We spent our days training the recruits, and when I wasn’t training them, I was worried about the trouble the future would bring. Time seemed to fly by, and just like that the day I'd settle on to attack the Lycan settlement drew close.
The recruits were impressive. Their determination to succeed yielded results that far exceeded my expectations. While there were those that were unable to activate the runes engraved onto their weapons, there were a lot more that succeeded. Sadly, not all those that succeeded were able to push the magic to a level that would be useful in battle; nevertheless, we had a sizeable force to work with.
Father had promised to send some mages along, and I was certain Minerva would be joining the march, so I wasn’t worried about our firepower, although I was still worried about us being outnumbered. Nevertheless, I remained undaunted, it would be a difficult task to accomplish, but it was a task that must be accomplished, so I’d steeled my nerves and talked myself into facing it head-on.
“As you might recall, I’d said our first mission would be to attack the Lycan settlement closest to us, and that only those that successfully completed their training would be allowed on that mission. Well, the mission starts in two days, and as things stand we have seventeen of you that will be allowed to join. The seventeen that will join the mission will train separately tomorrow, training tomorrow will be duels using your enchanted weapons. Minerva will be on hand to heal any injury, so go all out,” I said to the recruits that stood in front of me once training was over for the day.
I watched their faces as I spoke, and even though they tried to hide it, the disappointment in the faces of the recruits that failed to finish their training on time was clear to see. It didn’t sit well with me seeing them so disappointed, it was a difficult thing we’d asked of them, and being unable to meet our unreasonable demand was only natural, in fact, it was extraordinary that seventeen of the recruits had managed to succeed.
“For the rest, do not be disheartened, your training will continue tomorrow with Aurel. Even though you won’t join us this time, there will be other battles, and the fight against the Lycan has only just begun, you will have your chance,” I said, hoping my words would encourage the recruits that looked dejected.
The next day Minerva and I left Aurel and the recruits that needed further training behind and headed to the sparring ground. I made them draw lots, but there was one who couldn’t find a partner, Alyssa, so I decided to be her sparring partner, I decided we would go last, I wanted to watch the others fight with their new weapons.
All while we were training their ability to wield the magic in these weapons we hadn’t ignored the physical aspect of training, they were after all warriors, so we’d made them spar often once the magic training was over so their skills wouldn’t grow dull. I’d also made them train using their new weapons against dummies so they could familiarize themselves with their new weapons; nevertheless, they still seemed a bit unfamiliar with their weapons.
Rosalia fought the same way I remembered, but with the enchanted weapon in hand her attacks were more lethal, and given the gap in the ability to wield magic between her and her opponent, the fight never left her control, despite the fact that her opponent was overall stronger, she was more skilled with the sword and was able to use the enchantment on the sword better; she continuously chipped away at the health of her opponent by inflicting little injuries in the gaps that opened in his defense, and when she sensed that he was sufficiently weak, she ended the fight with one big move, cutting her opponent’s abdomen. She won her fight, and my sister healed both her and her opponent before the next fight.
I was torn about how to make the archers fight, all throughout our training they’d sparred fighting with daggers, but I needed to see their skill with their new bows, so in the end, I opted to have them fight using their bows. The ground wasn’t too big, so there was only so much distance they could put between themselves and their opponents, and I fully expected the others to be able to cover that much space without issue; I was proven wrong.
One of the ladies, Misandre, was the first archer to fight. She was a tall slender woman who looked to be around twenty-one. She was perhaps the oldest of all the ladies that joined the unit father assigned to me, she was also the one that had studied magic the longest out of all four ladies. However, her ability with the bow was no joke, and her knowledge of magic just made the effects of her magic that much more deadly.
She had the bow that fired arrows of ice. Since she didn’t need to go through the whole process of reaching for her quiver, pulling out an arrow, nocking the arrow, aiming, and firing, the magic allowed her to cut the process simply to aiming and firing, she was able to reduce the time between each shot. Archers trained to make the whole process seamless, and often archers were judged based on how fast they could carry out the whole process because at a certain level their aim and range had little variation, who could shoot more within the shortest period of time often won many competitions between archers.
Misandre was firing her arrows with very little time passing between each shot, never giving her opponent the chance to cover the distance she put between them. She moved intelligently too, making sure to maintain the distance between her and her opponent all while keeping him pinned by peppering him with arrows. Her opponent for his part did his best to dodge or parry her arrows, but he suffered many injuries and was growing slower as the fight went on. It eventually ended with an arrow to his arm that made him drop his sword. Minerva healed him, but Misandre didn’t need healing as she sustained no injuries.
The fights of the other three archers followed a very similar pattern, the only difference was in how they used magic. Misandre and Atif were by far the better of the three, but the third archer showed her ingenuity in the way her arrows were crafted. She also had the bow that fired arrows of ice, but it seemed she prepared for her arrows to be parried, so she constructed each arrow to shatter into many sharp shards upon impact, injuring her opponent even if he managed to parry it. This forced her opponent into trying to dodge every shot after he sustained injuries from parrying her arrows, which made the fight even more advantageous to her. Her fight ended the quickest among the archers.
The thing that most stood out watching the recruits duel was the many forms the magic in their weapons took and how they tried to incorporate that into their fights; the archers had the most variations though. While Misandre constructed her arrows to be sharp and travel fast, the other lady constructed hers to do more damage upon impact, and Atif constructed his arrows by compressing multiple arrows into one larger one, it dispersed the moment it left his bowstring, attacking multiple places; I didn’t think it was particularly useful in a duel against a single opponent, but it did limit the movement of his opponent.
It soon came time for my duel with Alyssa, I was confident I would be able to defeat her, but I needed to draw out the fight to give her a chance to show her skills. Remembering how she fought though, a long-drawn-out fight wasn’t something she herself particularly fancied, however, she’d been training her stamina while training with us, so I imagined she would fare a lot better now.
“Please, don’t go easy on me,” she said as we stood facing each other. I simply nodded in response, waiting for the signal to start.
Once the signal came, Alyssa was flying at me. For a female warrior, the mace didn’t seem to affect her movement too much; perhaps this is why she uses mana the way she does since she would need a lot of strength to swing that thing around properly I thought to myself as Alyssa swung her mace at me. I could tell she’d activated the knockback effect, but I still decided to parry her swing to test out not only my own strength but to feel with my own body the level she’d pushed the magic to.
I spread my feet, then dug in my heels to give me better balance as I parried Alyssa’s mace. While I managed to keep my grip on my sword, I was pushed back, though my balance didn’t break, my posture was awkward, and sensing an opening she attacked again. This time I dodged instead of parrying. I realized early on that despite my strength, anytime our weapons crossed I would immediately be put at a disadvantage, so I resorted to dodging instead of parrying. I exploited little gaps in her technique to strike at her, and I soon learned that when defending the knockback effect of her weapon was deactivated. Her mental focus still needs a lot of work I thought to myself as I soon forced her into defending.
Alyssa sustained many little injuries, and her breathing became very labored. The longer the fight went on, the more sluggish she became. She did put up a good fight though, as she attacked me ferociously whenever she felt cornered, choosing to sustain some injuries in exchange for landing a blow on me. I couldn’t call it reckless, as not too long ago I’d injured myself out of desperation fighting against a Lycan, but I did think her techniques still needed more refinement.
Our duel ended with Alyssa bleeding from multiple places, and though I stayed away from landing any big blows on her, the duel was stopped as it was clear she could no longer carry on. She was as pale as a newborn’s bottom, bleeding heavily and unable to move her limbs properly. The moment the duel was stopped, her legs gave way and she crashed into a heap on the floor. Minerva healed her just as she’d healed all the other recruits.
Once again, I was reminded of my sister’s power. No mage in the settlement could heal thirteen people continuously without going unconscious from mana exhaustion. Only the three ladies who knew a little about magic realized how remarkable a feat it was, and they looked at my sister with respect, almost adulation.
“OK, that marks the end of today’s training. I hope you have learned something from your duels, and I hope this has better helped you polish some of your skills. Rest up, be here early tomorrow, we’ll start by polishing some of your techniques before having your duel again. For those who lost today, examine why you lost and try to improve yourself tomorrow, for those who won, think about what you did well and try and improve that. That is all, you’re dismissed,” I said to the recruits at the end of training.
“So, did any of the others manage to activate the magic in their weapons?” I asked Aurel as we made our way to the lake to wash our bodies.
“No, and even if they did, it wouldn’t matter now anyway, as you know, they’d have to spend some time improving the magic to get it to a level useable in battle,” Aurel replied.
“True. Tomorrow you handle the duels with Minerva, I’ll take over their training,” I said.
“Are you nervous? The day is close now. Just one more day to train the recruits before we set out, do you think they’ll be able to match the Lycans?” Aurel asked me.
“Surprisingly, the closer we are to the day, the calmer I feel. I was nervous, but it is something that must be done. I am worried about the numbers, but father promised to give us additional forces, it won’t just be us,” I answered Aurel.
“I can hardly contain myself. Those dogs are a scourge on this world, and I look forward to erasing them,” Aurel said, his voice dripping with hatred, and his eyes showing his steely determination.
