Without even letting Arcenne finish her words, Valyr went ahead and activated [True Blood Drive], narrowing the distance between the two as the former was left with no choice but to defend with her spear.
Bang!
Even though the mechanics of the test only limited the two of them to hitting each other's spears, the strength behind Valyr's sudden attack was still enough to push Arcenne back a couple of meters, her arms becoming somewhat numb soon after. Then again, even though it was numb, it was then that Arcenne truly realized that her words earlier were nothing but baseless accusations.
The man before her was serious in taking the test.
Unfortunately, even though there existed a great disparity in strength between the two of them, according to the mechanics of the test, she could only exhibit the prowess of a beginner at the spear at the early stages, which forced her to try her best to deflect all of the attacks she received to the side with moves that were sloppy, even for Valyr.
Nevertheless, Valyr's goal in surprising Arcenne with a [True Blood Drive] was for this exact reason, to gain the initiative at the very beginning of the test in order for the latter to be put on the defensive. In his eyes, it was far simpler to be on the offensive if the opposing side was at a lower level of prowess. Of course, the opposite applied once the opponent was of a higher level of prowess, but only to a certain extent.
In any case, he was going to make sure that he would pass the Novice stage of the test, at least. After all, that was the main reason why he was in the city in the first place. As for the higher levels of prowess?
Well… that depended on how much his body was willing to go.
Bang!
With the initiative obtained from underhandedly using [True Blood Drive], Valyr went ahead and relied on the basic spear movements in his attacks, which had become ingrained into him at this point thanks to his past life. From time to time, he would activate [Strong Pierce] from an abstruse angle, catching Arcenne off guard as she was forced to defend against it.
Fortunately, as seconds turned to minutes, the level of prowess she could show in her fighting gradually increased, with her level of prowess already being enough to reflect some of the attacks back at Valyr by the time five minutes had passed. Though Valyr had avoided all of the attacks that were sent back to him due to the disparity in skill, the leeway Arcenne had at this point was more than enough for her to explain a bit more regarding the mechanics of the test.
"Although I find it kind of rude that you would interrupt me before I was finished talking, I do understand that every moment could become an opportunity, and you showed that very well with the initiative you've had in this test so far," Arcenne said amidst the clashing of their spears, sending a few attacks Valyr's way, only to be deflected with his superior level of skill at the time.
"In any case, let me inform you that there's a limit to the level of prowess I could test you on, which is mostly in part due to my limits," she continued. "In case you might not have known, there are seven levels of prowess one could achieve, whether it be in combat or in production skills. From lowest to highest, it goes: Novice, Adept, Veteran, Elite, Expert, Master, and Transcendent."
"Currently, my level of prowess with the spear only goes up to the Elite stage, so I can only test you up to that level." At this point, the level of prowess Arcenne showed was seemingly nearing a bottleneck, prompting Valyr to think that, either in the next few seconds, or in the next minute, her level of prowess would undergo a massive shift.
"Then again…"
"The Elite stage is more than enough for someone like you."
Bang!
Just as he had expected, Arcenne's level of prowess swiftly increased, with her exploiting an opening he faintly had knowledge of to land an attack on Valyr, only for him to defend against it at the very last second. Unsurprisingly, with the disparity in their class ranks, the strength behind her attack was enough to shake Valyr's entire body, causing him to feel uncomfortable overall.
However, rather than feel like giving up after realizing just how much of a difference there was between him and Arcenne in terms of strength, it only stoked the flames of competition he had rekindled during the forging tournament, remembering that the test he was undertaking relied on one's prowess and not strength.
'Judging by the attack she just used, we've already gotten past the Novice stage.' Gauging the level of prowess Arcenne currently showed with his past life's experience, Valyr inwardly let out a sigh of relief as that meant he was guaranteed to obtain a title once this test was over.
But of course, he was going to try and see how far he could go in his current state.
'Although I feel like I'm lacking in comparison to her, only becoming a Spear Elite once I had ascended to my Rank 5 class in my previous life, I've still reached the pinnacle of spearmanship before the final battle.' With this in mind, combat intent started to emanate around him as a slightly ferocious grin appeared on his face. 'I wonder how much of my past experience I can show with my current body.'
"[Offense Aura]!"
Whoosh!
As a faint red haze covered the entirety of his body, Valyr went ahead and used the entirety of his AGI to close the gap between the two within mere moments, his attacks far more aggressive than they were earlier. At first, Arcenne was surprised that there was still a lot more Valyr hadn't showed her, but her thoughts eventually shifted into thinking that the man was nearing his limit.
"I wouldn't be surprised if our small skirmish ends within the next few minutes, but let me congratulate you for passing the Novice stage." Saying these words, Arcenne added a bit more force into her attacks, her level of prowess slowly but surely reaching the Adept stage as time passed.
Surprisingly, even though the level of difficulty when one went from nothing to Novice and from Novice to Adept was equivalent to comparing a firefly's light to the light of the sun, Valyr was still capable of holding out against Arcenne's flurry of attacks, even going so far as to retaliate against a couple of them from time to time.
Though, once the level of prowess Arcenne showed was around the halfway between the Novice and Adept stage, Valyr was forced to rely on some of the temporary buffing skills he had before utilizing [Descending Fang] from the [Serpent Spear Combat Style] to gain a bit of respite. Unfortunately, just as the level of prowess Arcenne showed during their fight was nearing the minimum threshold of the Adept stage, Valyr felt like his body seemed to be incapable of going any further.
However, rather than stop there and admit defeat, Valyr went ahead and eked out every single bit of remaining energy he had in his body, allowing him to land a couple more attacks that were destructive enough to push Arcenne over the Adept stage as she congratulated him for reaching it.
Hearing those words, a proud yet tired grin appeared on Valyr's mouth as he soon let out a chuckle. After that, he released his grip on his spear as he fell to the ground out of exhaustion.
"I concede."
Thud!
