Astrid followed me at a distance, and the ten Dragonlings, still sparkling a little from their time under the waterfall, came along in a pack beside me. I could feel Kyrine watching with interest as well. I couldn’t see her, but her presence was evident to me if I turned my attention to our bond.

When we got out into the middle of the arena, I turned to Astrid. She was looking worried. “What’s up?” I asked her.

“Oh, nothing… Well, to be honest I’m afraid you might get hurt!”

I laughed. “See? Now you see why I was worried about you when you were sparring!”

She bristled a bit at that, but I calmed her, holding up my hand. “Don’t worry. If I feel it’s getting out of hand, I’ll just command them to stop. Don’t forget, they’re my creatures. This will be a good opportunity for me to practice my fine control of them in a fight.”

Not looking entirely convinced, she relented and moved back a bit to give me room to play.

“Right, then,” I said to my Dragonlings, “let’s see what you can do.”

I directed just one Dragonling to begin with, moving it away from the pack and getting it to charge me from a distance of about 20 yards. As it rapidly closed the distance between us, I quickly went through the mudras and whipped up a Force Barrier. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the spell took effect more quickly and smoothly than I had experienced it in the past. Though I had not levelled up since I got to the mansion, apparently my powers had still increased. Evidently I was more powerful as a level 1 Keeper than I had been as a standard level 1 cultivator.

The Force Barrier spell made a thin, flat pane about six yards in front of me. I could ‘see’ it with my magical senses, but the Dragonling apparently could not. The beast crashed into the barrier and rebounded, but the barrier itself shattered and I was knocked back, the wind knocked out of me as if a fist had thudded into my belly.

The Dragonling shook itself as if to clear its head from the impact, then leaped at me, and my instinct took over. I threw myself to the left while my hands flung up the mudras for Ensnare. A magical net wrapped itself around the Dragonling, entangling its head and feet. The creature crashed to the ground, rolling over and thrashing about as I got to my feet, but then with a twist of its body the Dragonling broke the Ensnare spell. Again, I felt an impact as my spell broke, but this time I was ready for it and rolled with it like a boxer rolling with a punch.