The last thing Riku needed right now was all the eyes on him as he walked into the arena. But that was the point, right? To show them all.
He walked slowly and stopped right at the center of the arena. The Vex-hound from earlier had been eventually killed by an aspirant with a flame whip, so a new one was released.
Riku was the third person to face the new one and he believed it would be full of energy.
The spirit growled and Riku flinched. A few snorts could be heard from where the aspirants all stood.
Forget the ghostling at the market. It was a spirit that consumed fear and could only drain someone's life force slowly by touching them until it was completely drained, which took a long time because of its low tier, making escape possible.
But this? This was a Tier-4 spirit that looked at him like it was ready to take off his head like a cork.
'Calm down, Riku. Calm down,' he thought. 'This is just uhhhm… a QA test and you're the product, you've got this.'
The pillars looked at him, either bored or irritated, expecting him to quickly fail as expected so he could be dismissed. Though Master Kalen and Silent Brother wore neutral expressions.
Riku could hear his heart beating in his ears as fear surged. However, this was to his advantage as he started to feel as if his nega reserves were overflowing. While he felt the nega energy coming from the outside at the market the other day, he felt this one inside. It wasn't fear from someone but himself. Another piece of information stored, but that was not the focus right now.
The spirit lunged at Riku and he dove to the side, rolling before getting up again, his heart almost pounding its way out of his chest.
The spirit turned immediately and went after him again. Riku tried to think but his brain was short-circuiting.
At the last moment, Riku managed to pull up a big, translucent glowing yellow wall in front of the spirit, making it skid to a stop as it blocked them from each other. It was an illusion, projected well enough to make a low tier spirit have doubts.
Riku was surprised how he managed to pull a wall that big, but then again if he took a guess, it would be the sudden surge of Nega energy he could feel from his own fear.
"An illusion?" Baroness Shadowgrave sat up straight.
The spirit went back and charged in, its momentum putting it off course as it hit the illusory wall. It didn't actually hit the wall, but its mind did not let it believe there was nothing there.
It quickly went to his side and decided to attack again, but Riku dismissed the first and pulled up another illusory wall. But there was a problem.
He started to get a glimmer of hope. Confidence. And more confidence meant lesser fear. Lesser fear meant reduction in nega energy surge.
The wall flickered for a beat and Riku cursed under his breath, that alone scaring him enough to set it straight. 'Come on, hasn't it been a minute already?'
The spirit monitored the wall for a bit before striking with its claws, which passed through easily, realization settling for the spirit. It growled even deeper, clearly angrier than it already was. And just like himself, Riku could feel the slight increase in the spirits aura.
It went after him with a speed that gave Riku little to no time to react. His mind went absolutely void of ideas at the moment, his body frozen in place. 'What do I do? Think, think, think, THINK, IDIOT. YOU'RE GONNA DIE!'
Alas, he got a hold of himself and created something directly in front of him before diving out of the way. It was an illusory clone of himself and that did well enough to fool the spirit, making it focus on the target ahead.
Riku was on the ground when the spirit turned to him again. He is wasn't sure anything he thought of could work again.
Just as the spirit was about to lunge again, chains appeared and held it in place as the bell indicating time elapsed rang.
Riku lay flat on his back, breathing out deeply. He did it. He got through the first test, not just alive but uninjured as well.
"No attack potency. Weak," General Torvin grunted.
"Mmm, let the Baroness say. Is this not your domain?" Lord Valerius asked.
Baroness Shadowgrave exhaled, "He did use misdirection and it played out well for a moment before the spirit realized it was being fooled, but still… he lacks enough potential to impress me."
Master Kalen though stood up and spoke aloud. "A good misdirection and mind trick, though clumsy, it got you to the next stage. Riku of the Eastern Grove, Pass."
Riku closed his eyes shut and opened them, getting up to his feet. From the looks the other pillars gave him, Riku knew he surprised them but they were not going to accept that what they deemed useless was actually doing something.
His eyes went to Master Kalen though. That smile. It felt weird and it didn't reached his eyes, like it was… forced?
Then he looked at the Silent Brother who stared at him with half-lided eyes and for a moment there, Riku could have sworn the man gave him a slight nod of approval.
Whichever, he had at least passed.
He went back to the group of aspirants, surprisingly, a few acknowledged him with nods and a little praise.
"Cool trick there. Not bad for a Tier-5 in a useless class."
"Mm, you survived man."
"Brilliant with that clone. I didn't know designer-type powers looked this cool, if only you could fight."
There it was. The one reason the class was considered useless. Ability to fight.
But Riku didn't get it. Was it that they could not learn how to fight or something? A question he wished he could ask someone but he was not in the mood for a conversation at the moment. Maybe Borin would probably have an answer.
As Riku stood slightly away from the main crowd, Lorna walked up to him. "Hey, you did well out there. Call me Lorna, but you should already know that by now," she said, offering him a handshake.
Riku took it, her hand feeling softer than any female's he had ever touched, not that he did get the chance to touch the hands of a lot. "It's Riku, nice to meet you."
She nodded, "Say, how come you were able to think under that pressure?"
"Err…" Riku rubbed the back of his head nervously. She didn't know he was actually working on instincts because he couldn't think. "It's… It's just, you know, calming myself down," he lied with a nervous chuckle.
She nodded again. "Do you think you can make it past the next stage with this trick or do you have something else to show?"
Riku finally thought about it. She was asking the question he was supposed to ask himself all along. Would he actually be able to pass the next stages even if he passed the first?
And the answer was simple, something he himself knew. "No. I don't think so."
"I like that you're honest with yourself. But why did you come in the first place? Let me guess. 'I'll show them I am not useless.' hm?"
Riku blinked. Why was it always so easy to read? "Something like that," he muttered.
"As expected. But you know," she leaned closer to whisper in his ear. "One thing they won't tell you is that the trials are only two stages. This one and the next."
"Really?" Riku blinked surprised.
"The third stage is an oath taking." She added, pulling away.
"Wow, so if I can make it past the next round, I'm in?" Riku asked and she nodded. He then had that usual question that popped up whenever someone new came to him with random information. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Hm?" She turned to him. "Well, because I wanted to see you on the other side, but I guess I can't. Also because you're around my age. Talking freely with kids these days is getting disrespectful, and trust me when I say I am speaking from experience. I definitely am going to mess up someone's child if they try nonsense with me."
'Gee, so she's the fiery type,' Riku thought, then spoke out loud. "How old?"
"Twenty-one. You?"
"Two years older."
"You could have said that a different way," she rolled her eyes.
Master Kalen's next announcement disrupted their conversation.
"Aspirants, get yourselves prepared for the next test. In this one, you will be facing a Tier-4 upper, black-scourger. Beware that this specific spirit is deadlier than the last." Kalen's eyes fell to Riku for a second. "Some of your petty tricks will not work against it. Stay alert and see if you can last four minutes. Good luck."
Then the arena gates opened. Right before it even came out, Riku could see two glowing white dots from the shadows. He gulped.