Before Leo or Joe could do anything, the coyotes attacked the bison. The scared bison started to huddle together. The coyotes began to snip at the herd.
"Leo don't go down there," Joe warned.
Leo stopped right before he jumped down. He started to hear a hum. The bison were doing a chant of sorts then all of a sudden, Leo felt a spike in mana.
"Sir, the mana surrounding the bison is condensing into the ground."
Crack! Mounds of earth rose up around the herd. Then all the bison head-butted the hardened earth sending shards towards in all directions. The coyotes were caught off guard, and more than half of them were killed. Impaled by the rocks, the coyotes never saw it coming.
"Sir, the bison are all at the mana fighter level, but have they started understanding the laws of earth."
"Amazing, the beast of earth adapt and grow stronger than even us humans."
"Life is beautiful, Leo."
"Sprite, I want to train in earth laws."
"Yes, Sir. I will do my best to assist you."
"Leo, mind if I join you and Sprite?" Joe asked smiling.
"Of course Joe, let's start tomorrow."
Leo picked up Joe and carried him down to his chair. Once in the chair, Leo rolled him home. That night both of them had a good night sleep. The next morning, Leo got up and headed to the warrior training ground. Lycan and Shadow were already there waiting.
"Morning Human. You ready to train with the beastmen."
"I think I can put up a good fight."
"Human, what level are you at?" Shadow wondered.
"I'm at the viscera tempered stage. I have started to temper my bones which is the next stage."
"Boy? Your cultivation has that many stages?" Lycan asked. "Our beastman cultivations tempers the skin, the claws, and then the muscles. After that, we enter the Mana Fighter level."
"Sprite is this true. My cultivation art takes longer."
"Yes, Sir. It will make you stronger in the future by creating a stronger base."
"So boy, I want to see what you can do. Binx get over here." A feline variant beastman came over. She was a multi-colored fur beastman and just enter Mana Fighter level. Leo walked forward and met the beastman is a circle drawn on the ground.
"Begin."
The beastman dove at Leo and used a sweeping kick to knock him off his feet. Then lunged at him using her claws. Leo rolled out of the way but still had his shirt shredded in the back. The cat woman ran after him to follow up with a second swipe. "Moon and Sun reversal." The counter attack blasted her back.
The cat started clicking. "My next attack it won't be so forward human." The beast-woman began to dash right and disappeared.
"Where did she go.." The cat woman appeared behind him and performed a Shadow Strike. Thinking back to the bison he saw yesterday, Leo used Descending Moon to piece the earth and have dirt and rocks fly up at Binx. Binx back stepped and disappeared again.
Binx appeared above Leo and attacked. "Solar Flare." Blinded Binx fell to the ground. Leo executed an Ascending Sun and knocked her out.
Lycan clapped. "Well done boy. It was Leo right. You have a strong body and a variety of moves. That helps you make up the lack of mana a Mana Fighter has. The warriors can learn a lot from you."
"Sure. Can you help me with mana control and flow?"
"No. Shadow is better at it than me. She will train you." Lycan sized up this boy like he was a beastman of his own. The only problem is humans of the earth don't have a dantian gland to store mana. He couldn't think of any way to help this kid. "Starting from today you will have 3 fights then train with shadow."
"Alright who is up next? I have two more fight right."
Lycan had him fight a canine beastman and a bear beastman. Leo defeated the canine variant named Striker. The Bear variant defeated Leo with brute strength and was tossed out of the circle multiple times. He goes by the name Fog. After Fog beat him up real good, Shadow trained him on moving the little bit of mana he had in his body.
When he got home, he meditated and healed up. Then once Joe finally got back, they left to go watch the herd of Bison. This was Leo's favorite time of the day watching Bison and talking with Joe. After watching Bison fend off the coyotes, they started training to use earth.
A month went by really fast. Every day Leo fought, trained mana, trained using earth, and talked to Joe. Some days Samantha would accompany Leo and Joe. These were some of the most peaceful days Leo ever had.
On the eve of this morning, Leo finally broke through into the Tempered Bones Level. He trotted his way to the training ground. Leo walked over to Lycan.
Looking at the boy, Lycan said, "You look stronger today Leo."
"Yeah, I think today, I want to challenge Fog. I have a surprise for him."
"Fine. Fog come challenge the boy. You better not let him win. We beastman have our pride too."
Leo and Fog walked into the circle. They squared off. Lycan yelled, "fight." Fog jumped up and executed his signature Heavy Strike. Leo decided to meet his strike with an Ascending Sun. Now with his bones strengthened, he could tie in strength. A loud boom was head when claw met fist.
Fog followed up with a horizontal Heavy Strike, and Leo tried to counter with a Moon and Sun reversal, but both men were blasted backward. "Ha, let us see if you can handle my next strike boy." Fog gathered mana into his fist and claw. "Beastman Art: Paw Strike."
This strike from Fog came at Leo like a locomotive. "Bison Art: Rock Stomp-Shatter Fist." Leo used his yin mana to piece the ground and make a condensed rock raise up. Then he channeled yang mana and executed the first strike on the rock to fire shards of earth at Fog. Watching the bison every day and using Dance of Sun and Moon, Leo created his first martial art move.
The earth shards forced Fog back into crossing his arms to defend himself. Lycan looked over and was impressed that using such little man Leo executed a mana art. Even Shadow was glad all her one-on-one training worked.
Leo followed up with an Ascending Sun and broke Fog's cross arm defense. Then he used his second new move.
"Bison Art: Rock shot." A boulder was raised up, and instead of punching it, Leo's palm struck it. This fired the rock like a cannonball and launched Fog out of the circle.
"I guess this is your win, Leo."
"Thank you, Lycan. I've been saving this art just for him." Leo smiled as Fog was picking himself off the ground. He nodded to Leo and sat down to regain his mana.
"Hey boy what did you call this new art?" Shadow asked.
"I named it after the beast which I learned it from. Bison Art."