Spirit Taming

Chapter 96: Flaws

"Now, Isa, you will be unable to use long ranged elemental attacks. It is a single requirement that I expect you to follow. Maria, I expect you to avoid healing yourself. You can not always rely on your beast to heal you. If you are in a bad situation you should learn to battle with critical thought over charging in."

Professor Wright put limitations on both Isa and Maria. She was going to show them their flaws and see what the class could gather from it. Maria and Isa both felt the mediate pressure.

Maria had been developing the strategy that revolved around Lit's healing. She wanted to be able to take some small attacks without any worry that she would be harmed. She also had been using this in partnership with narrow dodging so that she could remain close to an opponent. She did not want to purely rely on her bow and arrows.

Isa was a little different. Because she was able to take in two opposing elemental energies, she had become dependent on them. Her skills were the same as her beasts. They were able to take forms that most people could not allow them to take, giving them and her power that matched a mage's powers.

This led to the development of ranged elemental attacks that could beat opponents before they even got close. A clear example of someone only training one aspect of strength.

"Lit, take the same position but coat my arrows and daggers. We are going to try and mix the two." Maria had not been able to bring her archery and dagger styles together. It was a struggle since the transition between them was hard to pull off. It slowed her down and left an opening that she did not like.

Meanwhile, Isa had pushed with her ice maiden and flame sprite. The two energies spread around her making the air warp slightly. It appeared that she was struggling to hold the powers in one place so that she wouldn't unintentionally release them outward at Maria.

"Battle!" Professor Wright saw the struggles in Maria and Isa's eyes. She liked that she had found an appropriate challenge for them.

Isa immediately stepped back out of habit. She was used to making distance against an opponent so that she could send fire and ice at them. The problem with this was that Maria wanted distance.

Maria's bow appeared out of her spatial ring. She was already moving to a stable stance and had an arrow in her hand. Without any hesitation, she drew the arrow and released it in a fluid motion. One that only a highly trained archer could achieve through hours of training.

Before the arrow had covered half the distance between them, Maria had another one notched and had moved a few steps over to get a better angle. This flurry of arrows was terrifying for Isa who realized that she had given Maria an advantage already.

The only way that Isa found to dodge them was to send a wall of fire in front of her. If she would have battles normally she would have sent the same wall out to block the arrows and also attack her opponent. Holding the flames back made her feel the heat that she used without restraint. The only way to resist her own attack was to cause ice to form in front of her as well.

The arrows went through the flames burning away Lit's numbing poison. Luckily, they were stopped by the ice. Isa had not considered that the flames would not be enough. The moisture of the poison on the arrows was enough to keep the arrows from burning up completely through the flames. It was a perfect attack for the way that Isa was fighting.

Unfortunately, Isa had left herself blind. She had no idea where the next arrow would come from. The only way for her to see was to take down the defenses she had put up to protect her. It was a glaring failure in her critical battle strategy. She had already set herself up for failure.

Instead of an arrow, a dagger slash appeared on Isa's arm. The numbing that spread made her arm fall to the side and the ice maiden beast become extremely unsettled. "Lit is a spiritual beast too. Your ice maiden might dislike the poison she had even more than your flame sprite."

Maria slid her dagger in to a leather sheath for it before pulling an arrow back again. This closer distance made Isa realize that there was no way to dodge it. She would have to use a burst of ice and fire to push Maria away. However, this would break her rules. Isa was frozen in place. She had not expected such a situation.

"We will end it there! The winner is Maria. A very good strategy using your strongest battle style. There is a lot of room for growth but it suits you very well." Professor Wright had watched very closely at Maria's movements. She picked up on the broken fluidity in the shift between bow and dagger.

"Isa, I hope you learned a lot about yourself and your beasts here. You are strong but also very weak. I recommend going to the library and studying battle theory in relation to those with similar techniques. Your family may have better learning materials though." Isa was still stunned. She was already running the battle over and over in her mind. She could see too many flaws.

"Let's have Ralph and Clark come on stage. I will have some different requirements for you." Both Ralph and Clark were uneasy. They didn't want to hear what professor Wright had in store for them. They knew it would be harsh and make them feel weak immediately.

"You two are very physical fighters. Ralph, you completely lack the ability to attack from range. Your needle boar should have one attack that allows this now that it has grown to this stage. Clark, you have a long reach with your spear but your movements are entrained. Your beast also uses simple movements as well." The class waited to hear what they were going to do about it.

"Ralph, you will battle with Clark's beast directly. You are able to use any moves you can while his beast must not be touched. If you land an attack you win. Clark, you will do the same without your spear. You can use long ranged attacks." Professor Wright had an evil smirk on her face while giving these requirements.

"So it's not a real fight? Fine." Ralph was annoyed because this was not how he wanted to fight Clark. He wanted to face him head on to assert his strength. Unfortunately, this battle seemed to just be an odd way to train. Crim seemed to share this and arrogantly took position in the arena to face Ralph.

While this happened, Ralphs' needle boar looked like it wanted to charge at Clark with all its might. Clark just looked at it and wondered if the black needles could even pierce its skin. Overall it would be an interesting battle which would test his ghostly steps to another level. He had to ensure that he was not touched because his body would not withstand the attacks.