GUARDIAN OF THE END

Days passed by in this manner. Izzy continued to train the children using various kinds of weapons.

Reflexes were something that couldn't be developed easily once someone reached adulthood and above.

The sooner you developed them, the better it would be.

Due to Jason's help, Wade had also started improving. He no longer flinched when an object was thrown across him. His eyes, however, still closed when something sharp was about to his him.

"Now that all of you have stopped flinching in front of weapons, we will move towards a harder level of reflex training." Izzy announced after eight days of constant training.

"Will this training be difficult and taxing?" Zeke questioned.

He looked sleep deprived even after getting eight hours of sleep. As someone who preferred to sleep ten or more hours a day, the training schedule hadn't been suiting him well.

"If it isn't hard, why will I call it harder?" Izzy questioned back. "Anyways, all of you will no longer be restrained by me so you will have to control your body accordingly."

Her eyes turned away from the group and settled around hundred meters away from their location.

"You are going to train with life like creatures that are personally designed by me. I have observed you all for the past fifteen days and have considered everything that will help you improve yourself."

Izzy summoned five creatures made from darkness, each of them looking completely different from the other.

It was pretty clear which creature had been created for which one of them. The first letter of their names had been etched on their creature's forehead.

"You have to prevent yourself from being hit by their attacks for the next four hours. I know it can be tiring but you have to give your best," Izzy explained. "Also, three hits and you are out."

Without any warning, the creatures lunged towards the children.

Jason immediately activated his lightning and jumped away. His eyes glowed a bit as he deciphered the structure of the creature.

The beast formed from dark mana stood meters away from Jason in the form of a cat. It was three times his size and had claws that would put goth girls to shame.

Like a cat locking her gaze on a mouse, dark cat had her eyes fixed on Jason.

'This cat feels way to real for some reason.' He shuddered. 'Izzy knows what she is doing.'

The cat was perfect to fight with Jason due to its speed and ability to jump. For someone as quick as Jason, his opponent needed to match his speed.

'Let's see if you can make me push past my limits.' Jason grinned internally.

He launched himself away towards the cat. There wasn't that much free space available in the arena since all of them were facing their creatures.

Jason wanted to gain some experience in close range fighting. He was still bad at it and relied on his speed the most.

Dark-cat stood still on its spot. Something told it that if it took another step in Jason's direction, it would suffer a major blow.

Dark-cat decided to go with this feeling and used one of her skills. Strings of darkness shot from her body in the form of yarn thread and aimed towards Jason's limbs.

'Just as I thought, the cat can interpret my movements and think accordingly.' Jason smiled.

He changed course mid-air and threw a lightning web towards the yarn threads. Both attacks stuck together, becoming tangled.

Jason pushed more lightning towards his hands. His heartbeat echoed inside his ears wildly.

The silver-haired boy wasn't used to having this much lightning running inside his body. In his current state, Jason could light up a society on his own.

If this much power was forced towards any person at his rank or below his rank, they would experience an electrifying death.

'Let's see if you can handle it.' Jason raised his hands forward, the lightning crackling across his body.

The cat immediately lunged forward, its senses warning it to either stop Jason or run out of the arena.

The second option couldn't be chosen since the cat was too far from the entrance. Its only hope was attacking Jason first.

Jason released the concentrated lightning in the form of a tiger. By doing so, he made the cat feel inferior to its higher self.

His lightning cat and the dark cat clashed mid air. Jason made the lightning travel around the dark cat's body, thus paralyzing it.

Knowing that its end was near, the dark cat used its last bit of strength to launch a counter attack. It threw a yarn of dark mana in front of Jason to distract him.

The cat then threw another yarn secretly before succumbing to the lightning tiger. But before vanishing, it had a grin on its face.

'Something's wrong,' Jason's senses tingled when he saw that grin on the cat's face.

He had already dealt with the yarn in front of him yet he felt uneasy.

Jason's eyes scanned the area quickly but it was too late. The secret yarn had already made contact with his back and had expanded itself to wrap around his chest.

'Too tight…' Jason struggled to break free from the yarn. His struggles were useless.

"You can't break free from it. Perhaps if you had sensed it in time and ha dodged the attack, something might have been possible," Izzy commented.

She arrived in front of the yarn wrapped Jason and pressed her right index finger on the yarn. It slowly came undone and vanished, leaving him free.

"Haaaa…" Jason took a deep breath. His lungs had been squeezed tight by the yarn, leaving him with little to no room for breathing.

Jason now understood how important it was to train his reflexes and senses. Had it been a real battle, he would have been killed.

[ No, you are wrong. I could sense that yarn and had it been a real battle, Hestia would've tried to save you. ]

'Then why did neither of you do anything right now?' Jason questioned even though he had a feeling that he already knew the answer to his question.

[ Because a time might come where you won't have either of us. Its better to train yourself to be in peak condition even if you don't have both me and Hestia. ]

Jason didn't say anything. His eyes were watching his classmates fight the beasts despite now having any system or other entity to help them, except Amber.

Jason could tell that the magma salamander wasn't helping his vessel either. Both of them were on their own and had to train themselves accordingly.

"Miss Izzy, can I battle another cat?" Jason questioned his teacher.

"You can fight as many cats as you want." She replied with a smile.

Using her powers, Izzy created another cat for Jason. Her eyes were constantly roaming around the arena.

She monitored the position of all five of her children, constantly checking whether they needed her help or not. If she didn't do this, she would be an irresponsible teacher.

'We only have fifteen days left till the end of the month. Hopefully, I can prepare you for the trial of fears…'

***

Time continued to pass in this manner. In the span of ten days, the five children not only managed to hone their reflexes but also got some combat experience.

Izzy was immensely proud of them but there was still one thing that she needed to do.

"Are all of you familiar with the difference between a spell and skill?" she questioned during one of their training sessions.

All five of them nodded.

"Here, take this." Izzy suddenly produced five scrolls from thin air. Out of the five scrolls, one was red, one was orange, one was light blue, one was silver and the last one was deep purple.

She passed out the scrolls to the children. Jason understood the color scheme after that as all of them had received the scroll displaying their major element.

Though Jason wanted a dark element related thing, he was more than happy to receive something related to his thunder element.

"These scrolls contains the chants of different spells. You can consider them to be peak tier three spells which can deal quite the damage. However, all of them have an absurdly high mana usage.

Remember that you can only use these during emergencies and only if you have more than fifty percent of your mana. If you it below that percentage, you will be knocked out cold." Izzy warned them.

Jason's interest in the scrolls grew to a higher extent. He slowly opened the scroll and glanced at the words written on the inside.

'Under the dark clouds of misery, may the thunder dragon pave a path towards victory. Thunder Dragon's Wrath.' Jason felt a weird synchronization with the words.

It was as though they were calling him to use them. At the same time, a ringing sound echoed inside his mind, indicating a system notification.

A system window opened in the next second and displayed the notification to him.

---

< Thunder Dragon's Wrath [Pseudo Tier 4) >

Chant: Under the dark clouds of misery, may the thunder dragon pave a path towards victory.

Side Effects:

1. After the effects of the skill are over, you won't be able to use your limbs for the next twenty four hours.

2. Using this skill puts you at a fifty percent risk of destroying neurons connecting your limbs to the brain.

3. After the effects of the skill are over, you will able to control any natural source of lightning perfectly for the next twenty four hours.

---

Jason gulped nervously once he saw the details of the spell. The others had similar reactions but they didn't know of the side effects.

For them, the truth about the spell would only be revealed upon usage.

'System, do you think Izzy knew about these side effects?'

[ If she did, she would've told us about them. ]

'I feel the same.'

Jason glanced at the face of his teacher before sighing mentally. The trial was definitely going to be exciting and deadly.