Owen adjusted his feet once or twice, his left shoulder pointing towards Ethan while its paired arm rested diagonally against his chest and then abdomen so that his hand, along with its twin, held the hilt of his massive wooden sword near his right hip so that its tip hovered a few inches above the ground. As Ethan adjusted his own stance the Guild Master's hands began to emit a subtle glow of white before lines of what looked to be a white substance began to crawl its way along the hilt, out over either end of the guard and then down the length of the sword, though it was closer to a condensed mist than liquid. While only noticed with more than a cursory look, across the surface of the sword shallow channels with straight parallel edges had been carved. It was within these channels that Owen currently allowed his Nel' Ina, or the essence that represented his connection to the Nel' Tahn, to flow. It took about 25 to 30 seconds before all the channels were completely filled and he awaited the signal to start from Lorelle while watching the boy in silence. It wouldn't have to wait long though.

As soon as Owen began to fill the channels with his Nel' Ina Ethan shifted his weight a bit so that he could easily slide his right foot back behind him, allowing him to pivot his hips so that only the left side of his body face Owen. Bending his left knee he planted the shield attached to his left arm down against the side of his calf while he moved the second so that it was rest against his left arm and shoulder, its bottom edge behind the top edge of the first. He then shifted his right arm and wrist so that the back of his hand rested against the top shield. Once he felt comfortable his hands also began to glow before the channels on the front and back of the shields began to fill with his own Nel' Ina. While similar in design, mostly that none of the channel edges intersected each other, their widths and designs were thicker and more block like. What happened next almost made Owen and Lorelle gasp though they were able to control their shock. It had taken Owen at least 25 seconds to fill the thin channels of a single, though large, wooden sword, however, in the time it would take one to blink Ethan had filled the thicker and more abundant channels of both shields.

Though Owen couldn't be certain, the focused expression of the boy before him didn't show a hint of ego, pride, or arrogance. In fact, the fact that Owen had taken so much longer with his own Nel' Ina didn't seem to effect Ethan in the slightest.

"Just what did my sister not tell him?" Owen thought to himself before he caught movement from Lorelle in his peripheral vision.

The focused expression covering Ethan's face was simply that, a focused expression. He was trying to control his heart rate and prevent his muscles from over flexing. He didn't have significant combat training and he simply took the defensive posture he felt most comfortable with. Despite his efforts at remaining calm he stiffened slightly when he too noticed Lorelle's movement.

Raising her arm above her head she held it there for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and bringing it down quickly as if she was chopping the air before her. At the same time she spoke one word in a clear, crisp, and strong tone.

"Begin!"

If a regular inhabitant or even a low level adventurer had been watching this match they would probably have reacted in shock when it looked like Owen suddenly disappeared as soon as Lorelle yelled "Begin." However, to both Lorelle and Ethan, Owen was still very much visible though traveling incredibly fast toward the boy. He had moved so fast in fact that an afterimage of his body had remained where he had been standing in stance for almost two seconds before fading away.

It took less than a second before Owen was within distance to strike at the boy and he didn't waste any time in doing so. Planting his left foot he brought his sword around from behind him and then across the space between them in an upward trajectory. He swung through the blow and collision, letting his body lift off the ground a few inches as he spun himself around to bring the sword back around. He turned his head ahead of his body, spotting the situation to see how Ethan had responded. While he wasn't completely surprised he smirked despite himself when he noticed that Ethan had taken the blow with his shields at an angle so that he wouldn't be pushed back. However, the blow had been more than the boy had expected and he was now slightly off balance. Before allowing Ethan to reset himself Owen brought the sword around from the back once again, this time though he dropped his center of gravity and tried to sweep Ethan's feet with a much lower point of attack.

As Owen twisted through the second swing he smiled upon feeling no resistance, immediately realizing that Ethan had jumped into the air to avoid it. Whether the sweep had been successful or Ethan jumped over it didn't matter as the end result was what Owen was truly looking forward. Twisting his head before his rotating body once again he spotted the suspended boy. This time, before swinging his sword around from the back he stepped forward and to the side with his leading leg. He also rotated his sword so that the flat of the large blade was now whistling toward the airborne Ethan with a stance that could only be described as trying to hit him away. Unlike the first two attacks, when this one connected with Ethan's shields there was a thunderous explosion of noise and force at the point of collision as Owen released an Impac.

The inexperienced Ethan nearly fell over with the first attack but was able to adjust himself enough to leap up and over the second one. He hadn't really thought beyond that point other than trying to avoid the collisions. While he was obviously carrying shields he didn't want to take hits needlessly and thus preferred to avoid and dodge when possible. Even if he had realized his predicament sooner it wasn't like he had wings and thus wouldn't have been able to do much more than absorb the third impact. However, the fact that Owen had also used an Impac on him really caught him by surprise, though when thinking on the exam later he would realize it was foolish to assume he wouldn't. With the initial force from Owen's broad swing combined with the explosive Impac Ethan was sent hurtling away toward the wall behind him. The entire exchange, or perhaps more accurately, the entire one sided attack, lasted less than five or six seconds from when Owen first rushed forward to when Ethan was sent flying away.