The Clerics went inside while Karl taught the children, leaving only a few junior Priestesses with him, as they were instinctively drawn to Thor, who was currently napping in the sun.
So, when Karl went from hands-on training the young beasts to writing, nobody in charge noticed.
[This will be great. I’m sure I can use Rend.] Cara was laughing as Karl finished the second copy of the book.
He had been careful to make sure the kids were not paying attention as he worked, and they had thought he was just doing paperwork, so they hadn’t realized that he was doing anything special.
Karl passed the book into her space, and the book vanished as soon as the Void Badger touched it.
“Alright, does everyone understand the rules to the Thor challenge? You have to extend your barrier in front of yourself and charge at your training partner. Whoever’s shield fails first loses. Then the winners challenge each other. The last one standing gets this Skill Book.” Karl explained.
This was likely a terrible idea, giving new skills to citizens of a hostile nation. But they were baby clerics in training, and they were all beasts or beastkin with claws. They should be able to use Rend, or they could trade it with the others for something they needed.
Most beasts couldn’t innately use it, as they didn’t hunt like Hawk did. Instead, they would have [Claw] or [Shred], sometimes [Slash].
The Priestesses looked up when they heard the first collision, but the kids looked like they were playing, so they went back to sunning themselves with Thor.
The Acolytes were really invested in the game, running full speed at each other, not caring that most of the effect was going to be from the two shields interacting with each other. If they could hit hard enough that their target lost their footing, they would also lose focus on the barrier, and most of them had only just learned to expand it, so they would lose.
After a few minutes, the noise drew the elder clerics back outside. They paused for a moment as they saw what looked like the kids roughhousing, but the organization showed that it was some sort of unorthodox training exercise.
There were only four left. The young Gryphon, a half dragon, the Fire Basilisk and a Felian who had learned an earth shield skill.
They were all under six years old, and all Awakened, so the contest was a hard fought one, but they were all exhausted, and they were barely stumbling towards each other when the High Priests came back out.
They weren’t known to push themselves this hard in training without a reason, so the Elders stopped to watch as the Felian lost to the Gryphon, and the half dragon continually clashed with the Fire Basilisk until he actually passed out from exhaustion.
Once they were out, Remi doused them with a healing splash and Thor put Eternal Lightning over them to help recover their energy, but the latest few defeated acolytes would still be in no shape to watch the finals.
Half Dragon and Gryphon squared off and flapped their wings, crashing barriers together at a remarkable speed that made the clerics flinch.
Someone could be seriously injured with this game, and they would have to ban it before the kids tried it unsupervised and someone broke their neck.
Four times they collided and flew apart, then on the fifth, they collided with a shattering of shields, and crashed shoulders together.
“That’s a draw. Congratulations to our two winners. Now, I only have one book for you, but I think that I can come up with another prize.”
[Give them a stone.] Thor suggested.
He was very pleased with the game, enough that he was willing to part with one of his precious Holy Stones.
“Alright, I have two rewards. Do you know the game of rock, paper, scissors?” Karl asked.
The two laughed, and the half dragon stood up straighter, smirking at the Gryphon, who was sitting on its haunches, so its clawed front feet were free to play the game.
“1, 2, 3, GO”
“1, 2, 3, GO Ha, I win. Scissors beat paper.” The Half Dragon cheered.
Karl held out his hands, the stone in one and the book in the other.
“You won the showoff, so you pick first.”
The girl grabbed the book and held it over her head, cheering, before she opened it and the book vanished.
Then the Gryphon gave a happy coo and plucked the stone from Karl’s hand.
The half lion, half bird monster promptly ate the stone, leaving Karl staring at it in confusion.
[It’s storing the stone in its gizzard. It won’t leave there, and it will be used to grind its food, imbuing everything it eats with a bit of Holy Energy from now on.] Thor explained.
“Wait, NO!” The clerics were shouting as they ran over.
“It’s alright. It’s just a Holy Stone, it won’t hurt anyone.” Karl shouted back, thinking that they were concerned about him giving candy to the Gryphon.
“Not that. The skill book. You let a child use a skill book.” The Priestess sighed.
“It’s only a [Rend] book, I can get more when I get home.” Karl explained.
“Still, skill books are incredibly valuable, you don’t give them as presents to children.”
One of the other kids laughed. “So are Holy Stones, and Emma ate one of those.”
The clerics sighed and glared at Karl, while Thor and Remi laughed.
[Hey, all clerics use that same look. It’s not just a dragon cleric thing.] Remi noted.
[I think it’s a special Karl thing.] Hawk suggested.
[No, they give the same look to Lotus.] Thor reminded him.
“You really don’t understand why we’re upset, do you?” One of the clerics demanded.
“Relax, I promised them the Rend skill if they won, and I paid in full. It would be an insult to the gods to cheat their Acolytes.”
“How many of your beasts can use that skill?” The Felian catgirl who had come to get information from Karl earlier asked.
“Just Hawk and Cara. The others don’t actually have claws, so they’re not well suited to it. They have other ways to attack.”
[Oh, I bet I can put Disintegration on Rend and throw the skill even further. This is a good skill.] Cara realized.
[Rend flies much better than thrown balls.] Hawk agreed.
Cara was going to be a menace the next time they got into battle. Disintegrate was dangerous enough on its own as a Monarch Rank skill.
The Clerics sighed in frustration, and Orthos smirked at them.
“Those are all important questions, but you’re asking the wrong questions. What you should be asking is how he taught the kids to use such complex applications of their innate skills before they were even old enough for school.” The Dragon suggested.
Karl knew perfectly well what the reason was. [Skill Master] didn’t require the beasts to be bonded, and the ones that had done the best were all at least half beast.
He had completely forgotten that he had the skill active constantly, as it was an essential for his team. But when he was focusing on teaching a skill, it was even more effective, as it was targeted.
