Julie seemed almost distraught at the request, like asking her to put down the spear was asking her to leave her first born to the wolves. Unfortunately for her the piercing look from the instructor shifted directly to her when he saw a hint of hesitation. She could only huff before approaching the weapon rack and grabbing a simple, perfectly straight, wooden short spear with blunted tip, as well as a similarly standardized wooden round shield. She set the twisted wooden spear on the weapon rack with the gentleness of a mother laying her child in their crib before taking a reluctant step back.
The others noticed her actions but did not comment on them, nor did they have such a supposedly profound connection to their weapons. Robyn was the only one who did not need to grab a replacement weapon, having already taken hers from the weapon racks prior. The blunted glaive still held a great hefty as a weapon of its stature should, along with a blunted blade.
Jien took a simple steel rapier, and dagger while storing both of his own in his spacial storage bag. He wanted to ensure that the man presiding over the match didn't find fault with him by having his personal weapons out. The others followed suit, grabbing common versions of their weapons, all blunted. There was only one member whose weapon wasn't affected much, being Rosalind who took up a simple polehammer. The only issue was that it was so drastically lighter than her usual weapon.
The cheery girl gave the polehammer several swings, leaving nothing but a blur at its passing. She frowned slightly, feeling that the simple wooden pole likely wouldn't hold up to the force she put on it. After just a few practice swings she felt the wood cracking in a few places. She grimaced at the shoddy workmanship as a blacksmith in training before walking up to the man with piercing gaze and sheepishly talking to him in a voice that only he could hear.
Shortly after the man nodded ever so slightly, rested his hand on the head of the hammer and muttered something under his breath. The components of the hammer from the steel head to the wooden pole seemed to all be strengthened in a detectable manner. Before anyone could ask the man spoke once again. "You will all be training with standardized weapons when in group training and your own in private settings. We don't expect you to immediately adapt to the standard weapons immediately but it is a necessity. I have only strengthened the materials enough to withstand her force, nothing more."
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Everyone nodded to this explanation even if Julie did with a slight scowl on her lips. The fact that a few swings had caused such an effect meant the girl named Rosalind was a danger. She had also noted that Rosalind seemed to know a number of the others on a closer level. This led her to the conclusion that they may at worst have some small level of teamwork or at best have great teamwork, the latter being a problem for this challenge. Still, she could only grit her teeth and go through with it. She desired to be the leader of this unit since she was forced to be here.
Once everyone had grabbed their standard weapons Jien gave a number of discreet hand signals to the members of his prior cohort before stepping toward Robyn, Alys and Andrew calmly. Though Jien didn't particularly like the responsibilities of being a leader he had lived that very life for quite some years and had grown used to it. He was a Controller by nature when in the context of battle formations, and while not all Controllers were the leaders of teams, they often ended up as such due to being the information center,
After taking the three "new" members he asked them a bit more about their skillsets to help try and place them within the general team formation. Andrew went first, simply describing that as a follower of the Goddess of Healing he was mostly a non combatant by nature, his knowledge and experience was most strictly in the realm of healing. This made him a prime candidate as a healer for the unit where prior Jien's group had to make due with general first aid in most cases.
Robyn didn't particularly no much as a miners daughter. She knew she was stronger than most and found the hefty of the glaive to be similar to a pickax despite the center being drastically different. Jien pondered for a moment before asking her to attempt to guard their backs during this fight. He would think about the best fit once he had seen her in action but felt that with her strength she may be a decent Rearguard. The tall girl was happy to accept the position, patting her chest and telling them to leave it to her.
Last, but not least was Alys who had been trained on all of this general tactical knowledge by her father, a nomadic bandit. "I'm a Scout, obviously." she stated in a straight forward manner as if irritated to be treated as a newbie. Jien could only accept this to be true having seen her ability when she had chased after Julie to the stairwell.
Given these details Jien quickly summarized how his previous cohort tended to do things and what roles they usually played. It was only when Julie asked when they were going to actually get started, that Jien sighed and asked the new faces to join his cohort, taking a step to center himself among his teammates new and old.