361 Elder Lich (1/2)
”Who will stand with me?” General Gar'na-dras called.
”HO!” Instantly, the shouts of every soldier in the hall resounded as one.
”All of them?” Mindy blinked. ”But if everybody goes, the weaker ones are going to get killed!”
Suddenly she found herself at the center of attention with glares staring daggers at her from every side.
Gar'na-dras barked a laugh. ”She does have a point, at that. The battle will go easier if I need not worry over unnecessary casualties. It may take longer with less troops, but I would rather extend the fight than lose good people.”
”Qualifiers.” Darian said suddenly. Gar'na-dras turned his gaze to him. Darian explained. ”Impose criteria.”
”Body Qi stage for support crews. As for the main battle group… Earth Qi stage, minimum.” Gar'na-dras said firmly. ”No less.”
”When do we deploy?” Darian asked next.
One of the nearby officers scoffed. ”You don't need to know. You're just a boy. You just need to stay out of our way.”
”Actually, I was thinking of calling in support from my friends in the Church of Light. Since we have access to mana, some priests skilled with Life Magic could be helpful.” Darian mused out loud.
The officer instantly shut up.
”Three days.” Gar'na-dras answered after a bit more consideration. ”I want the full strength of the Crown Century. I want to crush this older Lich utterly, and with minimal cost. Three days should be enough for your friends to reach us.”
”It should also be enough to weed out the weaklings from the volunteers. Everybody needs to pass the qualifiers for combat ability. EVERYBODY.” The nosy officer said, eyes narrowed as he glared at Darian.
”I'll make a point to tell my friends you said that.” Darian said politely.
The officer's face fell, turning a bit pale. A priest highly skilled in life magic could be so highly valued, even if he couldn't fight a rabbit to save his life, Gar'na-dras would still want to bring him along for his healing powers. That single point alone was enough to make a joke of everything the officer just said.
***
Over the next two days, the First Draconian Legion prepared.
The First Legion's Crown Century gathered in a hurry. Rather than just one day, the Second Century took over their duties of escorting the Crown Prince for the entire week. This gave even the farthest warrior of the First Century time not only to reach the Portal Fortress, but to get a good night's sleep and some familiarization training with the rest of the group.
Qualifiers were held on all three days. The first layer of testing was for sheer physical strength.
”This is a magic force indicator.” The nosy officer introduced a giant sand-bag covered with runes. ”The standard you need to meet is that of an early Body Qi stage martial practitioner! Think you can make it?” he snorted at Darian.
BOOM!
For a moment, nobody could see anything. There was sand flying everywhere. People were coughing as the dust slowly cleared and they could see again.
”Oops.” Darian said, but his tone was not at all apologetic. ”Does that count?”
The officer gulped.
The entire sandbag had burst. Darian's single palm had completely destroyed the magic force indicator.
Gar'na-dras chuckled. ”Pass. Next!”
”Someone get another magicked sandbag!” A logistics officer called into a comms crystal.
When it arrived, Darian told Mindy, ”Try not to hit too hard. Let's not destroy everything.”