Chapter 467 Sparring

Chapter 467 Sparring

Orthos cleared his throat to get Karl's attention. "We will send you as close as possible to the destination tomorrow morning. There is still time before the anomaly opens, and you won't want to be standing around waiting for it. Is there anything that you need to make your preparations for the trip?"

Karl still had far too much prepared from the last time he had help preparing for a trip, and most of his inventory was filled with stuff he had gotten from the Elves. He had supplies for every conceivable situation already, so Karl shook his head.

The others did as well, as they had been prepared at home for an extended mission, in case they were stuck along the border for weeks trying to make a deal.

"Alright, then you have the day to yourselves. Do as you wish, just try not to cause trouble for others, they do have duties to attend to."

Orthos clearly considered the conversation to be finished, but some of the other Elders were intrigued by Karl's training skills, and eager to see what he was going to do next.

"Why don't we all go help the older students today? I worked with the young children yesterday, but there is still a group about to take up official duties that could use some practice with their skills."

And, of course, Karl was hoping that he might pick up one or two of them if he tried hard enough.

That wasn't a possibility with the youngest ones, they barely understood the skills themselves. But the older ones were close to fully grown beasts, so they should have a good understanding of their skills, and they would be trying to advance it to speed their progress through the ranks.

Like Thor and Rae, most Divine Beasts finished growing in body long before they stopped growing in power. The Dragons were an exception, as they never stopped growing, and some weaker species reached peak power before adulthood, but those were mostly considered wild beasts or monsters, not Divine Beasts with intelligence.

The older trainees were mostly in beast form today when Karl reached the training field, though there were a few half-breeds whose natural form was demihuman. Transformation was a skill that he would love to teach the team, but he could feel that it was Holy Magic from their Beast God clerical symbols.

Dana picked her opponent first, a Moor Cat whose shoulders were the same height as her own.

For Moor Cats, it was still half grown. But it would be a good matchup, as they were both fast-moving combatants. The Cleric in charge put a golden barrier over them both, both for defence and to indicate who was the winner. The first barrier to break lost.

Karl focused on learning [Bodyguards] as the fight began, and Dana flipped through the air to avoid a leap by the Moor Cat. Her blade flashed down, and the beast twisted to avoid having its back slashed open, then leaped straight sideways to avoid a barrage of magic missiles. Dana was holding back on the power, to the same low Awakened standard that everyone was using, but if the cat didn't figure something out quickly, it would be in trouble.

It didn't take long to realize that keeping a mage at a distance was a bad idea, and the Moor Cat used its Species Skill of [Silent Predator] to vanish from sight and silence its steps.

Dana only had a limited amount of detection ability, but she knew how to deal with invisible attackers.

She created a field of fog, which would let her see the disturbance as the Moor Cat moved, even if she couldn't clearly see the beast.

Claws raked her [Nullification Barrier] as she moved too late, but her blade caused a golden flash as she struck true before the Moor Cat could relocate.

The Winged Wolf transformed into a young man nearly Karl's age, wearing the plain grey robes of the beast clerics. "Fighting mages is tricky. Even invisible, they can still find you. Plus, she can fly. I can see that she's not using it as much to make the fight more fair, but she could be holding this entire fight from above and making Nala jump at her."

Karl nodded. "We're not here to discourage anyone, and flying targets are hard for anyone to deal with. Especially a Moor Cat cleric who doesn't have ranged attacks."

The wolf chuckled. "If I had ranged attacks, I would totally abuse them. But the flying species with ranged abilities train separately, and there is a whole class on how to deal with that."

"If you would like, I can convince Cara the Winged Void Badger to spar with you. If she doesn't use her ranged attacks, it should be a good learning chance." The wolf barked a laugh and shook his head. "Thanks, but I don't feel like getting beat up today. I can't fly without magic, and a Void Badger can nullify that and send me crashing to the ground."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om