“Alright you dickbrained clodpolls,” Sarrius started, addressing the assembled first year students in the combat training hall, “before we get started with the training, I’m going to go over the purpose of it. It’s important that every one of you see the big picture, though I have my reservations about that happening. I’ve seen all of your Intelligence scores, and I’m just saying it’s a good thing for you that pigs can’t be Archons.”

“First, there are two things that make an Archon useful to the empire: channeling, and disciplines. The average imperial human trooper can generate around fifteen blasts from a standard firelance every five minutes.” Sarrius said, then picked up one of the long spears that Gavrus had seen Trovian soldiers carry from a spear rack.

Sarrius then began sending blasts of fire out of the weapon at a stone target across the hall. Gavrus lost count around fifty, but it was still awesome to behold. He’d had no idea the weapons could do that. It would be damned easy for a few Trovians with firelances to annihilate a mob of enemy combatants—it was no wonder the kingdom lost so handily. Eventually, Sarrius had to stop because the tip of the spear was glowing so hot that it looked like it might start melting.

Sarrius continued, “As you can see, as an Archon I can channel ether into the weapon far more than an average human. I could have continued firing until the weapon no longer could sustain the pressure. That is the reason that Archons, and only archons can pilot the Warhull golems. No one else can generate enough personal Ether.

However, you will not be training with channeled weapons until next year. The rule of thumb is roughly two hours of activity per power level for piloting a Warhull. Right now, by the time we got you strapped into one of the damn things you’d run out of power for the day. Complete waste of time. So, the primary goal is for us to get you to level three by next year. That will allow for six hours of daily training.”

Gavrus had heard lots of people talking about Warhulls. It even brought a grin to most of the other initiates just to hear Sarrius talk about them. He didn’t see what the big deal was.

“Okay, now, Disciplines,” Sarrius said. “You should all be aware of them by this point from your codex. If by some miracle you aren’t, bring up your codex to see what I’m talking about, then go outside and let a demon eat you. You are too stupid to be an Archon.”

A few people chuckled, but Gavrus didn’t find it funny. There were too many things they hadn’t told him yet. He could easily have not known.

“There are six disciplines, connected to each of your attributes, tied to six of your seven chakras. The seventh Chakra is the source of all your ether, the root chakra. It has no connection to anything else. Now, for a practical example that most of you will be familiar with: the discipline Aspect.

Most of you, apart from House Dawn have a 1 in Aspect. Aspect is the discipline that is directly connected to your heart chakra. If you increase it, you will gain in strength. In other words, every single person here that got a 1 in Aspect, also got a 1 in strength as their Heart Chakra grew larger.

But what did Aspect do? It turned you all into a bunch of freaks. That’s right, the reason Dex here looks like a tiger woman is because of her aspect of 1. Dex, tell us what your Aspect discipline gave you?”

Dex spoke out in a clear voice, “I can now see in the dark, smell what is cooking in the cafeteria from here, and have claws.”

“Excellent!” Sarrius said. “It is good to know what comes with your Aspect, because believe it or not it isn’t always obvious. Gavrus what do you have?”

“Uh…” Gavrus said, feeling stupefied. It wasn’t the scale armor, he was sure of that. That was the Neverwas. The thing was, he hadn’t really noticed any other differences, other than being taller, more beautiful, or gray. He had no idea.

“That’s okay that you don’t know. Part of what we are planning on doing today is trying to find out what each of your Aspect’s does. No two Archons are alike. Another nature-hunter Archon like Dex here could be wolf-like and have an entirely different set of advantages. Furthermore, when you increase your Aspect, it isn’t always clear what you will get in return. It is a discipline that is a bit of a gamble.” Sarrius said.

“Before I move on to the other disciplines, I’d like it said that not everyone has access to all six disciplines. Members of House Dawn or Essence Users only have access to three disciplines determined by their Loci. Members of House Day or Elemental Users only have access to four of the six disciplines. Only the members of House Sunset have access to all six disciplines. Nonetheless, even though House Dawn mostly does not have Aspect, a transformation occurred. All Archon’s can heal fast and are incredibly beautiful by mortal standards. Except Fadius here, I don’t think anything could make you attractive.” Sarrius said.

“Here is a list I will upload into your codex for reference,” Sarrius waved his hand. “Now everyone say: Discipline Personal.”

Gavrus complied.

Disciplines

Sense (Crown Chakra): Spells that utilize sensing of a Locus. Increases in this discipline empower perception.

Invoke (Command Chakra): Spells that focus on controlling and invoking a Locus. Increases in this discipline empower intelligence.

Summon (Throat Chakra): Summons a being from an Ether realm of a locus. Always a being with growth potential. Increases in this discipline empower willpower.

Aspect (Heart Chakra): Spells that augment the physical form of the Archon with the energy of the Locus. Increases in this discipline empower strength.

Ward (Navel Chakra): Spells that use a Locus for protection. Increases in this discipline empower endurance.

Imbue (Sacral Chakra): Spells that can singularly be cast on an object using the Locus. Increases in this discipline empower agility.

“This is the most basic definition. Moving on, how do we increase discipline power?” Sarrius asked, rhetorically.

“The only way to increase the power of a discipline is to increase your power level. Are any of you familiar with the term Hero, in the classical sense?” Sarrius asked, not rhetorically.

A few of the Squires nodded. “A hero is the word that originated to describe the original demigods. Those that were born of a God and a mortal. They increased their power level in those days by Trials. And, we are fundamentally the same. You will have to go through trials, or life and death struggles, to increase your power level. Once you do, you will gain anima, which can then be spent on upgrading your disciplines.

There are of course other ways to gain power levels and anima, but none of them are legal in the empire. Like the sacrifice and worship those Vulca assholes do. In three months’, you will all be taken to do your first trial to increase your level. More of you will likely die.

So, our goal for training here in the combat class is to ensure that doesn’t happen. We will work you hard nine out of ten days to try to increase your physical attributes. We will drill you hard on the fundamentals so that you can hold your own in a fight and know what to do. Finally, we will make you spar with each other, so you don’t freeze up in real combat. As you level up, we will incorporate your disciplines into the sparring more judiciously.

Any questions? Too bad, I’m bored, let's start training.” Sarrius finished.

For the next hour, Sarrius led all the first-year students through an intense exercise program. As advertised. Because he had access to their individual stats, he was able to tell how best to push each person. Anyone that tried to sandbag got immediately electrocuted. Gavrus knew better. He also realized that the stats were how Sarrius was able to read him so well for his exercises when it had been just the two of them. It seemed obvious in hindsight.

A short ten-minute break was allotted after the exercise, and much to Gavrus’s surprise his new body recovered remarkably well in that short of at time. He wasn’t one hundred percent, but much better than he would have been pre-transformation.

The second hour consisted of spear, martial arts, and dagger training. Sarrius made everyone practice the fundamentals. Walking up and down the line of squires to ensure proper technique and footwork. And of course, smacking the shit out of anyone that failed to do so. Though, the only person that really seemed to struggle was Severa, the blue skinned Hellfrost Archon. Gavrus wanted to feel sorry for her, but he was just happy that Sarrius was picking on someone else for a change.

After the drills were done, Sarrius made everyone go grab practice staffs to simulate spear fighting.

“We are going to work on figuring out what your Aspect powers are during this sparring session. Do NOT slag on me. Take it seriously and try your best each time. No punches will be pulled. Full contact sparring matches, understand? Now, there are only nineteen of you. That means Gavrus here is going to have to go against two people. Any volunteers?” Sarrius asked.

I should have known, that motherfucker, Gavrus thought.

Velia and her perpetual orbiter Fadius both raised their hands.

“Great!” Sarrius yelled, a little too excitedly.

Gavrus did not feel good about it. Velia the magma Archon that had already threatened to get revenge, was at least eight-feet tall. And even worse, Fadius (the squire that Sarrius had called ugly) was taller than even her. Over his formerly orange skin was big thick plates of black basalt stone. The boy was a huge beast, more like a stone giant than a person. His coal black eyes stared at Gavrus emotionlessly.

Gavrus sighed. This was going to hurt, bad.