[MA] 325. Welcome to Samir (Patreon)

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One C-rank and eight D-ranks materialized before a mobile fortress in a vast empty space, just like in La'sing. Around them, a little over six thousand Guardians were also teleporting to Samir.

A proper Brigade consisted of between 584,944 to 1,058,508 troops. However, an Exemplary Brigade was also meant to humiliate the local troops by being better at their job despite having a little over 1% of their minimum troops. To accomplish that, it had a unique commanding structure.

In an Exemplary Brigade, each unit had precisely 1 Commander and 2 helpers. Not one more, not one less. Every unit, even Squads, had that number of troops. In other words, 3 people, plus whoever was below them.

So, the Exemplary Brigade Commander and his 2 helpers were 3 C-ranks.

The Exemplary Brigade had 3 C-rank Battalions.

So, since every unit had 3 people, it meant another 9 C-ranks overall for a total of 12.

Each Battalion had 6 D-rank Companies.

So, each Battalion Commander led 18 D-ranks, for a total of 54 D-ranks among all Companies. With the 12 C-ranks, that meant 66 troops total.

Each Company had 9 D-rank Platoons.

So, each Company Commander led 27 Platoon-level D-ranks, for a total of 486 among all Platoons. With the Company-level D-ranks and the C-ranks, the total troops became 552.

Each Platoon had 12 E-rank Squads.

So, each Platoon Commander led 36 E-ranks, for a whopping 5,832 E-ranks among all Squads. Together with their superiors, it meant a grand total of 6,384 troops.

Shen was used to commanding around three times as many troops in his Battalion, and it often felt like it was too little for some of the missions he was given. He had never failed a mission, but the struggle was real. The Brigade Commander would have it much worse with so few troops.

Then again, these six thousand Guardians had been handpicked. He wasn't surprised to find that he was the only C-rank without a mastered Law. Well, at least among the ones not wearing equipment that could block his Law Vision. Still, he believed that to be the case for everyone. The people who had been selected had to be the best of the best humanoids on all front lines.

For instance, no one was looking around like country pumpkins. Sure, they gave their colleagues a glance and assessed their surroundings, but while purposefully getting in position. They formed ranks without needing to be told, with the C-ranks moving to occupy the foremost row and the E-ranks moving to the back. Until everyone was assigned a unit, that was the proper way to present themselves.

Unfortunately, until people were assigned, Shen also couldn't see their clearances. Only their name, military rank, power level, and Titles were visible. Even the military rank didn't include "First" or "Second," though.

Of the twelve C-ranks present, Shen was one of two Rising Stars. Surprisingly, there was also a Maiden. No one had a Title that wasn't racial, which was only to be expected. No one got a Title before B-rank unless they were so exceptional that they wouldn't stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Shen.

There were elites, true elites, and then there were Titled people.

Three-fourths of the arrivals were mana-wielders, while the rest were cultivators. That was curious. He had learned that cultivators made for less than seven percent of the Alliance's Guardians. Samir only had the odd cultivator who had come to escape the more popular destinations. His best guess was that the General meant for the local troops to also get upset at being humiliated by cultivators.

Soon, a B-rank came from the massive fortress. He was the most humble high elf Shen had ever seen. Even the usual sense of certainty found among veteran troops was lacking from his gait. Evidently, the death of the Queen's son and the return of the Justicar Program in Samir had dealt a heavy blow to its high elves' pride.

Still, he was at peak B-rank and wore impressive-looking B+ plate armor, white, silver, and black. His helmet was open with silvery wings. Although Shen also counted on his cultivator robe's enchantments to protect his head, any physical opening was a weakness to be exploited. Not that Shen could pierce through B+ enchanted defenses unless the enemy stood still and let him attack for hours.

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| Anhril Farÿn (B) — Major

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Anhril had long silver hair and eyes of the same color, clearly not blood-related to Luthdel. Still, the latter recognized the B-rank. His eyes widened, and his body stiffened. There was more meaning to that high elf being the one to receive them than met the eye.

That was the extent of Luthdel's reaction. The high elf had been properly forged into a soldier. Some of his innocent curiosity and naivety remained, but it was less than a drop of the "ocean of bullshit" the guy used to "throw up" every time he opened his mouth, as described by Alicia.

"Welcome to Samir," Anhril said without preamble or posturing. He sounded tired. "Follow me."

There was no properly defined hierarchy, so everyone formed a line based on strength. Since they didn't know each other, the three with equipment that hid their Paths walked in the back. Shen should be directly before them, but Luthdel came to stand behind him. The high elf had mastered one Law last year and should stand before Shen, so his gesture caused some people to raise their eyebrows.

Evidently, the Exemplary Brigade's arrival hadn't been informed to the people in that mobile fortress because it was as empty as expected on a random day. Still, whoever caught a glimpse of them showed unhidden interest.

The Major led them to a massive room with a raised central fighting ring. The newcomers stopped at one side as he stepped on the ring.

Anhril said, "Every C-rank has read the Primer on Military Justice and knows you must obey every order with distinction. The Acting General asked me to assure you that the reason he has elected to use Variation 3-B for selecting the Brigade's Commander has nothing to do with his lack of trust in you following orders should he put even an E-rank above you. He's doing it to convince you of his original intention: to give Lieutenant Shen an Exemplary Promotion. Lieutenant Shen, get in position."

Shen jumped into the fighting ring.

He wasn't surprised because he had been told the local General was scheming something. An Exemplary Promotion was only valid for the duration of that deployment. It did, however, give the promoted Guardian a chance to show they deserved the promotion and hike up Commendations.

Variation 3-B was a combat challenge meant for edge cases where the selected units couldn't be trusted to follow the Brigade Commander without a show of force. Shen had to protect his potential promotion in one-on-one fights. The big catch was that only the military standard martial arts was allowed in the battle. It was meant to show the C-ranks were outstanding military men and women. Any such Guardian was naturally supposed to perfect their mastery over the military's martial arts.

No C-rank was obligated to fight, but whoever defeated Shen would take his place as the Brigade Commander without having to fight the others, so there was an incentive to fight first. That said, Shen would have no time to rest between fights, so a wise combatant would wait for the right time to challenge him unless they were sure of their power.

"You may start," the Major said as he started floating above the ring.

Shen took out a spear and didn't have to wait long for the first challenger.

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| Sothorovaroth Sha (C) — Lieutenant

| Maiden

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The Maiden he had noticed before jumped on the ring. Her B- armor was made of green scales with black runes and covered her head to toe. It also blocked Shen's Law Vision and prevented him from sensing anything inside, including her soul. She pulled out a B- whip that looked like red flesh with black veins from her Inventory.

Before elite combat training, the most information Shen would have about her was that she fought using whips. Not anymore.

For starters, he had memorized the default naming sense for every race in the Alliance, plus up to the three variations of the cultures with their strongest Guardians. Sothorovaroth Sha sounded like what he would expect from seven races, only two of which were humanoid and of his size: the voshafs or the poloises.

Voshafs looked like humans mixed with grasshoppers and frogs. However, they were almost exclusively muscular, much more than the Maiden. She wasn't thin, but she also wasn't buffed.

Poloises were best described as lean humans with natural bone armor over their skins, making them look big. That matched her appearance.

Shen had also learned to find cues about people's Paths by how they did everything. It wasn't perfect, so he couldn't fully trust the data he gathered this way. Still, it was better than fighting blind.

Sothorovaroth Sha held her whip like someone who knew what she was doing. That was only to be expected at C-rank. However, her grip lacked the intimacy found among those whose weapons were part of their Paths and, thus, of their very being. She probably didn't have a Law from the Axioms of the Whip in her Path.

She had jumped gracefully at the ring, and while any C-rank could do that, she had also unconsciously used her Path. Or rather, she had mastered a Law from the Axioms of Air, and that part of her Path instinctively embraced her when she left the ground, like a lover welcoming a long-lost partner. It was so subtle he wouldn't have noticed it without a Law from the Axioms of Air in his own Path.

The Maiden stood confidently, and she had been the first to come. She likely had a Law related to a weapon or destruction. It was statistically rare for people without either to be the first to step up in situations like this.

Shen bet on destruction. While she might be plotting on only revealing her true weapon later, it would make her victory seem lesser to the others. Instead, the whip was her likely actual weapon, and she was very good at it; she merely hadn't made it a part of her Path.

That was all he could gather from his preliminary analysis, which suggested she had mastered all her Laws. Unmastered Laws were much harder to control and prevent from leaking some signs. Only a master of their entire Path could show so little about it. That, or someone with elite combat training like Shen, of course.

His analysis took only a moment. As soon as Sothorovaroth stepped on the ring, the Major said, "Start," and the fight was on.

Most close-range fighters who saw the whip would try to close the distance, but Shen suspected that the woman who hid her Path had intentionally shown the weapon. He preemptively stepped back.

His move was the right one. The Maiden had immediately lashed her whip to cover everything between Shen and her. Her weapon instantly elongated to fill the air before her in a way no one could stay untouched. At the same time, Air trembled and twisted with Annihilation. Shen had been spot-on on that.

"You're disqualified," the Major decreed. "This is not a move from the military standard martial arts. Next."

Shen was a little disappointed that he wouldn't even discover what other Laws she had in her Path.

While the Exemplary Brigade would be held to an almost impossible standard, Sothorovaroth wouldn't be punished for this move. Shen was also meant to show he wasn't a complete moron that would fall for such ploys. Any Commander had to expect the worst even when the rules said otherwise. It only depended on whether someone would give up on their shot at becoming Commander to test him.

Shen doubted her goal was to test him, though. Whatever Law from the Axioms of Annihilation was in her Path had shaken furiously in her attack. She had just wanted to humiliate him or, failing that, injure or tire him. Obviously, she took his potential promotion personally.

The Maiden retracted her whip and left the ring without another word.

One down, eleven to go.

The next challenger was a fanmv, who looked like a human with transparent skin, white flesh, blue blood, and completely red eyes. A small red tentacle came from each of his ears, but while somewhat creepy, they were just fellers that wouldn't give him any advantage in a fight. He wore a B- armor of brown leaves glued to his body, his bald head left without a helmet.

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| Vinamour Lavvishi (C) — Second Lieutenant

| Rising Star

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Vinamour used mana, wielded two very curved B+ sabers, and had  mastered five Laws, each from a different Axiom: Saber, Light, Lightning, Air, and Annihilation. His fighting style would obviously be about striking fast and thoroughly. He also had C+ stats, while Shen was still at C even after three years. There was just too little time to cultivate between deployments. It would take him at least another fifty years to reach C+ at his current growth rate.

"Begin," the Major ordered.

Vinamour used his Path to the limits, striking against Time and Space so powerfully that while it failed to Annihilate either, they grew malleable. His Laws took hold of the "soft tissue" and applied extra pressure, making a sort of tunnel for him to go through. It wasn't quite teleportation, but he moved faster than should be possible, even with his Laws. He would come out the other side of the tunnel almost at the same instant he entered it.

That move pushed the limits of what was considered the military standard martial arts, but it shouldn't be enough to disqualify him.

Shen barely felt it happening, and even that much was only because of his training. He became a little upset that his opponents looked down on him so much. Instead of fighting him, they wanted to show their tactical or skill superiority. They were playing the audience, whom they considered their future subordinates, not taking him into their eyes.

Well, he would show them true skill.

He only moved his spear to counterattack because it wouldn't be considered part of the military martial arts otherwise. The very tip of his weapon had barely moved half a millimeter when Vinamour's head came out of the invisible tunnel behind Shen. He was that fast.

Then, the tip of Shen's spear released a qi tread that very weakly struck against the Space around him.

Vinamour wanted to display so much ability that he pushed Time and Space to the very limits of what Reality allowed before fighting back. There was a reason only Guardians with domains could teleport without any tool. Teleporting didn't require one to destroy Space or Time, but some rules had to be bent, and Reality only accepted either to grow that much softer before pushing back.

Shen's "attack" made the spatial malleability around him go over the threshold. Reality's counter-push caused the tunnel to instantly collapse. It was so fast that, to Shen's senses, the tunnel simply ceased to exist.

Vinamour had used all his speed in the attack. Half his chest was already out before whatever was below disappeared. There was no protection against that without a domain. His B- armor might as well have been made of paper.

The injury was far from lethal for a C-rank. The Guardian also got lucky that he had brought both arms with him first, crossed to behead Shen. Physically, he could keep fighting.

However, the most important part of Reality's pushback was that it also obliterated any mana-supported Law inside the tunnel.

Vinamour's soul was uninjured, but every Law he was using suddenly felt as if cut in half. It was just an impression because he had been strengthening the Laws with his mana, but said strengthening meant he was those Laws more than usual.

The mental backlash was brutal as if part of his existence had ceased to be. Shen had become dazed for a few seconds when he experienced it in elite combat training. That was considering his high willpower and the fact that he had required external assistance to produce the tunnel.

Vinamour, instead, fainted at once.

What remained of his body never reached the ring's ground. The Major's Law of Air grabbed the Lieutenant and threw him out of the ring like a sack of potatoes.

"Next," the B-rank said, sounding even more tired now than when he arrived. The antics were tiring him as much as they frustrated Shen.

Shen wanted to say something but didn't. While not illegal, taunting people in an official combat like this was considered bad manners. An Exemplary Brigade wasn't supposed to do that. Even smiling here might be immensely rude in some cultures.

So he just returned his spearhead to its original position, half a millimeter to the side, and waited.

Hopefully, the next opponent wouldn't such so much.

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