As soon as Master Owen entered the house Ike could see her staring intensely at Master Reese. While Ike could tell Master Reese was calm and relaxed, Master Owen however was giving off the feeling of being ready to lash out at any moment. Ike was calmly studying both Masters when he noticed Master Owen looking at him for barely a second.

“Shall we first sort out the mess in the coliseum first Master Reese? Before we start discussing about the reason why the magic skill rankings of the boys were incorrect.” Master Owen said.

“That sounds reasonable” Master Reese said “Since I imagine you aren’t fully aware of all the little details. Perhaps we should let Elder Deen write a comprehensive report on the subject, including of course today’s events”

“An interesting idea” Master Owen said, “Elder Deen I think three days would be enough time to write such a report, wouldn’t you think!”

Seeing Elder Deen meek attitude in the presence of these two masters, Ike couldn’t help but smile. Ike was pretty sure that with this Dickey’s support would be largely gone and his days of bullying others would soon come to an end.

There was a brief knock on the door after which Ike could see Master Whelks entering his own house. He was followed by Melissa, Melissa’s parents Carla and Johan, Jacky and finally Master Owen’s husband Karl.

Ike got up from his seat, there were only six places to sit and most of these people were his superiors. Seeking a comfortable place to stand he was surprised when Melissa joined him and said “You’re the one that healed me right?”

“Yes” Ike whispered, “Are you totally ok now? I saw you move a bit afterwards but we were leaving in a hurry so I couldn’t really tell if you were totally ok”

“Yes I’m fine, it felt really warm and comfortable being healed by that little fish.” Melissa said.

In the mean time Ike could see that Dickey didn’t have the same presence of mind as him. To Ike’s amusement Dickey was rudely dragged from his chair by his grandma to make place for Master Whelks.

“Since all three masters are here now, it is as good a time as any to decide upon the final teams” Master Owen said, “As both Dickey and Jacky have the first rank we should place them in a team, which leaves Ike and Melissa as team two. Master Reese, Master Whelks do you two agree?”

Seeing the two other masters nod in agreement, Ike knew he was now teamed up the girl standing right next to him. To Ike’s surprise Elder Deen didn’t react in the slightest, however Dickey tried to complain only to be silenced by the stares of Master Reese and Master Owen.

“Elder Deen must be eager to start on her report why don’t we let her take Dickey and Jacky to Ilesha village dorms.” Master Reese said.

With Elder Deen, Dickey and Jacky leaving Melissa parents Carla and Johan Shepard became Master Reese’s next victims. After Ike saw her staring at them for a while she said “The way you two tried to manipulate the ranking results was so obvious that we can’t let it go with some sort of retribution. I think that having Johan working here and Carla in my town for a week of two should suffice. Master Whelks, Master Owen do you agree?“

The other two masters agreed and a short while later Ike could see Melissa’s parents leave the house as well.

“The only thing left is to decide what to do with Ike and Melissa” Master Reese said, “Since Ike attracted quite a lot attention today I thought it best to send them on a training trip. Besides he demonstrated that he can summon spirit animals based on images from a book so it might be worthwhile to let him visit the library.”

Ike was enthusiastically looking forward to visiting the library, he always felt that just three spirit animals requiring the light element was far too little. Comparing that number to the hundreds of spirit animals which could be summoned by people relying on the earth element alone, Ike always wondered why there weren’t more. Perhaps this was because of the rarity of people having affinity with the light element or perhaps countless of spirit animals had been forgotten. Being able to rediscover lost spirit animals would be amazing Ike thought.

Listing to the discussion of the Masters, especially Master Owen and Reese had different opinions as to what should be done with him and Melissa. In the end Master Reese’s plan of sending them on a training trip was agreed upon by all three masters albeit a large number minor changes which Master Owen had insisted upon. A few of them were really oppressive from him, such as forbidding him to summon his radiant fish of renewal except for life threatening situations. Ike was further more forbidden from summoning any newly learned spirit animal during the trip. While at the same time they had to employ two highly ranked adventurers as escorts in case of danger during the trip. To his delight Miss Babcock was to accompany them and give instructions.

When they were about to leave the house, he heard Karl the husband of Master Owen’s say “Master Whelks do you intend to let your student leave on a training trip without a decent weapon? Seeing this collection of weapons isn’t there something suitable here for her to use in combat?”.

Ike could see Master Whelks shoot Karl an annoyed glance before he hesitantly grabbed a double bladed axe from the wall. “This weapon should suit your style of fighting quite well” Master Whelks said to Melissa, “It is a weapon suited to your quick and explosive style of fighting, the only important thing is to keep in mind is that this weapon isn’t well suited for defence. Oh, because it’s quite large it isn’t a good choice to use against small enemies, so you should buy a short sword as soon as possible”

Ike could see Melissa greedily accepting the axe. When Master Whelks had been holding the axe it had already looked quite large but in Melissa’s hands it looked gigantic. Melissa tried swinging the axes forgetting about the fact she was inside a house. Ike standing next to her could see that Melissa lost control, he tried to jump backwards to avoid the blade only to discover he was standing against the wall.

Stolen novel; please report.

Master Whelks however easily caught the blade and said “You should really practise outside. Your strength is a bit lacking right now but with enough practise it will become easier to use it.”

“Take this as well.” Master Whelks said after looking through some shelves and coming up with a harness to strap the axe onto her back.

The sky was already turning dark by the time they left the house, the carriage from this morning was parked nearby and the four of them, Melissa, Master Reese, Miss Babcock and him got in. “Take me home” Master Reese said to the driver.

Sitting in the carriage, the rhythmic sound of hooves hitting the ground was hypnotic was enough to make him fall asleep after the long day.

When Ike woke up he could see light coming in through the windows of the carriage, Miss Babcock sitting opposite of him was kindly smiling at him. He was about to say something when Miss Babcock shushed him pointing to Melissa who was sleeping peacefully next to him. Ike was left with nothing to do but looking outside, he could see they were traveling through a forest.

Suddenly the carriage abruptly stopped, he could steady himself but Melissa who was still sleeping landed in Miss Babcock’s lap. Ike could see two men jump of the carriage one to each side of him, a woman voice said “Don’t worry it’s just a mutated sand bear”.

“Hurry up you two get out and take a look” Miss Babcock said while getting out of the carriage herself, “If it’s not that dangerous why don’t we let Ike and Melissa deal with it Caroline”. Ike was quite fast in getting out, even though he was fast he was just in time to see one of the men cut off the bear’s right front paws while the other plunged his sword into the bears left flank.

“Retreat” the woman on top of the carriage shouted. Compared to the martial artist in the tournament these two warriors moved even faster, retreating the thirty or so meters back to the carriage in mere seconds. “Melissa, Ike you two try to get rid of this bear, be careful. In case you can’t manage be sure to retreat.” Miss Babcock said.

Since both warriors didn’t obstruct his view anymore he could clearly see the bear, there were strange patches of sand covering the black pelt of the bear. The oddest things was however that the bear’s wounds were being patched up with sand. Having been injured the bear was furious and in rage it started to charge towards the carriage. Ike could see the horses getting nervous, but also he saw Melissa fearlessly charging at the bear with her double bladed axe in hand.

Not wanting to be the only one not doing anything, Ike started to summon an ice porcupine. The ice porcupine was about the same size as a dog, razor sharp ice spikes covered the porcupine’s back. While a sharp ice spike was growing out from the top of its head, this ice spike was special and could be launched at a target. When it was launched it was exceptionally strong easily being able to kill a bear, the only downside was that it was almost impossible to aim it accurately.

He could see Melissa holding the axes over her head, swinging it down narrowly missing the charging bear. The next second he saw Melissa colliding with the bear, the impact was caused Melissa to be send flying off towards the side with the axe landing right in between her legs narrowly missing her. His porcupine had been following Melissa and now with a clear line of sight he launched the ice spike straight at the slightly dazed bear. Hitting the bear’s head it collapsed, he had killed it the sudden realization made him feel slightly sick, it was a living creature after all. Swaying on his feet Ike heard Miss Babcock say “I’m glad you two are ok, but you two were seriously lucky this time. Acting so recklessly without any planning and the slightest bit of team work can get you killed“

With the problem out of the way, the three of them climbed back into the carriage while the two men took their seats again on the top of the carriage. Now everyone was awake Miss Babcock started an impromptu lesson about the dangers of this world.

“As you know people either possess an affinity with magic allowing them to summon spirit animals or they possess a kind of inner strength allowing them to exceed ‘normal’ human limits” Miss Babcock said, “Most commonly women have the ability to use magic while only about one in a thousand men can use magic. Of course it’s the opposite for inner strength, allowing men too easily become capable martial artist. Unfortunately some wild animals also possess an affinity with magic which can cause them to mutate into hideous and extremely dangerous creatures. While other wild animals possess the same inner strength men have, allowing them to becoming faster, stronger. The bear you two fought is actually an example of an animal starting to get mutated by its magical element.”

The rest of the trip went by quite fast, Ike and Melissa spoke quite a lot trying to get more familiar with each other. However due to the forcefulness of the situation they only spoke to each other about superficial things, allowing Ike only slowly to get more familiar with her. When they weren’t talking Miss Babcock would often give lessons about the world and the dangerous animals in them.

After three days of traveling the carriage stopped at the end of the path through the forest, a clearing lay ahead of them and right in the middle of the clearing Ike could see the large outer wall of a city. Caroline one of their escorts on their trip from Ilesha to the city of Zaria said “We have arrived, you will need to walk the last little bit.”

When they got out they could see their three escorts and the carriage’s driver starting on their way back to Ilesha. While their training trip was just beginning.