Pax’s friends looked back at him, obviously considering the choice. Well, except for Amil, who just snorted with a laugh.
“Do you even need to ask?” he asked. “Ambushing sounds a lot more fun than sitting around and waiting for an attack.”
Dahni nodded eagerly while the others looked like they were still thinking.
“Is the defending option for a stationary base or something moving like a caravan?” Tyrodon asked.
Pax's eyes widened at the question he wished he’d thought of himself.
He turned back to the warrior, who aimed an approving look at Tyrodon. “As one of the first squads, you can actually choose. If you had chosen the defender option, I’d have told you to pick between protecting a small outpost base or a supply caravan of five yugrut wagons. The second set of defenders will do the one you didn’t pick.”
Pax nodded his understanding and turned back to the others.
“Our fighting on the Purge has been taking out beast nests,” Bryn said. “So, coordinating attacks should be a more familiar start.”
“And now that I know about the defender options.” Tyrodon shrugged. “I’d rather have until next class to prepare the best items to use.”
Amil and Dahni grinned as Pax turned back around and said, “Ambusher.”
To their right, Pax heard the other squad make the same choice. Behind them, more squads had entered the front organization area.
“Move to the staging area on your left, where you will be joined by four more squads.” Their warrior helper motioned to the side where a set of benches were arranged facing each other, mirroring an identical one on the other side of the registration tables. “Once we have all ten starting squads, we will give you further instructions and a short time to plan your strategies.”
Pax couldn’t help a grin as he hurried over. He’d been going stir crazy after the huge change from daily fighting on the Purge to classwork and all the spycraft stuff. Warwick’s brutal training yesterday had helped work out some of his frustration, but he really missed taking on a challenge together with his crew. He was looking forward to the mental strategizing of coordinating their various talents again while taking on strong fighters.
“I’ve missed this,” he said, as they made it to the benches and filled two of them.
“Me, too!” Amil said, bringing his hammer out with a grin wider than Pax’s.
The others nodded their agreement, anticipation buzzing through their group with a palpable sensation.
“Good, a mage that has the intelligence to also train with a weapon.”
They turned to see a warrior walk out from a side door with an approving look at Amil’s ax. She wore utilitarian plate armor that was scuffed to an almost matte finish while still looking well cared for. She had a sword in a hilt strapped to her left side with the handle wrapped in simple molded leather stained by sweat. Wearing no helmet, she had short cropped hair the color of sand.
Behind her came a man whose entire demeanor screamed crafter. His brown eyes jumped constantly, evaluating everything around him. Multiple tools hung from a belt to be a few seconds faster to access than his inventory.
The occasional burn mark on his clothing and stained hands told Pax he wasn’t afraid to take risks. Ignoring them, he walked over to a spot against the wall, and began pulling out boxes and setting them in a perfectly aligned row next to each other.
“Too bad I’m going to need to replace it,” the warrior said, ignoring her companion and waving a hand at Amil’s ax.
Amil frowned, but visibly tamped down his response and kept quiet to hear further explanation.
“Come on in. Everyone, have a seat. I only want to explain this once.” The warrior folded her arms and went silent.
Three more squads hurried over, taking seats on the benches with cautious nods aimed at Pax and his friends. The warrior still stood patiently, eyes trained on the registration tables, not bothered by the students' growing impatience. When one more squad joined them, bringing the total to five, she finally turned to face them all.
“I’m Sergeant Olivia Ashford, one of the warrior assistants here to help you get ready for your first simulation. I will also supervise the training, along with the other healers and mages whose job it is to make sure you don’t die.”
Her words put an immediate damper on their excitement.
“First, we will give you practice weapons that are our best attempt to provide you with a realistic training experience while still keeping you from injuries we can’t heal. It would be much simpler if we could reproduce the ancient artifacts that create training squares, but we don’t have near enough to use for the scale of this war games training.” She turned to the man behind her. “Thankfully, we have crafters like Master Bennett and his team. I’ll let him explain what they have for you. Please treat these tools carefully. We had to raid the stores of noble houses and work our crafters day and night to have enough to outfit everyone.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The crafter turned to them with a smile, holding a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. Pax blinked when he saw they were completely covered in a dark film of beast leather that molded to the familiar forms.
“First, for the warriors and mages who carry weapons, we have our haptic feedback practice weapons. For the mages, they need to be powered by a core that matches your element. For warriors and crafters, we’ve found air to be the most neutral, but all cores should work.”
Pax saw Tyrodon’s eyes widen and figured he was trying to calculate the crazy time and costs of providing all these for the students.
“I won’t go into too many details, but their specialized coating transforms the energy of your strikes into haptic signals that transmit as pain and even paralysis to your opponent. Also, all deadly edges are blunted. For now, everyone will get identical pieces of equipment. But we’ll have crafters available this week to help adjust the weight and heft of your haptic weapon to more closely match your personal weapon.”
Pax frowned and saw he wasn’t the only one still confused about how it worked. When Bennett kept explaining, he was glad he’d waited.
“The other half of the equation are these beauties.” Bennett carefully set the sword and shield on the empty bench before pulling out what looked like a small choker designed to wear around the neck.
Made from a polished silvery metal, crafters had etched tiny runes too small to see around the surface. They’d also slotted four cores in slots around the circlet, the colors letting Pax know it was one of each primary elemental type.
The colors swirling under the surfaces of the spherical cores not only told everyone looking that they were fully charged, but gave the circlet a beautiful appearance, almost like jewelry.
“These are our force dampeners. Years back, when an apprentice figured out a way to throttle spell power, his superiors laughed at him. Now his discovery is the basis of prisoner manacles and a variation is used to power these dampeners. He had the last laugh, and his heirs have been living large on the proceeds for—”
Ashford cleared her throat, startling Bennett, who blushed.
“Sorry. I got sidetracked. The short story is these are perfect for training. They throttle the power of your outgoing spells and hit you with a mostly correct amount of pain based on incoming spells and the attacks from haptic weapons. If the attack is strong enough, these will paralyze the appropriate body part.”
Appreciative murmurs came from the listening squads as the implications sank in. Pax knew he hadn’t been the only one wondering how they would do this training without a healer standing close by the way Warwick did in her class.
“Treat this like it’s real. These fancy devices won’t protect you from getting crushed by a rock or a wagon wheel. Now, time’s ticking. You’ve got ten minutes to gear up and plan. Then another ten to get into your ambush positions before they send the caravan out.” Ashford motioned to the far side of the staging area, where they could see another group of five squads getting a similar briefing.
“Warriors, come grab matching weapons and shields first while I hand the dampeners out to the mages. Then you’ll switch.”
There was a surge of confusion as everyone moved to obey, but it sorted itself out quickly. Standing in line to get his dampener, Pax felt his hands suddenly start to sweat as he remembered wearing manacles after his Awakening.
They don’t lock in the back. Rin’s voice popped into his head, somehow reading his worry. I checked. You put it on yourself and can pull it off at any time.
He glanced ahead, and Rin was correct. Bennett handed the circlets out, keeping a close eye on the mages as they put them on, but not doing it himself. It didn’t take long before they were all outfitted, lined up and ready.
Pax hefted his new club and shield, the difference in weight and balance obvious, even though it wasn’t much. He didn’t want to break anything, but couldn’t resist using the tiniest thread of mana to probe the circlet around his neck. It completely rebuffed his efforts, much like a locked cupboard being probed by a toddler. Pax resolved to keep a thread of his mana sight active to figure out how it worked during the scenario.
The four cores were obviously designed to manage regular spells. But what would the thing do if he tried casting a light spell? He didn’t dare do it with so many nearby witnesses, just in case the thing shocked him senseless or something worse. He’d stick with his air spells for now.
Testing? He sent the question out to see if he could still communicate with his squad.
To his delight, the others answered back, though their responses sounded more monotone and echoey, making it harder to distinguish who was talking.
“That’s it. You have ten minutes to plan.” Sergeant Ashford clapped her hands in front of a large, closed door in the half wall behind her. “Your job is to take out the caravan before they make it to the other end of the arena. This is one of our biggest arenas, just over twenty-five acres, so the road is close to a mile and a half because it’s windy. Here is your map with basic features, including the road, marked. If they keep the yugruts to a decent pace, you’ll have about an hour for the exercise. Good luck. Don’t die. We’ll be watching from the walkways, with healers ready in case of accidents.” She spread out a map on the small table next to her and stepped back as she motioned for them to use it.
The almost fifty people in their ambush group moved forward before it was obvious they couldn’t all see what was going on.
Pax couldn’t handle the time ticking down and stepped up onto the bench near him. “How about the squad leaders check out the map? Everyone else, discuss ambushing ideas. Then report those to your squad leader and at the five-minute mark, the leaders get together again to decide on a plan, saving the last two minutes to let their squads know what we’re doing?”
Heads nodded, and the group separated, with the leaders heading toward the small map table while the others began discussing plans with each other. One burly air mage with a fourth-year badge scowled at him. In a voice pitched loudly enough to carry, he asked, “Who put you in charge?”
Around him the others paused, heads turning to watch the confrontation.
“No one,” Pax said easily, leaning into his Charisma as he held out both hands in a conciliatory gesture. “Just getting us moving so we don’t waste time. You’re welcome to be in charge if you want.”
That seemed to mollify him, and he let out a grunt. “Fine. Let’s get this figured out, then.” He turned and made a beeline for the map.
Just my luck that he’s one of the leaders. Pax followed, joining the other leaders in bending over and quickly memorizing the features of the map. He was careful not to be the first one to speak. They didn’t have time for power struggles.
“Looks like plenty of tree cover close to the road with this small stream here, a perfect ambush spot.” A warrior with elven features jumped in, her finger moving over the map as she commented. “This open field here provides them with an excellent field of view, but would be a great place to do something unexpected. The rest of the area is more of the same. Ready to check in with our squads to see what ideas they have?”
“Perfect,” Pax said with a grateful nod. “Be right back.” Without waiting to hear more, he turned and jogged to his squad, hoping to encourage everyone else to work fast. They didn’t have much time.