"Now, don't be scared haha"

"I will kill him for that stupid laugh"

"Okay, let us begin" Andrej said and drew his sword, quickly going on the offensive.

"Dark slash" a slash of darkness was released vertically from Andrej's sword and hit Konrad straight on, but he quickly dissolved into a puddle of water, then Andrej quickly noticed Konrad flying above him, his sword ready to strike.

"Twin wave slice" two slashed of compressed water fell from the air, which Andrej managed to dodge in time, but unbeknownst to him, this is exactly what Konrad wanted.

"Underwater"

A large geyser popped up from the ground where Andrej stood, and it flooded him with water, but he managed to slash through it and escape, but what he saw was Konrad waiting for him to do so, and so he released a water blade attack which pinned Andrej to the wall.

"This is bad, really bad, at this rate i will lose to him, and i won't pass, i need to do something" Andrej thought and Konrad quickly appeared before him, his blade ready to release another slicing attack.

"Are you giving up hahaha"

"Please stop laug-- Wait i got it!" Andrej suddenly realised his next line of play.

"Well, here goes, this is the end for you ahahaha" Konrad laughed and slashed downwards which released a smaller slash of water, but Andrej's body quickly dissapeared, it was an illusion cast by him in the last second, the real Andrej was behind Konrad, ready to strike.

"Dark slash" the slash of darkness managed to pin Konrad to the ground, where he lied with multiple slashes on his body, before dissolving into water again.

"Shit, that was another clone" thought andrej nervously "Then where is the real one?"

"Behind you idiot!" Konrad yelled and ran to stab andrej, but Andrej with one swift motion stabbed him instead, but that was another water clone, then he noticed a large mana spike in the air, and there he saw about 20 Konrads floating above him.

"Try to dodge this fool hahaha"

"The real one must be somewhere among them, guess i just need to strike them all down"

"Take this!" one of the Konrads yelled, and all of them quickly dived down with swords in their hands, ready to strike Andrej down, but that wouldnt be enough.

"Black wave" his sword slash split into six, and took down all of the falling clones, but the real Konrad was still standing behind Andrej, and he quickly created twenty more clones in front of Andrej, all of them ready to stike him down and end the match there.

"Shit, i don't have enough mana left to use a dark magic spell, i can use my illusions to trick him, but will that be enough?" Andrej thought to him but he saw the Konrads going for the strike "Fuck it, i'm using the illusions, this better work" he said and used an illusion to 'split himself' into two, one of the fake one went for the clones, while the other went for the real one, the clones quickly dispatched the illusion, and the real one did too in one quick slash downwards, but what the real one didnt expect is that the second Andrej was also an illusion, and the real Andrej was above him and already diving to strike him, Konrad couldn't react properly, as Andrej fell onto him and threw him into the ground, which made Komad accidentally dispell the clones, and Andrej was gripping his left hand with his left one, and his right hand was holding the sword, which pointed towards his neck.

"Surrender, i have you cornered"

"Puddle hand" but Konrad's free hand turned into water, and formed into a sharp needle, which extended to point towards Andrej's neck, barely stabbing him.

"Guess this is a stalemate" Andrej said and Konrad agreed through a hum.

"Andrej Antonov and Konrad Selinski both pass to the written exam"

"I told you Andrej is awesome" Katarina said to Ivan

"Really? I think that professor Julia's badger has better techniques" he jokingly replied

"Are you ever serious about somehing?"

"Hardly"

"Good fight man, does the offer for the drink still stand?" Andrej asked while helping Konrad to stand up.

"Of course!"

After that they wanted to see when the written test was to begin, but the commision denied all questions, so they went to the small bar included with the arena, and ordered their drinks, Andrej ordered hot tea while Konrad ordered fresh apple juice.

"So, tell me Konrad, earlier you boasted about defending your town from an orc attack" Andrej asked him while quietly sipping his tea.

"Oh yeah i did"

"Tell me more about that, i am curious myself, i didn't hear about any orc activity around here"

"Well i live in the east, there are multiple orc camps around there, i guess some orcs decided to try and loot the town, most of our town's adventurers were out on their separate journeys, and the royal guard assigned there couldn't protect the town alone, so i went to help him, there were three of the orcs, we both managed to take down one of them each, but the last one was tougher then the ones before, so my father, who is the leader of the city, lend us a hand, and i dealt the finishing blow, so i was called a hero, but if it wasn't for father, i don't think i would be alive now" he replied.

"I see, good for you"

They continued talking about multiple topics for around half an hour, before an announcement ringed.

"All battles of the practical exams are finished, the written exam will begin in five minutes, all who have passed go to the podium"

"Oh shit" they both said at the same time, and they ran out of the bar, leaving the money for the drinks hastly on the table.