Life Giver

Over the next couple of hours, many students stepped forward to take part in the strength test, very few teams succeeded in the test but Instructor Redfire didn't forsake all those students who failed.

Those students with poor team mates that showed promise either retoke the test with different teammates or were immediately passed depending on their efforts. This was all done under Instructor Redfire's direction as he observed the students with special techniques.

Some of the students felt that Instructor Redfire's decisions were unfair and tried to complain. However the senior students dissuaded or simply told them off before they had a chance, it was clear that the senior students respected Instructor Redfire insight.

Meanwhile, Casmir and Zaya were resting with Balon as they watched the other students. Casmir's arms still felt strange but they had mostly recovered thanks to the basic ointments they received combined with Casmir's natural regeneration.

Casmir was still confused by the vibrations in his muscle's caused by the Life Body Cycle. He wanted to examine his body while he was using the Life Body Cycle but he didn't want to risk damaging his muscle's because it might effect his combat ability in the test later.

For now, all Casmir could do was forget about the strange situation and prepare for his next test.

"Hey look, this is the last round of testing. They'll probably bring us over to the main arena soon, do you want to have a quick fight to warm up?" Zaya said casually as she gestured towards the centre of the arena where the last group of students were gathering.

Casmir looked over at the arena quite casually, he wasn't surprised when he saw the last group of students testing and organising each other before their test.

But seeing the effort they were putting in Casmir realised that he'd been procrastinating for too long, he quickly jumped up off of the floor and nodded at Zaya.

"Sure! I could go for a warm up." Casmir said enthusiastically.

Zaya smiled back as she stood up and gestured for Casmir to follow her.

Balon, who was sitting with them, felt like a part of the scenery, completely ignored by the pair until Casmir turned back and called out to him "Are you coming or what, Balon?"

Balon got up and quickly joined them as they walked away from the arena, Casmir patted his arm as he reassured him.

"You're not taking the test but you can still help us warm up, don't be so quiet." Casmir said, if not for him calling Balon over, Balon would have just stayed there on his own.

Balon scratched his head awkwardly as he spoke "Yeah.. I thought you two wanted to train on your own."

Casmir smiled "No worries, No worries."

They soon reached a quieter part of the training ground not too far from the arenas, in case the next test started sooner than they believed.

Zaya walked over to Balon and explained what they would be doing.

"Okay Balon, we're going to attack Casmir from the front. Casmir, do your best to block while paying attention to me I'll be attacking your weak spots... Remember to move around as best you can. I know you still find it hard to move properly with your Qi energy, so don't worry too much about your manoeuvrability."

Casmir took his place and stretched before taunting Balon and Zaya, "Come on then! Try to act like ferocious beasts!"

Zaya was the first to rush towards Casmir followed by Balon, Casmir raised his arm to accept Zaya's blow.

The collision of their arms created a loud "Thwack!" sound, announcing the start to their practice.

In only a short time multiple blows were made, Casmir was on the defensive most of the time mainly because he had no weapons. Casmir had grown used to the increased versatility given to him by a shield and spear, his increased defensive ability and attack range were particularly useful.

Under the combined attack of Zaya and Balon, Casmir showed no signs of weakening. Casmir's greatest strength was his endurance, if he was faced with anyone at the same level of strength as him he would be able outlast them because his strength mainly came from his physical body.

Unfortunately he did have one weakness, he was still inexperienced in combat and an intelligent opponent would be able to trick him into making a mistake.

As they trained, Casmir mistakenly revealed his open back towards Zaya and soon afterwards he was knocked down onto the floor.

Zaya's animal like ears fluttered in amus.e.m.e.nt as she saw him lying there, before she taunted him cheekily "What's the matter Casmir? Are we too much for you?"

This time Casmir did not fall for her taunt, he quickly dusted himself off and got back to training much to Zaya's dissatisfaction.

Just like this they trained for 15 minutes or so making sure to not wear themselves out.

They only stopped when they saw movement from the arenas, the students were making their way towards the final arena so it must be time for the last test.

Just as they were leaving, Casmir noticed that some of Zaya's leather armour was damaged, a small strap had broken on her back.

"Hey, wait a minute Zaya." Casmir called out, prompting Zaya to turn back and look at him questioningly.

Balon noticed Casmir's call but didn't stop, believing that Casmir wanted to talk to Zaya alone about something.

Casmir walked behind her and said "One of the straps on your leather armour has snapped, let me tie it back together for you."

Zaya was slightly reluctant to accept his help at first but she could already feel Casmir's hands on her back before she could reject his help, so she simply replied "Ok".

It was quite a strange sensation to feel Casmir push and pull on her body to fix her armour, it was almost like a massage. Perhaps this was why or maybe it was just their recent training but Zaya's face was slightly flushed by the time Casmir had finished.

Standing behind her, Casmir took this opportunity to admire Zaya's hair, the cheetah fur pattern branded into her hair was unique and quite beautiful. As Casmir's attention was gradually s.u.c.k.e.d in by this unique sight, he almost neglected fixing Zaya's armour.

"Ahem.. There you go, it won't hold for long but it's better than nothing." Casmir said as he recollected himself.

Casmir quickly walked ahead to catch up with Balon who was looking at them from a short distance away.

Too far away for Casmir and Zaya to notice, Balon was wearing a knowing smile on his face, he was now fully convinced that there was something going on between those two.

=======

The final arena was much larger than the others and was surrounded by raised seating, enough for all the students. The arena was surrounded by a 4m wall with senior students patrolling it to prevent any ferocious beast leaping over it.

Inside the arena was a simple grassy area with a few large boulders to diversify the environment and tactics that could be used by the students. There was also a small gate leading out of the arena, just passed the gate was an area full of cages being monitored by senior students and instructors, naturally this was where all the ferocious beasts were being kept.

Before the students could enter the arena or seating area, they were separated into two groups.

Those students taking part in the test were assigned to the front row seating and the others were seated behind them.

The seating area gradually filled up with students apart from a small sectioned off area where the instructors were seated, excluding Instructor Redfire of course, who was overseeing the entire test from the arena walls.

Seeing that the arena was nearly full, Instructor Redfire decided it was time to introduce the students to the third test.

"Quiet down! Quiet down!... This will be the last test."

"Although most of you are not taking part in this test, you should pay attention to all of your fellow students tests. They will be fighting live ferocious beasts, you can understand a lot about fighting these beasts from observing them so don't waste this oppurtunity."

"Many of you will need to be able to deal with ferocious beast in the jobs you wish to have, others may not need to but there will always be times when you're faced with unexpected obstacles."

Instructor Redfire waved his hand towards a couple senior students standing nearby. They jumped down into the arena and quickly jogged to the centre, awaiting Instructor Redfire instruction.

"Before we start the test, these two seniors of yours will demonstrate a few simply tactics to use when facing ferocious beast. You should know however, that they are much stronger than you and have experience in fighting ferocious beasts, do not think their actions are easy to replicate in the test or you could put yourself into danger."

Instructor Redfire then commanded those students controlling the gate to "Release the first beast."

The heavy metal doors opened with a loud bang and a sharp screeching sound as the metal parts grinded against each other.

From inside the gate, the silhouette of a creature could be seen.

Curled up into a defensive ball a giant snake seemed to be carefully observing it's new surroundings, after a moment it started to slowly slither it's way towards the light shining through from the arena.

The snake moved slowly keeping its head near to the ground, it look quite shy and weak however the students didn't believe this snake was weak at all.

As it slowly slithered out of it's cage, it's large and long body was revealed. It was as thick as a a.d.u.l.t human's waist and over 10 meters long, it's scales were scarlet red with white dots spread across it's back.

The contrasting colours made the snake look very insidious.

The snake quietly slithered around the arena as if looking for a place to hide or escape from but it recognised the senior students guarding the walls and dared not attempt to climb them.

In the end it simply circled the two senior students in the centre of the arena from a safe distance.

Instructor Redfire quietly informed the spectators of this snakes origin and nature.

"This is a giant snow blossom snake, one of the larger grade 1 ferocious beasts however this one is quite young and is equivalent to an average second advancement cultivator in strength. This particular breed of ferocious beast is very common in the Heldan Republic and you will without a doubt encounter them if you travel beyond the Ellaris Guardship's patrol areas."

Instructor Redfire's face suddenly became grave as he looked at the snake.

"This particular snake was captured after it attacked a small village... eating 4 people...." He said in a sinister tone.

A collective hiss of air being s.u.c.k.e.d in could be heard from the spectating students, this was a beast with blood on its head. It wouldn't hesitate if it had the opportunity to eat them.

All of the students including Casmir and Zaya started paying extra attention to this creature, they were waiting for their seniors to take action and kill this beast.

They didn't have to wait long as one of the senior students armed with a crossbow, suddenly took aim at the snake and fired a bolt at its hide.

The bolt was like lightning as it struck the snakes thick hide but it barely injured the snake, only breaking a few of its scales.

"HISS!" The snake screeched as it felt the attack, the slow and shy looking snake suddenly darted towards its attacker far quicker than one would imagine for a creature this size.

The senior students quickly reacted by separating, the crossbow wielding senior quickly reloaded his crossbow before firing again. Meanwhile the other senior drew out a long spear and circled around the snake before attacking it's lower half.

The snake continued to chase the crossbow wielding senior while whipping its tail at the spear wielding senior defensively, causing him to have to back off.

Casmir and Zaya watched as their seniors acted defensively and continued probing the snake with their long spear and crossbow, wearing it down.

Instructor Redfire spoke at this time "First, you need to understand your enemy, find it's weak points and exploit them."

Suddenly the spear wielding senior dashed towards the snakes mid-section, the snakes head was focusing too much on the other senior causing it to lose track of him.

The senior thrusted his spear fiercely into the lower part of the snakes body, closer to its softer underbelly. It pierced half way into the snakes body creating a deep wound before the senior quickly extracted his spear and swept his spear along the damaged scales of the wound opening a long bloody gash in the snake's mid-section.

Naturally the snake reacted with a fierce shriek, it ignored the Crossbow wielding senior as it recoiled its body and whipped its tail towards the spear wielding senior. Unfortunately the snake was too late, the spear wielding senior had already retreated.

The snake hissed menacingly as it coiled around itself defensively but the large open wound was profusely leaking blood, clearly this was weakening the snake.

However this created a new problem for the senior students, now that the snake had stopped recklessly chasing them, it would be much harder for them to attack it.

The snake raised it's head high into the air as it watched the two seniors coldly, although the wound was deep and wide it wasn't enough to disable the beast.

At this time as the new students were wondering how their seniors would attack the now defensive ferocious beast, Instructor Redfire spoke clearly.

"Secondly, you can try to trick the beast, by feeding it false information."

The crossbow wielding senior suddenly threw his crossbow to the side and retrieved the heavy shield on his back, it looked much more fitting in this muscular students arms than the crossbow.

The muscular student then ran towards the snake aggressively, clearly wanting to draw the snakes attention.

The snake lunged forward at muscular student while keeping its eye on the movements of the spear wielding student, it opened it's mouth wide exposing it's venomous fangs that wanted to sink into the senior students body.

The spectating students were filled with excitement and anticipation at their seniors actions, from Instructor Redfire's words they knew that their seniors must have a plan...