A Test of Resolve (Ryo's C-rank Exam)

It seemed this week was going to be a busy one for Marick. With Zenshin busy with paperwork that he'd neglected, the Solitaire had been entrusted with the examinations for those whom Zenshin had felt were ready to be raised to a higher status. He'd already completed an exam for Alexander Zenneth, and now it was time for Ryo Knetegawa's exam. Marick had particularly been looking forward to this exam. Ryo was a fellow card mage, and the prospect of seeing his magic first hand was something that had Marick's heart pumping harder than ever.

He'd left a note for Ryo to meet him here in Hargeon's park, although he'd not mentioned it was for an exam of course. Assuming Ryo received the letter and arrived, the exam would then begin.

Ryo looked at the letter as he walked into Hargeon Park. He had never stopped in this park before, but he was sure it would be interesting. However, what was of most interest to Ryo at this moment was the letter that he was looking at. It was from Marick. Ryo had met the fellow card Mage before, but they hadn't really talked or interacted beyond that. Still Marick had soared through the guild ranks, and this had pushed Ryo to do more. Lately he had been running himself ragged on job, after job, but now Marrick wanted him and for what he didn't say.

As Ryo looked around he tucked the letter away spotting the fellow Card Mage. He walked up to Marick with a friendly smile "Well good to see you Marick. It's been awhile. So what did you want me to come out here for?"

Marick got to his feet as Ryo arrived, a smile spreading across his face as the card mage approached him. "Indeed it has. It's good to see you too." he replied warmly, shaking the younger mage's hand as he spoke. "Zenshin has been keeping tabs on every member of the guild. As you're probably aware, Alex Zenneth had his C-rank exam the other day. I called you here because today is your exam." Marick couldn't help but grin. This whole 'call them out here and then reveal it' always resulted in interesting responses.

The Paragon began to walk through the park, his hands going into his pockets. "But before we start, I want to catch up. As a fellow card enthusiast, I'm always going to be curious on your magic. How's it been developing?"

Ryo was always happy to see such politeness among people so he welcomed Marick’s hand shake and shook it firmly still smiling. He was aware that Alex had an exam coming up, but he wasn’t sure as to the when it would happen. Still it was rather nice to know that Sabertooth was growing. When he heard that it was his Exam today Ryo was excited he had waited for the chance to prove himself, and now he was going to do just that.

Ryo walked with Marick through the park his hands finding a tarot card “The Fool” card ironically and he began to flip it in his hand. He nodded his head lightly smiling as the Paragon asked about his card magic. Ryo looked at the tarot card in his hand and held it up letting it become bathed in the purple aura of his mana “Well it’s progressing as well as can be expected. I’ve got some new spell Ideas in mind, but my power level as of right now isn’t strong enough to make them a reality, but I’m close. I can feel it.” with that he tucked the Tarot card back into it's box on the back of his belt smiling at the senior card mage.

The Solitaire smiled at Ryo, clearly glad that the young mage had been developing well in his short time at Sabertooth. It was odd how Marick was just past the younger mage's level when he'd first arrived, and now it seemed the two were progressing at an even pace. He'd even heard rumours that the combo card mage had created his own team, making it the third team in Sabertooth right now.

Marick could feel the magic power emanating from Ryo now, and it was considerably stronger than it had been back when they'd first met. His guildmate was right to think that he was getting close to unlocking more power, and more spells along with it.

"Well...so long as you follow me completely today and don't let yourself get sidetracked, I don't see why that power can't finally be unlocked."

Naturally the Sabertooth Ace had planned this exam well in advance. Ryo would soon find out just how well planned it was.

Ryo continued to walk with Marick with a smile he was very excited as to the prospect of a test. Still he didn’t know what the test would be so he was wary and on edge. He looked at Marick with great confusion when he spoke his sentence. Was that a hint to the test? Ryo wondered to himself. He then nodded his head lightly with a more determined look on his face “Alright. Well I’m sure I won’t disappoint.” He said confidently as he continued to walk with Marick.

"I don't believe for a second that you will disappoint me." he replied with a smile. As the two card users approached a fountain in the park there could be shouting heard in the distance down a path to the right. If Ryo looked closely enough, he would be able to see three figures down that path, albeit shrouded by tree branches and shrubbery. Of these figures, it seemed two of them were shouting at the third, who was getting little room to defend herself against the verbal onslaught.

Marick sighed and shook his head. Even on warm days like this people would bicker."Ignore them, we've not got time." he said calmly, although he did glance briefly down that path before heading down the path to the left, although walking slowly to allow Ryo to catch up.

Ryo smiled and followed after Marick without a second thought. As he heard the sound of the raised voices he stopped and looked at the three of them. He was very annoyed that two people would shout at and be so mean to a girl. He looked to Marick with slight distaste as he told him to ignore them. Ryo pulled out two cards and threw them smacking the two in their backs. Ryo was already right next to Marick once more listening to the two now looking for whoever had hit them. He looked to Marick with a nice smile “Very well then. Let’s continue on our way.”

Unfortunately for Ryo, that action was about to get him and Marick into considerably more trouble than he'd expected. No sooner had Ryo spoken to move on, when suddenly a group of men stepped out of the shrubs surrounding them. Marick quickly shuffled his deck, before freezing as he heard a scream from down the path to the right. Marick placed his cards back in his deck holder immediately and stepped back the way they'd come from. "These guys don't look too tough...I'm trusting you to handle them Ryo. I'll head down the other path and help the girl. Don't let me down." The Solitaire placed a hand on his sudden teammate's shoulder, before leaving the younger mage to fend for himself.

----

Ryo will be facing 3 mages at once.

The first is a Earth Mage who uses mostly magically based Melee attacks. He will need 3 D-rank spells to take down.
The second is a Thunder Mage who excels in ranged attacks. He will require 4 spells of D-rank to take down.
The third and final mage will not attack until his two henchmen are taken down. He uses a combination of Melee and Ranged Iron Make magic and is a C-rank mage. Ryo may use any spells he's planned for when he reaches C-rank as well as the D-rank spells he has in his arsenal already. This mage requires a total of 8 D-rank spells (4 C-rank) to take down.

Ryo must write a minimum of 800 words describing how he deals with all three mages.

Ryo looked over at the sound of the scream, but he was distracted by Marick who was talking to him. He nodded his head once and quickly pulled out his standard hand of eight cards. Three uses, three elements and two playing cards. The moment that Marick was gone Ryo leapt into action “Attack Combo: Metal Claymore!” Ryo threw the two cards as close as he could one being the element the other being the detonation use card. These cards formed into a claymore Mine at the three wizards feet and exploded sending a hail fire of little round metal spheres towards all three of them. All three of them were hit and caught off guard.

Ryo counted this as a blessing all of them were caught off guard and this meant that he could take even further advantage. He looked back at his hand and saw that he had cards available for his next spell. This one was a new spell he had been working on, and although he was ready he still wanted to be extra ready. He drew two more playing cards to replace the cards he had just lost and now he leapt backwards to show them just what he had been working on. However he wasn’t going to have an easy time of this attack. One of the mages stepped forward and then charged him and shouted his spell “Iron Rock Fist!” he began to use the earth to sculpt a fist of the stuff and he started to surge towards Ryo. Ryo swore and quickly threw down the enhancement card, and the water element card “Prayer Fountain!” He threw down the first regular playing card and it landed in the circle shooting towards the fist. It tore through the thing showing that Ryo was more powerful than this earth mage. He smirked and threw another card down and a high pressured stream of water shot out to smack into the Earth mage’s face sending him into a state of unconsciousness.

Ryo was relieved as now he had only two opponents left for him to deal with, but he wasn’t going to get his rest. He heard the clap of thunder over-head and looked up in time to see a thunderbolt come sailing down towards him. He ducked and rolled away holding his hat tightly to his head as he did so. He got to his feet quickly and threw the last two playing cards he had in hand. One of them landed outside of the circle of power for the spell, and thus went to waste. The other landed but it sailed not towards the thunder mage, but to the one standing in the back. This mage was skilled as he just side stepped the stream and leaned against one of the walls as it passed by him. Ryo swore and threw his earth element card at the thunder mage as he was about to cast another spell. Whatever spell the man had been thinking of casting never happened, and that was the best thing for Ryo.

The mage swore and this time he cast a different spell. This time several loud thunder claps were heard over head and Ryo was now trapped. He could wait for his attack spells to be of use, and right now non-of his element cards would help him against this mage. Ryo quickly picked his fire element card and his white shield card and charged the thunder mage as bolt after bolt rained down from the sky “Defense Combo: Flame shield!” The shield formed and it took on the appearance of a great Spartan shield. Ryo continued to charge the thunder mage who was now looking very worried. He was better at long range and with Ryo closing the distance it was almost impossible to counter. As Ryo collided with the man he sent him into the wall the flames of the shield burning the man but also the impact force helped to seal the man’s fate sending him into unconsciousness, but this wasn’t without a price, and that price was a bolt of thunder striking Ryo dead on.

He screamed in pain and agony as he fell to his knees. He could feel the electric tingles surging through his form and he looked up at the remaining mage. He smirked and formed some strange hand seal making a shield of metal, and then a mace. He walked over to Ryo who struggled to get up, but the thunder was trembling his bones and body. The man smashed Ryo in the face with his shield and this hurt. Ryo was seeing doubles and he quickly pulled up cards throwing his playing cards at the mage. These struck him in the face and he stepped backwards. This gave Ryo the moment he needed. He quickly picked up his next two cards smiling as he saw the black card glowing once more. “Attack Combo: Water Bomb!” Ryo threw these cards at the man and started to quickly scoot backwards. The man looked in time to see the water form into a great bomb with a fuse and then explode in his face. This sent the man flying backwards several paces.

Ryo was quick to his feet and he looked at his last two cards in hand. The man rushed back at Ryo shield in front of him mace at the ready. Ryo smirked and looked at his glowing white card in hand and then threw the cards “Defense combo: Metal Melt!” The cards collided with the shield and the iron began to melt. The man threw down his shield looking at it in terror as he looked to Ryo who now had a whole new hand. Two element cards, and two use cards along with four playing cards. The metal mage was put off by the fact that Ryo could cancel his magic. Ryo was going to use this. He picked his fire card, his enhancement card, and took three of the playing cards from his hand and threw them “Burning cards!” they flew towards the mage. He tried to swat them away with his mace, but he only managed to hit one of them, the rest landed on him and began to burn him.

Ryo quickly drew more cards to round out his hand three playing cards, an element, and a uses card. He was going to be ready. The man wasn’t going to stop he threw his mace as hard as he could and it flew towards Ryo. Ryo was quick and managed to duck under the weapon pulling up his cards. He quickly threw a set of five cards at the man “Projectile cards!” after a few meters the cards turned into ten cards and they sailed towards the metal make mage. The mage had just snuffed out the last flaming card when he turned and was hit by five of the cards forcing him to take another step back. He looked to Ryo and swore “Quit fighting so dirty you little brat!” He made another set of hand seals and formed a spear. This he threw at Ryo with all his might. The moment he did he threw another one, he kept making them and throwing them.

Ryo swore as he dodged the first one and began to run at the man. He soon stopped this as one of the spears grazed his cheek and caused him to bleed from a rather serious looking cut. Ryo stepped back and away, but kept within his throwing rang thinking and dodging the best he could. Finally an idea came to mind and he smirked “Attack Combo: Flame Kunai!” he threw his cards and they formed into a kunai made of fire. This hit the man in the chest just as he was about to send forth another spear. The man froze and dropped the spear sinking to the ground as he did so.

Ryo panted softly in his exertions but he could feel his mana slowing restoring. He fondly rubbed his hat thanking his teacher for it once more. He had to remember to send her a thank you letter. He turned around and ran after Marick. These men were dealt with and now Ryo had to see to not only the woman, but also his teammate and his senior card mage. He ran down the alley that he knew Marick had to be down here. He had to help his friend.

As Ryo came running down the path he would see rather the surprising sight. Marick was stood back to back with a girl who had long, beautiful amethyst coloured hair and was wearing a white dress. Her dress had been covered up by amethyst armor, and in her hands she held a purple-hued katana. Marick meanwhile had just shuffled his cards and placed them into his deck holder. Surrounding the two were a pile of mages not unlike the ones Ryo himself had just fought, although many of them were twitching. "Marick...I think you overdid it..." the girl spoke with a chuckle as she dispelled her magic, returning to her regular attire of the white dress. Marick laughed loudly before turning his head to look down the path.

"I'm guessing from the fact you're standing there that you were successful. Nice work!" he called out. The pair walked over to Ryo, apparently with not a scratch on them. "Ryo, meet Kara. She's a member of the Lamia Scale guild, and a close friend." Kara blushed at the sight of Ryo. She hadn't expected a friend of Marick's to be quite so young...although perhaps that was a daft thought given how she was clearly younger than the combo card mage. "I asked Marick to help me with a quick job here, and he decided to make a big deal of it and use it for your exam..." she began, before glaring at Marick. "...but what if he hadn't attacked those two thugs? I'd have been left alone! You're such an ASS!" she growled at the Sabertooth Ace. Marick simply chuckled and shook his head.

"No...I had faith in Ryo." He turned and looked at his younger guildmate as he spoke. "I'd heard from others that you never put yourself above other peoples troubles. I wanted to test your resolve by putting you in a spot where you'd risk failing if you helped. You reacted almost exactly as I'd hoped.

Following orders is crucial and almost always beneficial. But sometimes you need to go with your gut instinct, especially if you feel it is the right thing to do. But of course I don't need to tell you that." He put out his hand for Ryo to shake if he so wished. "On behalf of Zenshin...I'd like to congratulate you on passing your exam."

Kara watched the scene unfold, her arms folded across her stomach. She trusted Marick of course. But he was still an ass to her sometimes.

Ryo blinked as he looked at the two of them. He slowly relaxed and saw that things were finished. So he realized that things must be over for him as well. This was a huge relief to him and he couldn't help but smile as he met up with his friend and apparently one of Marick's friends. As Marick gave the introductions Ryo looked to Kara and tipped his hat "It's an honor to meet you, and don't worry it was my pleasure to help out. Really it was."

He returned his attention to his fellow Sabertooth and listened to him as he spoke and told him that he passed his test. Ryo was over the moon he could feel he was ready for this, that he had earned it. he was so happy he could've shouted it from the roof tops if he wasn't so worried of making the guild look bad by doing so. He reached out and Shook Marick's hand with zeal smiling "Thank you Marick. This has truly been an amazing experience. Hopefully I'll catch up to you soon. After all I don't want to be left behind by you and Alex." With that he let go of Marick's hand and smiled to him and Kara "Well then if you'll excuse me. I have a date with a very important woman who has something to give me. I shall see you both later. Miss Kara it was an honor to meet you." he turned and walked away a spring in his step. He was now higher up than he had been, and he was thrilled.