1.7 Tosk’s Training
The daily in's and out's of training would have been much easier if it wasn't for Master Tosk's afternoon training. Even after two weeks of it, he still couldn't get used to the sheer mental effort it required.
Master Xan drove them hard, but he wasn't cruel or sadistic, he wanted all of his 'class' to maximize their physical abilities.
The hour long meditation session was an almost enjoyable reprieve from the exercise if a little boring. Vicktor noticed that his muscles recuperated a little faster and easier when meditating. It was far from the work of a potion or healer, but it was a notable benefit. Vicktor's Ruakh didn't seem to increase in capacity, but his efficiency and regeneration were increasing continuously, so he didn't bother Master Tosk with it.
The rote diatribes of Rector Magus William Aquarious the Fifth, Adjunct Archivist crammed his brain full of information. Almost too much information, but sometimes one needed to be able to tell the difference between noxious spores and malodorous spores. Apparently it was exceedingly rare for spores to be both noxious and malodorous. The more malodorous the spore, the less likely it was that the spores would poison the inhaler.
Master Tosk's training always consisted of two parts.
The first part was a lecture on a different aspect of philosophy. Often relating to the nature of the self and the indicated balance the nature of the self in reference to others, to humanity and to the world overall. The only tests given were about the definitions of what the words meant as well as the prescriptive nature versus their descriptive nature.
It had started simple, progressing from simple ethical dilemma's to magical ethics. This week, they had started on discussing how the advancement of certain fields of magic had impacted various cities in matters of population, ecology, and ambient magical densities.
One of Vicktor's memorable moments was when he realized that because his magic extended out from him, that it was possible to overextend and fail to protect everyone if he tried to build too large a wall. He realized he needed to focus on the less defensive people and trust the more defended could withstand an attack.
The second part was training in tactics and what Master Tosk described as the art of magical warfare. They were given a set of different colored and shaped pawns and told the stories and settings they would be fighting. The three would rotate between the attacker, the defender, and the advisor. The Advisor would attempt to help both sides of the conflict.
There were no rules in warfare. Master Tosk was the arbiter of the success.
Once the oddness of the format was worked out, a scenario often worked like this:
"Nora, Attacker. Alar, Defender. Vicktor, Advisor."
The three nodded.
"Standard three vehicle caravan attacked by sentient beasts in a forest. Let's say Kobolds. Intelligent, coordinated with slings and knives, an unknown number of Chosen but no mages. Short engagement range, hundred feet, attempt to trade lives for cargo. Defenders have ten mundane guardsmen, two chosen and one mage. Standard melee Chosen and a material guide wind Mage, 'air is a medium'. Treat them as rank ones."
Alar paused a moment, a purposeful action. An extra second to plan could turn a loss into a win.
"I'm going to create a series of extremely loud noises next to the better dressed ones ears, I'd also like to protect everyone that I can from it. A hundred feet is a long distance, but I'm not sure its enough separation"
Master Tosk jumped in. "You get one of those and then very little mana left over. But they are closing in so choose now."
"Ughh, do it", clearly unhappy.
"Nora, you have one healer and one Chosen with defenses that were able to negate the damage. Half your forces have ruptured eardrums and the rest are distracted with incredible ringing in their ears. Your advance has halted."
He thought then looked at Alar.
"Your aurochs are furious, if you are lucky they will be able to follow orders later. Two of your guardsmen are incapacitated from the noise. The rest are protected."
"I begin healing, I send the one healthy Chosen into skirmish, retreating if possible, the distracted hopefully will try to use their slings while their heads clear." Nora spoke quickly, her mind already made up.
"I send the two melee Chosen to try and take out the healthy chosen."
"Their fight ends predictably, Nora's Chosen dies to Alar's, but one of Alar's Chosen is severely wounded and unable to move on their own. The other chosen is wounded, but able to continue. They are both being pelted by sling bullets." Master Tosk said.
"I keep the sling up, hopefully they can continue to injure."
"I want my guardsmen to shoot arrows at the healer, using my fundamental principle to distract the healer with gibberish."
"The healer takes several arrows to the chin, chest and knee. They are dead. They were able to heal another Chosen and a dozen mundane Kobolds. In exchange, the downed human chosen is knocked out cold."
"I have the healthier one drag him behind the caravan and place him in a wagon."
"He does and takes more sling bullets, he doesn't have much left in him."
"I try to gather my Kobolds and have them group up on the smaller number, charging directly across the hundred feet"
Master Tosk raised both his scales hands at Nora and Alar. "Game!"
He looked to Vicktor, having not spoken. "I know they didn't ask for help, but what do you think would happen and what do you think they could have done better?"
"It's hard to know without knowing the Kobolds ability to get through guardsmen's armor, but probably all the chosen on both sides are dead or wounded, Alar's mage has to fight mostly as a mundane without any armor. I'm fairly sure humanity would have won, but it'd definitely be costly." Vicktor paused to give himself more time to think about what he would have done better, he had some ideas but wanted to consolidate them.
"I agree, Kobolds lack refined metalwork. I'd estimate almost all humans would be wounded, maybe three or four dead. It's unclear they would make it to the destination with the damaged Aurochs."
Vicktor had enough time to think.
"It was a bit reckless of Alar to use all their mana at once, maybe they could've done smaller noise attacks? Combined it with more distractions and the guard arrows? A random thought would have been to release the Aurochs, they aren't stupid and might have been able to help. As for Nora, I think she didn't need to continue with the ambush, she should have just harassed the caravan or tried to barricade ahead of them to prevent escape."
"I agree again, although I will add that Alar could have tried to fake noises of Kobolds dying to confuse them. Nora should have probably tried to protect the healer more and wait for the healer to heal more of them. There were two chosen that never got healed on her side, ruptured eardrums are basically unrecoverable. In theory, Alar should have had the guards all put wax in their ears to resist the potential damage during their caravan trip anyway."
The three "hmmm'ed" and "ahhhh'ed" without speaking before all independently nodding.
"NEXT!"
Vicktor’s favorite scenario so far was a hypothetical conflict between Alar and Nora but both of them had a copy of him. Vicktor was told only to take notes instead of advising. He was allowed to veto a task that wasn't possible for him. It finally gave him the opportunity to understand their abilities.
"Flat ground, even soil, no notable terrain feature"
"BEGIN!"
"I take flight, drop two turrets on either side of Bird-Vicktor."
"I draw my bow, enhance my arms and back, and shoot an arrow at Bird-Victor, is he fast enough to protect himself?" Nora swung her head to ask.
"I probably would have done it when the fight started," Real-Vicktor said. "I have no armor and no shield. I'd probably be fine unless taken unaware."
The two wargamers looked at him strangely when he mentioned being taken.
"I stay above the arena and give guidance, if they show on either side of the pillars. They track the nearest living thing above cat sized but ignore those tagged. I have to be the one to activate them."
"I have Cat-Vicktor try to put a deadfall trap under the turrets, I also wanna lob my shots to try to hit Bird-Vicktor"
"I don't think you are consistent enough for that, there'd be too much wind. Can't he sense when the soil is moving around him and halt or reverse it?"
Real-Vicktor nodded.
"I think im just gonna sit and yell down what's going on"
"If you are that close to him, shouldn't I eventually be able to hit you?"
Master Tosk interrupted. "Do something or I'll call it a draw"
Nora spat in annoyance, "Vicktor why don't you have any offensive magic?!"
He waited for Master Tosk to give him permission to speak given the vague question, then spoke.
"I do have offensive magic, but it doesn't really work in a mirror match. I've been practicing my control with this"
He pulled out the Manaclay and specifically shaped it into a series of complicated shapes. Explicitly working to not shape a particular shape that Master Zert had been interested in.
"I think I can cause people to trip by moving the soil under them. I might be able swallow then harden enemies in soil and have them suffocate"
Master Tosk interrupted again, "There's what I've been interested in seeing you explore, excellent work. But I thought with you mammalian humans, it would be harden, then swallow..."
Everyone groaned in slight annoyance.
"But I think we will have to reset unless either of you have a better idea"
Nora spoke first, "I'm going to try and circle wide, hoping the turrets aren't as accurate from far away, if they are like arrows I might be able to dodge them from a few hundred feet away"
"I'll just put up more walls," Alar responded.
"Then he won't be able to see even if you can, then I can arc an arrow into his dugout unless you want him to have a roof too, but then what's the point of having the mage?"
"Vicktor, how far do you think you could trip or swallow someone" The avian tried not to blush.
"I could probably trip a few hundred feet out, it's not that much to move. For the swallowing though, maybe a bit more than a hundred feet reliably? Anything further and probably not if they are paying attention."
Master Tosk interrupted for the final time. "I think Nora is going to win this one. Alar, having half your team encased in soil is not exactly a winning strategy"
"Fine!" The cute avian huffed
Vicktor was both pleased and disappointed by his abilities in comparison to battlemages. Fireballs and lighting bolts had larger reaches and more direct impact on enemies. It was hard to compare mana needed for a lethal outcome.
They repeated the exercise several times, building off the previous conflict in a whirlwind of possibility.
They debriefed for an hour over dinner and decided three things:
Alar needed a better way to communicate over distance than just squawking.
Nora needed a melee option to fight. She had been entirely unable to deal with Vicktor picking up a turret and just pointing it at Cat-Victor and her.
Finally, Vicktor needed something to hold in his hand. Anything from a dagger, sword, staff or shield.