After the battle ceremony thingy with the Lithoni had whined down to end and guest soon departed I retreated back to my room.
'Alright, Anastasia what's going on?' I asked the spiderling.
'What do you mean Boss?' She asked me with faked confusion, it was definitely harder to hide deception in telepathic communication. Not impossible mind you but definitely harder.
'You know what I'm talking about, the mood swings and snarky comments throughout the day?' I asked her rasing an eyebrow.
'ugh, okay fine I'm bored as hell, okay! I've been sitting on webs weaving puppets all day for two days now, I want Blood!' she stated enthusiastically.
'We've been here barely two days and Im still not ready to fight a giant ass bear!' I exclaimed, she was seriously bored after only two days?
'well It's not like I have a whole host of skills to create, I've got one Toxicokinesis that's it!' she said back.
'Then geez I don't know if you're bored why don't you do something that you like, don't you have a hobby or something?' I asked her.
'Yay know that I'm not even two months old right? Not a whole lotta time to find a hobby' she responded, and while I new she was young I didn't know that she was only two months old apparently spiders matured faster than humans which I guess was kinda obvious but I hadn't connected the dots.
'Okay, I realize that having no hobbies and abundance of free time and be irritating, but I need to focus on a lot of stuff for the remainder of the week, how about you go around and see what might interest you, the Treants have some more esoteric fascinations versus the Brownies more crafting focused obsessions.' I gave her the idea thinking that one of the various crafts and magical stuff that Treants and Brownies did one of them got to hold some interest to her.
'okay fine, and I'm sorry for being moody' she said somewhat disingenuous but I now understood Anastasia knowing just how Young she was. Nodding I store my armor and weapons into the ring before nodding off to bed.
Awakening some point later, I rolled out of bed to see Anastasia missing from her web perch in the corner of the room, figuring she had taken my suggestion and decided to go find a hobby. Redawning my armor and cloak as well as my new sparkly crown. Leaving my room, I went down the stairs where the main hall had already been cleaned for the night before.
Entering the offshoots of the kitchen, I saw a small iron pot which held the stew from last night. Placing it over the area resembling a stove I placed some kindling under it. Summoning a few sparks I heated the stew to a nice temperature before digging in.
After a nice morning meal I departed to the Council Chamber. Wherein their was a summarized report, mainly locations of rabbit sightings and the progress of several initiatives. Finishing the report I departed to my training room.
...
Ugh! I had hit a wall, with the two skills I was focusing on. The domain skill was being stubborn as hell and [Curse Weaver] required a fuck ton of intricate details. Eventually it got to the point where I couldn't focus on the skills themselves for longer then a few minutes.
Departing from the room I navigated through the hallways of the keep. As I exited the Keep I went to one of the training areas. Lithoni Guards battled one on one against each other and Silk puppets. Further down was a practice skirmish with lines which mimicked the layout of the space on top of the walls.
Approaching the training ground I saw a small Lithoni roughly 5'10 though I could tell he wasn't to be trifled with. While all Lithoni used rocks of all kinds and sorts to act as their protective shield for their inner bodies, how ever amgost them I saw two types. One used natural rock formations with only small depressions and markings to make crude faces. The other used old marble statues, with breakings in the joints for mobility.
The leader of this regiment of the Guards was the latter. However what had obviously been a creators pride and joy had been worn by time and scarred by battle.
"Hello, I assume you are the leader of this group?" I asked although I was assured in my assessment.
"Yes I am, Milord" he stated giving a slight bow, obviously more worried about insuring that his guardsman maintained proper stances and guards.
"Well I figured I would offer my services to help the guards train" I stated, my reasons where two fold. Or at least I came up with two excuses to cover up the fact I needed actual instruction on combat. One of the excuses/side effects, it would give the guards the training against a low skilled but high powered enemy that I had a feeling would match majority of the challengers.
"Of course that would be greatly appreciated, I assume you were thinking about squad vs. you, right sir?" He asked, his marble eye locking with mine. I didn't know exactly how they interacted with their rocky exteriors though they did seem to look through their eyes at the least.
"Exactly, though I'll leave it up to you to decide the situation, my idea was that the best training against Challengers was by fighting a Challenger." I stated summoning my new great sword.
"Yes Sir" he stated before his head scanned the group of guards engaged in different forms of training.
"3rd Squad, Disengage and form UP!" he stated. Those in single combat stopped immediately, and falled in to the side of the guard captain. The others that were in group training had to wait and disentangle themselves from formation before they were replaced. As soon as the squad formed up, made of sixteen Lithoni warriors of various heights.
"Today you will practice for fighting against a highly powerful enemy, his Majesty Current Monarch of the Fungal Folk Kien Noble, your goal is to hold off his advance long enough for an organized response timer set at Five minutes" he stated pointing to an unused section of the training areas marked with the dimensions of the length of the wall.
Standing on one side I stood opposite to the 16 men squad. Four Lithoni stood forming a shield wall with rectangular slightly curved shields that covered an area from their knees up to half way up their face. Assuming a guard stance I prepared myself, I could end this battle in a heartbeat. However that wouldn't be good practice as I blocked myself from utilizing my magic skills.
From videos and documentaries I remembered watching I knew that Great Swords were a bodyguards weapon. Typically designed to keep lightly armored opponents far away while maintaining control of the area around you.
Obviously they didn't approach me, as their goal was to last a designated amount of time. Stepping forward, they stayed stalwart. I heard the pull of strings and four arrows sailed into the air. Fast enough that most would be incapable of moving around them, and that's if they knew where not to be in the first place. Weaving through the arrows I neared the four shieldman. The bowmen continued the rain down until I got to close for them to attack properly.
As I stepped within range four spear points protruded between the shields. Then they marched forward and slowly to gain more space. Whilst I wouldn't use magic, I wasn't about to miss a golden opportunity.
Jumping over the shield wall I sailed far above them and landed right next to the archers and with a light but fast slash they were disqualified. Circling around I saw the skirmishers and spear man flow behind the Shieldmen as the reformed their shield wall towards me. Jumping I saw the Spearmen raise their spears high into the air, yet I wasn't about to use the same trick twice. My destination was instead the shield wall. Slamming downwards I felt them try to support their shield against the Force. Pushing back off the shield I landed a few paces back from the now twelve man squad.
They opened the shield wall and four skirmishers flowed out and dispersed. Quickly dashing forward I pushed the four skirmishers out of the bounds of the area designated. Bringing my sword into a sideways slash slamming into the shield wall evading the spear points.
The force of the blow staggered them, and with a quick follow up attack their endurance was no doubt flagging. Until finally with a final push their whole formation deteriorated.
...
"Alright can you all tell me your first Fuck Up?" The commander asked the group I had just practiced against. One brave soul, an archer raised his hand.
"The Shield bearers failed to protect the archers" he stated though it sounded more like a question.
"No, that was merely the consequence of a fatal flaw" he stated, looking over the group but none raised their hands.
"You all falled into a dangerous folly, you all got way to used to fight in crampt quarters of the caves that you failed to remember that people can jump over your goddam shield wall!" He stated vehemently, though I could understand why. It was a mistake that could lead to greater losses then that of a training match.
"What should we have done, sir?" One asked, and I could tell his question was out of curiosity on how to improve.
"You should have had your spearman ready, the archers should have forced him to evade arrows and most importantly the skirmishers should have been exclusively protecting the archers" he explained this time his voice was steady and calm.
The next squads followed suit, until the five squads had a turn. The one who did the best was 6th Squad who spared against me last. They had opted for a different strategy, they had two at the edges face forward with the two inner sit at an angle with a single spear protruding from each gap. Then Everytime I tried to jump or evade the shield wall the archers would try to pepper me with arrows as soon as I sailed above their compatriots, finally I had managed to break through after snapping a spear.
After the sixth squad the others had go again using a modified version of their initial strategies though with the modifications that the commander whose name I had learned was Darevellum.
After the second round the group with best results was the 3rd Squad the one I had fought in the beginning. After that I watched them resume their training.
"Milord if I may be so bold, you don't know how to wield a sword do you?" He asked with hesitation as he obviously was making a risky move, but one I was happy for.
"You are correct, my homeworld had evolved beyond the use of weapons like, clubs, swords, and daggers" I explained
"Then what replaced them, or was your Homeworld peaceful?" He asked, and while I understood where he could see that as possiblity. However that was not the case rather we had invented more efficient ways of killing each other.
"No, there were areas that where more peaceful than others, rather we invented guns, they would propel small pieces of metal very fast." I explained in a simple way, not because he was dumb but because I didn't know how much of a gap between our two knowledge bases their were.
"Well, if It isn't to presumptuous I could offer my services as Instructor Milord." he stated
"That would be appreciated Commander Darevellum" I replied.
We squared off across from each other. He wielded a similar weapon a long great sword. Raising the weapon at the ready.
"Milord, shift your weight your putting to much weight on your front foot" he stated.