Facing the enemy, who literally towered above him, was a little bit scary, but Robert pushed aside unnecessary emotions, focusing on the possible movements of the opponent. Adrenaline was coursing through his body while his heartbeat increased to crazy numbers as if it was trying to jump from his chest. The moment before the start was always the most nervous and frightening. He just had to endure this pressure and not lose his composure. He was sure his body would know what to do, but he needed not to miss the first attack. Rob’s experience in the pitiful fight with the bear had shown him already how crucial it could be. Therefore, he didn’t even blink, trying to capture every single change that would lead to an unavoidable attack. His modified mind was working at full capacity not to miss that very moment. And he didn’t. The enemy almost dashed to him, simultaneously making a sweeping horizontal strike.
“Use shield wisely. You don’t need to block every single hit if you can just step back. Remember, that it can break after many hits so don’t waste your defense gear because no one will give you a replacement during the battle. Next, you don’t need to intercept enemies’ weapons in most cases. Yes, shortening the amplitude of motion can noticeably decrease the strength of the hit, but it can also lead to breaking the line and endangering your neighboring mates. So, instead of trying to block it actively, be passive. Save your stamina. Often, it’s enough to turn your torso, press the shield to your body, and brace yourself for impact. You don’t need to tire yourself more while defending. Be wise!”
The sergeant’s words sounded in Robert’s mind while he followed that advice from training. He slightly curled himself and put up his shield, so the enemy’s blade wouldn’t hit the edge. The force from the hit almost made him stumble backward, despite his attempt to turn the hit into a sliding one. Still, he managed to keep himself on foot. Moreover, not wasting any second he immediately thrust his axe forward, aiming at the stomach. The attack could look like a dumb one, as the axe didn’t have any pointy edge to pierce the enemy’s flesh. However, Robert did that for a few reasons – it was much faster, it could compensate disadvantage of arm’s length, and it could be still painful if it could reach. Alas, it didn’t work out. The opponent easily stepped to the side, avoiding Rob’s weapon with ease.
“Remember that in a fight you can use anything to kill your enemy. You can hit with a shield, you can use your legs, fists, and even teeth… Whatever you want. It is not a duel, and your life is at stake. If something doesn’t work, change it. Adapt to your enemy. Sometimes it is better to be aggressive. Sometimes through passive defense, you can create an opportunity for a single lethal strike. Try to nullify the enemy’s advantage. If he is higher, close the distance. If he is bigger and stronger, wear out his stamina. If you can’t kill him at all, ask for help. Quantity can beat quality, especially on the battlefield. Think, adapt!”
The missed strike didn’t upset Robert, as he followed with the next one, not giving a chance to the enemy to do anything. It wasn’t the game where everyone had their turns and had to hit each other in order. Therefore, Rob pushed his body forward with a raised shield, almost jumping onto his opponent. Being lighter, he wanted to use inertia to his advantage. However, the enemy managed to put his own shield up, meeting Rob head-on. The latter felt as if he crashed into the wall at full speed. The wall, which didn’t even flinch. Before he could react, the opponent’s knee had hit the lower edge of Rob’s shield, pushing it higher, straight into his face.
Robert managed to clench his teeth before the force and pain almost knocked him out. The world became darker for a moment while he tried to recover from the hit, but the enemy didn’t give him that chance. A new overhead strike right into his head threw him on the ground. Despite wearing the helmet, the force was so huge that his neck didn’t manage to withstand it, bending like a branch under strong wind. Moreover, tinnitus and dizziness practically made him vomit.
“Are you good, Robert?” William asked while stopping himself from following with the next attack.
“Feeling like shit with surrounding spinning like crazy, but just a few minutes and I’ll be fine,” trying to ignore the shaking world, Rob replied.
“You were who asked for training without limitations,” commented Aspen in an attempt to excuse himself. He took off his helmet and just sat near, making a confused face, “I am still not sure if it is even useful for you. The difference between us is not that you can decrease a few months of training, even if we continue such sparring.”
“I don’t need to be as strong as you, fucking monster,” shrugged off Robert, “I just need a faster way to increase my own chances to survive. I have a weak physique and low skills. I can compensate one with another, but to achieve that, I need to push myself further. Between two warriors with similar below-average skills, but different physiques, the stronger will win… or luckier, but can’t train that. So, my goal is to have above-average combat skills to make chances equal versus stronger foes.”
“Make senses… Good, while you are resting, I will continue training. Call me when you are ready for the second round,” nodded William. Standing up, he stretched his arms a few times as if warming up. The previous fight didn’t manage to tire him in the slightest. It wasn’t surprising for Robert because, during the first ten days of training, William showed his superiority in literally everything. He easily endured any exercise, always coming first.
On the second day, during the morning run, he asked the sergeant for additional weight, which he carried all the way while keeping the same pace as the whole squad. The obstacle course looked like a complete joke for him. He overwhelmed everyone in terms of combat mastery, proving it by winning the duel with Daniel without any visible difficulties. Sergeant immediately admitted that Aspen was better and could take guard’s position with ease, but the condition of going through the battlefield as militia couldn’t be omitted. However, William didn’t stop on this and started to train more in the evening, when everyone was lying on their beds without any strength left.
William continued to keep some distance from others, helping when asked, but not trying to make any close friends. Still, his results were speaking for themselves, getting respect from a whole squad. No one tried to antagonize him. No one was jealous. On the contrary, most were quite happy to have reliable skillful squad mates in future battles. Wolf even joked that Aspen was no worse than a real knight.
Robert, on the other hand, seeing such absorption and focus on training couldn’t stop him from making a direct comparison. Having a supernatural restoration ability and knowing about the future end of the world, he was lazing around. Still, it took him six days to force himself into additional training after an intensive day. However, this time he wanted to increase his weapon-handling proficiency and asked William for some help. And now, a dozen days later, he managed to get some progress – instead of single exchanges with Aspen, Robert managed to prolong it up to ten. Despite that, he was quite happy, as William was indeed a monster, both in terms of skills and strength. Together with his fanatic dedication to further growth, it looked very strange, as Rob clearly saw that personal strength was only an instrument for Aspen and not the end goal. Therefore, when William just made a few steps away, he was stopped by Robert’s question.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“William, are you a hidden knight? Don’t think you are a spy because no one will show off their skills in such a manner. Still, I am sure you wanted some attention from higher-ups to grow in ranks faster. Maybe that was the reason why you didn’t want to communicate with others and still kept some distance… But you easily can outperform a guard and that’s when no one knows your true limit,” while Rob was speaking, he noticed how Aspen tensed up. It wasn’t difficult to see the possible reaction, so Robert just sighed.
“You don’t need to answer. Just wanted to inform you that not everyone is blind, and some guesses can be made even with limited info. Moreover, not only do you have secrets,” Robert involuntary touched his forearm, “I will be ready for the next round in half an hour. Want to practice some hits.”
“I am not… yet,” heard Rob as William muttered, while walking away. Words were not loud, but he managed to catch them clearly.
Crap… and that’s even without a knight’s physique? Life is unfair… Looks, strengths, skills – he is almost a typical protagonist, who is starting from the bottom and will rise like a space rocket into heights. Only some hidden or dramatic background is needed to finish the whole image. Maybe, bastard? Massacred noble household? Odd birthmark from legends? Whatever… I need to focus on myself first.
Training continued in the same manner. The camp was filled with future soldiers, constantly excising or resting. Robert estimated around two with a half hundred conscripts, not counting guards and additional personnel. Despite such a number on limited territory, Rob was surprised to see a well-organized process. Moreover, even the schedule was adjusted for such quantity. Another noticeable thing was how specialized was training. They worked only on what they would need, nothing more. They didn’t have any sparring. Instead, every single training fight was line versus line. That noticeably narrowed their combat skills, as having their back and sides covered by others didn’t help with battle awareness. However, such concentration of effort led to a fast progress of everyone.
Robert finally understood what the sergeant meant when he openly neglected the possible fighting skills of anyone from the squad. It was the same as with physical requirements - there was a level, that everyone had to reach, but after that, it wouldn’t make any real difference. The strength of the line depended on the strength of the weakest warrior, not the strongest. Therefore, coordination was more important than individual skills. Such a tactic definitely did not apply to knights and even guards, but for militia with limited training, it worked fine. Therefore, they trained.
At first, it was quite strange for Robert to depend on others so much. His experience was always solo fighting, having hundreds of machines under control. He decided every single thing during battle and rarely fully cooperated with neighboring operators, despite constant communication through their chats. Now he had to rely on mates. When he saw the opening, he often needed to ignore it, giving the soldier behind the opportunity to utilize it. The strikes over his head made him nervous, as in the beginning, he was afraid of being hit by a clumsy comrade. However, soon he adjusted to it, using his hyper-focused mind at full capacity.
As it turned out, the more chaotic the battle, the more things you had to control. Enemy strikes could come not only from the opposite soldier but also from behind the back or from the side. Moreover, no one would wait his turn for a strike, making a real possibility of a situation, where he needed to defend against several simultaneous hits. His neighbor could be wounded, making Robert defend himself against a few enemies simultaneously. Rob’s own mates could push him into the back or in the shoulder in critical moments. Or sometimes he was almost squeezed into the enemy line to the extent that he couldn’t even move. It might look comical to some external observers, but for him to lose any ability to protect himself while being in less than half of a meter distance from the enemy, was quite stressful. Moreover, if someone fell on the ground, in most cases it was a death sentence in real battle. All recruits regularly got some traumas from such harsh training, as the pain was the best teacher by the sergeant’s belief.
At least Robert didn’t need to worry about range weapons. As it turned out, this world used crossbows with special and very expensive bolts to stop knights. Bows, on the other hand, were banned from usage on a battlefield and were named as pure hunting weapons. It looked more like a tradition, but knights treated any such user as a war criminal, whose death would be relief for them after guaranteed torture. It wasn’t hard to deduct for Robert that the knights had stopped any research on range weapons, which could threaten their authority. Supernatural power might not protect versus gun or cannon, so such inventions, even if existed, were definitely buried along with their creators.
When the first month of training came to an end, Robert was surprised to hear about the day off and even a small salary. The unofficial deputy of their squad, Valenzo the Beaver briefly explained that around fifty years ago one of the previous Dukes dramatically changed the militia system in his domain, from the point of being a disenfranchised conscript to a motivated well-paid recruit. Settlements still had some quota of men to send, but at least no one saw it as a one-way guaranteed ticket to a graveyard. That free day was an addition of current Baron Sebastian Highmoon with an attempt to return given money by putting his own inn and brothel near the camp. Everyone knew that, but it didn’t make any real difference – soldiers needed a place to vent their stress and they got one. Therefore, when Robert was asked about plans, his first thought was to check his progress so far.
Envoy of Wepwakor (candidate) – Tier 0
Strength 8/23 Agility 9/17 Endurance 12/25 Toughness 7/15
Vitality 6/16 Perception 9/14 Mind 40/50 Core 15/20
Mana regeneration (7): 1% in apr. 129 seconds
Current level of mana – 13%
Abilities: Adaptive
Traits: Remolded, Envoy, Spirit, Anchor
The change was quite noticeable, especially in his physical stats. Even his Core added one point, increasing the capacity of mana his body could store. Robert still looked skinny, but at least not sickly anymore. He even had gotten some muscles. He didn’t become an athlete in the slightest and couldn’t show off with his abs. His chest was still flat, but his arms, back, and shoulders got some mass, hiding his protruding bones. However, partly it was because he ate for two, trying to compensate for his energy expenses on restoration and growth. Instead, he felt much stronger. His muscles were not flabby, and he was sure he would be able to keep up with others in not such a distant future. There was a long way to be visibly strong or big, but for him, it was just a matter of time and effort. Right now he had both.
I think I deserved the opportunity to relax… therefore, tonight I will say goodbye to my virginity. To brothel! With my unstable future of surviving during the war and the end of the world, I definitely have no chance for any girlfriend. Don’t want to be like Leo with his unclaimed reward for scenario imagination… Why am I even pondering? Because I am nervous? Crap, of course, I am nervous… Hmmm, I wonder if the restoration effect is going to work after… That can lead to a wonderful effect.