Pedro, Isabella, and Shui showed up two days later. Pedro was pumped for the tournament and couldn't control his excitement. As soon as he jumped out of the airship when it landed, Pedro ran over to Leo.
"Leo, please train me until the tournament."
"Of course." Leo looked at the boy full of vigor. "I'll ask my friend Sly to borrow his arena tonight and tomorrow."
Isabella walked over and greeted Leo and thanked him for allowing her to come too. Leo explained they both would stay with him until the tournament and treaty assembly was over. After that, they would discuss more permanent arrangements.
Shadow asked Isabella if she wanted to train together, but she declined. Isabella told her she was happy for the chance to participate but more interested in studying at the College's library. Shadow was reminded that not all warriors sought power. Some cultivated for knowledge. Mallqui's lessons and philosophy were becoming ingrained in her.
Shui showing up was not the only airship arriving. Many ships from the various races were coming at a steady rate. The powers were interested in this first generation of warriors being raised in Lankani City.
The Mermanians send two twin girls to compete. They are both the princess' daughters.
The winged angels sent one boy with small silver wings and a harp in his hands. He is the 12th direct disciple of the leaders of winged angel race. Two other young teens accompanied him. One was a large boy from the Angel Corps, and the other was a skinny girl from the Storm Sect.
The beastmen even sent three recruits called the numberless. Until the beastmen numbering ceremony, they would not receive their name.
Even the draconian sent a noble young draconian to participate at Itmon's pleading with Sargt. They had not forgiven Charir-dar for his actions, but they didn't want to punish the entire race.
The council wanted only college students to participate, but after Aarav's request for Pedro and Isabella, the other council members extended invitations to the other races.
So when Pedro asked for last-minute training, he took it seriously. Two days was not enough time to learn new moves but were enough to teach him some easy strategies. As Tempered warriors, the hardest challenge is to overcome the opponent's physical attributes that give them the advantage such as wings and claws.
The only two techniques Pedro knew was a dodge technique based on the Shadow Step. Mouse and Goblin called it Broken Shadow. It allows the user to lean the opposite direction and quickly move to create a slight shadow narrowly dodging an attack.
The second technique was Spark Touch. It embodies a little bit of death and lightning mana into his fist or object.
In the arena, Leo would imitate beastmen and mermanian fighting styles he had once fought. After exchanging blows, Leo would tell Pedro the mistakes he made and offer alternatives to the attacks he performed. They continued this for a few hours then went home.
Isabella made them dinner and left it on the table. Leo and Pedro thanked her and devoured the food before them. Isabella picked up a book she borrowed and began reading. In the last, few hours she had learned of many plants and what they do. Isabella learned of plant cycles of yin and yang. The more she, the more questions she had. The library seemed like an endless place of knowledge.
The library was built after many students had questions in Cultivation Hall. The library was made public with a small service fee to browse the books. It was full of books copied from memory. Ab-dab, the council member, hand wrote over a hundred of the books alone.
Isabella even checked out a translation tool to help understand all of the writing in the book.
The three of them went to bed late in the night and awoke early to get some early training in. Isabella joined in the morning to absorb mana and cultivate the body. Seeing her and Pedro cultivate so diligently made him swell up a bit with pride.
"Is this how it feels to have disciples?" Leo wondered.
After cleaning up and eating breakfast, Isabella ran to the library. Leo told Pedro to go to Lecture Hall and listen to Gladier lecture and go over the rules of the tournament. Pedro reluctantly agreed and ran off towards the school.
With the two kids gone, Leo went to the market area to find some weapons and armor for the children.
For Pedro, Leo found a silver steel boomerang. It also had something engraved on it. Engraving runes on a weapon would allow it to interact better with that specific element. Being a beginner blacksmith, Leo was intrigued by this new form of item creation.
"Sir, excuse me. What is this rune for?"
"It's the wind element." The shop keeper said with a somber voice, and his back turned. He saw how the human was dressed entering and didn't wish to give him his full attention.
A beastman walked in and yelled. "Oh, it is the Beastmaster. I didn't know I'd see you again here Sir."
"Oh, you were a guard at the arena. Nice to see you again."
"It is an honor you remember me. This place seems dingy, but it has some of the best gear in the city."
The shop keeper face became flush red. He ignored the legendary Beastmaster. He ran over to try and recover from his obvious blunder.
"Sir, if you like I could engrave a different rune on that weapon."
This surprised him. Leo thought about it for a second and then said, "Yes, could you change it to a lightning element?"
"Of course, Sir. When do you need it?"
"Can it be done by tomorrow morning?"
"I will do my best." He grabbed the boomerang to start engraving right away. He called his assistant over to tend to Leo's and the beastman's needs. He also told the assistant to give Leo a ten percent discount on anything he purchases. The helper was surprised but didn't question the Shop keeper.
The beastman let Leo choose his wares first. He marveled at how Leo was able to touch any metal in the shop and gauge how well it was forged. The beastman eventually gave in and asked Leo to help him pick out a sword for himself. The two finished buying their goods and parted ways.
Leo bought leather armor top and bracers for Pedro and bought Isabella thick beast hide cloak and dagger. Leo headed to the arena to wait for Pedro to arrive. Pedro eventually showed up with a few humans and beastmen tagging along.
"They wanted to meet the Beastmaster." Pedro shrugged his shoulders when Leo looked at him.
A girl who recently turned 12 walked up to Leo and handed him a fruit. "This is for gifting me one when I first entered the city." The beautiful young girl gave Leo a bashful smile.
Pedro shot Mera a weird look. She was the one who begged him the most to meet Leo.
Leo remembered this must be the little girl that arrived with Makin and his group of refugees. Leo took the fruit and said, "thank you. How has your stay in Lankani City been?"
She looked up at him with her big eyes and rosy cheeks. "Very good."
"I'm glad." Leo then looked at the rest of the kids and said, "I would like to chat for a bit longer, but Pedro and I need to train. I hope to see you all at the tournament tomorrow, and I wish all the best of luck."
Leo and Pedro headed into the arena and began their last minute training. At night they headed home and got ready for bed. The next morning the tournament would kick off.