At that moment, a dark creature sprang up from the ground before him.
“Oh my gods!” the man in black shouted out at once, hoping he would not get thrown out for showing emotion. The Grand Order was made up of the best fighters in the world, after all, and they were trained not to show emotion in combat.
The Great Father said nothing, though, much to his surprise and delight. Seeing this, the man turned his attention to his new foe. The creature had a strange, shadowy form. In its ‘hands,’ it held a katana of its own that looked twice as sharp and lethal as his own blade. It was probably just for show and wouldn’t cut him, but he didn’t care to find out.
The wraith form came at him quite suddenly with a flurry of blows, just the sight of which would send a normal man running. The man in black was far from normal, however, and believed fervently that he was destined to become the greatest Dragon ever.
He held on to this thought as the wraith attacked with all its fury, and it aided the young trainee in deflecting those attacks. He soon noticed the wraith would not tire anytime soon, if at all, so he started looking for opportunities to strike back.
The openings came much more often than the man would have thought. He used one to try a feint but to no avail. It seemed as though the wraith was invincible.
Then the man in black started to catch on to its pattern.
It’s not invincible, after all!
The man in black counted the strokes in this repeating pattern and found that there were only twenty. Once he found that out, all he had to do was figure out whether or not the pattern would hold. Violently, he came in with a few strokes to the middle. All were blocked, just as he thought, and in the exact manner he thought they would be.
Then, the man in black came in with two valiant lefts and a right, all of which were deflected according to the pattern. To make doubly sure, he threw in a few low blows and a high one, which were also deflected along the same pattern.
Now I’ve got you! He knew now he could beat the thing at any time. He wrestled with something in his mind briefly, and decided it would be worth it to show off a little while he finished his opponent.
So he started jumping over the low blows and rolling under the mid-range ones, just for effect. Then he started circling the creature with side-rolls and even flipped over it a time or two, not once getting hit.
When he was finally getting tired, he used one well-timed stab at the ribs to finish the creature off. The blade made contact with the wraith and it hissed and smoked as dissipated down to nothingness.
This time, the man in black got a few wry smiles from different members of the Dragon Council, his greatest compliment yet. The Great Father hadn’t made any sort of expression yet, of course, much as the young trainee expected. Still, if more than one of the members smiled, it was a good sign.
The young man took a moment or two after that fight to catch his breath, which wouldn’t have been quite as hard if he hadn’t shown off, but that was the choice he had made. He reached deep within his uniform and pulled out three gleaming black throwing stars, awaiting instruction for the next portion of his test. Said instruction came, and he didn’t like it at all.
“Throw the stars at us, young one,” the Great Father commanded.
He hesitated for a moment, not wanting to hurt the members of the Dragon Council. No one did, after all.
The Great Father glowered at him, the biggest warning sign he would get, so the young trainee threw all three stars at once. He threw them as fast and hard as he could, knowing that the force he used would be enough to penetrate even the robes of those on the Dragon Council he had aimed for.
He wanted to look away. He didn’t care to see members of the Dragon Council die, as he knew they would, so he motioned to turn his head. At the same time, he replayed the Great Father’s look in his head and knew he could not. He stared directly at the three he knew would die and did not close his eyes for fear of failing.
He didn’t even shed a tear when the members were knocked to the floor, knowing he could not. Then, something miraculous happened. The stricken Council members got back up to show they were unharmed.
They held the crumpled stars in their hands, grinning and showing him how the tips that had struck them were curiously bent out of shape. All three Council members stared at him and nodded at once, filling the man in black’s head with pride and wonder at just how strong those robes really were.
More importantly, he hadn’t killed them.
The man in black smiled despite his resolve not to do so until the test was complete, and moved hurriedly onto the next portion of the test.
He rummaged around and found the pocket that contained the two shiny sais he had bought just a few days ago. This time, he was prepared for what happened next. A giant wooden pole punched through the ground, several arms sprouting from its sides, all reaching and feeling for him.
The young trainee knew he would have to act quickly or he would be trapped, which would mean he failed. He started by jumping back to allow himself time to think, a luxury the creature would not give him. The wooden arms just grew and grew until they reached him anyway.
It had taken them a good five seconds to do so, though, and by then the man in black was more than ready for it.
He
