Chapter 39: Hopefully this monster isn’t a tiger

Combat training wasn’t structured as it is in modern societies. In this primitive era, one is taught how to hold a weapon and how to best use that weapon. The rest is up to the wielder to figure out.

Some common weapons, such as swords, spears, javelins, axes, bows, and even slingshots, were taught properly. Weapons such as staffs, daggers, knives, and others were not.

Daggers were mostly used for hunting, not warrior combat, so that alone made it difficult to teach. Staff weapons didn’t have any piercing ability, so it wasn’t really used outside of herding animals, giving them a little bonk on the head.

Because of this, Kanan and Lopis, who used dual daggers, were unique combatants.

Shadows consumed Lopis and erased her from Kanan’s line of sight. Her power didn’t rely on light or existing shadows. She could use her power whenever and however she wanted.

Since Kanan’s main ability was Spirit Control, feeling pure, raw spirit energy was his strongest suit. Therefore, he connected the spirit energy in his body to the spirit energy in nature to feel any type of disturbance.

Behind him, to his lower left, Kanan felt a ripple in the spirit energy. He shifted his feet, keeping his footing strong while planning his next move.

Lopis lept out of the ground from a shadow-like puddle and slashed at Kanan’s chest, narrowly missing him.

"Tsk." Quickly, she retreated back into her shadow to formulate her next plan of attack.

’I can feel her shadow on the ground, meaning that she has to keep her power tied to a surface.’ Kanan’s eyes darted from left to right, feeling Lopis move around constantly.

’I don’t know where she’s going to attack, so I’ll just have to remove her playground.’ He slammed his staff onto the ground, and spirit energy oozed out of it, blanketing the grass and dirt.

The blue light started to glow, then pulse, then bubble. Finally, it exploded.

Lopis was instantly knocked out of her shadows, while Kanan had protected himself with a shield of spirit energy. Watching his opponent collapse onto the ground, he charged after her, but Lopis was nimble, and she backed away.

’Not this time.’ Kanan charged his staff with spirit energy and extended it toward Lopis. The blue light flashed, and a tendril of spirit energy shot forward, then wrapped around Lopis, binding her in place.

"W-What the—"

"That’s enough! The match is over! Kanan wins." Selin shouted.

"Nice going, Kanan!" Terin shouted.

"That was a good match." Kanan undid the spirit rope and helped Lopis up.

"How did you do that?" She asked

"The spirit rope? Well, since my power is basically just spirit energy control, I can use it however I wish, to a certain extent, of course."

Lopis furrowed her brows, then went into deep thought. Shifting through different expressions, she finally sighed, nodded, then went to take a seat, clearly thinking about how to use her power differently.

For the next few sparring matches, the trainees used traditional weapons such as a sword or a spear. Their powers were also pretty conventional, such as elemental control or the typical super strength or durability.

All of them were newbies, so the spar wasn’t anything special. It was more like two birds fighting over one worm rather than an actual fight. But that was to be expected.

After the sparring matches were over, one of the warriors, a man named Jol, spoke of their next task of the day.

"Good work, all of you. Normally, we would teach you more about your abilities before moving on to this next step, but not only have all of you progressed faster than normal, but your abilities are stronger than expected. Therefore, we will be hunting monsters from now on."

"Monsters?"

"A-Aren’t those dangerous?"

"Can we even do that as we are now?"

"Quiet!" Jol shouted, silencing the trainees. "Fear is for cowards! Do not let your fear take over your senses. You are warriors, and as warriors, you shall and will overcome any obstacle that is thrown your way!"

Hunting regular animals is one thing, but hunting monsters is another. They are stronger, faster, smarter, and bigger than animals. The amount of effort that goes into hunting a monster is, on average, three times harder than hunting an animal.

"You will be broken into four teams of six." Selin joined in. "Every day, you will train your body, then your power, spar, then hunt monsters. This is how your days will go for the next six months. Once that period is over, you will become fully fledged warriors."

"During these six months, your team members will not be the same as before. They will shift, and you will have to learn how to work as a team with different people. This is vital to your growth. Now, I shall form the teams."

Lopis and Kanan ended up on a team together, fate doing its work. Their other teammates consisted of Terin, who had wind powers; Reda, a girl with teleportation powers; Alue, a boy with the power to command nature; and Fera, a woman with the power to create force fields or barriers.

"These people will be on your team for only one month. You will train with them, hunt with them, and get to know them. Bonding builds trust between people. It also helps with battle. Now, a Warrior will escort you to the mountain."

Selin was Kanan’s Warrior chaperone, and together, she took his group over to the mountain.

Beyond the mountains were home to strong and dangerous monsters. On the side where the village was located, the monsters were very docile and tame, though still dangerous; they were monsters after all.

"Warrior Selin, what type of monster will we be fighting?" Alue asked. He had his hands on his arms, rubbing them as he was a bit nervous about hunting a monster.

"Dunno! We’ll find out once we’re there. Keep an eye out, as we could get ambushed. Don’t want any of you dying today, especially Kanan."

It was already a risk taking Kanan outside of the village, so if he died, the village was screwed, and Selin would be punished for not being able to protect him.

The trek to the mountains took an hour, and that was only the closest part of it, the part where it connected to the forest. Alue kept flinching at every sudden noise; Lopis had her daggers out to fight; Reda kept looking around for trouble; Terin was just playing with the wind; Fera kept her eyes forward; and Kanan extended his senses so they wouldn’t get ambushed out of nowhere.