We were all in the middle of the large white room. I began checking every direction, and when I saw that no one was trying to attack me, I started to calm down. I remembered that I had changed the room's settings. Now, enemies would not appear unless I spawned them.
"Now, everyone, listen to me! In this room, enemies will come to attack us. I want you to attack them and try to kill them."
"But Dad, you always say we shouldn't hurt humans if they don't intend to hurt us."
"Yes, that's right, Bo, but there are bad people too, like the ones I killed a month ago, so we need to learn to protect ourselves. Don't worry, the things in this room look like humans, but they aren't."
Berus wagged his tail as he said:
"Then can we fight them all we want?"
I could feel his excitement, so I smiled and said:
"Yes, but don't forget that they can hurt you too. Just like Erebus hurt you yesterday, but we can't die in this room. It'll hurt a lot, but we'll heal immediately when we leave or die in the room."
Im poked his head out through the neck of my clothes and spoke.
"Master, can I fight too?"
"All right, you can bite them when I fight them up close."
I spawned an enemy and ordered it to defend only. Erebus attacked first, swiftly taking flight and diving, but the dummy swept him aside with the spear in his hand. Just then, the other familiars joined the fight.
While Bo and Erebus were fully occupied, Berus charged in from the side and bit his leg. The dummy paid no attention, because he felt no pain.
This was the only thing I hated about these dummies. They couldn't feel pain, just like zombies. Last time, I hadn't been able to turn on the pain option because it was locked, but I had just leveled up. Maybe I could change it now.
So I crouched down and touched the ground. I tried to change the pain option, and it worked. It must have unlocked after I leveled up, just as I had thought.
As soon as I changed the setting, the dummy screamed in pain and stumbled away. Its attention was focused entirely on Berus, and to save its leg, it struck Berus in the face with the butt of its spear. It would strike defensively, but he would not follow up with another attack in defense mode.
When the dummy struck Berus in the face, Berus began screaming in pain, ran away from the dummy, and then came toward me. His face was covered in blood because his brow had split open.
"Stop!" When I gave the order, the dummy froze, and then Erebus and Boer began flying toward me.
"Master, it hurts so much. I don't like this. This game isn't fun at all."
"Berus, this isn't a game. We're here to learn to fight. I just told you that if they hit you, you'll get hurt, perhaps even fatally." Berus was still only a cub, since he was just seven months old, and he didn't like doing anything he didn't consider fun. I didn't want to push them so hard from the very first day, since this was only their first training session.
"What do you two want to do, go or not? Which will it be?"
"I want to fight!" He must still have been angry, because he could have landed a hit on the dummy, but had only been hit by it instead. Crows really were vengeful animals.
"Doesn't it hurt?"
"It does, but I'm not a crybaby like Berus." I thought that if he had a human face, he might have been grinning at Berus right then.
Berus began to growl as he spoke.
"I'm not a crybaby. I just don't want to do it."
"You just cried."
"Both of you, stop arguing; now, if he doesn't want to fight, he doesn't have to, but Berus, you must learn how to fight. This isn't a peaceful world. If you see an enemy about to attack, don't charge blindly forward. In that situation, you could have dodged the attack when he raised his spear, but instead, you blindly kept biting him. You don't need to try to bring an enemy down in one hit. It's good if you can, but if you can't, strike again."
"Berus, go wait at the edge of the room and watch carefully while we fight."
I turned to the dummy and said:
"Keep fighting."
Erebus and Bo coordinated well, perhaps because they hunted their own prey. They used to eat grain too, back when they were only the size of ordinary crows, but after they grew beyond half a meter, they became entirely carnivorous and had been hunting for the past two years.
So, to them, this might not have been a game, but a hunt. Because they had hunting experience, they coordinated their attacks. When one drew the dummy's attention, the other attacked, and they were usually very patient with their attacks. Erebus attacked more fearlessly, while Bo moved more cautiously.
"Pause."
"Children, he's guessing what you're about to do because you keep trying to attack his eyes. You're not hunting rabbits or mice now. Sometimes you need to change the focus of your attack, and sometimes that change should come at the very last second. That way, you can catch your enemy off guard. Yes, their faces are a human weakness. When something comes near our faces, we instinctively recoil, but if every attack comes from here, defending is easy."
"Dad, where should we attack, then?"
"For example, you can attack the back of the head. It's a blind spot, and a solid peck there can make your opponent stagger or pass out. One more thing: you can't keep fighting like ordinary crows. Your strongest weapons are no longer your beaks, but your claws. You have four little knives like talons on each foot. Learn to use them effectively."
I walked over to the dummy and pointed to both sides of his neck.
"The jugular veins are here, and this applies to all animals. If you can slash these blood vessels with your claws, your enemy is certain to die. Of course, killing humans this way is easier than killing other animals, because we don't have their thick hides and tough flesh. One final point: when I say your claws are your strongest weapons, that doesn't mean your beaks are weak. Your beaks are each about fifteen centimeters long. They're no less lethal than a giant arrow, but they're not as versatile as your talons."
"This time, try attacking different places, and change your attack patterns too. For example, pretend you're going to peck, but switch to a powerful claw strike at the last second, or make a feinting dive to distract him."