The wonderful night filled with new people, new experiences and a shared experience in protecting each other from goblins soon tired the rag-tag group of pair adventurers and the newly Beastlord and Beast, succumbing them to sleep. Even in sleep, Arin wasn't as safe as he thought he was…
Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum!
The sound of a beating drum, no, a beating heart quietly sounded in the distance in the black landscape. Arin floated in total darkness, naked and void of anything. He slowly opened his eyes, listening to the quiet sound.
It went for minutes until eventually he was met with a soft-pink light in the distance.
Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum!
A shadow casted itself in the pink light and a voice came. "Beastlord, I know you hear it. The beating Heart calls to you. It's time to prove your worth: will you be one who wields the Heart for yourself… or will you wield it for others?"
Arin shot up off the ground into a sitting position. The smell of food danced in the air, greeting him as a lick came to Arin's face. Nocturnis wagged his tail, greeting his Master with another lick.
"Master, you're finally awake! You were mumbling in your sleep, so I was trying to wake you but you wouldn't wake up!" Nocturnis said.
Arin couldn't help but smile at Nocturnis and hug the Shadow Panther.
"You think that's a domesticated Beast the way they act together." Rolan commented as he stepped into the campsite. "I'm back."
"Oh, just in time. I made breakfast!" Tessa greeted Rolan. She looked over at Arin. "Come eat, Arin. Get your fill before Rolan trains you." Arin nodded and stood up, stretching. He scratched his stomach, letting out a yawn and made his way over to the table where a third, roughly made chair was waiting for him.
"When did you make this?" Arin pointed at the chair before he sat in it.
"When you didn't stay up to take watch!" Rolan shouted, bonking the kid in his head. "If you're going to stay outside the comforts of towns and cities, you'll need to pull your weight! Today, I will start on this magnificent journey where I whip you up to shape so that horrible stamina of yours doesn't get us killed!"
"Us? Am I going to stay with you guys?" Arin raised an eyebrow. Tessa set a fresh plate of eggs, Great-Elk meat and bread in front of Arin. "Thank you." He smiled at Tessa who gave him a nod before moving over to Rolan and setting a plate in front of him.
Rolan's face grew red and he exploded with tsundere. "I did not say that! You heard me wrong! I just don't want whatever sorry pitiful people who take you in to see you as a weakling in that regard! You should be praising me for even thinking about you, kid! If it weren't for my wonderful observation skills, you would've died!"
"Yes, yes. It's all thanks to your wonderful observation skills." Tessa agreed with the embarrassed Rolan. She moved back to the campfire and piled her plate before joining the two men at the table.
Arin chuckled and watched Rolan furiously eat his food. Despite, Rolan's cruel words, it didn't match his kind demeanor in Arin's eyes. They ate chatting and going through what their plans for today would be. Rolan explained he would take Arin with him scouting in the mines to fight some monsters and map out the tunnels while Tessa explained she would be foraging for a variety of things in the forest today.
Arin cleaned the plates and set them off to the side. He brushed his hands on his shirt and stood up. Rolan leaned forward, pushing himself out of the chair.
"Ready to go?" Rolan asked.
"Yeah." Arin replied. He grabbed his spear and motioned for Nocturnis to follow. The two followed after Rolan, who adjusted his pack and headed towards the teleportation glyph. "Are we specifically hunting monsters today?"
"I thought about it and I think since I know what you're like after the goblin rush, I'll spend today testing you today below. If you meet my requirements, we'll go hunting for monsters like planned." Rolan replied.
"What about what we talked about with Tess?"
"Don't worry about it. We'll get a little bit of both done today." The stood on the teleport glyph and Rolan spoke the magic word. "Teleport."
In a blink of an eye, they were down a level. Rolan moved to stand in the middle of the room, setting his items off to the side and turning to face Arin.
"It's relatively safe here, so don't worry about anything coming our way." Rolan commented. "Even if anything did come here, I'm sure Noct would sense it first."
Arin nodded and set his spear down.
"No, keep it. I want to see what you're capable with the Spear technique."
"Alright." Arin grabbed the spear and took his stance stance with his body facing left.
'He's left handed. This checks out. I remember watching him fight for a short period of time and it seemed like he did a lot of things left-handed.' Rolan observed. He motioned for Arin to start and the young man didn't hesitate.
Arin rushed forward, driving the spear's length forwards to his advantage. Rolan dodged out of the way, watching Arin's stance shift, swinging the spear right towards him. He ducked downwards, jumped backwards and continued to dodge the spear with relative ease.
The Spear Technique Arin was using was something Rolan had learned about when he was a teenager training under the Hunters. It was a technique passed down from the Drakhar Hunter Leader to the people. It was all about speed and precision which Arin had both of.
'Let's see how long he lasts.' Rolan thought as he whacked the spear aside and went in for a punch of his own. The punch connected with Arin's stomach, stopping him in his motion. Roland quickly drove his elbow forward and hitting the stomach once more before pushing Arin away.
Arin staggered backwards feeling the flow in his body out of sync. 'He managed to use a disruption technique with his arms?' He quickly centered himself and twirled the spear in his hands, taking a standing position while holding the spear between his left arm and side.
'He switched to Vairo.' Rolan kept himself low, right arm in front of him and his left near his side. 'Vairo is a reactionary stance. It's the Art of Disruption techniques. He'll need to switch back and forth in order to suceed here.'
"Vairo: Blur." Arin hopped back and forth, quickly blurring himself as he moved forward. Rolan continued to keep his stance as Arin swung forward. Rolan lifted his arm to block, watching as the blurring technique faded and the blunt end of the spear whacked him in the shin.
Rolan felt the pain surge in his leg as he swung for Arin. Arin moved backwards, barely dodging the attack and swinging his right hand in return. Rolan slapped it away, charging his energy in an instant.
"Cobra Strike!" Rolan released the attack, hitting Arin and paralyzing him in place.
'Argh, what's this? His energy just surged like nothing in a matter of a second!' Arin watched as a flurry of punches flew at him. Each attack growing stronger until one final punch sent him flying.
He hit the ground with a thud, snapping out of the paralyzation technique while his spear scattered off to the side. He let out a groan. "Ow… that hurt."
Rolan slowly stood up and moved over to Arin, sticking a hand out. "I thought your stamina would be depeleted but it seems like you have quite a bit of it during that battle. You naturally tried to switch stances to counteract with disruption techniques. It would've played into your favor but I'm familiar with the techniques you used as I learned them myself when I was young."
"Your punches didn't hurt that much but the speed got to me quick." Arin winced.
"I think the fight with the goblins gave you an edge. It seems like you don't have much experience in actual battles, but the techniques I did see you use, you used them well."
"What were those techniques you used with your bare fists? They were quick."
"I learned it on my travels. Trained with a monk who taught me some of their techniques in case I was in a bind."
"Can I learn that Cobra Strike?"
"Mmm, let's stick with learning what you're working on first before I teach you anything." Rolan smirked. He motioned for Arin to come to him. "Let's go again."
Arin and Rolan fought. Rolan kept himself from going all out and focused on drawing the fights out, a little longer than the last, to see what the kid was currently at. By the time lunch rolled around, Arin was knocked away by Rolan, again, and dripping in sweat.
"I think that's your current limit with your stamina." Rolan turned and grabbed a canister from his bag and uncorked it and drank the last of the water contents within. "We'll continue to spar until Tess finds what she needs in the mines."
ARin lifted himself up and looked at Rolan with a bit of sadness painted across his face. He had expected Rolan and Tessa to leave at some point, but the mention of it made him realize he would have to deal with his own matters soon.
"I'll do my best to learn everything I can from you, Rolan!" Arin quickly jumped onto his knees and bowed. "I appreciate you taking time out of your day for me! I will do my best to help you in anyway in return."
"That's what we agreed upon during breakfast. Of course you should stick to your word." Rolan stuck the canister back in the bag and grabbed his things and hoisted it onto his shoulders. "A person who cannot keep their end of a deal is a deal-breaker. C'mon, Tess might be back. Let's go up and make some food. I'm hungry."
"A-alright!" Arin stood up and grabbed his spear. Nocturnis lifted his head up and let out a yawn. He stood up and followed after his Master and Rolan.
"Teleport." Rolan spoke the glyph's word. They lit up and disappeared.