Chapter 70

As the shadow cat polished off the reminder of the food the commander inspected it. He seemed to also be looking for something specific.

“How do you know that this is a shadow cat?” he finally asked.

“The prompt I got for forming the bond said that a shadow cat wanted to form a bond with me.” Tom replied.

“Hmm, you did indeed get lucky with this.” the commander said as he finally stopped scruitanising the cat and turned back to us. “Magical creatures that can innately use mana at this young age are quite special. Did you gain anything else from the bond when it was initiated?”

Calling the cat young was something rather odd since the thing was bigger than any house cat he had seen on earth and was the size of one of the bigger dog breeds. Then again considering that its parent was the size of a small pony, young was likely a good description.

“Not right away.” Tom answered, the commander frowned at the wording and nodded for him to continue. “Before coming to report we passed by the cook’s tent to try to feed her, clearly not enough. But while we went into their makeshift cellar I got the [Night Vision] skill.”

“You happen across a magical creature, it bonds with you almost immediately and it's a growth type.” he mumbled as he shook his head.

“This is something you won’t find being shared openly with the public, and you will all keep to yourselves as well.” he said as he gave us a warning glare. “Magic companion bonds come in three forms. The first is basic, it is no different from a monster bond, around 80% of them are like this. Empowered is the second, they usually grant one or two skills to their partner upon bonding but have no further effect on their bond, around 15% of them are like this. The most rare is growth type, only happens in 5% of cases and the bonds share affinity for skill gain. This is often seen in the first few days after the bonding when you gain certain very specific skills, very much like you [Night Vision].”

“But why is this information restricted?” Ajax asked not seeing a point to restricting this from common people as it would have no consequence should it be widely spread.

“Because it’s not restricted only to commoners. It is also restricted from lower nobles who would be too shortsighted and could end up trying to form bonds, kill the bonded creature and repeat with a new one just to make up for a deficit in their heir.” As he said this the commander's face frowned heavily and for the first time since he met him Ajax could see that while he looked only around his late thirties to early forties he was probably a lot older than that.

“That’s horrible” Kate gasped as she covered her mouth with one hand.

“That’s not even the worst part of it. The process of bonding with a creature only for it to be killed repeatedly turns the human into a sadistic psychopath. One that would now not only have access to greater skills but also end up as a ruler in due time.” He left the rest unsaid and all three of them vowed in their hearts not to leak this information.

“But if it is so restricted, why are you telling us?” Tom questioned.

“Because you’ve got a growth type, can’t have you advertising its abilities as that might lead some people to discover the empowered type for themselves trying to recreate your success.”

“Well, that’s enough on that topic. What about the other thing I asked you about, have an answer for me yet?” the commander moved on.

“We do.” Tom nodded.

“I have access to my mana, and can make decent use of it.” Ajax continued. “Ideally I would like to keep the specifics to myself as the reason I chose not to focus only on magic was the drawbacks that someone with my background would have doing so.”

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“I can respect that. However, I will ask one question.” The commander seemed understanding but his voice turned strict. “I need to know how strong your healing abilities are, covering your access to mana might cost us this exercise, but that is something I am willing to risk. I will not cover for you should it cost one of my men their lives.”

“I have very weak healing. Alzinoth is as far as it goes.” Ajax understood that point of view and had no quals sharing his very stunted healing potential.

“Okay, go on back to training.” the commander said. “Oh, and since you use a bow, have one of them give you the rundown on bow usage during engagements.”

“I’ll explain it to him.” Kate volunteered.

“Time to go buddy.” Tom called out to his bond as they made for the exit of the tent. The shadow cat slowly and reluctantly stopped licking the plate and made to follow them.

As they exited the tent with Tom in the lead they came face to face with the four nobles leading their small army as well as the other two commanders. They were approaching the tent at a slightly quick pace meaning there must have been a development they wanted to discuss with commander Grievous now.

As they all exited ‘Lex’s’ eyes instantly stuck to Ajax recognising him from yesterday. Just as she was about to approach him they all saw the shadow cat push open the tent flap and make a small hop. As it reached its apex it disappeared only to appear on Tom’s shoulders.

“What the hell.”

“That’s so cool.”

“What is that thing?”

“What’s her name?”

The reactions from the nobles were split with the girls having positive ones and the boys being confused. The bodyguards and commanders were much more experienced and showed no outward reaction.

Seeing the nobles surround Tom, both Kate and Ajax traded a quick glance and presented a united front. They quickly made their retreat and used him as a distraction so as to avoid any attention. As they left they threw quick pitying looks at him, as he was being dragged back into the commander's tent to do his job.

“Ok so what are the regulations for archers?” Ajax asked once they were a bit away.

“Since the point of this war is training and not meaningless slaughter, and since the only archers used are highly trained they have restrictions placed on them. All shots are to be limited from the knees down, the belly and the arms.” Kate said.

“I know it might seem counterintuitive to shoot for the belly instead of the things, but getting hit in the belly is likely to result in large amounts of pain only. That is something that will take a while to kill you so healers will have plenty of time to fix you up. A deep cut on the inner thigh however can result in heavy bleeding.”

Ajax understood as the information from his past life molded with his knowledge of magic. As long as the arrow wasn’t removed a shot in the belly will take a while to kill someone, whereas bleeding out would happen almost as quickly to people as it happened in his old life. At least to people under level fifty.

With that they each went their separate way with Kate heading to the healers and Ajax going to join the rest of the unit in training drills. Not one hour late the commander also came down to the training field.

“Our role for tomorrow has been decided. We will be the unit that will intercept the enemy cavalry detachment.” the commander announced. This was followed by multiple groans from the unit.

“Yes, I know that they are the most skilled and dangerous to engage, but as the most experienced unit it falls to us.” The commander cut the complaints short. “Anyone with any ideas on how to approach that is to come to me and the captain as we discuss the ambush point.”

With that both him and the captain took a seat at a big table and laid out a map. Ajax, confused, asked one of the others why they were the most experienced.

“Because our commander is unique in that he doesn’t care about politics and ass kissing. This means that we always end up joining these skirmishes whereas the other guard units have to join once every three.” one of the older guards who heard his question said.

Seeing an excited mage all but run towards the table Ajax decided to close in and listen in on the strategy in hopes of learning about war magic. Tom also approached Ajax, having arrived at the commander's side.

“Sir, I have a spell to amplify my voice.” the mage couldn’t hold in his excitement and blurted out right after saluting.

“So?” the captain asked skeptically.

“Their horses come from the neighboring baron. They are known for their war-horses.”the excited mage continued, but at this point the captain’s frown deepened and the commander was starting to sport one too. “I know their trained command to stop. We can start our ambush by having me call it out while magnifying my voice. It might not cause all of them to stop but if even half of them stop on the spot it will give us our best opening to start the ambush.”

After hearing him out both the captain and the commander seemed to be very much on board with the idea. Ajax on the other hand turned to Tom.

“Wouldn’t the enemy take precautions against this?” he asked.

“No, voice amplification is not a common spell, it is quite rare in fact.” Tom said.

“Then how come one of the guards has it?” Ajax was confused about this, weren’t guards only taught the widely known spells.

“He learnt it from his father. His father is sworn to a noble house, however most of the mages working willingly with noble houses include in the contract the ability to teach their own children and exclusive spells the house posses, with the only restraint being their children to be under oath not to reveal it to others besides their children, and so on.”