I think I would like to improve my offensive skills, River said thoughtfully. I have seen our village Warriors fight and they are impressive. Their spears are wielded with such skill that they appear to be many spears instead of just one, and despite being much bigger than me, they move so quickly that they are never where the enemy expects them to be. Although I have not Evolved, I would like to try to emulate them as much as possible.

“That sounds like a good goal,” I praise him, while privately thinking that I could learn a bit from them in my own spear-technique – or lack of it, rather. Certainly I know what I’m going to be focussing on when I spar with one of my Bound. Probably River would be best, actually. “What about you, Bastet?” She tilts her head thoughtfully to one side.

I could be faster, she answers after a moment. I am not as fast as my body can be now. Move faster. Change direction faster. Strike faster. I nod slowly, thinking I understand her point.

“So you want to train your speed. Perhaps you could practise running at things, doing it as fast as possible and then trying to change your direction at the last minute or something?” I suggest. Not that I’m any sort of trainer, but I’ve heard of speed runs and that seems like it might be a good way for her to push herself without needing to worry about her safety.

I’m not a cub, she responds rather crossly. Apparently she doesn’t think it’s a good idea.

Fresh off an Evolution, you are not much further advanced than one. Markus Wolfe is right: you must practise. Kalanthia’s voice rumbles through all of our heads and we turn to look at her simultaneously. Apparently she’s been paying more attention than I would have thought. You have transformed your body with the Energy of Evolution. It would be wise to discover its limits before you enter battle.

“Thanks, Kalanthia,” I say, inclining my head towards her. Thankfully, I’m apparently not as misguided as I was fearing. Bastet lifts one taloned paw and licks at it, slightly disgruntled agreement coming through the Bond from her. To give her a bit of privacy, I look away to check on the cubs.

It seems like they’ve taken our actions to heart and are engaging in their own form of sparring. The teams seem to change from moment to moment, at one point being the raptorcat cubs against Lathani, and then the next being all of them against Trouble. A few moments after that, it’s everyone for him or herself. Maybe that’s why Bastet was a bit resistant – my suggestion may have seemed to be exactly what’s going on there.

“Alright,” I say, looking at Fenrir. “You and Sirocco are up next, if you’re OK with that?” I check with Sirocco, still on my shoulder. She sends me a sense of uncertain agreement. “You saw what it was like before – we’re not aiming to kill or even subdue the other in the spar; it’s an opportunity for you to see how effective your attacks are. Just please try not to damage each other too much, OK?” I say, looking from one to the other, my short-distance eyesight getting a workout with the bird. “No eye gouges or anything like that.”

Both of them send me a sense of agreement, Sirocco almost reluctant where Fenrir is eager. Sirocco takes off from my shoulder and dives at the lizog. Fenrir jumps at her, but she banks her wings and flies out of range before his teeth can snap closed on any part of her.

The ensuing few minutes are as much a stalemate as the previous battle was, only with one party being airborne and the other earthbound. Sirocco’s swoops in to land a few scratches across Fenrir’s back, and a couple of times he pulls out one or two of her feathers as his jaws close quickly enough.

By the end of the first few minutes it becomes clear who would be the winner if this was a battle to the death: Sirocco’s lack of stamina begins to tell, her dodges happening increasingly slowly. Eventually, she flaps to land on the ground and I call an end to the spar before Fenrir can lunge to bite her.

“Alright, that’s enough,” I say again, and they stop. Fenrir sits. He looks rather pleased with himself, clearly aware that he basically came out the de facto victor here. “Right, let me check you both out.” I check my Bound stats to see which one is the most in need of healing. Although Fenrir has lost more actual health, his pool is so much larger than Sirocco’s that he’s actually lost a much smaller fraction of his overall health. I decide to help Sirocco first.

Once more repeating the process I’ve done a number of times, I feed mana into Sirocco’s body and address the small bits of flesh which were caught by Fenrir’s teeth and ripped slightly. Honestly, most of the damage is aesthetic rather than damaging: more of her feathers have been pulled out than skin ripped, let alone anything more. Since I don’t want to try reforming feathers for her, I just make sure that the feather follicles are intact in the damaged areas and then leave it at that.

I do a scan of her body too, curious about the differences between her wings and Bastet’s – quite a few, actually. Perhaps similar to how there are significant differences between my skeletal structure and River’s even though we’re both two bipedal humanoids. I know I’m going to want to investigate more, but am aware that all my Bound are waiting for me and don’t want to waste the time they could be spending sparring.

Pulling out of Sirocco’s body, I leave some mana in there too. I can now feel an extra connection with three of my Bound. Fenrir’s the only one missing, though not for long.

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Diving into the lizog’s body, the numerous scratches that Sirocco’s claws left on him take longer to heal than the bird’s wounds, merely because there are far more of them. They’re also rather superficial, though. Also, I notice an interesting similarity between River and Fenrir’s bodies – is it because they’re more closely related than Bastet or Sirocco are to them? While their skeletal structure is, of course, very different, they both have those extra organs, the purpose of which I haven’t yet determined.

In total, there are three organs, though they appear to be repeats of each other, a bit like how kidneys are almost identical to each other. One, the biggest, is up in their skulls, near the roof of their mouths, and the other two are tiny and in the hollow of their wrists. The latter two seem to connect somehow to their hands or front paws, but it’s not entirely clear what they do.

Deciding to try to investigate a bit more later, I pull myself out of Fenrir.

“Alright, same question as Bastet and River answered, what did you learn from that bout?” I’m aware that it may be more difficult to do this with the two non-verbal members of my team, but I’m going to try at least.

Fenrir sends across a sense of confusion at the question, but Sirocco seems surprisingly thoughtful. After a moment, she manages to express a sense of frustration that she couldn’t seem to do any damage, and that she ran out of energy too quickly.

“Your stamina pool is not quite the lowest among us – that’s mine – but your attacks seem very stamina-heavy.” She sends me a series of pictures of looking at a beast from above while sitting in the trees, then swooping down on it, and then a third of her back in the trees.

“That’s true,” I acknowledge. “In the forest, you can use the trees to reduce your use of stamina; here you had to stay in the air all the time. However, we can’t guarantee that we’ll always be fighting in a forest or a place with lots of perches above so if we can find some way of either you increasing your stamina pool or using attacks which are less stamina-heavy then that would be good for when we’re in a less ideal environment.”

Honestly, I’m going to leave her to think about that herself: I have no idea what she might be capable of doing, and feel that any more input from me might be more detrimental than helpful. Still, she’s sending a thoughtful feel down the Bond, so perhaps my words have helped.

Turning to Fenrir, I look at him pensively.

“You dealt with Sirocco’s attacks very well, and were clearly the victor in that. But can you think of anything which could have been better?” The lizog is very obviously struggling with the advanced concepts of how he could have changed something which is already past and unchangeable, so I try to rephrase it. “If you face Sirocco again in the future, what could help you win more quickly?” This seems to work better for him as he’s clearly thinking about something.

A few moments later he sends me a few images with a questioning feel about them. They depict Fenrir snapping his jaws together just short of Sirocco’s tail feathers, and then another one with him actually closing his jaws on Sirocco herself.

“You…Are you saying you want to be quicker?” I ask, trying to decipher his message. He sends me enthusiastic agreement. Fair point: he’s strong, tanky, and has powerful jaws, but he’s not the fastest. Lizogs in general aren’t: that’s why Bastet and I had enough time to prepare a trap for them the first time we encountered a pack feeding on the remains of her family.

“Maybe you can practise speed runs with Bastet?” I suggest, not sure if either it will help or even if it’s a good idea, but knowing how poorly-qualified I am as a personal trainer, I’m not going to argue with him. He’s identified a possible weakness in his attack-style; it’s up to him to decide later if that’s a good route for him to follow.

Post-spar analysis done, I feel a rising sense of excitement. Time for my spar!

“River, can you spar with me?”

As you wish, River assents uncertainly. We move to face each other, each of us with a spear. I wait for him to attack, trying to focus on the way I’m holding my spear. I still have the memories from absorbing the hunting stone, and those contained some instructions as to how to use a spear. The problem is that in the heat of battle I haven’t been able to think about them, just trying to make it through the fight, so I’m aware that I’ve been wielding it in more of a ham-fisted way than anything skilled.

“Let’s do this really slowly,” I say, looking up at River. “I want to focus on technique just as much as you do. We’re not going to be able to do that if we’re moving quickly and trying to defeat each other like in a normal fight. So, half speed? Or even less, perhaps?”

Very well, River agrees, a hint of relief in his voice. I frown slightly, wondering why it’s there. Could he have been worried about hurting me or something? Is this once more his cultural norms about respect and protection coming up? Or the Bond driving him to protect me and not offer harm? Anyway, it shouldn’t be an issue right now. If it comes up when we actually practise fighting at full speed, I’ll deal with it then.

“Alright, let’s go,” I say, thrusting my spear forwards slowly. As I do it, I frown. The memories from the hunting stone aren’t as clear as they would have been if I’d done this in the week after absorbing it, but the stones must have some mechanism to ensure that the information contained within them is somehow protected. If they didn’t, I’d have forgotten a lot more information that I actually have. I think.

Either way, the point is that the memories are telling me that basically everything I’m doing from how I’m holding the spear to how I’m standing is wrong. I put up my hand to halt River’s own thrust.

Master?

“Just give me a moment,” I tell him absently, focussing on what the memories are telling me. My position is far too high: I need to lower my centre of gravity significantly if I want to have enough balance to both attack and defend properly. I do a couple of test thrusts, feeling how much steadier they feel. My muscles are not used to this position, though, and are already starting to hurt.

Why are you standing like that? River asks curiously.

“This position is better for offering me a good base to attack and defend from,” I explain. Curious myself, I ask him a question too. “What sort of position do the warriors in your village stand in when they’re fighting?” River looks thoughtful.

They do stand differently, it’s true. He too lowers his centre of gravity, but with his differently proportioned legs, it’s not the same position as I’m trying to take.

“Alright, let’s try this again,” I tell him when we’re both settled in our positions.