3/20/54

ALEXANDER GALDUR

Many drinks of water, some magic practice, and a ludicrous amount of exercise later, Trainer Masako shouted out, “Alright, magic training is done!”

For the entirety of the training, I had only practiced the rubik’s cube and a smaller version of the flash bang throughout. For now, I wanted to at least be able to cast one spell a few times, even if it isn’t too useful. I stood up, drenched in sweat, the salty liquid streaming out of me. I stood up on shaky legs, screaming out in pain, and slowly made my way to Trainer Masako after getting another drink of water.

I happily sat down next to Deimos, letting the cool, metallic floor ease my overheating body. If I had been a fire magician, the sweat on me would probably be turning into steam at the moment. Trainer Masako looked over us and talked of what we were to do next, “Okay, for combat training, we will be going over some martial arts, battle strategies, and sparring. For now, we will only be doing hand-to-hand sparring, but eventually, we will move on to magic-to-magic sparring. Sound like fun? No? Too fucking bad!”

With a stomp of her foot, chairs made of earth formed on top of the floor and grabbed each of us. We were pulled into a grid like pattern with the back being raised up a little when a desk appeared as well. I was near the middle vertically and was positioned a little closer to the left. A wall of dirt mimicking a blackboard appeared, and Trainer Masako suddenly gained a rod of rock to point at things. In bold letters, the words “Combat Strategies 101” formed on the top of the blackboard, and the lesson began.

“Now, throughout history, warfare has been everywhere.” Trainer Masako began, “Many different tactics were created and used, but for now, we’ll be learning about some basic stuff.”

She continued her explanation with the summary being seven main tactics:

Penetration of the center: the main combat force would weaken a specific part of the enemy’s defense, and a reserve force would be sent out to then penetrate that weakened area and get behind enemy lines. Great for getting to the enemy’s flank or attacking their base and supplies, but it would leave one’s own flank vulnerable. It also has a high chance of resulting in quite the high casualty count.

Envelopment of a single flank: the main force pins down the enemy while a reserve heads to the flank. While it isn’t as risky as other maneuvers, and it allows one to envelop the enemy, it still allowed for a counterattack to an open flank and weakened center.

Envelopment of both flanks: it's like envelopment of a single flank, but it had double the risks and rewards. It should only be done when we have a superior force.

Attack in oblique order: basically, it’s to distracts some forces with secondary attacks while your main force will attack a specific flank. You’ll be piling up your forces to have a huge attack force going after one specific flank while secondary attacks keep the enemy busy. It’s attacking the enemy’s weakest point while defending your own. The only problem is if the enemy manages to hit that weak point.

Feigned withdrawal: it draws an enemy from out of formation by staging a retreat, only to then attack them when their guard is down. It’s best used against an enemy in a strong defensive formation to get them to release it, but a fake retreat might just become a real one soon enough.

Attack from a defensive position: going into a passive defensive position to tire out the enemy, and then striking those exhausted forces with your relatively less exhausted soldiers. It has the advantage of fighting weakened enemies who might’ve been too tough to take on normally. If you’re too passive however, you may be encircled, attacked from an unexpected direction, or there may just be no attack at all, and you might’ve just wasted resources.

Finally, indirect approach: this involves distracting the enemy force while sending the main force to take over some point behind them. This could be a base or resources, as long as it’ll give an edge in negotiations when threatening whatever it is, it’ll be fine. It’s a great thing to use, though, timing and mobility need to be quite precise.

We finished up the lesson there as apparently these were only the basics and were meant to be a review for the other trainees. For me however, it was a lot to take in, so I was just trying my best to wrap my head around it. Sadly, I wouldn’t be getting that time as Trainer Masako spoke up again,”So now we know about some basic strategies, great, so we’ll be moving onto the martial arts portion. Let’s get you people trained up.”

With that, the chairs, desks, and black board sunk away, absorbed into the ground beneath the metallic floor. Trainer Masako yelled out, “Attention! Alright, I’ll get you today’s instructions for your chosen martial arts. New people, we chose your martial art based off of what we’ve seen, so enjoy your suffering.” She finished her sentence, and I swear she looked me dead in the eye.

She stomped on the ground, and for the sixty or so trainees, a large room encompassed each. My own had three blank walls and one wall with a checklist. I walked over to the checklist, and goals were set with a blank box to their left. I touched the top option which said “Take a stance”, and a cracking noise sounded to my right. I snapped my head to see a tutorial formed on the wall, complete with instructions and pictures of what to do.

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I followed them, assuming that I was supposed to copy each part. I placed my dominant foot my shoulder's length behind my left foot. I twisted my shoulders so that my left hand was raised in a fist, and my right hand was balled up behind it. Finally, I pulled the two fists close to my head as depicted by a side note and an additional picture. From what little I know about martial arts and fighting, this was a boxing stance.

Strangely enough though, no change to show that I did it correctly happened. I took another glance at the instruction and saw that I needed to change my footing and my chin position. With a quick movement from my feet, so they curve outwards more, and a tilt from my chin to be lowered and be closer to my neck, my stance had been fixed. In response to my fixed form, another cracking noise came from the wall with the checklist.

I strained my head to see it, and I noticed that the box for “Take a stance” was now checked. I walked over to the checklist and pressed the next part, “Throw a jab.”

The next set of instructions came through, and I got back to practicing. First, I got into a stance as instructed by the board. Second, I quickly shot out my non dominant arm: the left one. Expecting another confirmation from the board, I left my stance. An expected cracking sound came from my left, but then, an unexpected rock hit me in my forehead.

As I collapsed to the ground, banging my head violently on the metallic floor, I lay there dazed. Muddled thoughts bounced in my skull before clearing up a second later. I lifted to wavering legs and shook myself to focus. Well, it seems that wasn’t what it had wanted.

I got back into the stance while searching through the instructions. I watched carefully from one pictured panel to the next. One moment, the person’s arm is curled close to their body, right in front of their tilted face. The next, their hand was shot out. I followed the movement slowly and carefully, only to feel another painful impact run through my body from my back.

Rubbing at it but glad it hadn’t struck my head this time, I focused back on the problem at hand: what was I doing wrong? My stance is within acceptable deviations as proven by the completion of the first task, so something must be wrong with the jab itself. I focused intently on the person’s arm, and after what must’ve been two minutes, I finally found it. My fist did not curl with the thrusted punch.

… I knew something about it didn’t feel right. Instead of curving my fist so that it was knuckles up, my hand shot out, so my knuckles were facing outward from my body. Slightly embarrassed, I quickly hopped back into my stance and struck out once more. Finally, the cracking from my left came, and I didn’t feel the abusive bullet hit me anywhere.

Even though I had only completed two steps, and it had only taken me around five to six minutes, I was already a little tired both mentally and physically; though, this next step didn’t look too difficult: “Walk and jab”.

Clicking the earthen wall’s words like it were a hyperlink, I flipped my head to see the new instructions. This time, it was a two-parter. I could tell because at the very top of the wall, right below the ceiling, were a set of numbers saying page one of two. It was a decently large room, so I couldn’t reach the small arrow next to the numbers. I assume the arrow was just for design, and I actually had to complete the instructions to go to the next page.

The instructions for this part were fairly simple. All I had to do was bounce back and forth. I just needed to shift my weight from one leg to the other. Sounded easily enough, and it was! I completed the instructions and instantly the wall changed to show a set of less easy instructions.

This time, I had to walk forward a little while keeping my stance. While I stepped forward, I needed to throw a jab. I tried it, and found myself with a heavy-hitting stone that struck the back of my head. I face planted into the ground, luckily on my side, so I didn’t have to endure a broken nose. I lethargically pushed off the ground and rose back to my feet. Groaning, I wobbled back to the wall.

Okay, that didn’t work. Great. What did I do wrong? Spending five minutes analyzing the wall out of fear of more punishment, I fixed myself back into my stance. A single step forward followed with a jab. Then, I pulled back my fist as I brought my other foot into place behind the first. Success! Followed by another rock signaling this was not a success.

Thankfully, it only hit me in my thigh, so I didn’t fall over. I seemed to be finding a pattern: the bigger the mess up, the harsher the punishment. I limped back to the instructions, wincing with every step. That was one hell of a rock still…

Back to the wall, I scanned the listing of instructions. My eyes flitted through the pictures, and by complete chance, I noticed a small line in between the legs of the parts where the figure moved. Looking closer, it had a small letter saying “x” right below each line. Now, I didn’t know much about math, but isn’t that a variable? Aren’t variables supposed to mean any number? Finally, in my mind, the pieces clicked, and I realized what the problem was: when I moved my legs, did they stay the same distance apart?

No; no they did not.

That, ladies and gents, is the problem.

I am an idiot.

Sighing to myself and feeling the heat in my cheeks rise, I got back into position and followed the instructions once more, making sure to keep the same distance between my feet as when I started. With a wave of relief, there was a pleasant lack of pain, and a cracking coming from the checklist. I checked once more to see that the check had been placed in the box, but when I glanced at the wall, a small arrow at the bottom right of the wall caught my attention.

Refusing to accept reality, I walked over and poked the small engraving. The entire checklist shifted showing many more things to do. Trainer Masako is sadistic all the time I see.