" 197...198...199...200!!!"
Just barely pushing through the 200 marks, Rein just limp weakly on the ground on all four, sweats and dirt are all over his body, then he turn his body backwards, while Emil greets him with a smile and a pouch of water,
"That's 200 push up done for today my lord"
Gulping the water greedily, Rein just responds,
"Seems like it's getting easier the more you do it"
Scratching his head Emil just thought,
'if it's a normal people they will concede in a day or two, but seems like you are quite abnormal my lord'
Just after having 3 minutes breaks, Rein decided to conclude his routine for the day, standing up and slowly jog towards the terrain that he have been using for a week now,
"You gonna join or not, I want to finish this before dawn" He say to Emil without turning his back seems eager to finish earlier,
"Hahaha, I'll follow you from the back my lord, no worries" Emil said while scratching his heads and following his trail onto the dense forest.
Before dawn arrived two sweaty figures seems to be jogging towards the Camp settlement, some of the soldiers just finish freshing up while some attend to miscellaneous activity that morning, Quite a few of them are confused on the young lord odd behaviour,
'why are the captain doing that everyday'
'well, that peculiar '
'the young lord seems to have a high spirit everyday!!!'
'such pointless thing to do'
Weeks before, they started to realise that their captain are working out everyday while accompanied by their vice captain, they are clouded with questions, why a young mage prodigy like the young lord are exhausting himself doing things that a knight usually do,
The soldiers in the camp are divided into two stereotypes after their captain starts his peculiar routine,
Those that cheers him up for his effort and those who thinks what he do is pointless and detrimental to his performance in battle, as an exhausted mage are good as dead if they make a fluke in battle especially if they lose their focus because of exhaustion, while Rein and Emil just basked in ignorance knowing what playing in their head,
After finishing their daily quota, Emil and Rein gathered in the meeting camp to discuss something, Sitting in a chair, Rein just started his daily responsibilities as the Captain in Charge, while Emil aid him, giving out his opinion from time to time,
" Are the soldiers injured already healed?"
"Yes, some already in a good condition and attend to their duty already"
"Hmm, that's good because we will move in 3 days"
"Anyway Emil, I am curious about your thoughts on our first battle that day?, what do you think of our force?"
Contemplating in thoughts , Emil just voice out his honest thoughts and concern,
"It's really messed up my lord, sure there are battling with intend to win the battle buts there's too much thing too improve" he says while scratching his chin,
"Their coordination are bad and cooperation are really just bad, it's good that Lady Grace sent some of her mages for backing up, but if this continue I am sure they also will be engulfed in our soldiers mess"
"Hmm, I thought so, seems like they are contemplating whether to cooperate with the ex criminal soldiers, which makes some of them hesitate"
"Yes, my lord that's a bad moves to do especially in a continuous battle"
" So, do you have any suggestions to improve our force?"
"Hmm, I think we need to make a quick mock battle to determine their ranks so we can arrange our force much better"
"Are you suggesting in expanding the line of command?, I thinks that is a good move"
"Yes, my lord"
Discussing such things, both of them immediately called upon all of the soldiers and briefly told them to ready themselves for mock battle, while Emil just adds some explanation why did they decide to do the mock battle,
"Soldiers, as I and Captain Rein have discussed in meeting, they will be quick mock battle between all of your"
"But you are free to join or not considering we are moving out in threes day", Hearing such sudden announcement some of them muse in thoughts,
'why suddenly a mock battle, when we are going out soon'
'isnt this a bad move'
'i think I'll passe on, I don't want to get exhausted'
Expecting such murmur and responds from the soldiers, Emil just smiled and uttered,
"This mock battle are not your usual mock battle as me and the captain are deciding to expand our camp line of command, we will elect the most promising and talented one to be the squad leader,
'A squad leader!!!'
'I am interested,"
'didnt that means the squad leader will be third in the commanding ranks just below the captain and the vice?'
Now that all the soldiers are fired up for mock battle, Emil and Rein just moved towards a proper area to conduct the mock battle,while they just find a empty spot to sit down and monitor the mock battle, Emil then continued to set some rules,
"This area is the battle ring, at a time, two people will come upon this stage to challenge and battle each other"
"The one that lose will immediately disqualified while the one winning will retain their pose until they are defeated",
With this explaining the soldiers just nodded in agreements,
"Thats the only rules, any objections or questions?"
When he thought that no one objected, one soldiers just raised his hands and ask in concern,
"Are the ex-criminal soldiers also eglilble to join this battle?"
When, he says this some of the ex criminal soldiers just hissed their dissatisfaction towards the questions, but Emil just dissolved it with his answer,
" All can join even the ex-criminal except for lady Grace mage that is " while pointing towards the 5 mages, while one the mages which seems to be the leader just shrugged his hands off, saying he and his companions arent going to join anyway,
"Hmmm, so if there are no more questions, let's resume and commence the mock battle, owh and I'll be the referee for this battle"
Then without delay, two soldiers just came upfront and began their battle, one with a big stature while other one with medium size build, and Emil just asked their name first,
"Names?"
"Tony"
"Luther"
Toby is the one with big stature while Luther is the one with medium size build,
Then as Emil make a gesture to start, they immediately clashed with each other, Luther agilely just lunged towards tony with a big stride while brandishing his swords, seeing that Tony not moving any inch, people thoughts that's he is going to lose,
But it's seems like their expectations seems wrong, as without effort, he just parried the incoming slash without any effort, making Luther to stumble back by the force, but he managed to get back to his feet, but this time he just stare at Tony waiting for an opening,
When he sees that Tony isn't moving at all, he just lunged forward again, just like last time he aims towards his chest area Initiating a vertical slash, as if expecting the same attack, Tony intend to parry again, but as their sword just gonna clash again, Luther retracted his swords fastly and lower down his body to the ground, seeing such things, Rein just expected,
'A feint attack huh'
When Luther lower down his body, with the swords now acting as a support he intend to swept through Tony legs, just as he thought the big man gonna fall down, what struck him is that he feets just hit Tony legs that's seems to made out from steel, which makes him grimaced in pain, seconds later he just fall to the ground while Tony pointed his swords near his neck, which made luther raised his hands in defeat, just like that the first battle ends while everyone clapped their hands,
Then, both tony and Luther exchange handshake, while Luther comes out from the ring instead Tony stay, then the battle continued
Several battle commenced after that, but seems like the big guy isn't giving anyone any chance to win against him, just like an unpenetratable rock, he just stay firmly while moving slightly here and there for the battle, although there are others that managed to make him move a bit for a while, he still manage to win, Now he is in his 50th winning streak,
And the one that challenging him now are dwindling in numbers, as they thought he is impossible to win against, until one man appeared, when people see this man's, they seems to made way for him as he have such a vicious and dread aura, while the man just throded his way to the ring with a sinister smile, he is one of the ex- criminal soldiers,
Seeing this Rein just thoughts,
'he seems to be wise enough, to watch and wait until all the others showed their hands'
'After analyzing tony througly, he is now confident in winning this match'
While Emil interrupted his inner thoughts,
"Name?"
"Machete"
When this man says this words, some grimaced and became tense, as he is a well known criminal for his notoriety in the past, while Tony eyebrow flinched a bit,
As Machete walks inside the ring he faced Tony, face to face while saying,
"You are quite good at defense but I think you would not be able to handle my attack" he say while smiling,
"Try me"
A s soon as Tony said that, Machete just vanished in that position and in a split second he is standing in front of Tony with brandished sword on both of his hands, he without gasping for an air, just continuously attack Tony with his swords, while Tony just contorted in defending, Machete was attacking like crazy, vertical slashing using his dual swords and when Tony was just trying to adapt and defend, he just switch to horizontal slashing,
If Tony manage to defend that, Machete then switch again to thrusting his swords while his body moving in every area, trying to find a loophole in Tony's defend, At first Tony was able to continually defending but after a period of time,he began to staggered, as slashes and wounds are starting to appear all over his body, it seems like Machete Insane attacking skills are working and now tiring Tony out,
Then it happens, when finally Tony loses his focus and failed to defense his back body, Machete just sought that opportunity and attack those weakness which in the ends make the big man fall on his knees, Seeing that he cannot continue any further, he raised his right hands forfeiting,
Seeing such one sided battle , everyone seems to have a tacit understanding, they cannot defeat this guy, while Emil invited the soldiers to participate, Machete just brandished and watch the swords on his hands, while smiling with confident that, no one gonna challenge him to be the squad leader position anymore,
But just when, everyone thought that no one gonna challenge that insane person, a person with short stature just came forward which makes everyone laugh and ridicule such soldiers, while the person in concern just seems confident and oblivious to the ridicule,
"Name?"
"Miki"
When everyone hear his name they just laughed without constraints, But Emil just like the boy just ignored them and commence the battle,
Seeing his next challenger, Machete just smiled in contempt, not moving an inch when the commencent initiated, while Miki suddenly start moving slowly towards him, Just when it's only a meter distance are seen between them, he with swift and fast movements arrived in front of Machete, he makes a diagonal slash,
In just a mere seconds, everyone was stunned including Machete as he have to parry with an effort for that attack, feeling that the boy Miki could match his level, without delay he also started to clash with him, As the battle continue, they are now cannot get their eye from the match, as they fight is too extraordinary to miss,
Both of the. are fighting without constraints, while Machete attacking is fast and vicious, Miki is parrying and counter attacking with flawless movements, They clashes produce sparks and dust everytime their sword clashes, Machete are more inclined towards his agile swords movements, Miki is more leaning towards his footwork and counterattacking, they are no ends to their battle,
When, Machete feels like the their battle will be dragged for too long, he feels irritated and annoyed that his minds started to thinks of a way to ends it even with using dirty cheap tricks, as they battle continue suddenly Machete makes a movements that baffled and some feel angry for his actions, in which he just used his magic 'ground break' to disturb Miki moments, and with his movements disturbed, Machete took that opportunity to end him, in which Miki are pinned with swords on his neck,
Some them utter their disapproval of such dirty tricks, as it is a common rules for every soldiers for not using magic in mock battle, as it's not fair to those knights that have no magic at all, But some of the people that are with machete, openly supports him and just stated that the Rules of not using magic are not stated at the start of battle, with this commotion, Emil just realised his mistakes but he just stops the audience and direct his gaze to the captain,
"i know some of your are not approving of such move, it's my mistake but now I'll leave the decision to captain"
When he says this, all the gaze are now focused on Rein, while he just stands off and state the obvious,
"The winner for this battle is Machete", when he says this some of the soldiers just started to dissaprove again but immediately he dissolved it fast with his next word,
"At first I have decided to pick the best warrior to be the squad leader, but seeing them fighting with their utmost talent and effort, I have decided"
"I'll pick both Miki and Machete as the new squad leader", with this statement everyone dissatisfaction just seems to die down, while Emil are happy for his young lord wise decision,
But not all seems to appreciate those results, As Machete just gripped his fist tightly while his body are shivering in anger, but he just masked it down again,
" With this the mock battle is over and I await both the squad leader in my camp soon, for I'll have their first order from me" ,
Then Rein and Emil just walks out to the meeting camp, followed by the new appointed squad leaders which follow them from behind, Everyone seems to enjoy those battle few minutes ago, but after that they just slowly disperse and back to their mundane routine.