For the new Rangers, the idea of fighting from a distance while avoiding hitting a very enthusiastic teammate was much more difficult than they had expected it to be.
They understood basic tactics from their cadet training, even some advanced group tactics, but none of those were prepared for an overeager Cerro who finally got a chance to charge a smashing pole.
Thor had made the poles short, only a little taller than the Cerro Hatchlings, as there would be times when they were fighting smaller monsters, especially when they were Common and Awakened Rank. But that meant that they had to hit the target without hitting the Cerro, and the hatchlings were not good at following directions to get out of the way.
They tried.
They actually tried very hard. They just had no idea what their new herd members actually wanted, so they ended up simply switching posts, or running around in circles for a minute before they were instructed back to order.
Thor thought that it was hilarious, but there wasn’t much he could do to accelerate the process, as the whole point was to teach the Elites how to give orders to their beasts in a way that they would understand, while working together as a team.
Both Aaron and Jaime were working on their offensive attack skills for the remainder of the evening, guided by Ophelia, while Karl took on the training of their new Tiger Monk.
“Alright, first things first. You have two very different combat styles. However, after the bonding, the levels of physical capability aren’t as different between the human and the Moor Cat as they were before, so we have these lovely volunteers from the Cadet force to assist us.
The others were doing the same training earlier, and the concept is simple. There are three of them, and two of you. You will pretend that I am your team’s cleric or mage, and prevent them from getting to me.
I have cast a barrier over them, so you can go all out. They are using training weapons, but they will still hurt if you mess up, so be careful. Now, show me what you can do when you are working together.”
The Tiger Monk class should have a number of defensive abilities, and Nikki’s durability was greatly increased, while her Moor Cat would be in no real danger from a training blade unless she got hit too hard on the head or poked in an eye.
That left Karl free to see how the others were doing, and the chaos that was an exhausted Sybil and a confused Pat trying to find a way to attack Rae.
The spider had five guards encircling her, and Pat had ranged attacks, but Rae was not an easy target to hit, even if she was taller than most of her defenders.
Every time he thought that he had a good shot, she would move so that a defender was between them, or someone would force him to retreat and change his angle.
They were allowed to retreat, and the guards wouldn’t chase them, letting them set up assaults on their own. So, it was just a matter of time until he finally found a way to get past the defenders.
The Moor Cat charged, forcing a defender to the side as an arrow raced past, only to be caught in Rae’s slender fingers, then crushed to dust.
“Wonderful timing, you’ve learned to shoot past defenders. Now, you just need to do that every time.” She congratulated the Beast Ranger.
Pat smirked. “You know, being a ranged attacker is so strong. If we were close to the same Rank, wouldn’t I have a huge advantage?” Rae smiled at him, then activated [Night Haunter] and shot out a stream of silk faster than the Ranger could process. Not as an attack, but as an extension of her body. Anywhere that she could see, or her body could reach, she could move to in incorporeal form.
Faster than Pat’s mind could process what was happening, the slender monster woman was gone from the encirclement, and a massive black Bloodbath Spider was towering over him from behind with clicking mandibles.
Of course, Pat had yet to learn any of the advanced detection skills of his class, so to him Rae had vanished for a split second after activating [Night Haunter], and he had no idea how she had gotten behind him.
Rae tapped him on the head with her mandibles, then changed back to humanoid form.
“You’re not the only one that can ambush from a distance. This is good training for forcing mages and clerics onto the defensive, but learning to defend against other ambush attackers will come later.”
Sybil stared at Rae with open adoration. Lady Rae was simply too cool. She hadn’t shown off at all when she was forcing Sybil to learn to use [Shadow Step] more efficiently, but this type of attack was precisely what Sybil had been trying to master all day long.
She would keep training hard, and soon, she would learn the trick to moving undetected.
For now, she was working on a more practical approach than trying to use the [Shadow Step] skill. Lunge, Parry and roll to launch an attack towards Rae. All she had to do was get around the defender, and she would get her shot at success.
What she failed to realize was that the volunteers in this group all had children, and many years of practice with escaping youngsters to add to their combat training. They knew all the ways that a kid would try to get around them, and they weren’t falling for Sybil’s tricks. The only way for her to succeed was to build up her combat skills.
Rae intended to add evening classes where they could move freely in the dark after the first week of going over basic attack and defence moves to supplement what Sybil had learned from her Class activation.
Her first impression was proving to be correct, though. The girl had promise, and she was a fast learner.
While she couldn’t hear anything, the skill called [Echolocation] was a passive Skill ability, not a physical trait for her. For Rae and Karl, it was simply an improvement that modified their natural bodies. But for Sybil, it was a skill that had been added by the System, and her damaged ears made no difference to its effectiveness.
She was learning to use it well, as the skill told her when someone was about to grab her from behind, or hit her with an attack. It made her extra slippery, and a number of times she had nearly made it through the defenders already.
Not bad for a first day.