Chapter 7 - The First Army

Riou and Max were approaching the camp entrance, they already could see the soldiers putting down the armaments, swords, shields and spears, making themselves more comfortable to sit down and eat the food, was then that Max asked - "Riou, how do you fare with the sword in hand?" Said the mage walking towards the training ground, the moon was still there and was enough to illuminate the camp as well, most of the soldiers were getting their rations, they were alone there.

- "What do you mean? I only played with toy swords when I was a kid... but never REALLY fought with it" - Answered expecting of what was to come...

- "I find that hard to believe..." said the mage remembering the glimpses of the young man past fights inside his mind... - "But luckily for us, this will be easier enough to verify, and much safer... I hope" - He concluded picking up two wood swords used for training, and tossed one to Riou... - "Let's try not repeat the magic lesson disaster... so please restrain yourself from the start this time..." taking poise and clearly waiting for Riou to do the same...

- "You can say that, but as I said, I never learned the sword, I just played and watched characters who did..." he said imitating the mage stance... the sword was wood carved and was as big as a real sword, it resembled the two edged, straight swords with a cross shaped hilt of medieval times. He felt a strange lingering feeling when holding it, he couldn't help but to think about some of the the sword fighting techniques he played with and watched on...

Max signaled, and prepared to launch an attack, he brought the sword up above his head as he approached. He was about to bring it down to hit Riou, when he noticed the mage was not holding back his strength at all, it was a real strike...

As soon as Riou saw the movement down beginning, he knew what was coming, and consciously calculated the trajectory of the wood blade and its timing, he used it to quickly and precisely, step in, towards Max side, closing the gap and taking a more advantageous position to strike the open opponent. Precisely avoiding the swing of the mage sword he promptly readied his sword to attack as he moved, all in the same movement... he knew the big swing would leave the mage open for attack. If anyone was watching the fight they would clearly judge the boy to be a long lived sword fighter veteran at least, someone who did that movement countless times to perfection... and for the mage, he stopped moving completely as soon as he realized he had a sword to his throat...

- "Only toy swords... right?" Joked the mage stepping back and putting the wood sword down in its place

- "Yeah, but as soon as you attacked me, it felt like when I used to playing... really weird, I was not even scared... time didn't stop or anything like that, but it was like I could use and actually apply that knowledge and sword techniques, like it was some sort of mind muscle memory.... this is insane... how is that possible?" - Asked an exhilarated Riou...

- "I have a theory I've been formulating for a while now, in this world the mind and the body are strongly connected, and by what I learned from you, seems like the mana have a much greater impact on that than I previously anticipated. People of this world are able to create great things once they are able to understand it, once their minds reached the necessary level of knowledge, the body is able to follow... and by saying that I don't mean physical training is worthless..." He paused walking around continuing his explanation...

"On the contrary, is much more effective, since one can understand with much more efficiency when experiencing and testing with the body. So a person who wants to learn the sword, will practice it sorely and thoughtfully gaining knowledge through the physical experience and understanding its foundations. With that down then experimenting with ideas will enable them to create real and powerful sword skills and techniques..." He turned again to Riou who was following the Magus explanation attentively.

- "You on the other hand, comes from a place where the connection is feeble, weak... by your reaction the people there have a harder time to get the body to follow the minds command, I mean, you need a lot more of physical effort and training to match the mind power... and now that you are here, in contact with mana... it somehow improved your mind to body connection to whole new level... you have so much experience on the movements and the theory, that I can't even begin to calculate how much hours you have spent on it... and if you would also use your absurd amount of mana to compensate or strengthen it... the possibilities are endless..." Explained the mage before continuing with a more preoccupied tone

-"So, for now at least I'd recommend you caution, if you want to keep others from knowing about your power, you can't be all powerful suddenly..." Explained Maximilian as a teacher to its pupil.

- "Yeah, I kind of understand what you mean... I will be careful in front of others, but I do have to train this ability..." Said Riou to the mage as them both started to walk again towards the food distribution...

- "It will take a few weeks to reach the capital, I don't think they will do forced march on the way back, that will give us plenty of time I think, you will be safe with the army and during the day break you could train with the soldiers the sword, that will allow a background history to pass as a good swordsman later on, and during the night we could get some distance to test your magic, if anything goes out of control they will think it was me... but that would be much more difficult to explain to others, and perhaps should be kept in secret."

- "Sounds like a plan" Confirmed Riou.

When they were near the food distribution the Knight Captain from inside of his tent called them in, he clearly wanting to talk with both of them. They entered the tent taking a seat in front of a table which the knight was seated behind.

the tent was being illuminated by a kind of oiled lamp, on the table there was a big piece of bread and a big bowl of what seemed to be soup, the bread appeared to be hard as stone and the soup had a strange color to it, as if someone took dirt with some roots and strange leaves and had it all boiled together on water...

A moment after the soldier comes in bringing the same thing to Riou and Maximilian.

- "Master Mage, the king requested a report of what was found here, I believe you will be the one providing such report to him, but would you be so kind to also share your discoveries with me?" Said the knight honestly curious to the findings, while preparing the bread to be thrown into the soup.

- "The event seemed to have been a magical displacement caused by the star alignment, the magical power accumulated through the years was suddenly release by the extra emanation, causing the first event... with its force it must have compromised the land beneath the forest that eventually collapsed somewhere inside the forest causing the second tremor..." explained the mage reaching for his bread.

- "I see, but why have the king requested me to dispatch the best men for this investigation?" - Asked the knight eating with his hand a piece of the bread soaked in the soup

The mage that was soaking the bread stopped, seemed like a hard topic was about to be brought up - "Because I was suspicious that Argos mages could have been involved... or worse, the Twilight Council could be behind it since they always showed an unusual interests in the Endher Forest..."

- "Hum, thats why the king sent the First Army... it makes more sense now" Said the Knight understanding the criticality of it.

- "Why the name First Army?" Riou interjected, he wanted to ask about Argos and the council but the topic seemed to heavy to be brought up again, so he went with a lighter one...

- "The Kingdom of Allard has a total of five army's, each commanded by a Knight and the nobles who wish to support it, the First is the only Army that is Supported by the King, and only the King, it is constituted only by the most loyal subjects, that were especially selected and trained to be the best soldiers in the kingdom. The Second also is special since is represented by the next in line to the throne, commanded by the Prince himself and his supporters, as he need to learn how to be a general. The Third, Fourth and Fifth falls into the already explained category." Explained Bhalrom getting back to Maximilian,

"And about the young man here? Have you learned anything?"

Riou understood the explanation, and though about the system used while looking them both eating that food, it looked terrible, but he was hungry... he imitated the other two actions and picked a piece of hard bread to soak it on the soup... perhaps the taste was not as bad as it looked. He was still mustering the courage to try it...

- "Yes" said the mage, - "I could put together that this boy lived once south of the Beast man lands near Argos border, the dialect in that region is very different, there he was probably a servant under a lord... and when the war between Argos and the Beast man finally reached their land, they tried to escape going north, reaching the elven lands.... having to choose between the dangerous wild life and monsters within the elven lands, and the raiders and bandits of the coast to the east... they chose the coast and ended up being attacked... the caravan was ransacked and Riou here ended up as a prisoner with few others young enough to be sold at the city of Iris... Being the resourceful young man he is, he managed to break free from his captors during the travel, and continued north to escape them and the war altogether... after a few days trying to survive in the wilds he ended up here..." spoke the mage waiting for the knights response, he knew Bhalrom had strong feelings regarding the Iris City, and that would help to make the story believable.

- "Iris... that city is a rotten apple... I don't know why the nobles support it so fiercely..." - A clearly angry Bhalrom pushing his food to the side as if losing the appetite.

Riou looked to Max and though "Not bad, not bad at all, he completely believed it", Max looked back as if understanding Riou thoughts and took a proud pose "I'm not called the great Magus for nothing..." Riou smiled back and as Bhalrom was still lost in his own thoughts, Riou tried the food as well...

He was wrong, the taste was much worse than it looked, the roots gave a really bitter taste to the warm soup... but it was that or starve, so he forced himself to eat it.

- "Bhalrom... " said the Magus - "We have some time until we reach the castle, I'd like to put Riou under the soldiers for some training during the Day break if you don't mind, it's not everyday one can train with the Allard Kingdom finest, the First army... he can learn a lot in short time..."

- "It's a good idea indeed... and eat up, this food will make hair grow on your chest, when we arrive at the capital you will be a man able to fend for himself... eat up, we have a long way ahead, and you will need your strength" Said the knight proudly to a struggling Riou trying to finish the soup...

Max just laughed at the scene...

The trip began and the days passed quickly, Riou Training went on... During the day he trained with the soldiers, and at night he took strolls with Maximilian, soldiers could see eventually from the distance, flashes and loud noises coming from their direction, and assumed the Magus was only trying to teach him Magic. This was his routine, all kind of fighting styles and weapons like sword, spear, shield and unarmed combat, eventually they also showed him how to fight with and against daggers, throwing knives and axes. He was much better than they expected, in their eyes he was a natural talent and at such young age and at every fighting style. After a while Riou decided he could stop pretending and loosing and started wining the the duels left and right...

He had befriended every soldier in the camp by the time they were reaching the capital outskirts, and all soldiers thought proudly due to his good humor and natural aptitude for fighting. It helped a lot the fact that even the Knight Captain eventually appeared on the training grounds, to watch the progress of the boy, and every time that happened he theatrically started to fake struggling, almost loosing to his opponent at every strike, which agitated the Knights spirits and forced the knight captain to cheer and shout words of wisdom to him.

- "Put more strength in that right arm!"

- "The motion should be from the hips to the arm! No! No! put your hips on it!"

- "Don't overextend, don't overextend!"

The Knight was an outstanding fighter, thats why he is that position, but to using the cheering and advice, seeking guidance of him, gave a sense of coaching and bond and when he was able to overcome the terrible opponent and barely win... that exhilarated the knight and the ones around it...

But some of the smarter soldiers got on to that immediately, because Riou who was a natural talent, used to win the one on one duels, suddenly and desperately struggled whenever the knight captain appeared, they didn't understand why that happened, but it was fun... To Riou, he did that intentionally of course to get the captain in high spirits, as the Knight Captain loved to see his soldiers inspired by his presence as every commander would. Generating an excellent rapport and good humor for everyone.

And the soldiers kept it as that, and the fun suddenly escalated, they laughed and joked every time it happened and it quickly caught on, now every time Riou was practicing with someone they knew Riou Could win easily, they would gather up and shout the Knight Captains advices, and he promptly would begin to act accordingly, and would put up a show for them. The Knight Captain when watched the scene always joined them as well, they loved it because they knew how good he had became, they were proud teachers that knew that eventually the student would bring even more prestige to the First Army.

After a while they were already inside the Capital Walls, they were stone made, and high and thick enough to hold many men on top of it with excellent defense against the ones in the ground.

The city was lively, and full of people, the streets were paved with stones which allowed carriages to circulate easily, the houses were well made and seemed comfy, made of some sort of tempered clay seemed sturdy and well protected from the weather and cold temperatures. the roofs had a triangular shape, and some were made of the same material, disposed differently, others seemed to be made of some sort of wood.

Once inside the walls, Knight Bhalrom ordered the troops back to the barracks, they were dismissed for the next days to recuperate from the travel, he then took a carriage with Maximilian and Riou, and ordered it to the castle... It was pulled by horsed and had a cabin where the users could sit in, they could look out of the window to see the busy city folk, they everyone looked busy and the city was lively as ever.

I was a few hours past noon, and the castle grew in the distance as they approached it with the carriage.