The button, as it turned out, was made of blackened brass, and after poking at it for a few seconds and then rubbing her mandible against it to see what it felt like, Rae gave up on the button and returned to her space to avoid the attention that she was getting while out in the open.
“Once she’s fully grown, I think that she will be more open about being outside, but for now, she is much more comfortable in places where she can camouflage herself, especially dark places.” Karl explained.
“We won’t force her out where she’s uncomfortable then.” The leader of the mage training agreed, while he rubbed Thor’s head.
One new and friendly pet was good enough for the teachers, but Rita had brought Karl here for an actual reason, and not just to talk about how his weekend went.
“Are you healed well enough to begin full training schedules again? The notes said that there had been some mental damage, and there is no good way to quantify that.” She asked very seriously.
“I feel better, but the only way to know for sure is to actually start training again and see if the pain returns. The two new spaces have advanced enough now that I am getting feedback from the pets, and not needing to constantly feed the spaces to keep them contained, so it should be alright. I’m not sure how much training I will be up for, though. I am going to need a lot of time to work on mental strength just to keep ahead of their growth rate.” Karl explained.
“Alright, then we can go to the morning classes as scheduled. The afternoon classes will be changed starting today, as the decision has been made that there is not enough training for your pets now that there are three of them.
Sending Thor out to get his head rubbed is not officially training, no matter what the other Professors tell you.” Rita reminded him.
What exactly they were going to teach Thor was a mystery to Karl, but as they finished their breakfast and headed for the training field for Hawk to practice, Rita got a much better idea.
“Thor is a growing boy, and he needs his exercise, so what we’re going to do today is to have you sit and meditate while Hawk blocks the attacks, and I will bring some mages from the early Ascended class who are working on barriers to help Thor practice his skills.”
As soon as he heard the word barrier, Thor’s head perked up in the beast space. He loved the barrier game, and it would be even better with more barriers.
“Won’t that be a waste for the other students?” Karl asked.
A few of the nearby mages laughed and Rita shook her head. “Taking full force Awakened Rank attacks repeatedly will burn through their mana faster than you might suspect. The goal is for them to keep the barriers up as long as possible, while Thor rampages through the field building up his muscles.”
“Normally, they have the students from the Awakened Rank warrior classes smash at the barriers all afternoon. Setting them up for Thor won’t be any different. But who is that? A new pet, I take it?” The mage student beside Karl asked.
“Yeah, a Lightning Cerro that I just bonded. The teachers are all in love with him, and he adores the barrier game. Once you see him play, you will feel thankful that you got Hawk instead.” Karl joked.
The students got set up, and Hawk took to the sky for his daily training. It only took a few seconds for Rita to grab four of the students who were working on barriers, and to instruct them to set them up at different angles around the field, making a cube of sorts.
[Go, have fun.] Karl instructed, and Thor ran out of the space at his best stumbling run, still a bit uncoordinated, in the way of newborn animals everywhere.
But when his horns hit the first barrier, and it wavered slightly as he bounced away, the mages knew that this training would not be easy on them.
There was no rhyme or reason to the attacks, he charged at whatever one he saw, as long as it wasn’t the one beside him. That was too close to get a run at, and he wanted to run as much as possible.
In actual combat, that would rarely be the case. They would sweep and spear with the horns to tear apart their enemies, but there was just something satisfying about charging at the glowing magical walls.
The mages that were attacking the moving targets below Hawk had to work hard to pay attention and not laugh as Thor trumpeted happily, a long warbling note like a military war horn, and continued to charge at whatever barrier managed to come back up first.
It had only taken him twenty minutes to smash them all, and the first break wasn’t scheduled until the half hour mark.
But if they weren’t up, he would wait until one was. The students could all see his disappointment when he had to wait, and that silent judgment, that they weren’t good enough to even be a long-term play toy to a monster like him, was wearing on them.
They had thought that the barriers they had made were exceptionally impressive, and they were a Rank above him, but when there was no offensive power to deal with the threat, it didn’t take long for him to smash through their mana reserves.
The lightning barrier only stabilized his body and prevented him from breaking his horns. It had collapsed multiple times already, but even without it, a Lightning Cerro had incredible raw power.
Thor lay down in the grass when the break was called, and a few of the warriors from the group of warriors that was training on the Ascended barriers came over to get a better look.
“You know that technique has some merits. We use skills and swing our weapons, but he’s basically throwing a hundred kilo dinosaur coated in lightning at them. I bet if I grabbed John and swung him at the barrier, we could do even more damage.” One of the boys laughed.
“Don’t even think about it. Just be glad that they didn’t send him to us to test our Guard ability because someone would have gotten seriously injured.” The other boy laughed, while Thor panted in the grass, replenishing energy for the next round.
“He has to be tired, right? He’s been running wild for half an hour.” One of the Ascended Mage students asked.
“You would think so, but no. His natural recovery means that by the time the break is up he will be ready for another round of the barrier game, and you had better be ready to play, or he will be very disappointed.” Karl informed them.
Thor perked up at the mention of play, and the mages all groaned to themselves as they realized that trying to contain a monster was not as simple of a task as they had expected it to be. If it were an attack, they would have to keep the barrier up and attack at the same time, without letting the barrier fail, or they would be in trouble long before reinforcements could arrive.