CHAPTER 113: THIS IS BULLYING

This is Bullying

’This should be interesting.’ Fredrick thought as he focused on the scene in front of him.

While Osho’s performance thus far had been exemplary, inevitably, his beast was more powerful than him. That’s just how things worked in their world.

Since the start of the exam, Gale hadn’t done much besides display his incredible speed and one-shot a fellow Apprentice rank Beast. He’d also helped with those monkeys. But other than that, he’d more or less been a silent presence.

However, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that Gake was a different kind of Beast. From being able to suppress his fellow Beasts with a glance, to effortlessly dancing around the attacks of an Adept rank Beast, and so on.

So everyone was curious to see just what the bird could do, and it seemed like they’d get the chance now.

Osho walked across the ground at a leisurely pace, somewhat paying attention to the others dealing with the Alligators, but most of his attention was on Gale and the leading Alligator. As for why he didn’t rush forward? Well, he had no confidence in being able to defend himself from a stray attack by the Alligator, and being too close would only cause issues. Hence, he wasn’t in a rush to go forward.

As for whether Gale wasn’t enough to handle the alligator? Well, the thought had crossed his mind, but at worst, Gale could just leave.

’Go ahead.’ Osho said simply through the bond.

As soon as the intent was transmitted, the Alligator roared and pulled out torrents of swamp water from the swamp and created a wave several meters tall to drown the bird.

Gale watched the attack approach before effortlessly flying over it. That wasn’t all, though, as from that same water, dozens of high-pressure beams of water shot out from different directions, covering multiple angles at once which would, under normal circumstances, make dodging impossible.

But Gale was anything but normal.

In a show of pure speed and agility, the bird almost seemed to teleport, and the beams of water only went through an afterimage.

Gale reappeared a moment later and created several small tornadoes around himself. The pull each one had was quite powerful, which was apparent as more beams of water came, but they got sucked into the tornadoes and did no harm to Gale.

The Alligator growled and stomped its stocky legs on the ground, causing several roots from the surrounding mangrove trees to break through the ground and aim their sharp points at Gale before shooting forward.

That wasn’t all, though, as the surrounding trees also moved as branches and vines started to gather and whip near the bird, aiming to restrain his movements.

Gale, once more, paid this no heed as he simply dove forward with incredible speed, and strangely enough, their branches and vines that did get close seemed to almost slow down before they could reach him. This was interesting because Gale didn’t do anything to cause this. At least, not consciously.

The game of cat and mouse continued as Gale continued to dance around the Alligator with an almost amusing amount of ease. However, the spectators didn’t see it that way.

"Oh my, it seems like Osho’s Beast can only avoid the attacks of the Alligator. But it makes sense, getting closer is far too dangerous, but as things stand, their goal of buying time until the others are freed up should be possible." Mira exclaimed as several screens showed the battle.

The reactions of the crowd varied, with many people rooting for the bird while others thought he was biting off more than he could chew.

Inside the VIP lounge, the people were discussing animatedly as this fight also caught their attention, with some people even making bets on how they believed the battle to play out.

’Any attempt at trying to bind Gale caused a reaction from his bloodline, making it so that the things trying to bind or suppress him automatically become less effective.’ Lady Haggai, ever the observer, took note when she saw how Gale seemed almost untouchable. Not to mention.

’It’s getting faster.’ She noted, and after a bit of deliberation, she came up with a theory.

’The suppression we subjected him to during the training revolved around pushing his limits, but was ultimately beneficial. Moreover, the things we used, like weight-increasing objects and high-gravity environments, were amplified by Mana which had no will of its own. Largely directionless with its coordination being dictated by our actions, but still only doing what Mana of those affinities tend to do without any real drive or intent behind it. As such, while the rate of adaptation was faster, it was still relatively tame. In this situation, though, the Mana within the attacks that aim to bind him has actual intent, a genuine desire to slow him down and keep him still. This triggers an instinctive reaction from his bloodline to actively resist being bound, despite not actually having been bound yet. Which makes me wonder just how extreme the reaction would be if he did eventually get caught. But as things stand, I don’t see that happening.’ She hummed and added the observation to her ever-growing notes on Gale.

Back to the battle, Osho watched as Gale continued to, quite literally, fly circles around the Alligator.

However, it didn’t take long for him to notice something.

’He’s getting bored.’ Osho thought. Gale initially got pretty excited as the Alligator attacked him with moves that were quite a bit more potent than the other creatures they’d faced during this exam.

However, that excitement quickly started to fade for a few reasons. For one, they were having less and less of an effect on Gale.

If before, each dodge was a close call, now, they barely reached Gale. Moreover, the Alligator was not very innovative with its attacks.

They were all quite straightforward. Whether they were large waves of water, high-pressure water beams, or the mangrove trees whipping attacks, or trying to impale Gale. It was all so... lacking.

’Well, it’s a bit much to expect more from it. It’s still a wild beast in the end.’ Osho thought with a sigh as he saw, or rather felt Gale decide to attack.

One moment, Gale was avoiding another barrage of attacks, and in the next, he was suddenly smashing down on the back of the alligator, beak first as a powerful wind current surrounded him.

It happened so fast that it looked as though someone skipped several seconds into the future. That’s how jarring the change was.

The ground shattered beneath the Alligator as the impact reverberated through its body, stunning it for a second.

Gale righted himself and looked at the stab wound caused by his attack. Without much fanfare, he raised his talons and started tearing into it with a vengeance.

The pain seemed to snap the alligator out of its daze as it roared as the moisture on its body condensed into a single spike of water that tried to stab Gale from behind. But before it hit, the bird vanished again.

The Alligator looked around frantically before using its Mana sense to try and ascertain the position of the bi-

Another powerful impact was made as something fast flew by and smashed the Alligator with so much force that it was thrown back dozens of meters, breaking through a few trees in the process.

This time, though, Gale didn’t bother to stop as he simply turned around and flew at the Alligator once more, his cheat of a bloodline allowing him to accelerate instantly as he once more smashed into the body of the Alligator, leaving a nasty wound as he geared up for another attack.

Watching this, Osho was suddenly reminded of the Peregrine Falcon of Earth, the fastest creature on the planet.

They relied on the immense speed and relied on dive attacks to come at their prey, using the horrific kinetic energy to smash into them and take them out.

He felt like Gale was doing something similar, but also far more devastating.

However, he sensed that Gale wasn’t really going all out, mostly because he was doing all of this with raw speed and hardly used any magic, which also made Osho think.

’Hm, now that I think about it, I haven’t made Gale do much besides using wind blades, turn himself into a bullet, increase the atmospheric pressure, and use the sky as a fabric to deflect attacks.’ He mused. There was also the time when he had finished off that Apprentice rank coyote, but the premise behind that attack was still the same, with Gale acting like a bullet.

’Hm. I can easily say if it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it, but we should definitely increase his repertoire of magic-based skills.’ Osho concluded, especially with his sky Affinity.

Well, he already had more than a few skills in mind that he wanted Gale to perform, and had even transmitted them to the bird via their bond. They’d just... never used them.

’Hm. Gale.’ Osho suddenly called out.

’Yes?’ The bird replied after his latest dive bomb.

’You mind trying out that Ozone Blade move I showed you?’ He asked.

’Uhhh... Oh! Sure!’ Gale replied, sounding happy to oblige.

’Then do it.’

’Okay!’