"So how did it go for all of you? You remember our deal, correct?"

It was dinner time now, or at least approaching dinner, and Donovan had called all four of them to the dining hall to discuss their experience. Rather surprisingly, he had not been the first to return to the barracks, that honor belonged to Sanna, which unfortunately meant that he was most definitely not going to be able to participate in the next tournament. There seemed to be an air of unease surrounding his men though, it didn't look like they were all too eager to speak.

"Sanna, we'll start with you since you were the first back. I'd argue you also have the most to work on, but we can talk about it later." It was in situations like this that Donovan had to get the ball rolling. It was Sanna's misfortune that his situation meant he was the most easily voluntold to the front.

"I lost my first battle." He didn't even bother sugarcoating it with 'but' -s or 'because' -s. He lost, plain and simple, and he had nothing but his lack of experience to blame for it.

"I see, so you won't be participating in the next tournament. Please do tell me what you learned from your match though." Donovan already knew he wasn't going to be taking part, but he needed to make sure they knew he planned to make good on his promises.

"To begin with, I have found that my timing is simply atrocious, so that is something I will have to work on, however I believe there may be some way to intentionally 'miss' to force my opponent into a more powerful attack."

"Like a feint?" Donovan responded to Sanna earnestly, he wanted to improve their overall combat power. "No, I suppose that would be more like a decoy attack considering you would go through with it and miss intentionally. I can see some possibilities to chain that with the tools at your disposal, but you'll have to be the one to figure that out. Continue."

"Thank you sir. Anyways, I have also come to realize in full this time that I am truly lacking in defensive options. I have neither the speed nor equipment to block, so I will definitely need to develop something to remedy that. A revision of my arsenal also seems like a good idea, some of the arts I used simply weren't effective. It may prove prudent to sacrifice some of the killing power for that extra bit of speed for some."

Donovan scratched his chin, his mind wandering to that flamethrower he had displayed in the past. It might be deadly, but unless it was used point blank his enemies could easily avoid it, it was just that slow. He also had doubts as to just how deadly that flame was too, it didn't seem to have the characteristics of napalm, so it was unlikely that it would stick to his targets.

"It pains me to say it, but it may be time for me to consider a serious revision to my clothing, my staff as well. The robe is more of a traditional piece, and I could feel how difficult it was to run with in comparison to the clothes I use for our practices. Honestly the staff feels like a hindrance as well, but I don't think I could cast to the same degree of efficiency without it."

"Hmmm." Donovan tried to think of some advice, any advice he could provide. "What if you change what your staff was made out of? Do they have metal staves?"

"Unfortunately they do not. Metal is not suited to performing split arts with, it has to be wood, bone, or stone."

"None of those seem particularly suited for combat, do they?" Donovan started thinking again. "What if you didn't make the entire staff metal, only parts of it. Like, let's say you fashioned the staff with a metal bottom half, below where you hold it. Surely it could double as a lance or club if you found yourself in a sticky situation, right?"

Sanna's face scrunched up thinking about it. ". . . I cannot recall if anything like that has been done before, but I cannot see a reason why it wouldn't work. I'll contact my artisan, however now that I think about it, why is the bottom half even needed in the first place? I don't need to tap the ground to cast a spell on the earth, I use my feet. Maybe there's some form of. . ."

Sanna trailed off, mumbling to himself as he theorized, reevaluating everything he had been told was 'the best' way to equip himself.

". . . maybe it was for wide area spells? If it is then I won't need it. . ."

It might have been a little annoying to not have any idea what his subordinate was doing, but he felt he could trust that Sanna was working to improve himself. He might be a little bit more highfalutin than his comrades, but he wasn't lazy. He had demonstrated that he was capable of being proactive.

"Alright then, how about you Len?"

"Uh, hmm." Len bowed his head, clearly a little embarrassed. "I won my first match, but my second one didn't go so well. . ."

"Oh? Do tell." From this alone Don could tell Len wouldn't be participating in the next tournament either. Right now he just wanted to fish out some information.

"W-well, I won my first match without a scratch, but only because my opponent's lance was too long and too heavy for him, so I could use my pile lance to stop him from being able to hit me once I got close, but the second guy used a sword and, you know. . . c-cut my head off."

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Donovan could easily imagine how the feeling of having your head cut off would be traumatic for a younger adult like Len. Even Donovan probably wasn't going to want to fight any time soon. He just hoped it didn't stop him from fighting altogether.

"I see." Donovan wasn't going to press that particular issue, there wasn't a point to it. "What do you think you could have done to prevent that?"

"I'm not sure, he was just too fast for me. I just couldn't move my lance around in time to block him."

Don nodded. He had guessed that much with the experience he had gotten from his own duel. "So what is it that you need to do to improve?"

"Get faster?" He looked to Donovan for an answer. Despite technically having more combat experience than him, he felt like Donovan already knew what he needed. "Get. . . stronger?"

"Titanyana, what do you think?" Don wanted to just say yes to that suggestion, but just going with his gut when there was an expert in the room didn't seem to be particularly advisable.

"Hmm. I'd have to see more of his techniques and fighting style to suggest anything more detailed, but speed is always something that can be improved." Titanyana was hesitant to go too far. She didn't fight with a lance, much less one like Len's, so she couldn't say for certain what he actually needed.

"Is that so? Well, Len, it would appear that our physical training will prove beneficial to you. I'm sure I can think something up that will help you build the muscles needed to swing your lance around faster. I'm sorry to say that you won't be able to participate in the next tournament, but I think not competing for a while will make your progress that much more apparent."

"Yes sir." All things considered, Len didn't seem too disheartened about the restriction placed on him. If anything he looked relieved, something which Don supposed made some sense considering the fact his head had been cut off today.

"Wall, your turn. How did it go?"

"Three wins, one loss!" He seemed to be very proud of himself, probably feeling some sense of superiority.

"Well obviously you lost once, but lets hear about those wins first."

"I used a tactic I had been thinking about for a while for my first two matches. By letting my opponent pierce my shield, I can sort of disarm them by twisting it and then attack them with my axe at the same time. It seems to catch them by surprise."

"Interesting, but I do have to ask if letting them pierce the shield is necessary. It seems counterintuitive, like its putting you at risk."

"It is, I can't pull their weapon away if I don't. As for the risk, everything I do with my armor on is risky, I am simply too slow to do anything but capitalize on my enemy's mistakes. That means I have to open myself up so that think they can get away with those mistakes. Simply allowing them to pierce my shield is no big deal, at least they aren't piercing me."

Donovan nodded. He didn't understand the intricacies of how Wall fought, so he would have to take his words at face value, but they sounded like they made sense.

"Why do they attack your shield though?" This was perhaps the first time Donovan had heard Titanyana proactively question the choices of anyone. "Doesn't everyone know the way to take down monsters with shells and thick skin is to attack the softer parts?"

Wall shook his head. "I can't say for sure, but I think the fact that I use a shield irritates them. They probably want to hurt my pride by defeating me through it, I received many insults about it while I was waiting."

"Hmmm." Titanyana's tail swayed from side to side as she thought.

"What of your third match? How did that go?"

"He was an axe user much like myself, the only difference was that he didn't have a shield. Because they can't be used to pierce like swords and lances, axes are the only real weapon type I match up favorably against. He was a good sport about it though."

Donovan nodded. If his opponent was a good sport then it probably meant Wall was adhering to the rules about manners Donovan had laid out. Wall was his biggest concern in that field after all.

"It doesn't sound like there was much to be learned from that fight then. What of your loss?"

"I was against a guy who used a sword, but he didn't attack my shield like I wanted him to. Instead he rolled around my shield like lady Tanya over there and stabbed me in the gut. After that he just played keep away as I bled out." Wall sighed, it was embarrassing that he went down like that, but there was nothing he could do about it. "Not the most honorable way of fighting, but he was probably keeping himself mentally sound for his next match. I'd bet he probably survived long enough to keep fighting in the tournament tomorrow, so I was just out of my league."

"Is that so? What do you think you could have done better then? I understand it was only one exchange but I'd like to hear a theory."

Wall thought it over for a minute or two. "If anything, I would have to say I need the same treatment Len over there does, I need to be faster. My shield doesn't really matter that much already, if I can't put it in a position to obstruct my opponent's attacks then I might as well just not have it."

Donovan nodded, Titanyana expressing her agreement as well. "I suppose I'm next then. I won my first duel, though I would struggle to really even call that a duel. I just slashed open the belly of an idiot who decided jumping at me was the best course of action."

Wall cringed a bit while Titanyana's ears perked up. Donovan won a duel! Even if it was against a total fool it meant his training wasn't for nothing.

"Sorry about that sir, but you'll run into that type every once in a while." Wall apologized on the behalf of all of the 'normal' nobility. "My old man calls them the crazies. They don't really have any talent or experience, but they believe they are the best. You're just better off ignoring them."

"Noted. As for my second duel, I lasted quite a while, but I ultimately lost. I think that I will ultimately be unable to compete until I become halfway decent at using split. I plan on talking with Titanyana about my experience tomorrow, simply because I don't yet know enough about combat to tell you what the interesting parts were, but I think I put up an admirable defense. My opponent certainly seemed to think so."

Len and Wall nodded in recognition while Titanyana kept her eyes firmly on Donovan, preparing to share her own results.

"Anyways, on to our final member. Titanyana, how did you do today?"

"I won all ten of my duels today, I will be competing in the final eight rounds tomorrow." She was puffing her chest out a bit. It was easy, for the most part at least, but she was still going to qualify for some form of reward. The top 256 received something depending on where they placed, but she didn't think she would be standing on the podium.