Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

After Hoffnu's attempt at a swift victory by utilising Gelter's anatomy to her advantage, the other talent holders swiftly followed, none of them did much better than her however.

Molc, who could already shoot his crossbow from great distances, did not stand much of a chance in a restrained environment.

"That's why you need to focus on learning some earth magic, then, you'll be able to create covers and prevent enemies from getting up-close" nothing better than allowing your students to get beat up to force them to realise that you are speaking in the language of facts and logic.

After the crossbowman, came the shieldwoman, Menhirel who was rumoured to have something to do with the famed Shiedmaster, not only because of both their affinity to carry nothing but a shield around, it was also due to the fact that she was a bit sick in the head, sometimes.

After all, what was the most distinct characteristic of Tamaris's lawful living barricade? It was not his gigantic size, it was not his impressive might, nor was it his odd voice, what everyone that had ever met him remembered was just how disturbing he was to be around for more than a minute.

Seeing how Menhirel's face scrunched up into a terrific smile the moment she entered combat, it was hard to deny the similarities, Rosemary knew very well that this was not the case however, being familiar enough with the lunatic himself to know that he only interacted with women to hit them with his shield or if ordered to.

In any case, despite her impressive defences and willingness to learn mana reinforcement, she was defeated just like the others, even with their talents making them much stronger than they would otherwise be, they were still just a bunch of younglings, they could not compare to the years worth of strength and experience Gelter had accumulated.

The last to try his chance was Merno, Rosemary quite liked him, for his talent lied in magic, and he had a great affinity for all four of the basic elements.

'Just like that unwanted, now that I think about it'n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Now, unfortunately, Merno was not very good at physical stuff, the knight threw his scabbard right at the mage's chest, ending the fight before he could cast any spell, any close-quarter combatant ought to know that to deal with a mage, one should beat the crap out of them with excessive speed and force.

"Alright, only three of you are left, Milo, who do you want to test yourself against?" she looked over at him and Helena, those two always stuck together like snails sharing a single shell, it was cute seeing young love, Rosemary had to admit it.

"I'll face… Osworth!" he exclaimed, meeting the gaze of the masked bodyguard, or so it seemed, no one could be certain whether the eye holes on this thing were where his actual eyes could be found.

Milo did not carry any weapon, only his fists, the same seemed true for his opponent, who was standing with his hands behind his back as he stepped up onto the platform, then taking up a fighting stance, some sort of chimeric creation that seemed to have been created by grafting many styles onto a single one.

Milo could not tell as much himself, as he did before, Osworth allowed the student to make the first move, standing his ground until then, the youth's own posture and movements were reminiscent of that of a boxer, he aimed a left hook at the side of the bodyguard's ribcage, on the side were his defence appeared weaker.

Severely enhancing his punch, it was both fast and destructive, glowing with a faint golden light, it brushed up close to the man's robe but ultimately missed, Osworth spun around Milo, grabbing the center of his shirt as leverage, letting go and crouching down when the young man attempted to strike him with an elbow strike.

Grabbing the student's arm, Osworth threw him over his shoulder, pinning him to the ground, but was quick to roll away once he noticed that Milo was conjuring up a mana bullet with his chest as the origin point, leaving a big hole right in the middle of his shirt.

Milo jumped up to his feet, but the fight was already over, the blade of a dagger just twitching away from pressing against his throat.

'Where did he pull that out from?' as if hearing his thoughts, Osworth gracefully stepped back, the curved blade spun into a reverse grip and swiftly hid it in his sleeve.

"Not bad"

Rosemary nodded in approval, that was good performance considering that he was completely outmatched to begin with, though, she had not realised that Osworth was so strong physically, although items could conceal a lot, she was certain that he could not have concealed any sort of energy reinforcement, meaning that he was naturally powerful enough to easily overpower Milo when augmenting his body.

The young man had very good output and speed on top of a very good physique, so this was rather unexpected.

The bodyguard helped Milo up, just in time for Helena to also challenge Osworth, deeming him the most interesting option of the two, she was fairly certain that Gelter would simply be able to power through her spells and strike her down like he had with Merno.

Focusing deeply on the opponent as Milo passed by and encouraged her, sensing something odd about him.

She was unable of sensing his mana, or any other energy, meaning that it was something else that gave her that weird vibe, narrowing her eyes intently, incapable of figuring it out, so instead, she used the fact that he gave her time to do anything she wanted to prepare a powerful spell.

Rosemary nodded along.

'As expected of my best student' a sigil manifested beneath Osworth's feet, conjuring a raging tornado around him, wind slashes already flying through the air, the impressive display of outer manipulation and general magic prowess was cut short as the bodyguard retrieved the same dagger as before, parrying the slashes as they came toward him, even those that Helena had hidden by making them completely invisible.

There were more than two types of wind slashes, each with different parameters, making some much easier to detect, but Osworth seemed to see all of them with the same ease, blocking the potent attacks without showing any sort of strain.

Throwing the dagger through the tornado, it was not stopped by the raging winds and closed in on her face, before suddenly disappearing.

By then, he had already arrived right in front of her.

"You and that boy make for a good pair" he commented, turning to Rosemary.

"Time for you to show your prowesses" he held out his hand, offering to help her up on the platform, she absolutely didn't need any assistance but she accepted without thinking.

"I see that my bodyguard has found-" Antieeld tried to say something witty.

"Shush, I can easily burn away specific things" her teacher threatened with a bright smile.

"Oof…"