The New Bond

“There is a fine line between necessary and reckless when it comes to any form of combat training. Push too little, and who is being taught is underprepared. Push too much, and either you break the person, or you break their spirit. The line is even thinner when referring to flight training’ -Griffin Training Officer Malim Ketim.

Aster

“This isn't a good idea,” Umbra said as she looked over her shoulder. I could sense her worry, but I trusted her, and we needed practice for when this problem actually happened.

“The weather's clear, and we need this practice. If this happens without us having anything to go on, then it's a bigger problem, and remember Graves said that griffin riders do this as well.” my words didn't do much as the bond hummed with anxiety, but there wasn't much else I could say to calm her. Instead, I leaned to the side and let myself slide off Umbra and into free fall.

It had been two months since we had started flying together, and I still couldn't get over how freeing it felt to look down at the ground from almost ten thousand feet in the sky.

My screaming laugh of joy and excitement was caught in my mask as the wind ruffled the clothes over my flying suit. Looking down at the barren hills, I couldn't help enjoying the view. While most people called it a dead monster-riddled area, I found it full of life, and even from twenty thousand feet, a number the crystal in the mask gave me, I could still spot the odd tree and patch of green.

I spread my arms and legs out to catch as much wind as I could as I passed the eighteen thousand mark. At this distance, there was plenty of time to fall before I had to worry about being caught with clouds still a few miles below. As I waited for Umbra to move, my mind wandered to what had happened in the past two months.

The first few days had me realizing that the choice I'd made had been a rather big and abrupt one, with the only people I'd seen being Kat, Graves and his team, Elliot, Sarah, and Josh

It had been full of non-stop practice and training in the air and on the ground. Each five days consisted of a mostly stable and looping schedule of Archery training led by Sarah, followed by hand-to-hand training with Elliot, then team tactics with Kat led by Graves, rune training with Josh, and finally, flight training following a Karvum griffin training regime. Each night after training, one of them, usually the one who had trained me that day, would give me lessons on a seemingly random subject, from how certain skills allowed the use of magic to create minerals to how to properly use a force when with royalty. It was a lot to learn, and every moment I was a wake seemed to be filled with something to do, but all of the time spent with each of them gave me time to get to know everyone a bit better and let me figure out a little about each, but anything personal about them was never shared upfront only in small details that seemed accidental.

Every night, when I finally got to sleep, my muscles were sore and overused, my mind felt full to burst, and I had a smile way too big on my face. I loved every moment of it.

Sensing Umbra through the bond had me blinking the thoughts away, and I flipped myself over, looking up. She had shrunk in moments since I'd been on her back and now was no bigger than a spec of sand above me, but as she folded her wings, the ten-second wait that she had been told to give over, she dived. With determination in the bond, she rocketed down, and even without being able to actually see the moment with my own eyes, I could tell she was making full use of her Aerial Acrobatics skill and Frozen Scales skill. The unusual use of both of them together, if timed right, made this whole idea possible as it drastically increased her weight but let her make minor adjustments as she fell. From what I'd been told, griffin and dragon riders usually had one or two skills they specifically worked on and leveled to mount their bond in the event they were thrown off, but usually, they relied on their riding skills and balancing skills to stay on in the first place.

As Umbra drew closer, her movements turned to smaller, slight adjustments into a movement that had been practiced while I was on her back. As we'd been told multiple times, catching someone falling was only half the problem. The other half was transferring the downward momentum in a way that didn't break anything. As she drew close and started to pass me only a few dozen feet away, I took a look over my shoulder and down and at the ground, being able to make out the camp, and the trees told me we had less than thirty seconds. Tilting my body, I angled closer, reaching down to my waist. I grabbed one of the two new straps that had been added.

Umbra and I had a long, in-depth talk about whether we wanted to use a saddle before even our first flight. I was partly uncomfortable with the idea as the implications of her wearing a saddle didn't go over my head, but she had wanted me to be as safe as possible. After the night-long discussion, we'd met in the middle with a new idea specific to Umbra.

As dragons grew in size, their back spines would grow and alter, which meant saddles would have to be adjusted. Umbras weren't even half a foot in length yet. Her characteristics as a frost dragon were already showing as, unlike most dragons, she had webbing between the spikes on her back that were already apparent. Our solution and agreement was to use clamps and straps to add a line above the webbing on each of her bone ridges, securing it with an enchanted piece of leather that had a metal loop at the end for the rope to go through. With the two new two-foot-long straps on my suit, I could move up and down her body with ease. My Careful Step skill and newer Riding skill both aided in it as well.

As she moved into grabbing distance, I reached out with my free hand, grabbed the spine at the base of her neck, and clipped myself to it. Then I watched as she let her frozen scales skill drop, and she spread her wings. It was only at that moment I felt her anxiety drop away as she started the process of angling upwards. I let out a chuckle as we evened out only a few thousand feet from the ground, and I relaxed onto her back at the base of her neck. My chuckle turned into a giggle as I took off my helmet, letting the wind rush through my hair and ears, the sweat that built up on my face getting whisked away. Underneath me, I could feel Umbra rumble as well. The relief was followed by a mental ding.

[Through reckless practice and risk, Riding Rank 6 has increased to Riding Rank 7.]

“I don't want to do that again,” Umbra said

“Well, I think it was fun, maybe not today, but in the future, I'd love to do that again, maybe in the rain.” My words didn't go over well with her judging by the glare she turned on me that even rubbing her neck scales didn't dampen.

“Unless you get a skill that lets you grow wings and fly, then we're only doing this in perfect weather.” She rumbled

Her words and mood left me with no wiggle room, even if the thought of falling through rain and snow had my heart skipping with anticipation.

It was a few minutes of peace in the air until I felt the slight dive that let me know Umbra was about to land. As we touched the ground and I unclipped, the memory of my first few attempts at flying with Umbra ran through my mind. They hadn't been disasters, for say, but it couldn't be called a smooth flight. Sliding down Umbra's side, I groaned. Umbra was still a bit too small for a flight to be called comfortable, but with time, a lot of time, I'd be able to run up and down her back.

“Aster, I can't believe you! You just, I ugh!” I looked over to see Kat stalking up the hill toward me with anger in her eyes and what looked like steam coming out of her mouth. I took a step back, looking to Umbra for help. She didn't even try to step in.

Kat was my friend, or at least she was. Now, I wasn't too sure. We had met what felt like a lifetime ago in the Arilon Academy, and from there, she had become one of my first real human friends.

Even after our secrets had come out about both of us, with her being royalty to Karvum, me being bonded to Umbra, and the child of Kulni, a grand beast, after all of it had happened, we were still good friends, well, until now.

“You didn't think to mention that it was training? Instead, I watch you fall. Elliot only thought to tell me after you were caught.”

Rubbing one of my ears, I looked away before I spoke, “Graves said that it would be good training for you.” What I didn't want to point out was that I'd forgotten to warn her through my PMS skill.

“He what?” Kat looked around as if to see him somewhere.

“I told you she would be upset,” Umbra spoke through the bond, and I looked up to give her a glare.

“Well, what about tomorrow? Are you as excited as I am?” My attempt to change the subject was weak, but it worked.

All of us had worked hard to reach level seventy-four, and we were all eager to reach grade two. With each of us only a single level away from the new milestone, it was hard to hold back from going to kill just one more monster.

“I still don't get why we couldn't just get there earlier,” Kat grumbled

“Because realm events have rules, and they're not always obvious.”

We all jumped at Graves' voice, who had somehow avoided our sight even when he was standing right next to Umbra's left leg. Umbra, letting out a disgruntled rumble, shuffled away.

“We had to confirm that people in grade two were getting the tokens. Otherwise, there's a risk that can't be accepted. We confirmed that grade two can gain tokens but have yet to verify anyone in grade three.”

“What about the people who died when they had their tokens?” Kat asked.

Once the news about the event had gotten out, it spread fast, and one of the first people had been killed with tokens by a grade five after learning he couldn't just take it, but the token had disappeared.

“It's dependant, but from the news Sarah collected, people in the same grade can gain the token. It's one of the reasons I believe people haven't been forthcoming with having tokens after realizing it, and the ones who have publicly announced it are now hiding under family names or groups of guards.

I looked at Kat, my head tilted in a question, but received a message a second later through my party skill. It was our only real form of private communication.

[PMS, Kat: There's been a lot of murders in various towns, including both capitals. What people do for power is sometimes or most times like this. ]

I shook my head. I could understand wanting to be part of an event from how rare it was, but sometimes it was unnerving how cruel a person could be.

“Aster, Good job on the descent, but you didn't use your tail to help slow your fall. You need to take advantage of every ability you have.” Graves said, gesturing to the appendage.

I rolled my eyes after looking away so he didn't see. My tail and ears, both resembling the wolf form my mother had, were still less than a year old and annoyingly hard to control. Graves asking me to try to keep it flat against the wind while falling through the sky was just stupid, not that there was any way I was going to tell him that.

Somehow, he still knew. “Aster, seeing as you still have the energy to disagree, Josh is waiting by the dirt pit to work on your hand-to-hand.

I groaned at his words as they brought up the aches from a few days ago when I'd last sparred with that maniac. Josh, for lack of a better word, was addicted to learning new ways to fight, and when I'd shown up using a bow, He'd taken it as a challenge to find a style of fighting that could be used without getting in the way of using a bow at a moments notice.

I gave Kat, who was now getting lectured by Graves for running off in the middle of a fight, a long look of exasperation before I walked off with Umbra at my side.

“You would think that gaining our next advancement would give us at least one day off,” I grumbled to Umbra, using the bond to speak privately, not wanting to risk giving up more time to training.

Josh was waiting where he always was when we were getting ready to spar. The dirt pit was, as an accurate name, a twenty-five-foot rough circle of dark brown, almost black dirt. Umbra turned to track into the grass and lay down as I made my way onto the dirt.

“Bring your claws?” He asked with a grin. It was a rhetorical question that had been asked way too many times and started by Kat.

As a response, I reached into the spatial crystal that was inset and hidden by the collar that Kulni, my mother, had given me before I left the forest. Pulling them out, I took a look over them for any damage and, like I'd been taught with my bow, identified them.

[Scale Knuckle Gloves - Uncommon - Made for close-range engagement, these gloves feature sharpened dragon scales above the knuckles and dragon scales in the palm.]

The idea had come from Josh after several other failed attempts with daggers, shortswords, and even a whip. Kat, once finding out about the idea and that it actually worked, hadn't let me live down the fact that they were almost like claws and suited me perfectly. Sliding them on, I enjoyed the fit that only came when you helped aid in the creation of an item.

What came next was a series of stretches and poses that loosened my body up and would help the sore muscles after training. Once done, Josh drew a stick. The reason he didn't draw a sword was that he didn't need one, as proved by previous spars.

“We'll start with a spar, make use of the bow, claws, and any skills. If we're lucky, then you might just gain a level in one before the advancement.” Josh spoke as he took his stance and waited.

Taking out my bow from storage, I took out my arrows and slid five into the loops on my back and kept one in my hand. I paused as an idea crossed my mind. I took one of the arrows off my back and replaced it with one that had a blue tip. This earned a raised eyebrow from Josh, but I didn't explain. I watched Josh for any tricks as I readied myself and, after a second, decided to be the first to act.

“Careful, you haven't tested them yet.” Umbra worried through the bond. I sent a mental acknowledgment back as I imbued my only offensive skill, Frosted Arrow, into the arrow.

Taking aim, I started the spar. The arrow wasn't aimed at him but at the ground in front of him, and as it hit the ground, it began to frost over the area. After the first spar, I'd learned that trying to hit him dead on wouldn't work, and workarounds had to be made if I had any chance of winning.

Josh was in grade four and didn't even need to use a skill to outclass me in every way, but when we sparred, he restrained his artubitues to equal a middle-level grade two. Even at that point, he still kicked my ass in any fair fight, so I'd started to play dirty.

My first goal was to give myself an advantage with the terrain. As I drew another arrow, Josh moved and, easily jumping over the frozen patch in the ground, moved to try to close the distance. Not ready for a hand-to-hand yet, I made use of my second most used skill in combat, Stalkers Movement. The skill had saved my life more times than I really cared to count, and now it proved its worth again as I kicked off the ground in an arc over and past Josh, forcing him to change direction as I imbued my second arrow. Stalkers Movement, according to Graves, was not classified as a movement skill but an enhancement skill. What made the difference between the two was that Stalkers movement didn't directly affect my speed but affected all my movement. In addition to the momentum it gave when pressing off of something, it allowed me to bend slightly more than most people and react faster.

As I landed, I let my second arrow fly, impacting the ground right in front of Josh again, forcing him to jump. Like most spars I'd had, it became obvious to anyone that if I continued to bounce around, this spar would be based on our mana and stamina pools and who would run out faster. Seeing as I was the only one using mana, it would be me.

This is where my idea came into play. It was an idea I'd had for a long time and worked on: rune-etched arrows. The idea wasn't uncommon among archers, but neither was it seen as worth it to most. Most archers had a team to act as a front line, and they stayed decently far from any risk of danger so they could rely on their skills. As for me? In The future, when it was just me and Umbra, I wanted as many tricks available as possible.

Pulling the arrow off my back, I let Stalkers Movement carry me backward with a kick, giving me more space. The only difference between this arrow compared to the rest I had was its tip. Coated in a blue dye, it would hide the runes that I had spent days making until it fired.

Trying to keep my face from giving anything away to Josh, who kept his relentless approach coming, I let my mana flow into the arrow and runes. The light blue glow it gave off was only slightly different from my normal Frosted Arrow, but it was enough to have Josh narrow his eyes and move faster. He wasn't fast enough at his limited speed, and with almost a hundred mana put into the runes, I let it fly at Josh.