Snake"s team gathered first on the gathering point once more. Snake and Plethora together at the front, Bodach right behind them, behind him are Bert, Neil, Rick, Vyvyan, Mike, and Alexai. Even though Bert did a good job in the previous battle he is still in this team, the captain didn"t want to change this team until Percy was done with his training.The last six days has been full of fights for both Percy and Jerzai. At first against each other, Jerzai didn"t take his first lost laying down.
"You tricked me," Jerzai said through clenched teeth when he returned to Percy and Snake. It was true, Percy lured him into thinking that the clone will be the one that is holding the weapon that Percy drew, but this ended in Jerzai being hit on the head by a heavy sword. "I want a rematch."
Percy just nodded, he was proud in taking out someone who"s trained in combat for years, even though Jerzai"s strength doesn"t lie in one on one battle.
The second fight didn"t go as well. Percy fought by pushing all three phantoms out right at the beginning, surprising Jerzai again, but Jerzai recovered just quick enough and Percy lost soon after.
Even though Percy had a shallow understanding of the weapons he was wielding, is was just a shallow understanding. This disadvantage leads to him losing against a truly skilled person when he doesn"t have tricks or ways to lure them into a way of thinking.
Percy fought Jerzai many times that day, and only got in three more wins. All those wins were either by luck or tricks, but all of those only worked once.
After many losses even Percy with all his determination got fed up by all the fighting, and this made him have a genius idea. "Hey Snake, how about I fight you this time?" Percy called as he walked back from the medic tent. Happily the dummies only appear during the battle drills, otherwise the floor would"ve been littered with bodies. Mostly his own.
Snake grins menacingly and Percy already regrets the challenge slightly. "Sure, but you know that to become a captain one needs to be better than all the normal recruits right?"
Percy did forget to think about this, but this doesn"t mean he will back down.
Percy learned many things from this fight, Snake"s way of fighting is by using many tricks until there"s an opening for a lethal strike. But he didn"t strike Percy for a long time, he wanted to show him what tricks truly are, and also wanted to punish him a bit for taking the honor after he died in the battle.
For Percy it ended up in horror, getting hundreds of tiny scratches all around his body. His phantoms stayed alive though, slowly increasing his teamwork with himself.
After a very long fight that involved many techniques from Snake that ranged from anything from minor illusions in the edge of Percy"s eyes till sword strikes that makes it feel like there"s a snake borrowing under his skin. That one was especially awful.
After coming back from the battle tent, fully covered in bandages, Snake complimented Percy. "You learn fast. You became a bit more of a challenge, so I needed to step up my game too... Just a shame you didn"t last a full minute after I did so." But that compliment was followed up by an mischievous smile and a snappy remark.
Percy on the other hand wasn"t put down by that. His father made sure to teach Percy to know himself and not be provoked by things that are true, cause it"s better to put the frustration that comes of being provoked into improving himself. Being provoked by something that wasn"t true was out of the question completely.
But Snake wasn"t done yet. "I think I can even take on the both of you at the same time." Even though Percy didn"t like hearing that, and neither did Jerzai, they still liked the idea of trying. They looked at each other and nodded.
"Hehe" Snake chuckles. "Let"s do this!"
What followed was even more torture. Even Jerzai and Percy couldn"t win together, but they tried.
The following days was just Jerzai and Percy fighting Snake together, and after their teamwork got better they lasted longer. After two days they could even fight evenly against Snake!
On the second day they got spectators. On the third day they got new challenges, giving them the opportunity to fight against other people. They found out that their individual fighting power is somewhere in the top hundred of all the recruits, which is good for someone who"s raised to be in a support role. Even for Jerzai it"s good cause he can"t use his stealth in a one on one.
On the fifth day both of them got their t.i.tle, Percy got it by telling it to the people. Jerzai got it due to a country b.u.mpkin calling it out during one of their two against two fights. Jerzai appeared beautifully out of nowhere and killed both their opponents in a single movement, a cut and a throw.
The recruit called out "It"s Bodach! The gray omen of death!"
And like that the names stuck. Plethora, the many enemies. Bodach, the omen if one sees it. The t.i.tles aren"t said that often, but apparently they get noted by the higher ups. As long as one stays in the army their nicknames they gain here will stick.
If someone told Percy how long this name will really stick with him he would have thought that person would be out of his mind.
~~~~~~
Back at where team Snake is waiting for the battle drill to start Snake asks Plethora if he"s ready.
"I"m ready for whatever the Camp Captain has prepared for me."
Seconds of waiting turn into minutes. Plethora developed a tick when he needs to wait, the confusing movements he does, that the phantoms move while he"s standing still, always happens when he needs to wait.
The battle drill gets announced at last, the waiting is almost at an end.
Within 10 minutes the recruits flood in from all directions and position themselves orderly. The discipline rammed into everyone in the time before Percy joined is still a sight to behold.
After 10 minutes everyone was standing in order, no late comers this time. Now it is Lee"s turn to shine. "Today we hold another battle drill!" even though there"s a lot of excitement in his voice the recruits stay quiet, nothing more than a slight rustle of clothing and armor. "All teams up to 781 will be team 1, Wall will be the commanding general. All teams 782 till 1562 will be team 2, Plethora will be the commanding General. Battle starts in 30 minutes!" and like that he walks towards the trainer hill in the centre.
"Still so sure you"re ready for whatever he throws at you?" Snake chuckles at the fl.u.s.tered look on Plethora"s face.
Percy has been training on battle for the whole last week. One on one, two on two, even two against five at one point. He must"ve raised his combat level by multiple stages, but now he needs to command? He didn"t expect this to happen, even though it"s the decision of his own father.
"I shall do this. We can definitely do this. They even gave me 15 more minutes to prepare." Plethora told Snake, both telling him and himself. "Let"s go to the commanders area, I think I might have a plan already."
Arriving at the commanders area Plethora finds himself surrounded by almost 800 captains, their slightly hostile gazes do make him nervous, it is a first to stand in front of so many people who definitely don"t want you to stand there.
"Everyone." a plethora of voices say at once, or well, only four so far. "We all heard what the camp captain said to Imp last time. We need something truly out of the box to fight against an overwhelming enemy. I shall be honest with you, I have very little knowledge about everyone"s strengths and weaknesses, so help me all in making three groups of all the captains here." Plethora walks towards Snake while talking, his four voices and silhouettes overlapping.
"My own captain, Snake, told me that every captain, no matter how low their rank, will still be stronger than almost any other recruit. Here lies our strength." He looks over the crowd, there"s still the slight hostility, but there"s also curiosity.
"Can you all split up in those who are the strongest fighters and the strongest commanders. My plan is as follows..."