“Got to admit, I expected something that’s not much better than the typical army rations given that we’re in a fort,” noted Ethan while he gnawed happily on the drumstick of a large bird. It was far too large to be some sort of chicken, more the size of a turkey drumstick, though none of them recalled seeing anything resembling a turkey in Ephemera. “This stuff’s good, though, real good. What meat is this?”

“That’s the leg meat of a [Fleetfoot Snatcher]. They’re this sort of small-ish feathered lizard monster that’s endemic to this area. People thought of them as pests at first, but we changed our minds after we tried eating them,” replied Deena with a smirk on her face. “We ranch them up after that. Pretty easy too. The little buggers eat almost anything with gusto.”

“Lizard, huh?” noted Ethan with a hint of surprise on his face. “Always thought those were supposed to taste more like fish. Guess this is an exception or I heard some false info back then,” he said as he continued munching on the roasted leg meat. “Either way, really good stuff, like I said. Kinda missed eating like this after having army rations for so long.”

“Come on now, you had your vacation in Clearridge just a few weeks ago,” chided Alissa as she elbowed Ethan on the side. “I know for a fact that they got good food there too, and from the way you look like you gained several pounds after you returned from there, I know you definitely gorged yourself quite a bit during your stay.”

“I think all of us did, haha,” replied Ethan as he laughed out loud at Alissa’s accusation. “Either way, Ol’ Henri sure did make us train hard enough to lose all that weight right away once we returned, so I guess it evens out,” he said while reaching for another roasted drumstick. “Any idea how your Grandpa would treat us, Deena? Figured you’d have an idea since you’re the local here.”

“Grandpa likes to train people to their limits, but since you’re all accustomed to Sir Inolet, I doubt you’d find him too harsh or anything. From what Grandpa told me Sir Inolet is even harder on his students than he himself ever was,” replied Deena after a moment of thought. “Just be prepared for some bruises and the like, I guess.”

“Eh, nothing we aren’t used to,” replied Alissa as she enjoyed a dish that was reminiscent of cabbage rolls, except that the leaves were more fibrous and still had a crunch to them despite having been steamed for a good long while. She guessed the minced meat inside was more of the [Fleetfoot Snatcher], mixed with some sort of vegetable that had a crisp texture and refreshing flavor. “But yeah, compliments to the chef. Ethan is right in saying that this is good stuff.”

“Thanks, I’ll pass it on to pop later then,” Deena replied with a smirk. The food was truly good and definitely satisfied everyone, to the point that even the ones who were born into privilege had nothing to complain about.

The group enjoyed their dinner before Deena took them to visit one of the [Fleetfoot Snatcher] ranches run by one of her uncles. There they saw the form of the creature they just enjoyed, and some of the group were rather torn upon the sight they saw before them, because almost to a man, they all agreed that the [Fleetfoot Snatcher] was a downright adorable creature.

Each [Fleetfoot Snatcher] was roughly the size of a large turkey and had a rotund, feathered form full of brightly colored plumage, supported by legs that ended in wicked claws. The claws were quite large for a creature of their size, and the rather blunt snout filled with sharp teeth made it clear that the creatures were likely capable predators in the wild.

In captivity with plenty of food and little room to move, though, they grew lazy and rotund rather quickly, which made them quite easy to domesticate and treat as a ranch animal. A hungry [Fleetfoot Snatcher] was a pest that would eat whatever edibles it could find, while a sated one used to eating its fill every day grew too lazy to hunt even when it was hungry before too long.

Other than its meat, the creatures also laid eggs on a regular basis, which made them pretty ideal to raise, since they were not picky about what they eat. Kitchen scraps and the like were usually fed to the creatures, which were able to digest both animal and plant matter with equal ease. As a bonus, feeding them most of the fort’s “trash” meant that the fort was kept clean as a side effect.

After the visit to the ranch, the group returned to the dormitory and went to sleep on their respective cots that night. It was not exactly the most comfortable bed, with a simple straw mattress on top of the cot, covered with a bedsheet, but it was better than a bedroll on the hard ground, to say the least. By then they were used to even that, so the cot felt positively comfortable and they slept soundly through the night.

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They woke up around dawn the next day as the party were used to from their training and took turns to refresh themselves in the shared bathrooms before they put on their equipment and headed towards the training grounds under Deena’s lead. Deena had come to fetch them just as they finished getting ready, which was good timing on her part.

As for the training grounds itself, the place was heavily in use even at the early hour, with hundreds of soldiers clearly in the middle of training already. That said, there was a space left open in the center of the training grounds where Alissa spotted Sir Inolet, Magus Drummond, and Sir DelVillar already waiting for their arrival.

“Quite punctual. That is a good trait to have,” commented Sir DelVillar as the party reached the clearing. “I assume you all are prepared, then? Form up into combat formation, all of you. I will see what you can do for myself,” said the old knight with obvious confidence.

Alissa questioned the wisdom of taking on the whole party on his own, but then she remembered the previous day’s test. If neither she nor Joshua could even properly punch through the old knight’s defenses with their best effort, chances were that none of the rest could do so either. If the old man could keep his defenses against all of them then they wouldn’t really risk hurting him at all.

They followed his instructions and formed up into their usual battle formation, with Ethan, Bronwen, and Glenn at the front, Alissa, Nadine, Maribel, and Moira at the sides, while Joshua, Ormont, and Benedictus nestled in the middle. The toughest people were at the front, while those who were more offense than defense held the flanks, and their ranged support was covered from three sides by the formation.

“Good, you’re ready, then?” asked Sir DelVillar to which the party nodded.

As the old knight received their affirmation, he mumbled something under his breath, likely the name of some skills of his own, and everyone soon noticed the change. An armor of stone coalesced around the gangly old knight’s body, forming a protective layer around him that took the shape of a suit of plate armor. A shield of stone also formed in his left hand, while a long-handled pole-mace of the same material formed in his right hand.

“Come at me, then, kids. I’ll let you have the first strike,” said Sir DelVillar as he beckoned the party to make the first move against him.

Alissa and the rest of the party obliged the old man’s invitation.

Since he clearly meant for this to be a spar, neither Alissa nor Joshua went for the all-out strike they did the day before. Such strikes took too long to prepare in actual combat conditions, so instead Ethan’s group charged at the old knight with their shields held high. All three of them bodily rammed the old knight shield-first, but to their surprise, found him not moving even a single step back from the impact.

Sir DelVillar had not even raised his shield to defend himself.

Alissa, Nadine, Moira, and Maribel then assaulted the old knight from the sides, trying to find chinks and weak points in his defenses. Unfortunately, other than openings for his eyes and nostrils, there was no weakness to be found on his armor of stone, and when Alissa did try to target his eyeslit, he simply moved his head a bit, which was enough to throw off her aim.

The attacks from Ormont, Joshua, and Benedictus failed to find any purchase as well, and even though Joshua shifted to using fire – probably in an attempt to exploit the eyeslits and breathing holes in the old knight’s stone armor – Sir DelVillar was clearly used to such attacks as the openings sealed themselves before any of the flames managed to reach them.

Even though the old man should have been blinded that way, he still reacted swiftly against the party and swung his mace with enough force to send Glenn stumbling backwards. At the same time, he raised his shield and pushed back against Ethan and Bronwen, the two finding the old knight to be impossibly strong and heavy as they too were forced to take steps back.

Unlike most cases, the old knight’s shield was not held in his hand, but was instead directly attached to the “gauntlet” on his left arm. The shield itself was capable of shifting its shape and moving independently as it was clearly part of Sir DelVillar’s skill, which allowed it to flow and shift in order to intercept attacks that came at him.

That quirk allowed the old man to wield his polemace with both hands, something he was clearly well-accustomed to as his strikes came fast and furious against the group, each blow delivered with brutal force yet also directed with great finesse and skill that were clearly born from decades of experience and training.

Alissa blocked one such blow with her shield and almost had her arm dislocated as a result as she misjudged the force behind the cleverly-placed blow. She only managed to save herself from injury by leaping back, which only gave Sir DelVillar more room to leverage his weapon’s long reach and devastating force, causing the party to be thrown on the backfoot.

Those with longer weapons like Moira and Nadine also tried to contest the old knight, but found themselves unable to match his power and skill, while at the same time, none of the attacks the party used managed to even damage the old knight’s stone armor appreciably. Alissa made a couple skill-enhanced strikes that caused small chinks to form, but the stone armor repaired itself in seconds, which rendered her efforts useless.

Each time Joshua tried to charge up a spell, Sir Delvillar would shift his focus towards him, which in turn forced Joshua to cancel his channeling as he had to scramble away from the old knight. The party’s efforts to block Sir DelVillar were ineffective at best, and completely ignored at worst, as the party quickly realized that nothing they did managed to even give the old knight a pause.

The stone armor that wrapped his entire body was exactly as durable as the small slab he had Joshua and Alissa test themselves on the previous day, and the old knight seemed perfectly comfortable with maintaining the armor on himself – even with the occasional repairs – throughout the duration of a battle.

Alissa recalled that Sir Marsten had offhandedly mentioned that Sir DelVillar was considered one of the strongest three in the Kingdom, though there was no clear segregation of power between the three at the top. She could see why, as the old knight was a true juggernaut who was simply unstoppable. If he had a weakness, is was probably his lacking variety on the offense, but the ridiculous defense he possessed was a big enough problem on its own.