"... Woah." Ellie let out as everyone watched Gale return to Osho’s shoulder, looking like he hadn’t just performed an incredible feat.
Everyone knew the bird was impressive, but that last attack was just... incredible.
’He understood my intentions surprisingly well.’ Osho chuckled and rubbed the bird’s head, not minding the stares he got from his teammates.
He only had enough time to send Gale a vague idea of what he wanted him to do for that final attack, but the bird had gone above and beyond and proceeded to surpass expectations. Despite the weights pressing down on him, the speed he achieved was astounding, and the damage was even more so.
A novice-ranked beast defeating an apprentice-level beast wasn’t unheard of. It was rare, yes, but not unheard of. But the group doubted many who had achieved such a feat had done so in such a spectacular fashion.
They couldn’t help but look up and shudder. Gale had hit the Coyote’s head, but its entire upper body had been shredded from the attack
It hung limply from the massive spike Sugil had created, the blood still dripping down its surface.
It was quite the sight, and Kurt couldn’t help but take a few pictures.
"Not bad." Everyone turned to see Mrs Jane landing gracefully, her arms folded. There was a hint of approval in her gaze as she spoke.
"You guys managed to keep your cool throughout the fight, and you strategized well. Moreover, you made good use of your beast’s abilities. The last part of using Blackie to give Inagi an opening to inflict his poison, which weakened the beast’s stomach enough for Ellie and Sugil to properly impale it was impressive. Kurt and Clyde disorienting it to even allow all that to happen wasn’t half bad either, and naturally," She glanced at Osho. "The final attack was just as impressive. Well done you guys." The praise was both unexpected and welcome.
"Still, we aren’t done, so onto the next target." Everyone’s upbeat mood dropped when they heard this.
"Won’t we rest first?" Kurt asked weakly and Mrs Jane just stared at him.
"The beasts won’t give you time to rest if they are attacking you. So stop complaining and get moving." Her words struck them hard and they all meekly followed after her.
As she walked, Mrs Jane observed the five of them with her Mana, allowing them to ’see’ them without actually looking at them. More specifically, she focused on Osho and Ellie.
’Her beast’s Mana capacity is a lot larger than I originally assumed. She was creating those crystal walls and spikes quite liberally. Moreover, that final attack would have pierced the Coyote even without its skin being weakened. Their durability is also impressive. I’m sure if she hadn’t been overconfident, the creature wouldn’t have been able to break down her walls initially.’ Then she turned her attention to Osho.
’Then there’s him.’ She couldn’t help but marvel at Gale’s capabilities.
’If he wanted to, he could have ended the fight the moment the Coyote went berserk, but he wanted to give everyone a chance to contribute, that’s why he only had Gale finish it when the Coyote was incapacitated. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to pierce its hide to deal so much damage. Not to mention, that final attack was something else.’ The thing Tamers and their Beasts struggled with the most in the early stages was communication. If a tamer wanted their beast to do something complicated, it was difficult due to their beast being young and unable to understand complex concepts and ideas.
Yet Osho somehow managed to make Gale perform an attack which was far more complicated than it looked on the surface.
First, Gale had to enhance his body, mostly his beak, with Mana to increase its durability. Sure the beak was durable as is, but including Mana to the equation would drastically reduce the chances of the bird hurting himself in the process.
Then there was the wind drill Gale created to increase his penetrative power. Not only had the drill not impeded its ability to fly in the slightest due to the sudden rotational force appearing in the wind, it actually made the attack more effective as Gale’s body spun along with the drill.
Lastly, the drill wasn’t just good at penetrating, it was also sharp, very sharp. Most wouldn’t have noticed it at first glance, but Mrs Jane said how the swirling wind currents cut the flesh of the Coyote before the Kinetic energy ultimately crushed its body.
All in all, Gale accomplished something most beasts at his level would fail to even comprehend.
’Their bond must be a lot stronger than I thought. Very impressive indeed.’ Mrs Jane thought, satisfied.
Little did she know that Osho hadn’t intended for Gale’s attack to be so devastating. He’d only managed to provide a vague idea before the bird acted, and the results were simply spectacular. Perhaps Gale was just smart, or perhaps their bond was so strong that even without Osho providing adequate instructions, Osho could read his intentions perfectly and carry them out.
Whatever the case, it was impressive.
It’s also at that point Mrs Jane noticed an interesting phenomenon. Gale was responding to her observation. Not only that, he was observing her back!
’It’s Mana sense is good enough to notice me observing huh?’ The corner of her lip quirked up slightly in a small smile.
’I’m eager to see what else you can do.’
Blossom Citadel, Observation Center
Inside a large room filled with all sorts of computers and holograms, numerous people could be seen going through data coming from different sources. Graphs, charts, and all sorts of calculations were being processed and analyzed with each passing second.
This place, the Observation Center, was an important location for the Blossom Citadel.
Beast tamers were important, but it was people like these, moving in the back, that made numerous things possible. From observing strange weather phenomena that could either be dangerous for the Citadel or beneficial. High energy signatures that could be caused by the appearance of a powerful beast, and so on.
If the Beast Tamers were the ones that handled the problems, these were the people who detected the problems in the first place and indicated the best way to deal with said problem. They were called handlers.
"Seismic anomaly detected twenty miles east of the Black Rock Chain. Intensity rising. Initial spike was 4.1 magnitude, but it’s not following a natural decay curve." A handler spoke, their brows furrowed slightly. On the screen of their computer, a large map could be seen, and on one spot, red circles emerged before vanishing, indicating the area that was being spoken of.
"What are the possible causes?" Another handler asked, however, this one carried a tablet with them and seemed to be documenting information presented, specifically abnormal ones .
"Running diagnostics... it’s either the emergence of a high-rank beast, or a tectonic shift, but..." The handler frowned. "...the energy signature is erratic. It isn’t something I’ve seen before. Feels off, both for a tectonic shift and the emergence of a powerful beast.
"Flag it for priority reconnaissance. Request a mid-level tamer squad. We’ll escalate if needed."
(A moment later, the screen blinks: Request sent. Status: Pending dispatch.)
Just like that, the problem was no longer in their hands.
"Ellie!" Osho shouted and the girl nodded before Sugil created several spikes around a large sloth creature they’d been fighting for the last hour.
The thing was quite the challenge. It was a lone Apprentice-ranked beast, and at first glance,a sloth wouldn’t be too difficult to handle.
That’s what everyone thought, but boy were they wrong.
Turns out, the Sloth was not only Carnivorous, it also had two annoying abilities which the group decided to call ’Slow Mode’ and ’Fast Mode.’
Slow Mode was its default setting, and while in this mode, besides obviously being slow, the creature had an abnormally high defense, and Blackie’s claws could barely leave a scratch on its body.
When the battle started, the group thought it would be a case of bombarding it until it died. So that’s what they did.
Until it started bleeding.
As soon as blood was drawn, the Sloth which had been fruitless trying to chase after them suddenly had its eyes turn bloodshot, and the next thing they knew, it was next to Sam, its claws about to slice her into pieces.
It had been so fast that they couldn’t react, except Gale, that is.
The Sloth was fast, but Gale was faster as he managed to send a powerful blast of wind into the Sloth, throwing it into a tree.
From there, battle turned into a case of the others supporting Gale while he fought with the Sloth.
Luckily, not only was Gale faster, but with enough effort, his windblades could hurt the Sloth. Moreover, he was a lot more agile than the Sloth.
Lastly, it seemed that while in its ’Fast Mode’, its defences were reduced significantly.
Still, the fight lasted a while, and the end result was what was about to happen.
Gale had pressed the Sloth into the ground using his wind, and upon Osho’s shout, Ellie had Sugil created spikes around its body in such a way that restricted its limbs and stopped it from standing. Essentially, a cage.
It let out a strange squealing noise, but Gale descended from above, a powerful torrent of wind surrounding him.
When he got close, he held his wings vertically to his body and rotated forward. All the wind congregated until it formed a massive saw of wind around the bird which went into the neck of the Sloth, beheading it instantly.
Once the kill was confirmed, everyone collapsed to the floor, panting.
"Why... can a Sloth... move so fast?!" Irene complained through gasps as she tried to catch her breath.
Even if they didn’t fight themselves, everyone had been moving around constantly. Whether to sta close enough to their beast or avoid being ripped apart by the Sloth. They’d been doing this for the better part of an hour, so they were inevitably exhausted.
"Another job well done." Mrs Jane jumped down from a tree again and waited for them to catch their breaths.
"I guess we can have a break now. Osho, set up the electric cooker." She ordered and the boy just hummed and dropped the large backpack and started setting things up.
As everyone rested, Gale landed on Osho’s shoulder, he didn’t mind, but then he paused.
He looked at the bird which was looking in a certain direction, a hint of unease seeping through their bond.
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