The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 686  Shade Of The Lotus Tree

The day's training was taking place in the shade of Lotus' [Tree of Life] form, which was standing in the middle of the training grounds, overseeing everything so that she could heal the inevitable injuries and strains that would come from such extreme exertion. Most of the time, the injuries had healed before the soldiers had even noticed that they had been wounded, but Thor was keeping barriers over everyone, so none of it was too major, other than one broken leg which had to be set after a bad fall during grappling training.

Such accidents were to be expected with hard training, and there were plenty of clerics on hand to take care of the issue, even if they didn't have Lotus in tree form in the middle of the training grounds.

But that was a minor setback for him, and the soldier was back to regular training again within a few hours. So, with everyone so focused on training, they were caught completely off guard when a horde of reporters descended upon the training grounds.

"High Priestess, can you tell us anything about your feelings on today's announcement from the President's Office?" One of the reporters shouted to Tessa, who was near the edge of the sand.

Tessa gave her a confused look, and walked over to see what they were on about.

"I'm not sure what you mean. We haven't seen the news, as we have been here training all day." She explained.

"The President's Office announced that all active duty Church Soldiers would have the chance at a second awakening for their service. Is this true? What are the odds for the soldiers to gain Elite status? Does the War Goddess have any thoughts on the matter?"

The questions were asked all at once by different reporters, and Tessa put on her best public relations smile. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"These soldiers here have already been given that opportunity. As I understand it, close to one in ten soldiers was moved from the standard unit to a special training force, but I am not privy to any more details than that.

The War Goddess is naturally pleased that there are more capable combatants, but it will take time for them to be ready to serve as Elites, much like the students who were awakened with the Divine Injection.

Unfortunately, for any more details than that, you will have to go to the Strategic Planning Office." She explained.

"Are these young Elites not freshly awakened soldiers?" One of the reporters asked.

Tessa shook her head. "No, these ones were awakened early as part of a separate project. They are not soldiers of the Church, or at least they aren't yet. However, they are performing quite admirably, and I am sure that they would not object to being the backdrop for your daily news articles.

However, I must insist that you do not interrupt their training, as this is a crucial time in their development before they officially join the Academy later this week."

That was good enough for the reporters, who were happily clicking pictures for the news of the intensive training program for the next few minutes, as well as taking short videos of the young Elites practising their skills.

It was all great footage for the news, and the faces of the cadet Elites would be blurred if the content was deemed sensitive, as they hadn't been officially inducted or signed any waivers for the use of their likeness.

The chaos that the videos would cause when they were leaked later that day was not even part of their calculations. After all, how were they to know that the presence of the handful of obviously inhuman and unknown trainers in the group would cause an uproar among every nation that found out about them?

Thor could be passed off as a human Paladin. But only if he had his helmet on. With his extended ears and green hair, there was no doubt that he was not a human. Rae was much less human, while neither Cara nor Hawk were even trying.

Hawk was just using System Messages to give instructions on the proper use of fire magic, while Cara enjoyed the show and occasionally volunteered as a training partner.

The Overlords were already well known to everyone else, so the respect that they showed to the new inhuman arrivals was a sign that they were not Commanders or other mundane trainers.

Then there were the skills that they were teaching. The warriors were practising a shield bash to overhand chop with [Slash] combo that just seemed to be off somehow.

Shield Bash, the skill, had a distinctive motion and glow on the shield that this skill didn't have. But the effect was clearly intended to be the same.

Compared to that, the fact that the young mage was using a Golem and magic missiles to train in defence against multiple attackers was much less concerning.

The Rogue, on the other hand, was incredibly concerning. Everyone who was anyone knew Niall was the head assassin for the Inquisition, and the fact that he was training a young prodigy in public with an unknown foreign assassin was extremely concerning to the leadership of every nation on the continent.

The first thought was that this was a subtle flex by the Golden Dragon Church, showing off one of their new killers in training. She was obviously young, but her combat skills were far beyond the average.

Sybil was highly motivated that day. Lotus had discovered that there might be a way to fix her hearing. Her eardrums had grown in wrong, a developmental anomaly. But it was how her body thought that they were supposed to be, so healing spells didn't change it. Lotus' plan was to let Cara precision disintegrate the inner ear, while Lotus regenerated it. If her theory was correct, unlike damaging it and healing it, completely disintegrating it should cause it to grow back in the way that Lotus understood ears to work, not how Sybil's body had grown it the first time.

It was definitely not a Church approved method, as a small error would cause permanent nerve damage, or obliterate a portion of her brain. But Cara was confident that she could do it.