A Sinner’s Chance

I imagine if others faced the end of the assessment the same way I had they would be heavily traumatized. I had been pinned down, stabbed and cut deeply as my goblin foes worked to end my life, however I was far more resilient that even I had thought I would be. It wasn't until the goblin lord pulled a large blade out and bisected me that I found myself no longer in the arena, but rather a black expanse. In front of me there was a screen like projection stating my score and what place I held out of the other assessment takers.

I didn't have anything to compare to so I wasn't sure if a score of 175 was good or not, but it seemed that I was in the top five of those who were participating. At the bottom of the screen there were two options, one to be awoken and return to reality, the other to observe those who were still participating. I still felt somewhat strange from my assessment so I decided it would be better to observe the other participants while my body calmed down.

Once I chose my option four other screens appeared showing arenas just like the one I had just been in and the people still undergoing the assessment. Much to my surprise both Kalista and Gabriel were still in and they were doing extremely well. I'd never seen either of the two go all out so I had never been sure of their capabilities, but it almost felt like I was looking at different people as I watched their battles unfold.

I had always thought of Kalista as the pure magician type, yet she was currently dressed in light armor and wielding a glaive, and she seemed like the incarnation of destructive flame as she seemed to take joy in cutting and burning through the enemies in front of her. For a moment her intensity and flowing red hair combined with the flame-dyed surroundings reminded me of the Queen of Hell, but only for a moment.

Gabriel was the more surprising of the two though. I'd never actually seen her fight and she always refrained from dueling me or Kalista so I always thought she was more of a pacifist, something which contradicted the sight before me. Unlike Kalista who was like an unbridled flame, Gabriel was like a cold avenging angel. She stood at a distance from the goblins she was fighting against and unleashed barrages of what looked like swords of light which cut through her foes like a hot knife through butter.

The other two that were still in were just as impressive, one being a silver haired kid who I couldn't even tell how he was killing the goblins. They'd simply mutter an incantation and swing the sword he was holding and seconds later one of the goblins he was fighting would be bisected. It was somewhat terror inducing, but it seemed that they would be able to go on much longer as the incantation was quite long and some of the higher rank goblins were able to defend against whatever it was.

While I couldn't be sure, I thought the last surviving member was the Hero my father had mentioned. Not only did he seem unused to wielding a weapon, but he was also shouting out the name of every Skill he was using, many of which I felt were not actual Skills. It was like watching a kid play a game, which was understandable if he was summoned and was suddenly introduced to a world of magic where you could earn experience by killing monsters and you had a RPG Status.

Even so, he seemed like a real cheat character. Sure, I was hard to kill, but it wasn't impossible as proven by the goblin lord, this kid was on another level entirely. At the beginning of each round he'd yell out powerful sounding Skills like 'Lesser Physical Nullification', or 'Shield of God', and they seemed to be real, as the lesser types of goblins were unable to do anything to him and even the more powerful ones like the knights had difficulty actually landing a blow on him.

Just as I turned away from his battle I was the silver haired kid finish off the goblin lord that had defeated me, however before the next battle even started they raised their hands in surrender and the screen disappeared followed by them appearing next to me in the black expanse.