Aaron held his short sword in both hands, circling the creature before him. It seems that the Viking Hallgrim had many more of those Lynx monsters prepared as he forced everyone to spread out before chaining them to stakes in the ground and assigning everyone a beast each.
The sandy coloured hair that covered its body matched the ground on which it stood, giving it an almost camouflage like effect if one wasn't paying attention. It's red eye's focused on him like a hawk and its foaming mouth was filled with rows of terribly sharp teeth signifying that suffering a bite would be far worse than a simple tetanus shot on Earth could fix.
Aaron could see a dark shadow flaring behind it filled with rage and hunger, clearly its mind was set on sinking its teeth into his flesh. This was the effect of his Sense Malice skill. Observing the shadow flickering behind the lynx was actually interesting. It ebbed and flowed, like waves on the beach, every time that the hunger within burned brighter or its attention was distracted by another student walking too close.
"Courage and the will to kill!" Hallgrim roared as he watched the teenagers float around their targets like idiots.
"Don't play with your food! Strike it hard and then make sure it's good and dead!"
Looking around he saw many others hesitating to get in close. Many of the boys were trying to act tough, yet as soon as the beasts so much as snarled in their direction they would squeal and jump away. James was doing the best so far, managing to stab and injure his beast's shoulder, while he'd gotten away with a claw wound on his right leg.
As soon as he'd been handed the short sword, a new class option flicked up.
Class: Swordsman
When selected, this gives the user a 10% bonus damage with swords and increases speed of damage resistance gains to bladed weapons by 20%
Since water magic was unlikely to help in this situation (at least at the level of proficiency he was at now) he'd selected Swordsman. Eyeing the creature off, Aaron decided to try and bait the creature out. Unfortunately, his first few attempts to yell and draw its attention did little. There were many tasty humans around, some not being as carefully clear of its teeth as he was.
Giving up on the tactic he tried dashing in, sticking his leg out just within claws reach. The creature darted at it madly, eye's wide and intent on sinking its fangs and nails into his flesh. As it got close enough, he quickly pulled his leg back and attempted a slash into its exposed flesh. Surprisingly the strategy work quite well as a nailed paw went flying. While not a fatal injury unless given enough time, it would certainly slow the creature down.
Taking several steps back to reestablish his range and the limitations of the Lynx's movement he watched it as it howled in pain, limping back slightly, blood gushing from the stump that once was its left forepaw. A hint of lucidity came to its eyes due to the pain. Looking at Aaron, the hunger and need in its eyes were replaced by anger and fear.
The display almost made Aaron feel sorry for it. It's not like the monster asked to be here. It was dragged in for 'educational purposes'
Yet Aaron could tell from how it had been gnawing at its chains only moments ago in an attempt to free itself and tear his flesh that he could not give the creature that opportunity. He approached again, the creature watching him fair more carefully.
Aaron circled to its left side, the less dangerous one without a paw to strike out with as it hobbled around constantly to keep facing him. Suddenly he charged forwards again, sword flashing as he struck downwards with full force. Unlike last time, his blow didn't strike clean, it hit the Lynx's left shoulder with deeply until it hit bone and got stuck.
Aaron twisted and jerked at the blade to free it, the creature screaming in agony as he twisted it this way and that. Rewarding its efforts, the Lynx managed to land a scratch against the front of his left leg as it focused all its energy on escaping the being that was tormenting it. Dust was kicked up everywhere.
Finally wrenching his blade free, Aaron looked down on the panting creature. Its stomach expanded and contracted as it panted like crazy, eyes full of pain and fear as it looked up at him, no longer having the strength left to move. Honestly it was a horrible sight and made him feel like an awful human being. The only kind thing left, he told himself, was to finish it quickly and put the poor creature out of its misery.
"I'm sorry…"
He raised the blade again in a reverse grip, before stabbing down through its skull into its brain. And as quickly as that the creature that had been full of life, only looking forward to its next meal, was no more. The whole act made him feel sick and dirty. Like he needed a shower. Although he didn't believe he could wash away the sick feeling of looking into its eyes as it seemed to ask him 'why, why are you doing this?'
A quick glance around showed him that several of his classmates were done now too. Including Jarred and James who had both dispatched of their beasts before he did. Jarred's showed a few burn marks, so Aaron suspected he wasn't the only one doing late night magic practice. Several Ding's went off in Aaron's head as he got a series of messages.
Class: Hunter unlocked
When selected, you deal an additional 10% damage to beasts and low-level monsters. Increases speed of resistance gained to bestial creatures by 20%
Experience gained 5/10 to level up.
Resistances Unlocked
Lynx: 2%
Clawing: 0.1%
The two bars appear under this subject line and rise slightly, as his HP from that one scratch cost him 2 HP. It stung but that was about it. It was his first-time taking damage in this world, but it seems having a higher HP allowed him to shrug off damage more than those around him as James's wound appeared now to be bleeding rather heavily.
Those who were finished were allowed to be seated and seen to, a cleric from the Cathedral on standby who washed away the pain with healing magic and returned them to their peak. But as Aaron gazed out over the arena seeing how poorly his class was performing, he began to understand the meaning of the exercise…
..........
Kevin McGilvray charged up to the Viking Hallgrim furiously. Moving until he was only a foot away, he yelled while attempting to keep it just quiet enough that his students several metres away didn't hear.
"What the hell is this? Its barbaric! You're making a bunch of KIDS fight monsters chained to posts? What is the point of this? What happens when they get injured?"
Hallgrim said nothing at first, a wide grin on his face. Then he grabbed Kevin by the shoulder and turned him to face his students.
"Look at them boy! Do you think a single one of them would survive half a day outside these walls? Do you think they would be little more than entertainment should demons attack? These kids need to feel what its like to act DECISIVELY, to kill without hesitation"
The whispered yelling turned into pure shouting with his next sentence as he ensured it carried to all that were nearby.
"You are right, however. This IS barbaric. In my country, these beasts are faced by our people at 10 years old in their coming-of-age ceremony. With no chain holding them back and our children armed only with a small knife. There would be no Healer on standby, any wounds suffered would be bandaged, scars would be symbols of honor. And if you died, then you died. Starting tomorrow, that is what you all with face! Thank your teacher for pointing this out!"
Kevin's face fell, as his words backfired and were then flung in his face. A few students scowled at him, as they realized their training tomorrow would be that much harder.
Inside Hallgrim laughed. This was always the plan for tomorrow. First blood the younglings and get them used to the idea of taking a life. Then put them in an arena with their lives on the line. Making their teacher wear the blame was just frosting on the cake, everyone knew that a pack needs a wolf to lead them. Hallgrim planned to make certain that every single one of these Champions knew who that wolf was…
..........
"How'd you go?" Jarred asked as he and Aaron sat in the stands, waiting for everyone to finish.
"Pretty badly honestly, I had to take a scratch to get an opening. What about you? Magic training pay off?" Aaron replied.
"Yep, I can only use about 5 small fireballs, and they don't do a lot of damage. But they scared it enough to make it easier to finish off"
"Fair enough, I wish my water magic was a bit better offensively. But I'm not at the level where I can make sharp water blades or anything"
"It'll be awesome when you can though! Did you get the exp too by the way?"
"Yeah, I did! Halfway to level 2 from one creature is pretty good! Maybe because the creatures themselves are level 2's?"
"Probably, so tomorrow we'll level up. I wonder if we'll get any new skills or anything?"
"Fingers cros…. Shit that's gonna hurt!" Aaron stopped suddenly as he saw Ben back down a bit too far and go into the range of Sophie's Lynx. The creature, which had previously been focusing on Sophie, turned its attention to Ben quick as a flash and raked its sharp claws down his back. He screamed in pain and Sophie ran over swinging her sword wildly to force the thing back.
Seeing Ben on the ground crying in pain and weak, the lynx pressed the attack, scrabbling and scraping to get past Sophie and sink its fangs into the weak boy crying on the ground. Not paying enough attention was its fatal mistake as Sophie got a lucky strike into its throat. Even as the lynx's lifeblood pumped from its body, it continued to try and get past her to attack Ben, not aware it had been struck a mortal blow until finally the attacks began to slow and it fell to the ground.
Clerics picked up Ben and carried him off to the side where he was healed and then told to remain sitting until the class was over. It was another hour before the rest of the class finished the assignment.
Jennifer and Tyler joined Ben on the bench, the former getting her sword caught in bone and dropping it, then too afraid to get close to the creature again. One of the hulking Viking guards walked over, ending the Lynx's life with a single thrust of his dagger and sending her to sit down. The latter got too impatient seeing he was one of the few remaining and got away with a fairly light mauling, although even after the initial round of healing he still found a tooth lodged in his thigh.
The rest passed, if not with flying colours. But a pass was still a pass, so they considered themselves satisfied.
Once everyone was done, Hallgrim stood before them. Some were still panting; a couple had thrown up after slaughtering the poor creatures. It was hard not to feel sorry for them after seeing the beasts chained up and used as target practice.
"That was…" A few people raised their heads, some thinking they were about to be praised for how well they did. The next word however brutally dispelled that notion.
"PATHETIC! Our children half your age and with NONE of your powers could do better. Not a single one of you could kill a chained Lynx without a scratch. What will you do when the creatures aren't chained? When they are coming for your life, or the lives of the people next to you? How will you survive the Demons or even a Dungeon like this?"
A few of the students recoiled in surprise, the words a harsh awakening to the realities they faced.
"Remember. This is not your world from home. In this world, we eat, or we are eaten. We'll pick this up again and I expect a far better showing than what you displayed here. DISMISSED!"