"I am no tourist. If I might train more before tomorrow I will, else I will just retire early."
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"I am no tourist. If I might train more before tomorrow I will, else I will just retire early."
"Of course. Although there are areas which are restricted to non-staff members, otherwise, you are indeed free to wander around here. As for the shooting range, you can find that at the north end of the Trainee's Quarters, along the wide street dividing the block from the Field."
He looks at all of you before continuing, "Is there anything else I can help you with?"
Water will gurgle at Eugines invitation to the shooting
range; something unexplicable in aquan, he was still
getting used to this speaking in Common malarky.
Eitherway; it seemed friendly enough to everyone present
and the movement to stand next to Eugine indicated it had
something to do with Water accepting his invitation to join
him.
The group decides to separate and do their own thing to pass the rest of the day. The next day, Harrow leads you back to the training grounds, and you see something new: an obstacle course made up of wall climbs, log balancing, swimming and jumping sections among them. Harrow invites you to try it and you do so. The whole group manages to finish the obstacle course, and as could have been guessed beforehand, the result differs for each member. Some had already reached the pace required by the upcoming test while others are a bit far behind.
"Good work for those who made it. For those who didn't, it's fine. This is what you are here for, anyway, right? Striving to become better than what you are now." Harrow leaves and gives you the rest of the day to train with the course and do your scheduled runs. After that, you go back to eat your dinner and then proceed to the room afterwards.
The days go by quickly, with you settling down to your routine of morning runs, lectures, practice on the obstacle course, afternoon runs, and then rest. The first few days is grueling, with your body aching and sore in places you never thought possible. As it goes on, however, you notice your body is slowly catching up to the rigors of the training. You no longer find yourself gasping for breath after the tenth lap, and your muscles don't ache as much as they used to. As for the lectures, while they could be dragging at the very least and you all but will yourselves to stay awake through them, Harrow mixes things up enough with interesting anecdotes, some even involving the Founders, and practical application of theories being discussed from time to time to keep your attention.
Before you know it, the time for the first evaluation is at hand. While it had not been clarified before, the atmosphere in the field now is heavy, as the announcement is made that those who fail the evaluation will be sent home, without any chance for appeal. One by one, the groups proceed to take on the course, and while most make it, a significant number fail, some of them even those who seem familiar to you, whom you've seen breeze through the course during practice but faltering when it mattered most, either from the pressure or just from rotten luck. The tension builds, and soon it is your group's turn to face the challenge.
One by one, you proceed to the starting point. Before you begin, Harrow calls out to you with but two words: scratching post. That, however, is enough to make you giggle; the word had been a running gag among you from one of the anecdotes he had told you earlier. Suddenly, you feel the pressure ease up a bit, and you begin at each one's pace. There is no hurry in your movements, as you recall the way you had found to take on the different obstacles to make them easier that they should have been, and soon you see yourself halfway done. Water begins to pull ahead, but then Skavos and Eugene catch up and surge ahead. Suddenly, it becomes a competition between you, and when you finally cross the finish line, you find to no surprise that your time is less than four minutes, the goal for next week.
After all the groups have finished, Harrow invites you over to a small restaurant in the Shop Quarters that serves the best noodle soup you have ever tasted in your life as his congratulatory treat for your group's excellent performance. You spend the rest of the day talking, eating, and just relaxing until night came, and Harrow bid his farewell. You decide to call it a day as well, and you go to your quarters for a much needed rest.
Just when you thought the worst part was over, the next week proves to be much tougher than the last. Perhaps thinking that having broken the four-minute mark for the next evaluation, you expected the training to be lighter, but it turns out to be the opposite. Harrow adds another set of workouts after lunch, and coupled with the morning and evening runs plus more basic weapon drills and battlefield maneuvers, your body is once more pushed to the limit. Additional activities are added to your training menu each day, and by the time you face the next evaluation, the fatigue takes its toll. You muster your will to concentrate on the course over the pain and the heaviness of your body, and you manage to finish the course, but your times are but a meager increase from your previous performance with some even on the negative. Thankfully, you still all pass.
The next week, you revert back to your normal training regime of morning and evening runs only. You also begin to tackle topics on magic and related subjects, while for your afternoon sessions, you focus more on group tactics. Mostly it is about observing each other and asking each other questions about themselves, learning each other's preferences and dislikes, quite light compared to the previous weeks.
By the end of your third week of your stay in the camp, Harrow announces your next evaluation.
"By the end of this coming week, you will be evaluated again. This time, it will be a contest among different groups. It will incorporate everything you've done so far here. The type of contest will be King of the Hill."
"Our version will be a three-group battle on a random hill-type course. The "hill" will be composed of different terrains around from the base up to the top. The three teams will be teleported randomly around the base of the hill and will have two options. One is to make their way up to the top of the hill where they will find a flag. However, the flag is inside a simple fort guarded by a neutral group. Capturing the flag will earn your group ten points. How you go about it is up to you. Also, if you manage to capture the flag and stay inside the fort until the end of the contest, you will earn another ten points. The match will last for ten minutes."
"The other way to go about it is to find the other teams and eliminate all of their members. Each member of the opposing groups you eliminate will be worth two points each. The game will end when the ten minutes is over or only members of one group are left, whichever comes first. The group with the least amount of points accumulated will be sent home. Also, any group with zero points will be sent home. That's about it. Any questions, hmm?"
Water sighs, over the past three weeks he had taken on more and more
qualities of those around him... No longer did he ever slip into Aquan or
struggle to understand the vast majority of jokes and puns told by what
he now considered his friends.
For him the training wasn't particularly difficult but he had struggled watching
his... friends... and in some cases even allowed them to over take him
as to provide them with a moral boost if he felt they needed it.
Now he would have to work with them closer than ever before; if his team was
to stay in this organization they would have to all pull their weight and cover
each others backs.
Are we allowed to see the arena before the contest?
Almost every day since the start, Gol has been changing - refining his bindings and his form, trying to find something generally useful without being too debilitating emotionally. Success is... mixed.
Today, he has a foggy coat over his armor, bits of it fading in and out at random if you watch, and the same purple belt as on the first day. More noticeable are the swords, though, one for each limb behind hands and feet, though currently short enough not to obstruct his movements or damage the ground; quite the contrary, he appears more graceful than usual, tall and slim. Still dark blue, though, and the left side of his mouth is stretched oddly.
"Sounds simple enough. I assume we endeavor to remain nonlethal?"
Spoiler: SetupBlink Shirt and Wormtail Belt shaped, pact with Paimon bound to Totem.
Binding check: [roll0] DC 20.
After the long period of training and practice, any pudginess the noble scion might have once had from his privileged life has been burned off and hardened into firm wiry muscle. Also, given the time he has had to work on them, the practice guns given him by the carnival have been improved to be almost a match for his original set. He has even crafted a scope for his musket.
Since his arrival, he has quickly changed out of the noble clothing and jewelery you first found him in, and now wears a conservative explorer's outfit.
At Gol's question Eugene says, "I imagine the Carnival has magic enough to turn lethal blows into merely painful ones on a specially prepared battlefield." Eugene looks to Harrow before saying, "What we should really be asking is how big the other teams will be, and what the layout of the fort is."
"Uhm, nope. You won't be allowed to do that," Harrow replies to Water. "That's part of the evaluation, being able to adjust to your environment. We will be discussing that this week before the test."
"As for lethality of blows, no we don't have that magic to dampen blows. Killing your target is not out of the question. So it will be up to you if you should choose to chose the lethal way of dealing things or not," Harrow explains with a shrug. "You will all have equal number of members per team, so that will be fair. But, as I have mentioned, there will be neutral forces, and their numbers will also not be revealed. It's safe to expect there will also be traps."
"Any more questions?"
The Elemental bows slightly, expecting such an answer.
The walking form of water, the shifter of forms and the
fat rich man turned lean and tidy...
He pauses, hoping he had not offended either of his friends.
I believe we are most capable to adapt.
Harrow giggles with that chirp-like sound of a laugh. "I would like to believe that, yes." He then picks up his books and stands. "Well then, if there are no more questions, I'll be leaving you to your devices. You might want to start discussing an initial plan of sorts. Tomorrow, we start discussions on fighting in different environments. That's all. Dismissed." With that, Harrow takes his leave.
Sounding quite confident, Gol starts the conversation of strategy:
"Yes, I rather think we could take this whichever way we wanted to. Either of you have a preference, for a main goal? Capture and defend, or go to pick them off?"
He hops to balance on one leg-blade as he continues.
"And how shall we go about the fight? Stealth, ambush? A straightforward charge? Ignore them until we get the flag, and hold that for all it's worth?"
He switches to an arm and waits for an answer.
Eugene chuckles at water's jest. "I did do some training on my own you know. I may have been a noble, but I was far from fat and lazy."
Waving to their instructor as he leaves, Eugene nods as discussion turns to strategy.
"I say we make for the fort straight off. It will gives us a good defensive position should we take it, and we can still get points for taking out other teams while defending the fort. Besides, I have been dying to try out my new scope, and a king of the hill match sounds perfect for that."
I believe I am much more effective at a distance and able to...
avoid... people quite well... perhaps if there is some element of
water terrain I would be best quited providing support at range
whilst taking advantage of my natural enviroment?
I believe it would be most advantageous to describe our biggest
weaknesses... and then perhaps attempt to mitigate any if possible.
For myself I believe it would be my slow rate at morphing between
forms and inability to go from ranged to melee focus quickly.
I also believe I may be less effective than most in melee... Even
when trying to focus on it...
"So, both of you want distance - that works." Trent, still balancing, spins and continues. "You can have your Sir help out on the front, Gene?"
"But of course Sir Stalwart will join in the fray, and with luck the fort will even have a moat for water to play in." Eugene says as they talk shop. "As for weaknesses we may have I suppose the most pressing would be our lack of magical support. I can manipulate mana to a degree, and I use that to protect myself and increase my attacks punch. However, I am no wizard who can call down lightnings or call forth foul tentacles to ensnare foes."
The sound of deep bubbles and strange echoing
dolphin like noises highlighted Water's amusement
at Eugines joke; over the weeks he had learnt how
humour seemed to work and was almost able to
replicate laughing...
Water churned slightly at the mention of wizards
anger being a much more natural emotion in Elementals.
He stills disliked wizards... greatly...
Throughout the week, you begin to tackle fighting in different environment. Harrow gives out another handbook on the topic containing general information as well as training methodologies and practices developed by the Carnival. As usual, mornings are reserved for discussions while the afternoons are for actual training. As there are many types of environmental conditions to be covered, Harrow only gives an overview of each and the general pointers to keep in mind. After all, the test will only be conducted in a relatively small area such that the group will probably spend only a few minutes within each different environment. All the same, the discussions are still critical, as having a little edge will be a big boost when going up against unknown combatants in unknown and random environmental conditions.
In a blink of an eye, the week is up.
"Tomorrow, you will be having your evaluation once more. As usual, we meet at seven in front of your room. Today, we will not hold our afternoon training so you can rest up for tomorrow. You don't even need to do your afternoon laps as well as tomorrow morning's laps. You can spend your time to relax and prepare for your strategy." With that, Harrow leaves you.
The next day, as had been said, Harrow shows up at the appointed place.
"Good morning. All ready?"
Gol arrives in the same shape as he was in at the beginning of the week, after trying an assortment of other options over the course of the week.
"Of course," he replies, revolving.
Ready and Able.
Water seems eager, his form more swirling and torrential than usual.
Eugene
"Just a moment," Says Eugene as he reaches into his extra-dimensional pocket and pulls out Sir Stalwart. Activating him on the fly. "There we go, ready to begin."
"Good, good," Harrow gives you an approving nod. "Alright, follow me."
As you arrive at the junction, Harrow turns left instead of the usual path to the right going to the lecture halls or the training grounds. Pretty soon, you arrive at the familiar sight of the long walled sector, the Field.
"You might have guessed, for this evaluation, we'll be doing it here. It's pretty hard to modify the training grounds on the fly for each batch, you know?" Harrow turns to address you while he waits for the door to open, giving his usual chirping chuckle at the end. "Oh, hey there, Watts. What batch are we in?"
In front of Harrow, you see a young man with short blond hair and fair skin. He is quite tall and lanky, but his eyes give off an energetic gleam as he beams at your instructor.
"Good morning, sir. Yes, your group will be in batch...6," he pauses as he checks the list on the clipboard he is holding. "Yep, batch 6. Your room will be Room 17. Right this way, please." The young man named Watts turns and heads down to your right.
"Good. Come, come," Harrow smiles and beckons your group to follow.
After the first turn, you see Watts stop at the third door to the left. He opens it and motions for you all to enter.
"Please wait inside for your turn. Once you are up, we will have our personnel come and brief you on the rules as well as assist you for the whole evaluation. Is there anything else you need, sir?"
"No, nothing, Watts. Thanks." Harrow pats the young man's shoulder before stepping inside the room. Once every one of you steps inside, Watts closes the door behind you.
"Sit down, guys. Depending on how good the previous batches are, we might wait for an hour or less."
The minutes slowly tick away as you wait for your turn. You have prepared for almost two weeks, both physically and mentally. You have made your plans. The only thing left is to execute.
After what seems like hours, the door opens, and a middle-aged man enters. He is much shorter than Watts, but equally thin. He is bald, with freckles all over his face.
"Oh, hello there, Harrow."
"Wil, hey. So, are we up?"
"In a while, yes," Wil moves towards Harrow. He then turns to you. "All right, let me begin with the rules for this evaluation."
The man named Wil goes on to discuss the rules. Basically, he is just repeating what Harrow has said to you weeks before, although he does expound on certain points a bit. After but a few minutes, he finishes. Or so you think.
"Well, these have been discussed by your instructor beforehand, I am sure. However, there has been a slight change. Mr. Israel, Mr. Skavos, please step outside and follow my colleague. You two outside, come in. Introduce yourselves."
Following the directions, James heads inside, and looks over his new companions, looking slightly surprised.
Walking water? That's... more than a bit odd. Compared to that, the other two seem far more reasonable, one, with some sort of minion, using that scythe, far too large for it... seems odd as well, but compared to walking water... It seems, however, that they have gotten non-standard equipment, which is quite interesting.
He recovers from his surprise, and smiles, in a friendly sort of way, at his new companions.
"Nice to meet you all. I'm James, and, as you can probably guess from my equipment, I prefer fighting at range, although I can use a bit of magic as well."
He stands there, seemingly confident in himself, wearing fairly practical clothing under the issue chain shirt, with a longbow and arrows on his back. He is fairly tall, for an elf, standing at 5'5" tall, and he seems to have been through a bit, as he has several scars. For all that, he's fairly good looking, and his motions seems fluidly controlled.
Water watches his companions go with some sadness,
however, he himself had been a alteration to their
current team and understood the high standards of their
organization.
He bowed his head ever so slightly to the Elf as he adressed
himself, user or magic, urgh... A angry bubble of distrain
explodes into millions of tiny bubbles as it rises through
his form.
My team have come to know me as Water.
James nods his head, and smiles at the walking water.
"Nice to meet you, Water. I hope we can work well together."
Ah. Another switch. Normal, for here? "Hello, James. We were planning at the beginning of the week - our main lack is of spells, especially to inhibit our opponents. Do you have anything like that?"
James looks rather doubtful, as he goes to answer the one with magical equipment's question.
"In a limited fashion, yes. Mostly, what I do is steal spells from others, but I can reshape that magic into other effects. If you don't mind, how did you persuade them to let you use your magical equipment? I didn't have any luck at all on that avenue. And maybe introduce yourself?"
"Oh! Sorry, I'm Gol. You'll excuse me if I don't shake your hand," he replies, indicating the blades at his wrists.
"It's not actually equipment -it's a special sort of magic that looks a lot like it. I bind... an assortment of powers to myself each morning. The vest and belt are from the essences of two kinds of monsters, and the swords are from the spectre of this one spectacularly unfortunate olden-days courtier.
James smiles, looking at the blades with interest, rather than a certain horrified curiosity.
"Nice to meet you Gol, and I think I can understand that. I wasn't looking forwards to shaking your hands, and those blades look quite sharp."
As Gol explains his equipment, James nods in understanding.
"Ah, that makes sense. I've never heard of such things, but, it does make sense. And, well, if he had hands like that, he must have been quite unfortunate. I mean, they'd make it quite hard to eat, and there are quite a lot of other things that would be even harder. It should be quite an advantage, here."
Water eyes the two as they speak... Humanoids were
very odd, all this talk of touching and eating.
The idea that he had to change his shape each morning
and could only have a single shape... He had never
considered how his team mates were unable to adapt
their bodies as he was.
He looks at Gol, magic... He had never though of Gol
as a mage before... but he did not dislike Gol... Hmm.
He decided it was unimportant; he was here to grow
stronger, not set up a reaf.
"Enough. You can extend your exchange of pleasantries later. For now, let us begin." Will cuts in.
"This is the final hurdle for this evaluation: changing your team composition. One of the most important aspects we try to instill is the ability to adapt. Adapt to your surroundings, adapt to your enemies, as well as adapt to whoever you will be fighting with. This evaluation will be but the first of many to test this. Now, all of you, stand near the door," Will points at the door to the other side, where you enter into the Field.
As you all gather around the door, Will looks at a curious stone on his palm. It is small and looks like an ordinary pebble, black of color and smoothly round. However, you notice that a soft light is pulsing from it in a periodic manner.
"Standby."
Suddenly, the pulsing light's rhythm changes, blinking faster, or rather twice for every one beat it dead earlier.
"Five, four, three, two, one, GO!"
All of step inside the door. A white flash greets you and you are unable to see or sense anything for a few seconds. After that, you blink and the surroundings suddenly appear, hazy at first, and then gradually becoming more vivid. White turns into shades of green and brown, your nose smells the scent of fresh leaves and the earth. You look around, and you find yourself in a dense forest.
"Trainee evaluation number four: King of the Hill. Batch number six. Begin!"