I didn’t know exactly how much time had passed, but from the 30 or so people that were in the room at the beginning of the test, only 3 of us remained.

Apart from me, there was a guy who stood almost two meters tall and was double my size in width and a girl that was the complete opposite: as short as a 20 years old could get and a frame that could be easily mistaken from that of a little girl, if it weren’t from the curves that only a late teen or even an adult woman could have.

The giant difference between this two brought to my head a memory of an article I had red not too much ago.

I was making my research about the trials when I found something that caught my attention. It was an article that explained what happened if you passed the trials. First, you would receive your badge on the mail the day after the test. Then you would get assigned to an agent as his trainee, so he would be your tutor. You’d have to follow his/her orders and accompany him/her on their missions and tasks such as patrolling, as part of your training. Also, you first day at the HQs you’d recieve your uniform, which consisted of a normal complete set of light armor, a bit more resistance and hard than a chainmail but a lot more flexible than a big set of heavy armor, so it was a good supplement to the one-handed basic sword, which was the main star of all this train of thoughts that I was having. That’s because every trainee was obligated to use a standard one-handed sword until they finished their training period and reached certain rank. The reason behind this was that you should first learn to carry yourself around before committing to a certain specific style, and the one-handed sword was the most flexible out of all the options.

All of this made me wonder which style this two completely different persons would prefer. If I had to assume, the big guy probably would use a two-handed big longsword, which was a bit slow but really powerful, and he could compensate the lack of speed with his huge body and muscles.

On the other hand, the girl might be a normal one-handed sword or maybe a rapier user, but I had the feeling that she could have made a perfect knife-type user, wielding a pair of daggers of some sort, because she was probably very fast and her tiny body could make her annoyingly elusive.

I was really curious about this but of course I wasn’t going to stand up and go ask them, it seemed rude. So I’d have to wait and hope that we all made it in so I could see it with my own eyes.

While thinking about all of this, a thought crossed my mind

- What could be Pat’s preferred sty…

My mumbling was cut by the sound of a door opening and closing. Violet was back so it was time for one of us to go take the test. I was a little tired of waiting so hearing my name was relieving.

- Wagner, Theo - Violet called

Oh yeah, Wagner was my last name. My mother told me my father’s name was Luca Wagner and that he decided that my name would be Theo because he red it on a book and liked it a lot. If you ask me it’s kind of a stupid reason, but I didn’t care because I actually liked the name. It was short so it would make introductions pretty easy.

Putting away the handle. I grabbed my backpack and standing up I said:

- That’s me

- Good, come with me please then - the agent said as she opened the door again.

I rushed quickly behind her, taking a last peek at the room before leaving. Both the remaining applicants were looking at me. The big guy had a hard and expressionless face, while the tiny girl smiled playfully at me which made her close her eyes. As I left, I could feel a tingle in my stomach, probably caused by the nerves and anxiety I felt at that moment.

Once the door was totally closed, we were left in complete darkness. A *click* sound solved the problem as the lights came on, revealing a long and narrow aisle that seemed to go forever.

We started walking towards what I supposed was the examination room, and I say ‘supposed’ because all I could see was utter darkness.

A couple of steps into the aisle, the lights behind us turned off, and the ones right above us turned on.

- So they have movement sensors… - As I muttered to myself, agent Violet was the one to break the silence

- May I ask what was that you had in your hands back there in the room?

- Hmm? In my hands…? - I asked thinking what could she been talking about and suddenly I realized

- Oh! -  taking out my backpack and grabbing the handle from the inside I asked - You mean this? - showing it to her

- Yeah, exactly that. Where did you get it?

- I found it when I was 11. It was much more worn but my mom cleaned it and painted it for me and it came out like this

Extending her hand, the agent asked

- Can I?

- Of course - I said handing it over

- Hmmm… Your mother did a really good job with this

- Yeah… I guess she did. That’s one of the main reasons I have it with me all the time, it reminds me of her

- Your mother…

- Yes, she died a couple of years ago

- I’m sorry to hear that, it must’ve been tough

- It was and it actually is, but having this helps me get over it

- That’s good… Now that I see it from up close, it looks very familiar… I wonder…Kid, where did you say you found it?

- Oh sorry I didn’t say, but it was under the debris of a building that had been destroyed by an accident

- A building you say…

She suddenly stopped walking and when I saw her she was looking at the handle with her eyes as big as they could get.

- There’s something wrong Miss Violet?

She might haven’t realize what she was doing, because when she looked at me she shook her head as if getting out of a trance and just smiled before saying

- It’s nothing. You should hold onto that kid. Don’t lose it. - She said almost whispering

- Uh, thanks for the advice, I’ll do that - I replied a little confused. Is not like I planned to lose it anyway, but it seemed that she really meant it so I didn’t push any further. 

- Changing the subject, aren’t you worn off Miss Violet?

- Not really since these are not real battles, but more like mock battles and, since I’m always the better swordswoman, I mark the pace and the applicants can barely follow me

- Even if it is as you say, it must be exhausting

- Don’t take me lightly kid, I can take on all 30 of you at the same time with only one hand

- I think you are underestimating me quite a bit…

- Don’t you mean “underestimating us?

- No, I cannot speak for the others, but I think you shouldn’t take me lightly

- Ho… That’s some big balls you have kid, but can you stand up to your words?

As she said that, we reached a door that I haven’t noticed since I was too deep into our conversation. Agent Violet opened the door and a light bright as the sun blinded me for a moment before my eyes got used to it. The room was spacious enough for the both of us to move freely, so I assumed we had arrived to the examination room. Stepping into it, I turned around to see the agent still holding the door and said

- We’ll have to see

She gave me a smile back as accepting my challenge and followed me in, closing the door behind us.

The first thing I notice was that in each of the side walls there was a really big table. I didn’t have the chance to ask as agent Violet spoke first:

- Please choose one of the two sides and approach the table on said side

I didn’t have a preference so I chose the left one since I was closer to that side. When I reached the table, I put my backpack down and got surprised to see a display of weapons on it, but I quickly understood where this was going

From the other wall, agent Violet spoke:

- As you can see, there’s a handful of weapons to choose from. The one you pick will be your weapon during the trial

- Now, please make your pick, then I’ll make mine

- Isn’t that unfair? Shouldn’t we blind pick so we cannot counter the other one or at least do it at the same time?

- Are you perhaps afraid, Mr. Theo? Don’t worry, that’s not the reason I pick second. You can take my word for it

- If you say so...

I turned around to inspect the table. There was a total of seven weapons to choose from and they seemed to be separated by categories or classes. The first three were one handed swords, there was a basic short sword which I already knew was going to be my pick, but I inspected the rest just out of curiosity. Right beside it with a curved, shorter and wider blade was a scimitar, which I recognized from the books I've red since I never actually saw one irl. The third one in this category was a pretty standard rapier, with its thin blade and a tip that seemed capable of piercing through anything. The main difference between the first two and the third one, even if they were in the same category, was that the short sword and the scimitar were focused on strength based slash attacks, the scimitar being a bit faster than the short sword while the latter one being stronger, while the rapier’s strength falls on its speed and thrusting capabilities.

Right beside the rapier there were the two swords belonging to the second category. The first one was a big and heavy double-handed sword. It was at least a meter long from the tip to the bottom of the handle and when I lifted it, my wrists started to hurt. I instantly dropped it and with a *thud* it landed on the table almost in the same spot it was before. Rubbing my wrists one at a time, I moved onto the next weapon. It had a beautiful braid enveloping the handle and the slightly curved blade was covered by a wooden sheath. It was a Katana, a traditional Japanese double-handed sword that, unlike the previous one on this category, it didn’t depend on strong attacks because of its weight, it was more like a one-handed sword style with fast slashes, but it was actually meant to be wielded with both hands. I considered using one a couple of times, but I never got anything similar to a Katana for practicing, so I gave up on the idea rather fast.

The last two weapons were the only ones on its categories. The first one was a metal spear of at least a meter and a half long. I thought it would be heavier than the big two-handed sword, but when I picked it up it was really light. It made sense since the spear needed to be fast to be useful. The clear advantage of using a spear was the long reach. You could stand further than your enemy can attack you with any other weapon and keep thrusting and slashing from a safe distance.

On the contrary, the last weapon, or should I say weapons, were a pair of little knifes that I assume were daggers. They were an in-between of a normal table knife and a big kitchen knife with rather thin but sharp as fuck blades, or at least that’s how they should’ve been, because since this weapons were for the test, all of the blades were dull to the point where they couldn’t give you anything more than a bruise. Back to the daggers, the handles were so short that my pinky was left over in the air when I grabbed one of them. It had nice balance but I had already made my choice.

So I put the last weapon down and went back to the beginning of the table, picked up the short sword and turned around to face Violet.

- I’m ready now

- Took you long enough. Was it that difficult of a decision?

- Not really, I knew beforehand what my pick would be, but I don’t know when I’ll have another chance like this one to see so many cool swords from up close

- Hmm, you are weird you know?

- Well thank you

- It wasn’t a compliment

- I know. What weapon will you pick then?

- I’ll go with the short sword too

- Copycat

- That’s the idea - the agent answered while grinning and suddenly I understood what the reasoning behind picking second was.

- So you just pick the same as the aspirant? Don’t you have a style you prefer or one you are better at?

- Of course I do, but that wouldn’t be funny, would it?

She was crazy. She enjoyed the mock battles to the point she did something like this when the other person was fighting 100% serious. I liked that.

I took a couple of steps forward and so did she. We walked until we were separated by only five meters and stopped.

- Aspirant Theo, are you ready to start the test?

- Yes agent 

- Good. Then, begin!

She said it loud and clear so both of us heard it, but neither of us moved. We were both standing there with our swords down just staring at each other.

- What’s wrong? You feeling nervous or something? - the agent sounded really confused

- I was, but now I’m actually pretty excited

- So? Why aren’t you attacking or at least getting into stance?

- Why aren’t you?

- Because I’m the examiner, I’m not the one being tested here

- I know, but going in head first against an experimented swordswoman that has almost certainly better fighting skills, stamina and experience, didn’t seem the best of plans

After a moment, the agent gave me a confident smile and said

- Well thought kid, you get an extra point for that

Suddenly, she tossed the sword from her left to her right hand and taking an offensive stance with her weapon in front of her body she firmly said:

- But now playtime is over, I’m going at you so try to defend yourself

- About time - I said holding my sword on my right side, ready to intercept any attack that she might throw at me.

She looked at me one last time and I responded with a subtle nod before she said once again:

- Then, BEGIN!