Raid: The Blacksmith-Chapter 45: Welcome to the Warriors Association: Part Three

Chapter 45: Welcome to the Warriors Association: Part Three

"He really is incredible." Thought Melissa.

"That F-Rank title. To think he’d make it seem like a simple joke so easily." This was after Raid had countered her first attack.

"No B-Rank would’ve been able to do that. Even some low level A-Ranks would’ve struggled and yet he parried my attack so perfectly. I knew he was a monster from Pey’s words, but now that I’m seeing it for myself, it’s a hell of a lot different..."

As she thought that, Raid then attacked.

"Fast." She thought.

They clashed as their weapons bumped against each other.

"I can tell from the grey Mana surrounding his spear that he’s using an E-Rank Skill so why can’t my A-Rank Swordmaster Skill overpower him. Should I ask him?"

"Incredible. I can tell from the color of the Mana surrounding your weapon that it’s an E-Rank Skill you’re using but it’s countering my A-Rank sword Skill so perfectly. How are you doing that?" She asked.

"I’m using other higher Ranked Skills to support it." Raid replied.

"What? He’s insane. Instead of just using whatever high Ranked Skills he has to fight me, he’s instead using them to give support to a lower Ranked Skill so it can advance to a higher Rank? I’ve never even thought of something like that. People mostly only combine Skills like that when they hope to get lucky and get a Special Attack out of it or to create a Spell." She thought. Her fight with Raid still in progress.

"But then again, there tends to be some Skills that are hard to advance to higher Ranks no matter how constantly you use them. If you use other Skills to support the specific Skill you want to advance, you could theoretically increase your chance of it reaching a higher Rank. For him to even think of that however when no one else ever has. Truly, he really is incredible. Still, he’s nowhere near as strong as he could be. It’s his potential that’s scary, not his current strength..." Almost as if that thought alone was a catalyst, she began a full assault on her opponent.

"I’ll activate the S-Rank Sub-Skill Secretary’s Diligence which significantly increases all my Stats.... Now then, let’s begin."

She clenched her fist, tightening her grip on her longsword as she began to attack.

She launched consecutive slashes towards Raid restlessly as he kept dodging and parrying them.

"Impressive. To think he’d still be able to keep up even now... Still, I have him cornered. Let’s keep the momentum. Next, I’ll activate my S-Rank Black Belt Skill."

She changed her tactic. Not attacking with just her sword anymore, she launched kicks and punches from all directions. Raid tried to create some distance to find some common ground, but she wouldn’t let him.

"I won’t let you!"

See?

Anyway. She dashed towards him as soon as he attempted to move back and kept her assault.

"That spear of his is way longer than my sword, making it hard for him to attack me at close range. So now I’ll activated the S-Rank Sub-Skill Secretary’s Vigilance and increase my speed and perception all the more."

Using that momentum, she immediately launched a large horizontal slash at Raid. Raid dodged with a side flip.

She immediately turned her sword before Raid could even land back down and as soon as he did, he was met with a big sharp object approaching him at the corner of his eye. It was Melissa’s longsword.

Raid quickly ducked down to evade it, as the longsword flew a few centimeters above Raid’s head, cutting out a bit of his hair.

"He dodged that to-!"

~Bam!~

She couldn’t help but be surprised by what had happened. For some reason, Raid had gotten faster and even landed a blow to her for the very first time, catapulting her a fair distance away from him.

"I was able to block using my longsword, but if I hadn’t, he would’ve landed the first decisive blow ever since this fight started. Using that momentum, he could’ve totally flipped everything over to his favor... What a monster." She thought.

However, it was what happened next that made her shudder.

"Hold on... What is this feeling?" She wondered as she looked at Raid. "That Mana... so pure. And that color, orange. Is he finally using that A-Rank Skill of his? No...it’s not just that, he kept getting faster and stronger, the same way I was, I only had a suspicion before, but now I’ve confirmed it, there’s no doubt in my mind, he has multiple A-Rank Skills..." She thought.

"You don’t have just one A-Rank Skill, do you?" She asked as she looked at Raid.

"No." Raid answered.

"Of course...but still, the feeling I just had, it wasn’t from his Skills, or his Mana, regardless of how pure it is... It was something else. Something that vanished as quickly as it emerged, I can’t put my finger on it, Secretary’s Vigilance’s got nothing too, I can’t even begin to understand it... Beyond comprehension...is that what Pey...?"

".... Do you still wish to continue?" She asked Raid.

Though a bit bewildered, Raid knew what she meant by that question. At that point in time, Raid had already proven himself. That he was more than qualified to explore S-Rank Dungeons. Everyone in the room felt it. Most of all Melissa. But most importantly Chadwick. He now had no choice but to accept it. Thirty minutes may or may not have been up-since everyone was so absorbed in the fight, neither of them knew for sure-but that wasn’t important anymore. Raid was indeed stronger than an average A-Rank Warrior, and that’s all that mattered. So why would the battle continue?

There’s was only one reason. The Warrior’s pride.

Raid had already resolved himself. Having gathered as much power as he did.

Melissa was also eager. To see just how far Raid would go.

So Raid’s answer was easily predictable...

*******

"Yes." I said. "That’s if it’s okay with you, of course."

"Of course it is." Melissa replied with a thin smile. "If I’m being honest with you, I’m very interested in seeing what you got, I’ve never felt like this about anyone mind you. I actually don’t like fighting. So in a sense, I think you might be rubbing off on me."

"Heheh, I tend to have that affect on people. Okay then, let’s do this, ready when you are." I said.

"Are you really?"

"Huh-"

~Clank!~

"Incredible." I thought. "Her speed increased dramatically. Another high Ranked Skill?"

All in basically an instant, she had disappeared and reappeared in front of me, her longsword in tow, thrusting straight for my midsection. I countered it with my spear parrying it to the side.

"Good work." She said. "If you hadn’t done that, there’s a good chance you might’ve died."

"Not really, since I have a regeneration Skill...but she doesn’t need to know that."

"Yeah, tell me about it." I said.

"Or maybe not..." She replied.

"Hm?"

"Never mind."

"Odd but whatever, time to get serious." I charged at her immediately. All the Skills I had activated were running on full gear. I was at my strongest state ever. Cultivator perfectly circulating my Mana with expertise while Fury of Dantian kept it grounded and doubled up on its quality and quantity by multiplying it seven-fold. Hypermove increasing my speed dramatically while coating my body with protective electric Mana, Bladework increasing all my Physical Related Stats, Treasure Hunt bettering my sensory perception and perception speed same as Soul-Piercing Eyes while allowing me to spot various weak points in Melissa’s fighting style, though putting them to use was tricky, they still mattered. Item Space stacking up on my already insane Mana Capacity, heightening my senses even further as well. Lancer bettering my overall fighting style in spearmanship and finally Astral Unification, acting as the link between all Skills. I began my assault on Melissa.

Continually launching piercing attacks. She dodged them all but now she was the one slowly losing her ground. She kept attempting to come at me close range but I made that impossible for her by making sure that my spear always came between us. I left her no choice but to rely on her longsword a lot more as she kept parrying my attacks with it.

Our weapons kept clashing as our spectators kept quiet and only watched. The sounds continuously echoed across the entire room.

Slowly but surely, my spearmanship was getting a lot better.

"Alright, time to finish this!" I declared internally.

I activated the Bullseye Skill and launched a diagonal slash with the spear. Melissa parried it to the side, ultimately pushing me back. Seeing the opening, she quickly acted by dashing towards me to attack. Little did she know, I baited her.

I threw my spear over to my left hand, holding it in the middle then spun anticlockwise as she dashed toward me and attacked her with a rotating slash.

~Swoop!~

She dodged it as she bent her body backwards, ultimately sliding under my left arm.

"As expected."

I was far from done. Taking advantage of her blind spot and decreased momentum when she dodged my attack, I quickly threw my spear back over to my right hand then immediately threw it at her.

She noticed as soon as she looked back then parried the spear with her longsword sending it flying upward.

"You threw your spear. That was foolish." She ran towards me to attack.

"Are you sure about that?" I asked condescendingly while pointing behind her.

"What?" She couldn’t help but look. "How?" And also couldn’t help but question with amazement as she saw my spear coming straight at her.

I had used the Bullseye Skill on the spear, so it wouldn’t stop coming after her unless she destroyed it, or if... you know, it... killed her.

She quickly parried it once more, sending it flying upwards again.

After that, she looked back to where I was standing.

I wasn’t there anymore.

She looked to the other side.

She still couldn’t see me.

She looked all around her.

I was nowhere to be found.

Then it clicked.

"Above you!" I shouted.

She looked up and there I was. Coming down at an incredible speed. My spear in tow, ready to deliver my last attack, a downward slash.

~Ting!~

~Clank!~

~Clank!~

The sound of metal clashing against metal echoed throughout the entire room, followed by two loud clanks as the two objects roughly penetrated the surface of the arena. It was her longsword and my spear. She had countered my slash with the longsword.

The clash caused both of our weapons to catapult out of our hands simultaneously.

Hence... There was no winner.

"A draw." I said quietly.

"Seems like it." Melissa added.

"Alright!" Chadwick said loudly, getting up from his seat and approaching us while Peyton followed. "I’ve seen all I need to see." He added. "You surprised me kid. A draw with Melissa of all people. That’s no easy feat...you definitely have what it takes to explore S-Rank Dungeons."

"Told you." I said.

"Yeah, yeah..." He replied with a small laugh. "I need to go handle out your Dungeon Exploration Permit. That and solidify your position here. Meanwhile, Peyton and Melissa will get you sorted out on other stuff. Alright, have a good one you buncha rascals." He waved as he left the Training Room.

"What a weird old man." I thought as I sighed.

[Report. Advancements in the Subject’s overall Warrior info have been detected as a result of recent actions.]

"Ignore... I’ll check it out once I’m alone."

"Hah! I’m beat." I purposely fell backwards and laid down on my back.

"I’m with you there." Melissa sat down next to me.

"Yeah, me too." Peyton joined as she also sat down.

"Hold on..." I said. "What exactly did you do that made you so tired?" I asked.

"If I recall correctly, she just sat there and watched, looking like a total idiot while we were fighting." Said Melissa.

"Hey!" Peyton shouted.

"Heheh, good one!" I said as Melissa and I fist-pumped.

"Hold on, what is this? Why are you guys getting along so well when you only just met today?"

"It’s only natural for Warriors to start rubbing elbows after having a battle like that." I said.

"My cute little sister brought me a cute little brother to play with, how can I not get along with him?" Melissa added.

"You guys are sisters?" I then asked.

"Not by blood..." Melissa answered. "But I’ve taken care of this little one almost her entire life." She added.

"Aww, that’s adowable." I said.

"Isn’t it?"

"Melly shut up! You’re gonna embarrass me!" Peyton shouted as her cheeks turned red.

"Too late hun. You look pretty embarrassed to me already." I joked.

"... Oh, I get it now." Said Peyton. "You two must have a death wish." She added as her eyes, for some unknown reason, glowed a black light.

"Hey Raid."

"Yeah Melz?"

"We should run."

"I thought so too."

And we did.

"Get back here, the both of you!!!" Peyton yelled as she ran after us.

We ran out of the Training Room and headed towards the first elevator we saw.

"Okay so where are we going?" I asked Melissa.

"While we try to escape the wrath of Peyton. I’ll see if I can show you around the building. Also we need to get you some working clothes so right now we’ll be heading to the thirteenth floor." She said as we stepped on the elevator surface and she quickly had the elevator teleport us to the floor below.

Peyton was still after us. "I said get back here you two!"

"Sorry little sister." Said Melissa as she waved just before the elevator teleported us.

We then arrived at the 13th Floor.

"She’ll be up here any second now so we have to move quickly."

We kept running around the halls, passing multiple rooms. I just followed her around until she stopped at a room labeled Uniform Services Room 14.

We entered inside. It was a very spacious room. Across each side of the room laid a placement of seven different variations of the same clothing. Formal wear was either black, white or both in some stylish way. Each style divided into a ’For Men’ Section and a ’For Women’ Section.

"I feel like I’m in some weird superhero movie. With suits instead of costumes."

"You’re funny." Melissa replied while walking around.

"So I get to pick which one I wanna wear between all fourteen of these different styles?" I asked rhetorically.

"Yes." She answered me anyway.

"Hmm..." I walked around to take a look at all my options. I found nothing that resonated with me in the slightest.

Or at least, until I saw the last one.

"This..." I said as my eyes glowed in awe.

"I’ll admit. Part of me kind of expected that."

"Then wonderful new older sister of mine, please get it for me."

"Are you only gonna call me that when you need something?"

"Probably."

"You really aren’t that different from Gam Sukala."

"You know old man-Gam?"

"Of course... Although I didn’t know he owned an orphanage. But you see, Chadwick basically raised us, me and Pey, so we’ve met Gam a few times." She explained then used retinal scan to unlock the pod containing the outfit I had chosen. It was dressed over a mannequin. She took it off then gave it to me.

"I see." I took the clothes off her hands. "...oh, about Peyton."

"Yeah?"

"I mean, of course it might have been my imagination but I think I saw her eyes glow a black light back there... Any chance you know anything about that?"

"Well, isn’t it natural that they would do that since she activated her SSS-Rank Skill?"

"Hold on...so she has a SSS-Rank Skill?"

"Yeah, the only A-Rank in the world who does. It’s called Truth-Seeking Eyes. Didn’t she tell you about it?"

"Not that it was SSS-Rank, no...or that she’s the only A-rank in the world who has one."

"If that’s the case then. Doesn’t that increase the probability of her being the strongest A-Rank and even more so her chances of becoming S-Rank? ... No but, this makes Melissa incredibly special as well, since she’s apparently the only A-Rank Warrior here who can rival Peyton."

"That explains it. There’s no way I can ever hope to resist it then."

"Huh... So you really don’t know..."

"Don’t know what?"

"Nothing important, now go change, go, go, go." She started pushing me forward.

"Okay, okay, jeez. Weirdo."

At the far end of the room laid two doors placed next to each other, the fitting rooms. I entered one of them and started changing.

As I did, I started hearing the sounds of two voices coming from outside the fitting room. I guessed it was Melissa and Peyton.

"Before, I would’ve been confused as to how she found us so quickly, but now, I’d like to believe that a SSS-Rank Skill wouldn’t be limited to just being able to tell when someone was lying."

So I simply decided to focus on my clothing. It was a nice tux.

"What a nice tux."

See?

Anyway. It was black with a white tie. Toppled with a foot long fancy coat that was all black on its right side and all white on its left. The shoes were also nice. They were white with black shoelaces. In all honestly, I didn’t look like a Warrior anymore. I was far from looking like anyone you’d find in a Dungeon, going around killing monsters but I didn’t hate it.

"It’s great that Magic Armor is different from Magic Weaponry in that anyone can use them, even a normal human. They still have Grades but unlike Magic Weapons, Magic Armor only has three Grades and no Stages. Named after the three highest Ranks of Warriors with Great Grade as the lowest, Holy Grade as the middle, and finally, Divine Grade as the highest-worn only by the most influential people in the world, people like the Six Emperors, the Eighteen Generals, Association Managers, Country Leaders and so forth, Magic Armor is way more expensive than Magic Weaponry so even if normal humans can wear them without a problem, not everyone gets to be so lucky. Even most Warriors up to B-Rank don’t get that luxury. And now here I am, wearing a Great Grade tuxedo, armor that can tank A-Rank level attacks. Of course I’m salivating."

I stepped out of the fitting room after dressing up, seeing Peyton and Melissa. Peyton looked like she had calmed down. Must’ve been Melissa’s doing.

"She really knows how to handle her."

"You seemed to have calmed down."

"Shut up.... You look decent." She sai eyeing me head to toe.

"Just say it, I look amazing."

"I think you got that part covered."

"Okay, be that way."

She only lightly chuckled as I said that.

Melissa then joined. "We should take him to see the lobby now that he’s all settled."

"Lobby?"

"Yeah, come with us." Said Peyton.

I followed them out of the room as we then took the Main Elevator to the 18th Floor. As soon as we arrived, I was met with quite the scene. It was incredibly spacious room. The biggest I’d ever been in since coming here. It was circular in shape.

We stepped out of the elevator surface. We were on a large balcony that circled half the entire space and had stairways going down from each side, leading to the floor’s surface.

I looked down from up the balcony, there were countless people just simply going about their day, all wearing the company uniform, just with different variations. In the center of the room was a big white fancy fountain and seating arrangements placed around it accordingly. Surrounding the other half of the room were five elevators placed in circular formation. Multiple employees kept coming and going. It was a wonderful spectacle to behold.

"Now then, allow me to be the first to officially do this." Peyton looked at me and added. "Raid. Welcome...to the Warriors Association."

"Heh." I smiled.

"So. What do you think?" Melissa joined. "Not bad, huh?"

"Yeah...not bad." I answered. "Not bad at all."