24 Team Work Makes The Dream Work

(Morgan Pov)

Our weekly team battles came as a result of my boredom. It all started when I got a cheeky idea and suggested we should try doing some free-for-all battles. I thought it would be a good idea to learn how to handle chaotic battles and to take a break from the boring 1v1 spars.

After getting needlessly hurt enough times, we decided to dial it back and try 2v2s instead. And that was a good enough substitute for practice purposes. Slowly but surely, we are learning how to handle more than one opponent and how to coordinate with each other.

After a while, we learned that I was the one consistently responding in time to attack openings and coming to the aid of my partner. After mulling over it for some time, I attributed my ability to do all of that to the footwork and stances my master taught me.

As a mage, the only stances and footwork he knew were the ones his comrades used from the time of The Scouring. Normally the things passed down from such a bygone age should be outdated by now. But my master's comrades were the 8 legends,

All of them were trailblazers in their own field, most of what is known today stem from their efforts. What my master taught me came from Roland's self-created fighting style, and looking at the way Corbin and Dorian fought I could tell it was based on Roland's style.

Their footwork and stances looked familiar to me, but they were also different as the forms have been changed to have different specializations. That got me thinking and asking a lot of questions. What did Roland want his fighting style to focus on? Why did he choose to focus in that area?

These questions and my experience in these team battles allowed me to come up with a possible answer. First question, when and what did Roland fight when he was alive. The answer is dragons. Second question, does a human stand a chance against a dragon?

Depends on the human, and even then it's not an even fight. Dragons individually are powerful beings, their natural gifts that make them superior to humans in every way. And how do you beat something stronger than you? You simply have to overwhelm them with numbers.

You can see this happen all the time in nature, look at the wolves and ants they are animals most often associated with power in numbers. The only advantage humans had against dragons in The Scouring, was their ability to reproduce and mature at a faster rate.

So until humans developed the legendary weapons, numbers were the way to fight dragons. Naturally, Roland developed a fighting style that specialized in cooperating with others, a style that focuses on coming to the aid of your allies in either offense or defense.

When I reached that conclusion I decided to teach my friends the footwork and stances I knew. We are still young and discovering how we want to fight, so we did not mind experimenting. We are nowhere close to Roland or any of the fighters from the scouring, but we are improving.

As time went on and the foes humans fought changed from dragons to other humans, fighting styles have evolved to reflect this change. This style of coordinated fighting fell out of favor and now only exists within the annals of history.

Only time will tell if we can actually succeed in reviving this style of fighting, or if we can make it our own. The other tribes have fighting styles unique to them or are known for something, who knows maybe we will one day be known for fighting like a pack of wolves.

I finished all of my chores for today and head off to the meeting place, I hope I'm not late. Oh good, looks like we all finished our chores around the same time. I can see a brunette, a bluenette head, a redhead, and 3 boys with green hair. Looks like most of us are here.

"How are we splitting up today? Who wants to work with who?"(Morgan)

"I want to try something new, Morg team up with me."(Brunette Siscon)

"Sure, is there any specific weapon you want me to use?"

"I want to practice a bit with my spear. Can you use a saber today? The thing I want to try needs you to be very fast. I think I won't hurt you if you can keep moving."

"Not sure what to think of that warning, but okay. I read ya loud and clear, Brennus. So who wants to face us, and who wants to sit out this round."

"I'm fine with sitting this round out. I'm still a little tired from today's work, it was my turn to herd the horses. I had to run around a lot today, I want to sit down and rest for a bit." (Green 1)

"Blaise they beat us the last time they teamed up, want to have a rematch with them."(Blue Guy)

"Sure why not, I want to practice using an axe. Can you use a spear for this match? Morgan, how many of my arrows did you break and/or lose? I want to practice some archery tomorrow, I need to know how many arrows I need to make after this."(Red Individual/Brennus)

"I only broke 3 of your arrows, and I gave all of them to your father when I saw him."

"Oh that's very funny Morgan, but please don't joke around. Don't lie to me, I promise not to get angry."

"I'm not lying this time. I found a trick that helps me relax, and it helps me shoot more accurately. I just need some more practice, but I learned how to shoot much faster."

"Don't tell me what the trick is. The next time you practice bring me with you, I want to see your trick with my own eyes. I'm sorry Morg, but I won't believe you until I see you hit the target myself."

"That's fair, given my horrible attempts in the past."

"So Battuya, Elbeg. Are you going to spar with each other? Or are you going to watch our match."(Brennus)

"I want to spar, but if El doesn't want to I can wait until one of you is free."(Battuya/Green 2)

"Honestly I want to see Bren's new trick before I fight it. I don't like fighting when all of you are trying new things, that's when we get hurt the most. I'm not like Morg who can take the hits and keep going like nothing happened."(Elbeg/Green 3)

"Oh come on, I'm not that bad. Ganzaya, how many rounds do you think you will sit out?"

"Maybe 2, or maybe 3. I don't know, it all depends on how long each round takes."(Green 1)

"Let's hurry up so we can get started soon, Morg come over here so I can tell you what I want to do."

--------------------One Huddle Later

"Do you understand what I want to try?"

"I do, but please remember to give me the warning sign. So should I be the one who engages? Or do you want to be the one who engages?"

"What does engage mean?"

"Who should take the lead."

"Oh, you should do it. I also want to practice blocking hits for you and the others. I saw you do it before and I want to see if I can do it."

"Okay let's see what happens. Hopefully, nothing will go wrong."

---------------------A Few Moments Later

"Morgan, move left!"

I heard Brennus instruct me to move the left, I'm guessing that is my warning. I quickly sidestep to my left. Then I feel something approaching my back, dammit not again.

"Aagh, my back! Et tu Brennus!"

After getting stuck from behind by my teammate, I then see a strike coming for my beautiful face. I barely raise my saber in time to parry the oncoming axe. After warding off that attack, I quickly step further in to slash at him. I need to end this quickly, damn that hurt.

I hit Blaise in his chest where his armor looked the thickest and knocked him down, but Colden is there ready to strike at me with his spear. Brennus please block this for me, I'll be less angry if you don't fuck this up. He actually comes through for me this time.

He slaps Colden's spear mid-thrust stopping it from hitting me. He follows up trying to direct Colden's spear away from me by pushing it towards the ground. This barely buys me enough time to close the distance and go for an attack on Colden.

I wish I had a regular sword, sabers aren't ideal for a thrust, they are better for fast slashes. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers. I stop my thrust right at his throat, mainly because my back is still hurting and I want to take a break.

But before I sit down, I need to yell at someone for literally backstabbing me. Okay, maybe I'm slightly exaggerating my injury. We are using blunt wooden weapons and we are wearing a lot of padding underneath our clothes.

I think this can be considered a gambeson, all I know is the layers of silk helped out with blocking most of the blunt force trauma. There is also my defense stat of 4, so that means I am as durable as some untrained adults.

But that's only if they don't have any levels. In other words, they haven't killed anybody to get stronger. It's strange seeing a game mechanic like exp affecting the real world in such a weird way.

"Brennus, why did you tell me to go left? If you were aiming your attack on the left!"

"I meant his left."

"Why were you talking ABOUT HIS LEFT!"

"Well, the plan was to hit him as soon as you moved out of the way. I would say left and you would move right, and if I said right you would move left. I thought it would confuse him seeing his opponent move to his left, and it would make it easier to land my attack."

"You just told me to look out for the warning sign right or left. You never told me IT WAS REVERSED!"

"I thought I told you, I guess I forgot."

"Whatever, is this what we are going to try to do now? Trying to dodge our partner's attacks or are we trying to hit a target WITHOUT HURTING OUR FRIENDS! Sorry, I'll try to calm down now."

"I think Bren had a good idea, I kind of want to try dodging some attacks. I think I can do it, I am the fastest one here. So who wants to try it with me? Morg do you still have the targets in your magic thing "(Ganzaya)

"I'll set up the targets and sit down. You hit me right in the spine, if it was anyone else you probably would have broken something in them."

"I'm so sorry, I thought I told you everything about the plan."

"It's fine, just give me some cheese and I will forgive you. Don't ask me why I am asking for cheese. I need it. For… reasons. Hey Blaise, did I hit you too hard? I lost control of myself when I went to hit you"

"No, I'm fine, just got knocked down. That hit looked really bad, are you okay?"(Blaise)

"I'll be fine after I get the cheese."

"What do you need the cheese for?"(Elbeg)

"I will never tell any of you."

"Okay, Morgan is being weird again, let's just practice like we always do. Gan, let's give this new trick a shot."(Battuya)