Opposing Hills

“Today, you’ll be taking lessons on tactical command. For that ends, we have a selection of beasts kept here by an authorised beast tamer. These beasts are of less intelligent nature but will be ordered to accept your commands during training.

“You will be run through a number of different exercises, both battles and hunts.” Freid explains to the nervous crowd of students, following the wolf man out and through the nearby forestry.

“None of the beasts are able to kill, so you don’t need to worry about that. All you students, however, must hold yourselves back and only go so far as to subdue without causing too much harm.”

The trees that we walk by all have stark white trunks and branches but are scarred by small scratch marks from some local rodent or another. The three-pointed orange and red leaves rustle above with a gentle wind, whispering down to us.

“It’s nice here,” Vii says, flapping her wings and stirring the leaves around her. It’s a scene worthy of a photo, but I’ve yet to get myself a replacement phone, so I’ll have to protect it in my memory instead.

“It is.” I reply, “The weather is nice, and the trees are rather pretty.”

“The air is fresher here, too.” Vii says, breathing in deep. “The air in the academy isn’t very nice, or happy. The leaves are lovely, too. And the trees.”

“Do you prefer nature over the city?” I ask, “I personally don’t much mind either, but it is nice to stretch my legs in a new landscape.”

“I like new things.” She replies happily, gliding on the air towards me. “I like to move, and see new sights, and meet new people.”

“I think I get it.” I say.

The unsettled paranoia twists and turns inside of me, it’s all I can do to avoid turning my suspicions on Vii, even though I’ve already promised to leave it be for now.

Who is she?

I think I love her, but I’m not sure I even know who she is. She seems to be on my side. She’s been with me through all of what we’ve been through. I’ve even had these worries before, and I’d thought them settled, but…

Is this really even love at all?

I stare up into the canopy above. A new canopy, not so overbearing as that of the world tree from our academy. Something catches my boot, and I trip.

“Watch your step.” Eshya says, catching me. Her arms are warm, comforting, and familiar. No longer is she an alien, but perhaps I can get to know her better. At least it would be good for me to try and alleviate these worries about Vii.

“As for me,” Eshya says, still holding my hand, “I don’t really pay that much attention to my environment at all. For me, I don’t really care where I am, so long as I’m surrounded by the people that I like, and that there’s fun things for us to do. That and a means to reach our future.”

“Thankyou.” I say as I find my lost step.

My mind spinning with suspicions that I’d rather not have, I imagine how I’ll fix my relationships which are, so far, nothing more than a few loose bricks strewn on a rough foundation. At least, I’m worried that that’s all our relationship is…

“This field is where we’ll be starting our battle exercises.” Freid says, leading us out past the trees and into a wide field, which extends out and around a pair of hills, each as tall as the other. A few barns stand to the side, red brick like everything else here, but larger by a significant measure.

Waiting out front of it is the first of the beasts that we’re going to be working with.

Looking like a large komodo dragon, it’s at least three metres long, with a wide mouth filled with sharp teeth. The light shines off of it, shimmering brightly, and making it difficult to look at directly. What I do see through that glare, is that its tail is surprisingly wide. Unmoving, it lays flat on the ground and seems rather happy, warm in the sunlight.

Freid gets us to wait, as he heads into one of the barns ahead of us.

“Shouldn’t we have a theory class first?” Eshya asks, “I’m not sure how we’re meant to command these little beasties.”

“We did have a theory lesson.” I say, “Or at least I think we did. It’s all been something of a rush this past week.”

“We did, we did.” Vii chirps, “It was about tactical positioning and tight formations vs. spread out formations. Like how we shouldn’t usually stand shoulder to shoulder but spread out so that we can move and attack freely.”

“I think I remember something like that.” It’s a little embarrassing, but I might have been at least half asleep during that class. That or the knowledge was knocked from my head sometime in the last few days.

“You really should take notes, or something.” Vii says with a little laugh.

“I was meaning to do something about that…” I groan, moving it up on the list of things that I still have to do.

We needn’t wait for long. Freid comes out of the barn, followed by a small menagerie of beasts, while there’s no fighting between them, there’s clearly more life and character to each than the ones we interacted with in the beast taming class.

A young Foxed woman comes out after them, encouraging the slower of the beasts to keep moving.

“Welcome, welcome. I’m Vin, a beast tamer and all that other stuff.” She says, rather unenthusiastically, “Is it time again already?”

“It is.” Freid replies, “Now, are your beasts ready?”

“As ready as they’re going to be.” She says with a deep sigh, her gaze drifting through us students without paying much mind to any of us, “A battle?”

“I think that would be best. I don’t trust any of my students to competently command without at least an example to follow, so we shall lead,” Freid says, standing tall, “Only the beasts fight, but we’ll stay close to give commands. Are you willing to participate?”

“If I must…” She doesn’t seem overly happy about it. “Choose who you want, I’ll pick an equal number from those remaining.” She says, looking over her collared beasts with a soft expression.

“Shouldn’t there be a welfare officer around?” I ask Adler as Freid is quickly putting his own team together. His favoured beasts are clearly the larger and more brutish sort.

“There should be someone assigned to look after the collared beasts in this town, working alongside the beast tamer here.” She says, “Things aren’t working here as they should. Perhaps there are too few welfare officers available? But then why use so many with my task?”

She continues to mutter to herself thoughtfully as Freid finishes with his team building, and not one is an exception from the rule of big and brutish. Some are hairy, some scaled, some have feathers all over, and others only in spots, but each and every last beast is as large as these specimen get, and clearly have the mana pressure to support their size.

Vin is quicker in selecting her team, calling out a series of names, drawing the beasts over to her. It’s clear that she’s formed a bond with the creatures here, and her team has a pleasant, playful air that Freid’s team lacks.

The beasts that remain unchosen move a little to the side to spectate alongside us. Some preen in indignation at being left out, others seem happy to take a nap. None of them stray however, likely because of some command that they’ve been made to obey.

“Watch closely, I want good discussion about what happens, and what you can learn from it.” Freid says to us, before setting himself up on one of the two hills. Vin, the foxen beast tamer, takes her team to the opposite hill.

I expect the two sides to bluster about for a little while, positioning themselves and shifting around, perhaps circling one another, but none of that happens. Instead, Freid charges, and the lady Foxen responds.

A bird under the Vin’s command quickly flies over the enemy beasts, throwing wind spells down at the enemy numbers as they charge down their hill. Freid doesn’t seem to mind, his larger beasts are able to weather the storm well enough.

They spread out as they near to Vin’s forces, but I notice that one of her beasts is nowhere in sight.

As Freid’s forces charge on Vin’s, a dark wolf charges out from the forest bordering the battlefield. It runs low and just out of sight of the larger beasts in their charge. Freid notices and calls for one of his beasts to turn about and engage it, but the wolf is too fast and doesn’t even pay it any mind.

The wolf runs to the opposite side and towards a large reptile as it blindly charges the enemy ahead. Before it can be stopped, it leaps atop the lizard and snaps at the back of its neck. The teeth don’t sink in, and it doesn’t kill, but whatever it does forces the lizard to stumble to the ground, it’s limbs trembling.

Before it’s caught by the beast pursuing it, the wolf turns and runs away. It loops out and around, before harassing another of the enemy beasts.

The wounded lizard is now back on its feet, but not so fast or confident as before. More than just the trembling that overwhelms it now and again, it’s stopping every other step to check over its shoulder for the wolf that wounded it.

The bird above is still sending waves of wind blasts down, focusing on slowing those that the wolf has attacked.

As the main body of each force, slams into one another. It’s clear that Vin’s side is being overwhelmed and forced into retreat, stepping back together and supporting each other to prevent any of them getting caught just yet.

Freid doesn’t give any more commands, observing as his beast’s fight. As one of Vin’s looks to be subdued, another comes to support, but gets caught in the same assault and is forced down alongside the first.

The wolf and bird cooperate to take down another of the beasts on the side of Freid’s forces but it makes little difference at this point in the push.

As it looks like Freid is about to win, Vin’s forces push back hard. I don’t quite get what’s going on at first, but it seems that the wolf and the bird have managed to distract the rest of Freid’s forces enough that they’re blindsided by the sudden offensive.

Vin is yelling something that I can’t hear, and I watch as her beasts focus on taking down a few decisively rather than pushing the enemy back. The wolf and the bird meanwhile are busy harassing the rest of the forces and preventing them from recovering.

After Vin makes her gains, and Freid’s beasts recover from their fright, the fight resolves into something a little more simple and confusing as the beasts pair off and fight. The pairs, or sometimes two to one groups, split apart with a bit of glaring and spitting to decide who goes with who.

After they’ve split, they fight, and the winners move to join the other fights.

As the first rounds come to an end, and the subdued beasts are dragged back on each side to be held down and policed, I begin to see the battle falling into Vin’s favour. The pairings are almost all in her sides favour, and all it takes is a few more victories before her beasts overwhelm the last of Fried’s forces through their superior number.

When the last of Freid’s beasts are forced to the ground, unable to keep up the fight, the battle is called to an end.

The beasts that are subdued stand, some on shaky limbs, some bloodied and nursing light wounds. The victors support them, sometimes to lift them, sometimes sparing a few stilted words through the translators that they’re equipped with.

When they return to us from across the unbloodied fields, churned by their violent struggles, not one among them looks to be unhappy with the outcome of their playful battle. When they gather, back before us, Vin is quick to look over the injuries of those that are bleeding and limping. The faint glow that’s born from her hands is a familiar sight, but not quite so powerful as those I’ve seen before.

I have to wonder the meaning of the glow.

With red’s magic knives it was for their power, I assume. So much that they could not fully contain it, but the healer I knew back then was rather peculiar about how sparingly he used his mana. He wouldn’t have let it be wasted in some unearthly and pointless lightshow.

She uses some ointments on wounds that are too great, but treats every last beast until they’re fully healed and well again. I don’t know exactly how skilled she is in the use of magic, nor how much mana she has to spare, but it’s always a pleasure to meet new healers.

When finished she pulls out a small bottle of glowing liquid, a potion that can’t be thought as anything else. It glows softly with mundane light, and in my undeveloped mana sense I can see a faint glow though I understand too little to make anything more of it.

“What is that?” I ask Vii.

“A mana potion.” She says, “They can help you regain mana, but they’re mostly for use by people who have a liquid mana form. They’re too powerful for most of us, but then again you’re a little different, so maybe they’d be useful to you.”

Freid waits for Vin to finish healing the beasts, and for the students to discuss their thoughts before speaking up.

“What were your thoughts on the battle?” Freid asks, “What did each side do well, where did each side fail?”

I think over the battle for a little while, but while I can think of a few potential answers, I’m not confident in any of them. This isn’t something that I have any great experience with, and even my experience with games is too limited to help. The books I’ve read are even less helpful here.

“It was a mistake to charge at the beginning.” One of my more gutsy classmates say. I wouldn’t call it a mistake, but perhaps he could have at least kept his forces nearer to one another to support each other better.

“Does anyone wish to add to that comment?” Freid offers.

Eshya steps up.

“Charging was the best move. The wolf and the bird were excellent harassers and slowing would have given them more time to wound your beasts. Any slower approach would have left him more bloodied before the battle even began.” She quite confidently says something that never quite came to my own mind. Hearing her argument I can’t find any fault, though there likely is and I’m simply blind to it.

This was meant to be my talent, but I feel useless, a step too far behind.

“Good argument.” Freid says, “Anyone else?”

“It was still too fast.” Another student says, “If you went just a little slower your beasts wouldn’t have been as exhausted when they entered the fight. They could have watched each other’s backs and warded away the wolf, at least.”

“Certainly, that point can be made.” Freid doesn’t add anything yet, encouraging us to think for ourselves.

“The splitting up at the end. The way they split favoured Vin’s forces.” I point out the obvious that no one else has yet said, “I’m guessing it’s because she has more experience with these beasts and was able to choose beasts to counter yours when it comes to that point in the battle?”

“That she did.” He says, with a happy grin that looks rather vicious, “That too was an important point of this battle. She saw what forces I had and chose carefully how she would respond to it. It’s something important to remember, that the battle begins as soon as you are aware of it, and every small preparation towards victory can be critical.”

He plays up his role as a teacher, and nearly falls into another speech, but I stop him with a follow up question.

“How the battle ended. The way they paired up rather than fighting as a group. Is that normal for battles?” I ask. It feels to me a very alien and strange concept, something that should belong in action films, not real world battles.

“It’s common.” He replies, “It’s extremely difficult to find someone who works perfectly well with you at close range. That’s true for beasts and for people. It’s less limiting to split up while staying in support range, rather than trying to fight too close and hitting each other unintentionally.

“Even when you know each other well, you’ll always be wasting your attention looking for what their doing rather than watching your enemies. It can still be done, but it’s not the most common.”

From my, rather limited, knowledge of Earth’s history in war, this definitely doesn’t feel right. From shield walls to rifle formations it’s always seemed that people group up rather than spread out. Then again, I think things might be different in modern warfare where everyone’s hiding behind cover, or whatever they do, but spread out in an open field is just strange.

I think I can understand why, though.

I’m not sure that there’s a limit to the strength of a sword strike, or melee blow. The more mana is in the attack the better it is to avoid rather than block, unless there’s some special blocking Skills and tricks that make some difference that I’m not yet aware of.

So space enough to step around, and attack more freely does make some sense, I suppose.

I feel a headache coming on as I realize that there’ll be specialised forces that work together in close combat with shield walls and the like, mages that specialise in throwing down large spells to try and break them apart, agile hunters that can out pace those spells to hunt the mages, and all other sorts of tactics which I’ll have to become familiar with.

Between this and the rest of the day’s realizations, I’m tired already. But sleep won’t fix this. For the sake of my future, and for the sake of my goals, I need to do better, and I need to be better.

“Next we’ll see how it is when students fight and command.” He says, “Kyra, Eshya, you’re up.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~Mana Form:

Current goal: Develop your mana form.

Current mana density: 559 units

~Mana distribution:

Skin: 22%

Muscle: 10%

Mind: 17%

Cardiovascular: 10%

Misc.: 9%

Efficiency: 68%

~Skills:

-Mana drain touch

-Mana skin

-Mana shield.

-Mana surge strike

-Mana surge kick

-Flame burst

-Fireball

-Infused delayed casting

-Harsh petting

-Chaos dance

-Multi-mind messenger