Days ticked by at a snail's pace. The training wasn't nearly as regular or intense as it had been under Zymeth, but it was no less revealing.

  The last week had seen the group's first sign of success against Trillia's fear effects. Amelia had resisted it entirely and sung a counter song to clear up the rest of the group. Trillia was getting better about freezing up at her own ability.

  Brutus stood in the courtyard in nothing more than a pair of pants. Bare feet on a small patch of grass as he looked over at the group. "Come now. Four at a time, each of the others can use some form of delay death. Your goal is to simply strike any part of me, use everything at your disposal."

  This wasn't the first time the group had faced off against Brutus. The well-built human was the epitome of deceptive, you could look at him and reason he was a warrior. A well-toned body and scars said as much. But the speed, ease, and sheer boredom when he fought couldn't be discerned by a mere look.

  Brutus held a stick about two feet in length in his hand. As the group stepped up to surround him, Trillia saw him channeling mana into the thing.

  Three days ago, she had watched him sever Layla's arm with the same stick. They steeled themselves and launched their attacks. Trillia did her best to channel her fear aura directly into him. Amelia sang a song to lessen the negative effects on the group, Frederick rushed in with a spear to at least keep some distance, and Layla positioned herself behind Brutus so that she could intercept the group more easily.

  Brutus dashed forward, the spear missing his flesh by millimeters. A hand shot up and slammed into Frederick's face. Trillia heard a crunch and saw blood. Mana wrapped itself around Frederick as he went down, and one of the Generals had to stop him from dying.

  Brutus held up the same hand. "I won't debuff you. There's no reason. If you have to use something to offset the fear effects, it's a wasted resource. The debuff I get isn't enough to even the playing field. So what is the solution?"

  Layla rushed over to cast healing spells on Fred.

  "I tried boosting their agility last time, and you're still too fast. We are outmatched."

  The old duelist grumbled under his breath. "You aren't trying to win the fight. That's impossible. You are trying to harm me, even a tiny cut while keeping yourselves alive."

  "Brutus. They aren't pit fighters." Cordaos' heavy voice rumbled the stones as he stood and walked over. "Why don't we give them an example for a path to victory?"

  The students were happy to back up and watch the two legendary arena fighters do their thing. "Use a real weapon so that they can fully grasp how you have to fight against a [Primordial]."

  Brutus nodded and tossed the stick aside. Closing his eyes, he whispered words that Trillia couldn't make out. She saw a brilliant golden energy flowing around his hands and forming into a falchion. "Queen, give the command?"

  Alliyah nodded and waited for them both to be ready. "I'll also be casting a spell to drastically slow your movements. So go all out. Kids, pay very close attention and just remember that normally this would be a faster affair."

  As the Queen said go, Trillia watched Cordaos lower his head and charge forward. Her mana-sight saw a sea of dark grey mana clinging to both fighters, even with that, the two of them were still difficult to follow.

  As Cordaos charged forward, Brutus lifted his falchion as he had done with the stick a dozen times before. The same thrust came this time, even faster than it had at the younger fighters. Cordaos snapped a hand up and impaled it on the blade, then yanked his hand to the side to force Brutus to either drop the weapon or be off guard.

  Brutus dropped the weapon but the split-second decision had let Cordaos close to much of the gap, the large minotaur swung his unimpaled hand and threw a simple stone at Brutus, striking him in the chest. The Queen immediately called for the fight to stop.

  The students seemed confused. "That's it?"

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  Cordaos stood up and pulled the falchion from his hand, wiping the blood off the weapon on his arm before handing it back to Cordaos. The flesh began to knit itself together of its own volition. "You cannot win. You could train until your hearts exploded for a hundred years, and you would never get close to beating Brutus. The point isn't to win. It's to teach your minds to strike the enemy. You have to understand that survival is good, yes, but you cannot beat the [Primordials] without accepting some damage."

  "But the other threat we are facing would kill us with a touch."

  Alliyah's voice cut through the other chatter that had begun to arise. "Pain is an excellent deterrent. In the real world, fighting recklessly will get you killed. These two spent decades in the arena and know how to fight while taking damage. Avoiding all damage isn't possible. The point they are trying to make is that while you are in a safe environment with healers nearby, you should be pushing your body and mind to its absolute limits."

  "Being safe is fine. Being hesitant is not. Right now, whenever I move to attack, you all freeze up and pause. It may seem like only a second or two, but that is vital time in a fight. Cordaos didn't hesitate to take control of my weapon, and my hesitation in debating striking with another weapon or abandoning the grappled weapon cost me a strike. Had Cordaos had a real weapon, I'd be cleaved in two right now." Brutus looked at each of the kids as he spoke.

  "We're really shitty teachers, aren't we?" Stas chimed in with a little chuckle.

  "Because you're all trying to teach them how to fight an impossible enemy. They can't learn that in a safe place like this. I say we go and do what needs doing. We can distract the biggest threats." Amara had been rather against the training so far, and this wasn't the first time she voiced the opinion they should just go.

  "Amara, they aren't re-" Alliyah tried to reason.

  "Enough! You are sheltering them. You are trying to save them from war. They will never be ready. Don't you all get that?" The infernal orc finally stood and looked around at her peers. "No one can ever be ready for war. Ever. They aren't making progress right now. That's not their fault. Even the system hasn't rewarded them with any experience. Three weeks and no levels? This environment is too safe, we have too many healing spells, and we are all holding back too much. We can keep an eye on them in the field."

  "There's no guarantee we will get to them in time." Stas tried being yet another voice of reason.

  "Good. Then they will fight as if their lives depend on it because it does."

  "You'd really risk your daughter's life?" Alliyah seemed a bit surprised at that.

  "My daughter? No. An Avatar of a deity who has pledged herself to fight the [Primordials] and other threats that face Alirast? I don't want to lose anyone, but I am not going to hurt their chances at survival by babying them. Whether we like it or not, they will be forced into battle. They seem eager to throw their lot into the war to protect the things they love. We can't stop that."

  Amara looked over at Trillia, and the look spoke well of how much she hated the idea of it, but she had already lived through a lot of this. Twice now, once when Trillia had been taken by Alirast's agent Persona. The other was when Stas had taken her to Arlyss.

  The other generals couldn't find solid ground to argue from at this point. Despite the apprehension in the kids and the generals, Simon stood up. "I think General Demonsbane is right. I'll do everything I can to make sure they make it out alive."

  Amara walked over and smacked the little goblin in the head. The poor thing was rattled and looked as if he would pass out. "All of you. Give me your word, Golden Gryphon. On your honor, you will make sure all of you make it out alive. That includes you."

  The little goblin stared up at the mighty orc general in front of him and seemed torn. "I..."

  Trillia walked over and grabbed his hand. Thea stood on the other side of him with his other hand. Trillia spoke up. "I give you my word, General Demonsbane, on my position as Avatar to Lord Arlyss. I will do everything I can to ensure all of us survive."

  Simon squeezed both of their hands. "On my honor as a Golden Gryphon, I will do everything I can to make sure we all survive."

  Amara stared down at the two of them and gave a stern nod. "Ready yourselves. We set out in two days. Now all of you leave, the other Generals and I have things we need to discuss."

  The kids looked around at the others but found no arguments forthcoming, so they departed the courtyard. As they walked down the hall back to their room, Simon spoke up. "We should prepare rations, at least twice whatever we should need. This way, if we run into problems, we don't have to suffer for food. Taz and I can carry a lot."

  "We also have storage rings. Mine only has some armor and herbal supplies in it." Trillia added helpfully.

  "I will look around for some good quality scrap metal, just in case any of our armor or weapons get damaged in the field and my mana isn't enough to fix it."

  "Do you need us to find you a shop for more alchemical ingredients? Healing potions will help a lot so that Layla and I don't have to worry about our mana."

  "That's not a bad idea. My mana won't be topped off, so I can't help your regeneration rates. I can go with you and Malor, if that's ok, to find some other stuff we might need."

  "That's fine with us. Let's split up into two teams. Amelia, Malor, and Trillia. Fred, Layla, Thea, and Simon. That also splits up the mounts so that we can carry more goods. Once we get back to the room, let's write out an extensive list of things we need."

  The group nodded their agreement. Trillia could feel the tension in the air, but none of them were going to speak on it.