“You. Yes, you.” Eshya says, waving at the feathered, little raptor. The creature tilts its head in confusion, before hopping over to her side, and looking up at her to see if it was what she was after. A few gentle pats on the head give it a clear answer as it chirps with joy.

As with deciding sports teams in school, now it’s my turn to pick a beast. They’re all lined up as before to give us a good view of them, some are flaunting themselves to appeal to us, others are keeping their heads down hoping we won’t look. Each has its own character; they aren’t lifeless like with those collared beasts that I’ve met before. I can even hear a few complaints spoken in simple phrases, and whispers.

“Pick me.” I hear in a low, desperate whisper, almost like a prayer given voice. Their words are easily lost in the cacophony that surrounds, but for that reason it’s those fading whispers that catch my ear.

“Pick me,” it whispers again.

Seeing the creature that whispers so desperately and passionately, I can’t keep the smile from rising on my lips.

“I choose you!” I say, pointing at the little, electric rat. It has dark brown fur that stands perpetually on end, with bright red eyes that gleam and shine with an electric light. Perhaps it’s a secret evolution of a certain electric mouse, just have it hold a used needle and trade it to a stranger in a trailer park.

“Me? I help?” The rat’s voice is translated, only to simple phrases, but there’s a frenetic energy in its chittering words. I can tell that it’s trying to say more but just can’t figure out how.

“Yes,” I lean down, and rub the creatures back, getting a nasty little shock. Nothing particularly painful, but if it’s what he manages when not attacking, I want to see what power he’ll rain down when he really has the chance to let loose.

“I help! I help!” it cries repeatedly, running circles around my feet. I leave him to it and focus on my next move.

“You.” Eshya points at the large, shiny lizard, which lazily strolls over to join her team. I’m not sure what strategy she’s going for with her choices, but if I have to guess she’s probably going to do something similar to Freid. Though to consider it imitation would be a lie, it’s simply who she is. Aggressive, and overwhelming.

It might be smart to try and deny her some of the heavy hitting beasts but doing that could mess with my own team composition.

“What can you do little guy? How much can you do with your electricity?” I ask my little faux Pikachu.

“Chaos. Make chaos! Not move after!” he shouts happily, still running circles around my feet.

“Nice,” So I’ll just need to make a team that can make the most of that chaos. I have to hope that he’s as powerful as he says, because I stand no chance in a fair face-to-face battle.

“Let’s go with… you.” I say pointing out the bird from Vin’s team in the last battle. He seems more than ready to battle again, fluffing up his wings and hopping about energetically. Like with Vii, it’s magic must be getting supported through a genuine talent, else it would be more worn down that it seems.

When directed, it flutters over to sit atop my shoulder. The sour expression it gives my little electric rat does worry me a little, but they’ll have to deal with their differences.

Eshya and I will be directly joining this fight, I know that I’m no match for her, but there’s no beast that I’d trust with the task either. If my current plan goes off without a hitch, I can subdue her myself, but I’ll need some beasts capable of dealing with the rest of her forces.

Our selection process continues until we each have five beasts to support us.

Eshya’s forces are made up of the feathered raptor, the shiny lizard, a small bear, a long snake, and large bird.

I, meanwhile, choose to enhance my team with a land octopus, that has a dozen legs rather than eight—a dodecapus, if you will. Its limbs are covered in a sticky liquid and it seems like it would be quite good at keeping enemies subdued.

After him, I selected a large, grey-haired cat that seems like it could put up a good fight but is also agile enough that it won’t quickly or easily be put down. I’m hoping that if things go bad, she can keep a few beasts busy the same as the wolf from the last battle. She also seems happy to be working with my little bird, that flutters down onto her back.

Finally, the choice that I’m most satisfied with, my armoured tumble weed. It’s essentially a collection of roots tied together into a ball, but with layers of thick wooden armour that it can shift around freely, though mostly it seems to favour being a ball that’s about half my height.

As Eshya and I face one another, I spare only a passing glance for Vii and Adler in the crowd. My worries and concerns all drift away as I feel my heartbeat growing faster, looking forward to this battle.

When did I start thinking of things like this as exciting? I’d still rather be relaxing in a peaceful apartment, studying, or playing games with my friends, but there’s a certain energy running through me at the thought of what’s to come.

I stretch my arms, feeling the increased mana density settled into them. The concentration is due to both my increased overall mana and better control over the internal flows. There’s been no special effects that I’ve noticed, but perhaps the changes are still just too subtle to notice.

“Come at me with everything you’ve got,” Eshya says.

“How? I can’t use my pipe gun, or my mana drain in this fight.” I say, “I mean, I’m still going to win though.”

“I don’t have a sword, so it seems fair enough.” She replies with a keen smile.

“If you believe your weapons to be too dangerous to be used to subdue, then you shouldn’t use them for battle.” Freid explains, “You will be scored on this, so keep that in mind and take this seriously.”

“What do we get for winning?” I ask, “Let me guess, a stuffed toy?”

“Distinction, and respect.” He explains loud enough for everyone to hear, “Opportunities like this can assist in getting recommendation for better work after your education.”

“So, it doesn’t matter then.” I whisper to myself, “Good to know.”

“Are you both ready?” He further asks.

“Yep.” Eshya says.

“Sure, let’s do this thing,” I say.

“Then go get started,” he says.

Eshya stretches, her confident and playful smile makes it clear that she’s going to be enjoying this. With a little wave, she leads her forces over to one of the two hills as I make my way to the one opposite. I turn to inspect Freid’s expression as he watches us.

I get the feeling he was being intentionally vague just now, allowing us to start the fight whenever we choose. Attacking Eshya now, definitely would not be to my advantage, that, and I’m more interested in a more direct and face to face confrontation. I think it’ll better allow me to seize the advantage when the time comes.

I turn to the bird on my shoulder, as I make my way to the hill.

“Do you think you could drop our rat on top of one of the enemies?” I ask the bird, which looks at me before shaking its head vehemently. Chip ensures that the refusal is understood, but the bird doesn’t go so far as to explain why.

“Okay, that’s plan one down the gutter. Tumble weed, can you work with the rat? Roll him right into the enemy and let him loose? Also, how vulnerable are you to his electricity?”

“I can… electricity… fine.” The slow and rustling reply sounds polite, for a plant.

“Then, when I say ‘go’, I want Tumble to roll Rat right into their group. Then Rat, you blast away with your electricity to stun them, or knock them out if you can. With that opportunity, we charge in and restrain them all.

“If any of them seem to still be alright after the shock I want you and you—Cat and Bird, from now on­—to play them for time until Tumble, Tentacle, Ratty, and I restrain those weakened by Ratty’s magic. If the plan fails, just do your best to either get into a fight you can win or play for time until someone else can come help you.”

The beasts nod slowly to my words, but I go over them again in simpler terms just to make sure that I’m properly understood.

Eshya is having a similar counsel on the hill opposite me as she pets at the feathered head of her raptor. She gazes over my way frequently, her smile sending shivers down my spine, both excitement and a little bit of terror. I’ll have to deal with her myself.

Without her sword, I do stand a chance of using my grappling techniques against her. The biggest difficulty is that she’s quite capable with her mana surge Skills, and I have no doubt that she’s going to be incredibly difficult to catch, and her punches are going to be rather painful if they land.

All that considered, the idea of throwing down with Eshya is rather more comfortable than having to wrestle with some hairy, wet, tentacled beast. I don’t think it needs explaining why.

“Get going already!” Freid shouts at us, pretty well confirming my earlier concerns that the battle starts whenever we start it. I choose to ignore him and look at Eshya instead, with my current plan, I need to wait for her to come to me.

As I stand watching, Eshya slowly strides my way. I had expected a more energetic charge, but instead she’s steady and confident, a calm stroll as if she’s just visiting a pleasant garden. Her beasts aren’t able to imitate her attitude quite the same, but they do make sure to keep pace by her side. Walking together like they are, they sure do make an impression.

She doesn’t say anything or speed up as she reaches the bottom of my hill, her steps still slow. It’s now that her bird takes off from her shoulder, flying gentle circles over her as it stretches its talons.

Her casual aggression is certainly charming, but she’s managing to intimidate some of my beasts. The cat at least is getting a little on edge, kneading its claws into the dirt and looking left and right as if for an opportunity to run.

“Go!” I order, watching Tumble roll downhill with a desperate Ratty hunkered down inside. I feel a little bad for him, getting rolled around like that, but he seemed excited for the chance.

Eshya’s eyes open wider with excitement rather than surprise. She shouts to her team, and they quickly try to scatter, but not quickly enough.

Tumble rolls into their group, spitting out Ratty who rolls around a little before standing on his back legs, he courageously stares down the beasts that gather to attack him.

“Chaos! All will be chaos!” The little rat screeches. He ignites brightly even in my barely existent mana senses, glowing with the powerful ethereal air of mana. My hair stands on end, and I can feel that a powerful spell is about to be cast.

A brief glimmer sparks to life around Rat a moment before a bolt of lightning crashes down upon him, secondary bolts spreading out to the beasts surrounding him. The flash burns my sight, but I’m already shouting as I’m blinking it away.

“Now!” I charge down alongside Cat and Tentacle while Bird flies overhead to get ready to begin his harassment campaign.

As I get closer, my vision clears, and I begin to see what’s been made of the enemy forces. Unfortunately, there was more bang than bite to my little Ratty. The enemy beasts, while they still seem rather twitchy in their movements, are all but one still on their feet. The exception being the enemy bird that’s lying on the grass shuddering in shock.

Ratty himself is already out to it before anyone has even laid a hand on him.

So that’s what he meant when he said, ‘not move after’. Ratty was speaking about himself, not the enemy…

Tumble managed to roll away in the midst of the lightning and is now trying to escape from a bear that’s been rather ruthlessly chasing him. It doesn’t seem like their battle is going to be resolved any time soon, and I can’t spare the forces to support him.

“Charge! Charge! Charge!” I scream, “While their still shocked! Throw them down and sit on their faces!”

“Shit on their faces!” The cat screams beside me as it leaps ahead at the snake that’s still squirming in ineffective means of moving. With a swift snap it sinks its fangs into the snake and throws it as far as it can.

“Sit! Sit, not shit!” I scream at it.

“I will hug them, while sitting on them. I like hugging.” Tentacle says.

It’s a little bit concerning but so long as it’s on my side, I guess.

“Focus on the beasts.” I tell it, “The elf is mine!”

Eshya’s lizard lifts it’s large, flat, shiny tail our direction but before it can manage to do anything more, Tentacle leaps atop him, screeching about hugs while wrapping up its tail and pulling it out of the way. The many seeking, wet limbs fold the lizard up in uncomfortable positions.

As Eshya and I come face to face, the feathered raptor jumps for me, but it catches a blast of wind from Bird and rolls to the side with an indignant cry of frustration. The two quickly fall into a battle of their own, though Bird is forever out of reach of the raptor.

“No more distractions.” Eshya shouts, launching herself at me with tremendous speed. Thankfully her attack was predictable, and I’m barely able to sidestep with use of my Skills.

While I’ve been trying to figure out my grappling Skills all this time, I haven’t yet managed to develop anything to the point where Chip recognises it. I’m currently just working with my instincts, built off of the few battles that I’ve fought so far.

I roar loud as I can to put her off, and Eshya tries to step back in her surprise. I follow her, tripping up her feet with a quick step of my own. I grab her arm and pull her to the side while she’s still unbalanced.

We hit the dirt, and I spin her arm around behind her, twisting it around on its joint and using my superior mana pressure to press her down to the ground.

“I’ve got you.” I say, just as she twists under me. My grip on her arm slips, and she pulls and shoves until she’s free, rolling to the side and standing with a low and ready stance.

“Nearly had me.” She says, smiling. “You should have held me tighter.”

“My mistake.” I say, “Would you lie down so I could give it another try?”

“Not a chance.” She smirks before launching herself at me. This time she’s faster, less predictable. I barely get the chance to raise a mana shield before her hit lands, softening the attack significantly, but doing nothing for the follow up that comes even faster.

Before I can react, she’s hit me again, and again, and again. I push as much mana into my mana skin as I can, giving up entirely on using mana shields. I try to grab her, to bring her into a grapple where I might get an advantage, but she’s too fast.

Every step I take towards her she’s taken two away from me. As I focus on our fight, everything else falls away and with a clear mind I guide the mana to concentrate in my skin. It flows better than ever before, runs through my skin like a thin film of fast flowing liquid, aiding me in resisting Eshya’s attacks a little better.

In the midst of fighting off her countless punches, I finally manage to grab her arm before she can pull away from me. This time I employ just a little bit of mana drain to put her off balance before pulling her close and grabbing her around her neck.

It’s a mess of swinging arms and forceful shoving, but through it, with my greater mana density I’m able to barely shove her into position where she can’t push me off. I hold an arm around her neck and pressure her as much as I can, breathing heavy from the effort.

“I’ve got you.” I say.

“Rougher… than… usual…” She gasps out, clearly trying to laugh, as she struggles beneath me.

~Skill Developed.

~Grapple, (Combat techniques, grade 1)

I think successfully using the technique might’ve given me the confidence that allows the Skill to be properly adopted by the support device.

I look around to see how the rest of my team is doing and try to hold back my disappointment at seeing the flailing limbs of Tentacle underneath a dozing lizard. Cat isn’t doing much better, with the recovered snake that’s wrapped her up tight. The bear is dragging over a weakened and submissive Tumble, and Vird is gliding overhead without attack, apparently worn down from the fight.

The bear and the raptor, no longer bothered, turn towards me, and I know that I can’t beat them.

“Ah, fuck it.” I say.

Freid hasn’t called the end to the fight, so I let go of Eshya and prepare to fight them off while she’s still recovering. A losing fight, but that’s no excuse for surrender.

Forcing out a roar and pressing my lungs with extra mana hoping for it do something magical, I charge at the raptor, jumping at it with a flying kick.

The raptor is fast enough to sidestep me, and the bear takes a step towards me as I lie prone trying to recover from my missed attack. It halts as it hears a deep growl from behind it.

Eshya, recovered sooner than I’d expected, sounding like a beast as she forces the bear back and runs at me. With her skilful use of mana surges, she steps right past me and grabs me from behind.

“My turn!” Eshya whispers into my ear, spinning me around with the same techniques I used on her moments ago. She steals my grapple and reverses our positions so soundly that I swear I can hear her support device reporting on her own obtainment of my grappling Skill.

“You know, I could still mana drain you.” I say.

“Sure, sure, and I can do all I want to you until you do.” She replies in a low whisper that sends a shiver down my spine.

“The fight is over.” Freid declares, “Well done, the both of you.”

Eshya releases her hold on my neck and hangs off of my shoulder instead, while rubbing at the red marks that still colour her neck.

The shocked bird and Ratty are the only two who are still knocked out, but the rest still show signs of injury, whether from their own battles later, or remnant twitches from their electrocution. Eshya herself is still a bit twitchy, too now that she’s no longer fighting.

After we brush ourselves off, we join with the waiting audience that are already discussing the nature of our fight.

“What are your own judgments of the fight?” He asks.

“I misjudged the power of Ratty’s initial shock attack, and the timing of my follow up. If I’d been able to time it better, I may have been able to restrain everyone while they were still affected.” I say, thinking hard on what else I could have done better.

“My slow approach was good, but I should have separated my forces more. That they were all hit at once was my failure.” Eshya says.

“Anything else?” He continues.

“I didn’t prepare well enough for the duelling part of the fight. I’d been trying to avoid it, or at least take an advantage before we got there, but that didn’t end up working out,” I say with a disappointed sigh.

Eshya just shrugs, failing to think of another issue.

“Continue to think about what you’ve done, and what you could have done differently. Watch others, and develop new tactics based off of their efforts as well. For now, sit, rest, and observe.” He says, waving forwards a new pair to battle it out.

This time it’s Vii and the plant girl that I’ve been keeping up with. I’m pretty sure her name is Alo, or at least that’s what I’ve been calling her without her complaint, so that’s what I’m going with.

“Give it your all!” I call out to support them.

“You fought better than I was expecting.” Eshya says, still leaning on me. We sit to watch as Vii chooses her team against the nervous Alo.

“Considering that I’ve had to hold back my best weapons, you mean to say.” I reply.

“Sure,” She replies with a little laugh, “You’re still not a great fighter, though. We need to set some time aside to practice properly.”

“Time is the one thing that we have least of,” I reply with a sigh. Brushing a little dirt off of my face and readjusting my glasses. I’d taken them off before the battle and left them with Adler, who has since returned them.

“The class curriculum should offer plenty of opportunities for that,” she says, watching from beside us.

After the team selection, the two of them take their respective hills before beginning their fight, and I get to see Vii playing out a modern military strategy on a small scale. With her flight of beasts, she’s harassing and suppressing the grounded forces of the plant-girl who’s helplessly trying to fight them with nothing but her hands.

It seems air supremacy can be as dangerous here as it is on Earth.

“What do you think?” Eshya asks, watching the fight.

“Vii’s stronger, faster, and can choose when and where she wants to fight.” I reply.

“If she can manage to get them into proper submission.” Eshya says, as Vii swoops down and grabs a beast in her talons. She blasts it with blunted wind attacks while flying it out towards the forest.

“Oh, that’s an interesting idea.” Eshya says, nodding in appreciation, “She thought of that already.”

“The lizard is it out in the forest?” I do vaguely recall her picking the beast for her team.

“She’s using it to hold the subdued forces down, while she and her birds are separating them by swooping them and stealing them away.” Eshya says, “Not something we can use, not until we can fly, but…”

“Something that can be used against us.” I say, watching the battle progress.

It slows considerably once all of the lighter ground beasts have all been taken away. Vii and her flight of beasts have to slowly wear down the larger beasts until they’re confident in forcing them into submission.

“If she was a beast, she’d be able to just kill them.” Eshya says, “Many of our enemies won’t be holding back like that.”

“No,” Alder agrees nodding, “That’s why it’s important to always have the superior forces in a fight. Otherwise, you can’t force submission and mistakes happen.”

“I’m sure.” Eshya says.

The battle unfolds about as I’d expected. Vii slowly whittles down the helpless enemy while taking the weaker ones out to the lizard to lay upon, or whatever it’s doing to them in the forest. When the battle is finally called, they return to us drenched in sweat.

“That was so cool!” The plant girl, Alo, says to Vii.

“You were pretty cool too.” Vii says, “Fighting untill the end even without any means of beating us. That valiant charge into the forest to try and save your stolen allies. It was like from a tragic story.”

“So, you were like the unbeatable beasts from a tragic story?” She asks, “Yeah, definitely. That’s exactly what it felt like!”

Freid doesn’t even try and cut into their conversation, waving another few students out to begin their own battles.

We watch, judge, and try to think of new ways to approach the battles that we see before us. More of the day is spent thinking, rather than fighting, but I feel like I’ve gained a lot from it. No small measure of that from strengthening my overall mana form, during the fighting and after it.

When the day finally settles and my head spins with all the million thoughts that run through my mind, we make our way back to our little broken houses where a promise of dinner awaits. I honestly have little hope for anything fancy, but I’m not of a mind to complain regardless.

I notice on our approach a strangely nervous Foxen standing in wait for us. An old man, who’s hair is a dull red, firmly set apart from the vibrant colours of those others we’ve seen before.

“Have you seen my grandson?” He asks us pleadingly, bowing low. He goes on before we have a chance to reply, “He has grey ears and red fur, please, tell me you’ve seen him.”

“We haven’t…” I reply, as the other combat students back away from the strange man. Freid turns to address Vin instead, a concerned expression on his face, he doesn’t directly address the poor old man.

“He went missing last week, I’d thought he was just playing games in the forest again, but… Please, if you see him, bring him home.” Some other Foxen come out from the village when they notice the old man and pull him away. I get the feeling that the rest of the town has given up hope of finding the boy alive.

I suppose that this still is life on the frontier. Even here where it feels reasonably safe, there’s still countless dangers about, and losing children is still just another part of life that they’re forced to live through.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current goal: Develop your mana form.

Current mana density: 559 units

~Mana distribution:

Skin: 24%

Muscle: 11%

Mind: 17%

Cardiovascular: 10%

Misc.: 9%

Efficiency: 71%

~Skills:

-Mana drain touch

-Mana skin

-Mana shield.

-Mana surge strike

-Mana surge kick

-Grapple

-Flame burst

-Fireball

-Infused delayed casting

-Harsh petting

-Chaos dance

~Multi-mind messenger