Capricornus: Mountain Goat Style

The seventeenth chapter of the Crusaders of the Constellations Novel, it is about Ranald training under a tough guide.

## Story

After the classes that King Athos taught on the superheroes of Earth and beyond, the students went into the halls, and went to the Celestial Halls of Residence, for it is dismissal time. Some prefer going to the Main Building of the Celestial Hall's café to socialise. But not all.

Yeomsoo was downing coffee at the Celestial Halls of Residence's cafe by himself when he was told by King Athos that his new student will see him at the gym. "Not impressed," he sniffed. The goat kemonomimi, with the symbol of the constellation Capricorn on his right calf, has seen and heard of ordinary humans achieving extraordinary feats, with or without powers, so this one is not any different. Anyway, he went to the gym to pay his respects.

Upon meeting Ranald at the gym, he looked the fellow up and down and muttered, "Let's see what you are made of. Fight me in combat first." His new student smiled, seeing a chance to prove himself in the face of a potentially strict and tough master. He readied his stance, and engaged Yeomsoo in combat, using Proud Lion Style, Ram Style, and Black Scorpion Style against him. But the goat boy proved quite difficult, leaping around the gym to dodge Ranald's strikes and charges, and attacking him from above. "Oh Stone Hearts!" Ranald exclaimed, "King Athos never told me that I would meet someone as tough as you!" "You don't expect people to explain everything to you all the time," Yeomsoo said gruffly. They fought a few rounds until Ranald gave up. His tenth guide walked up to him and told him that he is ready to learn Mountain Goat Style.

Mountain Goat Style focuses on stamina, leaps, and jumps as part of its combat style. It also focused on hit-and-run style tactics and exploiting the environment around the practitioner to his advantage. Ranald learned the hard way as he climbed the rock-climbing tower and the gym, and had to leap on and balance himself on the Plum Blossom Poles in the gym grounds to spar with his guide, who commented on his unrefined fighting. It took him a month to learn the full style, for he learned how to observe his environment when young, and that he strengthened his legs for leaping. From Yeomsoo's view, Ranald is not bad, he just needs some toughening.

At the end of the tenth month, King Athos called his students to the Cosmos Observatory. The 82nd dimension, home of all the kemonomimi, was under attack by Vitiosus, a warlord seeking to take over it. Caelus chose Perseus, Orion, Hercules, and Arctophylax, while Ranald chose Yeomsoo, Phrixus, Duyve, and Aguila. They were warned by the king that the dimension is notorious for the perilous mountains and that they have to look out for each other. The Hall Leaders agreed and set off to the 82nd dimension. When they reached there, they saw that there were mountain ranges all around.

Yeomsoo was good at mountain climbing and even brought the necessary equipment. He simply had to reach the top of the mountain and throw down the rope to let others follow. Caelus flew Perseus and Orion to the mountain top, while Hercules climbed up the mountain with his bare hands. Arctophylax too followed Hercules up the mountain, though not without some banter among the two as to who would reach the top first. Aguila and Duyve flew to the mountaintop while Phrixus followed Ranald, climbing the rope. By the time everyone was there, they were tired. While his friends were busy lighting up the campfire, Ranald grumbled about how all the students with powers got it easier than him and the rest, only for Yeomsoo to turn his head to his pupil and reply curtly, "Life's too short to complain about stuff like that. Grin and bear it." "And you expect me to go to their level! Look, all you ever do is to make me feel more inferior for being a normal human! I just have no idea why I have to waste my time training under ten people, but..." Ranald's voice trailed off. Tears welled in his eyes. Phrixus tried to comfort his first friend, and whispered, "My time spent training you is never wasted." "Perhaps on hindsight, it actually was!" Ranald roared at his shepherd friend and stormed off, carrying his schoolbag with Baby Little attached to it. Caelus seeing this, muttered to himself, "He'll never make it in this desolate wilderness alone." Hercules and Perseus went to sit with Phrixus, who have already set up the campfire and was about to nearly put it out with his crying. Yeomsoo stood there and asked himself if he said something that triggered Ranald's response to him. Duyve, the most peaceful of them all, said, "Cheer up. We will find a resolution to this soon. Once we rest, we can go look for the villages and cities hidden in the mountains." The group agreed and decided to continue on without Ranald.

Ranald though reached the bottom of the mountain. He looked and saw a city of crystal spires on another mountain near the one his team-mates were in. But he told Baby Little that he will fight the warlord himself, instead of joining his group-mates to find Vitiosus's castle and defeat him. 'Remember last month's mission with Chiron? They helped you fight the nightmare monsters, and you helped to save them by distracting the nightmare dragon and then becoming human again to destroy its eyes with arrows. Why are you abandoning your teammates like that?' Baby Little asked. Ranald exclaimed to the stuffed griffin that Yeomsoo's expectations of him were too high and that no one, not even Phrixus understood him when he told them of his recent master's rigorous training, even brushing it off as a small matter. 'That's what you think. Yeomsoo probably grew up receiving such kind of training. Perhaps he thought that it would benefit you to train you like he was. Besides, all the while you were holding me in one arm while using your schoolbag to spar with your master, I heard him say that you have potential as a normal human to possibly be on equal footing with him. Maybe even surpass him someday.' Baby Little pointed out. Ranald then stopped under a date palm to rest and think about Baby Little's words. Suddenly, after half an hour...

Soldiers with wolf ears and tails clad in stone-grey armour appeared from nowhere and kidnapped Ranald. The man struggled and even beat up some of them, but the soldiers were stronger and more numerous, so they tied him up and hauled him and his schoolbag in a black carriage to carry to their warlord. The soldiers drove their carriage through a dark valley, and to a mountain with a fortress decorated with the bones of the warlord's enemies. The soldiers hauled Ranald to the prison when they reached it. Inside the cell, Ranald slept. When night came, he sighed and told Baby Little that he regretted leaving behind his friends. 'Your mentor as I observed can be quite blunt with his speech. He could be not so good at socializing with people, I guess.' Baby Little said. Ranald smiled a little, before taking out the clawed gauntlets that Anbesa gave him. He slashed his way out of prison and ran down the guards. He found out that Ram Style and Charging Bull Style worked best with Mountain Goat Style, and fought his way to the warlord's dining hall. The warlord, a stately lion-eared and tailed man clad in iron armour, was amused at a man in yellow and red challenging to a fair fight. "So be it," he grumbled.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group had already arrived at the fortress. Yeomsoo and Phrixus battered down the doors and scaring the guards. The rest fought their way while Duyve healed the team-mates who have been wounded. When they reached the entrance to the dining hall, they heard loud noises. "Looks like we have to blow down this entrance!" Caelus shouted, and he blew his wind breath at the doors to break in. They were treated to the sight of Ranald, with a few cuts and injuries fighting the warlord. "That is interesting that he can survive on his own," Hercules said. "But even so, we have to help him!" Yeomsoo said and rallied the others to help Ranald defeat the warlord. He ran towards the villain and headbutted him, distracting the villain for a moment before Ranald punched him. When the villain saw the goat boy, he made an offhand comment about razing his village long ago. This made Ranald furious and he lunged at the villain, only to be thrown against the wall. Duyve healed him and told him to help his mentor. Ranald agreed, and he and Yeomsoo used hit-and-run tactics on the villain and even leapt to dodge the warlord's attacks. Vitiosus relied on brute force, but the warriors avoided his attacks to strike at him. Soon, they tired out the warlord and defeated him. Ranald found three pieces of the heart-gem from Dreamland and decided in his heart to use it in the last mission.

After that, Yeomsoo revealed that Vitiosus was indeed the one who destroyed his home village and that he had to eke out a living in the rough mountains to support his parents. The winged messenger bottle chose him because of his resilience. Ranald nodded and apologized to him. Yeomsoo pointed out that he initially wanted to apologize to his pupil first, but then he decided to give him his scimitar as the tenth zodiac tool as his way of doing so. "Don't give up. Two more, and you can face the Devourer of Worlds," he said. Phrixus nodded. Ranald agreed with them and joined his team-mates as they walked into the dimensional portal that just opened up in the mountain fortress.

At Cosmos Observatory, King Athos awarded points to the students and told Ranald to never give up. The golden-haired boy agreed and went to join Phrixus and the rest of his house for a practices sparring session. "Yeomsoo, can you come with us for some practice?" he asked. The goat kemonomimi declined his requests and walked off to the Hall of Earth to contemplate whatever it is in his treehouse dorm room.