Humans Don't Make good Familiars- Part 52

Suma’s POV

“Up! Down! Up! Down! Up! Down!” Our drill instructor shouted. We were in aerial maneuver and endurance training. Fly up as high as you can in five seconds, then plumet back down as quickly as possible, making sure to stop only a single body length from the ground. “Go Go Go! Faster!” He screamed from his perch located about halfway between the ground and how high most of us could fly. I was a bit on the lower side of the benchmark, but there were a few in our group who double the average height of our group. Someone in the group asked why it was necessary to do this since this was a strictly healing mages training camp, and we weren’t going to be in combat… because of that question we have been doing this for two hours. “Up! Down! Up! Down! Up! Down!”

“I’m going to kill the guy that asked that question.” Someone from behind me complained.

“Not if I do first.” Someone else said.

“Is that chatter I hear? I guess that means you all want to do another hour?” The drill instructor bellowed.

“Sir! I need to stop; I’m going to throw up.” The Neame beside me said to the instructor.

“Do it on your own time recruit. Now get back to maneuvers.” The instructor ordered. The recruit did not do it on his own time….

Jake’s POV

I sat on the bench at a local gym, having just finished the last set of my new workout regime. Upon arriving at the training camp, Suma and I discovered that they really didn’t have anywhere for me to stay while I was there. Most of the recruits just sent their familiars back as soon as they were done with them. Suma sent me back after I got a copy of the daily training schedule from the camps directors. With little variation, familiar training, that the training done with both a mage and their familiar, would be everyday at two past noon.

Aside from strength training, I also have been brushing up on my martial arts and fencing. I even found a teacher who knew spear fighting techniques that worked with a shield. I go to fencing classes twice a week, spear classes once a week, and Krav-Maga classes twice a week at night. I looked down at my watch, 1:50 p.m.; I would be getting summoned any time now. I decided not to rest until then because the summoning will just heal and reenergize me anyway. Actually, because of the fact that now I get summoned every day, and that I work out every day, which shreds muscle fibers, I have put on quite a bit of muscle. I work out and get good and sore, then the summoning makes it so that I skip the post workout aches and keep the gains.

“Okay Jake, are you ready?” Suma asked.

“Yup,” I answered.

“I summon you, Sentinel!” I heard as I closed the bathroom door so no one would see me vanish.

Suma’s POV

“I summon you, Sentinel!” I said performing the spell; Jake began to appear. He was wearing strange clothes when he arrived, but it didn’t matter because he performed his own summoning and was robed in his “Armor”.

“Have all familiars been summoned?” The instructor shouted with a brief glance around; they had, and they were varied. Even though we were all healing support mages, we all came from different flights of life. Some of the other recruits summoned Borogs, some had Salamanders, some had Vadel Mountain Cats, and one recruit had a Black Serpent. None of us were allowed to were any kind of indication of status symbols, but it was clear by the familiars who came from nobility.

“Wow, that’s a lot of familiars.” Jake said over our private connection. “I’ve never seen so many in one place before.”

“I’m surprised at the quality of them as well. I wasn’t expecting so many high-level familiars.” I said examining the Black Serpent and Mountain Cats.

“That is a big snake,” Jake said in a worried tone. “Boy I hope that guy performed that mental domination spell correctly. That thing is as long as a python and as wide as a golden retriever.” He stared nervously at the Black Serpent. I don’t know what those creatures Jake mentioned are, but a Black Serpent is an intimidating familiar indeed. One of the other recruits couldn’t stop staring at Jake, actually, as I looked around, I noticed he was getting as much attention as the serpent was.

“Alright recruits, here’s the drill you and your familiars will be running today. We are going to pair you off in teams of six. That’s three mages and three familiars. You have until nightfall to make it up and back down Dragon’s Hoard. The first team to make it back will get to sleep in an extra hour tomorrow. The last team wakes up two hours early for extra training!” The instructor announced. No one was talking before the instructor made that announcement, partially because we were too busy looking at one another’s summons, partially because we were too tired from the day’s training, but as soon as he said Dragon’s Hoard no one was even thinking about talking anymore.

“What’s Dragon’s Hoard?” Jake asked me.

“Bad… very.. very.. bad.” I told him.