A second letter from Master Tosk arrived, telling his apprentices to start practicing solo and as a team against training constructs. Vicktor had been unable to practice against them at the Academy due to their raw material costs.

  The training constructs required the core of enhanced beasts. Despite some of the professors at the Academy being well known to be centuries old. They never grew after settling or retiring to the Academy. The transportation of material components had to be entirely manual. No magic would survive the teleportation that the students used. The magic defenses almost entirely were used to deflect and dissuade beasts instead of outright kill them.

  The training constructs where located in an arena near the guardsman's barracks. They trained against them the most. Apparently they were expensive to repce if a Mage got too enthusiastic with a fireball or forgot to turn off the gravity enhancements. Rectors never practiced here.

  The three got breakfast, donned their battle-kit and walked over with springs in their step. They wanted to break things.

  It was a rge walled off and open arena constructed in a depression in the nd. Rows of stone stands allowed for viewing of anyone practicing. There were no privacy wards or sound dampening magics, but the high stones walls did prevent too much sound for exiting.. never the less, the grind of stone and steel were audible from hundred of feet beyond.

  8 different sections were arrayed in parallel with high stone walls in order to reduce the risk of a stray bolt of magic crossing. The floor of the arena was made of rge coarse well draining sand the walkways the arenas had drains every hundred feet or so. They wondered about water or storm magic, preventing floods and draining away bodily fluids must have important to the masons who built this. 2 healers were stationed at each end of the section. One was an apprentice while the other was a full Mage. They were mostly there in case of severe body or cranial trauma.

  Vicktor dared to flick on his mage-sight and was able to see the magical ripple above the arena. The color was mostly red and orange, with occasional pinpoints of yellow and the pearlescent white of pure undirected magic. A hundred different shades of a hundred different colors spiraled and wafted above. He gazed at it for a few seconds before switching it off, narrowly avoiding the wave of nausea.

  They had decided to watch for a while to see what and how the other apprentices and Mages practiced.

  Four of the eight sections were being used. One was occupied by a woman attempting to restrain eight constructs at the same time. She was able to fully restrain them all, but unable to cast any effective damaging spells upon her opponents without allowing some to break free. She was an absolute powerhouse, maybe ten times the mana throughput as Vicktor and was able to sustain her effort for minutes at a time.

  Another was a group of warriors training as a team. They were predominantly Chosen with maybe a singur battlemage. Chosen's martial abilities tended to revolve entirely around single targets and basically never were able to buff multiple allies. They were incredibly destructive against singur targets, but had real issues getting ganged up on. Ribs splintered when a third constructs unexpected fist found its way into one of their chests. The healers deactivated the constructs and sprinted over. The man was back on his feet within a minute but easily would have died in a real fight. Even if there had been a healer right next to him if the opponent wasn't defeated immediately.

  A third group were three mage-hunters going after a 'necromancer' who was controlling nine different constructs. The necromancer would easily win in a direct confrontation, so the three had to try to find openings or tactics. After two failures or one victory, one of the mage-hunters would switch out and become the new necromancer. The pack tactics were incredibly effective. It was only possible to get the 'necromancer' with a long range crossbow bolt shot, overwhelming force or tricking the constructs into attacking the same target while a mage-hunter slipped away for the kill. Apparently the 'necromancer' wasn't allowed to use any offensive or defense spells because they traditionally focused so much on minion manipution.

  The final section was a blur of motion. A dimension aligned Chosen was blinking around the battlefield dodging bolt after bolt from an automatic crossbow construct. After each blink, the Chosen would gesture and compress a rubber ball. The ball shrank and shrank and shrank until it suddenly exploded with an incredible pop. The cumutive changes in volume and pressure must have increased the temperature under the rubber increased and lost structural integrity.

  They watched the four groups for a quarter hour and then decided to try a strategy they had theorized about during their training together and over meals.

  They checked in with the healers, discussed the expected risks and, signed waivers and proved their identity with an archive ste. All it took was a pinprick of blood to determine who they were.

  They would set the constructs to be as strong as remarkable beasts, the same tier as most Mages. Vicktor would be the primary target due to him being 'mission critical personnel'

  ***The lone gray metal 'troll' lurched to life and lumbered towards the trio a hundred feet away. The 7 foot tall machine used simple direct steps, looking like a casual brisk stroll.

  Ar, Nora and Vicktor followed pn A. Ar dropped a small turret at Victor's feet and jumped up in the air. The small turret whirred to face the lone construct, pivoting as it approached.

  Vicktor emptied his mind and cast, targeting an area halfway between him and the 'troll'. A chest high wall of sand appeared, drawing sand from a void just behind the base of the wall. A gesture and thought hardened the foot thick formation, compressing and condensing the stone.

  As Vicktor hoped his fortifications were enough, a war arrow sped through the air and embedded itself into the chest of the 'troll', with only a few inches of fletching visible. It would have been an incredibly painful lung-shot if the construct had lungs or nerve endings.

  Seemingly unaffected, the troll advanced, attempting to stride through Victor's defenses. It held for a breath, then broke apart into rubble, the magic dissipating the bonds between the sand. It's next step brought it over the pitfall trap. It stepped on the fragile surface shattering it and and causing the construct to stutter completely.

  'If it was made of flesh and bone, would it have broken an ankle?' Vicktor thought.

  A loud series of pops rang from the Ar's turret. Each burst of power denting the constructs chest. Each of those might've been able to shatter a rib, but the troll continued unrelenting.

  "1 Hostile troll, remarkable, 40 feet direct east" Ar said through his ring.

  "Thanks" Vicktor tried to yell, trying another trick. Pulling the sand up and away from the ground in front of him.

  Another arrow lodged in the side of the 'troll', pinning it's left arm to it's left side. Nora must have pealed off to the right to get a better angle.

  The 'troll' was closing in fast, less than ten feet away when it stepped on the second deadfall trap triggered. The foot first, then a leg, then the rest of the torso fell a good eight feet into the pit. A quick bit of intent and mana caused the sand to cascade over the struggling form of the construct. The pressure of the sand above rendering it helpless as it filed it's massive arms, trying vainly to push itself up and out.

  A third arrow pierced through the temple of the construct and the match was called. The metal of the construct rose out of the soil along with the three arrows resting comfortably on the arena floor.

  Ar swooped down and nded with a thump of his talons. "Let's try ourselves against an ever growing horde of wolves and then debrief fully ter."

  ***

  The second fight was against three wolves. Two died from arrows and a third died from Ar's force turret. The wolves were entirely unaffected by Vicktor. The wolves were able to jump over the barriers and didn't put enough pressure to fall through the trap. Four legs apparently distributed the weight too well.

  The third fight was six wolves. Two died from arrows, two died from Ar's force turret and another two were trapped completely by Vicktor's traps that were triggered manually.

  The fourth and final fight was deemed a productive failure, atleast by his companions. Vicktor thought it was awful. They had tried nine wolves. Nora got three, Ar's turret got another three. Vicktor had trapped two again, but the final wolf got under a swing from his aluminum staff and bit into the upper meat his calf. A second miss from Vicktor's pained wild strikes caused the healers to turn off the constructs and work to treat his damaged leg. He was losing a lot of blood.

  The final fight was over so fast, it felt like he had barely participated. He was the only one wounded, and they were fighting successfully three versus one, but it felt unsatisfactory.

  Bleeding in the sands felt unsatisfactory.

  He'd even performed unsatisfactory.

  His magics were unsatisfactory.

  He was unsatisfactory...