Rise of the Omnimage

*Crack* *crack* *crack*

Wooden weapons slammed against one another and shields. The conscripts had been running laps, doing pushups, squats, dragging heavy objects, sit-ups, and getting hit nonstop. They were all black and blue as the soldiers conditioned them brutally for the past week. They were beat to harden the body, and they didn't get a day of rest.

Since the initial run they had lost 25 more conscripts and now they were being taught weapon handling and defense. They were shown spears for the first three days, and this was the fourth day of sword and shield. The combination came easily to Sorin who was very close to being ambidextrous. He could use the shield and sword equally as weapons and defense which made him formidable in the duels, they ended the day with. His aether training had come to a complete halt due to utter exhaustion. He had tried to get a way to supplement himself with aether to make his body more efficient or stronger and had gained only small amounts of progress. He did this during the few minutes they had to eat drink and relieve themselves as he was unable as soon as he hit the cot and passed out to be woken up too soon.

"Conscript! Halt."

Sorin instantly stopped mid swing and lowered his weapon as the soldiers came up and he bowed his head.

"Drop the shield and take up another sword in your left hand. The Sergeant has seen you may be capable of learning dual wielding with swords."

Sorin immediately turned and ran to get the sword and drop the shield as commanded. He returned with a wooden short sword in his left hand and stood in front of the soldier weapons down and head bowed.

"Continue training. Learn to use the swords interchangeably in both offense and defense."

The soldier took a few steps back and Sorin swung the sword to get used to the weight. He knew in the days of swords on earth sword masters who could duel wield were absolutely terrifying in battle but we're exceedingly rare as it was extremely difficult to duel wield swords and had a severe drawback of defense especially against projectiles. The style of dimachaerus was used in gladiatorial spectacle but was still rarely used. With Sorin's upgraded mind he was able to remember some of the techniques he saw from movies and TV shows that showed gladiators. He saw the patterns and movements and tried to replicate them. There had to be a flow of combat, and he had to predict his opponent significantly better than when he had a shield. Most of which he attempted ended in brutal smacks from his opponents' weapon. His opponent was a man about his size beaten black and blue like he was and had significant skill with a sword and shield but was better with the spear. Sorin was slow in learning the patterns and what Hollywood had made look pretty and easy with its choreography of the battles was not the reality which led to a very painful day filled with constant strikes to his body some which drew blood in spite of wooden weapons. Sorin began to figure out that redirection and not interrupting the flow of your opponent until you could force them to overextend allowed for brutal openings. He saw that with two weapons he was able to disarm easier which he successfully did on a number of occasions before attacking his opponent's footwork leading to his success.

Every day the training day would end with each person getting 2-3 battles. Those who failed to win a single fight in those would be collared and led away.

"Conscripts! Form for combat!"

That was the que. They formed a large circle as the soldiers formed behind them.

"You and you! In the middle!"

One soldier commanded two conscripts to the center. They obeyed, then they took up position.

"Begin!"

The fights were always so brutal. Each person here was desperate as the fear what happened to the collared conscripts was ever on their minds or the fear of death for poor showings. The fights were not pretty and there was not a lot of technical skill just brutal swinging until exhaustion. Like Sorin a few people were chosen to take up special weapons such as a hook blade, chakram, claymore, battle axe, and one person even got a flail to use. Some were even thrown back to the spear or even a short spear thing called a partisan which was more complex and had more slashing but not as much as a glaive or naginata looking weapon.

The fights would go brutally until one slip up and they came to a sudden end with the other would be smashed to the ground so forcefully they would get sent backwards or downward. The increased strength of the conscripts from the aether made these fights seem like the martial art movies but without the grace.

Then it was Sorin's turn. He had never used the dual blades for real and was rather nervous and his opponent was one of the spear users.

They took their positions, and he looked across at his opponent. A pale faced man smaller than he was, but the fear was there as it was in him. He could use that. He forced his fear down and grinned at his opponent as he raised his swords in what he had been shown was dimachaerus and waited for the signal.

His opponents eyes widened as Sorin had hoped was him being psyched out. Hopefully it was the case because if it were then he had already won.

"Begin!"

His opponent rushed in as Sorin had guessed he would if his opponent was afraid and trying to rush in to stop feeling that pressure. Sorin slow jogged to the middle and met his opponent who naturally led with a thrust to the throat. Sorin turned to the left with the left sword up deflecting the spear letting it go by as he brought the right sword up and slammed it down on the back of his opponent's neck as he went by. Had that been a real sword it would have been hopefully a lethal strike but only a brutal finish would do here and never were they given easy victories. Sorin continued to his assault as his opponent staggered forward from the quick deflect and stinging impact unaware that Sorin had closed the distance instantly shifting to his opponents left side where they were weak as his opponent was left-handed. With the left sword he slashed down on his opponent's shin and with the right slammed into the back throwing his opponent into the ground. His opponents spear flew to the side as Sorin pounced on his back swords pinning him to the ground as he looked to the officiating soldier for command.

"Break! Move away and back into position."

Sorin immediately stood and careful to stay away from the soldier keeping his head bowed moved back to the circle. He had secured his spot for another day. Sorin saw the sergeant watching as he got up and used his heat sense to verify if he was in fact under observation by the man and he was talking to the soldier next to him who was taking notes while also looking at Sorin. He had done his best to not stand out, but he was starting to see that was becoming a thing of the past especially as more conscripts were weeded out.

Sorin fought one more time that night but ended up losing to a pugilist who was given gauntlets. Sorin was unable to keep her out of his range. He tried to fall back to keep her in his ideal range, but he couldn't. She would close and he just didn't have the skill to fight that close with swords. She kept slamming punches through his guard and eventually Sorin said screw it, tossing his swords to the ground and take the fight to the ground which was a huge mistake as his opponent had been trained in ground combat and she proceeded to beat him into a state of near unconsciousness.

He was ripped off the ground and shoved to the ring where his vision slowly came back. He picked up the swords that were tossed at his feet and stood there bleeding from everywhere on his face.

The fights where eventually called. Five conscripts didn't win a single fight. They were collared and taken away.

"Attend!"

All of the conscripts dropped their weapons and snapped to attention as the sergeant made his way out the arena.

"This is your first week of training and we have gotten our core group. You will be given a day reprieve for healing and recovery once per week. This is the day that you can wash your clothing and ensure everything is ready for the following day. A healer will be sent to speed your recover for maximum training results. You will not be fully healed as you need to learn to embrace pain and suffering. Your internal injuries and soreness will be healed but the bruises and cuts shall remain.

Dismissed!"