33 Risen#re

Lirian sat down by himself as the students gathered up and waited for the healers to sort out all their wounds.

The treatment was quick for each person, Lirian had been light-handed with his attacks, with only a single exception.

Lucas had been whimpering in pain as the healers reset his ribs and mended the bones back together, with the exception of an occasional scream everything went well and his breathing soon returned to normal.

A full half-hour passed before they were done, Lucas rubbed his chest and let out a sigh of relief, "Damn, he really didn't hold back," he began complaining as soon as he got back his ability to breathe properly.

Lucas glanced at Lirian with a little trepidation in his eyes, he felt dumb for being concerned about Lirians safety at the beginning of the battle.

If anything Lucas felt that he should have been the one concerned about his own safety, even with the healing his chest still hurt and he knew that he'd be having a hard time breathing for the next few days.

He couldn't understand how Lirian as a none cultivator had managed to crack his ribs when he was already a first-grade body cultivator.

'Is there some sort of body control technique similar to his energy control technique,' he wondered and it suddenly struck him, 'Of course it's that free striking thing,' he felt like he had an epiphany, and found his future path.

Lucas had managed to find the secret to Lirians ability, but it wasn't like free striking was an easy thing to achieve, and he'd learn that it took more than just strength to achieve it, the secret to gaining proper control over every muscle in the body was to enhance and discipline your mind.

The commander's sudden shout's soon disrupted Lucas's thoughts and brought everyone to attention.

"Attention!" commander Alastor called out as soon as they were all up and put an end to their discussions.

"I want all of you to begin discussing why you lost, and how you could have done better," he ordered.

"Isn't it because he is a monster," Mordred said while raising his hand to speak, the class all murmured in agreement.

As much as Alastor want to chide them for saying something so stupid he knew that it wasn't exactly wrong, even he was having a hard time believing what he had just witnessed and he'd been around the block a few times already.

It was like a beat down and a lesson in raw skill, he could tell that Lirian was naturally very strong, but his actual strength still paled in comparison when compared to the body cultivators.

Lirians real ability was his outstanding battle sense and judgement that he only ever saw in true veterans, he'd wager that Lirian would still have an advantage against all the veterans he knew.

It made Alastor wonder just what kind of hellish training had the empress put her son through in his childhood, 'Is she truly so desperate to have one of her children return from the trial?'

The class heard a soft chuckle and turned to face Lirian, "You're not wrong, I suppose that it makes sense if the only thing you guys can compare me to is a monster," he said with a small smirk.

"A very beautiful monster of course," he added, he could hear all their eyes simultaneously rolling around and more than one of them had gone completely red in the face, as they felt embarrassed for him.

He chuckled and went on, ", but you guys did make one very big mistake that allowed me to take complete control of the rhythm of the battle."

They turned to look at the commander and saw that he was nodding along, "Do any of you understand the mistake you made?" he asked them, but they all shook their heads, their plans were practically perfect, the only problem was the person they were using it against.

Lirian spoke after the silence went on for then a minute, "I'll give you a hint, your teamwork was great and your traps were excellently set up, but the one mistake you made was thinking that due to your numbers advantage you were the only ones that could lay down traps, and you stepped right into mine."

The students looked at each other in surprise, they never expected Lirian to pay them a single compliment let alone two and Karen beamed with joy, as she was the one that came up with most of the plans.

Alastor felt like his place as the commander had been usurped, the students were supposed to reel in joy at his compliments, but he was taken aback at how ecstatic they were to hear Lirian compliment them.

'He must have trained them well,' he thought in silence, 'Oh gods,' he thought as he realized something, 'If I join his group will I end smiling just like these children when he compliments me,' he thought with a sudden gloominess wrapping around his head.

"What trap?" Damien asked, he had calmed down a lot as more and more people joined him, it was very motivating for him to find out that he wasn't the only one that couldn't handle Lirian.

And he realized that he had an excuse he was taken by surprise while everyone else had fought Lirian seriously and still lost by the end he was like Lirian's personal cheerleader, as Lirian knocked everyone around, "I was watching the entire time, I never see any trap the entire time."

Lirian smirked and said nothing but the commander felt he had to give the students one more hint, "In battle not all traps are physically seen, when facing against an equally powerful opponent, it is often psychological warfare that will determine the outcome of the battle."

"When four people surrounded you the first time, you retreated," Mordred said suddenly as things began falling into place in his head, he heard when Lirian said that he knew they would think he couldn't handle more than three opponents.

"Good you got the first part, but do you understand how it determined the course of the battle?" Lirian asked.

Lucas pondered deeply and spoke when he felt he got the right answer, "We only tried to use big moves when we thought we could lock you down, so we got three people to close in on you while Pollock hide under concealment to get in close to surprise you with a fast and unpredictable attack."

"When three people closed in on you, you immediately knew that we were planning something big, it took away all the surprise from our attacks," Karen finished, with a look in her eyes like she had received divined revelation.

Alastor looked at them and nodded, "Your performance was excellent, but you all lack in an area that most people lack, that is battle wisdom."

"What I can tell all of you from my own personal experience over the years is that battle wisdom is the most important requirement if you want to be able to successfully command even a single troop in battle,"

"You may study all the formations in the world but without wisdom it's pointless."