Spirit Taming

"I think that Illia might change her mind if we let Ella keep digging in to her." Maria thought that the situation was hysterical. She was watching the entire event instead of the match that was going on in the arena.

"I think that she will understand how we work a little better. Illia will be a customer, right?" Isa was just going to let it be. However, Clark had to stop them since he knew that when Illia brought out her little ice wyrm, Ella was sure to go right back in to research mode.

"Shouldn’t we be watching the matches for now? You still haven’t looked through what we have gathered when I was analyzing beasts during my rest time." Clark had held on to a few of the journals that Ella had given him to fill out from before. He knew that when he had added beast information in to them, that she would want to read it all.

Since he held on to them, it was a perfect distraction for her insatiable curiosity. "Thank you, but I was actually enjoying how thorough Ella is. It has been a while since someone has asked me about my beasts with the goal to understand them. Most of Nebula has thought that they were powerful, feared them and me because of my mother. Or they just keep a strict line where we do not cross because that is the job of a soldier."

"From what I saw, that makes sense. Nebula seems to be very strict about all that. I assume because of the history." Illia nodded in approval.

"There are a few that have separated from that though. Many have grown up with their parents as guards spouting worries. Now they just want to get rid of some of that stress." This was also understandable. Anyone would be worn down by it after some time.

Yet, when Clark looked at who Illia had glanced towards, he saw another of the students that had been on her team and told them that he had come from a family of guards. As much as Clark didn’t want to believe that there was more to it, he could tell from the way that Illia’s eyes had lingered. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Are you all excited for the rewards that you will get?" this caught them off guard. Not everyone had been paying attention to the conversation until now. But with the sudden louder question, Clark’s entire group had focused on Illia.

"As long as it can improve my partner, I will take it. If Clark doesn’t have it in the growth plan...then it won’t be worth it. I do need new weapons though since my partner will be consuming mine and they might not be a shield and sword that I can use anymore." Brad had a very basic answer. This made it easy for him though.

"That’s a very good answer. I keep hearing from the Star city students that you are all popular there for helping the Star city lord and his children. That makes your plans very good." Illia’s evaluation was calm and cold but that was how it should be when testing the waters of a beast plan creator.

"I will follow what they say too. But I would trade my rewards to train here in Nebula for some time." Seeing that Illia was the city lord’s child, Grace didn’t hold back asking for this.

"If Grace is staying I will remain here as well. She has good ideas to train in what she is strong, I want to train against what I am weak. But I still want an array of metals as a reward instead. I don’t need to go in to that dungeon if it will not have what I need." Ralph was even more blunt than the others.

The few other nebula students that heard Ralph say he didn’t care about the dungeon made them all drop their jaws. The dungeon was very valuable to their city. To have it ignored like it was nothing made then stunned.

"The dungeon is even partially unexplored by us. It has many metal veins you could dig in to. But if you actually enter the palace you may find real treasures. A sword should be easy, metals should be there too. The dungeon was sealed because of all the fighting so the beasts in there should have greater quantity as well." Illia looked like she was holding something else back.

"Do I want to ask why you are so confident that we would benefit?" Clark could feel it on the edge. Just one thing that Illia knew that would make all of them want this reward so much more than they wanted it already.

"You know how some dungeons are split among floors? Well, this one is just one. That means you can encounter even the best materials or the worst dangers anywhere. But it also means you have a lot more potential to grow there. Especially since this dungeon was dealt with to a degree when my mother made a deal with the most powerful beast there." Illia held her head high proving that she was more than just coming from a good family. She was coming from a powerful heritage.

"So the city lord made sure that the strongest monsters wouldn’t be able to kill us. That’s what you’re saying?" Clark saw her smile even more. It appeared that the colder attitude had long been broken by speaking with Illia properly instead of trying just to plan and treat her like she was the heir to Nebula and some scary figure.

"What are you going to want then? We can look for something if you want while we are in there. I assume you will be asking us to help you make a beast plan for you before we go there?" Clark saw the slight glint of greed everyone had appeared in her eyes. He would say it was negative that she had it, but it was natural for a tamer to want the best materials for their beasts. But seeing that Illia had used it made Clark think that she had not been able to rely on her mother for all her materials.

"I assume that we will be bringing valuable ice materials related to dragons for her. You already told us that she has an ice wyrm that needs them to grow properly. That’s what you are looking for too, materials for Crim." Jerold had been watching the ongoing battle but had become interested in the information about the ice palace dungeon that they would be entering as part of the winning prize.

"Exactly. So I will choose to trust you a second time. How does that sound?" Illia just went with it. She seemed like she was ready to see her ice wyrm grow even faster. But that was it, she was excited to be a real dragon tamer. However, it also appeared that she wanted her glacial serpent to have a partner since it had already grown powerful alone. Now it deserved an ally to call family that had the same ice typing as it.

"Hey, I know we should be paying attention to the match, but where did the other ethereal academy students go and why is that professor of their entering the arena during a battle that just ended?" Reese spoke with confusion, however, everything he said had already begun to bring silence to the entire tournament.

"My brother is still down there." Ella saw that her brother had already begun to take action and retreat away from where they were sitting. Most of the other fourth year students had the same bad feeling and were doing the same. That just came with experience.

"You can not enter the-" The referee tried to stop the ethereal academy teacher only to find that he had been pierced with a long black metal spike. Small glass needles appeared to be on the edges of the entire spike that stabbed even deeper in to the now fallen referee.

"Thank you academies for the entrance we needed. From today onward we will not need you or anything else from you. Just remember to pray to the blood moon when you find your life fading!" The loud announcement sent shivers down everyone’s spine.

Before anyone could move, guards from Nebula were already in front of them guarding. Shields of ice were slammed in to position. Many of the guards had prepared for such an event. But they had not imagined it would actually happen since all the other matches had gone fine. But that was apparently just because the blood moon cult was still making their moves.

Many of the powerful guards had already made their moves to attack the now laughing blood moon cultist. Yet, there was a strange beast that had appeared above his head. A large ball of what appeared to be glass and metal spikes. And from the energy in the air, everyone knew that it was about to attack with full force against them. This wasn’t an attack that the cultists expected to survive. It was a suicide attack to cause as much damage as possible.