31. Training prep pt 4

Silently walking through the forest, listening to the songs sung from beautiful birds that inhabited the forest, the group soon walked up upon a scene.

The characters being a large 20 ft tall, 35 ft long griffin, a creature characterized by its back half being of a lion and its front half being that of an eagle, namely its head, wings and front legs.

And the other character being a deer-like creature, the reason it was deer-like was because this was of a much larger size, around 11 ft tall and 13 ft long, as well as its antlers seemingly beginning to turn into ice at the tips.

It should be noted that as beast's reach the third order and refine their blood, their element affinity or bloodline affinity begins to affect their appearance.

As mentioned before, that fourth order eagle, which had characteristics of its feathers transitioning from brown to red which showed its strong fire affinity.

And much like that eagle, this deer seemed to have a strong affinity for ice, and though it wasn't able to wield mana yet, its affinity was already beginning to affect its appearance.

The griffin was currently distracted, brutally tearing apart the deer with its sharp beak, easily slicing through the tough hide and ripping muscle like it was thin cloth.

While it was distracted with its meal, the direction the group had come from just so happened to be in the griffins blind spot.

Upon seeing the griffin, the siblings were mesmerized by the beautiful creature.

"Woah what is that?"

"I've never seen anything like it before, it looks weird but majestic at the same time".

Eris quietly whispered in wonder.

"That is a griffin, one of the few formidable beasts below the fourth order that can attack in the air and on ground".

Osiris spoke, to which Eris quickly but quietly exclaimed in surprise.

"What, a griffin!".

"I didn't really think those were real, the only animals we see in the periphery of the forest ate the usual bears, wolves, foxes and other usual wildlife".

"I mean i've heard people say that they have seen animals like these before but i always thought they were myths".

To which Osiris informed.

"The reason creatures like these aren't seen in public as much is because they need an environment with more mana concentration, so naturally they rarely leave from the inner rings of the forest".

A look of realization dawned on Eris, before saying.

"I see".

Osiris then turned to Aria and said.

"Lend me your spear and I can show you how a spear user would fight".

To which she readily handed it over, a sparkle in her eyes at the opportunity to learn from her husband, who seemed to know absolutely everything.

After taking the spear, Osiris turned around towards the griffin and began walking towards it while saying.

"Make sure the three of you stay here where it's safe, and pay close attention to everything I do".

"Even if you don't use a spear, you might still be able to learn or comprehend something".

Reaching within 50 ft of the griffin, it had finally sensed Osiris's presence.

Turning around, it gazed at Osiris as though he was an inferior being with his peak second order aura, and that agitated Osiris.

The feeling of his own prey looking down on him with disdain, even when he could easily slaughter it in minutes or even seconds, angered him.

And though Osiris wasn't controlled by his emotions, the feeling of anger made him want to taste blood.

Raising his spear, Osiris pushed off the ground with his right leg, leaving a small crater in the ground and launching him flying towards the griffin in moments.

Seeing his speed startled the griffin, and made it take this fight much more seriously, as it barely managed to doge Osiris' strike which would have gone right through its skull.

It retaliated with a swipe of its right eagle claw, slashing at Osiris's torso, but Osiris deflected it with a weird but precise angle on one of its claws that made its attack miss entirely.

"Watch how I defend, notice how instead of blocking the strike entirely, i thrusted my spear into a nerve in the eagle's hand which caused the attack to miss".

"That's because you also have to account for your weapon as well, a normal steel weapon like this spear would get turned to scrap metal quickly against opponents with much stronger power than your weapon can handle".

Osiris suddenly started to calmly shout, which slightly confused the griffin since it couldn't understand what he was saying and couldn't sense any nearby presence.

However Adam, Aria and Eris, who were outside the Griffin's sense radius, understood everything Osiris was teaching, silently taking notes.

Osiris then quickly moved around the griffin, moving his feet in a way that made him move nimble and fast, and changing it in a way that gave him more power in his attacks.

"Watch my footwork, note how I'm light on my feet one second and stable as a tree the next when I go for an attack".

He said while thrusting his spear into the griffins wing, which sent the hybrid into a rage.

"Also take note of where I'm attacking, immobilizing its wings first so that it doesn't get the chance to fly away and escape when it realizes it's in danger".

The griffin, now enraged, began to hack and slash at him fiercely, even using its razor sharp beak to bite a chunk out of him.

Osiris began to doge more than deflect and defend, the result of the weak steel spear, however this just added another level of difficulty to this demonstration.

After about an hour of hacking, slashing, defending, evadeing and whatnot, there was a noticeable change in the way the eagle moved.

Its attacks are much slower and sluggish, its breath a lot more haggard and its ability to doge Osiris's attacks being lackluster to before.

Its body was now covered in slash and stab wounds, heavily leaking blood with every movement.

"Notice how after it got angry, it began using all of its power on every attack, resulting in its stamina plummeting very quickly".

"And what was a battle that could have taken hours to finish, with opportunities to think of strategies to get past my defense and land a hit on me, is now a battle that only took an hour and it is now heavily exhausted".

"The lesson being to take control of your emotions while in battle, not letting them affect your conscious thought and actions, as well as taking note of the pace of the battle and stamina usage".

"Never let a battle drag out until you're exhausted, because that will lead to mistakes near the end, and even if you defeat your opponent, you will be vulnerable to attacks from possible opponents afterwards as well".

He spoke, while the griffin seemed to realize the dire-ness of the situation.

This sudden distraction and Griffin's unconscious move to retreat left it momentarily defenseless.

Taking the opportunity, Osiris lunged with the spear in hand, stabbing the griffin through the neck and spine, making it collapse onto the ground in paralysis.

Dying on its last breaths, Osiris spoke.

"Final lessons for this battle, never get distracted and leave openings for your opponent".

"Never falter in the middle of combat, either devise a way to safely retreat quickly, or fight with everything till your last breath".

"And lastly, never pick battles where you fear you will lose".

He said while staring into the griffin's eyes, before pulling the spear out of its neck and thrusted it into its skull.