"Another thing? What else can they do?" They already seemed like legends, how much stronger could they be?
"Whilst they are in weapon form, you can use their abilities, similarly to how they would. Maso, you would probably be able to summon fire arrows for your bow, and Tobias would most likely have increased strength when he is in his pebble form."
"Is there anything else we need to know?" Tobias was beginning to fear the contracts, as they seemed to be the strongest things in Estia so far.
"No. That is everything we know about these beasts, but I encourage you to experiment with your own abilities as well."
"Is it okay if we test out our abilities a bit? How about against each other?" Maso suggested this, although the thought of Maso shooting fire at him was probably in all of their minds.
"His armour should protect him, as long as you don't aim for his face, particularly his eyes." Bryce said this after looking between Maso's bow and Tobias' armour. "But I wouldn't say the same for my yard. Let's go to the ritual arena. You can go wild there."
So Bryce led the two young contracters towards a large building which extended into the ground. He guestured before them, and explained what the place was.
"If you had been through the ritual, you would have recognised this place as your final trial, where you would fight another contracter, and the winner would be awarded with bragging rights. Now let's see who can brag after this. We have a resident healing contract living here so don't hold back."
Tobias and Maso walked to either side of the indented box, and readied their weapons, Maso making a fire arrow and Tobias applying the ring. Maso was at a clear disadvantage, with earth being highly resitant to fire, but they were both new to fighting like this, so anything could happen.
The mock fight began when Maso loosed an arrow straight at Tobias' chest only for the flames to harmlessly splatter across his chest. Tobias then bolted forward, trying to close the gap as fast as possible. Doing the opposite, Maso danced backwards trying to stay out of Tobias reach and constantly hitting him with bolts of fire.
"Think outside the box! If something doesn't work, don't do it again and again!" Bryce called out from the sideline, clearly seeing that Maso was going to lose. His energy was being drained faster and faster as he tried to hurt Tobias.
As Maso shot at Tobias again, he realised that all Tobias had was armour, so if he had armour too he would be fine! So Maso surged his energy into a coating around him and charged at Tobias head first. He just had to get rid of that armo-CLUNK!
Tobias had swung a heavy rock fist right at Maso's chest, and had thrown him back a dozen feet.
"Sorry! Are you okay Maso?" Tobias pulled off the ring and jogged over to where a very dazed Maso was laying. "Bryce! Can you get that healer? I think he's hurt."
"I'm not hurt, my fire armour protected me that much, but aside from that it did nothing." That did seem true, as he had come back decently far.
"Well, it wasn't a physical barrier, so all it could do was slow down the incoming attack. If the actual attack had hit you, you would be out of the ring by now. Anyway, it's two hours till you leave so I wanted to show you guys something. Come on!" As the two teenagers followed their boss out of the room, they marvelled at how strong they were.
"If it had been anyone else, they would've been on fire and losing in a minute, but your amour managed to block everysingle one of my attacks!"
"I still felt it though, it just felt like a very dull version of pain, like I couldn't quiet feel it."
"Wished I had that though, being able to withstand any attack."
"Now, now," Bryce caught on from up front. "Every weapon has it's advantages and weaknesses, you just happened to have the unfavourable side during this bout. Now. We are here." They stood before a giant statue, that depicted an enourmous turtle with crystal growths forming all over it's back and shell.
"This is one of the statues of our town's sacred contract, a contract so powerful it requires all of the town to act as it's owner. This absolute behemoth acts as our guardian and protects us from anything that might cause us any harm. It is a Brown Crystal Turtle, one of only a few crystal contracts, and the only turtle crystal. Crystal is the highest known contract level for an earth type, although it is suspected it can grow even further."
The boys stood in shocked awe at the size of the statue, which Bryce assured them was to scale, and that Gamora had probably grown more.
"Isn't your Gargoyle named Gamora?" Maso asked before Tobias could.
"Yes, I named my contract after this behemoth, because Gamora actually saved the town once during my life. Stopped another crystal level contract before it could reach the town. To be honest, we are always in it's debt, because it is constantly fighting different contracts that are far too powerful for us to handle. Now, I suggest you two get on your way as it's almost noon now."
The two boys both reflexively looked at the sun, only to start blinking and tearing up. Bryce chuckled at them, one his son and the other like a son, and told them to be extra careful when they were out there. They went back passed the arena to pick up their bags and came in for a hug one last time before setting out on the trail to the biggest city in Estia. With a look behind their backs, they walked through the fence that outlined the village, into the known for many, but unknown to them.