Spirit Taming

Chapter 279: Grace Against Rats

It was easy to see that Grace had the determination. However, Clark could tell that she still had a lingering fear. She wouldn't have the others to support her in this. It was already known that Isa had helped her own in the dungeon before. Isa hadn't hidden this but what else would happen? That had been Grace and the others first time in a dungeon.

They had very little real combat experience.

This was more evident in the way that grace moved. Her footsteps were more silent than other people would be because of her wind type beast. She had unknowingly always trained her steps to be more silent and her body to move in a way that would not cause sounds to warn others.

But her movements were crude. Instead of flowing as the wind would, she was making broken movements. This showed that Grace had not trained in a specific movement technique nor had she gone in to in depth movements that replicated her wind whistler's movements when it formed a body she could see out of wind.

"Move differently, change the way you step to copy how your beast moves." The soft voice that Grace heard seemed to only come to her. It was Professor Wright. But what stunned everyone was that they heard the same thing that had clearly surprised Grace.

"Just an echo cricket. Another beast that every professor at the academy uses to help us when we need it." The nonchalant attitude as Professor Wright explained this made them all wonder just what other secret beasts professors might have with them.

Clark wanted to see the echo cricket immediately. Being able to transmit the voices of others to further away places or just to the specific ears while not alerting beasts around them was a great skill to have. There was a great potential to use this in his team if he could get ahold of a few. Who said that every beast he tamed was going to be a battle beast? What if he managed to find a good support?

Technically, Lit was a support type beast. A healing pet that happened to have poison. Yet, Lit had grown. She was a princess jellyfish with strong poison and healing skills. It had spiritual and poison typing that set it apart from many other beasts. It was able to strangle and attack with its tentacles which again, made it stand out from the average support type beast.

Clark wondered if it could even be considered a support type beast anymore.

Shaking these thoughts from his mind, Clark focused on Grace again. Everyone watched as she tried to alter her movements. None were surprised when she was able to make a minor change and sneak closer to the now on edge forest rat. The small guidance from Professor Wright seemed like it was enough to push Grace in the right direction.

However, it would be a little while longer if Grace would actually grasp and change the way she moved completely.

The forest rat could sense the danger now. The forest was quieter than before meaning that a predator might be nearby. It also had just eaten a decent number of bird berries. Now that it was full, it just had to find a good place to hide for the time being. It could rest and grow comfortably.

When the forest rat felt a slash of cold metal on its side, it reacted by throwing itself forward away from the pain. This saved its life because Grace had been inaccurate with a second swing. The two attacks had left only a shallow cut that went to infuriate the forest rat and not kill it. The only reason being that grace had too little experience.

What surprised them all was that Grace still managed to add a little energy to the attack. There was a faint wind elemental energy that had wrapped the blade even if Grace had not realized it herself. The only way this could be possible was that Grace had become so close to her wind whistler that she had traces of its energy within her even with it completely in seclusion to create an ice body.

Professor Wright had personally been carrying the box with it inside so that it could be left without interruption. She had also grown curious of the methods being used. She had heard some researchers would force a beast to grow by confining it. But those methods rarely yielded the best results. But what Clark had said that this method was to help it contain energy, she was tempted to witness it.

Therefore, whenever the wind whistler needed another ice crystal for the energy, she had taken the role of doing it. The opening of the box had shown the condensing of energies and the growth of unique types of energies. The melding of wind and water to make a colder and colder ice. The changes that would throw away the simplistic water energy and create a complex wind and ice energy beyond the norm.

The forest rat dashed at Grace with its teeth chattering. It wanted to bite her in revenge for the attack it had taken. Grace was not used to being attacked like this. The steel clawed moles had tried to run while one that she faced had been injured by Isa. So she had not faced a head on fight with an opponent like this.

When the forest rat opened its mouth to bite her, Grace jumped away. She slashed her saber but missed again. This let the forest rat whip its tail at her. This threw Grace off balance but not to the ground. The follow up attack was another attempt to bite her. This time, she could not dodge.

In desperation, Grace slashed out with all her force. The saber plunged deep in to the mouth of the forest rat. There wasn't even a chance for it to screech in pain. Luckily, Grace had just pierced through its mouth all the way to the heart. She was still off balance though and fell back leaving the saber within the rat.

"So just a lucky stroke. Did you not see how Isa attacked? She was able to move much more smoothly. Have you not seen how Ella moves? She moved in a way that copies hope wisps move. Their movements, even walking, are somewhat the same as how their beasts move.

You have seen them up close more than anyone else here." Clark started off harshly. He had to make a point clear.

"You will think about how your wind whistler moves. You can envision the wind and how it would travel around a tree. Even thinking about how leaves move in the wind when it gusts will help. Do that and copy it." The forest rat was picked up by Isa. She made a simple comment about selling it as materials to make a fur rug and that was all.

The entire group moved meanwhile Grace could only take up the saber again and wonder just what had happened. She had been reprimanded for not watching and learning then told how to improve. It was a strange and odd turn of events. But she also believed that she was at the cusp of change. A way to change herself at her core to become someone that would truly rise instead of just standing still forever.

"So I just need to make sure I train my body to move like the wind? Can I attack like ice if I do that too?"

"That is the right mindset to have. From the data I have about the frost finch, your wind whistler will demonstrate movements and the frost aspect will show the sharpness of attacking. You can mimic those to develop before you find the proper techniques. The odds are that you will have a base foundation for techniques before you acquire them." Ella was quick to back up what Grace had asked.

She wanted to encourage Grace as well.

"I understand. I will try even better to make that happen." Since Clark had also said that creating the foundations were key to her getting stronger, Grace would follow this thinking. She just had to learn from what she had already seen. She had years of memories with the wind whistler. She could literally sense the wind around her for years. Just because she couldn't do it now wasn't an issue.

This was a actually a boon. Not sensing the wind around her, removing the sixth sense, was great. It meant that Grace could grow an understanding uninfluenced by her beast. With that, she would be well ahead of any other tamer that always used their beast to help them. From there, all she had to do was wait for her beast to be finished growing. After that, she would have made massive leaps in strength.

All these things put a determined smile on Grace's face. She was sure that she was on the right path. The only thing that removed the smile was when she heard Clark speak again. "There are two more up ahead. Try and see how you do with a two against one battle."