Chapter 109

Jay and his group filed in to the hall where they would be working out and discovered that things had changed a bit in their absence. The center of the room now had a large circular section roped off and the students were arrayed around its edges.

Warren stood on a raised platform at one end of the room and smiled at Jay's group and gave a nod in greeting. T'lly was there as well dressed in a green robe with yellow designs on it. She was currently yelling at two students who had forgotten their weapons. Once they had been reduced to near tears they were dismissed to go and fetch their weapons.

Warren shook his head sadly with a slight tinge of amusement as he watched the two weaponless students leave the hall.

“Quiet!” yelled T'lly. The crowd of students instantly quieted down. It appeared that T'lly had made her point when it came to obeying commands from the training staff.

“A few announcements before we start. The bath house will be closed today and tomorrow for maintenance. That's right, you'll have to live with your filth until the day after tomorrow or make other bathing arrangements. I know I for one would prefer you choose the later.” Warren joked as he made a face like he had smelled something awful.

Some in the class laughed in response. Others were too busy being horrified at the thought of not having a bath available. Jay's group didn't care one way or another – they had Jay's aura to fall back on.

T'lly spoke next, “The dining hall is a privilege and not a right. Some here seem to feel that they are too highly born to clean up after themselves at meal time. I assure you that is not the case and if it happens again I will personally see to it that it Never. Happens. Again!” she said as she glared at the assembled students. “You clean your table and your tray when you're done. We're all supposed to be adults here. Act like it. Goddess! Just talking about this is making me angry!” T'lly's face was pulled in to a frown and even her eyes looked angry.

Warren took the next item to give T'lly time to calm down, “And lastly we'd like to congratulate Glimmerhide Group on a recent and successful adventuring run. They'd been tasked to take something to a place most people had never heard of and then return. One of the Guild's greatest strengths lies in the ability of its members to draw on the experiences of their brothers and sisters in the Guild.”

Warren looked out at the students who were quietly listening to him. “Use this opportunity while you are here to get to know others, get to know their experiences. You may learn something that saves your life on a future run.”

No one seemed to quite understand what Warren was trying to get across and it was starting to frustrate him a bit. He pointed towards Jay's group where they had clustered around each other. “You don't appear to believe me that they may have something worth listening to. Perhaps a demonstration then? Glimmerhide group has gotten just as much training as everyone else here, if anything they have had less training as they were forced to miss class for an adventure.”

T'lly immediately caught on and flashed a mean looking smile. All her smiles looked mean, it was just the way she looked. “Today we are doing group battles.”

The entire class groaned except for Jay's group.

“Don't act like you didn't know! We told you we'd be doing group battles eventually. Today's the day.” T'lly insisted.

Warren picked a few people out of the crowd. The first was a man in black chainmail carrying a sword and shield. He must have weighed over two hundred pounds. He was followed by a pair of leather armor clad woman wielding longswords, a healer dressed in a white robe and carrying a knotted staff, and finally a thin man dressed in simple clothing. His class was not immediately apparent. He carried only a single knife at his hip.

T'lly pointed at M'redith. “Your group is up, step inside the ring!”

Warren commented, “It will be five level ones against three level ones and a level four.”

The class all nodded. Some of them were familiar with Jay and weren't too concerned about his level 4 as none of his levels had rewarded him with a combat move of any kind. The fight would be a fair one, perhaps even tilted in favor of the five students.

M'redith shared a panicked look with Jay, they had all just gotten back a few hours ago and were still tired from their adventures. They had no choice in the matter though so the group entered the ring.

Warren watched as the two groups entered the ring. Calling them both a group was a disservice to the word group. They were truly just a mix of five people and a group of four people. Those five people hadn't fought together, eaten together, slept together – they were strangers for all intents and purposes. Not Jay's group. They were a group in the true meaning of the word. Besides, they wore matching armor.

The way they entered the ring differed greatly. The five students milled about idly in the ring as each attended to their own armor and fittings in preparations for the fight.

Jay's group formed a stack before they even reached the roped off circular section they would be fighting in. M'redith took point followed by Norri, then Aiden, then Jay. They moved in concert with one another and paid attention to how the person in front of them moved as they followed them.

As the last in their stack, Jay, crossed over the line Warren surprised everyone by starting the fight immediately.

“Fight!” he yelled even surprising T'lly by the looks of it.

Normally the two groups would be given time to prepare and position themselves for the fight but not this time.

The group of five worked just fine if taken individually. They were spread out across the battlefield. The tank moved to the front of the group to protect them, the swordswomen both drew their weapons but stood where they were waiting to see how things shook out. The healer stayed in the back and the thin man stood next to him and took out his knife and then summoned a creature – a wolf. He sent the wolf out to attack Jay's group right away.

Jay's group acted a little differently than their opponents. Their moves were not just appropriate for the person moving but for the group as a whole. M'redith stepped up and met the other tank's charge and stopped him in his tracks. Norri stepped up beside her and delivered a crushing tattoo of blows that she drove in to the enemy tank's side, aimed to hit where his armor was weakest, high up towards the armpit.

The tank was strong and well armored and would have shaken off the blows entirely if weren't for Norri. She suddenly took two giant steps back and lowered her staff. She appeared to be concentrating as the enemy summoner's wolf approached them.

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Norri locked eyes with the wolf and she visibly strained as she used her only Class Ability in an attempt to control the wolf. The animal fell to the ground as it lost the battle for control over its body and when it rose once again it was Norri and not the summoner who was in control.

Norri sent the wolf hurtling at the enemy tank and forced it to leap towards the back of the tank's head and close its jaws around the warrior's skull. The wolf's teeth dug deep and Norri commanded the wolf to hold fast and thrash its body about to maximize the damage it did.

The tank was pulled backwards by his head and fell to the ground with a crash. M'redith followed up with an overhand strike that cleaved halfway through the warrior's arm. The warrior screamed and dropped his sword. His half dangling arm continued to hold on to his shield however, the hand wrapped around its handle in a death grip.

The watching students reacted in horror as Jay's group viciously attacked their enemies who had up until that moment treated what they were doing as just a classroom exercise. Jay's group however had spent the last few days running for their lives and had been treating what they were doing as combat since the moment they were chosen to fight.

Aiden and Jay stuck with M'redith and Norri as M'redith moved forward at a rapid pace quickly eating up the distance between her and the enemy healer. The four of them rushed forward in concert. One of the enemy women holding a sword was too far out of position to reach the healer in time and stood still while trying to figure out what to do.

The second enemy woman with a sword interposed her body between M'redith's rapidly approaching form and the healer M'redith was running towards. The enemy healer was trying to cast a ranged heal on the downed tank but was not healing enough damage. M'redith's group had hurt the tank bad enough that he would need more than just a single heal to get back in to the fight.

M'redith's Class Ability Giant Frame had already triggered thanks to the combat she had just participated in with the enemy warrior. So when M'redith did not slow down but instead sped up as she ran towards the enemy swordswoman things quickly fell apart for the enemy.

M'redith struck with the force of a giant and the woman holding the sword in front of her was launched across the room. She came down in a heap fifteen feet away from the battle. A training-staff healer ran towards the still body and began treatment as the combat raged on.

M'redith had been slowed only slightly as she struck the woman and still was moving at terrific speed when she struck the healer. She wrapped her arms around him as they collided and she brought him to the ground with her in a bear hug he found himself helpless to resist. M'redith was just too strong once a fight got started.

M'redith drew her sword edge up to the man's neck and the man quickly raised both hands in the air, “I forfeit!” he cried out in a terrified voice. His eyes were round and his pupils dilated. His voice quivered and when M'redith released him he lay on the ground shaking.

Norri had by that time convinced the wolf to stop mauling the enemy tank and instead chase after the other swordswoman. The poor swordswoman was completely unprepared to face up against a wolf not to mention the rest of Jay's party.

Norri had the wolf run past the swordswoman and then circle around and approach her from behind, nipping at her heels. The woman couldn't turn her back to Jay and Aiden who were delivering probing attacks but the woman also couldn't ignore the wolf behind her. She lasted only a moment or so before the wolf closed its jaws around her left ankle and dragged her to the ground. Aiden was there and delivered a blow to the temple before she could get out the words to forfeit.

The woman could see the blow coming but was powerless to stop it. The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was Aiden's intent face, steady emotionless eyes staring at her as he delivered the finishing blow.

Jay's entire group turned at once to face the only remaining enemy, the dagger wielding man that had summoned the wolf. The man threw the dagger on the ground. “Forfeit! Forfeit!” he yelled as M'redith took a step towards him. She took another before the words reached her brain and the man stepped back as well to maintain the distance between them while frantically waving his empty hands in the air.

“Winner, Glimmerhide Group.” Warren said in a neutral tone of voice. He sounded neither pleased nor disappointed, he was merely stating a fact.

The gathered students grew quiet at what they had just witnessed.

T'lly couldn't figure out what they were so bothered over. One group had treated it like combat, the other group treated it like a joke. Everyone had learned a valuable lesson.

Warren spoke up and broke the silence. “Why did five students lose against four?”

It took a moment but eventually one of the students called back, “They cheated! They acted like it was real!”

T'lly looked like she was about to lose her mind. “CHEATED!? Who said that!”

No one took responsibility for the comment and after a moment she replied, practically seething, “They fought. The other team played. What did you expect? Goddess, comments like that make me sick. What are we even doing here if you are just going to act like it's playtime when we're trying to teach you to fight?!”

Training-staff healers were carrying a few of the group members out of the circle and to the infirmary. Those that had managed to forfeit were the lucky ones.

“What did I say when I started the fight?” Warren asked. “I said FIGHT. I didn't say play, or spar, or train, I said Fight. Pay attention people, your life and safety depends on it. Now, what could the group had done differently to better handle the Glimmerhide Group?”

A female student in the back called out, “They could have forfeited right away!”

Warren and the other students all laughed but T'lly still looked like she had sucked on a lemon. He spoke to give her a chance to recover. “Sure. They could have. And sometimes that is the best choice – to run from a fight you know you can't win. Had the group chosen to do so and explained why they did so that would have been an acceptable choice. They did not do that though – they chose to participate.”

T'lly settled down and contributed a bit, “What you just saw was the difference between a group that has practiced fighting and a group that has fought before. M'redith's group just returned to K'tharkle late last night. They were fighting for their lives up until roughly twelve hours ago. They haven't even had a chance to recover. Instead of calling them cheaters perhaps you could learn from them instead. Unless you prefer to mold yourself after the group they defeated?” she said with a raised eyebrow.

Warren added, “They are not special. Sorry guys,” he said with a smile, “They received the same exact training you all have. They're not even that good – they're still babies practically and have plenty of room for improvement. So please – talk with them, learn from them. And when we tell you to fight, FIGHT. Ok?” he asked kindly.

The assembled students all agreed with nods or short verbal comments in the affirmative. Some looked on at M'redith's group with distaste, some people would always find something to be unhappy about. Others however looked at Glimmerhide Group as a possible resource, a way they could improve themselves above and beyond the daily training that they received.

“Right! Next fight! Volunteers?” T'lly asked.

When no one raised their hand Warren took a step forward on the raised platform he was standing on. “Don't worry – we won't make you fight Glimmerhide Group.”

With that people began to raise their hands and M'redith looked over at Jay with a wicked grin.

“They're scared of us!” she whispered happily.