Ardere and Kenji had arrived back at the Training Hall. as Ardere walked into the room a servant walked up with some folded clothes that matched the ones she was training in before.
Kenji looked to the room and saw nothing he could use to train. The room was filled with large areas where one could practice long distance spells. Kenji scanned the room for anything he could think of to fight against magic. The Kenji looked to the corner of the massive room and saw a wall lined with weapons and several dummies spaced apart.
Kenji walked to the far corner of the room as Ardere waved her wand again and her uniform and training clothes switched places.
Kenji reached the wall and all the weapons lined against the wall were old and had dust on them, the same for the dummies in the area. The whole area hadn't been used for a long time.
Kenji picked up a sword from the wall and wiped the dust from it revealing the glossy surface the blade had. Ardere noticed Kenji was nowhere near her and scanned the room. Ardere saw him. in the far corner of the massive room and made her way to him. The area was large and had several weapons lining the wall. on closer inspection Ardere noticed they were Beast weapons; they were low level, but beast weapons none the less.
"This could be useful, since you have no magic you could train with these and maybe i can learn an earth spell to make you an iron blade."
Kenji placed the blade back on the display and stepped away from the weapons.
"If we had more time that could be a good strategy, but I only know hand to hand combat not swordsmanship. It would take too long for me to come up with a good feel for how to use a sword and maybe longer to learn how to fight at an intermediate level with it."
Ardere sighed as she eyed the wall full of swords, maces, battle axes and spears. Hardly anyone used beast weapons in a mock battle since long ranged spells always seemed better than a short ranged attack with a weapon.
Ardere looked to the Dummies and noticed a magic circle on their heads and went up to one of them. The magical circuit was unfamiliar to Ardere, so instead of trying to decipher what the magic circle did she poured mana into it to see how it would react.
[Battle Sequence has been activated. Please select a weapon.]
The doll came to life and spoke. Kenji turned to Ardere and noticed the doll. Kenji walked up to the doll and said. "No weapon."
the doll beeped as the eyes of the wooden being flashed purple and began to move. The four arms on the doll bent from their original position and the dolls body turned to face the two.
[ERROR]
[NO WEAPON SELECTED. LEVEL 1 BATTLE WILL CONTINUE.]
The doll dashed forward and threw its right fist at Kenji. Kenji moved his head to his right avoiding the punch and grabbed the arm of the doll with his left hand and the dolls shoulder with his right, he then got closer to the doll and swung his right foot in the back of the doll and kicked the dolls foot out from under itself and the doll was knocked to the ground.
The motion was swift and fluid and when Kneji stood up the doll beeped again and its eyes flashed. The doll stood up and spoke again.
[Level 1 Battle has been complete]
[Levels have been calibrated. New Mode added...]
[Martial Arts.]
[Would you like to continue to level 2?]
"I think we found how I can train." Kenji said.
Ardere looked the doll up and down and spoke as well.
"Do you really think this could help. Ian won't fight you with his hands and he will have his Summon with him."
"You are right about that, but we don't have anything else..." Kenji put his had to hus chin as he thought for a moment.
"What do you know about Ian's summon."
Ardere thought for a second and realised she didn't know what kind of Summon Ian had.
"I don't know what he summoned we weren't anywhere near each other during the summoning."
"Then if we did learn what his summon was do you think we could find a weakness.
"All summons have a weakness to something and if we knew what he summoned we could think of a strategy to fight them both."
"Then you can keep training, i'll be back later." Kenji turned around and began to walk off.
"Wait where are you going?" Ardere said.
"Someone had to have seen that summon and i'm gonna find out what it is."
"wait seriously?" Ardere reached out for Kenji and grabbed him by the sleeve. "How do you plan on figuring that out? The other students aren't just gonna go and tell you something like that; especially so early in the year, they'll sell you that information but won't just give it to you."
Kenji pulled his sleeve from Ardere's hand and gave a malicious smile as he looked back at her.
"I'm going to ask nicely." Then he went off and out of the building.
[Response not recognised. Would you like to continue to level 2?]
Aredere turned to the doll and sighed. "No"
The dolls arms pointed strait out and the doll ceased to move. Ardere gave one last look to the doll before moving back to the dummies across the room and continuing her training.
Walking down the halls Kenji had passed by several rooms as he wandered about. Each door to each room looked the same, aside from the larger double doors here and there. Everyone was still in their classes for the evening and basically no one would be out fo their classes. However Kenji knew their was little difference between Humans and the Demons that surrounded him and all he needed to do was find the most secluded part of the school.
Kenji wandered for some time checking every space large enough until eventually Kenji stopped and sat down the main building.
"Why is this place so fucking big, half these rooms arent even used." Kenji complained looking up at the sky with his back against the wall.
The sky was clear and even though the sun was hitting him Kenji didn't feel hot. With all the walking Kenji had done he felt tired and decided to close his eyes. His mind drifted in his own thoughts until it was interrupted.
"Hey!..."
Kenji opened his eyes and looked around, but there was no one in sight. The scream was faint and distant, but Kenji couldn't figure out where it had come from. Then Kenji looked up at the sky again and saw the building that towered over him, and just like that it clicked in his mind and he smiled.
"I finally got you."
Back at the training hall Ardere had taken a break. The constant training throughout the day has been the most she had trained in a while and she remembered how taxing it was on her mind and body, but it was all she could do.
With her summon out and about today was meant to learn each other's strengths and weaknesses so they could overcome it together, instead Ardere was back training alone with no plan on what to do. Ardere was deep in thought until a voice snapped her out of it.
"Hello"
Ardere looked in the direction of the voice and noticed Melodi. Ardere scanned her surroundings and saw that students were flooding into the training hall; she had been so focused on her own thoughts that she didn't realise classes had ended and the school day was over.
"It felt like today has dragged on for weeks. I thought I would never see the end of those classes."
Ardere gave a smile, even though Melodi wasn't someone Ardere considered a friend, it was comforting to have her there; especially with the day she was having.
"Today seemed to have dragged on for me as well, however that was for a different reason entirely."
Melodi carried a pair of clothes with her, the same kind Ardere had and with a snap of her fingers Melodi's clothes changed in an instant.
"You seem very comfortable with that spell." Ardere said
"Yes my family owns a tailor shop and most of the time i'm the model for new designs they have, so I often have to change clothing several times in a day." Melodi noticed the wand next to Ardere and gestured to it.
"Is that what you use to change your clothes?"
Ardere nodded her head and licked up the wand.
"The Aports spell isn't easy for me to control so my father got me this want to help focus the spell to switch the clothing. It's a bit of a hassle carrying this around all the time, however it's better than having the spell recoil and end up naked with my clothing nowhere to be seen."
Ardere looked from the wand in her hands to Melodi and noticed she was scanning the room.
"Is something the matter?" Ardere asked
Melodi looked back to Ardere and gave a smile.
"No, i'm just looking to see if there's someone i might know here."
Ardere was surprised, she though lt the reason she asked her to be friends was because she didn't know anyone here.
"Well now that were here do you want to see my summon?" Melodi said.
Ardere and Melodi moved to a more secluded part of the massive room as more and more students began to flood the room, eager to put to practice what they learned.
Ardere and Melodi were back near the wall of weapons and since no one trained in physical combat the two were completely alone and secluded from all the other students.
Melodi bit into her thumb using her sharp fang and drew a drop of blood. She then bit into her index finger and did the same thing. Then Melodi's blood began to glow slightly white as she drew in the air with her blood making a circle with her index and a strange L symbol with her thumb in the middle. once the circle was complete it shined for a split second and in that time a small creature appeared.
The creature was long with white soft hair and red eyes. The creature resembled a ferret, but the face was that of a bunny with small cat like ears and a puffy long tail.
The Summon fell to the floor from the where the circle floated and when its feet touched the floor, the landing was soft and couldn't be heard.
The creature moved swiftly to Melodis leg and like a snake crawled up her leg and up to her right shoulder.
Melodi scratched the underside of the Summons chin.
"This is Luna, my Summon."
"Wow shes so cute!" Ardere couldn't help, but scream as the Summon purred while Melodi scratched its neck.
"Actually Luna is a male Vanis."
Ardere looked confused so Melodi clarified.
"A Vanis is a rodent like Magical Beast that scavenges for food hence its speed and agility. Since Vanises are scavengers their natural defense isn't exactly practical in the wild."
"What do you mean?" Ardere said.
"It's hard to explain. It will be faster to show you." Melodi moved a few feet away from Ardere and pointed at Ardere and said "Dart!"
In an instant the Vanises tail swung out from Melodi's other shoulder and in an instant Ardere felt weak and slow.
"The Vanises hairs can become rigid and can be shot from their body like needles. The hair can transfer a venom that will paralyse a target or at least slow them down."
Ardere looked to her shoulder and could see three white hairs sticking out from her clothes. She couldn't feel the needles, but she did feel the effects.
Ardere reached for the hairs and pulled them out and instantly felt better.
"That's the downside to this, if the hairs are pulled out then the effects wear off immediately, but over a short period of time the effects will naturally wear off, unless a Vanis sticks you with more needles.
"How many will it take to knock someone unconscious?"
"It all depends on what their state of mind is like and how strong they are the number isn't really set for anyone, but unfortunately Luna can only produce three strands of hair every ten seconds or so, his hair needs to be infused with mana in order to become rigid and the Venom he produces is also fueled by Mana, and his mana is directly linked to mine."
"If his Mana is linked to yours then how do Vanises in the wild do anything?" Ardere asked
"All wild Vanises use the natural mana to fuel their ability, which can allow them to produce even more needles than Luna can to hunt bigger prey, but when one is a Summon their mana is linked to the Summoner by the Contract."
"That doesn't sound fair."
"Well there is an extra ability Luna has that the Wild Vanis don't."
Melodi turned to one of the dolls and lifted her arm, pointing her palm to the doll. Then from her hand came a ball of fire that sped past and hit the doll dead center. The doll didn't move and. when the smoke from the ball of fire dissipated all that could be seen was a small burn mark on the wood which quickly began to fade as the dolls eyes lit up.
Melodi looked to Luna and then back to Ardere before focusing back on the doll.
"Boost!" Melodi screamed and Luna smacked his tail on the back of Melodi's head.
once again Melodi sent a fire ball at the doll, but this time when the ball hit a bigger flame had erupted and when the smoke was gone and the doll could be seen clearly again, Ardere could see that the burn on the doll was bigger than before and the doll took longer to repair the damage.
"What was that?" Ardere said in amazement.
"That was the Boost ability, Luna can send his needles into others with a different venom, this one instead of paralysing the person will instead increase their physical and magical strength by a small amount."
"Melodi your Summon is amazing!"
Melodi felt flustered after hearing this and decided to change the subject.
"It's nothing; i'm sure your Summon is way better than mine."
"I wouldn't say that." Ardere said as she looked to the side avoiding eye contact with Melodi.
"Can I see your Summon?"
This sent a shock through Arderes body, she wasn't sure Kenji would want to come all the way back just so Melodi could see him.
"Well, my Summon isn't exactly close by at the moment."
"Wait do you not know how to Call your Summon yet?"
"If you're referring to the spell you did with your summon I don't know if i have the Mana to perform that." and also Ardere wasn't sure it would work on her summon.
"It's not a spell, the contract supplies the mana to call your summon you just have to show proof your the master and focus on summoning it here."
"I'm not sure what you mean by 'show proof'."
"You remember how I pricked fingers and drew a circle with and L in the middle, all you have to do is the same thing except make the letter in the middle the first initial to your Summons name."
Ardere felt it wouldn't work for more than one reason, but figured Melodi wouldn't stop asking to see her Summon if she didn't at least try.
Ardere pricked her index finger and her thumb and the blood began to glow white as she drew a circle and inscribed a K in the middle.
The circle glowed white for a second before fading away.
"I guess it didn't wor..."
All of a sudden the circle came back and expanded in an instant and with a flash of light much brighter than the one Melodi had produced Kenji stood there with his hand around a students neck and his knuckles had some blood on them.