Spirit Taming

Chapter 259: Sharper Eyes

Ralph was looking at Professor Wright with even more worry. He knew that he could call out his molten boar at any time but he had been specifically told not to do that. He was told that he had to beat a forest trap spider one on one. The only bonus was that he was not the only one looking for the two that were apparently in front of him.

"I found them." Clark's exclamation made Maria, Ella, Isa, and Ralph wonder what he was saying. It had only been a few moments since he had been told to look at the trail ahead of them.

"Clark, can you give us some hints?" Maria looked at Clark sweetly. She was going to try and convince him to let them have an easy shot. But the shaking of Professor Wright's head made them all realize that they would have to find them by themselves.

"I just looked slowly at the bigger picture. Nothing is ever perfect in nature." This was the hint that Clark felt he could give without getting in trouble.

Realistically, Clark had the system which had pointed out the beasts ahead by giving analysis. But what was really standing out was that after Clark had found them with the system, he could see the differences.

Since the forest trap spiders took leaves from the surrounding trees to make their camouflage, there were a few signs that they had been there. The branches that had lost all their leaves near the top of the tree without any explanation was a major sign that something wasn't right.

The trees were all fairly healthy. This made them stand out as odd when it came to lost foliage. There was also the fact that the very same trees did not have much for leaves on the ground beneath them. There was not a breeze to push the leaves away either. This could mean it was a beast that caused these leaves to fall.

The final thing to look for was a branch that had leaves in perfectly palace intervals. The leaves on a tree would never grow in perfect rows with perfect placement to cover the bark of the tree. This perfection should stand out against the natural random growth of leaves on a tree. It was also the perfect signal that the forest trap spider was right there hiding behind the leaves.

Once these three things were noticed by the person viewing the tree, they could easily start to make out the shape of the larger forest trap spider on a branch. Then after another moment, the forest trap spider would give itself away even more by letting the threads of its trap dangle down from its hiding space.

"Ah! I see them now!" Isa was the next to figure it out. She had a good eye that was trained by her family to find the best of the best materials. She had to be able to spot small details. "I didn't think that would be the location they were in. I want the materials after we hunt them.

Ralph, don't damage one of them too much with your ax."

"I won't ruin-"

"I found them as well. An interesting method of focus when it comes to their hiding techniques. However, they have some clear failures in their process. I will note them down." The last person to find them would either be Maria or Ralph. However, Maria seemed to only be looking for one now.

"The first was easy to spot but the second seems to be the hardest." Maria's eyes glanced over multiple spaces finding that everything was in order. It wasn't until they moved towards a younger sapling that she realized she wasn't looking for two fully grown forest trap spiders. She was looking for an adult and a juvenile forest trap spider.

"Ah, I see what I missed. I will never assume that again." Her glance toward professor Wright proved that this was one of the reasons that she had stopped them. Learning that they couldn't just assume every beast was at the top of their species. That every beast was fully grown and ready to tear them apart.

Many people had made names for themselves in the arena because they had advertised that they would fight with a dragon or another equally flashy beast. But when they were eventually found to be fighting, they had a newly hatched beast that was weak in experience and age. Therefore, they would be seen as someone too weak.

That wouldn't stop the stronger foes from appearing to challenge them before realizing this.

"Ralph, don't step forward, if you do you will be prey." Clark stopped Ralph from moving. Ralph looked in front of him and slightly crossed his eyes. The fine threads of the forest trap spider became visible and he traced them back up toward the larger spider waiting in the leaves. But the spider still didn't realize that so many eyes were on it.

It was waiting to trap them all in its threads and win the battle easily.

"I have two axes," Ralph grumbled since he had nearly been trapped but it was just part of learning. Everyone would make mistakes and Ralph was a pretty blunt person. He would charge in and relied on his brute force to get stronger. He would never take the time to learn magical skills through beasts that used magical attacks. It was just not how his personality worked.

One ax was pulled back behind Ralph's head and then released like an arrow from a bow. It traveled while slicing through the air to land right in the branch that held the forest trap spider up. This caused the forest trap spider to fall with nothing to hold on to.

"And down you go!" Ralph didn't hesitate to hold the second ax with both hands. He slashed downward as soon as the forest trap spider was in range. The motion was powerful and swift. It was clear that Ralph had trained this basic slashing motion over and over. But the result was what impressed everyone, Ralph had perfectly slashed the head off of the forest trap spider.

"Ideal implementation. You preserved materials for Isa while lowering the danger that the beast brought with it. I will make notes that you have decent battle strategy and instinct." Ella was the only one to respond in this way. Professor Wright was revaluating her analysis of Ralph at the moment while the other focused on the younger juvenile forest trap spider.

The juvenile knew that the ability to hide had been ruined. It saw the other forest spider caught and had to retreat or die. But it was not going to be able to escape. Behind it, there was a single shadow that was moving a little too much.

In a sharp darting attack, the midnight eel swam from the forest spider's shadow to bite on to its abdomen. The attack had been aimed at the weakest point of the forest spider and easily pierced its heart.

"I'm sorry but this was a great chance for my newest partner to get their first kill." Maria had been acting a little silent but now they all knew why. She had been ordering her midnight eel to sneak through the shadows and wait for the ideal attack.

"Maria, did your midnight eel train its vital instinct skill? I thought it would need to be older for that." Clark knew that the midnight eel could learn the vital instinct skill. A skill that would allow for it to focus in on the vital areas of an enemy by instinct. But what truly stood out was the fact that it had used the skill proficiently.

"It did! We have been training for a while. I had him hide in my shadow while we faced every beast or even cut outs of other beasts. It was the best chance I had to let him adapt properly. Then Lit helped him absorb energy faster and train his body better like I was doing." Maria was very proud to show off a little.

Especially because it highlighted that she was focusing on the one strike kill of an assassin for her midnight eel.

"That was pretty awesome. I thought I would just chop my way through that one too because our professor had me aim at one. But that was way cooler." Ralph felt that the single attack that Maria's Midnight eel had used was better than his. It had literally just waited for the order to attack instead of using two attacks like him.

"Well, I have a good partner and a good growth plan. I bet that your molten boar will have other uses. I want to see it fight too. Ella and I will write a new journal entry when it is strong enough to roam around again." Maria knew that Ella wanted this so it was all she could see in the future. It also seemed to anchorage Ralph a little more.

He wanted to meditate and get his molten boar ready to tear through the tournament in the north.

"Good, now we can continue onwards. Your four still need to improve since that rainbow chameleon had been on my shoulder for the last five minutes." Professor Wright started off leading while the rainbow chameleon left her shoulder to hide again. Even Jerold was a little surprised that his beast had been so bold.