16 The Ironcloud Knight Order (1/2)

In the surrounding darkness, the Water Fortress was akin to a star in the landscape, and as the sun was rising, its brightness faded away, slowly but surely. In the training grounds, two hundred preparatory knight powerhouses and a few knights were waiting for a hero, both a tactician and a fearsome acolyte: Drodosis!

Sandy was one of the many preparatory knights who came here with high expectations, hopeful and eager to join the order. He was a Caucasian man, with blond hair and a small beard: he was already 30 years old and he knew that becoming a knight would be very difficult in the future. Joining the order was his way out of a boring and ineffective routine.

The Thornfield family offered many resources to preparatory knights, in the hope they would breakthrough and become loyal to them. However, some people just lacked experiences as well as life and death battles. Sandy was a coward, or at least he used to be in his prime, wasting his youth chasing after girls instead of enlisting in the various armies in war. After losing his family at the hands of bandit, he had changed. His eyes were radiating with killing intent, and his mind was driven by a sense of duty purer than anyone in the training ground.

He didn't succ.u.mb to a quest of revenge. Instead, he swore an oath to serve the Thornfield family with all his heart, so that his tragic story would not repeat itself in the future in the vast lands owned by the Thornfields'. Sandy's background wasn't out of the ordinary here.

Among the group of people who came to the training grounds, more than a quarter of them had tragic history. Coming here was an opportunity for them to start anew, follow a leader and earn glory, maybe so that they would move forward, once for all. Fang had indeed emphasized on the saying: ”In the Ironcloud Knight Order, you are judged based on your skills.”

The rest had different motives: the will to become a knight, strength, fame. There were plenty of benefits to follow the strong.

Since Sandy was born, he had received lessons from novice and even veteran knights. The Lark viscount himself had sparred with him back in time, but even though his swordplay was quite good, his internal energy was not dense enough to allow him to breakthrough.

When Drodosis arrived, Sandy and the other preparatory knights was flabbergasted. They had heard the rumours, read the reports and listened to the bards in taverns, but they never imagined Drodosis to be so young and overbearing!

While his body seemed immature, only being 150 centimetres tall, his body was well built, with ripped muscles, and his left eye was glowing, making it clear he had already gone through his share of battle. This was truly a breath-taking sight. A teenager, half their age, had seemed to be twice the men they were! Humiliation, envy, admiration, anger, frustration…The crowd experienced a myriad of feelings.

His voice was not childish. It was a low, clear and charismatic voice, ”Hi, everyone! I a.s.sume you all came here to become a member of the Ironcloud Knight Order, is that right?”

”YES!”, everyone said with fervour, and Drodosis nodded at this sight.

Behind him, four acolytes arrived in rhythm: Ofaris, Maria, Rolf and Jon, the four bodyguards sent by Elder Gale to protect him in the war, four acolytes who became Drodosis' closest subordinates, people he could trust as friends.

”You are here because of many reasons, I suppose. Money? Strength? Status? Revenge? Finding a purpose, a goal to fight for?”, Drodosis said in a calm voice, ”Well, joining the Ironcloud Knight Order will not be easy. Even if you manage to join it, the dangers will be numerous. We will fight monsters on a daily basis, we will do the dirty work, we will behead our enemies in cold blood. This is why, before you attempt to pa.s.s this test, I must warn you. Becoming a member of the Ironcloud Knight Order is a life-changing decision which shouldn't be made hastly. You might lose your life anytime, you might not survive my orders. If you are not ready to die, then do not bother trying to join us!”

Drodosis' speech, which was meant to deter these preparatory knights, had the exact opposite effect. Their fighting spirit had been lit up. Seeing their determination, Drodosis sighed, before continuing, ”The test will take seven days and seven nights. You will not sleep and you will be pushed to your limits. Are you ready?”

”YES!”, this time, the crowd shouted in unison, and it seemed to echo through the whole Water Fortress.

The first day, Drodosis' trial was simple-minded. It was meant to push the men and women to their physical limits. Drodosis used the biochip to scan every single man and woman, and he gave them individual workout plans, based on their current physical status. The five veteran knights had to complete a workout ten times more difficult than that of the weaker preparatory knights!

Drodosis had made up his mind. He wanted strong subordinates, but more importantly, he wanted trustworthy subordinates. By making so many orders, the crowd would think he had no ways of telling if they cheated or not! Drodosis wanted to purify this crowd, eliminating liars and cheaters.

As expected, after this one day of workout, out of the 228 partic.i.p.ants, only 180 survived this ordeal. The rest either collapsed, lacking determination, or were banned for cheating. This was a huge shock to everyone.

Sandy was relieved, 'thank G.o.d I didn't cheat! This Drodosis is no average character indeed! He perceived and evaluated all of our movements and actions! This is terrifying!'

Only one day pa.s.sed, and their whole body was hurting them. They could barely stand on their two feet, and from a distance, one could see they were trembling from exhaustion. Had this been a normal day, they would go to their bed, and collapse. However, they looked around them, and they realized they weren't alone.

Drodosis rewarded them with ten minutes of rest. Only ten minutes. But it was enough in his opinion.

The next day, Drodosis gave them spears, bows and arrows.

”I don't want swordsmen. I want spearmen, and bowmen. If you never trained in this weapon, then today is the opportunity. Today, I will test your potential. The Ironcloud Knight Order accept youths and untrained people, but it won't be stained by those who have no potential. The world is unfair, so you'd better pray to your G.o.ds, if you believe in them!”

Drodosis didn't set overwhelming requirement. With the help of the books he had read, and especially the spear technique he had studied in the past months, he could be considered better than most of knights already. He didn't need to be a spearman master to teach spearmans.h.i.+p. His knowledge and a.n.a.lysis' function of the biochip sufficed him.

As for archery, it didn't require the skills or talent of a genius. To Drodosis, it was only a matter of accuracy. As long as you trained hard, your muscle memory would suffice to fire arrows accurately in any circ.u.mstances. Spears and bows were two different weapons, ranged or melee, but both were easy to use, yet difficult to master.

”By the end of the day, those who didn't successfully reach the minimum requirement will be eliminated. Is that understood?”

The second day of test didn't push them to their physical limits. It pushed them to their mental limits. Exhausted, learning a martial art was increasingly difficult.

Drodosis immediately spotted eight geniuses among the group: the five veteran knights, over thirty of age but still talented and full of vigour, as well as one novice knight, a woman called Lara Coldwinter, and two preparatory knights, Serius and Siegfried, who happened to have a 95% hitrate with long bows!