Shang felt relieved when he saw his first opponent walk through the door since he had no idea how he was supposed to carry on the conversation after hearing about Viera's goal in life.
A man in seemingly his early thirties walked through the door. He wore bronze armor, showing that he was one of the basic guards of Warrior's Paradise.
Of course, even if the man seemed to be in his early thirties, he could very well be in his forties or even fifties. After all, General Stage warriors aged slower.
The man had brown hair, and he quickly noticed Shang.
Then, he noticed Viera, and a gleam of recognition appeared in them for an instant.
For that moment, Shang could feel that the man was a bit afraid of Viera.
It seemed like the guards knew Viera.
Shang slowly stood up. "We can continue this conversation later," he said as he looked back at Viera.
At that moment, Shang paused for a bit.
Viera's aura had made a 180 when the guard walked through the door.
She had a cold and apathetic expression on her face as she also slowly stood up from her chair.
She walked to the side of the room and waited for both warriors to take up their positions.
"You are both at the Early General Stage," she said.
Shang's brows furrowed under his mask. He was pretty sure that he was at the Initial General Stage.
'But it makes sense that she would say that I'm at the Early General Stage. After all, after the procedure, my body is basically on the level of an Early General Stage warrior.'
"This student hasn't fought in a while, and he needs to become familiar with fighting again," Viera neutrally explained. "Your job is to win. I wish for you to attack him with the intention to kill."
The guard scratched the back of his head. "Alright," he said. "As long as I'm getting paid."
"You will," Viera said.
Shang slowly took out his sword as he readied himself.
BANG!
The guard immediately charged forward as he took out his own weapon, a spear.
The room was the place where the auction of the academy took place every month, which meant that it was rather big. In fact, it was over 50 meters wide.
The two of them had been nearly 20 meters away from each other at the beginning. Sure, General Stage warriors were fast, but a warrior on their level still needed a full second to close that gap.
But before the guard even came close to Shang, he pulled his spear back and tossed it out from below his waist.
Usually, by throwing a spear like this, not a lot of power could be put into the throw, but for some reason, the spear shot forward with incredible speeds.
Shang's eyes widened.
BANG!
The Magic Circle on Shang's uniform activated, and the spear bounced off his head.
Shang only looked with shock at the spear.
That had been way too fast!
One couldn't forget that Shang had been at the top of his class and that he could even win against almost every student outside the Caterpillar Class.
He definitely wasn't weak.
But this spear throw.
This had been insane!
Suddenly, Shang saw a Space Ring on one of the guard's fingers shine, and a second spear appeared in his hands.
Shang quickly recovered and also charged forward with his sword.
The two of them quickly reached each other, and the guard stabbed forward with his spear.
Shang jumped to the side, but his eyes widened when he noticed that he had jumped to the side by over five meters.
He had only wanted to move to the side by a meter or so!
'I need to get used to my new power,' Shang thought.
SHING!
However, at that moment, Shang saw the butt of the guard's spear hit the place where Shang had intended to evade towards.
Shang hadn't even seen the butt of the spear move!
The guard lifted an eyebrow when he noticed that he hadn't hit anything.
This had been one of his feints, and he had deliberately left this opening for his opponent to dodge towards.
But his opponent didn't.
The guard quickly jumped to the side and began to roll in the air.
Shang was uncertain why the guard was doing that, but he quickly saw why.
In the sky, the guard threw his spear at Shang again, and it was just as fast as the previous one.
SHING!
The spear shot past Shang's head, taking some hair with it.
BANG!
It hit the wall in the distance, and the building vibrated for a bit.
Shang quickly focused on his opponent again.
And then, he saw a spear in front of his face, stationary.
Shang nearly jumped back, but he quickly controlled himself.
Viera stood beside the spear, and she held it.
The fight was obviously over.
"And done," the guard said from a distance.
Shang was still shocked.
Where did that spear come from?
Shang remembered the roll in the air the guard did and realized that this was near the place where the guard's first spear was.
The guard had thrown his second spear in the air, grabbed his first spear from the air, and threw that one too.
In short, the first throw had only been a distraction.
"Wind Beast Defense Technique."
Shang looked at the guard.
"Wind Beast Defense Technique?" Shang asked.
"Yep," the guard said as he began to collect his spears. "All of us have to learn that technique if we want to work in Warrior's Paradise as guards."
"As the name suggests, it's a technique to deal with General Stage beasts that get too close to the city. We can't use the big ballistae against General Stage beasts. After all, every arrow costs a lot of money to produce."
"So, for the weaker beasts, we simply throw our spears. It basically doesn't cost us anything since some of us are responsible for collecting the corpses and spears at night."
Shang nodded. No wonder the spears were that fast. After all, this was a technique specifically designed to deal with the fastest kind of flying beasts.
"Anyway, that should be it for my job, right?" the guard asked Viera.
Viera nodded. "You may leave. Contact your superior for the reward."
"Good," the guard said before looking at Shang. "Have fun. A couple of others are already queuing up. I don't think you will get a moment to rest."
"Thanks," Shang said as he prepared himself for the next battle.
In this short battle, Shang realized two things.
First of all, he was not used to this new power.
But more importantly, the second thing he realized was that he was no longer fighting students.
Yes, Shang was the best of his class, but that was it, the best of his class.
The smartest student still didn't even nearly know as much as the average person that actually worked in their chosen field of study.
In the Academy, Shang had battled 20-year-olds.
But now, he was battling warriors that were in their thirties or forties.
They had over an entire decade of experience on Shang.
'But that's only temporary,' Shang thought as he saw the next guard walk through the door.
'I just need to adapt and learn!'
And then, the second fight began.
