The Spider Queen

(Hydra Star System- Planet Eleron)

(Forest Lord Kingdom Park)

"Now that you have already established a strong bond between yourself and your combat beast, it is time to move on to more advanced techniques," Professor Ward calmly spoke.

"Your enemies know that the one fatal weakness of every combat beast is their master. Kill the master and the beasts will be disoriented."

"Therefore, you must ensure that your own personal safety is not compromised or threatened during a fight."

Sophie propped up her body against a nearby tree and began to jot down notes using the pen and notebook in her hand.

It was a bit old fashioned, but she found that writing down notes while the lecturing was going on helped her to focus.

Professor Ward's slender tail gently swayed from side to side as she gestured with her hand and a creature strode out of the forest.

The beast was around seven feet tall and bore a striking resemblance to the ancient Earth animal known as the crocodile.

Its maw opened slightly to reveal razor sharp teeth and the green scales that lined its body provided a great deal of armoured protection.

"Now I will demonstrate one of the techniques," Professor Ward whispered as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a blaster pistol.

The beautiful professor held up the pistol to her temple and then her greyish finger pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Bang!

A loud shot echoed through the forest and the large crocodile-like beast slumped slightly as a hole appeared in the side of its head.

The wound quickly regenerated, and one could see pinkish flesh and muscle tissues painfully stitching back together.

Professor Ward tilted her head to the side to show her students that despite firing the gun at such close range…

She was completely unharmed.

"Life-locking is a technique that can transfer wounds, negative status effects such as poison and burns from yourself to your combat beast," Professor Ward said in a serious tone.

"Of course, this technique can also be used the other way, but I do not recommend that you do so unless you have a quick regeneration skill."

"This technique should always be used as a last resort… it is basically a way to cheat death or avoid a fatal blow."

"Keep in mind that should your beast die… you will obviously be unable to transfer any more wounds to its corpse."

Sophie watched as the professor waved her hand and the large crocodile-like monster crawled away into the nearby forest.

Moon was not paying attention to the demonstration since he was currently perched on Blackie's left head and taking a nap.

The hybrid girl looked at her lazy little frostwing bat and a few thoughts flashed across her mind.

If she was about to die… would she be able to transfer her injuries to Moon?

Honestly Sophie prayed that she would never have to make that choice.

She would much rather transfer Moon's injuries to her own body since her wounds regenerated quite quickly.

Professor Ward's three eyes blinked rapidly, and she reached into her pocket to pull out a bottle of eye drops.

While she was distracted Luna leaned closer to Sophie and whispered in her friend's ear, "So what do you think of that technique?"

"I hope that I never have to use it," Sophie replied as her eyes flicked over to Moon's position for a second time.

"Same… Blackie… he's been with me since he was just a small pup. My mom got me him to protect me before I was even born," Luna replied with a nostalgic look in her eyes.

"Aren't hellhounds pretty rare?" Sophie asked curiously.

"Yep… they aren't naturally born. You need to cross the DNA of an extremely rare species of canis lupus and the DNA of a flame 'demon'," Luna boasted proudly.

"The starting price on the market is two billion. My mom had to sell several of her favourite properties in order to buy him."

Sophie nodded and opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by Professor Ward resuming her lecture.

The hybrid girl returned to her notetaking and shot Luna a small smile. It was actually kind of crazy how her perception of money was… a bit warped.

Sophie knew that her family was basically the top echelon of society but when did she start feeling nothing when hearing about something that cost two billion?

Hmm… maybe this was something to think about in the future.

The rest of the day proceeded pretty uneventfully as Sophie finished up her classes and walked around the campus.

Cleo was still in her mech controller class, Astrid was locked up in the mage tower and Qiana was… somewhere.

The hybrid girl glanced at her wrist communicator and saw that it was around four o' clock in the afternoon.

Well, there was plenty of time left before Cleo's classes ended so what should she do now?

Sophie opened up a holographic map of the campus and searched for the library.

She discovered that there was one only a short ten-minute walk away, so she headed towards it.

There was still the matter of the one-star mission to complete as well as the hunter goddess' mysterious request.

Therefore, she needed to do some extra studying to make sure that she didn't fall behind after she took her leave.

Sophie politely nodded at the students who stopped and stared at her.

There were even some nervous freshmen peeking behind some bushes where they thought that she couldn't see them.

Apparently, some members of her year had already scared the new incoming students with tales of her terrifying battle prowess.

Had it really been one year already?

It seemed like just yesterday she was a fresh-faced youth stepping onto campus for the first time and excited for her life in university.

Now she was an old and jaded… second year.

Sophie's lips curved upwards as she laughed at her ridiculous thought. She was too young to be thinking about things like that despite her… numerous life experiences.

A large building carved out of white marble loomed up ahead. Several massive statues were planted along each side of the pathway that led to the building.

Each statue was carved in the image of a great warrior or scholar. The warriors had ferocious looks on their faces and held weapons in their palms.

The stone scholars in contrast held books or sheets of parchment with calm, peaceful expressions on their faces.

Sophie walked up a flight of stairs and entered the building. The inside of the library was composed of massive halls connected by tunnels that led from one room to the other.

The walls of the facility were lined with bookshelves from end to end. There must have been millions of books inside the library.

The books were there to preserve the original copies of the material and not to be taken out by the students.

On the ground of the library were pods of varying sizes. Inside each pod was a screen and a machine that was connected to the digital archives.

One could even print out copies of whatever book that they wished to take home. Of course, they would need permission and it would depend on the information inside.

Since it was the first day of classes, the library was pretty empty, and Sophie only spotted a few students wandering around in the corner of the hall.

She walked over to the receptionist area and saw a pretty girl with bright pink hair who was behind one of the desks.

"Hi! Welcome to the library! How can I help you?" the girl asked politely as Sophie walked over.

Her eyes briefly glanced at her hybrid features, but she maintained the professional smile on her face.

"Good afternoon. I was just looking for any notes or practice tests for second year poison cultivation and beast controller courses," Sophie replied with a friendly nod.

"The practice tests can be found on the first area, but private notes are restricted to only students in the elite class," the receptionist replied.

"Oh… well I am a member of the elite class so can you point me in the direction of the section?" Sophie asked with a hint of bemusement in her eyes.

Maybe she wasn't as famous or well known as she thought.

Her suspicions were proven correct as the receptionist immediately asked for her name and student ID number.

The pink haired girl clicked away at the computer and pulled up a picture of the hybrid girl standing in front of her.

Sophie Peterlor… Sophie… wait… she was the number one second year?

Huh… maybe she should go out of the library a bit more…

The receptionist opened her mouth and spoke to Sophie with a bit more respect in her tone,

"I do apologise for the inconvenience. It is our policy to just double check the information to ensure that only students in the elite class are able to enter the restricted sections."

"Please take this card and do return it to me when you exit the library. Do not give this card to other students."

Sophie took a small white card from the girl and thanked her as she pointed in a northeastern direction.

Alright! Now it was time to hit the books!