The room got dark, real dark. Eru blinked his eyes trying to adjust to the darkness and quietly moved from where he was. Listening closely Eru could hear gentle footsteps approaching to where he was. It was couple of minutes since they had given him 5 minutes. “I guess it starts now” he laughed in his head.Eru decided he would try and get around the footsteps that he heard. He quietly was slinking to get the footsteps in between his equipment which he had left on the ground and himself.Eru paused for a minute looking around listening intently if there was anyone else around. He couldn’t hear anything else and he couldn’t see anything.

Eru was now in place the attacker, (Was it an attacker Eru wondered?) was just about to reach Eru’s weapons. He had closed the distance and was ready to spring at the attacker’s back. Eru deftly lunged at the footsteps and gently tried to get a choke hold around the would be attacker. The attacker tried to turn around and faceEru and threw a punch towards Eru. Eru blocked the punch. It was a strong punch that made Eru shift back some to stay on balance. He grabbed the arm placing an arm lock on the attacker. Even though Eru was less than a foot a way from his attacker he could still not see it. The attacker was under control now the attacker’s elbow would be under extreme pain butEru did no damage yet. He wanted to try and get some answers.

“What’s going on?” Eru whispered though it still echoed in the large silent room. The attacked said nothing and then suprised Eru. The attacker pulled his arm away from Eru breaking his own elbow in the process and ran away without so much as a whimper. Eru didn’t have time to wonder out of nowhere he felt a punch coming at the back of his head. He tried to dodge it but only managed to lessen the blow. He crumpled down on his knees in pain, then turned around and laid down on his back to try and protect himself.

The lights all of sudden turned on in an instant. Temporarily blinding Eru in the process, he saw the second attacker had some kind of protection in his eyes that probably let him see in the darkness or extreme brightness. Eru closed his eyes and felt an incoming kick to his side coming, he countered the kick tripping his attacker down to the ground. Eru got up in time to block a punch from the attacker who had jumped up as well. The light was too bright for Eru it hurt to open them and light was coming in all directions even from the ground. It looked like he was floating.

Eru kept his eyes closed but could still see his second attacker as a shadow through his eyelids. Punch, counter, and another counter. The attacker seemed to know what Eru was going to do before he did it, as did Eru countering the counters. A weird dance to observers if there was any. Eru was starting to sweat and breathe heavy. He heard more footsteps coming not even trying to hide themselves now. The second attacker looked at the reinforcements coming for a split second and Eru saw his opportunity to connect. He punched a low punch to the attackers stomach winding hum and then threw him down on the ground. The attacker landed on his back and got winded a second time. Eru ran to his weapons bag the light dimming or he was getting adjusted to it. He wasn’t sure, he could feel his adrenaline now and wasn’t as woozy from getting hit in the head.

He reached his weapons bag and pulled out the first thing that he grabbed. It was his sword. This would help with multiple attackers if there wasn’t too many of them. A large circle had formed around him.

“Pause” A commanding voice, one of the men on the council spoke. Eru’s second attacker slowly made it to his feet and stumbled across the room still trying to breathe. A rib must of have broken. Eru caught his breath and let the sweat absorb into his clothes.

“Why did you not kill any of your attackers?” Another council man questioned Eru.

“There was no need to kill them, I am not a murderer” Eru said back. There was no answer back or any difference in their expressions. Eru wondered if he did anything wrong.

“Defend yourself” The one in the center whispered again. Eru thought that one must be the highest rank. The lights were now a normal level. Five attackers came at Eru at once, they had no weapons. The circled around him. As they tried to punch and kick Eru he used his sword to create space and precisely hit shins and forearms with his sword. He didn’t go that deep. Just deep enough to weaken them enough that they could no longer hit him. As he did this he took some punches and kicks, nothing enough to get him off balance though. Soon the 5 attackers could no longer offer any resistance.

“Stop” one of the council said. Some help came to the defeated attackers and took them away. “You barely injured them, there was five of them trying and succeeding in hurting you, why did you let this happen?”

“I could handle them without inflicting permanent damage” Eru responded. Was he doing the right thing he wondered. He had to trust his gut.

“Everyone but Eru leave now” The council stood up and in seconds the room was emptied in silence. The council then walked towards Eru. Eru showed respect to the council when they stopped. One of the council offered Eru some water. He took it and slowly drank it.

“You have done well so far Eru. We knew that you had the skills and intelligence required. We are glad that you demonstrated it to us effectively. For most jobs that we look at you would have failed if you did what you did.” Eru said nothing as the council continued to talk. “We have a dangerous job for you but you cannot speak of it to anyone” Just then one of the council sprang at Eru. It looked almost physically impossible thought Eru. He manage to block and subdue the council member face down on the ground controlling him while looking to see if anyone else was going to attack. Not a drop of the water had spilled as the glass sat there on the ground.

“Congratulations Eru” the council member pinned to the ground said muffled. “There was lots of things you could have done wrong there but did not.” The one woman on the council instructed Eru to let him go. Eru complied.

“As I was saying. We have a job for you if you wish to accept if not we go our separate ways now and you are free to do as you wish. There is a large sum deposited into your account for this successful fight. The test was a lot shorter than expected you did well. We would like you to go undercover Eru. Do you accept the job?”

Eru knew he would get no more information unless he said yes. What could it be. Did he want to be a spy? “Yes I accept” Eru responded.