56th of Searing, 4623
The object of war is not to die for your empire but to make the other bastard die for his.
This idea of performing war in order to kill others first was what propelled Volundr to return to the Radenor-Daravin border, just outside the city of Jarden. With the Gravekeep Mountains framing the horizon and smoke stacks coming from the various Arcanacrag mines around the area, he didn't quite mind entering the familiar sounds of the Daravin war machine churning, sounds of metal on metal from various sources filling up a majority of the air around him.
"Ah, Volundr. Welcome back. Hope your rotation out didn't dull your skills. Mage-Commander is needing one of us veterans to train the new blood, make sure they're up to par with Empire standards." Speaking up to Volundr was an older man, his hair long since having turned grey from both age and stress. An eyepatch covered his right eye, a deep set scar traveling below the fabric as he clasped arms with Volundr. "We took lots and bets, and the rest of us said that if you came back before the season was up, we would have you do it. There are only six new ones assigned to us. But hey, makes your job easier." Volundr nodded calmly at being designated to a bunch of fresh recruits, making his way over to the training grounds where a basic fight pit was set up, large enough to allow maneuvering but small enough that one couldn't just run away constantly.
If anything, Volundr was more surprised that only six had made it through the basic training of being part of the Halamire, the soldier class of the Daravanic hierarchy. Normally a lot more made it and it was essentially drilling exercises galore. But seeing as there were only six, he got a few of those under his position to gather the six recruits. Arriving within a few minutes, he was able to get a look at all six of them. Three were older men with grey in their hair, two were around his physical age, and only one was a guppy, barely old enough to serve. Walking up to all six of them, Volundr took his stance and saluted them. "Pleasure to be meeting all six of you. My name is Volundr Strom, I am one of the most seasoned scouts in this army. To get it out of they way, during my service you will see me die most likely. Not to worry about that anyways, as I will come back within a week or so. Every soldier here knows that I have some kind of curse... or a blessing really, in this case, that does not allow me to pass into the afterlife."
The six rookies looked between each other and at other soldiers who nodded to confirm, only making them more confused as he stood there, not waiting for them to ask any questions. "My goal here is to make sure you six are up to the task of being in this scouting group, and the most important thing is your combat ability. There's no use in you gathering information if you can't get home alive to deliver it. Of course, I'm a bit of an exception, but I still know my way around my blades." Motioning to a weapon rack, there was all manner of swords, spears, and other weapons that could be used, as well as duplicates of each. "Pick your weapon, and then line up. We're going to be going one at a time. Your goal is to kill me. And my goal is to disarm you six. Every one of you that is disarmed will be awarded with a full week of patrol through some of the most dodgy terrain in the area, so that you have the incentive to attack me. Understood?"
While five of the six recruits looked at each other with a mixture of confusion and slight horror, the youngest of the six had gone to the weapon rack and picked out a pair of war axes, each edge sharpened to a deadly curve. Volundr meanwhile stepped onto the far side of the fighting pit, waiting patiently for the first one to fight him. With the youngest stepping into the ring, Volundr immediately began pressing forward, drawing his dual iron longswords, each one also sharpened to a fine edge. Seeing as how the youngest's eyes widened at his sudden approach, their fight began. Letting out a battle cry, the youngest moved forward and began hacking through the air. Sloppy. Definitely deadly, but not honed enough to actually connect as Volundr used the flats of his blades to parry and block, not quite offensive but definitely fighting back. Seeing an opening, Volundr thrusted forward with his blades to get between the handle of the axes and the leather gloves, slicing into them a bit before twisting the blades, forcing the axes out of the youngest's hands.
"You're done, report to the patrol captain for assignment. Next." So matter-of-fact about it, Volundr looked over at the rest, one of the old men speaking up with a bit of a wheeze to his voice. "Are we able to come in multiple at a time?" Volundr noticed the three older men, two of them with longswords and shields, and the third holding a spear. "Sure, why not? Just means this will be over faster." The three old men then entered the ring, making it much more crowded as Volundr had less room to move about. It seems like they took this advantage as the two with shields made a wall to protect the third, who had begun stabbing through the gaps to try and get at Volundr. He had to admit, they were smart, making a defensive formation. But it didn't matter. Dodging the spear as he started getting a proper workout in, he let the spearhead slice through his side, barely registering the pain as he grabbed the shaft of the spear, suddenly pulling quite hard. The old spearman let out a noise of surprise as he was forced forward through the shieldmen, holding tight to the spear before Volundr traveled down the shaft of the weapon, going for a straight elbow to the neck. Letting go of his weapon to attempt to block the strike, he realized his mistake as the force of the blow pushed him out of the fighting pit.
"You too, patrol captain." This old man grumbled but was ultimately just following orders, heading off as the shieldmen flanked him, beginning to swing at him with their longswords. What began was a dance of blades from Volundr, parrying one after the other as he got into a rhythm. However, he didn't escape unscathed, repeatedly taking shallow stabs and slashes to his body. One would think that this would begin tiring Volundr out, but the technical immortal fought with the same ferocity that he did in the beginning, surprising the two men. As he used the blade to rip the shield from one of their hands while knocking the sword away, the other went for a killing blow, his blade piercing through Volundr's side, coming clear through the other side coated in red. A chorus of groans came from the other soldiers as while the old man had stabbed through him shallowly and avoided vital organs, it was still a rather intense wound. This only caused Volundr to wince slightly out of instinct, the pain no more than an old scar as he pressed his arm to his side, effectively trapping the sword inside him. Try as he might, the last old man remaining couldn't pull the weapon out, Volundr this time headbutting him hard enough to get him on his ass, clutching his forehead and Volundr stood above him, slowly drawing the blade out of his side.
"You know what I'm going to say." The other two old men followed suit and left as one of the men who was physically about the same age as Volundr lunged forward, not giving him a chance to recover. Holding two daggers, this man was attempting to keep close in order to make sure Volundr couldn't hit him due to the length of his weaponry. Backpedaling rapidly to try and get some distance, this fifth man kept up with him, slashing across his armor and continuing to push as Volundr got up to a wall. Planting one of his feet on the wall, he suddenly pushed forward in order to try and get the man off his rhythm, which worked out quite well as the dagger blade embedded just above Volundr's right clavicle, the blade also red as he kept pushing back, lifting his knees high in order repeatedly knee the man in the chest, pushing him physically back enough as he held his blades to the man's throat. Seeing that he was defeated, he dropped the knives and immediately went to find the patrol captain.
Seeing as how Volundr had two puncture wounds and was still going as aggressively as he was, the sixth man calmly put his weapon on the rack, looking back at Volundr. "I definitely have a lot more that I need to learn, so I'll just go with them." Picking up the weapons calmly, Volundr looked around as everyone made their way back to work. This was just one day of many for Volundr, and this type of deal occurred roughly once a week or so. With the constant flow of recruits coming in, this kind of one on one combat happened rarely, but did happen. Otherwise, it was mostly just drills and teaching the recruits how to be proper scouts for the Daravanic Empire.
