"So, Artemis, what even is Tiu?"
< "We both know I can't tell you that" >
"Well it was worth a try"
Marcus lifted Tiu from his head, and held her in his arms, stroking her furry back whilst the runes on her back fizzled with sparks of energy.
< "Okay Marcus, I think it's about time. Now that you have tamed your bond and it has grown to like you, you can start to train it in battle. Normally, only high ranked or named beasts can speak, and the first stage would be communication, but Tiu can speak already. Instead, we'll skip straight to the bonding stage." >
Artemis made the Void Tentacles branch out of Marcus's back yet again and guided them to collect certain objects from the system workshop, digging into small pouches yet taking out larger objects than should be possible.
The objects included a few Vis stones of slain beasts and a large wad of chalk. The tentacles systematically drew out an alchemical circle of intricate designs, before connecting it to two more circles. There were runes drawn out everywhere which Marcus could associate with the void runes he had been learning, and he managed to roughly figure out the purpose behind each general section of it.
Artemis took note of this, and said,
< "I assume you know what to do with this?" >
Marcus set down the lazing Tiu into the circle which had beast related runes engraved into it, before standing in the opposite one which referred to a human.
The circle in the middle that connected the ones where Marcus and Tiu stood connected their Vis and brought about the beast taming link that beast tamers strived to reach. The regular means of connection were wildly different from Artemis's way; however, this could be blamed on the fact that the rest of Humanity didn't know about void runes and how to use them.
The void runes fizzled and crackled like they were on fire, before floating into the air and rearranging themselves. They looked like a flurry of different symbols, moving the Vis around them as they moved, and causing a tornado of stray energies.
Whilst several would crash into Marcus, they would sink into his skin rather than damage him as if he had a protective film surrounding him. The number of runes flying into him and Tiu increased until it reached a point where it was the only thing taking up his vision. After a minute of runes crashing into him, Marcus felt the rate decrease by a marginal amount before it finally came to a stop.
As his vision cleared, Marcus saw a strange window in front of him, reading
[Do you accept Tiu (???) as your Tamed Beast?]
[Yes] / [No]
Without much hesitation, Marcus tapped the [Yes] button and felt his world go black for a second. Once his senses returned, Marcus noticed he could hear the thoughts of someone other than himself. He mentally probed it, curious to see what it was, and was met with the little voice of Tiu, his new bond.
"Artemis? What is this?"
< "Well, normally beast tamers have to go through years of training with their bond to reach a point where they are perfectly in sync with their bond, however with the help of the system, that's completely unnecessary!" >
"So, you mean we've just done years of training in about ten minutes?"
< "Yeah, pretty much! Aren't I awesome?" >
"I wouldn't push it that far"
Artemis mentally pouted, before continuing,
< "Anyways, as a chance to get used to your bond, you'll be using the [System Arena] for a week, before returning to your blacksmithing studies. We're coming down to the last few months now, so we'll have to work extra hard" >
Marcus knew this, of course, and from the Calendar that he used, he knew that he had 5 months and 23 days left until the gateway opened up. He had already prepared a boat on the Kingdom's harbour and had loaded it with some non-perishable foods as a cover for his inventory. The real foods he'd be taking were packaged and held in his inventory, ready for a long journey.
He had also prepared some additional, spare weapons in case he needed to sell them later on his arrival to his homeland. He was expecting a lot of change over the years of his leave and wanted to ensure he was prepared.
"Open [System Arena]"
Whilst he had never actually been there, Marcus figured it would follow the same trend as the workshop, store, and inventory, and was correct in his assumption.
His vision blurred a bit, and suddenly he was on a stage floating in the void.
He was entirely encompassed by darkness and his only light source was balls of runes floating around, leaving a myriad of shadows and lights dancing along the floor of the arena.
A headless judge appeared before him, a large gavel with void runes and symbols dramatically engraved all over its surface.
"The rules are simple," its voice echoed throughout the empty void, "You will battle against the opponents I bring out, and will fight as long as you can, winning by eliminating your enemy, forcing them to concede or knocking them off of the edge. You will not gain experience points or any other rewards for killing the beasts in the arena, and this will serve only for experience purposes as of now."
Marcus was slightly disappointed to hear he wouldn't gain anything out of winning these battles but took note of the fact that the headless judge had said: "as of now".
"Any questions?"
"Yea-"
"I don't care. The first wave begins now!"
As he said this, dark purple rings appeared on the outer sides of the arena, and dark silhouettes began to form from them, taking different shapes and wielding different weapons. As the light shone upon them, dark hollows in the spaces of their eyes came into view, seemingly absorbing light and keeping it held in.
The first creature stepped forwards, giving Marcus a full view of what it was. It was deathly pale and held a large club between its bony fingers. The club was decorated with spikes and thorns made of dark materials, and as the creature lugged itself forwards, you could see it limp as if it had shattered its leg before it had died.
It let out a deathly cackle, chilling both Marcus and Tiu down to the bone and making them let out shudders and cold sweats. The sound was mortifying and felt like the screams of a tortured man, screaming for mercy, and dreaming of a swift death.
Marcus and Tiu were so terrified that they failed to even move a muscle, and they even stopped breathing, too scared of standing out to the beast that approached them.
Out of the other circles of runes stepped out even more skeletons, carrying a range of weapons like bows, greatswords, staffs and even sickles. Some of them held farming hoes and others came in empty-handed, but they all had something in common. The screams and shrieks of the tortured. Just one of them had nearly destroyed Marcus's mental self, and yet now there were eight of them at once. He hadn't even a chance to see how strong they are, and yet he was already down for the count.
< "Marcus! Snap out of it!" >
No reply. Both Marcus and Tiu had lost all of their senses by now as their bodies went into survival mode, and they had gone completely unresponsive.
< "Ugh, I really hate doing this" >
Suddenly, tendrils erupted out of Marcus's back, and impaled his shoulder, being careful to avoid any important organs or parts of his body, but bringing him back to his senses. As for Tiu, however, Artemis simply slapped her over the back of the head. Tiu was protected by the runes, but the shock was enough to bring her back to her senses.
Marcus snapped back to his senses, taking a quick look around him and recalling what had happened. He used his scythe to cut off two strips of his shirt and stuffed one into each ear, blocking his hearing entirely. He then sent a mental message to Tiu to cut off her hearing, to which she promptly used the dancing runes across her skin to block off soundwaves.
He used [Analyse] on the approaching skeletons and saw their statuses pop up in front of him:
[Name – Skeletal Knight (Broadsword)]
[Rank – Diamond II]
[Level – 11]
[Known Abilities]
[Deathly Screech – Paralyses those who hear with fear, and renders them immobile]
Looking at his level of 14, Marcus knew they were weaker than him, and was a lot more confident about the fight ahead of him.
'Let's do this, Tiu!'
'On it!' she chirped back.
And with that, Marcus charged into battle, scythe in hand and confidence at heart.