Feeling Determined
"So, are we making Gale and Sugil fight?" Osho asked and Ellie gave him a deadpanned stare.
"You know damn well how that would end." She snorted but Osho rolled his eyes.
"You'll never know until you try, besides, even if the result is obvious, it'll do them good. Sugil especially would benefit from fighting a beast stronger than her. Moreover, you can improve your control under the pressure." Ellie pouted at his words.
"Screw you and your rationality..." Osho laughed.
"Come on. Besides, if the roles were switched, you'd be pestering me to battle with our beasts. Isn't that why you were so eager to spar with me? You were certain you'd beat me up." Being called out so blatantly, a cute flush found its way to Ellie's cheeks and she mumbled.
"You read me so well yet you're still so dense." She mumbled and Osho blinked. What was she talking about?
"Ugh, whatever. Fine, let's make Gale and Sugil fight." She finally relented and Osho smiled.
Using their bond, Osho gently nudged Gale's consciousness to stir the bird awake. He was immediately met with a wave of reluctance and irritation, but after a bit more prodding, Gale finally opened his eyes.
He flew from the edge of the Arena to Osho's shoulder and poked his neck with his beak. Not hard, but enough to display his irritation.
Osho rubbed between the bird's wings to comfort him and he calmed down slightly.
"Ready?" He said after a few seconds and looked to Ellie who let Sugil slither down her body to the ground.
"Yeah," She said calmly and Osho nodded before commanding Gale to hover in the air.
The tamers stood back as the beasts faced off. Gale and Sugil observed each other as Ellie called out.
"Are you ready?" Osho nodded.
"Yeah, we can start." The instant the words left his mouth, several crystal shards formed in the air above Sugil and shot toward Gale with surprising speed.
However, Gale flapped his wings once and shot in another direction at an even faster speed, easily avoiding the projectiles.
Sugil didn't stop though, and she continued sending forth these shards. But the effort could only be described as futile. It has been stressed just how absurd Gale's speed and agility is. He can fly faster than any of her shards with ease, and could very easily dive down to pick her up with his talons.
However, Osho purposefully made Gale limit his speed so that dodging would be a challenge. This wasn't because he felt bad for Ellie or anything like that, though he did feel like he was bullying her a little.
No, he was doing this to improve Gale on a more foundational level. He wanted him to struggle a bit and improve his basics.
Then again, what were the basics for a bird? Osho didn't know, moreover, Gale wasn't an ordinary bird, so whatever 'basics' he had were bound to be different from others.
Still, judging by the frustration he was feeling from Galie via their bond, he could at least tell that the bird was under some pressure.
Indeed, Gale wasn't happy with how things were going. He had seen multiple chances to swoop down and take Sugil out. Yet for some reason, his master purposefully had him reduce his speed and forsake many good attacking opportunities.
He also made him fly closer to the projectiles, forcing Gale to perform more complex maneuvers to avoid taking damage. It was irritating, but what Gale didn't know was that right now, instead of simply plowing through a situation and dealing with the issue, he was using his brain more.
He wasn't just following Osho's orders, he was consciously making an effort to not get hit, and in doing so, he was learning to read attack patterns.
It was extremely vague, even more so considering that Gale was still a baby and overly complex thoughts weren't within his ability, but it was a start.
On the other side, Ellie could feel a slight headache as she kept on giving Sugil orders. Compared to the training dummy she'd been using that was merely a stationary target, Gale's speed and agility made targeting almost impossible. Compared to before, it was a huge leap in difficulty.
But it was also beneficial.
While her progress with her communication speed with Sugil could be considered quick, Ellie wasn't too sold on what she could do at the moment.
Sugil was an excellent beast, no doubt about it. But she struggled to carry out certain orders, like dodging effectively or creating more complex items using her crystals.
However, the sudden bout of pressure caused Ellie to subconsciously change her approach in commanding the snake. Instead of merely telling her what to do, Ellie was using their bond to guide Sugil's actions.
It was imperceptible at first, and the results were meager. But as the spar continued and she got more into the Zone, her effectiveness increased.
Suddenly, Sugil was no longer as stationary and was moving while firing her crystals. Moreover, her aim was improving as she was learning to lead her target instead of shooting right at him.
This created an interesting situation where Osho intentionally restricted Gale in what he could do, forcing him to learn and not just rely on his overwhelming advantage is speed. On the other hand, Ellie was learning how to better control Sugil by consciously guiding her actions and what she should be doing.
It was ironic, yet the results spoke for themselves.
It wasn't much, but it was a start, and they would only continue to improve.
Eventually, Gale figured out a pattern and capitalized on it as he saw a brief pause in the rate at which the shards were sent his way and shot down like a bullet.
His talons snatched Sugil from the ground and he flew up before dropping her. Ellie ran to catch her, but at the last moment, a gentle gust slowed down the snake's fall, allowing her to land safely in Ellie's arms.
"..." Ellie just sighed and looked at Sugil before gently wrapping her around her neck and the snake fell asleep almost immediately.
Ellie's face was covered in sweat and she looked pale, no doubt facing some strain from the intense mental exertion just now.
She looked up at Osho who was slowly walking towards her, Gale having already landed back on his shoulder.
"You won, big surprise." She mumbled, though there was no bite behind her words.
Osho just smiled faintly and put his hand on her shoulder.
"You did pretty good. And no I'm not patronizing you." He said genuinely and she glared at him before sighing.
"Same time tomorrow?" She asked while picking up the shirt of her tracksuit and Osho just shrugged.
"Sure." After that, no more words needed to be said. Despite her loss, Ellie didn't seem too disheartened. They gave each other brief goodbyes and left the training room.
Osho watched Ellie be driven away in the black car that usually takes her back and forth and looked up. It was well into the night now, about 8:30.
With a shrug, he got on his bicycle and rode home without incident.
There was no suspense, and immediately he got home, Osho took a long shower and forced Gale to do the same, which the bird was naturally unhappy about. But this unhappiness faded quickly when Osho gave him quite a sizeable portion of food.
They technically hadn't had lunch and they had certainly burned quite a few calories, so they were bound to be very hungry.
Osho made his dinner as well, but to his surprise, the portion wasn't nearly enough, and he had to go for thirds before he was fully satisfied. He frowned at the prospect but soon relaxed when he remembered why such a thing would happen.
As Beasts and Tamers grew stronger, their appetites were bound to increase in accordance with their rising strength. Granted, it wasn't as extreme for tamers since they grew stronger at a slower pace than their beasts, but it was still something that happened.
It wasn't too bad now since Osho wasn't that strong yet. Moreover, he'd only gotten this hungry due to all the effort he had put in earlier, and again, he hadn't had lunch.
Still, this was something to keep not of for the future to avoid any unexpected situations.
Once they were done eating, they entered his bead and Gale went right to sleep. As much as Osho wanted to join him, he was committed to completing a cultivation session tonight.
So just like before, he performed the Mana circulation technique for four cycles before the strain on his body became too much, then he took another shower and changed into a fresh set of clothes before going back to his bed to run the Bond strengthening manual and increased the strength of his bond with Gale a little bit more again.
After that, he went to sleep.
***
Ellie stared at the ceiling of her bedroom, her gaze far away. She'd changed into a pair of pajama shorts and a loose shirt after washing up. Sugil was curled up by her neck, the bird sleeping soundly.
Ellie replayed the fight in her mind over and over again. Despite deciding not to ask any questions, she simply couldn't help but find Osho's combat ability surprising.
Since knowing him, she hadn't seen him fight a day in his life, yet he managed to subdue her with what seemed like medium difficulty.
What she found interesting wasn't that he seemed to be trained in multiple combat styles like her. He seemed to have fought enough people who use different styles enough times to know how to counter them effectively.
In short, he was experienced, more than her.
'But how?' She pressed her lips together and turned to the side. She constantly replayed the battle in her mind and sighed.
In reality, Osho hadn't done too much. When she was boxing, he simply waited for her to get frustrated to exploit an opening. Then, when she switched to Jiu-jitsu, he once more exploited a flaw in her stance and jumped over her to pin her to the ground.
'How annoying, he read me like a book.' She sighed. She at least knew that it was still Osho she interacted with. He always knew how to read her like a book.
'Well, besides my feelings, that dense idiot.' She grumbled and hugged her pillow to her chest.
After some time, she made a decision.
'I'm gonna give my all and improve as much as I can this following month. If he has better potential than me then I'm going to have to put in twice... no, thrice the effort if I want to keep up with him.
She sat up and sat down cross-legged. Immediately, she started running her cultivation technique, which unsurprisingly was considerably better than the one the school wanted to provide her.