The Second Day of Assessments

Ares was silent for a moment, perhaps considering an excuse or two before finally speaking honestly, "I am not too sure myself to be honest. It was almost like an intense urge or outside will that suddenly descended upon me, specifically it was right when you were threatened. It was like all the anger and rage that I had ever experienced in my previous lifetime happened to me all at once. The result is as you saw it, unleashing everything I had and crushing the reason for my sudden rage."

Cyrus contemplated upon this response for a while, crafting a coherent theory that explained the reason for this phenomenon, " Assuming that Ares is not lying then the only reason for this would have to be the seal that I placed on him. Maybe whenever I come under threat the small piece of my soul in Ares senses this and does all it can to assist? Further testing will have to be done with this...but not using my soul of course. A few dozen poor sods and I should be able to figure out a simple way to test this."

Finishing his contemplations Cyrus looked back at Ares and said, "I understand and it is possible that the feeling is indeed out of your control. However, that does not mean you should make it a habit to not follow orders. This one time it was fine for it was in a setting where mistakes can happen, but in the future…there will be no second chances. Another insubordination like that one, and you will be replaced."

Ending with such cold words, Cyrus immediately left the soul world and opened his eyes in reality once more.

"Well I still have a lot of spare will and time" thought Cyrus as he pulled out a long list of possible experiments to choose from.

Thus the day went as so for the three: Cyrus experimenting away to broaden his abilities, Minerva fervently working out her stress in combat, and Imran using the fact that Cyrus ended up doing well against the first rank to expand his network and attract people to their own up and coming faction.

--

The hours trickled by and day turned into night and night into day once more, with the three allies making their way to the same amphitheaters as they had before.

Today was the second day of practical assessment, but while the day before was meant for one on one duels the plan for the current day was far more…brutal.

Sitting in the stands once more, Cyrus and co. looked down at the Arena and watched the show that was going underway. The entire arena had been divided into four halves, with a small tower erected in each of the four corners where a Legionnaire was waiting and watching, holding a massive javelin in their hands.

Below them were, in the sectioned off area, two opposing groups. The first was made up of the students who were being tested and the second was made up of either one or more vicious beasts that had been let loose onto the students.

Such beasts were wild and varied, with some of them being recognizable to Cyrus who had learned a fair bit from Fauve but not all that had been trotted out so far were something that he was familiar with.

Up above all the ruckus was Caligo and Cilla, who could barely be seen standing in the VIP booth watching over everything from above.

Even though all the spectators were one and the same with those down below, all of them being students, there was still cheers and jeers ringing out as the fights began.

A sudden wave of cheers rang out all of a sudden, as a new set of beasts were unleashed on the latest entrant to the fight...a lone Gellert flanked by two unassuming looking people, against a horde of ghastly foes.

The show had begun.

--

Staring down the charging beasts, Gellert quickly flipped through a book in his mind that contained all of his experiences patrolling the Empire's plains. Finding a match for the enemies in front of him, he recalled all their weaknesses and special traits.

"Jabali, the common boar. Except this one is anything but common, clearly in the starting process of mutating as evidenced by the grossly overgrown tusks and jutting teeth that look almost too big for its mouth. Extremely aggressive with excellent stamina…a hard task indeed for anyone who is not me of course" muttered Gellert as he opened one of the flaps on his leather travelling suit, revealing several whistles.

Carefully choosing the correct one, all the while a dozen charging angry boars closed the distance rapidly, he pulled it out and brought it to his lips.

Right before he blew it he cast a spell around the whistle, then with one deep breath he blew out as hard as he could into the whistle.

Yet no sound played, instead Gellert quickly cast another two spells that each used quite a bit of Will for something that could not even be seen.

The effect of his spell soon became obvious as a sudden loud sound played out in the middle of the pack of boars, a sound that an experienced Venator or Scout would tell you is the mating call of a female boar.

Suddenly the row of aggressive male boars stopped dead in their tracks, completely forgetting about the humans in front of them for a moment as the mating call played again and again.

Eventually their natural instincts overrode the spores demands for the consumption of all things living, throwing them into a sexual rage as they all entered an extremely excited state.

All the boars looked around, and none of them were happy with what they saw. Each and every one of the boars heard the mating call…but there was only a single call. And there was a LOT of male boars, which meant that there was a LOT of competition.

Thus what followed was what happens when a bunch of male boars find themselves competing with one another for a potential mate: All out mortal combat.

They smashed their tusks against one another as hard as they could, impaling each other and continuing to ram again and again without any regard whatsoever.

The inherent drive for mating, reproduction, and spreading their DNA won out this day over all else. Including the desire for self-preservation.

Satisfied with the mayhem he had created, Gellert placed the whistle gently back into his padded pocket and drew his bow instead.

"Arrows" ordered Gellert, revealing the jobs of the two other students that were with him.

Hurrying they each took off one of the arrow baskets that they were carrying and filled up Gellert's empty quivers.

Gellert then drew three arrows and put them in his mouth, then he drew three more arrows and placed them onto his bowstring. Six arrows were drawn, which was exactly the number of boars still left alive.

Aiming carefully, Gellert let loose the first three arrows and then opened his mouth which allowed the next three to fall into his open hand. He then immediately notched and fired the next three arrows, even using a quick Aero spell on the air directly in front of him that he had shot the arrows through.

All three of the arrows ended up lining up with one another midair, and each and every one of them hit their target at exactly the same time.

Six boars were pierced and six boards fell to the ground, leaving a smug Gellert to turn around and relish in the easy victory.

---

"Hoh, so this Gellert fellow is not as useless as he first appeared to be. He was able to take advantage of his superior knowledge and preparation to turn a difficult fight into one that could not have been easier, well done indeed" praised Cyrus as he watched the last of the boars below die.

"He did defeat me, it would be an embarrassment if he was not at least somewhat competent" griped Minerva in response, clearly still annoyed at her loss.

Meanwhile Imran was looking at the scope of things rather than the specific events in front of him, pointing out, "What we are being taught is one thing, but we can learn a lot based off of what we are being tested on. Weekly assessments that are broken into two categories, dueling and group fighting. The first against human opponents and the second against varying levels of Brutum. It is clear that we are being prepared for actual combat now more than ever, what a pain."

"Perhaps," started Cyrus, "but that is far in the future. For now all we have to worry about is growing stronger and to grow stronger we require resources. These fights are a lot easier than the duels of yesterday, as the duels are based on rank but these fights all start at the same difficulty but work their way up with each successive battle. The difficulty is both in the successive nature, for our Will is limited, as well as in the fact that it is based in reality instead of some fictional created world. The consequences are real, the pain is real…and the possibility of death is real."

His words caused one of the two he was talking to sigh in self-pity while the other was focused on Gellert's next fight, dead set on analyzing his every move so that they could take them down efficiently and effectively the next time they met in combat.

No matter what each of the three were thinking, it was all interrupted by the sound of their group being called by the organizers for the day.

Standing up Cyrus led the way, looking back towards his two companions and asking, "Ready to earn some money?"

To which Imran replied, "As always, what kind of merchant would I be if I turned up my nose at such an easy chance of profit. I get to be carried by two battle junkies while I safely support from the back, what an easy profit."

To which Minerva replied in a far more short and curt manner, "Obviously."

With that the three walked down the stands, heading to the section of the arena that had just opened up following an unfortunate accident.