34. First Beast Kill During Training

After a week of basic training to get the kids' bodies used to the routine, Sir Ivan finally changed it up.

He stood on the field except, behind him, were a couple hundred cages with various beasts.

All of the beasts were snarling and aggressive, snapping at the bars and trying to get free.

Once all the students had lined up, Ivan nodded his head, "Alright. Today, we are doing something different. Every one of you will be fighting a live beast." His words caused some students to look concerned and whisper among themselves, but the minute Ivan cleared his throat, everyone went silent.

"We will be going in alphabetical order. First up, Anna Grimsby." He called out a young girl who walked up nervously and summoned out her pet, which was a tiny grey wolf cub.

Ivan waved his hand at one of the cages, and its door opened. The beast that walked out was a large Stone Tusk boar. It snorted before squealing and charging straight at the girl and her cub.

She managed to steady herself and held her hand towards her wolf. Her palm glowed a faint green colour, and then the wolf glowed, "Agility Boost. Grey, dodge its charge, then attack it."

The wolf barked out, which sounded cute, as its agility was boosted a small amount. It avoided the boar and then immediately retaliated by slamming into its side and biting down onto its body, causing blood to gush out from the wound it caused.

The boar squealed in pain and threw its head back. One of its tusks managed to hit the wolf cub in the side of the head, causing the cub to yelp in pain and let go of the boar, backing up.

The boar managed to stand back up and snorted angrily at the wolf. It charged again, and once again, the wolf jumped to the side to dodge the initial charge and lunged to bite the side like last time.

Zion, watching this from the sideline, shook his head faintly, 'Now for its throwing earth attack.' He thought to himself.

Nearby, watching the girl, Ivan had noticed Zion's reaction, 'Heh, that fox has probably fought one of these bastards before and knows its next move.' He thought as he got ready to step in.

As expected, just as the wolf went for the attack, a large Stone flew at the wolf's head, once again causing it to yelp in pain and stop moving.

The second the wolf cub stopped, the boar turned with a triumphant squeal as if immediately went for a gouging hit.

Anna screamed in horror as she thought her pet was about to be killed, but suddenly the boar was impaled through its head, barely an inch away from it.

"If this were the wild, your wolf would have just been killed, and you would have to either flee or die." Ivan said as he pulled his sword from the boar's head.

The girl rushed forward and grabbed her wolf, crying softly before she ran out of the field.

Ivan looked towards the students, "Next, Aala Eir."

Aala took a deep breath and stepped forward, "Good luck!" Sarah whispered

"You got this." Ithil also whispered.

'"Go on, show the crowd your skill."' Zion also spoke to her mind, causing Aala to smile as she stepped into the centre of the field.

Ivan waited until she had the bow in her hand, then waved his hand to release the next creature immediately.

This one looked like a bird beast as it flew into the air as soon as it was released. The creature looked a little bit like a magpie, except instead of black and white, it was green and white. It cawed loudly and dove down towards Aala, even using wind magic to boost its speed.

Aala raised her bow and nocked an arrow in 2 seconds, then released it at the bird.

It screeched and dodged the attack, then flapped its wings at her, sending some of its feathers flying at her.

Her eyes sharpened as she noticed those feathers had become weapons and she quickly dodged out of the way of them and then immediately raised her bow again, but this time, she didn't release her arrow immediately.

The bird flew down, thinking that she was hesitating about attacking it, and it figured it could reach her before she shot the arrow.

It let out another loud caw but then was surprised when, instead of shooting the arrow, Aala removed it from the bow and spun around to dodge the bird's dive while at the same time, she swung the arrow in her hand behind her like a knife.

It dug into the bird's head just as it let out another caw of surprise, cutting its cry short.

She then turned to Sir Ivan and held it up, "What do I do with this, sir?" She smiled as she asked.

Ivan chuckled softly, "Your kill, your choice. Use it however you want."

Aala seemed thoughtful, then went right over to Zion and dropped the bird before him, "Here. You can eat this later." She smiled at him.

Ivan and a few others raised their eyebrows, seeing her feed a beast that wasn't her pet. A few even thought she was crazy to feed an opponent's pet, since, technically, all of the students were competing.

Zion thanked her as he looked at the bird. The only noteworthy thing about it was that it had a Wind Affinity, which would give him 4 attributes once he ate it.