“Newbies trying to challenge their seniors usually just made for lessons that were really engraved into the bones.” - Old mercenary saying.

“Mm-hmm~ quite a few of you here. Always nice to see some kids who had the guts,” said Dacia with a smile on her face. The middle-aged woman – Nicole’s aunt, who had retired from active duty after Theodinaz to instead work on training new recruits for the company – looked completely unperturbed even while confronted with the over fifty youths. She looked around for a bit, in search of certain people in her vicinity before she finally noticed one of them. “Hey, Katja! Which group has tryout duties this week?” she asked loudly.

“Tryout duties?” asked the scarred former assassin in turn. It had been a few years since Katja had been made to join the mercenaries, and despite the less than jovial way in which they first met, she had pretty much integrated into the company by then. She checked on a small piece of parchment she had tucked in one of her many pockets for a brief moment, before she replied to Dacia’s question. “This week is the little boss’ group’s turn.”

“Fetch around ten of them, will you? Any would do, though do get us at least one of the big boys or girls as well,” replied Dacia in turn. “As for the rest of you, wait here for a bit. We can’t test your claims without some people to try you out, after all,” she said as she turned to the gathered trainees, with a wide smile forming on her face.

For the next quarter hour or so Dacia had whoever was around – mostly other trainees, though she also got some help from the Company’s support staff and some dependents – to set things up for things to come. Crates full of training weapons were brought over, while a crowd slowly gathered to watch whatever was about to happen, even drawing the attention of some off-duty mercenaries who happened to pass by.

Katja returned right around then, with a part of Erycea’s platoon following her, including Erycea herself as well as her core members. The majority of the platoon had also followed along to offer moral support for their fellow compatriots, or at least they explained it that way. Youths being youths, they mostly came along to watch the spectacle instead.

Maybe to get a good laugh or two at their buddies’ expense, too, if fate would have it.

“We got some wanting to prove their mettle, I hear, Auntie Dacia?” asked Erycea, who led the group towards where everyone else already gathered. By then the audience had grown into quite a number, a mix of trainees, members of the Company’s support staff and dependents, as well as some bored off-duty mercenaries who were attracted by the commotion. Erycea even saw her little sister and some of her friends by the sidelines.

“You heard right, girl. Can you pick out one of yours for every… five or so of them? I was expecting Katja to just bring a few of you over, but this way is even better, I guess,” replied the middle-aged woman in turn. “I think one of the big ones would be plenty, though. Not many of them on the other side.”

“Got it, Auntie,” said Erycea with a nod as she turned towards her platoon. “So, which of you want to show some of the newbies how things work around here? Volunteers only, first come, first served!” she announced cheerfully to them, at which point several of the platoon quickly presented themselves. The only ones who had not hurried were the few larger-bodied members they had, who discussed amongst themselves on who to send out instead since there was only room for one of them.

Before long, Erycea had eleven people, including herself, standing on one side. Gustav was chosen to represent the bigger-bodied members, and they stood proudly across the fifty or so trainees who made the challenge.

“Rules are simple enough. Use the training weapons, no fangs or claws. Treat the weapons as if they were real. If you make a good enough showing of yourself we’ll consider cutting off a portion of your training,” declared Dacia towards the gathered trainees, to enthusiastic cheers and looks. “Other than those who are full-blooded dwarves or are of larger therian breeds, you will get your opponent chosen at random.”

“If we win, does that mean we get to join the Company right away?” asked one of the trainees.

“We’ll speak if that happens,” replied Dacia with a smile on her face. “Anyway, who wants to be first? None of the people you’re fighting are much older than you. Hell, some of you are likely older than them, but they’re already part of the Company for a reason.”

“I will!” said one of the trainees, a tall and burly young human around eighteen or so, with the beginnings of facial hair growing on his face. He picked up a two-handed training greatsword from the pile of practice weapons and stood confidently in the clearing where the fighting was to take place.

“Ery?” Dacia asked towards Erycea’s side next, only to see them picking out straws from her hand. In the end it was Aurora who cheered at having drawn out the one long straw, and went to the crate to pick out analogues for the weapon she used, before she went to the clearing as well, where she stood across from the confident trainee.

Looking at the two combatants, it looked to be as uneven a fight as it could be. The trainee was nearly twice Aurora’s size, the girl having never grown any taller in the couple of years that had passed. Similarly, the large greatsword, almost as tall as he was, looked like a mismatch to the mace and tonfa Aurora held in her hands.

It was indeed a very unfair match that only took seconds to resolve, because Aurora just ducked under her opponent’s first swing, further pushed the blade away with the tip of her tonfa, and at the same time smacked her opponent right on the chin with her mace, dropping her larger opponent like a sack of potatoes on the spot.