Chapter 316 (2/2)

Simon stood, and turned away. “And that's… a very human emotion. One that you have too, right? So… so don’t be so hard on yourself.”

And with that mutter, he walked forward, entering the monster horde. Instantly, they surged around him, and Simon stumbled, worried about the girl, about David, about being trampled here, about the arrival of the Skeleton Knight… All of these things ran together, forming a thick swamp of emotions.

But although Simon thought it would swiftly overtake him, these things quickly faded away. Instead, as the animals squawked and growled and squeaked and grunted around him… That stuff was scraped away, leaving only a desire to discover his other half in the throng of animals around him.

Very soon, Simon could pick out individual animals, even though they rushed and flowed around him. Time seemed to stretch. Every step was an eternity, and he met and held the gaze of every single animal, from the smallest monkey, to a huge horned elephant, for at least a second.

Then their gazes broke, and Simon moved on.

Blinking, Simon was shocked to discover that he had reached the fence that marked the end of his enclosure. So he turned around.

Behind him, the animals were sitting now, silent, watching, their eyes seeming to glow with a strange magic. After a brief hesitation, Simon walked forward.

Here, although there weren’t any moments that stretched as they did in the walk over, the walk backwards took much, much longer to walk forward. The silence was heavy, a ponderous thing, as both sides considered. But Simon knew that the animals would be drawn to his strength, so he refused to look behind him. He walked straight forward, head high.

It was a little burst of positive emotion to find that the girl was gone when Simon arrived back to the gate, to the waiting Wild Rider and most of the other pledgees. There were also marked poles, and Simon walked to the one with his name, careful to keep his gaze forward until the last minute. When he arrived, he spun around cleanly.

Smiling, Simon looked at the several animals that had followed him. A ponderous ox. A young sheepdog. The horned elephant. A variant of the fluffy sheep, this one with soft blue fur. And also an adolescent python.

Then he looked around. His grouping was one of the largest, of all the people, but everyone had a couple. But what shocked Simon the most was that there were only 3 sitting in front of David, and two of them were newborn animals!

It appeared to be a baby from the Fluffy White Sheep, and from the crimson eagle. Aside from them the metallic dog stood, stiff and proud, in line.

The little girl, on the other hand, who was only a few steps behind Simon, arrived and turned to find at least a dozen or so monsters of different varieties. Her eyes went wide at the sight.

“You may now choose.” The Wild Rider said, gesturing.

Kirk was the first to move, striding forward and putting his hand on the head of a komodo dragon the size of a surfboard behind him. It flicked its tongue out, pleased, while the other animals turned away and dispersed.

Everyone moved, while Simon studied the monsters in front of him. Of these, he was most tempted by the horned elephant and the blue sheep, although the draw to the blue sheep was mostly due to its association with the fluffy white sheep, which seemed pretty powerful. But still… that was compelling enough evidence. But the horned elephant was young, but still the size of the van. The damage that it could inflict…

Simon took a hesitant step forward, then looked around. Most everyone else had chosen, except David, the girl, and himself. David seemed puzzled, looking at the monsters, and the girl was still shocked that she had the largest group, so Simon supposed it was his turn. But before he moved, a voice stopped him.

“A bit of advice?” The Wild Rider said, appearing behind him. “Don’t just look with your eyes. You have other ways of sensing too.”

Simon just looked at her. Did they mean…?

Closing his eyes, Simon spread out his senses, activating his Astral form. Immediately, one figure amongst those in front of him glowed with a powerful spiritual energy, that Simon wasn’t able to perceive in his physical form. The energy was so thick that his Astral form had difficulty approaching, and he wasn’t able to form a projection in that chaotic area. Shocked, Simon opened his eyes.

If he could bond with a powerful spiritual animal, would his abilities increase as well…?

“I choose… you.” Simon said simply, looking into the wide set eyes of the ox. It blinked slowly at him, then nodded.