I have this and plan to write one more chapter before I go onto the academy arc I guess. I'm missing one important character.

Chapter 15: Taking a mount

It had been almost a year since Aion started to practice the soul rune technique and he was ready to inscribe the next three runes on his upper right arm. And he saw a major problem in that he had to wait for his soul to heal before he could use the technique again or risk permanently damaging his soul.

This had been a problem he had been working on with no solution, his grandpa told him to meditate and first grasp his soul then begin to heal it himself instead of waiting for it to heal naturally.

 Aion had also worked hard on improving his hand to hand combat and dagger wielding skills. For his hand to hand combat he incorporated as much as possible from the sword techniques Falling Stream’s Sword and the staff techniques from Raging Wind’s Breath.

As for his dagger skill it didn’t improve as much and he mainly used it to parry incoming attacks from weapons that would excessively damage his hands. In regards to arrays he didn’t make much progress into fourth ranked arrays as they still seamed too difficult.

The one array above the third rank that he did understand was the soul beast contract, this array would bind two living creatures by their soul using a mix of the two’s blood. Once this was done the two would be as close as blood, however this could only be used once and generally had to be agreed on by both parties.

For that reason most would use the array to help a young knight or noble contract with a new born beast.

There was however a more commonly used version of this that could be used multiple times but only on a creature that has submitted and one of the parties would be the master while the other was a servant.

This array was precisely the reason Aion was currently sitting with his Grandpa, Uncle, and Iris as it was decided that it was time for her to contract an elemental beast.

“Father this would also be a good time for Aion to contract an elemental beast, it could help him in dangerous times in the future. As for Iris she has already decided what beast she wants. Now Iris properly ask your Grandfather for assistance.” Iris this whole time had been trying to challenge Aion to another duel.

During the past year she had fought with him four times the first two fights ended the same as their first fight. The third however ended quickly as Aion was instructed to fight back the way he would against a real enemy, so although Iris had improved greatly in her fighting skills she could not match Aion.

The fourth fight was the hardest as Iris had risen to level four of the primary rank and although Aion had won the fight, he had to go all out, aiming for the most vital spots and trying his best not to get hit by her devastating punches.

“Grandpa Can you please help me find a chimera? Also can you ask Aion to fight me with weapons? As a knight fighting with a sword is normal that's why I lost to him last time.” A chimera was an odd choice for the sweet and innocent looking girl but as the mount of a knight who aimed to reach the master stage it made sense.

Chimeras where beasts that would naturally reach the fourth rank, the equivalent of the grand stage primary rank, but they were known for their intelligence and would through their own understanding and abilities reach the master rank.

They were also one of the creatures who showed the most obvious difference between human’s spirits and an elemental beast’s blood essence. A beast’s blood essence would transform it’s body once it reached the fourth rank and the seventh rank, some transformations were not as obvious as others.

The chimera for example had the body of a lion and its tail was a snake from the first to the third rank, once it reached the fourth rank it would sprout the head of a goat to the left of it’s lion head and it’s body would more than double in strength.

At the seventh stage was when it would change drastically as it would sprout a dragon head to the right of the lion head, grow dragon if wings, and scales would form under its fur all while becoming much stronger than it previously was.

Not having a strong blood essence in his body was precisely the reason Aion could not naturally form a core like all other elemental beasts and the reason most considered three eyed gray crows normal animals.

“Hm, a chimera is a good choice and I know where we can find some in the mountains but are you sure, while they are known to make it to the seventh rank it is a rare thing. As for the mater of fighting Aion, you’ve reached the fifth level so wait until he reaches the next level in his technique in about a week.”

“Yes grandpa I'm sure I can raise it to be the strongest chimera ever. And I'll fight Aion in a week as a knight fighting with my sword should be normal right?” The last question was directed at Aion who had been silently sitting.

“Un, swords permitted.” Hearing his response Iris was elated as she did not think that Aion could best her when using a sword.

“Good, and we can find you an elemental beast too. What kind would me good for an odd assassin?” she called him an odd assassin because he never hid in one of their fights and trained in a way that would make you think of him more as a sword-less swordsman.

“No beast.” Aion did not think he needed a contracted beast as the reason for having one was lost for an assassin. Knights would use them for two reasons the first was mobility in a battlefield but what type of assassin would go out directly into open combat.

The second was to provide extra attack or defense that would be pointless as well as assassins needed stealth and although there were beasts that specialized in stealth they were too rare to just go out and find one and as beast would normally grow larger the hire rank they became having a truly strong companion that worked well in stealth would be difficult.

In general assassins worked on their own or with other trained assassins and didn’t make any contracts with beasts.

“Aion an assassin not having a contracted beast is normal but you should consider it as they are extremely loyal and would be able to save your life in a dire situation.” The one who spoke this was Valt as he had been in many dangerous situations that he would’t have made it out alive from if his partner Lavi, the Variant flood dragon, hadn’t been there.

“Aion he has a point even if you can’t think of anything now it’s important to have a companion that will never abandon you. Also I have completed the array for your teacher to transfer bodies so I will temporarily put you to sleep and ask him to think of what kind of elemental beast he would like to take over. If he can not decide writhing an hour we will wait for another time.”

Aion nodded for his Grandpa to put him to sleep, Ban simply put his hand on Aion head and in that moment Aion's head flopped down asleep. Aion informed his teacher and was told that he would posses a devil bull.

Devil bulls were brown colored bulls of the earth element that would only reach the second rank but were said to have a deep connection with the earth.

With his spirit that would carry on with his soul David would not have to worry about the week blood essence, in fact if he reached the fourth rank the blood essence was likely to strengthen and if he one day reached the seventh rank he would be an incredible existence powered by a spirit and blood essence.

Shortly after Ban awoke Aion the four left the small house and headed to the elemental beast mountain range while riding on Lavi the variant flood dragon. It was an incredible creature that had reached the peak of the grand stage with a length one hundred meters, four strong limbs and red scales.

These red scales are what made it a variant as it was originally a wyvern but after Valt fed it the reverse scale of an imugi it turned into a red flood dragon. Once in the mountain range Ban ran in moving through the forest like his own back yard.

Meanwhile the three waited as it wouldn’t take long for Ban to find a chimera cub and bring it back, only a day or two the three decided to search for the devil bull calf elsewhere and move the soul of Aion's teacher into it.

It didn’t take them long to find a herd of devil bulls as they were rather common. The flood dragon had stayed some distance away as it’s presence would scare way the devil bulls.

“These are the devil bulls, the two of you see if you can spot a calf and I'll go and grab it.” Aion and Iris then began looking for a calf devil bull.

“Daddy over there I found one, I found it first.”

“Good job now wait here I'll go grab it.” With this Valt bolted out and grabbed the calf and was back in the spot where the two were waiting. Aion then prepared to transfer his teachers soul the process was simple he would use a modified Beast servant contract to creat a one way link between the two souls, then David would have to move to the calf’s soul and take it over.

Aion took out his dagger and made a small wound on his finger and drew the array onto the calf. Once it was complete he could feel the array activate and now had control over the devil bull, after being sure that the link was established Aion promptly fell asleep a skill he had developed over this year.

Inside his soul he made the passage between his soul and the bull’s more stable then his teacher left his soul entering the bull’s. Once again waking up Aion looked at the young devil bull and waited for the foggy look in the bull’s eyes to fade. After an hour the bull looked at him.

“Teacher?” The bull nodded and Aion severed the link between his soul and his teacher’s as it would be greatly disrespectful to his teacher if Aion were to keep control.

“You seem to have succeeded congratulations, and thank you for giving my daughter your technique. In about a year or so your body will be at it’s best to continue practicing so waiting for the natural process of the devil bull’s core would be best before you start training to further your power.”

Valt spoke to David knowing he would understand and gave him some advice as he knew that a beast’s growth was directly connected to it’s core. Seeing as they had succeeded Aion began to prepare to use the soul rune technique once more.

The end result was as expected painful and left him starving once more, luckily there were plenty on devil bulls around. After waiting for around a day Ban returned with a small cub in his hands, only to see two whole devil bull carcasses.

“Grandpa! You found a chimera thank you!”

“Yes it was a bit more challenging than I expected but not a problem.” Iris quickly made the contract with the little chimera and they returned to Ban and Aion’s home and said there farewells to each other. David stayed in the back yard and fell asleep in a corner fully intending to live an easy life until he could start practicing the technique Gaia’s Embrace once more.