The evening birds gave out a loud cry as they left for their nests. Dusk had come, and the sun would soon dive beneath the horizon.
Sundrin stood straight with a serious expression as he saw Survath's imposing figure standing before him.
Both of them were bathed in the evening glow, and only after a while did Survath open his mouth to speak,
"You have done well learning the fire arrow in such a short amount of time, at least you have a little bit of talent for your age."
Sundrin was shocked to be complimented by his usually serious teacher, but the happiness that was rising quickly fell as Survath uttered the next words
"But just because of that, you shouldn't get cocky, in the end it's just a basic move and when in a battle your opponent won't care about your age or how talented you are, so keep that in mind"
Sundrin, with a flattened expression looked at his master, only nodding in response. He knew that what he was saying was correct, but it still hurt a bit.
Having kicked him down a notch, Survath finally started explaining about the astras,
"Now let's start with what an astra is. Have you seen how the spear and sword students train?"
He asked Sundrin and got a nod as a response,
"They coat their blades in the fire energy and perform moves while regulating their breathing. The moves they perform are called skills, but the bow has a different path than the other close-range weapons."
Survath said as he extended his palm, and a fire arrow appeared on top of it,
"Archers don't need to regulate their breathing to perform moves, because they attack with projectiles made out of the sheer fire energy. These projectiles are called astras."
"Although this means the archers can stay vigilant of their surroundings and also don't have to concentrate as much as the close-range combatants, this also means they use more energy far quickly."
Survath looked at Sundrin, who was listening to his lecture with a serious face and was satisfied as he continued,
"The fire arrow is only a basic astra used for taking down normal or savage beasts. Now I will impart to you the astras used by initial and intermediate warriors."
Upon hearing this, Sundrin couldn't contain his excitement as he almost started jumping out of joy, but suddenly he thought of something, and his excitement vanished,
"You knew that I advanced, master?"
He asked with surprise, as he had not told anybody about his advancement. Survath only gave him a scornful smile, which caught him off guard,
"Watch carefully, I won't repeat the moves for you."
Saying that he took up the bow on his back and stretched his left arm, with which he was holding the bow.
*phew~*
Inhaling sharply, he raised his right foot and slammed it down against the floor.
*BAM!*
As he got into his position, his figure seemed to hold immense power. He raised his right hand and pulled the string of the bow.
Aiming in front of him, a rush of hot energy coursed through his veins, and soon a fire arrow had emerged strung in the bow.
Although it looked the same as the one Survath demonstrated before, Sundrin could feel that this one held much more power within it, and even its colour was a deeper shade of red.
Finally, the third elder let go of the string, and the fire arrow thrust itself forward.
But then suddenly, as it was flying through the air, the fire arrow split itself into five different arrows moving in five different directions.
*boom!**boom!**boom!*
*boom!**boom!*
Five explosive sounds rang out through the practice grounds, and suddenly, five small craters had formed.
Sundrin watched agape and speechless as he wondered why he had been so smug before,
"That is called split arrow, another basic type, but this one can actually be considered a lesser version of an astra."
Sundrin's eyes twitched a bit when Survath said the word basic so casually to describe this weapon of mass destruction.
'It seems that master has no idea what the word basic means'
He thought to himself, but didn't say anything out loud, after all, he didn't want a beating,
"That is used to kill multiple enemies at the same time. If you fuel it with enough energy, you can kill five fierce beasts at the same time, but if you can truly master it, then even an alpha beast can be killed with it."
Survath explained patiently and then turned towards Sundrin to continue,
"You can use that at the initial warrior stage, but it will have limited capabilities. The key is to imagine the arrow splitting up after it's launched, this will take some time as you will need to have a lot of control over the inner flame to make it heed your command."
"Imagine the five arrows as your own five fingers, when you close your hand into a fist, it becomes one, and then when you open it, you can move them individually."
Having said that, Survath once again got into position,
"Now I will show you an astra used for cutting through beasts with a tough hide or skin, it's called a flaming sword arrow. Watch carefully"
Once again, he stretched the string of the bow, but this time he closed his eyes and concentrated for a while before opening them.
A flurry of flames came out of his hand and formed into an arrow again.
*swish!*
He let go of the string, and the arrow soon flew across the field.
This time it didn't branch off, it suddenly changed forms midway and turned into the image of a falme sword.
Moreover, this arrow flew much farther than the last ones, but soon it lost its velocity and drifted down to the ground.
But the booming sound that Sundrin expected didn't come, the flaming sword plunged itself onto the ground, and after a while, slowly turned into sparks as it vanished,
"This is also on the same level as split arrow, but you will need to vividly imagine the sharpness of the sword, and giving it shape is even more difficult."
Survath uttered these words as he retracted his arm and stood straight, but he didn't turn towards Sundrin,
"Right now these two are the only ones within your capabilities, practise hard and you will soon be able to use them, and you can also go deeper into the forest next time you're hunting, but stay away from the fierce beasts, as they are not something you can handle now."
Having said that, he gazed contemplatively. When Sundrin looked where he was gazing, his eyes landed on a huge boulder that was the size of three humans stacked on top of each other and had a huge width,
"Is something wrong, sir?"
He asked the third elder politely as the man in question raised his bow again and aimed at the boulder,
"Although this is something beyond your current capabilities, I will show this to you so that you can understand the real prowess of an archer, so watch carefully."
He said as he closed his eyes and pulled the string one last time,
"This is how you kill an alpha beast."
Suddenly, the surroundings seemed to go silent as Sundrin's eyes focused solely on the figure of Survath.
Slowly, flames danced around his hands and formed the shape of an arrow, but this time, the head of the arrow was a bit different. Rather than an arrowhead, it seemed more like a sharp cone
And the butt of the arrow had a long ribon like tail.
Survath's eyes jolted open as he launched the arrow.
Sundrin's eyes followed the arrow's path, his eye didn't leave the arrow for even a moment.
And then it suddenly happened, the arrow expanded and moved as if it were a living being.
Soon, four legs formed, and a body followed,
'Wait, is that a…'
Sundirn's eyes widened as he saw the body of a tiger appear and taking the place of the arrow.
The tiger, which he assumed was a sabre tooth, leaped towards the boulder and let out a life-like roar.
The booming sound of the tiger colliding with the boulder echoed throughout the training grounds as the boulder exploded into bits and pieces.
Dust rose and obscured their view, but Sundrin stood there like a statue.
The sun had already hidden itself beneath the horizon as one man and one child stood there under the rising moon.