White Rock Academy was located at the edge of Jua village surrounded by a few streams of clear water. Children in the village would enter the school at age 6 and graduate by the time they were 9 or 10 having advanced from the Entry level to the Bone Forging realm. It took children an average of 3 or 4 years to move across these 4 levels of martial warrior training.
All the children running to school from the playing field were soon near the school gate where 2 Lion Guards stood. It was a strange sight, these 2 tall humanoid men standing at over 7 feet while donning golden armor and covered in red fur. The bodies of the Lion men looked human yet their heads were lion heads. They held huge red spears in their arms fitting the image of guards. Although they were supposed to look intimidating, one of them was snoring peacefully while the other was squatting on the ground looking bored as hell. These two Lion Men were Spirit Beasts.
In the Zika world, there were many strange sights due to the presence of all manner of magical, spiritual and divine powers. It was not rare for animals to gain some sort of awareness and intelligence due to some magical opportunity. There were different types of beings in this category: Magical Beings, Beasts, and Creatures, Spirit Beasts, Demonic Beasts, Anima among others. The classification of these beings mainly depended on what their ‘opportunity’ was. Animals affected by magic could gain magical abilities and be referred to as magical beasts. As for Spirit Beasts and Demonic Beasts, they were polar opposites influenced by Spiritual Energy and Demonic Energy respectively. Spirit Beasts therefore had calmer temperaments similar to humans while Demonic Beast attributes corresponded with the characteristics of Demons.
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The Sword Scar Continent and most other places in the Zika world had extremely strict Spirit Beast Protection Laws to allow harmony between humans and Spirit Beasts. The higher the intelligence of the Spirit Beast, the more humanoid they were and the more the law protected them. These rules however did not apply to Demonic Beasts which were far more aggressive due to the negative influence of Demonic Energy. Even after gaining intelligence, they would be far more bloodthirsty, sadistic, and cruel similar to evil humans and demons thus the relationship between them and humans was antagonistic.
The 2 Spirit Beasts at the gate were Radi Muruthi [Thunder Lion] and Mwaki Muruthi [Blazing Lion] also known as the Thunder and Fire twins. They were famous for their Radi-Mwaki [Thunder-Fire] technique and Radi-Mwaki formation all over the village. This was the main reason they got the role of guarding the children at school. Afterall it wasn’t uncommon for strange things to wander into the village. This world was full of the unknown.
Between these 2 guards was Teacher Bine whom all the students were scared of. He stood there chatting with them but it was more like he was speaking to himself. As Mwana and the rest of the students zoomed past the gate, he gave them a deep glare looking ready to start giving a speech but no one gave him the chance. The little children’s speed seemed to have multiplied several-fold despite how tired they were from the run.