Chapter 1520 (1/2)
Leaving his portion of the Rally Station to attend the skirmish between recruits immediately reminded Randidly that this place had been quite a dump before he had begun terraforming his area. He walked alone toward the bleak and squat grey buildings at the center of the Rally Station while Helen gleefully took the recruits through the toughest physical training exercise yet. Something that would really have them primed for the upcoming skirmish.
At the very least, the Darkstar demonstration had the desired effect; the recruits are finally taking their physical training seriously… Randidly reflected as he walked up to the central buildings. He flexed his hand, remembering the sensation of when Helen had struck him with enough force to stall him out. Plus, several individuals had breakthroughs with their image. The weak-willed ones are finally showing signs of developing resolve. Growth is clearly trending upward.
He paused outside the central building, eyeing the guards who seemed to dread any sort of interaction with the fearsome Head Drill Sergeant. Although he didn’t recognize the images of either of these two individuals, the way they stared at the ground and imperceptibly trembled in his presence meant they had heard of his reputation.
Which made Randidly feel quite awkward. Not because he minded the reputation, but because he had been so dismissive of Superintendent Xeruth’s missives that he legitimately had no idea where the skirmishes would take place. He had wanted to come and ask these guards, but seeing their expressions, it seemed somewhat inappropriate for his persona to admit he didn’t know something.
Not that he had no idea where the competitions were being held; Randidly could sense that the near two hundred thousand recruits and two hundred Drill Sergeants were gathered at three massive caverns in the heart of the floating Rally Station. But between them all, Randidly wasn’t sure which he, as the Head Drill Sergeant would be attending.
Luckily, Randidly was saved by a fool.
“Ah, umm… you!” Randidly turned and looked at the elven-eared visage of Lay’mel Tuuellethe, who clearly thought he had forgotten Randidly’s name when he had never even bothered to ask it. But despite this obvious faux pas, the strange Drill Sergeant’s face still split into a wide grin as he recognized him. “And here I thought you had been gobbled up by our Boogeyman of a Head Drill Sergeant! Are you preparing for the skirmishes? Indeed, what a coincidence! Why don’t we head over there together? Hehe, I wouldn’t mind sharing some secret training methods as we chat… the growth of my recruits has been positively explosive!”
Lay’mel walked over and clapped Randidly enthusiastically on the back. Meanwhile, Randidly derived quite a bit of enjoyment from the way the watching guard’s scaled skins turning steadily grey as they regarded the unfortunate next victim of the ‘boogeyman’. Gradually, as Lay’mel’s speed of pats on Randidly’s shoulder grew slower, his expression grew more strained. “Ah… why don’t you lead the way, friend?”
Shit, he has no idea where to go either. And also… this would have been me gambling that he is in the same grouping as I am...
Still, at least with the presence of Lay’mel, Randidly had an easy method to escape this situation. He looked over toward the guards, his gaze as ominous as if he were holding aloft a gravestone without an inscription. Each one of them could see their fates being sealed by his gave gaze. One of the guards practically tripped in his haste to hurry over. “S-sirs, how about I guide you to the location? It’s in one of the interior training facilities…”
With this minor inconvenience taken care of, Lay’mel once more regained his cheer. “Excellent, excellent, excellent. Anyway, let me clue you in on some of the more… savory gossip that I’ve heard. Do you know of Drill Sergeant Pellmon?”
Randidly shook his head and spoke in a low voice that hopefully conveyed an ambiguous and tightly controlled emotion. “I do not.”
As they moved forward behind the sweating guard, Lay’mel’s eyes practically glowed with excitement. He kept fluttering his fingers outward, like his arms ended in massive butterflies. “Oh indeed? Well, he is one of the most prestigious of the Drill Sergeants that was hired for this draft. He worked for almost fifty years as an image purifier. Very talented and powerful. It would make sense that you wouldn’t have encountered him casually yet… well, it seems that Pellmon has extensive exposure to our fearsome Head Drill Sergeant. They are from the same homeworld!”
What? Immediately, Randidly’s eyes sharpened. There was a slight hitch in his step as his mind started to whirr, considering who this could possibly be.
Seeing that he had Randidly’s attention, Lay’mel practically oozed satisfaction as he slowly nodded. He waited to speak until the gesture was finished. “I was shocked too! It turns out that the rumors about Drill Sergeant Ghosthound being from a world that hadn’t yet passed the Calamities yet were completely fabricated; they were only thrown out there to keep us off the right track! Meanwhile, this Ghosthound was truly an old monster from the Fourth Cohort… which explains why he is so close with Commandant Wick…”
As Randidly listened to Lay’mel, he gradually relaxed. It was clear that there wasn’t some other individual from Expira running around, achieving success in the Nexus behind Randidly’s back; the Drill Sergeants all just seemed to be incorrigible gossips. So Randidly nodded along with Lay’mel’s enthusiastic explanations, making small notes of all the different sins and traits that were ascribed to him. Eventually, he started removing the strange ones and focusing on the ones that amused him slightly. Because there was a lot.
Randidly wondered if there was a similar slew of rumors about him on Expira, hopefully with a bit more truth to them.
The rumors ranged the gamut from strange to shocking. The Drill Sergeants said that Randidly Ghosthound has a Skill that allowed him to plant seeds of fear within his targets just by looking at them. He could hear the utterance anytime anyone said his name (not that Lay’mel seemed to notice how much danger he was exposed to as he loudly explained this ability) and peer through time and space to examine their soul when someone attracted his attention.
Randidly Ghosthound bathed once a month, in a pool of blood that he had collected from worthy adversaries. Randidly Ghosthound refused to allow windows in any dwelling in which he resided, lest a ray of pure sunlight strike his body and even partially weaken his image of darkness. Randidly Ghosthound collected rare metals and spent long hours training his body to discern the hardness of a material only by smell. Randidly Ghosthound’s left arm was infected with a rogue image and tried to kill him, which was why he had a metal left arm.
Or otherwise, the current Randidly Ghosthound was a rogue image that had parasitized the original Ghosthound and sealed him within his left arm.
They also said that most of his training methods involved him and his special ‘Dark Regimen’ assaulting the recruits while laughing maniacally. They casually bet about how near death the recruits would be afterward. Although Randidly didn't want to assume the worse, hearing that rumor made him wonder if he should have a talk with Helen about cruelty during training sessions.