Chapter 11 Preparation

The soldiers were impressed with Lucas' performance, but they also hated it. They normally didn't care much about him, they almost loathed him, but since the captain started to show his interest they backed up with a few of their insults and calmed down on the extremely rude behavior. Especially since they heard that Lucas was being trained to become a knight, which was a rank higher than theirs, so they were becoming scared of what he would do if Lucas eventually reached that rank. Would he take his anger out on them, like they did with him? These kinds of thoughts spooked the soldiers awake, but they soon gained a chance from a place they didn't expect it at all.

Feeling relieved that he passed this training without getting hit too many times, he was filled with excitement. Would this mean he could finally become a knight or start his combat training? Sadly, reality doesn't give any presents for free.

"Lucas, I have to say that you've done something incredible, you should feel very proud about yourself.". Liam was all compliments, but part of Lucas smelled that something was afoot. He did have some hope, but Liam's face didn't scream happiness, but rather sympathy.

"But that's not all is it?" Lucas asked while trying to hold onto his hope.

"The mage has asked to begin a new exercise, this time you'll learn how to fight with a sword.", Liam said with a half-smile.

Lucas stayed silent, his mind had agreed with itself that that couldn't be everything to it. Letting a few seconds pass, Liam broke his smile and revealed what the mage had said. "He also asked to repeat this exercise but with 8 archers."

Lucas' mind was filled with anger, but his face merely revealed a disdainful look. "Look Lucas, I don't have the power to change this entire thing. The mage asked, only the baron has the power to cancel his order."

"Then ask him, please." Lucas started to lose a bit of his temper and started to show a bit of sadness, thinking about how much it would hurt now. Part of him even thought that the sword training might be rigged against him as well.

"The baron has agreed with everything the mage has done, I don't think he'll make an exception for this."

Lucas answered with a bunch of suppressed grumbles. "Will there ever be an end to this, when will I become a knight?"

'I can't tell him that it would take years to become a full-fledged knight, on the other hand, he is a lot better when it comes to training and discipline, so perhaps it would only take a year, still.

"I'll try Lucas to ask the baron to see if he can reward you the title a bit sooner, but I can't make any promises."

The training continued the next day, as part of Lucas thought, the sword training was completely unfair. He was to fight against 8 soldiers, the same for the 'crossbow' training with wooden swords. He didn't get taught any techniques or flows, he could only be creative and figure something out on the spot.

The soldiers were happy, even grateful to the mage for this opportunity. They were preparing themselves for the training, Lucas was already standing in the middle of the courtyard, waiting. "Listen up guys.", one of them whispered, "We agree with each other that it would be a problem for that little shit to become a knight, right?"

The man got silent nods from his friends and colleagues, "Good, then can I ask something from you guys? It would benefit us all.", the men started to become interested. "What would happen if that brat got into a little accident?"

"Hmm, I don't know, what?", the soldier who spoke up couldn't think of anything, sometimes, soldiers died during training expeditions, and nothing happened to them, only some funds were sent to the remaining family. "Nothing, but what happens if he keeps living? Do you see where I'm getting? Let's just do our best for this training, like our really best."

The other men finally figured out what the man was intending to do, the idea got through their thick skulls and rooted itself deeply. If they were simply training and following the instructions, and the kid died, they weren't responsible now, would they?

Lucas was looking at the group and for once both sides of his mind agreed that something was going to happen that wasn't going to be good for him.

'I never expected you to think negatively of other people, isn't that my thing?'

'No, I believe in the good of others, but even I wouldn't call a murderer friendly.'

'I see, so there are some things we can agree on then, I guess that's the first step.'

'Shut up'

The men started to surround Lucas from all sides, "Are you ready kid?", the men had evil smiles on their faces, clearly hiding malicious intent.

The next few hours were a living hell for Lucas, the soldiers didn't hold back in the slightest. Hitting wherever they possibly could with their wooden swords. The best way to avoid as many hits as he could, was to run away from them, he couldn't leave the courtyard, for then he would be punished by the mage, and if regular training hurt, he wouldn't want to know what the punishments were.

Even running away had its limits though, since his condition was a lot better than the regular soldiers, he didn't have enough distance between his legs due to his height, so he needed to take a step and a half to reach the same distance as a normal step by the soldiers. Sprinting also took its toll, he needed to hold out for about three hours, so even after twenty minutes, Lucas was already huffing and puffing.

Once the soldiers caught him, the beating ensued, his head, legs, arms, and back were being hit multiple times. Fighting back didn't do much when he was surrounded, you could only take the beating and hope to survive. He positioned himself to protect his stomach and vital organs and head, but the soldiers simply pulled his arms and legs away if they wanted to hurt him.

Luckily, or unluckily, Lucas did survive the ordeal, he had already been battered a lot, so he did have some resistance, but that made the soldiers even angrier and made their hits even harder. After taking a potion or two, he was back on his feet with his skin bruised wherever his skin showed and dizzy from all the slashes against his head. Sadly, the next training was already being prepared.

Although Lucas had hope that he could probably do the same, it was a lot more difficult to succeed with 8 archers. He needed to almost have eyes on his back and a second brain to process all the information to avoid and deflect every arrow. He started to get battered with arrows again, occasionally deflecting or avoiding an arrow.

He was performing a lot poorer than before, because every time he was thinking about one arrow, two landed on him and forced him out of his concentration. Eventually, he learned how to ignore the pain to prevent future suffering.

The days went by, and Lucas was starting to adapt to these new ways of living. Everyday was centered around the trainings he would receive. In the beginning it was difficult to adapt since he never had to work so hard in his life.

Now that difficulty was upped to eleven. The mage started to intervene even more into his daily life, making the other exercises a lot harder to complete. He barely had the time to eat the scraps of Liam's food. Althouth they were still scraps, Liam and even his family, after he told them about Lucas, started to eat a tiny bit less to give him food that wasn't half eaten.

The most difficult of trainings were the sword and crossbow training, the crossbow training was impossible for him to complete without getting completely battered. He tried everything he could think of, but there were simply too many arrows and his reflexes only got him so far.

The sword training on the other hand did get a bit better, Lucas had started to copy the fighting style of his opponents. If the odds were so forced against him, and the mage devised trainings that were impossible to win, just completely unfair, Lucas would also play dirty.

During the sparring, he started to use everything he could to his own advantage, shouting insults, throwing dirt, kicking them in the balls, running towards Liam before dodging at the last second. Everything a part of his mind could think of he started to use, no matter how much it deviated from the norms or morals.

In the baron's office, Venion was sitting across from the owner of the room. "We need to start today or I think we'll be too late. Once someone is older than 10 years a core can't awaken. We don't know his age, but taking risks should be out of the question." The baron looked distressed and the way he was talking only enforced that idea.

"While that's true, if I'm going to experiment with his core, he needs to be capable of handling that pain while being conscious. You cannot force awakening to magic while you're asleep."

"Didn't you up the training even more, shouldn't he be 'durable' enough at this point, we're both in a hurry so why don't you just start today?"

"To make myself clear, I'm not as much in a hurry as you are sir, I merely need him for research." The mage was not loyal to the baron, but rather his money and the chance to experiment on a human, which was forbidden by the Order of Light.

"Forget about that, just start today, we'll see how far we can get."

"That's fine with me." The mage smirked a bit, but he was happy because if he could succeed, he would be capable of returning to his home. Venion was a mage that was a descendant of a family of strong wizards. This did not mean that every single generation was powerful, Venion was one of the weakest of the family and was sent away with a single task. He needed to complete this task before returning with proof.

Lucas was done with his training for the day when Venion stood next to Liam again. "Thank you, Liam, you have trained him very well, you can go back to your usual tasks. Lucas will now go with me so he can learn about different subjects."

Liam had created a bond with Lucas, but he didn't see any immediate problem with what the mage was suggesting.

"Lucas! You're finished with your knight training, now you only need this sir's knowledge about the world and you might be capable of gaining the Soldier Rank." Liam yelled towards Lucas, hoping he would be happy that this brutal training was ending. He even held up a tiny crest, the crest was a small sword in a circle, it had the word "Soldier" engraved on the sword. Every rank was depicted in a different kind of crest.

"Thank you sir" Lucas said while hoping that he could finally take the first step to become a knight and earn his freedom in some way.

"Follow me." Venion said and Lucas could only do as ordered. Saying goodbye to his mentor with a hug he moved with the mage until he reached a room with a desk. The mage pointed towards the chair in front of the desk while sitting behind it and pouring some kind of tea. "Drink up, you deserve it."

"Thank you, sir, the training was hard, but I'm ready to complete my journey to becoming a knight." he said while taking a sip of the tea. It smelled like some kind of medicinal herbs but tasted a bit bitter.

The mage had a confused look when Lucas said he wanted to become a knight.

"Hmm, you want to become a knight? Even though mages are a lot more powerful, what a strange idea."

Lucas wanted to say that he couldn't become a mage anymore because he was already older than 10 years old, but his vision suddenly went dark. "I guess the drug was a bit too powerful or the training took its toll, oh well, at least he's asleep. It's time for you to awaken."