They all herded into the training zone. Lysalia was humming a tune to herself, and Terra was looking around, interested by the place she was in. Eventually, they got to the arena. "Swordsman, step forward." Kyren called out, and Sin, Michael, Terra, and Hannah stepped foward. Kyren dismounted, and walked away, to a small shed, where people were going in and out of. He came out with a bunch of training weapons.
"How... crude." Michael said, looking at the bulky wooden sword. Kyren forced one into his hands. "It's either you train with this, or you get yourself one." He said, and Michael sighed again. "You're too strict, Commander. Loosen up a bit. I'll take you out to the pub tonight, we could catch up with some ladies..." Michael said, and Kyren stopped him. "The beer, I am good with, but as for women, all I need is Lysalia." He said, glancing at her, as she smiled back. Sin leaned over. "I'll take you up on the beer and women!" Sin said, with a wily grin. "Your treat!" He added.
"Pfft." Michael said, and Sin shrugged. "Oh well, I'll just steal some..." He said, and Kyren gave him a bulky sword as well. He chucked it up. "I don't do big swords." He said, unsheathing a knife, slashing it three different ways, effectively shortening it. Now, everyone had hefty wooden blades. "Michael, spar with Terra. Hanna, spar with Sin. I'll supervise, and ranged units, attack the dummies from a range." He said, and the mages shamans and archers lined up. "Go ahead, warm yourselves up." He said, and Michael launched himself at Sin, who wasn't expecting such speed, and jumped back quickly, out of range of the blow, and frowned. Michael had more power than Sin, but was just a little slower.
Terra and Hannah stood in front of each other, blades at ready, waiting for one or the other to attack. "This is getting stale...quick." Hannah said, lunging at Terra with a simple downward slash, that she simply sidestepped, but this was a ruse on Hannah's part, as she swiftly changed her grip on the handle, and swung at Terra with a huge speed jump in the swing compared to the first, which completely caught Terra off guard. She quickly jumped over it, but the trainer collided with her ankle, and the force from the collision caused her to cringe, and caused her to flip over, face towards the ground.
Fear seized her as everything slowed down, and impulses took over. Extending her hand, she pushed Hannah's trainer into the ground, the force from pushing off giving her enough air to flip back over and land on her feet, as she pointed the wooden trainer at Hannah. "Woo... what a head rush..." She said, clutching her chest, amazed at herself, managing to pull that off. Hannah stared at her, not at all annoyed that Terra had pretty much embarassed her with that stunt, because she realized that she hadn't done it in arrogance. "Hey, don't think I quit just yet!" She said, jumping up and lunging at Terra again.
Another close call whizzed by Sin's face, as he dodged by a hair. He had gotten settled into these dodges, and his mind began to stray... which was a mistake on his part. A heavy blow collided with his ribs, and the impact sent him skidding to the side on his heels. Michael anticipated this movement, and grinned. "Now, for the coup de grace!" Michael said, thrusting the trainer at him with a flourish. Sin remembered the stunt Terra had pulled off, and decided to pull something similiar, being more suited to near-death escapes. As the blade neared him, he ducked down, did a handspring, and launched himself over the blade, and with another handspring off the trainer, he was behind him, and had the vantage.
"Ok, ok, OK!" Kyren roared, as he had to run over to the two to stop it. "THIS IS FRIENDLY, NOT KILL EACH OTHER!" He said, and Sin and Michael frowned. "Sorry..." They said at the same time, and Kyren walked away, shaking his head, moving onto the ranged units.
"At least I don't have to worry about broken bones with you guys... hows it going?" He asked. He walked over to Lysalia. "Hows the magic going?" He asked. Lately, sages had been able to manifest the endless power of the human soul into magic, rendering tomes nearly useless. The only tomes that exist were ancient ones, with instructions on how to manifest the human power of the soul into certain spells. Only some of the most powerful sages existing can learn these scrolls by heart, and most are under tight lock and key. Who wrote those, who knew about the art of this casting back then to create such tomes... is unknown to everyone.
"Well... the winds I can cast have become stronger..." She said, as she flicked her hand at a dummy, and a gust of glowing wind, sharp and deadly looking winds manifested with power ripped and tore it apart. "It's picking up... keep up the work, sweetie." He said affectionately, leaning inwards and kissing her. "How about you?" He asked, walking towards Hiyo. He shrugged, as he thrust a palm at him, and a black shadow erupted from his palm, and flew towards the dummy, swirling around it, diving into it, and out of it. The dummy was scratchless. "It doesn't really rip them apart, it just hurts them, the magic coursing through them, malevolently." And Kyren nodded wearily. These kind of people were why he didn't like Shamans.
He approached Keith. "And how about you, boy?" And Keith held both hands out, without looking up, and a black fire erupted beneath the dummy, setting it on fire, but with a snap, the fire dispersed, and the dummy was mildly burnt. Kyren walked down the line. "Kitch...? How bout you, are you a good mage, or what?" And he sighed. "Not really... do I have to show you...? I really suck..." He said, and Kyren shrugged. "I won't know that until you show me what you can do." He said, and Kitch sighed, as he twirled his wrist, muttered something, and swung his hand down. Suddenly, with a crack of thunder, a bolt came flying down from the sky, in the shape of a blade, splitting the dummy in half.
They all looked pleased with themselves. "Hah, we'll just blow anyone away who approaches us." Hiya said, and Lysalia shook her head. "No, not at all. Humans have resistance to these magics. Magic is power of the soul, and if you have a soul, depending on how strong your soul is, the more your body can re-direct the damaging powers. Humans aren't anything like these dummies." She said, and they all looked disheartened. "Better you know now, rather than get your hopes up in battle, and be let down." She said, and they all understood.
"OY! I HEAR THIS PANSY UNIT'S IN NEED OF SOME TANKS!" A woman yelled, walking in with a heavily armored knight, and a mounted girl with shoulder length wavy hair, carrying a staff. "So... far..." The knight panted, practically a mass of deep royal blue armor. "...Hello, Commander Kyren. You're father assigned us to your unit, noticing how you got a bit too many sub-par units... I think. This is Kyren's unit, right, August?" The knight panted. The girl mounted nodded, and scanned the units, with a sigh. "Yes... it is... Glen." She said, dismounting and leading the horse over to Lysalia, flashing a weak smile.
The woman with long black hair and blue eyes, apparantly a warrior, skinny, with slim strong muscles, approached Kyren. "Oy, you needed some tanks, no?" She said, and he nodded. "Yes, it would be useful..." He said, and she nodded. "Well, then let Jacquelin, Glen, and August be at your service! We'll help even things out between these pitiful mages, and myrmidons." She said, casting an acid glance their way. Kyren shrugged, not enjoying the use of words. "Thats all fine and well... by the way... are you a... female fighter? Like... axe and brute strength?" He asked, skeptically, and she nodded, flexing a muscle. "FUCK YEAH!" She roared, thrusting her axe upwards.
Glen walked over to the dummies. "Where am I? He asked, looking around, confused. He then spun, and realized there was a dummy behind him. "AH! ENEMY!" He yelled, surprised, twirling his lance, effectively cleaving it in half. "DIEEEE" He said, stabbing it multiple times. "Waiiit... Oh." He said, looking through his visor that obscured his vision. "..It's just a dummy..." He said, standing back up straight, like a guard. After a minute of people staring at him, they all heard a loud rumbling emenating from his armor... snoring. He was asleep."Jeez... we've got the weirdest group in the universe. A depressed shaman, a lecher myrmidon, an emo mage, crazed warrior chick, and a knight who falls asleep after attacking inanimate objects... what's next? Effeminate wyvern knights?" Sin asked himself.
Time had rushed by, the team being drilled by Kyren, and Kyren decided they had done a good job, and that he'd take them all out to a night on the town. What an interesting night it would become for the troop, as night falls. Soon, the true meaning of war and what the whole war is about will unveil itself...
CLIFFY! Hah, sorry, had too.
More introductions this chapter... it's hard to write, all these new characters. XD I think I will start stopping with the thrusting of new characters into the story line. For now, this will do, but you guys can keep submitting, but I just need to get settled in with these guys. Well, hope you enjoy the chappy, and leave me a review, and a PM if you have any character submissions. Tune in next time, for another chapter from yours truly.