This type of combat training went on or about an hour or two. The entire time neither Oliver or Vincent was able to land a hit on each other. Vincent clearly tried to put Richards advice to good use but Oliver's agility and combat awareness was too much for him to overcome. While Oliver's weapons range proved insufficient while Vincent was being so careful as to not let him within his guard.
"Okay that's enough sparing, I feel as though me and my subordinates have been able to get a good grasp on where your strengths and weaknesses are. For the rest of the day we will see how well you're able to control your soulbound's. Now control and support soulbinds will not be required to participate in these exercises because of obvious reasons. Eventually we will allow for your party and soulbounds to fight other parties but today we will just be seeing how well your control skills are in one on one battles. Now we will be moving to a larger field to the west of camp so that way we wont bother the other long houses recruits in their combat training. There are several of these fields around to the west and south of the camp that we will be using." Richard shouts at everyone.
Oliver had put Loki into his soul space so that way he could spar with Vincent, which did not make the Shadow Weasel happy in the slightest. As soon as Oliver let Loki out the weasel dematerialized off the ground where he had appeared after being let out of the soul space and suddenly appeared on Oliver's shoulder where he began smacking the side of his head with his paws, clearly expressing his displeasure at being suddenly put inside the soul space. Loki then continued to mess up Oliver's hair until eventually tried to lay on Oliver's head, as he'd done before. Yet again Oliver shook off the angry Shadow Weasel which made the weasel even more angry. Loki continued to chirp at Oliver from the ground clearly telling Oliver that he is the offspring of a beast king and that he can lay where he wants. Oliver tried to shoo away the weasel with his foot which caused Loki to bite his leather leg guards and shake Oliver's leg while pulling him off balance, making Oliver fall on his butt. Loki then jumped on Oliver's chest pinning Oliver to the ground. Just when Oliver thought Loki was going to bite him again the overgrown weasel just curled up on his chest like he was going to go to sleep.
Everyone who saw the interaction couldn't help but laugh at the display. Vincent had a smug look on his face as he said "You can't even control your own beast! I would never let my beast treat me in such a way." After he said that Loki vanished off of Oliver's chest and a few seconds late materialized on Vincent's shoulder where he hit Vincent twice in the face with his paws before vanishing again and appearing on Oliver's chest again, already curled up.
Oliver himself couldn't help but chuckle at Loki's antics, especially when he looked at Vincent and saw the looked of bewilderment on the mans face. Everything happened so fast that Vincent clearly didn't know what had just happened to him. The other recruits had the same expression as Vincent, and some hadn't even seen what Loki had done because it only spanned a matter of seconds. The people who saw the events clearly even had a subtle look of fear painted on their faces. If Loki had really wanted to hurt Vincent, it would've happened in a matter of seconds and many of them felt as though they would've reacted similar to Vincent and wouldn't have had any time to react to such an attack. Even Richard had a strange look on his face.
"Is that a shadow weasel?" Richard hesitantly asked Oliver who had scooped up Loki and was now holding him in his hands against his chest as he gently rubbed Loki behind the ears with one of his hands.
"Yeah he was a birthday present from my father and the Shadow weasel king. My family each gets one when we come of age. Its to promote good relations between my town and the beast king." Oliver replies, holding nothing back because it was common knowledge in Shadow Glades.
"That explains a lot. You must be a Shadowmere then. Shadow weasels are almost impossible to catch and their king is very protective over his species. Besides the king that your family has an agreement with their only other known locations are deep within the Great Forest which is considered the wilderness. You're lucky to have a beast who is so smart already. Most beasts don't gain that kind of intelligence until they level up quite a bit." Richard says.
At those words Loki jumps down from Oliver's arms and chirps at Richard before he looks back at Oliver. He's telling Oliver that this guy knows how to talk up shadow weasels and that Oliver could learn a thing or two from this man.
Oliver scowls for a second before trying to give Loki a light kick, to which Loki dodges easily before jumping to Oliver's shoulder where Oliver receives another paw to the face before Loki just lays down on his shoulders.
"Okay all of you follow me to the other field, where we will have some one on one beast battles. There will be four battles going on at the same time as me and some of my staff oversee the battles." Richard says.
The group of around ninety recruits follows Richard to the other field which takes about ten minutes. When they get there they see a large field that's just as large if not larger than the field they had just come from, the only difference is that there's no one else there, and they have the whole field to themselves.
"Okay we're going to split you into four groups where each group will have a one on one battle going on at the same time. The winner of each battle will receive five gold." Richard explains
"Shadowmere, you'll be in my group. That way I can get a good look at a shadow weasel in action" Richard says.
With that Oliver and the rest of his party join Richards group and release their soulbounds to get ready for the battles.
Brutus releases an Armored Boar that is about four feet long while being three feet tall. Its skin looks like its made from leather plates with bristle like black hair growing out of it. The most noteworthy part was its long tusks that extend two feet off its face and curl upwards. Everyone who looks at its tusks show some fear because armored boars have a bad reputation for being notoriously hostile in the wilderness while being absolute tanks. It took a whole party which consisted of Brutus's father and three others from Shadow Glades to subdue this particular Armored Boar without killing it. It was given to Brutus shortly after he turned eighteen and was already at level five.
Trevor released a Timber wolf which is a very popular soulbound in Shadow Glades for scouts. This is because of their excellent senses. They are great for tracking and always seem to know when a party is in danger. Trevor's timber wolf is about the same size as Brutus's Armored Boar but instead of its body being thick and bulky the timber wolfs body is all solid lean muscle, its body gives you the feeling of controlled brutality. His soulbound is at level four.
Tina releases her soulbound too, even though she wont be participating in the battles because her soulbound is classified as a control/support beast. Her soulbound is a plant Sprite. The plant Sprite is about the size of an adults hand and has a humanoid body but instead of hair it has a small sunflower growing out of its head and its body is covered in a small dress that looks as though its made of vines and leaves. Its most distinctive feature though is its long dragonfly like wings that make a slight buzzing sound as it flits around Tina's head, its bug-like intelligent eyes taking in the sights curiously. Her soulbound is at level six and is considered quite rare as ar as beasts go. They're only found in the deep wilderness away from civilization and can only sooulbind with someone who has the nature affinity.
Oliver's party draws quite a bit of attention because each of their soulbounds are considered top tier soulbounds for people who just got their system. The reason their party has such soulbounds is because Shadow Glades is butted up right to the wilderness and is the last human settlement on the eastern tip of the continent.
Most of the people's soulbounds are more like domesticated pets from before the system than beasts. Only the recruit's from noble or wealthy families paid for their descendants to have soulbounds that would actually be useful in combat. There were also a few people who lived close to forests that had some decent soulbounds as well.