Humans Don't Make Good Familiars- Part 65

Jake’s POV

“You’ll still need to present yourself to the Grand Duke when you return, but until his approval or disapproval you will be considered a named Neame.” The instructor clarified. Vindicta thanked him, and we got back to our report. We spent a solid hour being debriefed, and all I could think the whole time was how much I wanted to go home and shower, but I couldn’t just yet. “Okay, well take a rest for a few minutes, the rest of the recruits are just about to start today’s familiar combat training.”

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Suma’s POV

“Line up!” The drill instructor yelled at all of us. There were about fifteen Neame, and their familiars, currently present for today’s combat training, including myself and Jake. I was perched on Jake’s saddle, and he had for some reason begun standing incredibly straight. I don’t know how he had the energy for it after we had spent all day climbing down Dragon’s Hoard. “Today’s exercise is to train your teamwork. Not between your fellow soldiers and medic, but between yourselves and your familiars.” The instructor loudly announced. “Look out onto today’s training area! You will see several metal dummies. Your goal today is to land three attacks on the dummies, to be clear, that is three for you and for your familiar as well. You may achieve these attacks as you see fit, but be warned,” he stopped talking. The dummy I was looking at suddenly started spinning and floating in the air, then it began to shoot flames from its center of mass. “These dummies like to hit back.” The instructor concluded his… rousing.. speech by asking who wanted to go first.

“I will sir,” one Neame volunteered. I didn’t know his name, but it was the one with the Black Serpent familiar.

“A member of our last familiar training session’s winning team, step forward Lauric Isbala.” The instructor said. “Take whatever position on the field you’d like and begin on my order.” Lauric left his familiar’s saddle and flew to a boulder on the battlefield. His familiar went to the opposite end of the field and hid inside a pocket of tall grass. Then the black serpent did something I certainly hadn’t expected… it disappeared.

“Now that is some good camouflage.” Jake mumbled.

“I knew Black Serpents could do such things, but I did not expect them to be so effective at it.” I said stunned. Seemingly, all of the recruits were impressed with Lauric’s familiar’s ability. So much so that we were all ordered to be silent by the instructor.

“Begin!” the instructor called out and Lauric and his familiar, which was now blending in almost perfectly with the tall yellow grass, went on the attack. Lauric flew high up and then dive bombed straight at the dummy, meanwhile his familiar snuck up behind it. As Lauric was falling, he launched a fire spell at the dummy, engulfing the creation in flames for a moment. Just as he neared impact, Lauric flared his wings, cutting his speed, and pulled up at to the right, narrowly missing one of the contraptions many segmented limbs that were splayed in all directions. Really it appeared more like a bush without any leaves rather than a training tool, but the fire that shot out of its limb and burned Lauric’s feathers told a different story.

“Reahhhhhhhiiiiisssss!” The serpent familiar cried out and launched itself through the air. Its body collided with the dummy and encircled it, then it unhinged its jaw and sprayed some kind of green liquid onto the dummy before releasing it and retreating back to the tall grass. It had bought its master enough time to escape, and Lauric was back in the sky preparing another attack. This time, he attempted to use the ground and the dirt by casting a spell to immobilize the device. Pillars of rock and dirt surrounded the dummy on all sides, then came crashing down on top of it, pinning it to the ground and preventing it from flying away. Lauric wasted no time diving down for another attack, forming another fire spell and slamming the flames into the dummy. His familiar once again came out of hiding, but this time it wasn’t from the grass, but from one of the boulders Lauric had used earlier. It had changed its color from yellow to brown to blend in, but was now dropping its camouflage and landing the final blow on the dummy.

“Impressive,” the instructor called out to Lauric and his familiar as they approached and rejoined the group. “Now who would like to go next?”