Kingdom Of The Weak

Remian"s dad looked at Charlie"s dad and queried, "What do you mean?"

"Teaching children to use weapons and magic before they"re even teenagers? I"m not sure that"s a good idea." Lambert mentioned. "They"re not old enough for such responsibilities. Remian himself is barely old enough for any sort of responsibility."

"Like Charlie, you mean?"

"Even Charlie is barely ready for a bit of responsibility." Lambert snorted. "Their current generation hardly seems to grow up with age."

"They"ll stay that way unless you let them go." Damien advised. "It has less to do with age than it has to do with experience, which will be limited to what you allow."

"Is that what you"re doing in the Frontier? Allowing your son independence?" Lambert raised an eyebrow.

"No, no, Remian is way past that. Now it"s his time to shine. He makes the decisions for the Frontier. I just support him in my own little ways." Damien laughed. "I still need to look out for Darian and Eriane, but my older two are more than independent, they"re dependable."

"Sabriane, too? How"s that?" Lambert grunted. "She"s not even out of her teens."

"She takes care of her brother and sister better than my wife and I do. She"s already managing the household like a mother. I have no doubts she"ll be able to manage her own today if she had to." Damien slid a pointed glance towards Lambert"s children.

Lambert grunted again. "Don"t get any ideas about my kids now. Even if you were willing to let yours go, I"m not willing to let go of mine."

"I didn"t say anything." Damien shrugged. "But while we"re on the topic of letting go… my kids don"t seem to be leaving me even now. Just so you know. Letting them make their own decisions doesn"t mean abandoning or rejecting them. I"m still here for them, and they"re still here with me."

Remian, carefully pretending not to be eavesdropping, suddenly realized that Mindy, Tim and George were all likewise carefully pretending not to overhear the two fathers" conversation. With a rueful grin, he called their attention to himself by saying, "So, what do you think of our new schoolmaster?"

"Almost tempts me into going to school just to see what it"ll be like." Tim mentioned. "Almost."

"Deadly boring." Remian warned. "Dad"s a nice enough guy, but he"s not very imaginative or innovative. What he went through is what he"ll give, and that"s the factory worker training."

***

On the way back from Ashdale, they stopped by the Iron Legion HQ to load more recruits. Max had a word with the officers there, with a letter in hand, and not only did they send four hundred trainees this time around, completely filling up the airships to the brink, they also sent a "special guest".

"I am Wulfgar, son of Bjorn!" the beefy, bearded man proclaimed, putting on a helmet with two horns like a cow. "I challenge your greatest warriors to glorious combat!"

"Um… our greatest warriors are far to the south. The strongest guy we have here is Max." Remian pointed.

"Are you not their leader?" Wulfgar demanded. "Are you not the strongest warrior here?"

"Well, I guess I am the leader, but I"m not the strongest warrior…" Remian tried to explain.

"Lies! How could you command the others if you were not stronger?" Wulfgar seized his axe and charged at Remian. "Defend yourself!"

"Light!" Remian called, and a wall of photonic energy emerged right in Wulfgar"s face. He literally bounced off the Wall of Light, and tumbled back across the airship deck, sprawling.

Sitting up, he exclaimed, "You"re a Wizard! So that"s it!"

"Uh… yeah, kind of." Remian scratched his head.

"Forgive me, Master Wizard! It was foolish of me to challenge you!" Wulfgar bowed.

But the minute they arrived back at Fort Spoas, he leapt out of the airship shouting, "I am Wulfgar, son of Bjorn, and I challenge your greatest warriors to glorious combat!"

[Noisy!] Buff grouched, and slammed Wulfgar face-down onto the airport loading ramp with a single paw. [It"s too early in the morning for this.]

That was fair enough. When Remian and the others got back this time, they arrived just after dawn.

"Think he"s going to go around challenging people like this?" Tim asked Mikai.

[I bet he would.] Mikai nodded. [One piece of cheese says he"ll charge at anyone bigger than him.]

"Come on. n.o.body could be that dumb." Tim shook his head.

Still, Wulfgar asked around, and before long, he went looking for Song Chen. Arriving at the Adventurer"s Guild, he instead found Phoebe and was most pleased to pose and posture in front of her. "I am Wulfgar, son of Bjorn! I challenge your greatest warrior to… oof!"

Carrie had smacked him face-down into the dining hall floor with her tail. [Quiet down! There are patients around here!]

Mikai held out his paw to Tim. [Pay up.]

Tim thought about it, shrugged, and handed him a piece of cheese.

Later, Wulfgar found out Song Chen was actually down by KarGoth seeing to some fortifications.

Meeting him, he again challenged the harried and busy man, who very quickly parried his challenge and diverted the attacker. "Alas, I am not the strongest warrior here. The greatest of us are the three Tier 5 Wilds, DD, Spike and Jujar."

"Where are they?" Wulfgar asked.

Song Chen happily pointed them out, and Wulfgar went to challenge Spike.

Spike, who"d been helping the miners clear the old Quarry with his club-tail, didn"t even seem to realize Wulfgar was challenging him.

Nevertheless, Wulfgar charged bravely, hammering down on Spike"s sh.e.l.l with his warhammer.

"OOF!" Wulfgar, hammer and all, bounced right off Spike"s sh.e.l.l and went sprawling over the dusty floor.

Mikai held out an open paw to Tim. [Pay up.]

Tim shook his head and handed over a piece of cheese.

Covered with granite powder from head to toe, Wulfgar very quickly retreated and went to find some other, less spiky target to challenge.

"I am Wulfgar, son of Bjorn and I challenge you to glorious combat!" he shouted at Jujar.

Jujar, at the time peacefully having lunch, was still chewing his leafy greens when Wulfgar charged him from the side.

"OOF!" Unlike before when he bounced off Spike, this time, he slammed into Jujar"s tortoise sh.e.l.l and just… stuck there. He remained on the sh.e.l.l like an errant pancake on the kitchen ceiling, half-dangling, half-peeling off for a long minute before someone thoughtfully tugged him away from the tortoise before he was noticed.

Mikai opened his paw and grinned at Tim. [Pay up.]

Tim grimaced and handed over a piece of cheese.

It took Wulfgar a few hours to recover, after which, he went to find DD.

DD, unlike the other two, actually welcomed a good, hearty challenge.

"OOF!" Going head-to-head with a Tier 5 Diamond-Bristle Boar was NOT a good idea no matter how well-polished the horns on your Viking helmet was.

Tim and Mikai watched as Wulfgar the brave went flying in a clean arc right over two buildings and a latrine, a small herb garden and a feeding trough before landing in a painful crash half a block away from where he"d collided with DD.

[Pay up.] Mikai already had his paw open and waiting under Tim"s nose.

With a sigh, Tim put yet another piece of cheese into that paw. "Well, he should have learned his lesson by now."

[Wanna bet?] Mikai asked.

With that one encounter, Wulfgar was practically out of commission for the next two days.

When he finally regained consciousness, he exulted. "This place is AWESOME!"

To that, Mikai chuckled and held out his open paw to Tim again. [Pay up!]

This time, Tim put in three pieces of cheese to Mikai"s paw. "I give up. Something tells me this guy had just too many head-to-head clashes with bigger, heavier heads."

***

Surprisingly, Wulfgar became fast friends with little Darian Vin. Between taking care of the Feelo-Wasps and challenging all the Tier 4 Wilds in the vicinity, the two spent pretty much all day together.

"Your body is weak, little one! I will teach you a secret body-strengthening technique!"

Also, Darian learned how to make a new sort of drink that Wulfgar loved, a drink called mead. Apparently it was made out of honey…