Shizoku strode forward from the other tut her fists on her hips as she gred up at Mordecai. "What are you up to here? We already cleared the floor!"

  "That's why it's called an optional bonus round," he replied, "You get to participate or not, though I do insist you choose as a group. And while it won't be easy, giving you guys this option is us pying favorites."

  While the little kitsune tio scowl, Derek stepped to her side. "Um, what's the challenge you are ?"

  "bat testing and training. My friends here will be doing the work, I am here to supervise and keep everyone healed."

  "But this is the no fighting path!" Fuyuko protested.

  Mordeodded, "Yes, that is why it is optional. And you don't have a specifi dition, it's a performance-based adjustment to your rewards."

  Shizoku shook her head, "You are so annoying. This better be worth it!" She turo face the others, "He and Kazue are clearly cooking up something, and I have to admit I got a very nice upgrade for Bip st time I cleared the dungeon with a group. I vote we do this."

  Derek and Fuyuko were a little more hesitant, but they agreed shortly thereafter. Mordecai beamed at them. "Excellent. Derek, I haven't seen how your training has transted into bat, so yoing to start with this bunkin here. Let me know if you need a on. Fuyuko, yoiernatiween sparring with this bunkin and kobold while the other trains you. Shizoku, you'll be training with Crizdirk here. He's a shaman who lead the group of kobolds who chose to join our dungeon. I'll adjust things as I see fit."

  Ohe three were spread out a up with their partners, Mordecai tinued his expnation of the rules. "Your performaest has three aspects; your initial assessment, your ability to push yourselves, and a growth assessment. When you have hit your limits, we'll help you recover and when you are ready, do the final assessment. Oh, and while there will be some training involved, this is primarily a test. And it's going to be unpleasant. Ready? Good. Begin."

  As it turned out, Derek did not need a on, his affinity for wood allowed him to jure armor, shield, and on. Mordecai wasn't quite sure what to call the on that the boy jured, though a short spear seemed closest. But the wicked throwing along the shaft could make it almost as dangerous as a sword if sshed at a foe, and it had a supplehat hi future utility if Derek mastered maniputing it while also fighting.

  His assessment showed that he'd had some training with guardsmen who were used to spear and shield formations, which would be great if he was in such a formation. Unfortunately for him, that was not the case here and he was too ined to firmly set his shield. A warrior o maintain more mobility in order to react to threats because he wouldn't always have a shield mate at his side to protect his fnks.

  The best training would have been to pause and correct his form and run him through drills to master the more flexible stance, but that wasn't what this session was for. One of the kobolds was assigned as his trainer, but instead of proper drills, his job was to stantly instrud correct Derek while he was in the middle of fighting. This was an additional stress and potential distra for the boy, but that art of assessing where he was at. Mordecai would have Bellona give him some training on another day to teach him how to adapt between formation fighting and smaller battles as she'd shown excellent ability to use both styles.

  Another mixed assessment and training aspect was that Mordecai rotated out Derek's oppos. For now, Mordecai kept to unarmed warriors, but not out of kindness. Several bunkin had been practig various schools of martial arts and had learned how to el chi into different elements. Fire was clearly Derek's weakest element right now, so that was what he had to cope with the most.

  It also gave Mordecai a ce to evaluate how his power worked with direparisons avaible. Spell work like what Shizoku and Crizdirk were using maed power iively predictable structures, and ate ks out of their mana reserves. The monks' use of chi was more effit but teo ma as modifiers to their as and bodies rather thaing maions of power that acted on their own. This was also simir to how ied elemental abilities teo act, such as those that Bellona had been infused with.

  In trast to those, Derek didn't have a separate pool of power to draw from. Each maion of his ability hysical exertion, taxing his body and stamina like he was lifting or throwiy objects. And Mordecai was having Derek's limits pushed, not only having him engaged in physical battle but mentally direg the boy's oppos to occasionally break his shield or disarm his on, f him to mahe object again.

  Shizoku was being treated just as unkindly by the shaman. The kobold was no longer limited by an elderly body and was able to put all his worldly experieo use with more vigor and mobility than he'd had in decades. Additionally, he had a deeper and of his magic thatle kitsune did, and it showed. Shizoku was the first of the trio that required Mordecai to intervene and heal her before allowing the assessment to tinue.

  The only reason it wasn't ft-out bullying of the girl was that there urpose to it other than the pleasure that Crizdirk was getting from being able to test his healthy body out. The shaman was also providing a running critique of Shizoku's magical and fighting abilities, and he had more than a few opportuo use quips along the lines of "This is how you do that properly."

  He also proved to be a skilled quarterstaff master, aedly let her gain distanly to close the gap while she was casting in order to thwack her with his staff. He was even beiively ni not directly interfering with any castiures; instead, he was teag her to not interrupt herself just because she'd gotten hit and it hurt.

  The old master wore her down, barely using any magi parison to the witch's liberal use of both spells and alchemical infusions. Whech was almost out of mana to fuel her tiered spells, she used her st resort. She cast a spell to assume a battle form and tossed a small, sealed leather pouto her mouth just as she transformed into an enhanced version of her fox form, leaving her with the size and physical power of a rge wolf, along with the imbued instincts to use this body properly. Immediately after the transformation, she bit down on and swallowed the sealed leather tained, iing the physical enha infusion to further strengthen her new form.

  And this was when the shaman began using his magic more early. He didn't really o, but it erfect ce to show how to maintain one's posure and defenses while g with a physical assault.

  He did take a few hits but carefully chose to allow himself to be smmed by her body or paws rather than risk letting her jaws get a solid grip on him, and he always mao punish her successful attacks with a tact ranged spell that knocked her away or physically hampered her.

  When the spell eventually wore off, Shizoku staggered as she transformed bato her true form. This proved to be the more fox-like body that most kitsune had, rather than the hybrid form she'd been choosing to use. Despite being too tired to assume her preferred fain, the girl mao keep her feet under her as she readied her staff. She also still had her fox fire and her untiered spells that didn't require as much mana iment, and she wasn't ready to quit yet despite having received several healing spells from Mordecai by now.

  Fuyuko's assessment was no nicer. She was stantly fag two oppos and was forced to cope with different fighting styles simultaneously. Her greatest challenge here was keeping her focus split enough to defend herself with each dagger while still looking for openings to exploit. Throwing her bdes was always an option given their entments, but throwing even one was a risk as there was a moment when she couldn't use it to parry an attack.

  Her oppos were also able to be a little less careful about injurihis might seem cruel, but not only was she physically tougher than her friends, she could also heal slowly on her own, and both of those bio give Mordecai a buffer to get her healed any time she took a more serious injury.

  As the tall teen's stress grew, so did her muscles, and Mordecai was quite satisfied with how she slid into her battle fugue state. Part of the reason for ging out her foes was that they started needing healing too, and in this state she mao nd a lethal strike on one of the bunkin, her dagger slig the ganthro's throat wide open. The luponi didn't eveo notice the deadliness of her attack as she turoward her other foe, and Mordecai was careful to make sure there was no sign of their inhabitant's body for her to spot ter. Her trol and memory were improving, but it was clear she had a ways to go before she could be allowed to be pushed by oppos who didn't have a safety. He also had a kobold take the bunkin's p fighting Fuyuko.

  But she was taking fewer injuries than he'd given her during her first evaluation, and her ability to maintain her bat form wore off before she reached the point of no longer being able to move. Much like with Shizoku, she mao keep her feet even as she staggered from the loss of strength and power, and Mordecai waved off her foes.

  This wasn't a kindness. He used another healing spell on the girl and then ged up her battle ditions. "Get out your bow." She stared at him bnkly for a moment, and he had to repeat himself before she plied. "Good. Now, defend yourself."

  She only had one oppohis time, but that oppo was a kobold with his own bow. Firing a bow required a lot of strength, but there were different muscles involved. Fighting a running battle while exging shots with a distant foe was a very different sort of fight. She and her oppo both had arrows with bluips for this fight, but Mordecai had jured ones of all wood that grew into a sphere at the tip, rather than surrounding the tip with something soft. It would hurt more without being a rge differen the danger involved.

  Derek was the first to go down and be uo recover. He'd done well, and even as his stamina began to fail him he had pushed himself to keep going, his jured on and shield showing cracks even as they formed. At the start of the battle he'd been able to supplement his attacks with occasional bursts of fire or wind, but fire had been the first of his attacks to fail him, and he no longer was able to shift earth or air anymore either. These were the st of his abilities that he could el, aually, he wasn't able to do that anymore, his body simply colpsing. He was still scious, and Mordecai could see his fiwitg as he tried to and his body to move again, but Derek had passed his purely physical limits a while ago and had been supplementing them with the power of his will.

  But while his experiences in the dungeon had helped temper his will and taught him to draw on that subtle and fickle resource, he hadn't been tempered in bat and he was still only twelve. Mordecai called ao Derek's assessment and had him teo before being brought to the edge of the arena to watch his friends tinue.

  Shizoku was the o reach her limits. Though she had a greater amount of training and experience, she was focused on developing her mind and magic more than her body. Once her transformation spell ran out the battle had bee extremely difficult for her. She ehe fight with her staff pnted on the ground and on her knees practically hugging it as she did her best to fling minics at her foe. But her untiered spells simply weren't up to the task of fending the kobold shaman off, and he dodged her attacks as he walked up to her side and put his haly on her shoulder before pushing her over.

  By the time she'd been carried to a seat on the benext to Derek, the stamina potion he'd been given had taken effect. He took advantage of that to reverse what she'd done ba the river zone, and he had her y down with her head in his p as he scritched her behind the ears. She was still in her fuzzier form, and she tried to make a growl of protest but was too weak to stop him. And her growl had been half purr anyway ohe scritches started. It didn't take long for the fox girl to pass out with a smile on her muzzle.

  Fuyuko sted the lo. She was the oldest, had been tempered in a true life-or-death battle against a terrifying foe, and had the additional advantages of her heritage. But eventually, she was no longer able to fully draw her bow, and then she reached the point where her fingers could only fumble the arrows instead of properly nog them. Mordecai had her drop the bow then, and there was no way she could hold her daggers properly either. So it was that she faced her st foe unarmed, relying only on what was left of her physical prowess.

  It was ugly enough to make even Mordecai unfortable. The girl had incredible depths of determination and reserves of stamina that sted well past her ability to trol her arms effectively. But so long as she remained on her feet aermio fight, he'd keep healing her injuries. This art of her assessment too, and he'd not dehe ce to earn every scrap of prize he could give her.

  She had to be knocked down several more times before she'd been uo find a way to get back to her feet. Even with her arms barely funing, she'd been managing to roll a her feet underh her, and had been trying to fight using kicks, but that had not been a signifit part of her training.

  Mordecai made a mental o have her joiy in training for her new fighting style. His floor boss might have to be careful given her dition, but it wasn't like she was going to miss a bit of training or practice if she could help it, and given Fuyuko's long limbs it would be useful to have her cross-train in fighting styles that made good use of that sort of reach.

  With the first two stages of the assessment pleted, it was time for food a. Shizoku had to be roused from sleep and was initially sy she didn't even realize she was irue form until she tried to take a drink and hit her muzzle. She hesitated and then sighed before just adjusting to drink out of the mug as she was. It was a little more difficult in this form, but she clearly didn't have the energy to switch back. At least, not now that she knew Derek didn't mirue form.

  Fuyuko's arms were still trembling as she wolfed down her food, and she was barely able to maintain table manners as her hunger drove her to devour as much food as possible, mostly meat but she also had her share of everything that ced oable that had been brought out to their bench, including making aire pte of fried tofu disappear by herself.

  Kazue made sure they had as much of the dungeon's special honey mead as they wanted avaible, and plenty of sweets as well. The healing properties of the mead bined with all the rich food to get a good head start on helping them recover, and bedrolls were id out to let the three colpse into sleep as soon as they had eaten their fill.

  Wherio had recovered several hours and one more meal ter, it was time for their final evaluation. During their prior assessment, they had also been given some training, even if the situation made it difficult to absorb the information on the fly. But there portunity for improvement, and that was what they were tested on.

  Derek had improved the most, in rge part because he had the most room for improvement. His training had begun only months prior to this. Shizoku showed the least amount of immediate improvement, but she had the most training of the three and was going to have to work to incorporate what she'd learned and experienced.

  With that done Mordecai led them into the main hall, officially pleting their delve and allowing him to award them their prizes.

  Zagaroth