"Muscles has something wrong with his head. Was this before or after he was beaten? My guess is during the beating he sustained some injuries which affected his ability to think." Fish eyes was the first to scoff as Brendon relayed Muscles words."No doubt this little fellow is strong, but to claim for him to be the strongest in the whole Company, I think that"s a little exaggerated, no?" One of the fighters in the crowd called out.
His words seemed to represent the thoughts of the majority of the fighter"s present. Most of them had seen Aker"s move a moment ago and to say they were surprised would be an understatement, they were completely flabbergasted at his strength.
It was even more than his strength, his eyes and the aura he exuded were enough to cause the entire chow hall to shiver. For just a moment those people who were closest to Aker could feel a suppression that emanated from the depths of his soul, it was intrinsic and not something someone could fake. That aura was created and honed in combat while fighting and struggling to survive.
There"s wasn"t a single person who doubted that, but in this universe, who didn"t have to fight and struggle to survive. While they were not capable of exuding a spirit of crushing suppression that matched Aker"s, everyone present was capable of the same feat.
At least this was the thought going through three hundred heads after six hundred eye b.a.l.l.s who witnessed and felt it.
Despite the thoughts of these three hundred men, there was one man who felt the full brunt and force of that oppression. There was one man who had those cold and chilling eyes peak into his soul and find him wanting, Brendon was still shivering and might forever be afraid of Aker"s glare.
"Since Big Brother asked for Aker, I think we should have Aker represent us, everyone here knows Big Brother wouldn"t purposely do something that would bring shame and humiliation to us." Brendon tried his best to sound convincing, he even offered a little extra influx into his voice to try and make it carry to the back of the chow hall.
"Ridiculous, like we said earlier, if it was just an issue for Muscles, we wouldn"t have any opinion or say in the matter, however, this is an issue that affects the whole Company and everyone here. If word were to spread that Leader Nathan Kula gave us an opportunity to fight for not only the right to keep what is ours but for an apology as well and we still failed, wouldn"t we become the biggest joke every? Wouldn"t that mean that our D Company has no one who can defeat their C Company?" As the words rolled out of his mouth Aker looked over to see a debonair and heroic figure speaking. His words spoke right to the crux of the problem for the fighters of D Company.
If they were to accept the challenge and lose, word would instantly spread through the entire military installation. It wouldn"t be long before the meager resources that D Company was allocated were cut, it may even give the Division Commander that hates D Company so much the ability to dismember D Company completely.
Just as Brendon was getting ready to sound out once again, Aker calmly interrupted "Seniors, if I may speak, I think I have a few words that could add to the conversation..."
The group of three hundred men who initially heard Aker speak wanted to remind him that this wasn"t a place for a puer nuntius to speak out, however, after Aker"s display a moment ago no one could find a reason to prevent him from speaking.
Aker waited a few breaths, since no one voiced any objections Aker took that as consent and continued on "I heard a Senior mention that Hendrix would be considered the strongest in our D Company, is that correct?"
Fish eyes who was sitting closest to Aker and thus was right in the middle of the action spoke up before anyone else had a chance. It just so happened that fish eyes was a fan of Hendrix and called him Big Brother much like Brendon did when referring to Muscles. "That"s right Big Brother Hendrix is the strongest of our regular fighters."
In this case regular fighters were the fighters within each company that was not at the Leader level and up. Each Company had a Company Commander who was in charge of the entire Company. The Company Commander had one direct report, the Deputy Commander, who would basically run the day to day operations. Each Deputy Commander had six Leaders and each Leader had roughly fifty fighters.
"Then would the other Company"s agree that Hendrix is the strongest fighter amongst the regular fighters within D Company?" Aker"s question seemed redundant as they had just stated that Hendrix was acknowledged as the strongest fighter within D Company.
"Yes, I think we already eluded to that" Fish eyes didn"t understand where Aker was trying to go with that question.
"Has anyone outside of D Company ever seen Senior Hendrix"s fighting strength before?" Aker continued on while ignoring Fish eyes confusion.
"Of course, how could we be in the military as fighters and not see each other fight. We get in to small fights like this from time to time and then there is the ranking boards. All fighters are required to fight in the ranking matches once every six months and at that point everyone gets to see everyone else"s strength."
This time it was the heroic man from earlier who answered. It was apparent to everyone that Aker had never heard of the ranking boards as when it was brought up Aker tilted his head and rubbed his chin, no one knew what he was thinking.
"Since that is the case its settled, I"ll go and fight for D Company." Without any explanation or reasoning after asking a couple of questions Aker suddenly declared that he would be the one fighting.
"I"m not saying that you shouldn"t be the one to fight but I would like to ask what reasons you have for coming to that decision." The words came out calmly with an air of refinement that the rest of the fighters seemed to lack, the heroic man"s words, mannerisms and form of speech seemed to match his looks perfectly.
"I believe it"s simple if you think about it. First, they have seen Hendrix fight before and they still felt compelled to issue the challenge and even went as far as to offer an apology in the case of a defeat. Since they are willing to go this far it"s because they have absolute confidence they won"t lose, wouldn"t you agree?" Aker held up one finger as he spoke, he was specifically talking to the heroic man since he was the one asking but the entire chow hall was listening in.
Aker seeing the heroic man nod his head in agreement and not hearing any objections from anyone else continued on, "Since we can a.s.sume that they have absolute a.s.surance they are going to win then sending Hendrix to fight would be multiple times more devastating of a loss since he is regarded as our D Company"s strongest fighter, however if I go and fight and lose, so what, aren"t I just a puer nuntius? Since we can a.s.sume they have made plans to defeat our best, wouldn"t it make sense to send out our worst? If they win, they can"t hold it against the Company but if I win...hehehe..." Aker"s subtle laugh at the end was the icing on the cake to his logic that seemed to open the floodgates of acceptance.
"Hahahahahaha.....that"s right if this kid could defeat the person that they had absolute a.s.surance in defeating Hendrix, wouldn"t that make them the new laughing stocks?"
"Even if he loses it wouldn"t matter, they just defeated our puer nuntius so it wouldn"t reflect poorly on us, if he wins then we can finally stick it to the other Company"s, I love it..." Fish eyes repeated what Aker had said but somehow made it sound as if it was his idea.
"Let"s go, what are we waiting for? I can"t wait to see the looks on their face when our puer nuntius jumps up into the fighting stage, hahahahah...hahahahaha..."
"Hahahaha....hahahahahahaha..."
After just a few words from Aker the entire group of three hundred men went from feeling the pressure of having to defend their honor and prestige to laughing and having a great time as they were looking forward to the fight that was getting ready to unfold.
The group of men loudly moved from the forgotten and abandoned land that made up Company D"s home to the fighting stages of the common area.
Aker had managed to fall to the back of the group as the men of Company D walked over, the jovial atmosphere was grabbing the attention of everyone who witnessed them stroll along. As the men approached the fighting stages the scene that everyone was expecting, the downtrodden and defeated fighters of D Company trudging along wasn"t seen.
There weren"t the expected wails of unfairness, the screams of vengeance, or the roars of anger that everyone had antic.i.p.ated. Instead it was a group of men laughing as they meandered into the fighting stage area as if it had nothing to do with them at all.
"Shameless! The fighters from Company D are even more shameless than I thought. To think that their Company has been accused of starting a fight and creating havoc and Leader Nathan Kula still allowed them to win back at least some honor and this is how they accept his kindness? Leader Nathan Kula you should just forget about letting these shameless b.a.s.t.a.r.ds try and fight for redemption!" One of the fighters from C Company yelled out, his voice was full of righteousness and vindication.
"It"s fine, it"s fine.... some people are too idiotic and shameless to understand when others go out of their way for them. They can only laugh at the situation because they don"t care about our Division Commander nor this war, but these are still our Brothers in battle and we should respect them." This was true righteousness! This was true concern and care for his fellow fighters! This man"s heart was a model that the fighters from the Frail Fighter Squad could certainly learn from.
"Only when one develops the heart of a leader, to have the care and concern of not just his own men but all of the men who fight with him can they be as great as Leader Nathan Kula!"
"Hooha...Hooha...Hooha..."The men from C Company called out after hearing the words from one of their fighters.
"Yes...Yes...Leader Nathan Kula is certainly righteous!" The heroic man called out hearing the words coming from C Company.
Hearing the heroic man agree with their words caused the entire crowd of fighters from C Company to stop and stare dumbfounded. There look was inexplicable as this entire situation was playing out completely different from what they planned.
Even the other fighters from D Company were staring at this heroic man wondering if he was somehow a mole from C Company, were all of those years of infiltration was for this moment?
Suddenly just as everyone felt that their confusion had reached its peak, the heroic man continued on "Self-righteous is a form of righteousness, right?"
Everyone from D Company bellowed out, their laughter filled the ears of everyone present. The confused faces of C Company instantly changed to become indigent, from the bystander"s point of view it appeared that the heroic man had stolen their thunder.
"Say what you will, it doesn"t change the fact that Leader Nathan Kula has allowed for you Frail Fighters to get the opportunity to make up for your mistakes. Too bad you are all too weak to actually do it!" One of the fighters from C Company called out not able to take the laughter from the fighters of D Company.
"Well said Little Brother, they are so shameless, of course we could never beat them in a battle of tongues, they are of course the strongest talkers. Too bad the strength of their mouth doesn"t equate the strength of their fist."
"Hahahahahahaha..." Everyone from C Company laughed together essentially trying to drown out the Company D"s laughter.
For the observers it was a weird atmosphere, since when did such a serious battle between Company"s that even involved a Leader turn into a contest of trying to out laugh one another?
Finally, not able to take it any longer Leader Nathan Kula called out "Finley go on and hop up on the stage."
The crowd watched as Finley hopped up directly onto the stage. He didn"t use the steps, he simply cleared three meters and landed flatly on the fighting arena with almost no effort.
Finley also wore a tight warrior robe but unlike Muscles he actually had the muscles to pull it off. His long red hair swayed in the wind as he stood atop the fighting stage valiantly, he was the king of his domain and all others could only look up to him.
"Hey isn"t Finley from the King Killer squad, why is he now in C Company?" One of the bystanders recognized Finley.
"I heard he was ranked somewhere in the middle as far as strength goes in the King Killer"s. Everyone knows they are the elite of the elite so he probably got tired of the compet.i.tion and decided to be the top in another Company."
"Makes sense to me.... being a big fish in a small pond has its perks. In this case I doubt there is anyone in D Company who could defeat someone of Finley"s strength. I"m not entirely sure but I have heard that everyone who ranks around the middle of the King Killers squad is at the Organs level of Body Conditioning."
"No way, to be at Organs and still only be in the middle of the ranking, no wonder he wanted to get out of there."
As the crowd spoke the faces of D Company who had been laughing and joking changed. As Aker saw their facial expression change again, he couldn"t help but wonder if they were somehow all related to the wind.
As the heroic man looked over at Aker, his concerned eyes told Aker everything he needed to know. His eyes were conveying that he didn"t much care whether Aker won or lost, he was concerned that fighting someone at the Organs level would be far too much for Aker and he would be seriously hurt.
"I think we should reconsid..."
"There shouldn"t be any problems, let"s just continue with our previous decision." Before the heroic man could finish his sentence, Aker interrupted and stopped him.
"But you could get seriously hurt, they will be especially upset once they find out we sent a puer nuntius up to fight someone they specifically brought in from the King Killer"s squad."
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Aker could now feel the concern coming from several of the fighters from D Company. For a group of men who were known as the weakest and frailest, who didn"t seem to care about everyone"s opinions, these same men seemed to have genuine concern for their fellow fighters.
Having sensed the concern and worry, Aker suddenly felt a sense of camaraderie from these fellows. He had seen it when they interacted together but that brotherhood hadn"t been aimed at him, not until this moment. This feeling of belonging to a group who cared put a smile on Aker"s face as he responded back "Don"t worry, from what everyone was saying this guy seems to only be at the Organs level."
After saying those words Aker took a couple of steps forward and leaped up onto the stage easily matching the three meters that Finley exhibited earlier.
The heroic man"s eyes were wide, his mouth was open and he hadn"t taken a breath. It wasn"t just him; it was the entire D Company. No one noticed him leaving and easily jumping onto the stage, they were still stunned silly at Aker"s words from a moment ago "only at the Organ level".
If he could say those words and mean it, just how strong was their new puer nuntius?