Chapter 145 - The Gaping Maw Formation!
Mr Kriel didn't pay much attention to the small reaction of the students that he saw and carried on speaking.
"The formation you will be learning today goes by the name of 'The Gaping Maw Formation!'
It's an easy formation to get a hang of and is often the very first formation that the guard regiments of the Kingdom will have to master:
But don't let these facts mislead you. The Gaping Maw formation is almost as old as the Vaenam kingdom itself and naturally, with its age comes improvements!
over the many years, the simple battle formation has been through countless improvements and rendition until evolved from one of the most basic formations to something that's name alone can cause the Vaenam Kingdom's enemies to shake in fear!" Said Mr Kriel with eyes burning in passion.
"but let's not get ahead of ourselves and start with the basics.
In its most basic form, the Gaping maw formation is nothing more than a simple defensive spear formation, so let's start with that.
Today, you will all begin with some simple spear drills!"
As Mr Kriel said this, a few people in the crowd raised their hands up.
"bang!"
With a wave of his hand, Mr Kriel brought out a giant box filled with some scratched and used spears.
"for those of you who don't use a spear as weapon, you'll need to use the spears I provide for you."
So what are you waiting for? Get moving!"
With those instructions, the crowd of people didn't hesitate any longer and rushed up to grab a spear.
...
Minutes later, the students had now all spread out, filling the training ground.
they were still fully suited up in their dark maroon coloured armour, but instead of just standing still like before, they were constantly thrusting their spears forward in a unified fashion.
Despite the impressive display of concentration and coordination showed by the students, Me Kriel was simply not impressed.
"Poor!"
"Extremely fucking poor! Are these really the best talents my Department of war has to offer?"
Even Dante wasn't spared of Mr Kriel's brutal Criticism
Pulling up beside him, Mr Kriel roared in his ear.
"As the Dragon Son, is this all you have to show for yourself?"
"Disgraceful!"
Despite being frustrated at Mr Kriel's insults, Dante could do nothing but grit his teeth and carry on viciously thrusting his spear forward.
With each thrust from Dante , a gust of air was generated that moved across the training ground.
but in the end, even this wasn't enough for Me Kriel.
"stop thrusting so wildly, increase the angle of elevation. Remember, power isn't everything. You need to take time to focus on your technique if you want to improve."
subconsciously Dante changed his movements following Mr Kriel's suggestions.
seeing this change, a slight smile crept into Me Kriel's face.
"hahaha! Good!"
As Me Kriel said this, he patted Dante on the back.
"good work. You're showing improvement but don't think you can slack if now. Continue working!"
after saying that, Mr Kriel stopped watching over Dante and went off to inspect the other members of the class
...
an hour later a class of tires yet exited students was lined up again in a near line in front of Mr kreil.
Mr Kriel just smirked as he looked down at the exhausted group of students in front of him.
"The performance made by you guys wasn't excellent, but it's sufficient.
Now you have the basics down. well be progressing onto the next stage of learning,
The spiritual formation."
Hearing this, a small buzz could be felt amongst the students as their excitement reached an all-time high!
"now for the next part you'll need an experienced formation leader and i will be the one taking up that position."
As Mr Kriel said this, he slowly walked into the centre of the crowd of students as he roared
" The Hell are you waiting for? Get into the spear formation!"
instantly, the crowd of students scrambled to get into formation.
eventually the students got into two clear rows, with the front row of students kneeling pointing their spears up from below.
The second row was placed closely behind them and they were also pointing their spears forward.
it's only that these spears were pointed forward from shoulder height, forming a terrifying array of spears pointing toward at any possible attackers.
seeing the group swiftly get into his desired formation, Mr Kriel gave a quick nod in approval before speaking.
now your information you guys have done the easy part.
the difficult part starts now!"
"all I'm going to need you guys to do is relax whilst I connect to each of you and form a spirit array."
The sprit array was a strange thing.
At first it might feel quite invasive and uncomfortable but it's imperative that you don't resist and try cut it off. This is also true whilst the formation is active as if enough of you are cut off it could lead to a formation collapse and is having to start all over again!"
the students could only nod nervously at Me Kriel's instructions as they relaxed their guard
suddenly there were slight twitches of discomfort as Mr Kriel linked the whole group in a spirit array.
even Dante wasn't spared from this feeling but after the first few seconds, the sensation wasn't that bad.
it was similar to the feeling you would get when a clothing tag was running against your neck,
sure it was uncomfortable to but if you ignored it for a while, you would eventually get used to it.
Dante could feel the connection that the Spirit array had with him.
He knew that he was connected to greater system and he could control the feedback of energy into the array. But perhaps most important of all, Dante could easily block of the connection if he wanted to.
the connection he felt was incredibly frail.
maybe it's because of his lack off knowledge in the area of battle affirmations, but Dante found the connection to be surprisingly weak.
it was as if the slightest hint of resistance would instantly end all connections to the spirit array and sever him from the battle formation.
bur before Dante's thoughts could go off on a mad tangent again, his thinking was interrupted by the loud cry of Mr Kriel.
"Right! The connection has now been established. Get in your positions I'm about to activate the formation!"
with Me Kriel's cry the training ground seemed to go silent as each person clutched their spear with a mixed combination of both nervousness and excitement.
"Ready yourselves! Attack on my mark!"
As Mr Kreil said this Dante suddenly felt a change.
He suddenly felt a trickle of energy leaving his body.
but it was not just Dante, all the students in the formation felt this sensation as Mr Kriel users thes streams of energy to finally set the Gaping Maw battle formation.
"ready!" Called Mr kreil
"3"
"2"
"1"
"Attack!"
instantly the whole class roared as they thrust out their spears.
what They didn't realise was as all this was happening Mr Kriel finally activated the formation.
slowly trickles of winding purple energy spread throughout the spear formation, entwining around every single spear causing it to glow in a purple lustrous glow.
"Swoosh!"
a terrifying storm of wind was created sweeping throughout the whole training ground.
seeing such an impressive display of power the group students instantly burst into chatter amongst themselves.
they had done it!
they had finally been in an actual battle formation!
but as group of students was eagerly chatting amongst themselves the cold voice of Me Kriel rang out throughout the battlefield.
"what are you guys so happy for? Don't tell me you think that embarrassment can be classified as a battle formation?!"
After hearing Mr Kriel's cold words the chatter of the sudden talk suddenly stopped.
The students were so shocked they didn't even know what to say!
even Dante wasn't spared from this feeling of disbelief.
Dante himself was already quite impressed from the power of the attack showed in the formation.
he knew when faced with such an attack even he had little hope of doing something, but to think that even this result wasn't enough for Mr Kriel.
Mr Kriel just smirked as he saw the looks of disbelief on his students.