It was my first time ever fighting against an actual person. So, even if I had said the contrary, I was shitting myself. I barely could manage to stop my legs from trembling out of nerves and excitement.

Instantly after she finished her statement, the agent jumped forward towards me. She was faster than I imagined her to be and almost couldn’t react, dodging her first swing by the bare minimum. I dragged my left foot behind me drawing a semicircle as Violet’s sword cut the air where my body had been a second ago.

I jumped backwards and lifted my sword in front of my body. Violet stood up and not even looking at me said

- Really? That’s all you got?

- Just analyzing my opponent - I lied

- Stop pretending would you? It’s obvious that you are nervous, and afraid, and that’s fine. Tell me, is this your first time ever fighting against another person?

I nodded in response, too embarrassed to even talk as my facade hadn’t worked.

- Yeah it shows. I like you so I’m gonna give one piece of advice - she said while lifting her sword the same way as I’d done - You have to stay calm and always keep your focus on your enemy's weapon, not on them. The eyes, the body, their movements... all of them can lie, but their sword... that's a whole other story. And always expect the unexpected –

- But if I expect it then it wouldn’t be unexpected anym…- She jumped at me before I could finish talking and our blades locked against each other making a horrible chirp

- Shut up and concentrate, smartass, I don’t want to hurt you

She wasn’t that strong but neither was I. If I had to guess, we were equal on that side. But her main weapon wasn’t her strength nor her speed, not even her skills, it was her experience.

With a sweep of her left foot, she kicked my right foot and I instantly lost balance, dropping to the floor back-first. I managed to slide her blade against mine using it as a guide, and all the pressure she was exerting made her tumble forward, and I used this opportunity to roll to the side and stand up again.

- I thought I told you to focus

- It’s hard you know, to different from practice

- Welcome to the real World, kid

She was right, this was the real World. I had to fight as if my life depended on it, because if I passed this test, it would depend on it..

I lowered my center of gravity, flexing my legs, putting my left arm in front of my body and my right one, which held my sword, to my side, holding the weapon straight as a continuation of my extended arm.

Once I got into my stance, I looked at the agent, who seemed to be waiting, and said

- I’m sorry for wasting your time. Now I’m ready

- I’ve heard that before. You sure you are?

- Want to test it yourself? – I said with a playful but confident smile

- That’s what I’ve been waiting for – the agent responded with a smile of her own

- Then… - I took a big deep breath, tensed all of my leg’s muscles, and finished talking – Let’s begin!

With that, I jumped towards Violet. I know I said it wasn’t wise to do this, but now I had an approximate idea of her strength and speed, or at least I hope I did. I pointed the tip of my sword to the floor with a 45° angle and swung it upwards aimed directly at the agent’s side. As expected, she reacted quickly, swinging down to meet my sword with hers. This time tho, our weapons didn’t lock in place, but bounced back to the direction they had come from.

Both of use lost balance, but her recovery time was faster than mine so, when I got back on track, she was already launching a counterattack, and I barely managed to slip under her blade. Taking this opportunity as she was wide open, I changed my grip from my right to my left hand with a quick toss of my sword, and using the momentum of that action I swung upwards with all of my strength, but before I could even start moving my arm, the agent put her right heel on my left elbow, completely stopping my attack.

I looked at her as she smiled confidently, as if she had red every single one of my movements, and, in fact, she had… But that’s what I was hoping for. I smiled back and a surprised expression took over the agent’s face as I copied her move from moments ago, kicking her only supporting foot.

Violet frowned and using my elbow as a stepping stone, pushed herself backwards, spinning once in the air and landing perfectly, almost like a superhero, with one of her knees on the floor. As a result, I also got pushed back due to the force of her kick, and used the inertia to put some distance between us. In the end, we were a couple of meters away from each other.

- Copycat

I lifted my gaze to see the agent’s face, with a confused expression on my own. She was grinning, already back on her feet. Returning the grin I straightened my back and returned my blade to my right hand before saying

- Sorry, but it was too god of a move to not steal it.

- I know, that’s why I use it

- Do you have some other tricks for me to cop… I mean, learn?

- You do remember that this isn’t training, but probably the most important and difficult test of your life, at least to this day?

- Yeah, but this is also a unique opportunity to learn first-hand from a pro.

- Ha, you are crazy kid, but since you insist, I’ll fulfill your wish. Now, let’s see if you can keep up.

Taunting her was a really, really bad idea. I think I’m gonna die just by the look on her face. But I’m not backing down.

I stood there as agent Violet jumped towards me, waiting to see what she would do so I could counter it. I went through all the possibilities, I analyzed every fake steps or faints she could do and prepared for all of them, I think, but none of that happened. She just rushed me head on, launching attack after attack after attack, swinging her sword even faster, stronger and more precise than before. All I could do was divert her attacks but my hand was starting to hurt since she had much more momentum and was putting all her body weight on her attacks, so I had to change my strat. I lowered my sword and started evading every swing she threw, only blocking those that I wasn’t able to dodge. One after the other, the swings kept comping until I couldn’t keep up anymore and one of the thrusts she threw at my shoulder actually connected just above my collarbone. It hurt a lot but since the blades were modified to not hurt us since this was just a test, I got pushed back and suddenly bumped into something. It was the table on my side of the room, where I had picked up my sword and left my bag.

An idea flashed through my head, and since I hadn’t time to think it through, I just went with it. Dodging another thrust aimed at the same spot as the last one, I sat on the table and kicked the agent in the stomach, which didn’t do much but, as I had planned, the force of the kick sent me rolling to the other side of the table.

I somehow managed to land on my feet and now I was much safer since there was a table separating me and agent Violet.

- You kick like a girl – she said trying to instigate me, but I knew from her short breaths that I had hit her in the pit of her stomach and was lacking some air.

- I don’t think you kick like that, and you are a girl

- Want to find out?

- No thanks, I’m good

- That’s what I thought. Now what? Are we playing musical chairs around this table until one of us gets tired?

- Good idea! I like games

- You are annoying, did anyone tell you that?

- Maybe once or twice, but I couldn’t hear them over my sarcasm

All this banter was just an attempt to come up with a plan to take her by surprise, but I was running out of trash talk material.

- Come on aspirant, you are not gonna pass if you keep running

That’s when I saw it. Right where I had left it was my backpack. It was lying on the floor a couple of steps to my right, and again, a crazy plan formed on my brain in a span a milliseconds. To be fair, it was really stupid, but if I could pull it off, it would surely catch her off guard. So I started feinting left and right as if I tried to confuse her to run away. As I expected, she calmly followed my lead without any opening or sign that she would fall for the faints. So, I did the ultimate feint: I slipped. Well, I pretended that I slipped, and when she tried to reach me through one of the ends of the table, I kicked it with all my strength, throwing it to the ground with all the other weapons on it, and directly into her.

Violet jumped backwards to dodge it and the swords, just as I hoped she would, and that left me a gap to recover, jumping a meter or so behind my backpack, making sure the table was still between us. Preparing my final attack, because after this I would probably run out of stamina, air and most importantly, ideas, I put my sword to my side pointing downwards but forwards, and launched myself straight to the attack. Violet stood there waiting for my attack, but with all the confusion, she missed the entire idea behind my last couple of actions. Without her noticing, since it was blocked off her sight by the table, I picked up my bag with the tip of my sword, and putting all my remaining strength in my arm, I used my sword to throw the bag at Violet, knowing that it wasn’t that heavy since all it had inside was the handle, a pen and my phone.

It seemed that my plan had worked since the agent was caught completely off guard, because even if she managed to cover her face with her sword, the backpack fulfilled its mission of blocking her sight. This was my only chance, I tossed my sword once again to my left hand and jumped above the table while she was still ‘blinded’, landing right in front of the agent. She tried to react but since I had basically appeared right in front of her, all she could do was swing her sword on a desperate attempt to stop me. But since I knew that was her only option, I had prepared for it. With my now free right hand, I grabbed her wrist before her arm could swing down to immobilize her weapon. Unfortunately, she had the same idea and did the same with my left wrist. It seemed that we would just tie and end locked in this position, but once again, I wasn’t over. Kicking the table one last time, I used that extra force added to my own weight to push her even more. I kept pushing until finally one of her legs gave in and she had to kneel with it to not fall completely. Just a little more and I would win. But… her following action I hadn’t foreseen, as she stopped pushing and opened both her arms, as if trying to hug me. I realized too late that, because I was pushing so hard, my face went straight towards her, and where our foreheads were about to meet, she threw her neck back and forth, giving me a head-butt right above my nose.

I instantly lost my grip on her and fell backwards, hitting my head with the table that was still behind me. Then, it was dark.

When I opened my eyes, I was lying on the floor with my backpack under my head and agent Violet was sitting right beside me.

- Morning sunshine – she greeted me with the fakest and more forced smile I’ve ever seen

- Damn, I died and went straight to hell

- Hey! – She flicked her finger right where she had head-butted me just a moment ago

– That hurts you know? – I said rubbing that same spot

- Yeah, that was kind of the point

I sat up, my head still hurting where I had received the hit, and lifting my head to look at the ceiling, I asked:

- So, how did I do?

- I’ve seen worst

- Wow, I’m not worthy of such words of encouragement.

- Shut up before I knock you down again

- Fair enough. So?

- Sorry kid, I cannot tell you until all of the aspirants finish their tests.

*Sigh*

- Well, at least there are only two remaining, so I’ll wait –

- That’s a good idea

Silence filled the room. I was too tired to keep talking, but I didn’t want to keep wasting Violet’s time so, I took a deep breath and stood up

- Hold on there kid, are you alright?

- Yeah, just a little dizzy, but I think I can make it out

- If you say so, I’ll lead you to the waiting room. Ask them for some water, you’ll need it after that fight.

- Oh yes please, I’d kill someone for a glass of water.

- Yeah, as if you could

- Hey, if it’s a little kid I could probably pull it off

- It could be a close fight

- Damn, It was that bad?

- Nah, I’m just kidding. You have potential kid, keep working hard, don’t lose your temper and don’t underestimate your opponents, you are smart, don’t get overconfident.

She looked at me and for the first time, I didn’t feel I was talking to my examiner or an agent of the White Police, but with a normal person just like me.

I smiled at her and said as sincerely as I could

- Thank you, agent. For the fight, for the help, for taking care of me when I blacked out, for everything.

- No problem kid.

Agent Violet was about to stand up, when I offered my hand to help her. Even if it wasn’t much, I felt like I owe her a lot and right now, this was as much as I could do. She accepted it and with a little jump, she was back on her feet.

- Come on, let’s go – she said to me while pointing to the right side of the room, where her table still stood its ground. I haven’t noticed since I was too focused on the weapons at that point, but on the right wall of the room there was another door that connected it with the waiting room.

We didn’t talk much on the way there since I was just too tired and thirsty, but when we reached our destination and I started looking for a seat, agent Violet called for me once again, and asked a question that surprised me more than any movement she had done through the course of our fight:

- Hey kid, what was your name again?

- Wagner, Theo Wagner.

- Theo, it was a pleasure and I hope I see you again.

- The pleasure was all mine, Agent Violet. And don’t worry, you won’t get rid of me that easily

She gave me one last playful smile before going back through the door, disappearing in the shadows.

I quickly found the nearest chair and plopped myself into it, letting out the biggest sigh.

There were still some aspirants waiting for the results, but the majority of them had already left, since they would get notified either way if they had been selected or not. I planned on doing the same but, as I was one of the last people on taking the test, I could wait another 20 minutes until it was all over.

While wondering about my performance, I realized that Pat, the girl I’d met in the waiting room, wasn’t here anymore.

- I guess it makes sense since she was the first one in. Too bad tho, I wanted to ask her how she did. Oh well, I guess I’ll know in a bit.

Stretching every single muscle in my body at once, I left my body melt on the chair, and before I could do anything about it, my eyes closed and sleep took over me.