The Phoenix [Cultivation, Reincarnation, Tower Climber]

Jacob, Jenny, and Vanessa are a bit hesitant at first, but when Kat fires an arrow at me from the side, they start moving in earnest. Kat's marksmanship isn't good, since she hasn't been using the bow for long, so the arrow sails past without even making me dodge. The next to attack is June, stepping forward and leveling a vicious thrust straight at my chest. I turn slightly to dodge it and respond with a one-armed thrust at her, which she leaps back to avoid.

Jacob and Jenny strike next, Jacob aiming for my throat while Jenny tries for my stomach. They aren't quite as quick to react to my counter, and Jacob barely manages to avoid a fatal blow, my spear sliding across his side. June tries to stab me again while I'm attacking Jacob, but I duck under it, and swing my spear sideways at Jenny, who barely manages to get her own spear up to block it. Another arrow from Kat flies at me, and this one is on target, making me need to jump back. Al is waiting for me behind, but I sensed him coming, I duck the swing from his knife and use the motion to hit him with a back kick to send him flying.

I pounce on the opportunity, running back to stab him while he's trying to get up, but I'm forced to pull up short and move to the side as an arrow from Vanessa flies past. That split second is enough for him to stand up, and for the others to be back on top of me. For the next minute, we enter a stalemate as I get a feel for each of their strengths and weaknesses, and then I start dismantling first.

June relies too much on her instincts, so I target her to create a hole. I lock eyes with her and flare my oum. She leaps back over twenty feet, eyeing me warily. Jacob notices and tries to step up to fill in for her, but therein lies his problem. He's trying to fill a position he's not suited for. He's a very talented fighter, but he's not a talented vanguard. Trying to occupy my attention and make opportunities for others isn't his style, and it conflicts with his natural tendencies, making him awkward and clumsy.

I slip past his stab and step forward to stab at him with one hand, but I keep an eye on Jenny the whole time. Unfortunately, she doesn't notice that I intentionally made my intentions clear, and she stabs at me anyway. My attack at Jacob was, of course, a feint, and as soon as she strikes, I pull back, grabbing her spear and jerking it out of her hands. I stab at Jacob with the spear I stole in my left while raising the spear in my right to throw at Jenny. However, Vanessa looses an arrow at me, forcing me to once again to pause for a split second, allowing Jacob to re-engage and Jenny to retreat.

Vanessa has frustratingly good timing. I expected as much though, so after dodging a few more strikes from Jacob, an arrow from Kat, and an attempted sneak attack from Al, I go back on the offensive. With a spear in either hand, I swing and stab at both Jacob and June, forcing them backward a few steps. I level myself for a double stab at both of them, then jump backward and instead raise my right spear to throw it again. As expected, Vanessa fires again, and I lean to the side, then throw the spear at her. Her eyes widen, and she tries to dodge, but she's too slow, and the spear hits her in the stomach. Oum flares around her, indicating that she has "died" and I turn my attention back to the others.

With Vanessa out of the way, the others go down quickly. Al is next after getting too close trying a sneak attack. He's actually not bad at hiding his oum, and if we were in a forest where he could actually get cover, he might be more annoying. Unfortunately for him, we are not, and his direct combat abilities are not as good as the others. Well, they might be better, but he's fighting decades of experience and instinct for sneaking around and stabbing in the back, so to me, they're worse because they're more exploitable. I scare June off again, and quicker than Jacob can react, I jump on Al and finish him off.

While I do this, Kat tries to stop me the same way Vanessa was stopping me, but her timing and aim are both worse, and the arrow once again misses. That is not the right position for her. Not only is she not making the most out of it, nothing she's doing is something that couldn't be done by anyone else.

Jacob and June are on me by the time I finish "killing" Al, while Jenny is running back to Vanessa to retrieve the spear I threw. I flare my oum at June again, but this time, she manages to resist her instincts and instead of jumping back, she dives forward. It seems Jacob wasn't expecting her to do this, because he dives forward as well, and I dodge both at once as they try to get out of each other's way. Jacob falls next, and after a quick exchange, June falls as well. Kat fired a few arrows during this time, but I tried to keep June between us, so they were always quite predictable and completely avoidable. Jenny gets back a second later, but without the other two, she's a sitting duck and it takes a single strike to finish her off.

Kat tries to kite me around the room like she did with the bear, but since I am not a dumb beast and I have movement techniques, I catch up and finish her off in seconds. With everyone "dead," I move back to the middle of the room and lean on my spear as they gather up in front of me.

"Again?" asks Jacob.

"No," I say. "We're going to make some changes. But first, what do you think you did wrong?"

"Me?" asks Jacob.

"We'll go around the group," I say. "You start. What did you, Jacob, do wrong?"

He thinks for a few seconds before responding.

"I didn't understand my teammates' tendencies well enough. There were times that I made the wrong move because I expected them to do something else."

I nod. "June?"

"I don't work well with others," she says with a shrug.

"Both of you are half right," I say. "Jacob, what do you think the underlying source of these issues might have been? Other than the fact that you aren't used to working together."

"...I don't know."

"Try to guess."

"Hmmm… Is it because…? No…" He pauses and mutters under his breath for a few seconds before looking back up at me hesitantly. "Is it because we were too timid?"

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"Wrong," I say. "The problem is that you are fighting in the wrong positions. You are a calculative fighter, but you don't have the experience or awareness to calculate the full battlefield at the moment. Perhaps you will in the future, but that's something that takes years, not days.

"Meanwhile, June, you are a fighter of instinct. You calculate nothing, and trust your gut. This makes you a formidable, yet exploitable fighter, and it makes it harder for you to slot into a support position in any group. You are both the weak link and the wild card. So, you'll be swapping with Jacob. You'll be the vanguard. Fight at your own pace. Push forward, pull back, dodge, lunge forward, and do whatever you feel whenever you feel like it."

June nods, and appears to be pleasantly surprised.

"Jacob, instead of trying to command the whole battlefield, your job is now to support June. When an opponent tries to exploit her weaknesses, you'll step in to stop that. When she pushes forward, you hit the opponents' blind spots. When she falls back, you cover her retreat. When she dodges, you get out of her way. When she leads, you follow. You only pay attention to her and the enemies. Got that?"

Jacob frowns, but nods. He doesn't seem like playing second fiddle. That sucks for him.

"Jenny," I say, turning to the other girl. "What did you do wrong?"

"I- I didn't grip my spear tight enough."

"Once again, half correct," I say. "You are correct that you should have been gripping it tighter, but why were you in a position where you needed to grip your spear so tightly in the first place?"

"Because I fell for your feint?"

"Correct. And why did you fall for my feint?"

"I- I don't know?"

"Tunnel vision. You got it in your head that you would stab me when I went for Jacob, and you didn't even notice that I was making it obvious that it was a feint. You were like a robot, responding with preset, automated responses. And when I did something you didn't expect, you froze, and didn't know how to react. You should have either continued attacking with your bare hands, or retreated to find another weapon, but instead you just froze up and stood there until I killed Vanessa."

Jenny nods with every sentence, but she looks like she's on the verge of tears. Can't have that.

"All of that is largely due to lack of combat experience," I continue. "Did you ever learn to fight back on Earth?"

"I- I took a self-defense class."

"Right. So you have no actual combat experience. For someone without any combat experience and only a few weeks of training, you're actually doing well. But your tunnel vision is your greatest weakness, so try to focus on remedying that. Other than that, just try to support June and Jacob."

"Okay," she says, nodding.

She doesn't look fully cheered up, but at least she's not crying. Mission successful.

"Now, Al, what did you do wrong?"

"I got too close."

"Technically correct, but the most important thing is you don't know how to fight in open space. I'm sure that in your line of work, you're used to urban settings, with lots of walls and cover, and an easy way to break line of sight, right?"

"What do you mean 'my line of work'?" he asks.

I stare at him.

"Fine," he says after a few seconds. "Yes."

"You're actually decently stealthy, but stealth doesn't really do much when you're out in the open. Of course, you can train with oum so that you can hide from the senses, even out in the open like this, but you're not at that level yet. For the Starter Quest, there will probably be plenty of cover for you to work with, but it is still a weakness you need to work on."

"Okay," he says.

"For now, you should pick up a spear. You may be more familiar with blades, but for this kind of fight, and for the Quest, you should be using a spear. It shouldn't be hard to pick it up."

"Alright."

"Kat, what-?" I start.

"I missed all my shots!"

"And why did you miss all your shots?"

"Because I'm not experienced with the bow!"

"Wrong. It's because you're bad with the bow. It will never be your main weapon, and you're not good enough with it now to justify using it even temporarily. Go put it away and pick up a spear."

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Now, Vanessa," I say as Kat runs toward the back of the room. "What did you do wrong?"

"I wasn't ready for the attack."

"Precisely. You're actually quite good with the bow. The weapon suits you, and you have good timing and instincts for team fights. But, you can't be stationary while you use it. You're not in an army. You're now a lone archer. If you can't move, you'll die. You need to work on agility."

"Okay!"

"Now. Time to try again. Kat and Al, you have the same instructions as Jacob and Jenny. Follow June's pace. You may begin!"

This second attempt goes much better than the first. June makes a much better vanguard than support, and with the others trying to match her, the teamwork is much better too. It's not perfect since they're still inexperienced, but it's a big improvement.

Now that he's not trying to command the whole battlefield, Jacob is much more focused and his decision-making is better. He reminds me a bit of Vanessa with his timing, and he even works well with her, sometimes stepping back to give her an opening to shoot through.

Kat isn't as good at timing, but she has excellent body control, and is very difficult to hit. She's also actually a threat now, unlike how she was with the bow.

Al struggles a bit to fit in, but he's still quick and unflinching enough that he's not too big of a weakness. He can still handle himself, which is really all he needs to do with June and Jacob being such big threats up front.

Jenny is struggling the most. I don't know much about her, but I think that on top of not having much combat experience, she doesn't have much experience with sports or athletics in general. Aside from the occasional tunnel vision issue, there are times when she seems to know what she needs to do, but her body just doesn't respond fast enough. Looks like she'll need to do some intense physical training.

Vanessa doesn't move around as much as she probably needs to, but with the others all in my face, it doesn't matter as much.

In the end, I still win. It's not easy, but it's not that hard either. They're not even close to as good as the spearmen who tried to kill me in the Outlands. They're more talented though. They'll probably be better in the future.

When I finish off Kat, who is apparently really good at being the last one alive, they all line back up to challenge me again, but I wave them off.

"Not right now. Fight against yourselves, three versus three. Split up randomly and fight until one side wins, then shuffle the teams and go again. I'll be working with Timmy."

They all look a bit disappointed, but the nod and Jacob takes command and starts splitting the group in two. I walk over to Timmy, who was barely paying any attention to the sparring. He's just poking at his plant in the corner.

I sigh.

He doesn't need to be an expert combatant, but I need him to at least be able to not be a burden. This is going to be tough.