Training and creating unity

Vevznir approaches the hoplites.

*We, Ents, are masters in wood crafting. We turn Hard wood into tough armor, shields and strong shields. We crested these for you.*

Hardwood dark javelin - rare

Attack power + 55

Agility + 20

Strenght +15

Armor breaker - ignores 5 percent of defenses.

*A javelin made from the heart of magic dark weeping willows. It can pierce through tough defense and never breaks. It's exquisite craft makes full use of the wood's strenght, while strengthening the user.*

Hardwood strong round shield - rare

Defense +80

Magic reduction +20 percent

Endurance +20

Strenght +25

*A great round shield made from the heart of magic dark weeping willows. It whistands most attacks. Crafted by the hands of a master craftsman, the wood's strenght fully reinforces the user.

*We will need you to come individually to design your armors. Also, we repaired the plate armors. They provide slightly less defense but provide more strenght to the users.*

Vevznir gives 21 armors to Ezyze. They were Dark blue full plate armors. The gapes were filled with dark wood, fully restoring their previous shape. They were dark wood and tendrils integrated to the plate armor made the armors almost alive. The previous aura of absolute defense was complemented by a dazzling feeling.

Wooden full plate living Aries armor - Epic

Defense: +150

Strenght +90

Agility +95

Endurance +135

Magic reduction + 10 percent

Never broken - If broken, wood will grow to fill the gaps. For every pont lost in defense, +1 strenght and +1peecent in magic reduction

*This broken armor is exclusive to the Aries household. A master craftsman managed to repair it with exquisite craftsmanship. Alive, it will grow to protect the user.*

The Aries members were elated. These armors were heirlooms. They felt a stronger connection connection to these armors that fitted like a glove.

*I see that you do not wear the living armor yet what are you waiting for to bond with it?*

I will not wear it. Rea here is a formidable martial artist. She has a fantastic insight for hand to hand combat, but takes too many risks. I want to gift her the armor.

*You really are a peculiar fellow. Your armor does not provide much defense and your puny axe wouldn't cut a tree. Are you waiting for your death to regret about not changing them?*

I don't have anything better.

*She is strong, I think that in this continent, few species would offer as much boosts as our dear rabbits. Do you have any idea how agile a being with their hind legs can be? This fellow as well. It is a unique trait with the Garu bird. You may have created monsters. Their traits as well. I understand your affection towards them. Why does the GaruGoblin not have anything bigger than daggers?*

We do not have any better weapon for him.

*Hmhhh. I understand. I will have to talk with the council.*

Vevznir waved his gigantic right hand and turned back to see the council.

Everyone. During our fight against the tarasiers, we lost ourselves. The deers and wolves, by breaching our defenses, made us loose our cohesion and fighting in groups, instead of a legion. Worst, we were acting individually during the final battle. This must be a wake-up call. We must change our ways and fight together more properly. We have only 6 days to be more cohesive. Don't misunderstand me, we will not be anywhere close to a proper legion in 6 days. We can however be a group of warriors with a strong enough bond to fight together.

For the next 6 days, every morning, we will engage in drills. We will fight together, against each others. We will shuffle the teams' members each days. During the afternoon, we train individually and under Arthur's supervision. The evening, we will train in smaller groups.

With wooden training weapons, everyone assumed their respective positions.

Ezyze, Eve, Baal and 9 Aries warriors, 5 Werewolf hobgoblins, Rea, Broblin, Ghoblin, Golblin and the 2 Poisonous Deer goblins faced the rest. The drill began.

Froblin, Whoblin were the one monitor closely. Their unknown capabilities can prove destabilizing for Ezyze's group.

With Broblin in the center, Ghoblin and Golblin next to him, and the other further on the edge, they assumed a semi-circle formation, facing towards Arthur's team.

Standing behind them, Ezyze and Rea were ready to offer support.

5 Aries members on each sides were ready to intervene as well. Eve was on Ezyze's shoulders at the moment.

Arthur's team assumed a different formation.

In two lines of 5 hoplites, the Boar hoplites took the front center, with werewolf hobgobling on the edges. Froblin and Whoblin standed behind them in the second line. Ezyze couldn't see how the rest of the formation looked like.

He deemed important not to allow Zephyr to gain momentum, since his capabilities with the sword were already powerful. With each evolutions, monsters' abilities and statistics skyrocketed. Facing today's Zephyr was worrisome. At rank 2, both monsters and Aries must have become more powerful. They will discover to which extent.

Ezyze'a group advance steadily. The hoplites, with raised shields and spears facing the other group are pressuring the group. They advance 20 25 meters.

Meanwhile, the 2 Werewolf goblins advanced similarly. Crossing 25 meters, the Boar goblins suddenly charged. They crossed 50 meters in an instant and crashed against the other group, making them fall backwards 5 meters. The 2 Werewolf goblins sprint and crashed against the hoplite wall.

The wave of 5 hoplites followed and increased the pressure on Ezyze's group.

The 3 Entgoblins were unwavering. They allowed themselves to be pushed back for their formation to succeed.

Forming a U shape, Ezyze's hoplites surround the other group. They attack their opponent without a rest. The werewolf goblins were restlessly attacking each others, biting enemies' shoulders and arms. The deer goblins coated their weapons with poison, shoving their spears in the opponents.

The battle reached a stalemate. Ghoblin, Whoblin and Golblin released spores, occupying most of the area. The wounds began closing at a visible rate. Broblin launched especially fierce attacks, stunning Boar goblins with each attacks. Thanks to their cooperation, they managed to offset Broblin's onslaught.

Froblin, his spear coated with ice, attacked most hiplites within his range, delivering wounds that left frostbites.

The Ent goblins deployed a network of roots from their feets. They did not move from opponents attacks and when they took a step, their feet were quickly reconnected to roots sprouting from the ground. Not only were attacks mostly ineffective against their tough skin, but their wounds regrew quickly, without taking in any spore.

Seeing his group on the losing side, Arthur came to the conclusion that he had to do things quickly. Taking the left side with 4 Aries warriors, he charge against the more open side of hoplites, coating his wooden sword with gray energy. The left side was spearheaded by the two Spearman, 4 Aries warriors and Zephyr in tow.

Seeing their group being threatened by lincer movements, Baal and 4 Aries warriors went to engage Arthur's side. Baal coated his wooden sword with flames and the other Aries activated their combat arts.

Rea and 5 Aries warriors engaged Zephyr's side.

Zephyr was unstoppable, evading each strikes, like a leaf in the wind. He slashed many hoplites, confusing their ranks. When the 2 group clashed, Rea showed her might.

Using her powerful legs, she jumped over enemies and delivered powerful kicks. She broke bones with each of her kicks. Her instincts flared whenever she was about to be hit and using her bestial side, she dodged all attacks.

Zephyr was especially fast and his wind was powerful, moreover his developed dynamic vision allowed him to clearly see what goes on ahead of him, reducing waste in his movements and sparceky being surprised.

The battle raged.

--

Ezyze forbade himself from using spatial rays. These powerful attacks would not only injure the other group, but risked killing them as well. Moreover, because of their penetrative power, he risked severing limbs, making it extremely difficult and nill impossible for healing magic to save them.

Eve took flight and fired bolts of the 4 elements: fire, water, air and earth. The diversity of these attacks greatly stunned the hoplites who were now barely holding on.

Time for the finishing touch.

Grinning, Ezyze teleported behind enemy lines, in the middle of the U formation.

Quickly, he casts his gravity manipulation on the foes in front of him.

Feeling heavier, with sluggish reflexes, the boars were overcame by the Ent goblin trio. Ezyze launched himself in the backlines and instilled confusion. Quickly, Arthur's hoplites were defeated and the meager resistance that the 2 Ent goblins maintained was overcome by 10 hoplites working together.

Rejoining the fight against Aries members, Arthur was the last one standing, admitting defeat.

On Ezyze's side, no hoplites were defeated, however 4 Aries warriors were defeated. 3 on the right side, against the assaults of Zephyr and the Ariss Spearman. The last one and Baal were routed by Arthur. The squirmishe lasted for about 40 minutes.

While healing their wounds, they analyzed the battle. Everyone gave their two grains of salt and contributed to the conversation. The strenght of the hoplite formation lied in their unity. They are strong when facing an enemy and weaker in their backlines and sides. Strategically, the Boars goblins are strong assets with this formation. They can engage the enemy by charging and cover holes in the formation in the same manner.

Despite their Stamina not fully recovered, they changed the teams and did other drills, changing the terrain, with obstacles and variations. They tried different strategies and different roles, where one side could ambush the other and take more preparations.

For several hours, they battled, until they took a break to eat and replenish their forces. Many were growing tired.

Not much was worth of note besides three things.

Ghoblin count hide and blur herself using a combination of the environment's shadows, light reverberation, spores and her aura. Moreover, when her spores focused on the enemy, with time, they became disoriented and sometimes even made the enemy losing their mind, attacking those around her.

Rea and Zephyr had amazing capabilities at dodging the enemies' attacks. While sharper, Rea had similar instinct than the Deer goblins. When an enemy, or a predator attacked her, her murderous intent reached her, her sharp perception augmented a notch and her reflexes kicked in.

Zephyr was something else altogether. The 2 feathers atop his forehead are actually organs, similar to ant's feelers. These organs detect wind variations and, being directly connected to his brain, Zephyr react accordingly. His eyes having amazing perception, his dodging abilities were fantastic.

Froblin could manipulate ice slightly. While he didn't attack the same target repeatedly during the drills, he showed on a rock that when stacked on the same foe, the foe became frozen and could be literally destroyed. Also, he could conjure frozen leaves, razor sharp and adding freezing effect on the enemy.

After eating, everyone trained individually. Those wearing bladed weapons were trained by Arthur. Eve trained to cast different combinations of magic and fusing elements together. Making few progress.

Rea trained on her own during a part of the afternoon. Punching and kicking rocks and woods, she honed her martial arts.

Her Passive skill, Monster defense, made her body adaptive. When someone is repeatedly hit by specific attacks, he grows number, and get used to them. Extreme martial artists can whistand slash with their bare skin, without even using special abilities. After discussing with Ezyze on how the human body functioned during his weaker stage, Rea grew particularly interested in fractures. When a bone breaks and heals itself, the place where the fracture occurred becomes tougher.

Considering her whole body as a weapon, she trained in kicking and punching hard materials in order for her bones to break and heal repeatedly. She did not want hard skin and squishy insides. She wanted to be strong and tough.

She went to the council and asked for their help in the matter. She asked if, with their unbreakable bark, they could repeatedly break her bones, strengthening even her skull and using Haldur's capabilities to fasten her healing rate. Jokingly, they said that they could accelerate the process by having Bramur pumping healing magic in Balmur. Frazon, Shavurs and Volzir took it up a notch and said that they can take turn to burn cast their Elemental Magic towards her, saying that she may gain Elemental resistance. She begged them to do so and after some convincing, they began torturing her.

They kept doing so until late afternoon. During all this time, Ezyze increased the gravity of his body making every movements harder to make.

After a warm dinner during which they updated each others on their progress, Baal, Ezyze and Eve spared against one another, 2 vs 1, in battle royale and honed their magic skills individually.

Arthur practiced his sword moves with extreme concentration.

The other formed groups and fought in groups, duels, outnumbered and in binomes.