Bond Master

Kinetic Shield (2)

Ren thanked her politely and rushed back to his second-floor balcony suite to change. The new uniform fit beautifully, giving his chest and arms proper room to move without the fabric tearing during a strike. Once the heavy leather boots were securely laced, he sat down at his desk to check on his bound companion before meeting his instructor.

Hey Grim, Ren called out along the thought link, reaching into the darkness of the vault. Which of your active skills do you think is more mana-efficient for our defensive drilling today?

The standard [Bone-Plate Rend] or our new [Kinetic Shield]?

[Rend, of course!] Grim answered instantly, his mental voice sharp and eager. Shattering things with our claws takes very little energy. But Kinetic Shield is much better if you want to block big, heavy structures.

And water balls. Stupid, annoying water balls.]

Ren blinked, a bit surprised by the young hound's sudden, aggressive irritation. Stamina and Mana efficiency are key, but what exactly do you have against water magic, Grim? You were asleep for almost all of our drills yesterday.

"It smells weird, and it gets our fur wet!] Grim pouted, scratching at the stone dais inside the vault. Water balls are stupid. Let me out, Ren. I don't want to sit in this cage while you go down to the fields. Let me watch the casting lines.]

Ren smiled at the pup's protective instinct. Why don't you come out and sit right on my shoulder for the morning then? We can block those water balls together.

With a single movement of his mind, the spiritual gateway opened, and a faint ripple of crimson light materialized beside Ren's neck. Grim emerged into the physical world, his body now the size of a sturdy hunting hound, though he managed to balance his heavy, bone-plated frame across Ren’s shoulders and coat collar with surprising ease.

The young beast was rocking back and forth impatiently, his silver-crimson eyes darting around the room as he waited for them to get to work.

When Ren stepped out of the dormitory block, Sergeant Rita Corvina was already waiting for him by the stone path. She took one look at Ren's increased height, his fresh, properly fitted uniform, and the massive, bone-armored hound resting across his shoulders, and her sharp features broke into an amused smirk.

"I take it Grim has officially decided to join our training roster for the day?" Corvina asked, falling into step beside him as they walked toward the academic sectors.

"He was feeling a bit caged in, waiting around in the mental space with nothing to do but sleep and wait for meals," Ren explained, adjusting his gauntlets. "I concluded that participating in live drills would be excellent practical training for his coordination. There will be plenty of low-tier spells for him to practice intercepting today. Don't worry, Sergeant, his mind is perfectly synchronized with mine; he knows his sole duty is to deflect the incoming projectiles, not to physically attack the student casters."

Corvina let out a genuine laugh, her short black hair catching the morning sun. "Good. Because if that beast bites one of the first-year student images, the paperwork with the logistics department will take me a week to clear."

She led them across the sweeping lawns to the subterranean concrete bunker, where the first-year student casting block was already assembled and waiting by the iron target lanes. The moment Ren stepped through the heavy doors with Grim riding on his shoulders, the quiet chatter of the mages instantly ceased.

"Whoa, look at that! You actually have a live-bound companion beast?" Aria called out, her bright blonde hair shifting as she rushed over from her casting station, her eyes wide with absolute fascination. "That is just incredible. Will he be watching us drill today? That's a male Volden Shackle-Hound, right?"

"He is," Ren agreed, offering a friendly nod to yesterday's companion. "His name is Grim, and he will be personally helping me carry out our defensive blocking duties on the baseline today."

The surrounding mages looked extra excited, a collective murmur of competitive energy rippling through the group. In their standard lectures, they had read plenty of dry textbooks about how wild magical creatures operated on a battlefield, but none of them wanted to go out into the dangerous frontier zones to find a wild monster just to experience its capabilities firsthand.

This structured environment was vastly safer, and it provided them with a golden opportunity to learn if a bound beast’s instinctual logic on how to neutralize a spell was different from a human warrior's trained forms.

"Alright, seniors, baseline rotation!" Sergeant Corvina commanded, her voice ringing off the concrete walls. "Stations ready. Cast at will!"

The barrage began instantly, but the mages weren't firing the lazy, predictable single shots they had used yesterday. They had spent the entire evening strategizing over their meals, and now they were unleashing faster attacks, variable-speed projectiles, and complex, multiple castings specifically designed to completely loop around Ren’s gauntlet defenses.

The moment the first wave of fire and ice crossed the perimeter lines, Grim leaped down from Ren's shoulders with a powerful, echoing growl.

Instead of standing static behind the targets, the hound utilized his incredible instinctual speed to sprint along the raised concrete ledges, circling around the sides of the target lanes so he could intercept the spells from an elevated angle, diving downward just like a natural apex predator hunting its prey.

And true to his word, Grim targeted the water balls first.

Nobody else noticed the anomaly during the chaotic opening seconds of the drill, as there were only a couple of water images in this specific lower-tier intake block. But after three consecutive casting rotations, the water casters realized that every single one of their fluid projectiles was getting completely neutralized before they could even get within five meters of the iron targets. The young hound clearly had a personal, aggressive grudge against their element.

"Hey! Did that hound just cast a defensive barrier?" one of the water mages complained loudly, lowering his focus wand and staring across the bunker in absolute disbelief. "I swear to God that beast just deployed a solid kinetic wall the exact moment my water balls split apart to try to slip around Barrett's gauntlet blades!"

"Are you losing your mind?" an ice mage down the line laughed, not pausing his casting form. "That's a Shackle-Hound type beast! Since when do common-grade physical brawlers possess the internal Mana control to manifest an invisible barrier ability?"

But a split second later, the laughter died down.

The fire mage launched a heavy, roaring fireball straight down the central lane. Before the blazing projectile could connect with the target, Grim landed squarely in its path, his eyes flashing with a bright crimson light. A faint, shimmering ripple of pure kinetic force materialized in the empty air before him, and the massive fireball simply dissipated into harmless grey smoke against the invisible shield.

"Dammit, he's right! The beast actually commands a [Kinetic Shield]!" the fire mage raged, his face turning bright red with embarrassment while the rest of the casting block erupted into loud cheers and laughter. Grim let out a sharp, happy screech of triumph, his iron-plated tail wagging furiously against the concrete floor.

"Alright, I've got a proper counter for that trick!" the fire mage roared, refusing to be outmatched by a first-year student pup. He drew a deep breath, channeled his remaining Mana reserves, and launched his most advanced combination: three separate fireballs fired in a staggered formation, split apart in execution speed so they wouldn't arrive at the same time, making them impossible to block with a single shield.

Ren saw the incoming threat and synchronized his mind with the bond. Together, Grim! The left flank is yours!

Grim didn't deploy the shield this time to conserve his energy. Instead, the young hound spread his massive paws, dug his front claws into the concrete floor, and violently swung his hind legs, sending a trio of sharp, crimson [Bone-Plate Rend] energy arcs tearing through the air. The kinetic spikes flew outward in a wide, flawless fan formation, perfectly intercepting all three staggered fireballs simultaneously in a series of loud, concussive pops.

The concrete bunker erupted into a roaring wave of applause and genuine respect from the senior casting students.

"Man, that kid and his beast are superb," an earth mage muttered, shaking his head in awe as he marked down his progress sheet. "No wonder the frontier veterans always tell such horrific stories about trying to escape from a trained Bond Master in the open field."