Christopher opened his eyes, trying to quickly discern the situation around him. Zerez was swinging his sword blindly in front of him, his facial features scrunched up. The Noble had clearly not enjoyed Christopher’s flash bang. A quick glance told him that pretty much all of the spectators were also rubbing their eyes with pained expressions. Even one of the male Sergeants had fallen victim to his Soul Light. A quick glance to Lieutenant Gara showed him still hawkishly observing, showing no apparent damage. Christopher observed all of this in only a second.

‘I should move, Zerez has been blinded and can’t defend himself.’ Christopher realized. He did not want to be a poor sport, but disarming Zerez seemed reasonable and should end the fight.

Zerez Stout was still wildly swinging the scabbarded sword. Christopher had no trouble dodging past his desperate swings. He easily stepped past, delivering a strong hit on the arm still holding the sword. The noble finally dropped the sword due to this hit, which Christopher quickly kicked well out of range.

This should mark the end of their spar; Zerez finally regained some of his vision and looked pissed beyond believe.

“That’s it, you no longer have your weapon. It was a good fight.”

“You Cheating Bastard, such dirty tricks are not proper for a duel.”

Zerez exploded into action, but Christopher had anticipated the move, not believing for a moment that the noble would yield.

As Christopher got ready to fend of the unarmed noble something unexpected happened. As Zerez barreled towards him, Christopher saw that something shimmer across the man’s greenish armor. Then in the next moment, Christopher’s was suddenly bathed in a completely obscuring darkness. ‘Shit, have I been blinded?’

Christopher half panicked with the sudden loss of his vision, fearing that something had happened to his eyes. In his panic he now swung his quarterstaff franticly around him to keep the Noble at bay, knowing that he was close. The roles had completely reversed from earlier.

Christopher could not panic for long. Just a moment after the unexplained blindness, he felt an enormous impact on his head, causing Christopher to rapidly slip into darkness…

……

When Christopher opened his eyes next, his thoughts were jumbled. He felt a stab of pain in his head and also felt completely disoriented. It only took a few short moments to remember where he was, and that he had just been in a fight. He quickly remembered the sudden darkness and felt relief at being able to see again. Had Zerez somehow turned his own trick against him? He did not think so since his eyes had not hurt at any point, and he had never seen flash of light. It had just gotten dark.

He saw the faces of both Beteb and Vila leaning over him.

Christopher tried to speak but only managed to get out a few grumbles. He finally managed to roughly get out a question. “What the hell happened?”

Beteb and Vila looked at each other before Beteb spoke.

“I don’t know, you just started swinging wildly at the end there, letting Zerez walk right up to you. He knocked you out cold with quite a nasty hit to your head. Sergeant Nessa already healed you and said that you should be fine though.”

“So, nothing strange happened at the end there? I was suddenly completely blinded.”

Beteb responded uncertainly. “Nothing that I could see, but maybe this was a Soul Art that Zerez Stout developed?” Right, Christopher knew that Soul Arts were diverse and varied beyond the basic Arts. And he now remembered that he had seen the green armor of the approaching noble charge up with some kind of effect.

Vila took his hand and pulled him up. “Nice thinking on that flash though. Sergeant Nessa had to heal a few eyes just to be safe.”

Lieutenant Gara yelled at them from the same position as the last time he had seen him. “Get off the field so that we can get the next bout started. Sergeant Nessa can check you over in more detail in the meantime.”

Christopher would gladly take the free heal. His arm still hurt a lot and he needed to make sure that it was not broken.

Sergeant Nessa was currently checking over Zerez. Christopher knew he had gotten at least a few good hits in there, like on his wrist. If Zerez was in any pain then he was hiding it well. He mostly looked at Christopher with anger instead of showing pleasure at having won the match. It clearly had not gone according to the young noble’s expectation.

Christopher thanked Beteb and Vila for their assistance in getting him up again.

“No problem. I was just glad to see someone teach that guy a lesson.” Beteb answered, before whispering. “Be careful with the lieutenant. He is somewhat of a problematic figure in the Forces. I am not quite sure about the details.”

“Thanks for the warning, I should probably just get this healed up.”

With the fight completed, Christopher was to stand with the group consisting of the Lieutenant, the sergeants, and now Zerez. Sergeant Nessa was still healing Zerez so Christopher had to wait for a bit to receive his own healing.

Lieutenant Gara meanwhile called forward the two people selected for the next bout. Christopher knew neither of the two. Both recruits looked like they rather wanted to be somewhere else, which was understandable, especially after his own injury filled bout. He and Zerez had clearly overdone it and Christopher was surprised that nobody had stepped in during their fight. He very much doubted that the lieutenant intended to cull the recruits down to only the strongest by having them engage in mortal combat.

This was confirmed moments later by Lieutenant Gara. “Let’s be a little more reserved from now on shall we, Sergeant Nessa only has so much Soul Force to heal you all.”

Sergeant Nessa soon determined that Zerez Stout was back to full health, making it Christopher’s turn to be checked more thoroughly.

Sergeant Nessa looked at his arm and bruises in detail, clearly taking her duty seriously. To his relief she judged that nothing was broken or seriously amiss with his arm. Soon his bruises and hurts mostly disappeared from the Soul Heal, leaving only an itch and some tenderness. Christopher was very thankful for the magical existence of Soul Force during such moments.

Christopher watched as the bronze tiles of the room cascaded the Soul Light over the faces of the recruits, revealing nervous expressions. He directed his full attention to the fights, glad to learn more about the abilities of his peers.

It quickly became clear that the fighting became much more subdued compared to his own match. It looked like the others had wordlessly reached an agreement to be more careful in their sparring. They did not use any flashy Soul Arts, and simply yielded whenever someone else got the better of them with their fighting technique. Christopher realized that he deserved some of the blame for how things had gotten out of hand. The arrogant noble had clearly gotten under his skin.

Lieutenant Gara was now looking at the proceedings with a somewhat bored expression. Christopher actually agreed, the others were holding back too much in their demonstrations.

Christopher turned to Zerez Stout, curiosity spurring him on to speak.

“What was that move at the end, you did something to take away my vision?”

“Stop talking to me, and figure it out yourself. You deserved what happened for using dirty tactics.”

Christopher gave up talking to Zerez for now despite his curiosity. Soon the group on their side became larger than the one with recruits still waiting to fight.

He had been worried about Vila being messed with as well, but she was lucky and was matched with one of their fellow trainees at Netello Brave. A young man with a muscular frame and frazzled blond hair. Vila was beaten, with the other guy clearly having a bit more experience in an actual fight, but there was clearly no ill will between them.

Soon the last match was done, and Lieutenant Gara spoke up after a heavy sigh. “Well, I am not sure what I was expecting. There is clearly a reason for your placement here, most are clearly just beginners.” He paused for a few breaths before continuing.

“I suppose that I should create the four squads now that the fights are still fresh in my mind. Please raise your hand if you are a noble or have experience interacting with Noble society.”

Most raised their hands with some looks of confusion, while Christopher and Vila of course kept their hands down. There were not many others, three others also kept their hands down, some hesitantly.

“I see, so most of you at least. First, I will start selecting the members under Sergeant Nessa’s squad”

Lieutenant Gara chose the recruits by tapping them on their shoulder. It was pretty obvious to Christopher that the Lieutenant had no idea what their names were yet. The nine people chosen gathered behind Sergeant Nessa. Lieutenant Gara only from those that had held their hand up. And Christopher also noticed the pattern of him only selecting the less gifted fighters for this group.

“You will be one of the two support squads. Your responsibilities will lie with assisting and directing the citizens of the Noble district here within the Swift Keep Stronghold. You will have the authority to keep things moving smoothly, and are expected to show some tact when dealing with people of some importance. I should warn you that some of them can become quite the nuisance.”

Christopher was glad that he was not a part of that squad, directing some stuck-up nobles and merchants did indeed seem like a massive headache to him. Not that it mattered much, he had others plans on the day of the attack.

The second support squad was also quickly formed, leaving half of the recruits still standing, including him, Vila, Beteb, and Zerez as well. All the people that had no knowledge of Noble etiquette had understandably not been selected either. He was relieved that Sergeant Gara seemed at least somewhat capable, there was some sensible organization in this platoon after all.

“Squad three under Sergeant Ruger” Lieutenant Gara now pressed his hand to the shoulder of another nine people. Zerez and Vila were among them, joining Sergeant Ruger. He worried about Vila teaming up with Zerez after what happened earlier, but there was little he could do.

“That leaves the remaining nine to join Sergeant Forro.”

He, Beteb, and seven others joined behind the Sergeant. Their Sergeant had been mostly silent and he was rather unremarkable in appearance. Sergeant Forro was a short man with black hair that was starting to turn grey.

“The last two are scouting squads. You will be patrolling the streets close to Swift Keep in search of monsters threatening the stronghold. This means that you will be looking out for Flesh Rippers, Razor Wings, Earth Slithers, Shadow Hoppers, Scaled Stompers, and anything else that somehow makes it here. You are merely expected to signal the location of these creatures of the Blight, and to provide aid for people under attack. More experienced fighters will put down the blighted creatures.”

‘Fair enough’ Christopher thought. They probably considered those monsters as the only ones that could possibly make it to this part of the city. Their job would be considered more dangerous than that of the support squads, but they would normally be relatively safe this close to Swift Keep.

Sergeant Forro gave a quick speech to Christopher and the other eight-squad members, providing some more detail on what their patrols would be like. It sounded like they would hardly even be a squad. They would split up in groups of two for their scouting.

Every person would carry equipment capable of signaling more skilled and experienced fighters to the location of creatures like Flesh Rippers and Razor Wings. They would learn more about this equipment and squad formations in the sessions to come.

The little time remaining with the Platoon was uneventful. The Lieutenant apparently decided that they had done enough for one session. There was very little urgency among the leadership here, making clear that there was still plenty underestimating of the threat. They probably thought that they had a lot more time before the Blight was able to organize anything resembling an army. In truth they had less than a week.

Lieutenant Gara urged them all to grab some finger food and drinks from the tables. Lieutenant Gara threw back a few more goblets of wine, Zerez at some point once again joined the Lieutenant in conversation. Christopher listened to his fellow recruits, trying to gain some idea of the sentiment among them.

Christopher was not provoked any further, but he kept a careful watch of his surroundings. He was still very much on edge. He saw assassins and enemies everywhere after what had happened to Sunchal. He also did not want to let Zerez and his bootlickers to catch him alone.

Soon Christopher walked back out into Lumen, leaving Swift Keep behind. Nobody had taken his new armor and steel quarterstaff from him so they would be his for the foreseeable future. It was time to prepare, the attack was getting closer and there was a lot more to do.