Chương 98: [Ranks and Rumors]

The morning after Elden Ring saw Leo and the lads up at their normal time, the early starts becoming easier. He thought about what laid ahead: the festival in a little over two weeks, the reports about something big moving in the north, and whatever was going on with Shai. He tried not to think too much about it; he knew himself well enough to realize he would spiral if he thought too deeply on each thing. Best to focus on what he had in front of him this morning. More training with the dummy.

This was probably going to change again soon. He'd heard about the Sparring Pit idea. One of the people from town, a woman by the name of Bex, had asked if she could practice her earth magic near the training grounds. One of the trainers asked if she could make them a pit for sparring; she said she'd give it a go. That was going to change training and Leo was looking forward to it. Sparring with Kai was daunting, but he knew it was the best way to learn.

The prospect of sparring with Phil, Luka, or Sam was fun, though. He planned on having the best win-loss record by the time the festival came round. He was going to be the best, even if Phil already saw that position as his own. He heard the others shout they were ready to go and made his way to the front room to join them. Day 1 Training started as usual, with Leo back on the dummy and the Kai giving him instructions. A few yards away at the edge of the field, Bex was already at it.

She didn't look like she was doing much, just standing there with her hands out, but the ground was reacting. The dirt wasn't flying everywhere; it was just sinking. It looked like someone was pressing a giant, invisible cylinder into the earth. Every time Leo finished a set of strikes and looked over, the hole was a foot deeper. By the time they took a break for water, she'd cleared a massive circle, the sides looking as straight and clean as if they'd been cut with a knife. Aldric didn't let them loiter.

"It's a hole in the ground, not a miracle," he grunted, waving them back to their stations.

"Get back to your own training." Bex stayed out there well after the rest of them finished for the morning. She looked wiped, covered in dust and leaning against a fence post, but the pit was there. It was deep, wide, and looked a hell of a lot more professional than any of them had expected when she first offered. Day 2 The pit was finished by the following afternoon, and it was a lot more impressive than a simple hole.

Bex had gone deep—seven feet down, meaning even Leo at 6'4" couldn't see over the rim once he was at the bottom. It was about thirty feet across, giving them roughly the same space as a UFC cage to move around in. To keep people from accidentally falling in during night patrols, she'd pulled up a waist-high stone rail that circled the entire thing. It made the whole area look like a small arena.

A couple of wooden ladders were leaning against the side to get people in and out, and the floor had been packed into a perfect balance of firm earth and slight give. Ronan walked around the lip of it, hands in his pockets, looking down at the smooth work. He tilted his head, giving it a slow once-over before looking at Bex.

"Not bad," he said. Bex looked like she'd been given a medal. She was exhausted and covered in grit, but she had a proud grin on her face. The trainers spent the rest of the evening checking the footing, deciding they'd start the first real sessions the next morning. Day 3 The first day of sparring made the new hierarchy obvious. While the larger groups of trainees took turns rotating in and out of the pit to face their trainers, Leo and Sam didn't have that luxury.

Since they were the only ones in one-on-one groups, there was no one to swap with. Leo spent his entire session in the pit with Kai. There was no leaning on the rail to catch his breath while someone else took a beating. It was just him, Kai, and the smooth dirt walls. It was exhausting in a way the dummy drills never were. Kai didn't break a sweat, moving with a frustratingly calm efficiency, but he kept the pressure constant.

Leo didn't use his magic, he wanted to get the hang of this without it so it was more of an ace up his sleeve rather than a crutch. Kai was fast, every time Leo thought he'd found a rhythm, Kai would shift his weight, forcing him to reset. When Sam's turn came, he found it just as bad if not worse. Nessa's speed felt unnatural, she would dash in and out of range, staying low and attacking from weird angles.

Like all beast-kin, her magic passively buffed her physical stats, making her naturally faster and stronger than any human could be. Sam spent most of the time trying to keep track of her without being hit; he was failing a lot but knew if he could get used to this, beating Leo, Phil and Luka would be easy. One downside however, was clear to the pair: Leo and Sam weren't learning the "tells" of the other trainees. They didn't know how Luka overextended on his left or how Phil liked to feint high.

They were learning to fight experts, which meant every exchange felt like a loss. They were being forged in a much hotter fire than the rest of the class, even if it meant they spent the morning feeling like they were failing. By the time the session ended, Leo climbed the ladder with leaden arms. He looked over at the other groups, who were laughing and comparing notes on their wins and losses against each other.

He didn't have any wins to report, just a growing list of ways Kai could hit him, but he could feel the difference in his own footwork. It was sharper, born out of the simple necessity of not wanting to get tapped in the ribs for the twentieth time. Day 4 After training Torren told the others he had somewhere else to be and left before anyone could ask. The group watched him go.

Agnes's living room was exactly what Torren had expected — small, warm, full of things on surfaces, and smelling of tea that had been brewed slightly too long. He had to angle himself through the door.

"Sit, sit," Agnes said, already moving toward the kitchen.

"Tea's on. The others will be here in ten minutes, they're never on time." The sofa was not built for him. He took great care not to break it as he sat down, he'd long made peace with furniture being a general inconvenience, it was still better than sitting on the floor though. The knitting needles came out of the bag Agnes handed him. He looked at them for a moment.

"You'll be fine," Agnes said.

"I'll show you." He was fine. The motion came easily enough, and by the time Agnes's friends arrived, Sue, Maggie and Dorris, he had the basic pattern down and was being talked at from three directions simultaneously. He quickly learned everything that had happened in town since the event that brought them here. He listened. He asked questions. It was Maggie, the one with the red cardigan and the loudest laugh, who mentioned Ronan.

"Seen him going into the college again," she said.

"Third time this week."

"Is that right," Torren said.

"Romance," Agnes said, with certainty.

"Could be anything," said Sue, who was wearing a thick pair of glasses.

"It's romance," Agnes repeated.

"You can always tell." Torren turned his knitting over and started the next row. He'd have to investigate later. On the walk back he thought about what Terry had mentioned the day before, a new helper out on the fields, a woman called Jenny, quiet and capable, apparently with some magic quite similar to his own. He made a note to stop by the fields later in the week. Day 6 Jeff had been in Stonehall for four days when the second scout report came through.

He was a call centre worker before they were brought here, mid thirties, reliable, enjoyed nature walks in his spare time. Mike had asked for volunteers when the elders requested a Monkhaven presence in the village as a communications bridge. Jeff had put his hand up without much deliberation. He had no family in the transport, his flat had come through clean, and being useful seemed better than waiting around. The elders summoned him mid morning. They told him what needed sending.

He opened the group chat and typed it out. Whatever was making those tracks was still moving east to west through the lower wilds. Three more goblin settlements confirmed destroyed in its path. No change in trajectory, it wasn't heading south. Not yet. But the goblins it was displacing had to go somewhere and the border was the nearest option. No one had seen it yet, the scouts didn't travel very far west, making sure to stick close enough to the village to send their reports.

If it came back this far east they would know, the elders not long after. Mike got the message within the hour. So did the lads. Leo read it twice, got his shoes on, and went to find the trio at their flat next door. Outside the flat the town moved through its ordinary evening, people cutting across the street below, the sound of the laughter carrying from the King John's round the corner. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

It wasn't the creature itself that worried him on the walk over. It was the goblins. Whatever was out there didn't need to come anywhere near Monkhaven to become their problem. Day 7 Sam had been running the shroud for twenty minutes when Parmo looked up from between casts and said "what the fuck is that." Sam looked at where he was looking. Nothing there.

"Where?" Sam said.

"In the fog. There was, well I don't know what it was, but something was moving in the fog. It looked like a person." Sam turned back to the shroud and focused on what he'd been trying to do. The shape came back. Parmo stared at it. Then it was gone. The chime sounded. Parmo looked at Sam.

"Did you do that?"

"Yeah, my new spell just unlocked" Sam said. He read the entry twice.

"Awesome, come on, I'll see if I can freak Phil out with it." Day 8 The first combined sparring session ran on a rotation of winner stays on, three wins and rotate out. Every trainee from the first group was included. Trainers and trainees alike watched from the rim, as people tested out what they'd learned against new opponents. For Leo, this was his first time against anyone other than Kai. He stood at the edge and watched a few exchanges before his turn came up.

Max was already in the pit when Leo dropped down, he'd won his last bout by forcing a guy called Tom against the wall of the pit and bringing the hammer down on the spearman, his weapon a disadvantage at such short quarters. The former fitness instructor wielded a hammer and shield, one of Brams group. The wooden hammer was shorter than Leo's practice Sarren by a significant margin but the shield offered him a way to approach without being picked off early. They settled into their stances.

Max came forward at a slow pace, shield up, hammer held back and ready. Leo kept his distance, always moving, waiting for the moment to strike. The moment came when Max thrust out with the shield, an attempt to push Leo off balance before the hammer came down. Leo had already stepped back before it fully extended, then immediately moved right, to Max's shield side, where the arm was committed and the hammer couldn't follow without Max turning his whole body.

For half a second Max's own torso was between his hammer and Leo's position, weight wrong, the arm pulling back to reset. The Sarren moving in a sweeping arc the moment he stepped right. It came down across Max's shoulder, beneath the neck. Max stepped back, nodded and climbed the ladder. Clean strike, no argument. The next two came from a lad called Pete and a woman called Amy. Pete came in fast, his spear trying to reach Leo before he could react.

Leo started in a low guard, and brought the Sarren up, knocking the spear to his right before reversing the sweep back and landing a slash across Pete's chest. Pete looked on confused before he climbed out of the pit. Amy was sharper, she was one of Shai's group and she made Leo work for it. She nearly caught him with a feint, his long stride backward getting him out of the path of her sword, but only just. He found a gap on her second attempt and that was that. Three wins. Leo climbed the ladder.

He was breathing harder than he wanted to admit. He'd just processed that he'd won three consecutive bouts against people he'd never sparred before when Kai appeared at his shoulder. He felt the hand before he saw it, a firm grip, one squeeze, gone.

"Nicely done, Leo," Kai said, already looking back at the pit.

"Keep that up and you'll have the best record in the group." He paused.

"Don't let Phil beat you. Me and Ronan have a wager." Leo stared at the side of Kai's head for a moment. Kai watched the next exchange without looking at him. Day 9 Mike and John were at the rim when Leo rotated out after his third win of the session. He dropped into a rest position nearby, catching his breath, half watching the next exchange. John was talking, voice low, not directed at Leo.

"You know how Korean players have dominated RTS and MOBA games for the last thirty years?" he said, eyes on the pit.

"Same tools, same games, same access as everyone else. The difference is environment. The best players over there make it their entire world, the culture around it, the hours, the way they think about it constantly. It becomes the thing they build their day around rather than just part of it." He nodded toward the pit.

"That's what those five have done here. Training, magic, their mates from the village. You ever notice you don't see them often just killing time around town. They have a routine and they stick to it. It's why they are so dominant compared to just about everyone else from town." Mike watched the pit for a moment.

"Can you replicate it?"

"I mean, maybe?" John said.

"The Koreans did it. it'd have to be strict though, how many people do you think would be up for that?" One of the Stonehall guards nearby nodded slowly, still watching the exchange below. Leo kept his eyes on the pit, the thought had crossed his mind though. They seemed to do little else if you didn't include Elden Ring a few days ago or the DVDs. Well, he was happy with their current schedule and apparently it was paying off. Day 10 The northern defences were done.

Gary walked the lads along the completed line in the early afternoon, the 'caltrops' covering the northern approach and working into the northeast, two rows deep with the larger frames set back behind the smaller ones. It wasn't subtle. They'd be obvious to anything coming from that direction, but that may be deterrent enough. The southern wall was a different matter.

It was coming along, Gary said so with a pleased smile, but stone took time and the wall around the southern plains was only halfway to its intended height. Through the gap where the gate would eventually sit Leo could see the fields stretching out behind it, the crops thick and green in rows that seemed too high for how long they'd been in the ground. Terry was out there with a measuring tape, his new assistant Jenny beside him with a clipboard. He looked up when Leo and Phil passed and held the tape up.

"Growth's completely boomed," he said.

"Three times I've checked it." Leo looked at the numbers Jenny showed him, then at the fields. He had no idea what he was looking at but knew this was too fast.

"Diane know about this?"

"First thing I did when they sprouted, that was two days ago" Terry said, and went back to measuring. Day 11 Lauren stopped at the table on her way past, cloth over her shoulder, the King John's busy enough behind her that she didn't sit down.

"I need a bit more time with the campaign," she said.

"Running this place and trying to plan something properly for eight people, half of whom have never played, it needs to be right."

"Take as long as you need," Sam said. The others nodded along. Lauren looked relieved, gave the table a quick pat, and headed back toward the kitchen. Across the pub Parmo had pulled up a chair at another table and was leaning forward, talking to a couple Leo vaguely recognised from the training field. From where he was sitting he couldn't hear what was being said, but Rika could apparently, because she'd turned slightly in her seat with a hopeful expression. Parmo shook his head. The couple shook theirs.

Rika turned back to her drink. Still no Return of the King then. At the bar Victoria was listening to something Mars was saying with a smile. Growlie was wrapped around Mars' shoulders, licking his face. Nessa sat with the group at their table watching with a smirk she wasn't bothering to hide. Leo looked at her. She raised her glass slightly without looking away from the bar. Day 12 The brakes were off.

Not fully, Kai wasn't moving at the pace Leo had seen him use in demonstrations, he wasn't going for anything that would leave a mark. But he wasn't treating Leo with kid gloves anymore, those had come off and weren't coming back. Leo lasted longer than he had on day three. He still lost, clearly, and came out of the pit breathing harder than he wanted to. But the session had felt closer to a real spar than a lesson, even if the result was never in doubt.

Against the Monkhaven trainees the gap had widened further, his confidence had grown. He still hadn't lost a bout. Though he'd noticed he never seemed to draw Phil, Sam or Luka — they were being kept apart for some reason, and Leo suspected the festival might be it. Max had improved a lot and pushed him harder than most, but the result was still the same every time.

The others had settled into a dynamic where sparring Leo or any of the other three was something you did to improve rather than something you expected to win. Nobody complained about it. The group got on well and they were happy for the lads. The rankings had quietly become about who was the best of the rest, not including those four.

Leo felt a little embarrassed about it, but he was getting used to being looked at like someone who stood out for the right reasons, rather than what he'd always imagined was the case before his body changed. Day 13 Phil had brought up Magic the gathering and was now in the middle of explaining the basics to Torren and Rika, who were both leaning over the table with different expressions, Torren engaged, Rika already asking questions faster than Phil could answer them.

Parmo complained when it was brought up, that stopped when Rika asked if he didn't like it because he was bad at it. Leo and Shai had been sent for teabags, the house was running low and that couldn't be allowed, no one could remember the last time any of them had actually run out of tea bags.

"So what should I actually expect at this festival?" Leo asked on the walk over, hands in his pockets. Shai's tail swayed once.

"It's loud," she said.

"There's food, games, competitions. People come in from the surrounding villages. It runs for two days." She paused.

"Wear something that can take a bit of damage."

"You keep saying that."

"Because I mean it." The corner of her mouth lifted.

"I've been going since I was small. It's one of my favourite things." She glanced at him sideways.

"You'll like it. Most of it anyway."

"Most of it?"

"Some of the games are designed to make people look stupid," she said.

"Koss takes great pleasure in that part." Leo laughed. She smiled at the sound of it, tail swaying wider for a moment before settling. Day 14 The morning session was already in full swing by the time the sun had cleared the rooftops. The novelty of the pit had long since worn off, replaced by the dull, repetitive sounds of feet shifting on packed earth and the sharp clack of wooden weapons. Leo was in the pit with Kai. The pace was high—higher than it had been at the start of the week.

He wasn't thinking about his footwork anymore; he was just doing it. He moved back as Kai stepped in, catching a strike on his Sarren and pivoting to the side before Kai could follow up. He lasted nearly ten minutes before he finally got caught by a sweep that put him on his backside.

"Let's take a break," Kai said, signaling the end of the round. He didn't look tired, but there was a definite nod of acknowledgement.

"Fantastic work, Leo. Honestly, I'm looking forward to the festival." He offered a hand to help Leo up, a rare grin touching his face.

"There are a few faces there I'm looking forward to seeing when you put them on the ground in the pit." Leo took the offered hand with a smile. He climbed the ladder out of the pit, breathing hard, and leaned against the stone rail. He watched Phil and Max go at it below. The intensity across the whole field had shifted over the last two weeks. It wasn't just the lads anymore; the Monkhaven trainees had stopped looking like civilians playing at being guards. Everyone had improved a huge amount.

He wiped the sweat out of his eyes and looked over at the other groups. Sam was still with Nessa, both of them moving in a blur of small, fast adjustments. Torren was at the far end of the field, talking with one of the older guards during a break. The session wrapped up a couple of hours later. Magic practice followed, the lads working through their drills on the stone dummies while the second training group ran their session on the field nearby. By the time that wrapped up the afternoon sun was high in the sky.

"Pub for food?" Phil asked as they started the walk back toward the houses.

"Sounds good," Leo said.

"I need a shower first, like. I've got half the pit's floor in my hair. I really need to go see that guy who reopened the hairdressers, this is the longest it's ever been I think." They headed down the street, Phil telling everyone he was going to show them why he should be at the top of the rankings, and that the four of them having the same number of wins was clearly a set up. The town was busy around them, the southern wall was another few layers of stone higher, and the morning was moving into a hot afternoon.

It was just another day of training done, with another one exactly like it waiting for them tomorrow.