Beasts

He placed the wooden object on the ground and made a small tendril of metal out of the former coin, letting it float towards the stick.

The mana moved with smooth motions, connecting the two. His teacher probatly intendet for him to use the stick and get a feel for the technique. Just flow some mana through it.

But where was the fun in that.

Then the difficult part started, the one if sucsessful would make his bio magic more effective in direct combat. He needed to let mana tuched by his other circle pass through the metal.

He pushed it, forcing it through. It was hard, and took a lot of mana.

Then, it shattered his hopes. Loosing all strenght, the small wire fell to the ground, no longer bound by his metal magic.

And his other attribute was stuck, utterly useless.

'It is not going to work like this. I need to reduce the friction between the metal and bio mana and keep it stable enoght.'

Vincent paused for a moment, then tried again. It should not bee too hard.

He formed a thin tube inside the string, one made out of mana attuned to his metal affinity. He no longer permiated the entire metal, meaning he could move it but not shift it into something else.

It was difficult. He wanted to move the strings with fluidety, remain in controll. Jet the less space he let the bio mana have the harder it got to push it.

Eventually, however, he sucseedet.

Slowly, right before his eyes, he saw the wood sprout little flesh tendrils, like worms. They porceeded to spread like cancer and devour the twig, only to die of miserably.

"Snap out of it, we will continue the lessions now."

Mezia stood right next to Vincent, looking down on him.

Unbothered, he stood up and watched the others climb atop of the stone wall surrounding them.

A small ladder led them up.

"Hey, what are we doing?" Vincent nudged Typh who stood right next to him. Instead of answering she pointed at the gate they used to come here. The instructor was closing the thick wooden doors without difficulty.

Next to him were cages stacked atop of each other. Rabid dogs fumed and barked, rattling against the bars. He counted as many as there were students.

'Oh'

A single leap was all it took for Mezia to arrive next to them, looking at the fearful students.

"Don't worry I will save your live."

He pointed at Wilhelm, again.

"You should not struggle much." His tone neutral. Just because he had an opinion on someone did not mean he would treat him worse or better. He was a teacher, not an arrogant prick.

The moment Wilhelm's feet touched the ground, a pebble broke the lock that caged one of the beasts.

The fight was short and bloody. All it took was a few swings of his wooden sword to disassemble the creature.

It certainly build the courage of the other students.

Sadly most of them had a pathetic performance nonetheless. Even a ten year old with magic, was still a ten year old.

Some however outperformed their capability's, like a blonde girl who used light magic to blind the wild dog and a pole to pummel it to death, ters streaming down her face.

The black haired kid who sat next to me also performed. His fight was, interesting.

He used shadow magic to immobilise the enemy, buying himself time to give the fight up.

"Typh" The instructor called out her name in a strange accent.

She nodded to him and jumped down the wall, full of confidence. The fight was bloody.

Instead of dodging the foe she traded blow by blow, getting scratched and bitten, while gorging the dogs eyes out and breaking its neck.

Full of wounds, blood flowing down her face, she used her own magic to heal herself up.

Even Mezia was quiet.

When she climbed back up, she flashed him a small smile. "That was fun."

"Vincent."

Before he could say anything however it was his time to face the beast. It would be easy.

"I forbid you from using your ranged attack. Only fight with your strings and your second spell."

Vincent stared at the instructor, and threw his hands in the air.

"Fine, I will show you that it will still be easy."

Once in the pit, he dashed towards the weapon rack. Based on the previous fights the beast would be released immediately.

He made it in time.

The wooden pole laid heavy in his hands, the worn out wood was smooth, polished by the many hands that used it to kill. Safety first.

The dog ran towards him, spittle flying out of its heinous mouth. He would need to look after Typh later, in case she caught an infection.

Metal unravelled itself from his hands, as thin treads shot forward.

They bore into the flesh of the creature, entangled his legs and bringing him down.

With the grace of a penguin Vincent hurled the stick towards the skull of the rabid dog, no hesitation in his eyes.

It did not die. What did he expect, he was a child who had not an ounce of talent in body reinforcement.

'Should have went with the other plan.'

His breath quickened, as he used all his strength to bind the feral beast, trying to strangle it. The creature trashed and struggled, making it impossible to keep a hold of the throat.

The only reason his bullets were so powerful, was the relatively long time he took to cast and the small surface area. It was a burst attack. Both did not apply to those useless strings.

His mana dwindled and realization struck him. He would lose. He was not good enough jet with the strings to deal significant damage. He would need them to be thinner if he wanted to cut flesh.

Vincent concentrated, trying to achieve what took him half an hour last time.

Building a tunnel and sending his bio spell through. The pressure pushed him to succeed.

The amount that arrived at the other side was miniscule, to little to reach the heart, so he went for the throat instead.

A tumour grew inside the windpipe, taking the air away. The rabid dog grew violent sensing its end.

Jet it could not rip open the steel wires, flashing with a slight blue glint.

The magic of the material made them stronger than anything natural.

After a few minuets the creature collapsed, dying.

Vincent made a welcoming gesture, bathing in the cheers of the audience as sweat dripped down his chin. A mad grin etched on his weathered face.

Sadly he heard only chatter, and a slow almost mocking clap from Typh.

~

Tactics and warfare were just that. The class was demanding, requiring focus, jet had no noteworthy moments.

One thing to note however, was that Wilhelm sucked. A weakness he could emplore later.

They mostly talked about ancient battlefields and strategies the commanders used. Their teacher, an old veteran, managed to make even the most epic battle sound like just another exercise.

He was not boring, like some of Vincent's history teachers, he was just so damn uninspiring. So the lesson had the same dull grey colour and no doubt, with the passing of time, would not be remembered by anyone in the class.

It felt like static background noise.