Chapter 22: Fending off the Jackals

“These Ragged Jackals,” Zen said as he faced off a jackal, “How strong are they?”

“They should be Rank 5 beginners,” Jiahai, who stood back to back with him, facing the other jackal, said. “So, we’re probably evenly matched.”

Zen gulped before the jackal lunged for him. Zen dived to one side, dodging the jackal but it landed on Jiahai who had been standing behind him. the jackal bit into his shoulder, causing him to scream in pain as it tackled him to the ground. Zen panicked at seeing what had happened. He was about to help when he saw the other jackal prepare to join its partner in the attack. Knowing he could not let that happen, he stepped on the pile that was Jiahai and the jackal before pushing off to meet the other jackal. He led his qi flow within his meridians as he prepared his qi technique.

“Blits Punch!” His fists came out in a blurry of punches, which found their mark on the Jackal, sending it tumbling away.

Behind him, Jiahai was still struggling with the jackal, which grew claws made of qi from its paws to dig into the boy’s back. Working together, they were able to get the jackal off of him and tumbling into its companion.

Still feeling the rush from the battle, Zen fell upon them with another Blits Punch.

“Try aiming for their necks!” Jiahai shouted.

Zen had never thought of specifically aiming his punches. They usually just shot out in front of him in random fashion. He tried to control where his punches went, which was harder than he thought. He was able to get a punch deep into the ceck of one of the jackal, sending it stumbling away. But his technique had ended, leaving him vulnerable to the other jackal’s bite.

“Out of the way!” Zen heard. He rolled out of the way just before Jiahai slammed down on the Jackal’s neck, causing it to cough out blood and die instantly.

Zen watched as the other jackal coughed and struggled to breath. He withdrew his dagger, Zen Blade, before finishing the beast off.

Jiahai was checking on his injury. “Man, I think that jackal took a chunk of my back off.”

“I’m sure you’ll be okay,” Zen said before Shibi joined him, having watched everything from the trees above.

“Yeah, easy for you to say.” Jiahai said, seeing the blood on his hand.

Zen removed the beast cores from the Ragged Jackals’ skulls. This had to be done immediately because both boys feared having to deal with scavengers that they may fail to defeat. Zen felt guilty about not helping Jiahai but he did the task, knowing it would be pointless for them to have to lose the beast cores after their work. The job was messy and poorly done but Zen was able to procure the beast cores, which looked like grey, jagged stones.

Jiahai admired the stones that represented their labour on this night. “This is good. If we continue this, we’re sure to get through the hunting class and maybe we can sell some off and get good medicinal pills.”

“Won’t the academy give us medicinal pills?” Zen asked. Zen knew that medicinal pills were a big reason why people went to academies. To ensure that their students grew strong, academies would provide free medicinal pills, which the students could do what they please with them. the poorest students would usually sell them off.

“Yes, but the academy uses a merit system,” Jiahai said. “They track your progress, first taking in your cultivation base at the beginning of the month and then they check it again at the end. If your cultivation base improvement is low, then you will get a Mana Well Pill.”

“I know those,” Zen said, remembering haven taken one. “They add mana that is easily refined into qi in your system.”

“Yes, if you show medium improvement, they’ll give you a Qi Well Pill, which I’m sure you know adds qi to your cultivation base.”

Zen nodded, “Yeah, the higher the quality in the pill the more expensive the pill.”

“If you show great improvement, they give you a Purifying Pill, which will purify the qi in your Qi Pillar.”

“So we’re all guaranteed a pill at the end of each month,” Zen said.

“Yes, but get this, the best student in a single their class get a Clearing Out Pill too, which cleans out the impurities in the meridians and the best student amongst all classes get a Pillar Condensation Pill.”

“I don’t see why anyone would want that,” Zen said, “It just makes you weaker.”

Jiahai simply shrugged.