Sitting atop the large hill,Iron claw observed the five Towering Mountains,and the scenery that surrounded despite there kilometre long distance,as if an artist viewing a piece of art he had just completed,that brought him great pride,and confidence.
He sat down on the hills top,his left arm on his left leg that was bent to an acute angle,while he leaned on his muscular right arm that was placed vertically above the soil,his hand feeling the fresh soil,and the slightly tall green grass, it's color reflective of an amazing summer season,around him grew flowers of varying types,as bugs of different sizes went on to do their business,continuing the cycle of life.
With his powerful senses,he could vividly visualize what occured around him without directly having to see it with his own two eyes,he could sense the flower toad with its camouflage of a lotus on its back stalking it's prey ,and releasing its powerful tongue capturing its prey within seconds,or the 12 eyed tomb butterfly,trying to escape from its cacoon,even the side to side undulation of a fishes fins within the swirling waters.
Every movement a sharp prick,if not for the ability to process such senses one could easily be overwhelmed,yes the beast path truly gave one the ability to properly appreciate all life within nature.
While enjoying his Time to the best of his Capabilities suddenly the gate opened up again,without looking he could tell the person that came through causing Iron Claw to sigh in disappointment,and disgust,it was a fellow teacher one Iron Claw did not particularly work well with or like,but that was quite common.
Especially for the case of the man who came out from the gate.
The twos appearances contrasted each other greatly,one manly looking the other could be described as a walking joke.
Unlike Iron Claw the man had the appearance of a clown his nose painted red,his eyes dark with black eye liner,the borders of his mouth covered with red face paint in the form of a curved smile.
while the rest of his face was as white as chalk,with clear textural inconsistencies,with a pointy clowns hat one sporting blue,and red,the rest of his appearance was that of aristocratic clothing having a white ruff around his neck,Doublets,trunk hose,long black boots,and a sceptre.
Before the clown fully walked in Iron Claw had already changed his posture to that of a crossed leg sitting position,folding his arms aswell.
"Oh good they brought me a mad one",Iron Claw said," is that sarcasm,I sense",the clown replied," well what's magic without a little bit of madness,don't you think,would it not be quite boring",the clown said laughingly.
"In anycase I'm here to deliver a message,from higher up the pecking order,apparently your request has been approved".
"Aaah... the sorrow!, I do feel for them,those students of yours can now suffer, a full week within the walls of this zoo of yours",said the clown in a mocking tone.
"Jester Triboulet is it,that's your name right,It seems from the moment you were born your mother decided you would be nothing but a joke to the world".
" You know,I hate members of your path especially those like you,and that runt Aster who embody it so well,I hate your insufferable banter,acting like mad men stuck between two realms,the evasiveness of your combat style shows the inability to face the realities of life,the constant drama,and tricks your path employs honestly annoys me".
"Nordwind should know this by now,and atleast send someone I respect not an actor, to me an actor is no better than a thief,you can never tell their true faces".
"Your art is nothing but a lie made out of meticulously crafted personas,in order to hide the reality of your own misery,but hide as you might you can only create masks for yourselfs not true freedom".
" its ironic I'm hearing about freedom from someone of your path do you not understand your own hypocricy,unlike the Ruler path who inslave chaos ,and turmoil or the Soul path who inslave souls,and the undead,the beast Path thrives by being domineering,imposing ones will on others forcing them below ones feet".
" Your freedom is simply freedom by comparison,as it relies on others being miserable".
The clown said in an exaggerative comedic manner while picking up a flower bending his torso,and offering it to Iron Claw.
Iron Claw laughed," That's simply Nature the strongest dominated the weak,and the weak keep the strong,strong".
In anycase your a poet right,can you feel the dramatic shift that's about to occur when these little runts figure out the truth,better yet the lie within the truth".
"And yet right now they still believe their on an unkillable easy tutorial through the jungle".
The jester smirked giggling,"I do indeed find the joke in this,but will you or will you not relay this message to these lambs of yours".
Meanwhile a team made up of the bold,and just Astrea the delicate Bell,and the strong boisterous Athena made their way into the deep stretch of forest within this pocket space.
Athena javalaunt was a mostly human noble who descended from an ancient beast tribe warrior.
Having an inhuman great ancestor from the beast tribe had its advantages allowing her to inherit natural superhuman strength with the added benefit that unlike halfbreeds,the only difference in her appeariance between normal people were her sharp hound like canines,her unnaturally toned muscles,and flexible body,
Besides these physical gifts,she had sharp senses that surpassed human limits.
Her personality was also shaped by these natural gifts,making her unnaturally strong headed,and confrontational for most girls,with beast like terrarorial behavior,due to the powerful hormones she had inherited alongside her monstrous strength.
she had dark clear orange hair,with mirror gold like eyes,pointed ears that she prominently exposed by styling her hair into a bun,claws that could harden,contract,and extend cutting through steel,and bone marrow.
she was not tall nor short for her age yet still slightly above average,having light skin,and prominent canines.
Using these genetic advantages she quickly parkoured jumping on all fours through the trees,in order to gain reconnaissance for her team.
Her clothes exposed her arms,and most of her legs,providing her ample flexibility for movement,her hands,and feet covered with white arm ,and leg wraps.
She wore brown leather hand gaurds,a brown leather chest plate, brown leather boots,and a white battle skirt.
Her innate powerful perception allowed her to avoid,get around or predict hidden dangers that stalked this forest.
Meanwhile Bell,was a girl of average height,who wore a blue wizard robe set with a curled pointed hat,black boots,and a grey curled staff that looked as if had been torn from an ancient tree.
Not only was she shy but she was timid,and clearly frightened leading to her being protected like a treasure by both Athena,and Astrea.
Bell had green eyes, and blonde hair, cut in a short bowl cut with bangs covering her forehead.
Soon Athena returned from her scouting," I've cleared a path,there's an easy route with the least resistance we can take,I've also seen some creatures battling it out with one another,if we play our cards right we may be able to get them,and end this prematurely".
Astrea sighed," unfortunately we can't use the bondage spell,on creatures that have already been beaten,it requires a certain amount of life force between the target,and the caster,if not the creature will just die".
"I see", Athena said in a contemplating tone," oh,that's...right,you have..a little experience with using monsters,so thats,ah ah going to make,things easier",Bell said timidly.
Astrea laughed,stretching out her hand as a blur came out of her sleeves zipping past as fast as the wind while Athena held her calm,Bell cried out in fear," waaaahhhhahahhhh!!",causing a rustle in the forest Athena Quickly lunged forward covering bells mouth until her darting eyes calmed down,and stabilized.
"Oh",Astrea said in surprise not expecting the intensity of bells reaction but even so she continued," leonard isn't a monster you know,he's my loyal companion,and best friend his also vey sensitive".
Bell apologized while crying trying to wipe away her tears," Sorry it's just,that every time I see certain magical creatures up close it just brings back terrible memories".
Athena sighed," I heard the dryadres family were once attacked by controled wild beasts,injuring,and taking the lives of many".
Bell sighed," that's true the eyes,the fangs the endless noise I watched from afar as people were torn into pieces even now those scenes haunt me, we tried our best to decrease the symptoms without tampering with my memories but at best it went from a fear of all animals to all unknown,carnivorus or strange animals,and in this forest where everything's unknown it just gets worse!",bell said crying her eyes out.
It was a powerful phobia as if every corner of the forest had strange creatures lurking ready to kill her.
Astrea smiled going on one knee,placing her hand on Bells shoulder," As a group we're going to figure it out together,and push each other to surpass our limits,and that starts with you conquering your fears".
"But I won't force you ofcourse",she said as leonard forcefully returned into her vanishing.
Athena looked at Astrea reposing the original Question," so will your experience with leonard help us in anyway shape or form".
Astrea smiled yes," Being the only female child of the king my father seeked to protect me,and keep me safe so at about one month old a rare artificial dragon egg was created,due to its artificial nature not having a true Soul the creature within was destined to collapse,and die".
Using sorcery, that in hind sight I believe derive from the Beast path, my Soul,and it's artificial Soul were linked,so was my mana,and it's mana, my thoughts,and its thoughts".
"This not only multiplied both our natural mana capabilities,it gave me the ability to tap into its mind,and sensory ability,it also meant that the artificial Soul inside the egg could feed on mine,and overtime grow stronger,and more stable".
"So is that the cause of the blue tattoo going down your spinal column",Athena asked," yes",Astrea replied.
Astrea continued," In anycase as I grew up training myself,and with leonard,l had to read certain books that could give us the knowledge we need to capture,quality creatures".
Athena chuckled," so your our walking encyclopedia,fine then you lead the way".
On another note the group of Artemis,Isolde,and Cassidy engaged in their first real battle,their opponent was a huge Giant elemental made from rock ,and sand.
"I thought you were supposed to be the best sensory mage amongst us!!", Artemis shouted at Cassidy," Hey!! elementals hide their presence really well"," knock it off!! you two get ready to fight!!".
The elemental giant rose up its body of Earth,and sand turning as it did so with enough speed to send powerful gusts of air that were felt for miles,the Giants body could be seen pointing out of the forest,this was a Testament to its height due to how tall these trees were.
Each tree felt as if they had plenty of resources,and no need to fight amongst each other for resources allowing them to grow to their full potential.
When the gusts of wind reached the cohort of three,it's power alone cracked the surrounding ground,creating a powerful eroding force that sank large trees until they could not be seen.
But despite that each member held their ground refusing to flinch an inch.
The elemental at this point had no lower body simply a torso,and above all every swing of its hands released huge gusts of wind sand ,and stone at incredible hypersonic speed the raining sand dense with mana became like exploding bullets upon being released.
Knowing this Isolde stabbed her Blade to the ground creating a 180 degree caccoon of Ice,while her subordinates backed off.
the elementals skin or outer layer was made of hard rock filled with cracks seeping with an endless outpouring of Sand.
It's speech as if mumbling,and groaning as if it's tongue had been cut out,at this point even the ground beneath their feet were against them.
As sharp jagged Rocks protruded outward with immense speed forcing Isolde to backflip,and immediately recontruct another ice shield,without being hit before the projectile barrage reached her,while the previous shield of ice was completely destroyed.
"The two of you,Distract it find an opening so we can run or kill it somehow",Isolde yeld clutching her Blade,Artemises mind went haywire continously crouching down shuffling both sides of her hair mumbling repeatedly," The weak point of an elemental is,the weak point of an elemental is".
At that moment Cassidy remembered," Guys elementals of this Grade,have two weaknesses we can exploit,first outputting enough power to overpower it which is more likely with a counter element or finding its crystalised core,it's not made of flesh,and blood so it's core is a stationary already existing mineral,if we can get or shatter it we win".
While Cassidy was saying this troops of smaller Rock soldiers,covered in sand would sprout from the ground,and attack,their hands shaping themselves into weapons.
Isolde yelled out," what Grade do you think this is!!","Atleast a high or mid level 5th tier a genuine Nightmare",Cassidy replied,Isolde grunted underneath her breath Quietly saying," if so we stand no chance".
Cassidy was an expert in archery,sniping down each one of these creatures,at times using the string of her bow to decapitate their heads or trapping the target in the middle of the bow,and arrow sending an arrow from point blank to their face,with the combination of fire these arrows rendered these minions of clay helpless.
Meanwhile similarly Artemis an expert in all projectiles,shot small daggers imbued with enough force to blow her opponents away or eradicate it's upper body,meanwhile the terrain was not fair to them as they would have to constantly shift their positions
As the ground beneath them,would immediately shift into mud slides,rapid rising of sharp stone pillars or giant chunks of falling Rocks changing direction mid air ,and directly heading towards them at Mach speeds
Creating Gigantic explosions with every hit,the creature truly wished to kill them,and absorb their essence into its very barrial ground.
The elemental raised one hand with immense speed hitting the ground dust stones ,explosive shock waves flew in all directions they could not afford to be blown away from one another carried by the shockwave into hitting a tree or be picked off one by one by much worse creatures.
So as soon as the second the attack was unleashed they reacted their minds processing events as if time had stood still.
immediately as they were being blown away,they each locked in,Artemis used wind magic on her feet propelling herself mid air towards the elemental,directly fighting against the shockwaves current that had not dissipated while using both her daggers to deflect,and slice each,and every single chunk of Rock moving at speeds they had no business moving at.
Similarly Cassidy jumped on the heavy large Rocks still floating in the air propelling herself forward,one at a time,when the shockwaves neared she would forcibly twist the Rock,to face it while she hid behind it using mana giving her legs the strength to push off the Rock towards the shockwaves, while covering it with enough mana to keep it intact.
Rocks moving at such speeds it became heated as if reentering the atmosphere at high speeds allowing her to escape the initial forward brunt of the shockwave.
For Isolde it was much easier conjuring giant pillars of ice to take the brunt while freezing herself in place ,and forming shields of solid cold ice around herself.
But despite all this, the bullet like rapid projectiles,penetrated through each one of their defenses,leaving them bleeding,and battered while the shockwaves themselves caused internal bleeding,and ruptures in the ears.
All three began to Question themselves," these creatures were supposed to be non lethal?".
Meanwhile Jester laughed," So your letting those little cubs of yours suffer,and learn, how cruel".
Iron Claw laughed," you could say it's one big joke".