Today had started much the same for Ajax as all the other days but that all changed once he got to the Academy. The changes started from their meeting place which was on the training grounds instead of inside the classroom.
“Today is the day you will all be given a chance to form a bond.” Professor Silvertongue stated. “Your usual classes have been canceled and you will all be dismissed once all of you have gone through the process.”
Ajax couldn’t help but notice that the prince was conspicuously absent today. Thinking back on everything had learned about bonds back when his brother had gotten one he remembered that the reason for this was that one of the few privileges that the royal family kept was their specific beast groomers. Members of the royal family would have their options of trying to bond with slightly older magically weak creatures at a later time in their development. While the first bond being a magical creature didn’t affect their power that much it was still a boost the royal family kept for themselves.
Being the TA for the class Ajax will be the last one to be given a chance at forming a bond, despite this he was intently watching everyone else as getting a bond of his own was something he very much wanted.
The first one up was Benedict and he approached the first of many cages that had been lined up. All of the creatures inside had not only been born to bonded parents but had grew up around them and their bonds, now they were approaching their prime and it was the best time for them to be bonded. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡•𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⚫𝙣𝙚𝙩
The beasts were trained to not attack humans, this made the prospect a lot safer than the normal way of getting a bond which was trying to find it in the wild. None of the creatures in the cage would show any aggression towards a human with a single exception, a challenge would be extended if they found them to be a potential bond.
Being challenged wasn’t enough to guarantee you a bond. Neither was winning that challenge, winning was a requirement but simply not enough, the fighting style had to be a match and this was a place where the bond made the decision. Benedict was halfway through the cages that were presented before any creature had done more than look at him.
The bear was the first to approach the bars of the cage so Benedict stopped there for a moment. Sadly the bear decided Benedict wasn’t quite what he was looking for and returned to the far side of the cage. The young noble was nearing the end of the line but he didn’t look at all disheartened and kept projecting the same steadfast presence he had at the start of the line.
His resilience was rewarded by the third to last cage. The massive gray wolf inside hadn’t even waited until Benedict stood in front of him before he started growling and clawing the corner bars of the cage. Benedict's face took on a gratified smirk but his eyes narrowed in concentration.
The moment the wolf's paw found itself slightly swallowed by the sandy ground as it stepped into one of the small depressions that were prevalent throughout the area Benedict charged towards it. Much to Ajax’s surprise Benedict's fighting style was ever so slightly different from his usual one. This one seemed both more decisive as well as more careful than what he was used to.
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The engagement didn’t last long. The creatures were around level twenty-four and as such the wolf didn’t stand a chance against the scion of an archduke's house. The wolf admirably managed to defend the opening slash with a claw but could do nothing to the kick that followed. The boot took the wolf in the neck before the man back off leaving the wolf coughing, it only took ten seconds for the fight to leave the wolf as it realized the blow crushed his throat and Benedict was back on the defensive waiting for him to make another mistake.
It seems that Benedict passed the wolf's criteria as it bowed his head in recognition and Benedict closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as he felt the bond take hold. One of the healers present was quick to move to the wolf's side once the match had ended and started to heal the beast.
“Why did you change your style?” Ajax asked Benedict as he came back towards the group of students.
“I changed it to better match the style of the creature I was trying to bond with.” Benedict answered. “They are more likely to bond with people more similar to themselves, a wolf stalks his prey, takes any opening to land a blow and leaves his prey to struggle or bleed to death.”
“Wouldn’t keeping true to your style help you find a better bond?” Ajax asked.
“It would.” Benedict confirmed as he watched his bond get up and move to his side. “But when making a temporary bond , forming the bond and treating it well is more important compared to how compatible we are.”
To Ajax’s surprise Lexi was the next one to stand before the cages, Anna and another student were both standing off to the side. Ajax knew the boy already had a bond as he had previously bragged as such, it was a fish that lived in the lake close to his family's mansion. This did however beg the question of what bond Anna had and why he hadn’t seen it before.
For the next few hours all of the students had moved in front of the cages in order of their noble rank. The reason for this was clear, any creature that was bonded would be one less chance they would have to bond and the higher nobles were given the best chances.
Lexi had gotten herself a weird lizard bond. The creature very much reminded Ajax of an ostridge, with its long legs and crushing stomp attacks, as well as the small T-rex arms, the only difference was the slightly larger head with sharp teeth and the slightly smaller and thicker neck.
Almost half of the students had gotten a chance at a challenge and less than a third of them had managed to walk away with a bond. Despite all of them winning the challenge some worth found unsuitable by the creature, this lend itself nicely to Benedicts words about the manner in which the challenge is fought and why he changed his style when fighting the wolf he had affectionately called Step, in memory of the wrong step it took that sealed its fate.
Not all of the challenges had been direct combat either, while most of them had been the bison had made his a contest of strength, much to his own surprise as the mountain of a boy he challenged had cleverly leveraged his strength by applying it to only one side causing the bison to tip over and admit defeat.
The oddest and least interesting ones were the ones given by the rat that was present. The rat had the biggest cage of them all and its challenge had been to find him in the tall grass covered maze that made up its cage. The challenge was boring to watch and the fact that it had been given out twice had annoyed the class to no end. The first challenger had used a wind spell to flatten out all the grass and quickly found the rat but that method hadn’t been appreciated. The second more methodical tracking had been enough for Whisker to earn the acceptance of his new bond.
As far as Ajax’s attempt to walk down the line it was the strangest of them all. More than any other student it had quite a few creatures approach him when he stood in front of their cage. Each and every one of them had only evaluated him for a few moments before they backed away with their heads held low in submission.
“I suggest you try bonding with some stronger creatures should you find any in the wild.” Professor Silvertongue suggested. “Quite a few different breeds seemed interested in you which comes as a surprise since that doesn’t usually happen, but clearly your level of power is too high for any of the ones here to extend a challenge.”
“Finding a creature that has this level would mean that I am looking for a permanent bond from the start.” Ajax responded. “Anything else at my level would be either too old and stubborn to bond or would have so many more years to live getting another once it dies would be too late.”
“That is true, it would seem like your first bond will have to be a magical creature if you are to have one.” The professor said, before continuing with a grin “Let’s hope that trait runs in the family.”