DEMON'S VIRTUE

"Glat. Straight back." Eiro said, holding onto the Hobgoblin Swordswoman's shoulder and pushing it back while lightly pressing onto her lower back. Since she seemed to adjust to this rather quickly, the demon moved on. "Sagit. Hand on your chin." He told the archer, making sure that the hand that she held the bowstring with was positioned properly.

"And you, Gobo..." The Demon looked the Hobgoblin's stance up and down and tried to figure out if there was anything wrong with it in particular, and then smiled in satisfaction, "A combat-pole was perfect for you, huh?" Eiro muttered, "Well, all five of you, keep doing this all day until we're back." Eiro told them, and the five Hobgoblins didn't even seem to think about doing anything but follow the Demon's command.

Seeing that this was the case, Eiro closed down the entrance to the cave that he and the others had been using as a small base and then lifted Avalin and Leon up to Lugo's back.

"Can we go?" Krog asked impatiently, already eagerly waiting to leave, and Eiro quickly nodded his head, "Mhm. Then lead the way. I'll take over when we're outside again."

And so, the group swiftly left the Goblin village again and went on their way to the nest of the spiders that followed them before. On their way, Krog inquired about something that he seemed to be quite curious about.

"So, about the Life Force manipulation thing..." He started, "How long did it take you to reach the point we're at right now?"

After a bit of thought, Eiro looked the others up and down to see how they were doing. Eiro instructed them to try and concentrate their life force onto their legs and back for this, since that would make the hike a bit easier. At the same time, it let Eiro figure out how well they could manipulate their life force at this point.

"Hm... I think it took me a couple of hours, maybe." Eiro pointed out, "But be aware, with my scholar ability, I am able to relive anything I have ever done as if I was doing it again nearly instantaneously. So basically, I was able to instantly figure out what mistakes I made and where I might be able to change something for the better. At the beginner stages, it's not really necessary to do physical training to increase your control of life force, after all."

With a confused expression, Krog started slowing down, "Wait, then why was I carrying a fu-... really heavy boulder around on our way here? You said it was to help me with the manipulation training."

"Yeah, I did. And it probably did. I said it's not necessary to do physical training, not that physical training is useless. My method isn't necessarily viable for someone like you." With that explanation, Eiro looked at Jess and James, "For those two, it did make sense. So, I showed Jess a training method similar to the mana manipulation training I'm having her do simultaneously. And James just had to fill his prosthetic up properly, because it's really hard to manipulate the life force of others. I thought this way was a good practice fitted to your individual needs."

"Eh... Are you calling me too dumb to use that kinda training?" Krog muttered, since that's what he understood from what Eiro said, and the Demon just shook his head annoyedly, "Despite the fact that this was an incredibly dumb question, no, I don't think you're dumb. But out of everyone here, you simply have the least talent for any sort of magic casting or manipulation, as most warriors like you do. And there's nothing wrong with that, but since Life Force manipulation is somewhat similar to mana manipulation, I'm pretty sure that you would struggle with that method. So instead, we're using this different method for you. And it's working perfectly, you've made very similar progress to Jess and James." Eiro explained, "So stop complaining already, it's annoying."

It seemed like Krog properly understood what Eiro was getting at with this, so he ended up rather satisfied, although this all opened up more nervosity from someone else.

"Actually, why am I learning how to manipulate my Life Force? Do you want me to start fighting? I mean, like... Hitting others with my staff or something?" Jess asked rather nervously, and Eiro slowly shook his head. And then he realized that he forgot about a pretty important part of the explanation about combat making use of Life Force.

Without hesitation, Eiro bit into his index finger to make a little bit of blood come out, and then froze that blood and turned it into something like a claw. He looked at Lugo and made him stop, and then made James, Jess and Krog gather around him.

He grabbed each of their arms and just so slightly pricked their arms with that small claw.

"This is how it normally is, right? Just one damage done to each of you, like the slight prick of a needle. It's damage that recovers nearly immediately." Eiro explained, and then went ahead to just prick their arms again. This time, however, it was when he had Life Force in the claw and pushed it into the others during the pricking.

"What the..? It did five damage?" James asked with a deep frown, and Eiro quickly nodded his head, "Mhm. In order to increase the damage that I did to you guys, I used up some of my life force just now. It was worth roughly 10 Health for each one of you. That means it's something fairly dangerous in combat, since it costs more than it brings, but it's something that can change the tide of a battle." Eiro explained to them, and then chose to start walking again to explain the rest while they were moving.

"This kind of thing is definitely useful, but it's simply not possible for most meelee combatists, because their health is their greatest ressource during a fight, and because it's hard to find a good way to make use of this ability that wouldn't completely negate the damage your weapon would normally do, because you need a part of your body for it, for example blood. It's different for a mage, as long as you can manipulate water, you can make use of these sorts of attacks as well. That's why you're learning it as well, Jess."

"So... Instead of wanting me to start fighting people in close quarters, you want me to cut into my hand and basically sacrifice my own health in return for doing more damage?"

"Yes, and no. It's a last straw, really. As I said, it can turn the tide of a battle. You don't need to turn the tide if it's flowing in your favor already." Eiro replied, "That, and being able to use more physical strength than others would expect should also be pretty useful in many situations. In case someone tries to overwhelm you when you don't expect it. I heard of that kind of thing, which is a huge reason for why I'm going to teach it to my girls as well."

"Right..." James replied with a wry smile as he looked at Avalin on Lugo's back, while she was simply looking around excitedly as if it was her first time opening her eyes ever, "A girl like that, running around with disproportionate strength... Sounds about right."

With a light smile, Eiro just moved on and looked forward. They were getting somewhat close to the spider-nest, so he chose to wrap it up for now, "Anyway, for a week's worth of practice, I'd say all of your guys' progress is pretty good. So go ahead and show me that progress. We're nearly there." Eiro told them, and it really only took a few minutes to find the first proof of the fact that the demon was completely right.

Cobwebs were spread around the trees and it was nearly impossible to walk a single step without making some sort of contact with some of them. Numerous small, unthreatening spiders were crawling around the trees, and Eiro could already notice the first larger spiders, the monsters, approaching. And so, Eiro turned toward Leon.

"Alright, so instead of your red aura, we'll try the same with the black one, alright?" Eiro asked, and watched as Leon slowly closed his eyes. Step by step, Eiro walked the boy through this, and soon felt light goosebumps on his skin.

The small spiders on the ground were already avoiding Lugo now as well, so it really all seemed to work properly. They would just need to adjust it a little so that the spiders wouldn't end up attacking Avalin, Leon and Lugo but would still approach Jess, James and Krog. They would be walking in a slight distance to each other anyway, but this was still a pretty useful practice for Leon.

These abilities were really incredibly useful as long as Leon was able to actually control them. They were obviously also quite dangerous, but Eiro trusted that his son wouldn't just go on random rampages without any reason, so it was fine.

"You three, from now on, I won't be helping you except when it gets life-threatening for you. I won't help you find your way to the nest, or warn you of enemies. Just do your best." Eiro announced to them rather clearly, and since the three of them were already prepared for this to begin with, they just nodded their heads and got ready for combat, while Eiro did his best to at least somewhat distract the children so that they wouldn't have to see fights like this for a whole day.

Soon, the first spiders approached, and they were taken out rather quickly by the party of three while they were working together. It might have even been a little faster than the time it took Eiro to kill the spiders at the top of the cliff last night.

Either way, the fact that these spiders were now killed meant that Jess, James and Krog gained the attention of the whole group. And so, without stopping, the three of them just fought and fought and fought. They stayed surprisingly silent, as they were mostly able to communicate without words, as if they had some sort of telepathic bond.

It was pretty impressive, and Eiro could tell that after just an hour, all of them actually leveled up at least once. James actually managed to level up twice. At first, Eiro thought that with two arms James' strength was far, far higher than he remembered, but then, he noticed the James was actually overdoing himself a little.

He was fighting like he really had two proper arms, but it really wasn't like that. James wasn't used to fighting like this anymore, but he himself dind't notice this.. To Eiro, it seemed like this subjugation would get rather interesting.