Plethora, Knight Of The World 4 The Drill

Lee continues after all over 15,000 recruits have gathered, neatly into groups of 11. "Today we hold another battle drill!" even though there's a lot of excitement in his voice the recruits stay quiet, nothing more than a slight rustle of clothing and armor. "All teams up to 781 will be team 1, Wall will be the commanding general. All teams 782 till 1562 will be team 2, Imp will be the commanding General. Battle starts in 15 minutes!"

Like that everyone for team 1 turned left and team 2 right. They continue walking till the teams are separated by the hill in the middle of the camp.

The first thing Snake did after arriving at the designated spot was "f.u.c.k! How is this even a match up, all the weakest recruits, all the weakest captains, and the general is someone who only knows how to play games with his opponent. Which sounds like a good thing, but he can only do that to a single opponent! He's not a general! Even I would've been better!"

Even Percy understood Snake's ranting. The numbers are stacked against his side, but he also didn't forget what his father told him. This isn't a test for all the lower ranked people, it's only a test for himself! If he doesn't perform outstandingly he can forget getting the things his dad promised him.

Knowing his own father he might have even set him up to fail, even if that's the case he won't give up. He'd go to extreme measures before admitting defeat.

Soon orders come from the general, and snake exploded again. "He's trying to play his games again! Stupid Imp. We're in the right wing, it's the inner wing that's the strong wing normally. But Imp is going to sacrifice it. All the stronger recruits are in the outer wing, ready to hit their relatively weaker side to crash through and go for their general, this is never going to work, not with Wall!"

Snake continues for a while before setting up his team. Bert the tank in front with Vyvyan the berserker behind him. Rick the archer and Alexai the mage in the middle, Mike the porter and Neil the healer in the back, Jerzai the a.s.sa.s.sin and Percy the Armiger and snake the sword fighter are free to roam.

Free to roam means that they're free to move around their own team, changing between front and back, they can't just go off and try to kill the general without orders of someone higher.

The waiting went on, and the time came. Even though Percy is promising, even Snake thinks so, he still doesn't need to do much for the battle as he's just a recruit, the lowest ranked recruit.

Percy was still nonchalant about the drill, there's no risk of injury, and an entire army surrounding him, and he doesn't truly have a task in his team, it can't be too bad he thinks. Especially looking at the people surrounding him. Over 7,500 people on his side, even on the 'sacrificial' side the people are impressive.

The order to march is given, the march goes on a steady pase slightly faster than a normal walk.

But what Percy sees next pops his bubble, the 'enemy's' strong side is against their weak side. Even though their weak side doesn't feel weak, there's even quite an aura coming of their marching forward. But the opposite side is like heaven and earth apart. Their equipment gleaming sharp, everything high end and tailored to everyone's own need, their collective aura storming over Percy's head, making him feel like he's being pulled underwater by a storming river.

But Percy isn't like any other rookie, his willpower unmoving like a mountain and his mind cool and deep like an ocean. Atlas's Phantom is made to be used in an environment like this, to move unseen in any army, to hide your aura behind even the weakest aura around. Percy practically disappears the moment the aura rolls over him.

The difference between him and Jerzai is that Jerzai is like a deep puddle, when you sense him standing somewhere randomly you won't notice it, as it's just a puddle. But if you wonder if you can stand in it without disappearing you notice you can't see how deep it is, it might be nothing, it might be bottomless. He's impossible to gauge.

Percy is different, he's like the flame of a match in front of the sun, you'll only see the light of the sun. Unless it's a 1 on 1 fight he's almost invisible to sense, not to mention a chaotic battlefield.

The armies come closer, and Percy feels that even if everyone knew they were going to die they would still march on. Now they knew they were not going to die they marched on with enthusiasm, ready to take out one more person before they get hit, ready to earn one more merit point.

Percy moves to the front of their group, standing just behind Vyvyan and Bert. As the weakest of all they're on the absolute front, ready to brake the momentum of the opponent even a little bit.

As the enemies are getting in the range of their group arrows start flying in, Bert raises his towers.h.i.+eld getting some protection from the arrows and occasional spell that flies past. Luckily the projectiles aren't focused on them, otherwise even the s.h.i.+eld would've been useless.

Percy and Vyvyan hide behind Bert as the last meters are closed between the two sides under the dramatic noise of shacking metal and yelling men.

With a huge crash of metal, screams, and flas.h.i.+ng lights the two sides met. Bert gets lucky or actually shows some skill as he blocks a strike from a big spear with a tip two hands long and a staff 2 meters long held by a knight in silver colored heavy armor.

Snake's sword almost slithers past Bert's s.h.i.+eld, over the spear before it gets pulled back and hits home in the visor of the helmet. Just like that the recruit gets switched out with a dummy but the spear falls on the floor, together with a dagger that would've been hidden in his sleeve.

Percy moves like the wind even though he was a little surprised seeing the weapons like that. He picks both the weapons up and moves behind Bert.

Behind him Rick is shooting arrows to keep the recruits close to the front of the group at a distance without any real effect. Alexai is waiting for the best moment to unleash his magic.

The front line becomes more and more messy, the attackers come from behind their tanks and start fighting each other. Percy moves in between the recruits, picking up dropped weapons and throwing knives at unsuspecting recruits with little armor, mainly aiming at different joints to stop them from moving. Most throws that would've hit a joint result in a body being switched with a dummy as the injury would've taken a while to heal.

Like that his stockpile of weapons keep expanding, most of his weapons are stuck in his belt, only his pants protecting his skin from the sharp edges. But instinctively he moves in a way that prevents the weapons from even piercing his skin. The spear is stuck diagonally through his s.h.i.+rt, the sharp point pointing towards the sky.

He got an idea as the spear is taking away from his stealth as he moves towards Bert, who's surprisingly still in the game. "Bert, you're strong enough to wield a spear single-handed right?"

"Yes! Give it to me! I'll show these f.u.c.kers that even the lowest ranks shouldn't be looked down upon!" he yells as the short sword flies towards Percy and a spear flies back, sticks in the ground and tips over to deliver the handle to Bert. Something Percy's dad made him practice an innumerable amount of times.

Bert actually turns out pretty impressive, a big towers.h.i.+eld on one arm, a big spear in the other hand. It looks as if something clicks in his head, he blocks a strike by swinging his s.h.i.+eld making the opponent wide open. His spear moves like a meteor in reverse, the gleaming metal tip moving from close to the ground up to the neck of his opponent, and he hits.

The opponent gets switched and a dummy gets pierced on his spear. This in turn is a problem as coming back in stance was slowed down and an arrow landed on his way underprotected chest.

"That was awesome Bert, maybe we'll rise in the rankings together." even while murmuring this Percy doesn't stop moving. He notices that they're being cut off from the rest of the army, left and right people are dying, even behind them their troops are getting thinner.

"Snake, we need to get out of here!" It wasn't even a question. "That's not how you talk to your captain Hable! If I tell you to stay here you'll stay here till you die, or everyone else on the team dies and you'll be the captain! Now make yourself useful and throw some stuff around!"

Like that the battle continues, slowly the team dies off, first the logistics and healer get both taken down by a single mage spell. Later Rick gets killed by one of the rare a.s.sa.s.sins and Alexai shoots a rather impressive dark fire spell that explodes in the middle of a group of archers and mages and sprays around tiny flames that don't go off easily. He takes out at least three archers, and made a lot more archers and mages undress from their equipment.

Snake dies after taking down a captain and two berserkers in a 4 on 2 fight. Vyvyan was fighting next to him but dies in a tie with the other berserker.

Then it was only Jerzai and Percy, both hidden but close to each other. Jerzai looks at Percy and they make eye contact for just that long, and then Jerzai points towards the enemy side, he wants to move in deep.

Percy nods, and in they go, Jerzai first and Percy right behind moving deeply but stealthily into the enemy's side, doing what a a.s.sa.s.sin should do, taking out the general!