Akira, Klyn, Varbu, and Chack all sat outside the main room waiting to hear the results of their hard work. The shaman that had been chanting all day had already stopped and left to recover from the exhausting day.
They only had to wait a short ten minutes until Hegir walked out of the inner room.
“Akira, Klyn, thanks to the pills you created her illness has been halted and she is now recovering. She just woke up from her coma and would like to see you both. She also asked me to thank everyone that helped gather the ingredients,” said Hegir turning to Chack and Varbu.
“It was nothing much, anyone could have done it,” said Varbu modestly.
“It was fun since we got to see Akira making friends with squirrels,” said Chack.
Akira ignored Chack and entered the room that Yuki was recuperating in. The cold temperature and dry air of the room felt extremely nice compared to the outside where it was hot and humid.
Looking around he could see large amounts of frost on the walls.
Azura and the two nyantail sisters were all huddled together trying to keep warm. Azura had even partially transformed so that her arms and legs were covered with fur.
“Ah…such a nice feeling I could stay here all day,” said Klyn.
This comment brought sharp dagger-like stares from the three girls.
“It’s freezing in here! We’ve been locked up inside all day. We’ll gladly change places with you,” said Azura her teeth chattering from the cold as she talked.
“You three can leave if you’re that cold. The main trouble has passed for now. Thanks for helping take care of Yuki,” said Hegir.
“Thank you for all your help,” said a weak voice from the hard bed in the middle of the room.
“No need for thanks. You know that there is no way I would not help and let you die. We’ve known each other forever so it’s only natural that I helped,” said Azura before the three girls quickly escaped the freezing cold room.
“Thank you Akira and Klyn for gathering the ingredients and creating the pill. Without it I would have died. Truly I owe you my life. Akira this is the second time you have helped me when I was in need. I don’t know how I can repay my lords’ great deeds,” said Yuki’s quiet voice.
“You don’t need to call me that I am no lord or noble. I am just an average person, and you don’t need to repay me with anything. The only thing we need is for you to stay healthy,” said Akira.
“I will try, but it’s hard to keep healthy in this hot and humid land… it is hard,” said Yuki.
“The heat really does a number on you doesn’t it?”
“With the shackles of the heat, I am unable to show my full power. At maximum when I am healthy i can use 50% of my power.”
“Yuki now that you have thanked them you should get some rest. We don’t want your condition to flare up again,” said Hegir.
Akira and Klyn bid Yuki farewell and left the room to head back to their own homes in order to get some rest themselves. It was a long and eventful day.
***
Next day at the breakfast table.
“Akira, in order for you to be ready for the pack that I’ll be putting you in a week or two from now, you will need to get a bit of training in on how things are done around here. Since I don’t have much free time to supervise your training and have much to talk about with the other clan elders, I have given the task to Azura,” said Wulfric.
“Don’t worry grandfather. I will make sure he doesn’t slack off in his training!” said Azura.
“Akira I expect you to be able to pass the monthly training standards before you join the pack. I can not let you dirty our families reputation by holding everyone down due to lack of skill and co-operation,” said Wulfric.
“I will train hard. I’m sure that I’ll have the skills needed to meet your standards,” said Akira after swallowing a piece of buttered toast.
“Good. I’ll be back late tonight so don’t expect me for dinner,” said Wulfric before standing up and leaving the house.
“Hehehee, I’m in charge of your training big brother so you better be nice to me or…” Azura didn’t finish her sentence but the message was clear.
“Come on take it easy on me. I’m your one and only big brother,” said Akira trying to get on her good side.
“Hmph! We’ll see how I feel when we start training. Don’t think that you being my big brother will help you.”
‘This little gremlin is hard to please,’ thought Akira.
He hoped she wouldn’t purposefully make things hard for him.
***
The area used by the clan for training was just the open ground under the city. You really couldn’t call it a training ground.
The morning heat was already becoming hot enough to make anyone sweat if they did anything other than a light walk.
Akira stood in front of Azura, waiting for her to give him a task to complete. She stood in front of him deep in thought while looking up at the green leaves above them.
She had come prepared with her own weapons. On her right hip, she wore a scabbard for a rapier, and on her left, she had a buckler.
After spying on her big brother while he did exercises and watching him when he had fought Klyn, she had a good enough sense of how strong he was. So she knew she would have to up the training in order to make sure he was fully reforged into a proper warrior of the clan.
“You seem proficient in the use of a shield so how is your skill in using spears?” asked Azura.
“Huh? What about spears?” asked Akira confused.
“What you don’t know what a spear is?” asked Azura.
“I know what they are, I just don’t understand what it has to do with me,” replied Akira.
“A lot of warriors that I know in the clan use medium to short spears with their shields as well as swords. The spears have a longer reach and can do a lot of piercing damage. They are good for taking on monsters and opponents that you don’t want to get too close to, while still being able to deal damage,” said Azura.
“Well, I never used one in a fight before most of all my fights are just up close with my sword and shield.”
“Alright, we have found something that I’ll have you train over the next week! But first, let’s test your skills with the sword and shield.”
“Are you going to be my duel partner?” asked Akira.
“That’s correct in order to fully get an understanding of your power I have to test you myself.”
Azura pulled out her rapier and buckler commenced her attack without warning.
Klang! Bam, Klang, Klang! The two traded several dozen blows their weapons attacking, probing and parrying, while their shields blocked all the other attacks.
Akira only counterattacked a few times mostly let Azura wear herself out by attacking and not wanting to get too serious and hurt her.
With her light armor and small buckler she was light on her feet and able to attack from multiple angles all aimed at different parts of Akira’s body. She was more of a hit and run fighter. Her buckler was only used when she could not dodge or parry the attack.
No matter how much she tried she could not get past Akira’s defense. He was like a stone wall blocking everything that came towards him.
“I can at least say one thing about you so far, I think you will turn out to be a good meat shield for others,” commented Azura as the two sat and rested while drinking some water to rehydrate due to sweating from the day’s heat.
She was a little annoyed that she had failed to even hit him once.
While resting Chack wandered over to them curious of what they were doing. This gave Akira a great idea.
“Chack you and I are friends right?” asked Akira.
Chack nodded his head furiously.
“So you will take some advice from me?”
“I don’t mind as long as it doesn’t have to do with eating,” said Chack.
“Since you joined me and the others you haven’t fought that much, so you should train with me to make sure your skills are up to par with the others,” said Akira.
‘If only I have to suffer under this training my brain would explode but with someone else to share the suffering it will be nice,’ thought Akira.
“Sounds good to me!” said Chack nodding in agreement.
If Chack really got rid of his habit of hiding and being timid he would make an excellent off-tank that could either help Akira hold off monsters or help the others deal damage.
The next several days Akira trained along with Chack in the dreadful heat under the sharp eyes of Azura who made sure they did not play around.
On the third day after Varbu saw the two training so hard the last few days, he had decided to join them and work on his weaknesses as well.
When Mileena and Maya wanted to join them as well, Azura denied them the opportunity and shooed them away saying that they would only distract Akira.
After finding out Akira’s preferences at the feast from Klyn’s words, Azura had gotten more cautious when it came to Mileena. She viewed her as the number one rival who might try to steal her brother from her if she was not careful. So of course she wouldn’t let them join! That was too dangerous they must be kept apart as much as possible.
This line of thinking only made Akira’s training even harder and longer as Azura made sure to give him little free time to talk to anyone other than Chack and Varbu who were suffering along with him.
Ah… a little sisters love is a scary thing to experience.
Klyn seeing what was going on offered to take the two sisters around the swamp and showed them different plants and monsters in the surrounding areas that could be made into poisons.
They began a crash course on the production of their own poison for the arrows and daggers they used. With this, they would truly become a deadly duo when they perfect their skills.
It would be best to not make them angry in the future.
After several days of being tortured in all kinds of ways and practicing with the spear day after day, a system message popped up while he was drenched in sweat from his training.
Ding!
-
New skill has been learned!
Spear Mastery (Level 1: 0%): Grants extra damage buff when spears are used.
Akira was happy at gaining a new skill and decided to train even harder to raise the level since his sword mastery has stuck at lvl 9: 99%, so he might as well work on the spear to flesh out his bag of tricks that he could use to trip up any enemy.
Over the course of training, Akira had been watching his sister and studying her wolf ear and tail movements intently to understand her mood to know when she was happy, agitated or sad.
His life depended on his understanding of each movement so that she did not make his training anymore hellish than it already was. He put his all into understanding it all and was fairly accurate in reading her mood. This could also be applied to the other werewolves in the clan as well.
The time limit that Wulfric had given would be up tomorrow. Akira was extremely happy he only had one more day of suffering left.
“Today’s training is only for Akira since he still has to properly learn the different ways of communication between members of a pack and talking with other packs or a large group of allies,” said Azura.
“Azura! Akira! Emergency the grand elder wants you to head over to the guard post!” shouted a huffing guard who had run all the way to where they were training in his heavy armor.
“What’s so important? Did Yuki get sick again?” asked Azura.
“No much worse! Can’t explain you will see when you get to the outpost,” said the guard shaking his head.
Akira and Azura headed over to the guard outpost to find Wulfric and the other elders were already there talking with another werewolf that had gray and white speckled fur.
He reverted back to his human form to reveal an elderly man with a gray beard. The elders all had grim looks on their faces as they listened to his words.
Behind the clan elders and the older man, Akira saw a large group of ragged looking people sitting or laying on the ground breathing heavily exhausted from their journey to the Bluemoon city.
They were of all ages from babies to the elderly.
There had to be at least over 300 people in the large group.
“…Please give us protection.” pleaded the old man.
“Grandfather what’s going on?” asked Azura as she walked over to the elders ahead of Akira.
“Good, you two are here. Your training will have to stop early, something unexpected and disastrous has happened.”
“What?”
“One of the kingdoms has sent a small army and has started to raid the werewolf clans. If this continues….” said Wulfric in a serious voice full of worry.
“War…” muttered an elder.
