Bond Master

The Awakened Threshold (2)

"An immediate growth breakthrough..." Sergeant Corvina whispered, her clinical military mask cracking as she stared in profound shock at the massive hound. She stepped forward, her fingers hovering just inches away from Grim’s reinforced bone plates, sensing the immense energy locked within his flesh.

"He progressed from a fledgling hatchling to a young adult combat unit in the span of a single hour. This is unprecedented. Barrett... how does your own body feel? Is spiritual feedback straining your vital organs? Did you unlock a secondary system attribute or a new Mana reserve?"

"I feel significantly stronger, and my cognitive focus has stabilized," Ren replied, rolling up his sleeve to reveal his chain brand, which now glowed with a deep, permanent crimson undertone.

"But as a tamer, I don't possess a standard internal Mana well like the mages. I cannot read my exact levels. Is there an institutional device on campus we can use to verify my baseline?"

"The spellcasters can perceive their own runic currents instinctively, but we physical combatants lack that biology," Corvina noted, quickly pulling out her notebook to record the physical measurements of the hound.

"I will schedule an appointment with the evaluation proctors later this afternoon to secure a mechanical crystal reading for the official records. But right now, we need to test your practical operational limits. Equip your gear. Let’s see how your inherited skills adapt to his new grade."

Ren stepped into his small bedroom, retrieving the heavy, iron-studded spiked gauntlets from the metal desk drawer. Slipping his hands into the leather bindings, he buckled the reinforced straps securely around his forearms before returning to the balcony railing.

He drew a deep, centering breath, looking out over the massive, open stone courtyard of the first-year student dormitory block. He focused his mind, reaching down into his bond with Grim, and activated his primary offensive skill.

[Activating Inherited Combat Active: Bone-Plate Rend.]

Ren’s gauntlets instantly erupted with a fierce, blinding crimson light. But as he pulled his right arm back to strike, he noticed a staggering transformation: the heavy, suffocating physical resistance—the thick, viscous drag coefficient that had slowed his movements during yesterday’s drills—had completely vanished. His newly reinforced muscle fibers handled the energy channels effortlessly.

With a fluid, blindingly fast swing, Ren punched his fist straight through the empty air toward the courtyard.

Four massive, razor-sharp crescent arcs of destructive kinetic energy tore out from his iron spikes, shrieking through the ether with a deafening c***k as they shot over a hundred meters across the open sky before harmlessly dissipating into the academy's upper defensive barrier.

"Incredible," Corvina commented, her eyes widening as she noted the sheer destructive volume of the strike. "That output easily registers at the absolute peak of the Awakened Rank in terms of pure concussive power. But consistency is what dictates battlefield viability. Execute the form again. Let’s find your threshold."

Ren gritted his jaw, throwing out a second, third, and fourth consecutive full-power strike, alternating hands as the crimson Shockwaves incinerated the air before him. By the fourth blast, however, a sudden, crippling wave of cardiovascular exhaustion slammed into his chest. His arms felt like molten lead, his lungs burning as he dropped his hands to his knees, panting heavily for breath.

"Four absolute maximum-output strikes before structural exhaustion," Sergeant Corvina analyzed, her quill scratching rapidly across the parchment.

"If your stamina reserves drain that rapidly during a live skirmish, the evaluation board will classify this technique as a Common-Grade burst ability on your personal sheet, even if the hound commands a true Awakened status. An opponent who survives the initial barrage will easily close the distance and take your throat while you're recovering."

Ren wiped the sweat from his forehead, taking a few slow moments to regulate his heart rate. "Give me three minutes to let the soul-bond stabilize, Sergeant. I think I can adjust the efficiency."

After a short rest and a quick ration of nutrient-dense dried meat, Ren stood back up at the railing. This time, he didn't unlock the full floodgates of his vault. Instead, he channeled the [Bone-Plate Rend] at exactly half-strength, focusing on smooth, rhythmic execution rather than maximum destructive mass.

He thrust his gauntlets forward in a disciplined shadow-boxing sequence, firing narrower, tighter kinetic spikes that zipped through the air with minimal ambient flash. The energetic drain on his body was remarkably light; the constant, refreshing physical feedback radiating from Grim’s matured form inside the vault acted like an auxiliary battery, replenishing his vitality channels faster than the half-strength strikes could deplete them.

For fifteen minutes straight, Ren maintained the shadow-boxing routine, delivering dozens of precise, armor-piercing kinetic thrusts without his breathing shifting past a steady, controlled rhythm.

"Fifteen minutes of sustained combat output," Corvina concluded, her tone filled with genuine approval as she closed her ledger. "While the individual strikes at half-strength remain firmly within the upper Common-Grade threshold, your endurance and recovery profiles are exceptional.

It is clear that your personal physical capacity scales directly alongside the evolutionary development of your hound. Once Grim reaches the higher echelons of strength, you will truly stand as an Awakened-Tier combat tamer, commanding the rare advantage of a synchronized, heavy-armored vanguard beast."

"Not a terrible showing for my first official week on campus, right?" Ren offered, a confident, working-class grin breaking through his fatigue as he unbuckled his gauntlets. "If we keep this resource track stable, I think we can challenge the upper-tier rankings by the arrival of the mid-semester exams.

We might even possess enough physical mass to contest the second-year elites."

Sergeant Corvina let out a short, warning laugh at his immense enthusiasm, though her silver-crimson eyes remained deadly serious. "Do not let a single successful breakthrough make you arrogant, Barrett.

You had better dedicate every spare hour of your daily schedule to personal martial arts and structural evasion conditioning. If you neglect your own human forms, then even with Grim shielding your front, a seasoned assassin or an agile skirmisher will slip past your tethers and beat you to an absolute pulp before your beast can spin around to protect you."

Her parting words lingered heavily in the quiet air of the greenhouse balcony long after her boots had disappeared down the hall. Ren sat back down on the wooden bench of the gazebo, watching Grim stretch his massive, bone-plated frame across the stone floor. Corvina’s warning was entirely accurate.

This beast-taming path was immensely powerful, but it would be significantly more practical if he could eventually locate and bind a towering, iron-shelled mountain titan or a massive, immovable fortress beast to permanently anchor his frontlines. He looked down at the remaining violet crystals on his desk; the climb had officially begun, and he had no intention of stopping until he reached the summit.