Reincarnation Of A Swordsman: The Omni Mage

Kyle could only celebrate that he had managed to finish, but he still decided on using the remaining time in cross-checking his work.

Even though the questions were relatively easy to him and the only difficult factor being the somewhat short time, Kyle couldn't pass up on the opportunity to aim for a perfect score, having finished this quick already.

'I wonder how the others are faring,' Kyle mused, flipping the page back to begin from the first

***

Some others, especially Riya, who was just a few seats away from Kyle had noticed his actions and had guessed that he was done already.

She looked down at her paper with a frustrated sigh. No matter how fast she had tried to write, it just wasn't possible for her to finish. She was only at the twenty-ninth question due to the boost from her wind spell, unfortunately, her mana had already depleted before she could capitalize on it effectively.

'It's my fault,' Riya thought with a determined frown. 'If I had just trained my mana control a bit more then I wouldn't be having such struggles.'

She couldn't dwell on it for too long as she had already refocused her attention on her paper and begun pushing as fast as possible.

***

Kyle was relaxed as he read through each of the questions from the beginning to the end, making a few corrections in-between. It was only after cross-checking his work multiple times did he close it, feeling confident in what he has written.

'That's 100 marks secured in the bag,' Kyle thought, as he darted to the clock to see the time.

'11:40 AM. I might as well get some sleep before the time ends.'

Everyone in the hall were infuriated when they saw Kyle lie on his desk, but they could only grind their teeth and write faster than ever.

***

[12:00 PM]

Immediately the time for the exam came to an end, every student felt their papers vanish from their tables, like they were never there in the first place.

The students could only growl and cry internally as they had been earlier warned against making noise in the exam hall. It wasn't a surprise that nobody, except Kyle, had managed to finish the exam, in fact, barely anyone had gone up to 50%.

>SWOOSH!<

In a flash, similar to the papers, all the chairs returned to the ground, causing the students to stumble and fall.

'The hell?' Kyle had been sleeping all these while and he seemed to have almost lost himself to a deep slumber before he felt himself falling on the ground.

Looking around him, he noticed that other students were in a similar situation to him, but their eyes soon directed to the door that has just been flung open.

"Good afternoon, students," the presence at the door greeted as he came in. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man with a neatly trimmed beard and intense eyes

The students immediately recognized the new arrival — It was Harris, their general weapon training combat instructor.

Harris paused and surveyed their tired faces.

"I trust you all enjoyed your history exam?" he asked with a mischievous grin.

The students' collective silence spoke volumes. A few sighed audibly as their minds flashed back to the grueling test they'd just endured.

Harris chuckled, a hearty sound that bounced off the walls.

"Ah, come on now. That's in the past!" He paused dramatically, stroking his beard. "Wait... History has always been in the past, hasn't it?"

A wave of reluctant chuckles rippled through the students. Despite their exhaustion, Harris's antics managed to draw a few smiles.

"Alright, alright, enough laughs," he said and his tone sharpened. "Get ready."

The atmosphere shifted immediately as the students that were on the floor began to stretch, their exhaustion momentarily forgotten. They were a bit happy because they guessed that it was time for them to go have lunch, maybe.

But Harris's next words sent a ripple of shock through the room.

"Your general weapon training exam begins in one minute."

A collective 'eh' threatened to erupt, but they all knew better than to protest openly.

'What?!'

'1 minute?!'

'No breaks?!'

These were pretty much everyone's thoughts at they stated angrily at the instructor before them. They were already tired for their furious scribbling in the exam that hadn't managed to earn them anything and they had just 1 minute to the next exam. A combat evaluation as of that!

Kyle was also surprised at the development but above all, he was annoyed that he couldn't have lunch before the next exam.

'I guess I'll be going through this one on an empty stomach,' he patted his stomach lightly. At least he had it better than others, as he had managed to squeeze in some time to get a little rest.

Kyle rubbed out the remnants of sleep from his eyes as he stood, stretching slightly to wake himself. He couldn't afford to mess this up.

'I'll be damned if I don't perform exceptionally well,' he thought with determination.

All around him, students scrambled to their feet, some muttering under their breath while others silently glared at Harris, who remained unfazed by their reactions.

***

Exactly one minute later, the air in the center of the room shimmered, and a glowing portal materialized with a faint hum.

From the portal, different metallic figures began to emerge, marching in synchronized movements. The dummies were humanoid in shape, their bodies constructed from a sleek, silver alloy that gleamed under the hall's magical lighting.

Their heads were featureless spheres, save for two glowing red orbs where eyes might have been. Runes faintly pulsed along their limbs, and their joints moved with an uncanny fluidity.

More dummies followed, hundreds pouring out of the portal, filling the once spacious hall. The students watched in awe and trepidation as the last of the dummies stepped out, the portal vanishing behind them.

Harris clapped his hands, drawing their attention.

"These are basic combat training dummies. They are rare and expensive, so count yourselves lucky to be facing them."

The students exchanged uneasy glances with their apprehension growing.

"Now, here's how this works," Harris continued. "Each of you will pick a weapon from the pile I'll summon. Your dummy will also arm itself with the same weapon.

For the next hour, you'll face off against your dummy in combat. The goal is simple: hit the dummy as many times as you can while avoiding being hit yourself."

He began to pace around the room with his hands clasped behind his back.

"No magic. No artifacts. No runes. No potions. Just you and your weapon."

The students' expressions weren't surprised at the announcement. They fully expected the absence of magic but it still felt somehow for their greatest advantage to be unavailable.

Harris stopped and turned to face them, his grin widening.

"Here's how you're scored. Hits to the dummy score you points:

Head/neck: 10 points.

Chest: 5 points.

Limbs: 3 points.

"But beware," he added and his tone dropped ominously. "Every time the dummy hits you, you'll lose the same number of points, depending on where you're struck."

The room was silent except for the faint hum of the dummies' internal mechanisms.

"And here's the fun part," Harris said, his grin taking on a wicked edge. "If you manage to destroy your dummy, you'll earn a whopping 200 points. Of course that's not possible, but there's no harm in trying.

A few students swallowed nervously, their gazes flitting toward the dummies.

"Finally," Harris said, clapping his hands again, "the net points you earn after the test will determine your score. So think carefully about your strategy. Go for the points or aim to take down the dummy—either way, make it count!

But I'll give you an advise. Your history exam carries 100 points as its full score but there's no fixed points for this exam. Any points you manage to get might have just covered up for your bad exam."

The students found themselves beaming with the new announcement and they found themselves punching the air as if they had recovered their scores already.

Harris's actions brought them out of their fantasies as with a wave of his hand, a large pile of weapons appeared at the far end of the hall. Swords, spears, axes, daggers, and other weapons of all shapes and sizes shimmered into existence, each gleaming like they had been freshly polished.

"Choose wisely," Harris said, stepping aside to let them through.

Kyle smiled as he walked towards the pile of weapons.

'This is going to be interesting.'