It’s training Day. Today all 20,000 Children will be trying to team up against me, the idea is that all of the children will become a Team of 20,000, much like my Squads.

Everyone is sitting around, near each other inside of the Major Arena, as instructed. The Major Arena is the only area that’s large enough to train everyone, it would be cramped otherwise. We had to knock down multiple walls for their Bedroom just to fit them all.

I decide to finally speak: “Today I will personally be training all 20,000 of you, everyone will be attacking me with everything they have.” Everyone continues to sit there, almost as though I don’t even exist. The Cat Girl was the only one that noticed me talking, she stands up, and runs over. “M-Mr. Arigold, you need to speak up, nobody can hear you from this far away.” Oh, right…

I shoo her away, and I speak up once she’s regrouped with her siblings. “Today, I will be testing everyone’s combat potential! All of you will be teaming up against me, feel free to use whatever you like!” My voice rings out, as everyone begins to stand, their emotions burning with vengeance...

I walk to the middle of the Arena, as the children begin to surround me, they’re all taking different stances and positions, they already have a surprisingly good grasp on each other’s skills and what they can do.

I can still easily tell how they plan to fight though. They’re going to rush me with a flurry of strategies to throw me off, the Close Combat fighters will be trying to distract me as their Long Ranged Siblings fire a Hellfire of Magic at me. Protective Buffing will protect the Close Range Fighters from the aforementioned Hellfire, so they won’t have to worry about Friendly Fire, not to mention that there’s still thousands of them alone. I can see a Mana Link being shared amongst the line of Rangers, Summoners, and Supports. The Guardians have already surrounded me, they’re trying to force me into a position where I have to fight their Warriors.

Oh, Vexalan is a Warrior too, I wasn’t even sure she could fight, but there she is, right next to Lex, ready for Combat.

Anyways, I can see that the Supports are finished buffing their Warriors, and everyone seems ready. I raise my voice once more, and I close my eyes. “Begin!” My eyes snap open as I watch the Children move around, they’re still too slow to even be a threat.

The first to reach me is Vexalan, the others are actually surprised at her speed, she probably has the top speed amongst her siblings… Vexalan takes a swing at me, a Warrior’s rage on her face. I side step it easily, the other Children are almost dazed by their sister’s burst of speed. She looks at me again, and tries to take a sweeping kick at me, her legs are too short to reach anywhere above my Torso though, so I simply grab her leg, and toss her into the closest of her siblings. I didn’t throw her too hard, only enough to reach the target. Lex and some of the other children have already reached me. Lex is the first to attack, he’s using the same attack as Vexalan, I quickly look around as Kicks and Punches come down on me like a tidal wave.

I block each of them one at a time, sending some of the children into each other. I grab Lex’s head, and I vault myself over it. I notice Mana Lightning flying at me, it must be a special Casting Spell. I kick the Lightning Mana, and the Spell explodes against my Shoe. The Warriors are already on me, I grab one of them, and slam them into the closest Magic Attack, then I drop them. I repeat this process for a while, getting rid of the Spells that are flying into the Air, none of the children are harmed thanks to the Magic Shielding.

My senses flare up as I feel something sharp approach me, I slowly move away to keep to the pace of the Children, but it cuts the end of my Coat… I find out who did it, she has a Large Single Eye, and she was blending into the crowd, she’s wielding a Sword with a long Single Edge Blade. She managed to cut my Coat…

I slam my foot into the ground, and it causes a shockwave that knocks everyone off their Balance. I stare at the Girl who cut my Coat. “What is your Name?” She stands up again, and grabs her weapon. “I am Veytatasm, and Glantinazor is my Partner!” She tries to strike me once more, but I equip Lixza’s curse, and I stab the Blade through with Lixza’s needlepoint edge and stick it to the Ground. The girl releases the blade and retreats. I kick Vexalan in the Torso, as she tries for another strike at me. Veyta has already retrieved her weapon and tries to run me through. I grab the Blade and shatter it. Lex is overhead of me, and tries to punch me straight in my head. I grab his Fist and slam him into the other Warriors, then toss him to the side.

Everyone backs away as the Summoners’ Summons attack me, I grab Lixza’s Curse and destroy all of the Summoned Warriors with a flurry of swift movements.

I’m once again surrounded, but this time by Ranged Magic Attacks with nobody to toss into them. I activate Lixza’s Shield and it blocks against the left half, while I flick away the rest-

I feel something snap inside Lixza’s Curse, and I cast a Magic Shockwave that destroys all the attacks around me. Everyone is surprised that I could even do that. I deactivate Lixza’s Shield, once it’s back to its Lance Form, it falls apart at the Mechanical Hinges… Well okay then.

I guess this was just too much for my Favorite Weapon… I pick up the Pieces and put them away. I guess I’ll get out my Second Favorite Weapon... Gonna’ have to ask Lixza to fix this..

Everyone watches as I pull out my second favorite weapon: ‘Karmi’s Deity.’

Karmi’s Deity at first glance looks like a Stick with a Handle, but this weapon might be the most advanced one I have. Karmi’s Deity is about 5 Feet in length, making it the longest weapon I have. The handle is connected to a Large Guard, keeping my hands safe and away from Lightning. There’s another Guard that is used to block attacks that are aimed at my Hand. The Stick on the end of Karmi’s Deity is a Metal Bar that can separate into 5 different prongs, and fire off Lightning Magic, with its personal Mana Pool. Let’s move on now.

I look at everyone around me, as I activate Karmi’s Deity. I appear behind one of the Children and discharge some of the already built up Lightning. The Child is knocked out, and the rest look almost scared. “I will be fighting with Karmi’s Deity now.”

The 5 Prongs on Karmi’s Deity opens and begins to spin. I aim it at Lex, and sparks begin to dance across his Body. He’s considering running, but no, he knows he can’t escape this. I fire a bolt of Lightning at Lex, and it begins frying his clothes, the other Children are running at me, trying to take me down, but I swat them away with my free limbs. Lex is on his Hands and Knees as Lightning Flows into his Body, frying his clothes. The Cat Boy slams his Fist into the Ground, and Lightning Ripples out of it. Lex begins to lift himself, and stands up, his hair beginning to rise with the Electrical Energy… Lex stares at me, his Hair glowing a blinding yellow, with a newfound Golden Lightning. So he absorbed the power of Karmi’s Deity.

Lex begins walking towards me, lightning rippling across his Body, and onto the Ground, painting it with burn marks. “You’re going to pay, Mr. Arigold…” His face is Gallant, Determined, Resolved. “And are you going to be the one to find that truth?”

Lex closes his eyes, and stops.. “Yeah, with everything I have!” Lex’s eyes snap open, as he bolts towards me. He appears in front of me, trying for the same Strike as earlier. I block it with Karmi’s Guard, but he grabs it, and vaults himself over. Lex contorts his body like a Cat, and tries to kick me in the head. I move my head out of the way, and swing him off my Guard. Lex falls on his hand, and disappears again. I press Karmi’s Deity into my Left Arm, and block the kick Lex aimed at my head. My Senses flare up again, and it’s the same Girl, she nicked my other Sleeve...

“I had to even you out, sorry!” I stare at her Sword, or well, what’s left of it. She managed to knick my Coat with the Shattered Sword...

Lex tries to hit me again, but I grab his Fist, and slam him into all of the children around me, they had just finally gotten the Nerve to try and hit me again.

I stare Veyta down, and she stares back, the only person here to have landed a strike on me. Fine. I appear behind her, and I strike the back of her head with my Weapon. She lowers her entire body, and dodges, rolling on the ground to get away. It was a panic dodge, she’s already grasped how quickly I can strike, so she decided getting out of my Melee Range would be her best option.

Veyta sits up, still trying to wield her shattered sword, that dauntless expression, refusing to waver. But before I could do anything, she looked to the side, distracted by something, and nodded. In a flash her form changes slightly- No, that’s not a form change, she swapped positions with that partner she was talking about, Glantinazor. “I take it you’re Glantinazor?”

I knock away hundreds of attacks flying at me. Glant stands up, and places his Hands in his Pockets. “You got that right, you’ll be fighting me instead of Veytatasm.” I activate the range mode on Karmi’s Deity, and fire a Lightning Bolt at him. Glant holds out his Hands, trying to absorb it like Lex did, but I’ve already used a skill to make sure that doesn’t happen again. After that doesn’t work, Glant’s Tentacles stab into the Ground, and change consistency, grounding him, and forcing the lightning into the ground. So he can change the consistency of his Tentacles at will.

I emit a shockwave from my back, I’m not fighting all of you just yet, I’ll deal with this one first. Once the lightning is finally finished, Glant’s Tentacles return to their original consistency and whip around, aiming at me. The Tentacles almost seem like they blossomed open, as they reveal eyes on the end of each one. He was hiding them, so he didn't get dust into them..

Glant’s head follows the same motion, and he stares directly at me, firing lightning at me. I dodge each Mana Lightning Spell swiftly, and even strike one with my Weapon, swatting it away. The Mana Lightnings bounce across the Ground, and off the walls, aiming for me once more. Oh, so they have tracking.

I activate another Function in my Weapon: Karmi’s Justice. The Prongs open up like a Bowl, locking themselves onto the edge of the Large Guard, and absorbing The Lightning. That should do it- I feel something ripple throughout Karmi’s Deity... So it wasn’t just a beginner Lightning Magic, it was Spell Relay Magic. The moment the Lightning hit me, it’s going to explode in my body. I guess I should have expected this from someone who was born from the Beholder Demi-Human family line.

Mana covers my hands, and I start swatting away Lightning Relay Magic as it approaches me. Glant is staring at me incredulously. His expression quickly changes to anger, and he starts firing off tons of Lightning Relays. He’s leaning forwards, with his hands in his pockets again, walking towards me. He kind of looks like a turret.

None of the Children want to get in the middle of this lightning storm, they’re all blown away by Glant’s amount of Mana, and the fact that I can just keep flinging away his Attacks. Glant stops, and looks over at Veytatasm, and dashes backwards. Veyta appears in front of him, one of her siblings has their hand placed on her shoulder. The 2 children share a glance, and they nod, the new one removing their hand, and teleporting away. So they have a Teleportation User back there.

Veyta’s Sword has been repaired, I guess that’s why she switched places, so she could repair her sword.

Veyta stares at me, with that same expression, Glant has also returned to his usual expression. Glant stares at Veyta, and she stares back at him, their eyes locking on each other. So they ARE linked. I decide to let them have this. Once they’ve had their moment, Veyta turns around and stares at me again, Glant’s tentacles appearing behind her, an optical illusion. Tentacles grow from Veyta’s back, and they start to move in a weird pattern. Glant’s starts to follow this movement, but instead flows in the opposite direction. It’s an actual Optical Illusion, it’s surprisingly distracting with how smoothly they move.

As I stare at this display, my senses flare up once more, and I feel multiple attacks coming at my back. They were far better at working together than I thought... Multiple strikes hit my back, it didn’t hurt, but they still damaged my Coat...

I turn around and emit a Shockwave from my Back, blowing away the Lightning Relays Glant tried. I stare at all of the Children who had struck me, the Guard Line has moved away from the ranged users, and I can see that all of the Children that were behind me had landed attacks on my Back. Fine then.

I knock away all of the Children once more, and activate Karmi’s Ranged Mode. I fire off blasts of lightning at the crowd of Guardians and Rangers. The Guardians try at first to block the Lightning, but it strikes them hard, and they’re thrown back into their Siblings. Everyone stares at the groups I just blasted, and the Warriors run at me again.

I hold my palm out, and face it towards the Beholder Demi-Humans. A large Earth Dome covers them, and hardens.

Energy builds in my Body. I emit a larger shockwave, knocking everyone away and into their ranged groups who were already struggling to get back into position.

Now, back to where we were. The Earth Dome falls around Veyta and Glant. They look around at the devastation I had caused, until they lock onto me again. Veyta comes running at me, upgraded Sword in hand, preparing for an Upward Slice. I block it easily. “Your tells are too obvious, if you’re going to go for a strike like that, you should make sure I’m distracted first...”

She just stares at me, the same expression and all, and nods. We move our Weapons away, and she tries for a strike at the right of my waist. I deflect it, and she instantly tries for a strike at my Left Leg. I deflect that too, and now she’s gone for a strike at my shoulder. Deflected once more, this pattern continues as she starts to speed up, until she tries for a thrust, and I knock her weapon out of her hands.

Multiple Lightning Relays flow into my Back. I fell for the same trick 3 times now... I strengthen my Endurance with hundreds of Spells, and completely nullify the Attacks. Nice try. Glant looks disappointed, and is currently holding The Sword, it seems he caught it for Veyta. He tosses it over to Veyta, and she catches it. They lock onto me once more.

“What the hell is this?! Does nothing work!?” Veyta is once again back into position. “Your Skill is clever, but it can still be nullified.” Glant just stares at me. His arms fall to his sides, he has an expression of Anger, Bewilderment, and Astonishment. Veyta’s expression has also finally changed, it’s a similar look but without the anger. She turns around. “He said your attack was Clever, but it can be countered too!” Oh right, speak up.

Glant puts his face into his palms, and screams until he regains his composure. Everyone is just staring at us, they realized that this is a fight between me and these 2. “Alright then, let’s kick his ass!” Veyta nods, and looks back at me, she has regained her composure too. The Sword Wielding Beholder Demi-Human runs towards me and takes another Strike, I simply block it once more. But she switches places with Glant, and he tries to fire point blank magic attacks at me. I vault myself over his head, and jab Karmi’s Deity into his back, flowing Lightning right into him.

Glant switches places with Veyta instantly, and she plants her Sword into the Ground, grounding herself once more. Her body sparks with that same Golden Lightning, and I land on the Ground, continuing to let the lightning flow. Glant runs at me screaming, firing off all of the skills he knows. He’s worried about Veyta. Once Veyta is also knocked out, I remove my weapon from her back, and she falls, a burnt sparking mess. I quickly knock out Glant too, this fight has gone on long enough. Neither of them is dead, just knocked out. Veyta was definitely the tougher of the 2.

The Children I haven’t defeated yet have a similar expression to when I killed their Mother. These 2 must have been their best Combat Duo. The Lightning Lex had absorbed has also died out, and he’s also just staring at me.

“Let’s continue.” Everyone gets serious at the same time, and they form up again. The Front Lines running at me once more. They all tried to hit me, wielding newfound weapons, they must have seen how well it was working for Glant and Veyta, and decided to try it themselves..

The majority of them are actually tossing down or trading the weapons they have, they’re either deciding they would prefer to use Hand to Hand Combat, and Magic, or find the Weapon that fits them. After a while, everyone has found their preferred fighting style once again, and even updated it.

Vexalan is wielding a Scythe, surprisingly, she’s been trying to combine it with her speed to slash me, but I’ve already blocked it multiple times. It’s an interesting choice, we almost considered not adding it to the Armory, nobody imagined it could be an effective Weapon. The slashing force is definitely formidable, and stopping it was a lot harder than avoiding it, and even then, it’s reach was massive. The problem however, was its unwieldiness, and the fact that you have to often get your opponent between you and the blade. I remember using it by the very end of it’s handle, and sticking it to my Hand with Magic. I also covered it in toughening Magic, so it wouldn’t break. I was trying to slash at targets with it, or stab them.

I feel my senses flare up for like, the thousandth time, and I emit a Shockwave I had prepared for this. Multiple of the Children had gathered around me, and tried to strike me. I was once again distracted by my thoughts...

Anyways, I think it’s about time I wrapped this up. I continue to fight the Children, knocking them out one by one, or incapacitating them. It took about 8 Hours, after the first 6, everyone was pretty much out of Energy and Mana, so they could barely go on as it is. They were all just really determined to win.

I’m finally done. I’ll write down everything, and report back to my Father. Then I’ll ask him what I should do next...

End of Chapter: 3√B “They were so much more than I imagined. Now I know better.”

Thank you for reading.

“Yes, thank you. Who are we thanking though?”