Everyone gasped, they could not believe what they had witnessed. The newcomer had not only took the attack from William but during that small window of time, cut William's hand without them noticing.
Who was this man?
The question everyone witnessing what was happening was asking themselves.
Alaric dropped the hand on the ground—He fazed out of existence and appeared before William who was clutching his wound, a dark glint married Alaric's eyes and in a flash, the squelching sounds of bones cracking echoed out as Alaric hit William in the stomach with a punch, pushing the bigger man up. He followed up by utilizing his superior speed to reposition himself, manifesting above the airborne man and he did a heel kick sending them man to the ground.
Alaric still midair, took hold of the blade of darkness and made his descend with the intent of puncturing through the back of the man.
"Enough!" A voice commanded and a massive shockwave, one that even surprised Alaric blew into the field knocking him off course and slammed him against the side of the training facility.
Alaric got to his knees and coughed, he had not expected outside interference. His eyes landed on the woman who had repelled him and his lips thinned. She was quite muscular, wearing a two piece suit, her red eyes stared at him giving him a sign to stand down.
He did as instructed and put away his weapon.
"Anyone care to tell me what happened? And medical team, get here and patch this one up before he dies from bloodloss." The woman commanded yet again, snapping everyone out of their daze and the medical team scrambled to the scene while the receptionist went to the woman to explain what had led to this.
Cordelia hopped to Alaric, stars glistening in her eyes when she arrived. " That was so cool, no wonder you made it out, you are so strong." She chirped, letting her inner girly out due to the excitement.
Alaric paid no heed to her, his eyes were focused on the woman standing next to the receptionist. His mind being unable to comprehend how? How come she flick him away like that, her aura in his eyes was nothing amazing, it was not even the same size as the man he had just beaten moments earlier.
[Optimized aura control, that's what she was using.]
Optimized Aura control?
[Yes, she focused her aura on one specific purpose and used that as a binder to amplify her strength. Despite having lower aura quantity, she possess a rather unique potential, and that makes her a high+ saint in godhood terms. In context, she's stronger than you at the moment]
Alaric stared at the woman, Sentinelsʼ voice drowning out the outside noise—to think someone as powerful as her was in the association, he couldn't help but shudder, but compared to the Ice dragon he had faced, she was nothing to fear.
"Are you hearing me?"
Alaric snapped to reality when Cordelia's voice reached his ears. "Huh?"
Cordelia puffed her cheeks. " Don't huh? Me, i was trying to tell you that, the woman there..." She raised her finger to point at the woman who stopped him. " her name is Black, she's the right hand of the chairman, and if she's here that means she's the one conducting the trials."
A few minutes later everyone was back in the hall and a list of hunters coming for rank evaluation and reevaluation was called and everyone stepped up to a gigantic sphere that would show their physical attributes and assign them the adequate ranks—Alaric waiting for his name and he was then called, he stepped up to the sphere ignoring the hushed vocals behind him and he placed his hand on it.
[Limit your aura, don't go above SSSS+ we need not draw attention to ourself.]
Understood!
Alaric breathed in, the words Sentinel told him taken into consideration—He began to channel his aura into the sphere and the gigantic sphere started to shudder, it shook from the aura flowing into it and from the other side of the sphere, where no one was watching, cracks began to appear but as soon as the change in the sphere happened, it vanished and Alaric's information appeared on the surface, his physical stats, and assigned rank of SSSS+ appeared on the surface and he took a step back.
With his part done, Alaric took his leave and returned to Cordelia. Reaching the woman, he saw the skeptical look she was giving him—everything she had witnessed leading upto that point was not coinciding with the level shown on the sphere. But before she could voice it out, Black stepped upto them with Alaric's hunter license in hand.
She stood before Alaric, the card forwarded to the man. "That's not your actual level is it?" She asked, her crimson eyes scanning Alaric's face to find any cracks in composure that would give her assumption grounds to stand.
But she found nothing.
Nothing on Alaric's face changed, his nonchalant look remained fixed.
"What are you talking about? That's my actual rank." Alaric said playing dumb, much to the annoyance of Black.
Black placed her other hand on his shoulder and in a blink, both of them were transported from the Hunter Association building to an open expanse ontop of a mountain. Black's face became cold, and her eyes lost their gleam, turning to those of a seasoned Hunter.
"Who are you?"
Alaric knew what the question was asking, it was not asking for his lazed answers but it was direct and wanted to know real answers if the glare was anything to go on.
He sighed. "Call me Alaric."
Black's tense mood dropped for a brief second. "Well Alaric, I'm Black." As soon as the last word left her lips on herself introduction—Black threw a punch which Alaric caught but was forced to buckle under the force which caused the mountain they were on to shake.
"Alaric, who are you fooling? I can tell that you are hiding something and before you try to deny and say you are not hiding anything, no one lesser than continent level hunter could block my punch without taking damage. So I'll ask again, who are you?"
Alaric jumped back a bit, and he almost facepalmed at his oblivious nature—He cussed himself for not realizing that Black was perceptive enough, and her being on a high+ saint level was no bluff, Alaric looked at his hand and winced when he saw the red area where the impact struck.
[ Someone is watching you, I don't know from where]
Sentinel informed and Alaric roamed the vicinity with his eyes—A bit distracted, he came to, when a boot struck his chest sending him flying into the mountain behind him. He destroyed the tip on impact and coughed a bit getting to his feet only to be forced to evade as Black landed where he was causing the mountain to crack in the middle.
Black turned to Alaric who had repositioned to her right side.
"I'll ask again, who are you Alaric."