Spirit Taming

Every single one of them felt the ominous feeling that they were being watched. It didn’t help that there were three completely empty carriages right in front of them. One of which had arrows stuck in the side of it. There was also not a single sign of any more tracks or steps heading away from the clearing.

" That’s it boys! We have some more donations to our cause." The energetic and vicious laughter that followed that statement was enough for the group to know they had taken a very wrong turn.

As a single man showed himself while holding a two handed ax and allowing a wolf like beast to walk around him, the group knew that this was one of the many organized robberies they had heard of. "Now kids, let’s be smart. Drop your storage rings and leave any beasts you have here. We will handle things well so you can run off back to mommy."

The tone was still slightly light and mocking, but a single arrow flew from the trees and hit right in front of where the group stood. "Clark, we have to get out of here." Grace was not feeling too warm about this sudden change of events. But when she saw that Clark had a small smirk, she wondered just why he would be happy at all about this.

"Count to five and then split up. We will fight the ones in the tree. It’s only ten opponents and they are pretty weak according to Devi. They all have ice mongrels as beasts. They aren’t actually ice wolves."

’Ice mongrel- common

The ice mongrel is a lower ranking wolf beast. It looks very similar but is actually closer to a dog. They have very weak attacks compared to their more powerful wolven cousins. They also have a weaker affinity with their specific elemental energy. In this case, they can only use ice to add a slight frostbite damage to those that they attack and to resist the cold around them.

They have almost no growth potential, even if they become the alpha of a group. The materials such as teeth and fur are more or less useless. Many people that use this species of beast have them as a hunting companion to help them follow tracks or sniff out dens.’ 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The analysis proved to Clark that he didn’t have to worry. This was a supporting beast more so than a real fighting beast. Only those that would be ignorant or afraid would believe that this was a real ice wolf. Especially not Clark’s group who had seen much worse than an ice world. These ice mongrels were weak beasts that could barely compete with the group at all.

Grace looked at the others and noticed the one person missing. That alone was enough for her to realize that Clark was planning to take the people down sooner than later. She also knew that Devi had to have hidden away waiting to attack. Adding on everything else they knew, the entire group had gotten much more confident.

Just because they had one bow user that could fire a bow at them meant nothing. They would have to end everything with perfectly fired arrows. even then, they would have the fact that they would need to fire consecutive arrows defeating the entire group regardless of the group’s defenses or ability to counter. Clark had seen through all of this and had already made a plan.

"five...four....three...two...one..Go!" Clark dashed ahead showing the black lightning spear. He stabbed forward with the falling moon pierce without a single bit of hesitation. The sudden movement with a much faster speed than the robber expected was enough for him to only step back a single step. The black lightning spear made short work of the leather armor on the robber’s chest.

Most people would have felt bad or hesitated when they noticed that they were being attacked or that someone was being defeated so easily. But Clark didn’t even let himself feel a thing. This was a person here to kill and rob them. It would be foolish to believe that the girls would have been let go. The three carriages in front of them with arrows along them proved that people weren’t actually able to leave after being robbed.

The shouts of pain that came from the trees were caused by Devi’s laughter and chilling bites. The additional cries of pain came from Jerold who had disappeared the moment danger had appeared around them. A group of young tamers was easy to miss. Especially when one of them could turn invisible.

Ralph didn’t stay idle either. As one of the robbers broke out of the trees, Ralph met him head on with a single ax thrown toward the robber’s head. His molten boar stamped over as well trampling the next robber behind the first that Ralph had seen. The two were rampaging through the robbers that dared show their faces.

Smartly, Reese and Grace had taken up positions to guard Maria who had brought out her own bow. She was shooting arrows at the chaotic and running robbers trying to escape Devi and Jerold’s invisible attacks. Unfortunately, Maria was a much better shot and had a much better focus on her targets. The robbers were dropping like flies.

While anyone watching would feel the situation was chaotic, they would slowly realize that the groups were watching each other’s backs. Ella and Isa were in positions that could spot one another while they fired their own attacks. Isa was using small balls of fire with her flame sprite while Ella had called out the earth prince to help her use a hardened ball of earth to throw. It wasn’t the best attack, but each hit was blunt damage that allowed the target to be stunned for Isa to finish them off. A powerful combination made in an instant.

Brad was the only one unable to react enough. He was still slightly drained from his breakthrough the night before. Not to mention everyone else had better agility than him. He could only watch as the entire situation was taken care of in just a few moments. Even Crim was dragging out a body from the trees around the small clearing where the carts and group had just been surrounded.

"Well, that was much better than expected. I left them alone since I assumed you would all prefer to run away after what happened in Nebula. I am very happy that you all kept some teamwork together and also were able to fight against real people." Professor Wright appeared holding the body of a larger robber that none of them had seen.

"Normally I would have handled this but they were very weak. As a teacher, I should say killing is very bad. Because that is what you did. However, you can tell they would have killed you. This is the wilderness and they would have killed you. In a city, things would be different. Here, you are able to and should fight for your life."

While Professor Wright was correct in this, she was sure that the group would be a little thrown off. As she had been blunt with her language, she saw that Grace and Reese were more affected than the others. She did notice that Clark and Ralph didn’t even flinch. A clear sign that they had long ago strengthened their minds against things like this. Maria, Isa, and Ella gave her some worry though because she could see that they were clearly unformattable with everything. It brought up the question of how they would handle more events like this as they got older. Robbers were always an issue no matter the location or time in the wilderness.

"It was survival. We were stupid enough to fall for a trap and had to dig our way out. But we did what we needed. We also got away from Brad to draw the fire from him since he was the weakness right now." Brad understood and felt much better about just standing there. The group hadn’t just left him behind, they had made sure to split up to draw attention from him. It meant more than anyone could say.

"You can all move on. I will clean this up and have some guards take a journey here. This is still within the Nebula controlled territories. The merchants leaving from the tournament most likely have some items left behind here. But if you want to take anything, I will not stop it. Although these bandits seem... low." Professor Wright was older and wiser. She had seen better bandits with real beasts these were just fake and weak.

"We will leave in a few minutes. I want everyone to get their foundations stable again. I have dealt with death before, not everyone has." Clark carefully looked at everyone. Their adrenaline would wear off and they would understand what had happened in a new light. Not that it was bad, but for some of their group, it was a lot to handle. They had never been ambushed like this.