_______________
Currently, Torus could be seen within the clearing he and his Master used to train, his figure rapidly shifting as he seemingly dodged white crescent-shaped attacks, a look of concentration evident on his otherwise serious countenance.
Torus launched himself forward on all-fours, his figure moving from side-to-side as he flashed forward at a speed far beyond any he'd reached before.
Just then, a pure white light that looked like the slash of a sword was launched at him, causing his expression to turn more serious.
As he glanced up, Torus noticed that there were a multitude of attacks of the same origin being launched at him, blotting out almost all methods of escape and only leaving the path forward open, seemingly trying to corral him into moving in a specific direction.
So, Torus chose to ignore the path being presented before him as well as the obvious trap, instead launching himself above the attack and into the air.
However, this left him with limited mobility, leaving very little room to dodge as another blade of white light arced a beautiful path toward his inert figure.
Just as it appeared as if there was no way for him to dodge this attack, Torus' figure seemed to be yanked to the side and out of the way of the attack by some outside source.
If one were to look closely, they'd be able to see that the reason for his sudden shift in momentum would be that Torus had stretched out his incredibly long tail and grabbed onto the branch of a tree, using it to pull him to the side and out of the way of the attack at the last possible second, a bead of sweat slowly trickling down his forehead.
After being launched, Torus landed sideways on the tree his tail was previously attached to, his unnaturally sharp nails allowing him to stick himself to the bark. Using his position, Torus launched himself off the tree, gaining far more distance than he previously had toward his target.
Still, even as he flew through the air, a constant stream of white crescents would fly toward him. Sometimes he would be forced to redirect his momentum using his tail while other times he would contort his body in some unnatural way, yet he would dodge these air blades all the same.
If one were to be closely monitoring the battlefield, they would notice that no matter how he dodged, Torus never seemed to consciously think about it, something that was evident in the almost vacant look within his eyes.
He seemingly let his body act on instinct as his mind seemed to assess the battlefield as a whole, preparing for what his next step would be.
Before long, Torus reached around 10 meters from the center of where these blades were coming from, revealing the figure of Torus' Master.
As he reached this range however, Torus' eyes sharpened as he noticed a large amount of blades that nearly blotted out the sky before him, seemingly leaving no room for him to escape even with his unnatural flexibility.
As Torus came to this wall of blades, he seemed to let out a helpless expression at the overwhelming sight, causing Sofia to gain a grin of victory, understanding her win to now be assured.
However, what she didn't or rather couldn't see, was that Torus seemed to slip something out from beneath his shirt. As the crescent blades continued to rain down on him, Torus watched his Master intently while still pretending to be feeling gloomy at his seemingly imminent loss.
What Torus was really doing however, was waiting for the split second when his Master would let her guard down, feeling assured in her victory, this would be the opportune moment for him to strike!
Right as the blades were enveloping him and he had no way of escaping, Sofia slightly let down her guard, understanding this wasn't an attack Torus could dodge.
However, the second this slight shift in demeanor occurred, Torus was like a shark that smelled blood in the water, his eyes seeming to gain a cunning light to them.
At that exact moment, Torus flicked out his tail, sending the throwing knife he had slipped out from the back of his pants and into the awaiting grasp of his tail careening in the air toward the figure of his Master. This caused her eyes to widen for a moment, a look of shocked panic overtaking her otherwise impassive face.
However, this expression quickly disappeared as she seemed to almost immediately calm the instinctual panic that came from such a sudden attack, her years of experience coming into play as she simply tilted her head to the side.
What seemed like a sure-fire last ditch effort amounted to nothing in the end, Sofia's reaction being too fast and causing the attack to embed itself in the tree next to her, just barely missing its intended target and taking a couple strands of her hair with it.
At that moment, all the attacks that surrounded Torus slammed into him, knocking him onto the ground. However, his figure popped back up almost immediately after, what injuries that did appear on him seemed to heal very quickly soon after.
There were a number of things they had discovered about Torus' Aspect over the previous week-long training session, those being his seeming ability to near-instantly regenerate from attacks that would be debilitating to others, the fact his tail was prehensile, as well as ways to train his Aspect.
This led to Sofia changing the rules of their spars to where the winner was decided by one hit rather than a full-on battle, seeing as the only way for her to truly stop Torus would be to seriously injure him if they were to proceed to a long drawn-out battle.
However, while Torus had grown a great deal more accustomed to his strength over this period, he'd not once come even close to hitting his Master since the first day, leading to his frustration increasing.
However, with the conclusion of this fight, Torus could feel as a large portion of this tension died down.
After all, this fight had been the first showcasing of his growth considering he'd finally managed to get close to landing an attack on his master, even if he hadn't actually succeeded in doing so.
As such, Torus flopped to the ground and began to take in deep gulps of air, his eyes closed in thought as he reflected on the previous battle, 'It seems like my main issue now is that I'm very limited in what I can do currently. Considering that my Aspect is related to beasts, I highly doubt that this is all I can do.
I've spent a lot of time in the ancient texts of the village recently and from what I can understand, the abilities that I can display currently are only things that ancient beasts could do before mutations started to occur.
However, even back then there were lots of different types of beasts, so I think I know what my next goal should be!' Torus thought internally, his breathing steadying to a more calm rhythm as his mind cleared from the disarray of his thoughts.
With a clear head, Torus' eyes snapped open with a glow of determination within them once more, his eyes shifting over to the figure of his Master who was leaning against a tree staring at him.
Giving him an amused look, Sofia took a moment to simply drink in the serious appearance he was giving off before finally speaking, "Are you done digesting the gains from this battle?" she questioned, tone teasing.
However, Torus chose to ignore this slight teasing, instead giving her a serious nod as they moved on to the next part of his training. In their time experimenting with what exactly Torus could do, they had found the three ways in which he could grow in strength.
Along with training him in combat, Torus' Master had been teaching him the truth of the God Seeds of their race and how they train them.
_______________