Chapter 59: Beating the wolf out of you!

Edward stood up and looked down at the rags his clothes had turned into. His shirt was completely gone and his trousers were now ripped in pieces of cloth drenched completely in blood.

Sighing, he quickly washed himself up the best he could before rushing back towards the camp. The sun appeared to have risen for at least an hour so he knew that Eddena would for sure be angry if he returned too late.

After spending around half an hour more on the way back, Edward was finally able to see Minx waiting for him anxiously in front of the camp. He stopped running and turned back into his human form before walking slowly towards her.

Falling down on one knee, Edward moved his hands to pat her head. “Sorry for not taking you with me last night.”

Minx didn’t reply as she was busy enjoy Edward’s pats and the others also started approaching the duo. Eddena ruined their moment as she said: “It’s already quite late. Time to go.”

Edward sighed and stood back up before nodding towards Eddena. The party quickly started the journey south again and Eddena continued with the same painful training as the day before.

The same target practice continued for eight more days. Throughout this entire time, Edward didn’t get a single moment of peace, spending the days being a living target for Kara and Eddena. At nights, he would let the wolf hunt freely while he was practicing magic and working on new spells ideas with Azure and Fenrir.

On the eighth day, around noon, they reached a crossroad sign Edward was familiar with.

Back: <City of Ashes>
Left: <Tomb of the Dishonored Queen Dungeon>
Right: <Cow’s Foot>

Eddena and Kara also stopped their target practice and approached Edward and Ingvar in front of the road sign. Looking back towards Eddena, Edward asked: “Which way are we going?”

Eddena pointed towards the dense forest past the sign and said: “Straight forward. This is as far as we go following the road. The marsh we’re heading for is straight to the south and, while we could go following the road towards Tomb of the Dishonored Queen, it would only add another week to our already delayed journey.”

“How long will heading straight through the forest take compared to following the road?” asked Edward, wondering how much time they would save.

“Hmm… we should be able to reach the marsh in around a week or so, which is about half the time it would take if we follow the road and go around.”

“Alright.” Replied Edward and was about to walk forward again, only to be stopped by Eddena’s next words: “We’re camping here until tomorrow and your training will also have to change. Since we’ll be heading a bit far from any traveled road, we’ll for sure run into magic beasts once in a while. I plan on having you hunt those beasts as part of your training.”

Edward heaved a sigh of relief when he heard that the torture was finally over, prompting Eddena to scoff and say: “Don’t think that your training stops here. You will have restrictions placed on the spells and skills you are allowed to use while fighting the beasts. You’ll also have to spar with me at the end of each day to check on your progress.”

Without caring about Edward’s downcast expression, Eddena turned towards Ingvar and said: “I’ll take Kara with me to hunt for some beast we can eat later. In the meanwhile, you start sparing with Edward in his wolf form until he consumes all his stamina.”

Having give her instructions, Eddena disappeared into the forest ahead together with Kara. Being left alone with Ingvar and Minx, Edward turned towards Ingvar and asked: “Shall we?”

Ingvar nodded with a serious expression and took out his twin swords. While Edward was beneath him in combat experience and his fighting style was quite crude, the bonus stats he received from his wolf form made him an opponent he couldn’t take really take lightly.

Edward, seeing Ingvar got serious, also put on the same expression and activated his wolf form skill. His transformation complete, Edward didn’t waste any more time and charged right at Ingvar. He also knew that his stats were above Ingvar’s and hoped that he would finally be able to win against him. Noticing Edward has started his attack, Ingvar moved forward as well, twin swords at the ready.

As the distance between the two reached only a few feet, Edward plunged forward, targeting Ingvar’s abdomen with his claws. Ingvar showed his superior ability and reflexes by bending his waist towards the left at the last moment and dodging the attack.

Edward’s claws barely managed to scratch on the sides of Ingvar’s leather armor, but that didn’t really do any damage and he was now in a bad postilion, having the right side of his own abdomen completely exposed.

Knowing Ingvar will for sure take advantage of such an opening, Edward didn’t waste any time and formed a small water barrier at his exposed side. This proved to be the right choice as he soon felt one of Ingvar’s swords hitting his barrier.

Having defended against the first attack, Edward landed on one of his front paws and turned around to face Ingvar again. Having scratched Ingvar’s clothes and successfully blocked his attack was already a huge win in Edward’s books, but he wanted more. He didn’t want to keep being the weakest member of the party.

This thought in mind, he decided to step up his game. Creating two small, half an inch, water bullets and covering them using his long fur, he charged at Ingvar once more. This time, he decided to stay low and have a try at biting one of his legs.

Turning his head to the side, he opened his maw and came about an inch away from biting on one of his legs when Ingvar put more strength in them and jumped up, his swords coming together to form an X in front of him.

‘Got him.’ Thought Edward as he quickly launched both the water bullets he created and hid in his thick fur earlier straight up. He knew that dodging while in midair was a lot more difficult than on the ground, but he severely underestimated Ingvar’s combat experience and senses.

Already having felt Edward channeling his mana before attacking, he was ready for a surprise attack. Slashing both swords downwards, he cut both bullets in half with ease and launched a semi-transparent shock-wave towards Edward.

Edward has already seen this attack before. It was a skill of Ingvar’s main class that was only obtainable after gaining a mage sub-class. Ingvar infused his air mana into his twin swords before sending it forward as he slashed with them.

Summoning another barrier in front of his face, Edward crouched down before lunging straight up towards the attack with his maw open. He planned on having the barrier block the attack and then bite straight on Ingvar’s legs.

His plan was not bad and the barrier did indeed block the attack, but the water barrier also blocked Edward’s sight for quite long and he didn’t see Ingvar moving one of his legs backwards.

‘Moving in mid-air is a lot harder than on the ground.’ Were the thoughts that passed through Edward’s mind as he saw the kick that was heading straight towards his head. He could indeed not move his head away in time and he also didn’t have the time to summon another barrier.

The kick landed true and Edward was propelled around thirty or so feet away before landing with a thud.

Ingvar fell to the ground not long after and started walking towards Edward who was trying to get up.

“Not a bad try, but in a fight you must not take your eyes from your opponent for even a moment. Blocking your vision with your own spell is a beginner’s mistake.”

Edward knew he was telling the truth, but it seemed like a good idea to him at that moment. Standing up, Edward got ready to attack again.

Eddena and Kara was jumping from branch to branch while traveling south through the forest looking for some pray. Both of them kept silent for quite a while until Eddena stopped on a branch and said: “Kara, stop.”

Kara stopped and looked back in confusion, waiting for Eddena to explain herself.

“Let’s take a break. We’ll only return at the camp after an hour or so.”

“Huh? Why?”

“With the speed we’re going now, we’ll be back before their spar will finish and whatever beast we bring with us back will go bad if we wait for them to finish.”

Kara nodded, not minding letting Ingvar and Edward spar alone.

After half an hour of continuously getting outsmarted by Ingvar, Edward was in quite a poor state, having amasses quite a few cuts and bruises over his entire body. He was frustrated, every trick he used up to now having failed. He also noticed that Ingvar seemed to be going easy on him.

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Undoing his transformation, he laid down on his back and said out loud: “I give up. You win.”

Ingvar chuckled and also placed his swords in the sheaths at his back. Walking up to Edward, he laid next to him and said: “Your progress is not bad.”

“Not bad doesn’t mean it was good enough. I couldn’t land a single hit on you.” Grumbled Edward under his breath.

Ingvar lifted one of his arms up and showed Edward a barely noticeable swelling extending from his hand to his elbow. “But you did. It’s not that big, but when we first met you were barely able to follow my attacks with your eyes. Now you actually managed to leave a scratch on my arm. All things considered, it’s a decent improvement.”

Edward understood that Ingvar was trying to cheer his on, but he knew that his wolf form’s attributes were a lot higher than Ingvar’s. He was faster and stronger but he still lost in the end.

Sighing slightly, Edward summoned his status tablet and took a look at it.

<Name: Edward Black>
<Class: Beginner Water Mage>
<Sub-class: Shadow Walker>
<Sub-class: Night Hunter>
<Sub-class: Swordsman>
<Sub-class: Shape-Shifter(Unique)>
<Mana: 260/802>
<Stamina: 420/796>
<Strength: 18.3>
<Dexterity: 18.8>
<Level: 8>
<Level Life Force: 1/450>
<Spells: Water Ball, Cost: 2 mana;
Water Blade, Cost 5 mana;
Water Bullet, Cost 2-5 mana;
Water Barrier, Cost 1-10 mana;
Elemental shifting, Locked>
<Skills: Wolf Shift: 11 stamina/minute;>

“I barely made any progress…” mumbled Edward as he was looking at the tablet in his hand. He then turned towards Ingvar and said: “Let’s go again until I finish all my stamina. I don’t want to get beaten up by Eddena too when she comes back.”

Ingvar agreed and they started another round of sparing. Edward’s mana got consumed first, leaving him to fight only using his body for another half an hour. After Edward had a bit under 100 stamina left, the two spotted Eddena and Kara walking back from the forest. Eddena was carrying a huge boar on her back which she threw to the ground the moment she reached the camp.

Looking at the sorry state Edward was in and noticing that Ingvar seemed completely fine, she sighed and said: “It looks like you didn’t even land a single hit..”

Seeing Edward hang his head, she continued: “Well, it’s not like I didn’t expect that to happen. Ingvar and Kara, you two prepare the boar and eat first, Edward come with me.”

She then turned around and started walking a bit further away from the rest. Edward didn’t know what she planned on doing but followed after her.

Once they were a couple feet away from the rest, Eddena stopped and turned around.

“I tried to beat some reflexes and battle sense into you as we walked here and hoped that you would at least be able to fight to an even with Ingvar considering your speed and strength advantage, but it looks that was too hopeful of me. Spar with me in hand to hand combat. You’re not allowed to use your wolf form or any spell.”

Edward nodded and started running at her with his fist raised like he was throwing a punch. Eddena easily caught his hand by the wrist and threw him over her shoulder, making Edward hit the earth back first.

Looking down at him with a raised eyebrow she said: “What the fuck was that? Are you a child throwing a tantrum.” It was the first time Edward has seen Eddena looking so upset.

“You said to attack you..” Replied Edward, unsure where he went wrong.

Eddena sighed and said: “Stand up.”. After Edward stood back up, Eddena punched the same way Edward did. Edward moved to catch her wrist, but Eddena stopped her fist before Edward could grab it and threw a fast kick at the right side of his waist. The kick launched Edward towards the left through the air for about thirty or so feet.

After Edward stood back up, she said: “Watch the opponent’s eyes, make your first attack almost always a feint, the only exception being when the opponent’s doesn’t look like he’s going to defend against it. In that case, you can follow through and continue the attack. Try to use attacks that take the opponent by surprise. If he knows what you plan on doing of course he will counter your attack. Again.”

Nodding to her words, Edward attacked once more. He tried changing his punch to a kick, the same way Eddena did only for her to grab his leg and throw him onto the ground without mercy.

“Really? The same thing I did?” said Eddena with a frown before moving forward, lowering her body and punching with her right hand straight towards Edward’s stomach. Edward moved one hand to block only for Eddena to move her left hand as well and continue with another punch between Edward’s legs.

Panicking slightly, Edward moved the hand from his stomach down and blocked the punch heading for his little brother only to get hit hard in the stomach.

Seeing Edward sliding backward for a couple of feet before grabbing his stomach in pain, she said: “Do you only have a single hand? Why didn’t use your other hand to block one of the attacks? Why didn’t you try to attack me back so I have to stop one of my attacks to block? Why didn’t you just jump backward to about the reach of the attack? Out of the all possible answers you could have had to my attack you chose to move the hand defending your stomach towards your lower body?”

A bit annoyed by how bad Edward was, she charged at him without warning and aimed a kick towards his jaw. Edward rolled backwards, avoiding the kick on his jaw, but when he finished his roll and looked up again, he saw a heel coming towards his forehead from straight above.

He had no time to avoid or block so he ended up getting hit straight on the forehead and propelled head first into the grass underneath.

“Taking your eyes of the opponent. Even five year old know better. Again.”

Eddena kept beating Edward as she telling him what he did wrong every single time for three hours without stop. By the end, as Eddena landed a hard kick on Edward’s face, he got knocked out directly. Seeing him starting to turn into a black wolf, Eddena snorted and started walking back towards the camp.

When she returned alone, Kara asked: “Where’s Edward?”

“I knocked him out by accident and he turned.” Then, ignoring Kara and Minx’s looks, she sat down and started munching on some of the leftover food.

Edward’s transformation ended just a few minutes later and he found himself deep into the forest. Seeing it was already late, he decided he might as well let the wolf back out again and laid down on the grass as he closed his eyes.

“Sigh.. I miss Violet.”

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a pool of blood and beast body parts witch Minx licking some of the blood off his body.

He moved to rub her head and said: “Good morning, Minx. Why are you here?”

“Minx was worried and followed after Edward. Was Minx bad?”

“No. Sorry for not coming back to let you know before going to sleep.”

Edward returned to the camp and the party continued heading south while hunting every beast they came across. Since everyone’s level was eight, the life force from any beast that was level 8 or above was give to Ingvar, but they only managed to encounter three such beasts over the entire week.

Eddena decided that Edward would fight any of the weaker beasts without being allowed to use any spell or skill. During the evening, she would spar with him while pointing out all his mistakes.

Eight days later, the party has finally reached Lucent Marsh. The entire place was surprisingly warm, the temperature being ten or so degrees higher than what everyone was used to. There was also a layer of fog obstructing everyone’s vision of the inside.

Eddena looked at the foggy marsh up ahead and said: “The training is over for now. I want everyone to stay near me and pay attention to your surroundings. Judging by the high temperature, the beast should be of an fire element.” As her words ended, she took the lead and everyone followed close after her into the fog covering the marsh.

It was time for the mission to begin.

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