seconds, and I soon found myself blacked out.