Chapter 27 – What’s Normal

Sam was being very cautious, the third floor had stumped her and her squad for a long, long time.

The ants, while weak individually, where a real menace in numbers.

Now that she had a hundred stat points, she had to fight them without her squad mates.

She wasn't really sure how to go about that because up till now she could count on her squad mates to defend her from the sides. Now though, she have to have eyes in the back of her head, to make sure she wouldn't get caught off-guard.

Slowly she moved forward further into the floor. Thanks to all the previous delves on this floor, she did know more than a bit about the layout of the floor. This time, she decided to stay close to the entrance. Even while she had gotten an lot stronger than before they went to the wall, she still needed to experiment with how far she could push herself.

She also didn't know how strong the ants would be against her. Who knew, maybe they couldn't do anything to her. On the other hand, without the support of her squad mates they might prove to be too much for her. She might even have to retreated to the second floor to grind some more levels.

Finally, after ten minutes on the floor the first ant showed itself. Thankfully it was only a scout, but still she attacked it immediately. With a few quick swipes and slashes from her sword, she managed to kill it.

“Well that was easy,” she said.

Indeed her new found strength proved to be a lot of help against the ant.

“I don't remember the others having such an easy time when we were fighting as a squad against them. I wonder why that is, am I so much stronger? Or is a question of stat distribution? Now I wonder how I will do against a swarm of the creatures. Let's find out!"

A few hour later Sam was back at the training field. She and the others where only waiting on Leophon. When he had finally arrived they were ready. For what? Well trainer Quincy had heard that a rival of his also managed to get a training squad. Now the two rivals were planning a match between the two squads. It wouldn’t really matter which squad would win, except for the bragging rights for the trainers.

A short while later the other squad also arrived on their field. De other squad looked a lot different and theirs. Not only was each member of the squad a lot bigger, even bigger than Leophon, but it also looked like most of them where fighters instead of a mixed squad. There was no difference to be seen between their mages, archers and fighters. All of them looked huge, and strong enough to pick up a whole cart, and not even having to try.

“Well Quincy, this is that group of rabble that you talked up so much?”

“Irana,” Trainer Quincy nodded to the female trainer.

“I have to say, Quincy, that I really appreciate this little match against your recruits. My soldiers can use a little target practice.”

“Soldiers now, are they? I believe that you only got them a few days ago. That would mean they are recruit one, not soldiers.”

“I promoted them to recruit two, since they have more than enough statpoints. That’s close enough to soldiers.” Trainer Irana answered.

“You’re not supposed to do that. How can you know them and their capabilities in only a few days?”

“Oh they are capable, Quincy. I did say that they have the statpoints, didn’t I.”

“Right, but statpoints aren’t everything Irana. They haven’t been trained as legionaries, nor have they been vetted as loyal to the legions. You just can’t know them within only a few days.”

“I can, and I did. And now they are at the recruit two rank. As soon as they’re knowledgeable about our ways I will have them promoted to soldiers to reinforce the wall. I know that they need more soldiers at Honor, and they’re willing to take them in.”

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“Honor? That’s the fifth legion’s fortress.”

“Yeah, so?”

“We’re part of the fourth legion, not the fifth. Thus we’re recruiting for the fourth.”

“I disagree, we’re all part of the legions, so we should help our fellow legions.”

“Help them, yes. But we have different legions for a reason.”

“Enough Quincy, I don’t care. I’ve been asked to recruit and train these men in our ways and then bring them to Honor. Now are we going to start this match, or not?”

Even though Trainer Quincy now had his doubts about the match, he had given his word that his recruits would fight hers. Thus the first match began.

Leophon, the strongest of the squad entered the duel ring first. Against him stood the biggest of the other recruits.

“So, you will be my punching bag, little man?” The big man asked.

“What? We’re doing a training match, what’re you talking about?”

The man didn’t respond, instead he charged at Leophon. The speed of the man was so much that Leophon didn’t even get to react. With a loud crash his fist hit Leophon on his chest. To Sam it sounded like a gun went off, and immediately Leophon went flying backwards. He crashed into a wall and didn’t move.

“What was that! There’s no way we can fight people that strong. Why are we even doing this?” Jasper was almost in a panic after seeing that show of might.

“Oh don’t worry, little ones. Burc is the strongest of my men, so the rest of you won’t be hit quite as hard as that.” Trainer Irana made sure to reassure them.

Next up was Lufir, who didn’t lose as badly as Leophon did. Now that they knew that their opponents were this fast and strong, they made sure to be ready for them. Unfortunately that didn’t help Lufir all that much, as the other man was also way stronger than he was. After only a few punches, he too had to forfeit the match.

After that the rest of them had to go trough a losing match against the big recruits. Luckily the first ones were the strongest, so none of them did as badly as Leophon and Lufir had.

When it was Sam’s turn, she was almost excited. Even though her squad mates didn’t do that great against their opponents, Sam knew that she had gotten a lot stronger recently. Her fights on the third floor had shown her that. Now she could find out what it was to go all-out against a strong opponent. Also, being hurt was something she was getting used to. No worries there.

When she and her opponent were ready, she managed to surprise the man by moving first. After he squad mates were pummeled right from the start, they hadn’t thought that one of them would move to strike first.

The man managed to block her sword with his shield, but it was clumsily done. This was in line with the discussion between the two trainers earlier, these recruits were strong, but they hadn’t trained with their new equipment.

Sam deflected a few more attacks with her shield, but then her opponent suddenly went crazy. He tossed his sword and shield to the side, and charged at her. She tried to dodge, but the man was just too fast. He grabbed her shield, and yanked it from her arm. Luckily the straps snapped, else her arm would’ve broken. Before she could react, the man picked her up and tossed her out of the ring. She flew almost as far as Leophon had, but instead of a wall she was stopped by hitting her squad mates. Together they crashed in one big pile.

“Enough!” Trainer Quincy was livid. He didn’t like his recruits having to fight against opponents that were this much stronger, but then again, they might have to do so later as well. But this was going to far. These men were no recruits, these were barbarians. He didn’t know where Irana had found them, but they were clearly too strong and wild to be used in such a training match.

“I will report this incident Irana, you have taken these men in, so now you get to reeducate them. Make sure that next time, they know to fight within the rules. These matches are about technique, not brute strength. Clearly, your men don’t even know what that is.”

“You’re just jealous that my men all won their matches. Next time they will crush your little toy soldiers even more. They are this good after only a few days in the legions after all.”

“Ha, as if they’ve learned anything in those days. You just took the biggest strongest and highest leveled men you could find, didn’t you?”

Irana didn’t answer that, and led her squad away from the duel ring. After watching them go, Trainer Quincy went to his own squad to see if any of them needed medical attention.