Chapter 45

Terrible Teachers

The moment that the arena was reset, Ivo apologized profusely for losing control of his abilities. I laughed at him, and my companion floated over and hit him lightly on the top of his helmet.

I felt agitation transmitted to me through my link that they couldn't directly tell Ivo what they thought of his apology.

"I think you made your thoughts clear enough there buddy." I laughed as I spoke to my irritated weapon, they flew over and swiped at my head in response. Since I knew exactly where they were at all times, and I could feel their intent, I was easily able to duck my head to avoid being hit.

"Hey now!" I said, while laughing, "we don't hit friends!"

My companion begged to differ, every time I faced a guildmate in the arena flashed through my mind, accompanied by a slight confusion.

"That's different, it was training." I said, slightly defensively.

"Yeah and we've got more training to go." Pierce cut in.

"I'll stay here and get that weapon to show me what it can do while you and Ivo have a little spar over on the other side of the meadow, by the wall." Pierce had a somewhat worrying smile on his face when he announced the plan.

My companion sent me a feeling that roughly translated to, "Do I have to?" I felt for the poor thing, Pierce didn't strike me as ever being very gentle.

"We'll continue where we left off, I want you to link us up again. That ability could help us work together better, but I find it more than a little distracting. Ivo's used to feeling other people's emotions all the time, and I guess you're used to feeling weird shit too, but I'm sure as hell not." Pierce closed his eyes and took a breath. "Ivo keep an eye on me through that bond, if I pass five, get in range and do your thing, otherwise I'll manage myself."

Ivo narrowed his eyes and nodded, neither of them elaborated on what that meant.

"I'll set a reset timer for two hours, after the reset I want to have a little talk with you about some options for how we're going to train tomorrow."

I nodded, and Pierce set the timer.

I shifted, and extended the offer of Bonding to Ivo and Pierce. Ivo accepted it well, but Pierce seemed to have to take a few breaths before he allowed it. Apprehension and discomfort flooded out of him the moment we connected, I felt his mind's impulse to reject the bond. Ivo helped by sending a heartfelt welcome, along with love. My companion expressed their joy at connecting with more people.

I allowed the mana's influence to flow through all of us, the Concept tied us together. Under the mana's influence, I felt how four of us were meant to be family, united against any resistance.

I felt as if their feelings and lives were as important to me as my own. Thankfully I was able to pull back and realize that I was beginning to lose a little bit of my sense of self. I quickly closed my eyes and focused on putting limits on the bonding. We could be brothers united, but all four of us were our own people.

Ivo reached up to pat my shoulder, I felt his concern, and questioning of what had just happened. I flicked my tail a little, and pushed my head into him, telling him I was okay without putting in the effort of speaking with my mind. I felt him understand.

We started walking towards the wall where we were meant to practice without needing to consult each other. I felt my companion look at Pierce wondering what he had planned. They hadn't chosen how they should adapt and grow their form this time around. The one that resembled me was somewhat comfortable for them, but far from the most efficient use of their abilities, and they knew it. I could feel how my direct attention was distracting for them, so I moved my mind on to other things, and focused on Ivo.

I felt his determination to help me, but also his reluctance to do what he planned. That raised some alarm bells, I had no clue what we were about to do, beyond just fighting each other a bit. I doubled my mana consumption, pushing it into my Aspect as fast as I could, feeding my growth, and my ability to evolve.

Ivo laughed a bit. "I don't blame you for being nervous, it's okay. I wish this arena was equipped with simulated opponents, it would be much better for this than having you try to fight a man in full plate. I'll set my shield down, we can say any strike on my body is points for you, just do your best."

As we put distance between ourselves and our friends, my awareness of Pierce's exact state faded. By the time we reached the wall, I knew only his location, and that he wasn't under any abnormal stress. My link with my companion faded to something near what it normally was, I could feel their growing determination, the two of them had already gotten started.

Ivo stopped us just after we moved out of range, he set his shield on the ground, and drew his long sword. "Begin." He said simply, I felt his encouragement.

It felt wrong to try to attack him, I couldn't do it, I shook my head, trying to convince myself that it was okay.

I just couldn't do it, he was my brother, why would I try to hurt him?

"I'm going to reject the bond, it is getting in the way." I could feel Ivo push me away.

When the bond broke between Ivo and myself, I flew into a mana fueled rage, the man who rejected the group needed to die.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Level 78 Sympathetic Bulwark

I didn't even register the notification. I roared, and leapt at him, my sudden frenzied attack took him by surprise. He still somehow managed to raise his sword so that my own attack buried it to the hilt in my chest. As soon as we collided, he pushed himself away from me, letting go of his weapon in order to avoid my attempt to bite his head off.

The man rolled to his feet and lunged for his shield as I fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes. The sword had managed to partially skewer my heart, my mana was healing me, but every beat damaged it anew. I couldn't do anything to remove the source of my injury, it was in exactly the worst place, the repeated damage to my heart left me unable to do anything but feel the pain of death trying to take me. I desperately pushed mana from my core, begging it to find any way for me to live.

It was only a few seconds, hardly enough time for my opponent to get back on his feet. I felt the mana inside me flock to the injured parts of body, my heart changed, becoming encased in a tough material, the sword could no longer cut it. I felt something in my chest contract, pushing the sword out of me as I healed.

As soon as it was out, I felt another wave of mana leave my core and sink into my skin. I sucked at the external mana desperately, my huge life core was coming close to empty from the effort.

I pushed myself off the ground, my mind filled with rage directed at the little man who hurt me so badly.

Then, the rage was ripped from me roughly. I fell into a kind of mental shock, my mind unable to cope with the sudden tearing away of my emotions.

Ivo calmly walked over and picked up his bloody sword.

"That was an impressive bit of healing, a horrible attack though, you left yourself so open. Try again." Ivo planted his shield in the ground next to him, and released it.

I was still reeling from the emotional whiplash, I barely registered Ivo's words. I just stood stock still, and called for more mana to eat.

"Okay, I'll have to remind you that we're fighting then."

I felt the sword connect with my left front leg, in a lightning quick slash. It stung, but only created a small quickly healed cut.

I roared, my mind snapping out of its daze, my rage burst back into existence. I jumped away from my attacker, my horns began to hum slightly, as a charge began to build. I watched Ivo's movements intently. It was evident that he sensed something big was coming. The man wisely backed up and retrieved his shield.

I had made a mistake in my rage, Growth had already been consuming my energy stores to slowly increase my size and strength. Using my horns was dangerous for me in this state, I was ferociously hungry. The only food around was stuck in a can, and it wasn't to my taste, but I was getting desperate. My mana consumption was restoring what I'd spent, but it would take time, during which I would have to fight the impulse to try to eat anything I could get my mouth around. Ivo was definitely not on the menu, a fact I hate to admit I had to remind myself of.

I clamped my eyes shut as my horns released their charge, I could see the world momentarily light up through my lids.

When I opened my eyes Ivo was gasping for breath, leaning on his shield. I growled at him, getting ready to lunge for the exhausted man. My jaws ached as I clenched them shut, my instincts wanted me to try to do something horrible to feed myself.

I felt my anger drain away, it wasn't a sudden removal, so I wasn't stunned by it, I simply felt it slip away. With the removal of the anger, I was able to think of another desperate option for food, right under my paws.

"Let's take a short break. I can feel your hunger, where did that come from?"

I shook my head, I wasn't up to trying to mentally communicate. I was so desperately hungry I leaned my head down and ate the grass like I was in my ram form. It tasted terrible at first, my body wasn't equipped to eat vegetables, let alone grass, but I knew the aspect I was channeling could fix that. I pushed the mana to do so, it flowed through me, changing parts of me to adapt to a mixed diet. It was not the most comfortable experience, it felt like the mana was twisting my insides around.

I ignored the discomfort and continued to consume both grass and mana while Ivo watched, and the grass began to taste good.

"Well, that's interesting to see, did you partly change to your ram form?"

I lifted my head, and cocked it to the side, that was as good of an explanation as any for now. It only took a few minutes of eating anything I could, mostly grass, and calling mana so strongly to refill myself that I worried for the integrity of the arena. But soon we were both recovered enough to continue.

Ivo set his shield aside again, and beckoned me to try to attack him once more.

I was so hesitant to attack that he grumbled at me, threatening to push anger at me if I wouldn't make a move without it.

I tried, but I struggled to be aggressive if I wasn't emotionally invested in it. So he did what he had to do.

He spent the rest of the two hours with me under the influence of his emotional manipulation. He made sure I stayed pissed as hell at him, but not enraged enough to make terrible mistakes, it was a fine line. It was almost old hat by that point to have my emotions toyed with by something outside myself, I didn't find it in the least bit disturbing.

I found out that every time he scored a hit on me, it did less damage, the aspect I was channeling progressively adapted so that my skin grew thicker and tougher every time I had to heal. Eventually I could all but ignore his weapon.

By the time the two hours was up, the man had to use his shield full time. I had grown at least a foot in height, and was much, much stronger than when we started. I was able to slightly dent his armor when I got past his shield. I never did any real damage to him though, he was far too resilient for that, and somehow my hits didn't seem to knock him back at all. Attacking him was like trying to punch a brick wall.

When the arena reset, I was very very ready to be done trying to crack that particular nut.

As soon as we reappeared, my companion pushed themself into my hand. I felt their fear and desire for comfort. They felt helpless and discouraged by whatever had taken place during the two hours, and wanted me to defend them. I pulled them into a hug, I tried to send comforting thoughts through the link. I glared at Pierce, and pulled back my lips in a defensive snarl.

"What exactly did you do?" I asked, wanting his version of events. My staff was sending me feelings of being roughly bashed into splinters, and having to regrow. Being assaulted mercilessly while desperately trying and failing to do more than slow their assailant down.

The callous man just chuckled at the accusation in my voice.

"I just gave it the push it needed to learn. It was really starting to improve near the end there. It's obviously not on par with a regular person, and its spells seem really limited. But it should be able to help distract the monsters a bit. That enhancement spell it has will help us too, as long as we time it right." Pierce seemed to notice the look on my face, it wasn't hard, I was growling.

"Apologize." I said through gritted teeth. "My poor little friend is still very young. You traumatized them." I could feel how hurt my companion was. They just had their relative lack of power pointed out to them for two whole hours, they hadn't sent a peep through the link the entire time either.

"I'm sorry, but we don't have much time to take things slow. If your 'little friend' wants to help, they'll have to get over it." Pierce grunted.

Ivo knocked him in the back of the helmet. "We're sorry, neither of us is well equipped to train people. I think we both failed to do what we intended."

Pierce sighed. "Yeah sure, I'm no teacher, I'm sorry, I did the best I knew how to do. Now let's talk about that plan to have you pose as a beast shifter. You need more forms, let's talk about options."

I groaned, I wasn't sure I was ready, I didn't even make the best use of the forms I already had. But I'd hear them out.