We'll Still Train Together. Right?
'That was a lot more taxing than I thought it would be.' Osho looked at his hand as he took a few deep breaths. Physically, he was fine. The only bit of effort he put in was to get close to the dummy and lie at its feet.
Despite that, he felt drained, but it wasn't any exhaustion that could be explained normally. It's as though a part of him had been squeezed dry. This was a result of him using most of his Mana.
As opposed to Gale, who can manipulate wind like an additional limb, Osho had to put in a lot more effort.
Last night, besides Osho teaching Gale how to use wind blades, he was learning how to use his Mana to control the wind as well.
Naturally, such a thing wasn't simple, but Osho had an easier time as he excelled at theory. It's just the practice that remained.
The first obstacle one faced when trying to use the attribute of their beast was turning their Mana into the said attribute. However, Osho found a simple way to circumvent this obstacle. It's a common rule that any beast or beast tamer with a certain attribute can have environmental advantages if they are in an environment that suits their attribute.
In Gale's case, there was wind everywhere, so he had an easier time doing what he wanted. This applied to Osho as well.
Still, it wasn't so simple to control the wind, and his range depended on how far he could extend his Mana sense, which was currently a meter in all directions.
Osho spent a while figuring out how to control the wind, but he eventually got around it. The gist of it was to use your Mana to influence your attributes based on your desires.
In Osho's case, that was to create a blade of wind and to use the wind to lighten his footsteps.
However, just that drained the majority of his Mana and left him feeling strongly unpleasant.
What he didn't know was that he accomplished something known as External Manipulation which only becomes possible at the Apprentice rank.
"Osho." Osho nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard Mrs Jane's voice right behind him, he hadn't even heard her approach.
He turned to her and saw her staring at him intently, this made him shudder, did he do something wrong?
Her gaze shifted between him and Gale, then softened slightly.
"You did a good job. But next time be sure of your beast's durability. I saw that its beak was uncomfortable. If you aren't careful, it could just smash into something too hard for it and seriously injure itself." She explained and Osho nodded slightly.
That had indeed been a concern when he carried out his plan, but he felt sure of himself when he remembered Gale's abilities. Not to mention, his beak was surprisingly durable.
To be clear, this wasn't the first time Osho had made Gale fly through something. More than a few trees in the park where he trained have holes in them because he was using them as practice for the bird. How he knew it was so tough was because, at some point, he noticed him curiously bite into a rock and his beak split it apart like butter.
He ran more tests and realized that its beak was extremely durable.
He then got the idea of making Gale fly through things using his extreme speed and durable beak, but he was hesitant at first because while his beak was durable, he had no idea if the same could be applied to the rest of his body.
In his mind, he imagined someone with a normal body wearing an indestructible glove. If they moved at high speeds and punched with the glove, then the glove would probably be fine, but the person's body would get mangled. He wouldn't want the same thing to happen to Gale.
But then he thought about the bird's body and asked it to do a dive bomb and observed the way it positioned its body.
It reminded him much of the peregrine falcon which was the fastest animal back on earth, the way he tucked his wings in to achieve maximum speed. This made Osho realize something.
When Gale finished his demonstration, Osho called him back and began to unceremoniously inspect Gale's body much to his protest.
As he pulled his wings and did some tests, he realized that not only was Gale's body structured in such a way that allowed him to withstand his extreme speeds, and his muscles, despite being so small, were extremely dense. Moreover, he realized that Gale's bones were both very durable as well as flexible.
After a few more tests, he realized that not only was making him fly through things viable, but it was actually a core part of his being as his body was structured to accomplish such a task.
That's where he originally got the idea of making Gale fly through things at a high speed, and needless to say, he was impressed by the results. That's why he decided to make it one of his main forms of attack.
He did still feel a bit worried about making Gake fly through the dummy, but after giving the order and requesting feedback all he received was boundless confidence, so he decided to give it a go.
Indeed, despite flying through metal that was who knew how many times tougher than steel, all he got was an uncomfortable beak with no injuries whatsoever.
"Osho." Mrs Jane's voice dropped to a whisper and she asked.
"Do you understand the significance of you using magic at this point?" She asked and Osho blinked.
"Well, not exactly. I know it's not so simple to do, but I managed to pull it off yesterday and used it in practice today." He answered honestly. He never really searched just how difficult it was to use External Manipulation and assumed it was something that depended on the competency of the beast tamer.
Mrs Jane exhaled.
"That's... alright I suppose." She didn't know how to tell him that what he just did broke a fundamental rule of beast tamers. Right now, her mind was spinning with how she could train him effectively.
It didn't take long.
***
Osho lay on his back with a blank expression. His body was covered in dirt and grime causing him to look like he'd just come back from an intense battle,which wasn't far from the truth.
Gale lay on his chest looking similarly exhausted. He wasn't particularly dirty, but his chest heaved with effort. Both of them were adequately spent.
Mrs Jane didn't put too much thought into how to increase the intensity of Osho's training. She simply had Nora create more dummies that were of the same quality he first fought and had him fight all of them together.
This might have seemed extreme even for him, but after spending the entire day fighting, Osho and Gale managed to take out all the dummies. As such the sky was already turning orange as the sun began its descent.
A shadow fell over Osho causing him to look up with tired eyes. He saw Mrs Jane staring down at him with her usual stern expression, the view from below being utterly exquisite and Osho allowed his eyes to be fed before he spoke.
"... Am I done?" At his question, Mrs Jane just crouched and held out a bottle of water.
Osho immediately sat up and downed half of it before giving the rest to Gale who drank greedily.
"I'm surprised. You managed to take out all the dummies without receiving any serious injuries." She tilted her head and Osho shrugged which caused him to wince. He hadn't sustained any serious injuries, that didn't mean he hadn't gotten injured at all. One of such injuries was a nasty bruise he got when one of the dummies nicked his shoulder.
"You have decent combat awareness. It's easy to infer that you've had your fair share of battles, though you're clearly used to fighting against other humans, especially in groups. With how you were going, it isn't an exaggeration to say that you were experimenting with how you could synchronize yourself with Gale. Am I correct?" Hearing her assessment, Osho couldn't help but grimace. She hit the nail on the head.
The exercise just now gave Jane an insight into Osho's combat ability. At first, she attributed his win over the first dummy to planning. But after making him fight 5 at once, she realized that he had experience fighting groups of people.
Moreover, there was that calculating coldness which failed to escape her detection. That wasn't something someone could develop from nowhere, it needed to be gained.
However, she wasn't interested in prying into his past.
"Well, that doesn't matter. What does matter is that since you already have a bit of a foundation when it comes to combat, which makes things easier." She stood up and held out a hand which Osho took and she pulled him up.
"Osho, that was some crazy moves you had there!" Ellie's voice suddenly sounded behind him followed by her hand clapping down on his shoulder.
Osho resisted a wince and turned to her with a strained smile. She was covered in sweat and looked a bit tired, but her eyes had never been brighter.
"So, we're going to continue our personal training, right?" Her tone was bright and casual, but the way her hand conveniently squeezed the bruise on his shoulder told him otherwise.
Osho turned to Mrs Jane for help, but to his dismay, he saw a hint of amusement in her eyes.
"Ah, it seems you already have some arrangements. Well Osho, I won't keep you and your friend waiting. Carry on." Without another word, she turned around and walked away, her hips swaying in accordance with her confident stride.
Gale looked at Ellie and Sugil from Osho's shoulder lazily and seemed to sigh, as of je knew he wasn't going to rest soon.
***
Osho and Ellie walked shoulder to shoulder through the halls of the staff building. As opposed to the class building which were now mostly empty, there were still some staff moving around to complete various miscellaneous tasks.
The sight of the two students hadn't gone unnoticed by anyone. But they had all been briefed that the two of them had been given some 'special privilges'. So no one tried to stop or question them.
"So what's having Gale around like? Without caretakers, I'd imagine handling your beast is a bit of a handful?" Ellie asked with genuine curiosity. Unlike her who had special caretakers dedicated to providing for all of Sugil's needs, Osho was on his own.
"It's alright. Honestly, I quite like being able to take care of him on my own. Let's us bond better." Osho answered with a small smile as he rubbed Gale's head. The bird had fallen asleep on his shoulder, using this short walk to the staff training room as an opportunity to nap a little.
"Ah, I have a similar sentiment. Sadly my dad refuses to let me do all the caretaking for Sugil. He says I don't have any experience handling beasts. What a load of bull! If you don't let me take care of her then how can I gain experience then?!" She said with obvious frustration causing Osho to chuckle.
"Speaking of your father, how did he react when he found out that Sugil had Elite rank potential?" Hearing this, Ellie's sour expression changed to one of glee.
"Ah you should have seen it. He stocked up so many eggs for me to start sifting through, so when I told him about Sugil's potential, he looked like he had swallowed a lemon." Ellie beamed and rubbed the head of her snake which flicked out her forked tongue in enjoyment.
"I rarely see him lose his composure like that. So it was like an added bonus." Osho smiled at this, then his smile turned a bit forced.
"Your bodyguard is looking at me very hard huh?" He said and Ellie sighed. Behind them lurking in the shadows, the same person that had picked up Ellie when she had gotten Sugil's egg was following the two of them silently.
"I can't shake him no matter what I do." Her voice then turned slightly worried.
"I hope you don't feel uncomfortable. No doubt he's gathering the information he has on you and feeding it to my father." Hearing this, Osho shrugged.
"It's not like I have anything to hide, and he only observes me when I'm with you. He hasn't done anything to hurt me directly or indirectly either, so it's fine." At this point, the two of them arrived in front of a large metal door.
"I wonder what it's like in there." Ellie murmured.
"Then stop wondering." Osho shrugged and took out a card Mrs Jane had given him before placing it against a scanner on the wall. The card was read and the door slid open, revealing the staff training room.