The next morning, Mahon was in a side arena with all the best fighters of the Protectors Circle. The three vice-masters were all present, as well as Ailluin, the four instructors from Lakefield, and the three from Drulens. Thirteen seven-stars Protectors were here too, and given every trio couldn’t be made with seven-stars only, there was also one peak six-star with them. Adding Jorik and Mahon, there were twenty-eight people in the arena.
The instructors from Lakefield had retired a long time ago, and even though they were apt to fight, they didn’t want to participate in the tournament. Only two out of the three Drulens instructors wanted to participate, and ignoring the trio of sorcerers, there were four trios of seven-stars, one trio with two seven-stars and a peak six-star, and finally, Mahon, Jorik and Myrthil’s trio. The lineup of the Protectors Circle was nothing else than impressive.
“Let me give you a quick explanation of what will be your routine in the coming month before the tournament.” Ailluin started to explain.
When it was about training, not even the vice-masters would say they were better than him.
“In the morning we’ll all meet here to discuss strategy and exchange pointers. After that, some of the instructors will need to leave to take care of the other groups, but we’ll do a training session with everyone that's left. A little break for lunch, and then, three versus three fights for the whole afternoon with your trio. We’ll keep this schedule up to five days a week. On the sixth there will be an internal tournament with all the Protectors, and the seventh will be your rest day. We’ll lower the training intensity as we get close to the tournament so you’ll be as fresh as you can hope for the d-day. Is there any question?”
No one flinched at the intense training the head instructor imposed upon them. They were all eager to prove the Protectors Circle had the best fighters in all of Finem and show Rining they weren’t afraid of their dull provocations. For Mahon and Jorik, though, it was just like their previous routine. Six days training, One day resting. Business as usual.
“Let’s start, then!” Ailluin rubbed his hands with glee. “We checked in the archives, and there were a few occasions where we needed to fight in trios, but they’re all pretty much outdated now. So before starting, I’d like to discuss with you the best strategy we can use to fight as three.”
Ailluin gestured for a woman instructor to continue, and she started drawing on the sand of the arena while explaining.
“We already brainstormed between instructors in the past month, and after some errors and trials we came up with this.” She drew three people in a v-formation. “The best formation is to stick with two Protectors focusing on attack while one is mainly in charge of defense. In theory, it’s quite easy, but you’ll see that in practice everyone needs to be perfectly synchronized or you’ll fail. The key is the defender role, so it’s best if you choose your best fighter for it.”
Mahon immediately raised his hand, and the woman gestured for him to ask his question.
“I’m sorry. I’m not sure I got what you said right. You said choosing the best fighter for the defender role like he had to get a permanent role?”
“Yes.” The instructor answered with a nod. “The defender role is the most important one, and that’s why it’s best if the stronger fighter assumes it. Actually, in our practice fights it…”
“Wait a minute, Tanulia.” Ailluin interrupted as he saw Mahon’s frown growing wider. He turned to him. “I’m sorry, Mahon, we didn’t consult you before since you weren’t an instructor yet, but seeing your face I’m guessing you don’t like this solution? I’d prefer we’re all on the same page about our fighting method before moving on. If you have an alternative, please say it. We’re working in unknown territories here.”
“Let me ask you a question instead.” Mahon answered. “Do any of you have real experience fighting as three?”
In an embarrassed silence, the instructors slowly shook their heads one after the other.
“No shame in this.” Mahon reassured. “Another question, if you don’t mind. When you practiced to find this solution, did you force yourself to fight as three? Like there were rules preventing you from splitting?”
Most of the instructors nodded as they realized what might have gone wrong.
“Truth be told,” Mahon continued with a sigh, “trio fights are mostly fought as a duo fight and a single duel. It’s rarely a real three on three. The duo and the single person switch a lot, so it may look like a three on three, but it’s really not. Actually, the best strategy for winning is often to split your opponents to your advantage.”
“Why is that?” Ailluin asked with a thinking face.
“Three versus three is simply too hard. One versus one, doesn’t give you any advantage. But two versus two is the best compromise. It helps even out most of the technical or physical differences between people.”
Given his public many frowns, Mahon smiled and provided an example.
“Let’s say you have two trios of roughly equivalent strength. If the first and second most powerful persons of the first trio fights against the second and third of the second trio, chances are the fight will last long and will be hard on both parts, right?”
Most of the instructors nodded while listening with interest. A few already had understood what Mahon was hinting at and nodded even more fervently.
“But who’s left then?” Mahon continued. “The worst person of the first trio against the best of the second. In a one on one, the latter will probably win without too many problems, and then it’ll be a three versus two. Easy win.”
A flash of understanding appeared on every visage as they realized the implications of Mahon’s explanation.
“Obviously, it’s just theoretical.” Mahon pursued his speech. “But you got the point. Three on three is mostly about singling out one person while a duo holds back the other two.”
“I don’t see why our proposal isn’t good, then.” One of the instructors mused out loud. “If we can always fight as three, our opponents won’t be able to separate and conquer us. From my point of view, we’ve the best defensive approach. At best, the opponents fight as two plus one, but they can’t exploit us if we stay as three. At worst, they fight like us, and it’s a showdown of talents.”
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Mahon grimaced. The instructors were really good fighters, but they were used to fighting on their own and in very regulated duels. They had never fought in a messy battlefield or with comrades.
“Unfortunately, your proposal is only decent at best.” Mahon blurted out. “There are many flaws that can be exploited. For example, what if the defender is taken out first? He is the one linking the whole group together. Once he is defeated, the whole formation crumbles. Also limiting people to one role is too static. You can’t take advantage of most situations.”
“Too static?” Even Ailluin had trouble following.
“Hmm…” Seeing the many puzzled looks, Mahon decided to change his approach. “Maybe we should do a demonstration. Do you mind?”
“No, let’s do it.” Ailluin quickly agreed before gesturing to two other instructors and moving inside the center of the arena.
Mahon only glanced at Jorik before the duo stepped inside too. Myrthil followed a second later with a frown. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do since she hadn’t understood either what Mahon had explained.
With a smile, Mahon approached closer and whispered to her. “Don’t fret about it. Just wait a bit and then circle around them as if you were going to attack at a moment’s notice.”
Myrthil threw him a weird look but acquiesced nonetheless. The demonstration was supposed to make things clearer, anyway. On the other side, Ailluin and his teammates assumed their fighting formation, with Ailluin playing the role of the defender.
“Slow fight.” Mahon declared, and they all nodded.
It was a concept he had developed in Nightmare to help his warriors assess the importance of techniques rather than using sheer strength. In Finem, it wasn’t as important as in Nightmare, but as Mahon taught his seven-star class, he had shown them how to do it to force them not to use their better strength or speed to win their duel.
The principle was very simple. Instead of going at full speed, the fight happened in slow motion with everyone moving at the same time. It couldn’t reflect the true nature of a fight, but it forced them to realize the importance of tactics and techniques over sheer force and speed.
Mahon gestured for the fight to start, and he and Jorik split right at the beginning, circling around Ailluin’s trio. Immediately, the three instructors responded by pivoting their formation and attacked Jorik.
The noble stepped backwards while Mahon moved closer from the other side, forcing the instructors to stop and turn to Mahon. Jorik then went back in the offensive, and soon the instructors’ formation was forced in a standby, not knowing what to do between Jorik and Mahon alternating attack and retreat.
Without any word, Mahon and Jorik were effortlessly finding their common rhythm and appeared very free in their motions. On the contrary, Ailluin’s trio moves were irregular, almost robotic.
Still, at three versus two they managed to hold on while being forced to impassivity because of the constant change in Mahon and Jorik’s attacks. They were too slow to adapt to the fast changing strategy of the duo.
When Myrthil joined the fight, however, their formation immediately crumbled. The woman did nothing else than circle around them, but it was enough to throw them in disarray. With Mahon and Jorik already forcing too many changes and adding Myrthil’s unknown into the mix, they couldn’t defend against everything.
Soon an opportunity presented itself, and as Mahon seized it, the fight was over in an instant.
“So?” Mahon asked with a smile.
“It was so weird…” One of the instructors that had fought with Ailluin spoke first. “We tried to stay in formation, but everything you did took us a step closer to breaking. I don’t understand.”
Mahon nodded calmly. “Let’s redo the fight and see what happened.” He instructed.
As everyone resumed their stances from the beginning of the fight, they replayed it while Mahon commented on their moves.
“See here? Your formation has switched. Little by little, we pushed you away until your angle was off. If Jorik attacks, Ailluin is the defender and everything is alright. But if I attack, what happens?”
“I’m at the defender position!” The instructor realized.
“Exactly. But you’re no defender, you’re an attacker.” Mahon explained. “That’s why it feels so off. I forced you to change roles, but because of your static formation you didn’t even consider it. That’s why it felt off. Your role was to attack, but you had to defend there. Let’s continue.”
The fight advanced while Mahon continued to explain everything they had done to throw their static formation in disarray.
“When Myrthil joined, the defender role was suddenly always changing. In fact, in this exact situation, it would have been better for two to defend and one to attack. I think you’re all starting to get what I’m talking about now. A fight is too dynamic in its nature. If you force yourself to be static, you can only break while a more dynamic formation would bend.”
“Then it’s impossible to devise any strategy?” One of the instructors asked out loud. “If it’s as ever changing as you said, then there is no point in training together. We’ll never reach such a level in a month.”
“You’re only half right.” Mahon answered. “It’s true that no one can learn to cooperate perfectly in just a month. But we don’t aim for perfection. We just need to be better than our opponents. They only have a month left too. And there is a lot we can do in one month.”
“What do you propose, then?” Ailluin intervened.
“There are three main ways to fight. Each on his own. A duo and a single person. And a trio. Honestly, fighting as three is very limited, and I would drop it entirely. Given we’re all seven-stars or close, though, we might give it a try…”
Mahon stopped talking and thought about it for a bit, before he came up with a plan.
“Ok, we could try it this way. We have to train in the three fighting situations as well as switching from one to another. How well you know a situation is the static part of the fight, but how well you can switch from one to another represents your capacity to adapt. The dynamism. Both are equally important. First, you need to assess your level in each situation. I’m talking about one, three singletons, two, a duo and a singleton, and three, a trio. For the trio part, we can focus on one defender and two defenders only. We don’t have time to cover everything, but you’ll at least have the basics. Duo should be easy because you’ve already practiced a bit. I think there is no need to mention singleton. The hard part will then be to switch from one situation to another. I can help with that. And Jorik too, probably.”
With just a simple demonstration and a few explanatory words, Mahon had completely reversed the situation. If at first the instructors had come up with their own strategy, most of them had learnt to trust Mahon’s techniques, and when he exposed the flaws of their strategy, they had quickly changed their mind about it.
They naturally followed his lead, and Mahon became the unofficial head instructor of all the seven-stars for the tournament. Ailluin didn’t seem to mind the sudden switch at all. He moved at Mahon’s side, and everyone knew that with the combination of Mahon’s insights and Ailluin’s deep knowledge of the Protectors’s strength and weakness, they would all progress by leaps and bounds.
“We can start with the three singleton situation.” Mahon proposed. “Each person is on his own, but you have to be aware of your trio’s situation at all times. It’s like three duels are happening at the same time.”
“Let’s go, then!” Ailluin yelled with his drill instructor voice. “First situation training. Mirphis’s trio against Ylindar’s. Horith against Rania’s.” Ailluin ordered the Protectors around, and in less than a minute, they were all starting their own fight.
Once they were at the exercise for a few minutes, Mahon started the real training.
“Every time I clap my hands, the first team has to switch its fighters clockwise while the second has to prevent it!”