Adrex shivered in the cool morning air as he stood just within the entrance to the castle, looking out over the formations forming in the field outside. An Imaginary enemy was coming from the west so they were organising a formation so that they could battle it.

Meister Suvlin was directing all the students into small groups of squares six Meisters by six Meisters that were eight squares long and two squares deep. The squares did not have much space between them, just enough for a single rider on horseback to ride between them. There were several of the senior Meisters of the Knight school on horseback that were instructing the squares too.

Orders were barked out and Adrex started to understand that this was not like he imagined, heroically striking down Demons left and right. This was chaos, and war, and he suddenly felt very young to be doing this.

He looked around at the other apprentices and younger Meisters, some of the young were just a year or two older, and had been through this, but the atmosphere of those watching was a grim determination with a mix of fear, although several of the older Meisters seemed to be having a bit of a laugh and chat.

As Adrex looked round the castle courtyard he saw Vista walking through it, her red robe seeming a shade duller in the morning light. She walked over to Adrex and put a hand on his shoulder, “Are you ready for this?” She asked.

“Not really.” He responded, though tried to sound happier than he was.

“Relax a little, you will be operating with several of the older Meisters who will be directing you, learn from them, because one day you will be doing the same. Though I hope you never have to do it against an enemy.” She said,

Adrex nodded solemnly.

Once the Defensive school was set up the rest of the Battle school in their white cloaks and armour formed up, mainly along the flanks of the defensive school, though a few lines formed up behind the defensive line.

Vista organised several loose groups of six from the Battle Mage School, however she ordered them to stay put within the castle walls, for now, first she led the students who were trained as groups out onto the field and lined them up in two lines at the back with several Meisters forming a leadership group in front.

Once they were lined up Vista signalled the groups over and spread them out behind the double lines. Adrex was with a group of year two students, there group leader a girl named Frida; she lined them up in two rows of three then stood in front of them. She turned to face them while the others were being organised, “Expect a lot of shuffling about, and standing up today. Not a lot more though, and please remember your position for the next few days, it will make things go faster.” She told the group.

-

“She was right.” Adrex grumbled to himself as he walked back inside the castle, his feet were wet from the dew on the grass, he was cold from the still and cool evening, and his body hurt from having to stand all day in a field with little movement. He made his way to the dining hall, walking in to find that a great feast had been prepared, and enough room had been set up for all schools.

Normally the students had plenty of room in the hall, but now they would be grouped up. There were fifteen long tables arranged in a three by five layout with benches either side of each table. Adrex sat down on a long bench in the middle row by the far left end of the hall, his body aching in protest as he bent his knees, and slowly eased himself down.

He almost let out a curse and a hand heavily fell on his back, he looked up with anger in his eyes, and almost ready to blast the fool with a fire ball until he found himself looking at Derrik, in full chainmail armour, chainmail hood pulled back revealing his slightly long black hair, beaming smiling face underneath, he with wearing a tabard over the front with a sigil of a black mountain on the front. “Adrex, how are you?” He asked loudly, as he sat himself down next to him.

“I am cold, damp, stiff and tired.” Adrex responded grumpily.

“He’s not used to standing outside all the time.” A slightly gruff sounding voice said from behind Adrex.

Adrex spun to see a boy in a green and brown mottled cloak. He had a brown leather tunic and brown pants and had slipped past both Adrex and Derrik with neither of them seeing. He removed his head to reveal Torrin, who sat down one the bench opposite Adrex. 

“I didn’t see you rangers in formation.” Adrex said in rebuttal.

“We are scouting units, we don’t tend to fight in formations, and you’ll see our hard work over the next few days though.” Torrin said with a cheeky grin.

“Oh, is that so?” said a familiar voice as Gennel and Livia sat down, at the table too, Gennel sitting down next to Torrin and Livia sitting down next to Adrex. “And what work does a ranger really do?” Gennel teased.

Adrex couldn’t help but smile as the old comradery of their ward started up even though they hadn’t seen each other in months.

“Ooh, yes, what does the little ranger do?” Chimed in another female voice as Perra sat down next to Gennel and Nora sat down next to Torrin, completing the group.

Torrin shot Perra a dirty look at the comment about his height, but otherwise ignored the jab. Everyone saw it though and laughed, all except Nora who looked kind of lost.

-

Adrex listened as his friends started to tell tales of their first six months of training, how none of them were prepared for any of it. Derrik, who had never held a sword before, was now training daily with one, plus fitness training and light magic. He even explained how magic for the Knight-Meisters was different. They still used glyph spells like all magic, but they did not work off base spells like the defensive and battle magi. It was also used to enhance their fighting, instead of to attack or defend directly.

Torrin explained that most of his training was also physical; his master saw magic as a crutch so he was training him to do things physically so that he would learn to not rely on magic. The Ranger arts were focused on bush craft, scouting ahead, moving unseen and what Torrin called unconventional warfare. On top of that Ranger magic allowed for visible signals, to aid in moving unseen and trap magic. To prove his point he waved his hand over his robe, magic symbols formed with brown magic  which changed the robe from the mottled colouring to a medium shade of grey. 

The conversations went on for a while, and even Nora who was never part of the ward joined in, talking about the healing training, Adrex did catch Perra shooting the odd glance at her when she joined in, but for the most part it was just nice to have his old ward mates together, and it helped him forget, if only briefly, what had happened in the past few weeks. He just hoped it would last.

-

“Shields Up!” Suvlin roared in his deep heavy accented voice.

A faint blur rose from the front of the formation as the defensive mages worked together to build a unified shield. Each section of the formation was creating a section, with each section lead directing the flow of magic. It would mean that even a generally weaker section would still have the same output as a stronger section. The first line was to take the fire from the front, and the second line was to create a shield that covered the top to stop the enemy raining an attack on top of them.

“And Break!” Suvlin ordered. His voice cut through the cacophony of noise the magic unit was creating.

The front line knelt down, and lowered the top of their shield; the second line directed their shield up a bit higher. Then Vista’s voice rang out. “First wave, fire!”

The battle mages that Adrex had seen drilling in groups then prepared their spells and a wave of fireballs raced away. Several hit the inside of the shield wall, but a majority travelled through the gap and rained down on the field in front of them.

“Second wave. FIRE!” Vista bellowed.

The second line of battle mages cast their fireballs, with a greater number travelling through the split in the shield and impacting into the field.

“Meister Frida, what is it that we do?” Adrex asked.

Frida turned to face him, with a slight smile on her face. “We got the fun job, I heard you talking to the apprentice ranger last night. Their tricks will be coming out soon, our job is to shoot them down.” She said,

“What about the shield wall?” Adrex asked.

“Do you see those senior Meisters walking amongst the sections, not only are they checking on each section, they also pay attention to section leaders like myself, and will drop sections of the shield so that our attacks will pass through.” Frida responded.

Adrex nodded in understanding, and Frida turned to face him. “You’ll need to voice understanding on the battlefield.” She said before turning back to the front, just as a light burst from the tree line arcing up and towards the shield.

“That is our target.” Frida informed the section, “Lightning to me.” She added.

Adrex followed the others and sent a lightning spell forward aimed just in front of Frida. The spells of the section combined into a new spell that Frida crafted, and a single straight bolt of pure electrical power shot forth. One of the Senior Meisters crafted a spell and a small hole appeared in the shield just in time for the attack spell to pass through the shield and strike the burst of light which exploded into a shower of sparks.

Several other balls appeared and the other sections started to cast their own spells. An arrow of fire, from the left pierced one ball of light, and an ice shard to the right. Sometimes the bright light would be high in the sky, other times it would be low to the ground and the sections would have to adjust their spell attack angles to accommodate.

-

The exercise lasted until midday when they finally called an end. Adrex dropped onto the ground panting hard, the day was not a warm one, and it was clear that the colder months were coming; even still he was breathing hard and was drenched in sweat. He sat down, before lying back just trying to catch his breath, several of the formation had already collapsed from overdoing it, especially in the general attack section where they had just been casting fireballs all morning. The Defence mages were also breathing hard, made obvious from the faint mist that was hanging over that section.

There was a reason for this of course, because now the healers could operate. While they couldn’t tend to battlefield injuries, though that could happen even in training, they were going to be treating exhaustion. If a spellcaster collapsed they would move in and collect them and bring them to the back where they had set up a battlefield hospital. Now though, they were going out to sections and tending to those like Adrex who needed it. A young mage came over, did a quick head count of the section, checked who most needed help then cast a spell which sent several green tendrils of magic to those most in need. Adrex immediately felt a little better, but also made sure not to let this magic feed him too much. Just in case it also fed the demon.

Frida got her section back up and standing, until they were dismissed, they had the afternoon to themselves while the Knight-Meisters went through their drills. Adrex made his way to the wall to see what they did.

They practiced first as if the shield wall was still there. They moved through positions to help defend and attack the enemy in front of them. Then they moved to a position where the shield wall was not there and went through combat drills. Each line would spend time in the front so they could practice attacking and defending then they would move out of formation to the back and be part of the surge forwards. Adrex watched for a good hour or so before making his way back inside. He wanted to get some reading in before dinner and meditate to regain some of his magical strength.

-

The Rangers surprise came on day three, and Adrex finally understood what his ward mate had been working on. The students lined up into their formation as normal, but no one could ignore the army carved from wood that was standing in front of them, with the apprentice rangers standing happily in front of their army. Even from the back row Adrex could see the details that had gone into the carvings, and Adrex guessed that it had been done with the woodcraft magic of the ranger school.

The rest of the schools got finalized in their formations, the senior Meisters giving them all a chance to marvel at the carvings before Suvlin ordered the shields up, and the Rangers disappeared into their army, and disappeared they did, seeming to vanish once past the first few rows.

Suvlin looked at the shield rows, and then shouted out “Set!”

That was when the first arrow flew from the wood carving army. It bounced off the shield and landed in the ground. The Knights-Meister immediately raised shields to protect them as more arrows shot out towards the spell casters formation. However, the arrow attacks had gaps in them. When a gap in the shooting did open up then the formation would counter attack with a wave or two of fireballs.

Despite the initial shock of arrows being fired at them, Adrex managed to regain his composure before asking Frida, “So, who are our targets now? More lights?”

“Not this time. You will notice that the opposing army has units that are standing taller than the rest. These are command units or enemy Magic users, and these are our targets in warfare. However we must be more careful, we could attack and the enemy could counter through the gap in the shield. Those arrows will have protection spells and will be blunted, but I can tell you from personal experience, they hurt a lot.” Frida said.

“Understood.” Adrex, and several of the others in his section said.

“I’ll start to select targets, you will need to be ready to cast when I give the order.” Frida said with the authority of her position.

She started to scan the battlefield, not just for targets, but opportunities to attack. Adrex started to note that the arrows would stop while the wave of attacks went out, and the wooden army in front of them fell, though arrows would also be sent through the gap in the shield as a counter attack forcing the senior Meisters to throw up individual shields for protection. It was during a fireball counter attack that Frida yelled, “Lightning, Now!”

Immediately the group of magae cast a lightning spell at her target which she collected and dispatched, a hole appeared in the shield when the enemies heads were down and it hit one of the slightly taller leader figures. The leader fell, and as it did a magic trap was set off and several other wooden units around it caught fire and burnt away.

Frida turned to her group and explained. “As a leader or enemy spellcaster dies it will sew confusion amongst the enemy, demonstrated by the destruction caused around that target.”

She then turned around and immediately called out “Ice.”

Several Ice spells were collected together and an ice shard was launched at another leader unit. Again as it fell it took several units with it. This time Adrex noticed a ranger slinking back further into the wooden army.

As the training progressed on neither side seemed to be getting any advantage with the occasional wooden soldier getting close to the Knights-Meister, but each time they were forced back by the well drilled soldiers. The problem, Adrex noticed, was that the longer this went on the harder it became on the spellcasters. Shields were getting weaker and the caster was either collapsing or an arrow would get through. The senior instructors didn’t lend a hand to help; Adrex thought Master Vista could probably finish this in one move. This was becoming a test of endurance, and they were being forced back.

Well, the Mages and Magus were, the Knights-Meister were drifting wide of their position. Adrex wondered if they were as skilled as reported. “Frida, do we have any more targets?” He asked.

“No Adrex, all leader types have either been killed or have been withdrawn.” Frida said, she was looking pale and exhausted.

“Then we should push forward and help takedown the front lines.” Adrex said.

“You’re just full of energy, little one,” Frida said, breathing heavily, “But you should see what is about to happen before you break ranks.” She said with a wry smile on her face.

Adrex looked out and saw that the Knights-Meister had managed to box in the wooden army. Their shields were raised to protect them from ranger fire which was now being split in three directions. Then the knights charged forward, swords, spears and shields glowing white in the aura of their magic. Vista, who was still leading the main magic assault, started to focus the attack narrower and narrower, to avoid raining fire on their own soldiers. It was not long until the Rangers surrendered.

The magic shield dropped immediately, and a majority of the students collapsed. Adrex went to walk to the front line, took one step and his legs gave out underneath him and he collapsed onto the dirt. Frida laughed, “Apparently full of adrenaline, not energy.”

Adrex rolled over, breathing hard, hitting the ground like that had knocked the wind out of him. Frida slowly walked over to Adrex and sat down. “The medical casters will be here soon, but remember this, because your training will be focused on getting you ready for real combat like this. Eventually you will be leading your own group of spell casters in training and combat.” Frida said slowly.

Adrex smiled weakly in return, “I can’t wait.” He said.

-

Adrex spent the final evening of the training session laughing and joking with his old wardmates while eating great food and drinking a good drink. They stayed up later than they should have swapping stories until one by one they all left. The group all saying their goodbyes until they next meet for training. Adrex went to bed that night and slept well, he didn’t wake until long after the other schools had left.