Chapter 175 - 174 Finishing The Lesson

Having overwhelmingly defeated Sir Kase, Marcus slow bent down and cast his tier one healing magic spell to stop the profuse bleeding all over his body.

Of course, Marcus only did this to make sure that the haughty knight did not die, since he still owed Marcus the spell formation and chant they had made a bet on.

With that done Marcus cast his gaze back over to the knights and future knights that had been watching the match and saw the astounded looks on all of their faces.

'Did I go a little overboard there with that last attack. I mean I was still holding back my unique skills, but it seems that I have gone past what is normally common sense.'

Shrugging his shoulders and walking towards Adrianna, Marcus found her still looking at him in a daze until he said, "Well, I think now is the time for you to wrap up the lesson and tell them what you wanted to teach them."

Adrianna rapidly blinking came back to herself and remembered what this "training" session had been for.

Nodding her head, Adrianna began making her way towards the group of future knights that were still stunned by the display they had just witnessed.

"Well, that was certainly more of a show than I thought we were going to see but it helps to hammer home what I wanted all of you to learn from this training session."

The six future knights seeing Adrianna come in front of them soon began whispering amongst each other trying to figure out if any of them had known what the lesson they were supposed to be learning beforehand.

Adrianna giving them a few minutes to discuss amongst themselves waited until they began quieting down and looked towards Cain and said, "So what do you think we were trying to teach you today."

Thinking for a few moments, Cain looked out confidently and said, "Not to judge our enemies by their appearances."

Shacking her head Adrianna looked pitifully at the one who needed this lesson the most and said, "That is a small part of it, but not the main issue all of you have. Amara can you tell me the lesson you all should have learned."

"Um, that there is always someone stronger."

Nodding her head Adrianna was pleased by this answer though it was not quite what she was looking for.

"Closer but not exactly it, does anyone else have an idea before I tell all of you."

Branson the one who had taken the hardest hit and felt that he had learned his lesson said, "Not to be overconfident. I was sure I could block Lady Irene's attack and then counter strike. Instead, I got knocked off my feet and into a wall."

With a smile Adrianna looked at the young future knight and said, "Yes that is the lesson you all needed to learn. Since all of you have gotten word that you will be promoted to knighthood, each of you has gotten more brazen. To a certain extent you have been touting you newfound status especially to your peers that were not as lucky."

However, while five of the future knights nodded their heads in agreement one of them was not going to learn his lesson so easily.

"So, what if we act above others, as knights we are their superiors, and they should know their places. As knights we are the cream of the crop of the kingdom, the strongest forces that protect the nobility of the kingdom."

Sighing, Adrianna looked pitifully at the young man and said, "You are a fool if you truly believe yourself to be above others just because of receiving the title of knight. Take Irene here, she may be a baronetess now, but she is the first of her house and has only had said title for less than a year. Yet she is still far stronger than any of you even though all of you have had the support of your families and resources given to you at the academy. Not to mention some of you are the personal disciples of knights, yet the strongest one here today is a low born girl who is the same age or younger than all of you. Anyone can gain strength if they work hard, and this is why you should not grow overconfident in yourself even as a knight."

When Adrianna finished her lecture for the future knights especially Cain, Marcus approached them and said, "Now then I want all of you to meet someone."

Roxene who Marcus had discreetly taken out of his companion storage walked forward into view of everyone.

Everyone stared at the new arrival for a few moments before the silence was broken by Tessa who shouted, "So cute!" and began running towards Roxene.

However, as Tessa tried to reach out and pet Roxene, the little half white, half black wolf pup jumped back behind Marcus and glared at the girl who dared try to touch her.

'Marcus if that little girl tries to touch me again, I will rip her hand off.'

Marcus receiving Roxene's telepathic message bent down and patted her on the head before saying, "This here is my beast companion Roxene. She is bit temperamental so she is not going to let anyone other than me touch her, and I would recommend that none of you try again, or she will rip your hand off."

Marcus then saw as everyone around began laughing thinking it was joke, how could such a small puppy be any threat to them.

'Roxene go and attack Branson real quick and reinforce the lesson they have learned today.'

'With pleasure I have been waiting to beat someone up.'

With a smile on her face Roxene bounded off in a blur towards Branson, reaching him before he could even react and slamming into him, knocking him flat onto the ground.

She then began slamming her two front paws into his chest which would have been cute if she were a normal puppy, but with each hit being backed up by a strength stat of over four hundred, it was bound to hurt.

Roxene continued this for another five seconds and only stopped when Branson began to cough up blood.

Jumping off of the poor sap that Marcus had told her to attack, Roxene slowly walked back over to him and held her head up proudly.

At the same time everyone was dumbfounded by what they had just seen.

The little wolf pup had just beat up someone who was soon to be a knight and had faced no resistance.

Sure, it had been a sneak attack, but the speed of the attack was still so fast it would have been difficult to counter even if on guard.

"Looks like all of you got caught off guard by the little trap I set. Roxene here may look cute, but she is actually, and epic grade magical beast and you thought her appearance made her look weak. Unfortunately, not every creature that is strong is going to look so, some may look like cuddly animals."

'Roxene go ahead and use Paragon of the Divine Wolf, but make sure not to strain yourself.'

Nodding her head Roxene started to let off a quite growl before her body began to expand until she was around six feet tall and ten feet long.

The aura Roxene was now emitting gave off an oppressive feel, and the knights that were present could truly sense the power behind the creature in front of them.

"This is Roxene's true form. ('well, this is actually a transformation, but they do not need to know that.') All of you let your guard down because you thought she was a small and feeble pup. However, this is the true form of what you had all been facing. It is important that you be vigilant about your opponent's not only when they are humans, but with monsters and magical beasts as well. In fact, you need to be more careful with magical beasts and monsters since they never cared about your title as a knight to begin with. Now then I want the six of you to fight Roxene at the same time."

Marcus then walked over to Branson who was still reeling from the attack he had received from Roxene and cast a healing spell on him.

After that Marcus moved away and Roxene walked into the center of the ring awaiting the six future knights.

The six of them looked nervously towards the wolf that was now the size of a small horse and then towards their masters hoping to find some way out of this.

Unfortunately, the knights they were looking towards for help simply nodded their heads and gave them encouraging gestures. Frankly each of them wanted to see what Marcus' beast companion could do since it was rare to see the capabilities of an epic grade magical beast.

Needless to say, if they knew the actual grade of Roxene, each of them would be running away to report it to the kingdom since she could easily turn into a catastrophe level threat.

With no way out, the six future knights walked into the ring after forming a quick strategy.

They were hoping to use both Clarisa' magic and Amara's adhesive spheres to stop Roxene's movements while Branson and Kieran played defense for them, and then Cain and Tessa would use their strongest moves to finish the job.

"Ahhhh."

Each of them letting off a battle cry began charging towards Roxene hoping their strategy would be enough to win.

While that was going on Adrianna came up to Marcus and said, "You never told me you had an epic grade magic beast as a companion. I knew about your lightning stag but the difference between a rare and epic grade magic beast is like night and day. So how long have you had her."

Not surprised to see that his friend had come over to ask him questions Marcus was ready with the fake answers he had already prepared.

"I caught her around four months ago, though it was not until recently that I was able to tame her. I had her contained in a cave a few miles away from the capital until I was able to get the necessary materials together to perform the seal between us. Luckily, I already knew what type of beast she was, so I was able to get the right items."

"Wow I am surprised you were able to contain an epic grade magic beast for so long. Oh and what type of beast is she."

"She was only level thirteen when I found her already injured from a previous battle, so it was easy enough to subdue her. And she is a beast called a light and dark hound which is a pretty special beast."

Adrianna nodding her head was really impressed by Marcus. Most people would not be so lucky to find such a high-quality beast when it was still low level and be able to successfully capture it.

"You are quite fortunate Irene, there are not many people in the kingdom with epic grade magical beasts under them, maybe only around a few dozen or so."

A bit curious Marcus looked towards Adrianna and said, "I thought The only person who has an epic grade magic beast in the kingdom is the kingdom's knight commander?"

"Well, he is certainly the most well know, but there are few families in the kingdom that have an epic grade magic beast either as companions or have made a pact with one as a guardian. In fact, there are even rumors that the royal family has a legendary magical beast as a guardian left by the first king himself."

Continuing their conversation, Marcus tried to get more information out of Adrianna, but the only other specific epic grade magic beast she knew of was owned by the current count of a territory far to the east.

'At least I managed to get a bit more information on the beasts people have contracted with in the kingdom, even if most of it is rumors. But I really wonder if the royal family actually has a legendary grade beast as a guardian.'

While Marcus was pondering the information that he had just learned, Roxene was finishing up her fight with the young future knights.

Unfortunately, their plan had completely failed as Roxene ran circles around them and easily batted each of them away with a single paw swipe.

Now the six poor victims who Roxene had used to vent her frustration were crawling away many of them with broken bones, but all of them with broken pride after being so easily dealt with by Marcus' beast companion.