“First, you get used to moving with the armor, and then you learn to move against it. I could explain what I mean by that, or you could learn by doing. And since I'm not much of a talker, we're going to do the second thing. Lateral jumping drills. Go,” said sir Crost.

The Lance was pretty used to this particular drill; it was just jumping sideways left and right. Simple, but important. With the forces and speeds they worked at, one of the biggest dangers was trying to change direction too quickly and snapping an ankle. The trainers overcame that flaw with drills like this; they strengthened the muscles involved in arresting and reversing momentum, and it was one of the few drills Brin knew that they could use to brute force points in Dexterity.

Brin wondered if doing this in their new armor would be effective at all, because as soon as he started, he felt the armor doing most of the work for him. The moment he decided to switch direction, the magic in his armor reacted by firming up the legs where he needed it and protecting the weaker joints and tendons. He could already tell he was going to be bizarrely agile in this. It made sense now why [Knights] put such a focus on Strength. They could pour all their points into Strength alone and the armor would help make up for a lack of Dexterity as well as Vitality.

He decided to see how hard he could push it; he wondered if he was moved fast enough he could make an after-image effect where it looked like there were two Brins. He jumped back and forth faster and faster, pushing his body to the limit. He felt like a ping pong being slapped back and forth at mach speed between two ruthless paddles, but he had to think that he looked pretty cool right now. There didn't seem to be a limit to how fast he could go except for the actual strength of his muscles. Sadly, a watching Invisible Eye told him that he hadn't succeeded at the after-image thing. He still just looked like he was jumping back and forth really fast.

He checked to see how the men were doing, and was surprised to find they were having trouble. Cid and Hedrek had picked it up right away, of course, but most of the rest were having trouble. Rhun was jumping well to start, but then had a hard time slowing down again. Aeron and Brych were in the same boat. Cowl, Anwir, and Govannon were doing fine, but only about as well as they would outside of the armor. Of the new [Knights], only Meredydd was performing the drill with any real amount of proficiency.

Brin thought it might be because out of all of them, Meredydd's [Knight of Arms] Class was the one that used the most Mana. Cowl and Anwir's Classes might use Mana, too, but neither of them were full [Knights] yet.

“Don't get cocky,” Crost said to him. “Their armor is harder to control than yours.”

“I didn't say anything!” Brin protested.

Crost raised an eyebrow.

“How are they controlling the armor at all? I move mine with glass magic.”

“Well, they're not, and that's the problem. But if you're asking how their armor is powered, the answer is the same as yours. It runs on Mana,” said Crost.

“That's fine for me and Meredydd. But what are the rest of them going to do when it runs out of charge?” Brin asked. He didn't know what the average Magic level was in the Lance; it wasn't something anyone thought about since they didn’t use it. If anyone other than Meredydd was even in the second threshold, he'd be shocked. Even if the armor had some way to drain their Mana to charge itself, he didn't think it would get enough to power even their jog over here.

“One of the baseline [Knight] Skills takes care of it. Someone show him,” said Crost.

“Check me,” said Cid.

Brin [Inspected] him, and there was a new Skill unhidden.

Maintain Armor – Passive Skill. Improves the condition of the armor you wear, so long as the armor is properly respected.

No wonder the Order was so uptight about taking good care of their equipment. Although, he wasn't sure what it counted as “improving the condition”. If it literally repaired the armor, it only did so slowly over a long period of time.

“This Skill doesn't do a great job of repairing the armor. Cid’s armor still had cracks and broken enchantments before Meaty fixed it,” Brin said.

Sir Crost said, “Do not disparage it. The Skill prevents all the little weaknesses that you don't think about. I've never had a leather strap go brittle or found a surprising weak spot in the metal. Other warriors constantly struggle with their equipment failing at the worst possible time. A [Knight] doesn't. Also, we've discovered another nice little side benefit, one that has redefined the landscape. It recharges Mana, passively, with a speed based on armor quality and not on the wielder's attributes.

Brin whistled, impressed. “How fast?”

“Fast enough.”

“Can you limit the amount of Mana your armor is using at any given time? I imagine that [Knights] are constantly careful to manage how much they have left,” said Brin.

Crost shook his head. “It's not a concern. The proper role of a [Knight] is not to slog it out on the front lines for hour upon hour. We deliver one single devastating charge and then leave it to the infantry to clean up what remains.”

Brin met the eyes of his fellows in the Lance and saw the same incredulity that he felt. “That hasn't been my experience.”

“Now that you are in the company of a proper army, your experience will change.”

Crost sent them into the drill again, saying they'd keep at it until everyone figured out how to get the armor to halt their movement when they needed it to. Brin had no idea how to help them; his armor responded to his Mana perfectly and he was pretty sure his high Mental Control was making it easier than it should be.

Crost was no help. “Fighting men have no need of long-winded technical explanations. The way to do it is simply to do it.”

Brych figured it out soon after, and when the other men looked to him for advice, he said, “Sorry, sir Crost is right. You just gotta do it. Stop thinking about how to do it and do it.”

That didn't make any sense to Brin, but apparently that was the answer because one by one, the men figured it out. From what Brin could tell, they weren’t really controlling the armor consciously, it was more like learning to use a new limb that had suddenly grown on their bodies. It wasn’t really something you could be told how to do; you just did it and after it clicked it wouldn’t be any trouble at all.

Once they all had it, Crost ran them through the introduction to what he called “counter-fencing”. Brin had learned a lot of these moves before during the joint exercises, but the armor expanded on the number of ridiculous things he could do ten-fold. All the little tells and openings that a fencer normally looked for were now moot. Suddenly, they could move in directions they couldn't before; off-balance didn't actually mean off-balance, not if they didn't want it to.

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Brin could charge at full speed, swing down with all his strength then suddenly stop. When his opponent fumbled the timing for the parry, he could start moving again as if he'd never paused. That particular move was somewhat wasteful with Mana, but the whole Lance got a kick out of it because despite being really stupid, it was also insanely difficult to counter.

It made sense why Crost had taken them all out here to the empty plain, because they needed the space. They did a lot of running and jumping exercises. They did hundred yard dashes where they had to pivot several times to avoid sudden imaginary obstacles, and it was a thrill to run while dodging back and forth, not slowing and moving as quickly as he normally would in a straight line.

“Here's a neat trick. The heels of your sabatons have an enchantment that automatically gathers and hardens the ground underneath it. It will help maintain your footing in any circumstance. Mud, sand, you may even be able to run across the surface of water if you're quick enough.” Crost showed them to a patch of loose ash and had them step across it, and sure enough they could see the ash collecting underneath their feet. It felt as solid as if he were walking across marble.

“Now, sir Brin. I'd like you to get a running start and then jump. In midair, push against the bottom of your boots and empower them to resist that movement with as much power as you can,” said Crost.

“You don't mean... no way!” Brin said.

Try it,” said Crost with a bit of glee in his eyes.

Brin didn't need to be told twice. He ran, his armor thrumming with power. He pushed his body and his magic into the jump, sending himself soaring. But he didn't stop there; he jumped again, this time ordering his armor to oppose his downward movement.

He heard a quick sucking sound and felt the rush of displaced air, then his feet hit something solid. They hit and quickly burst through, like he'd smacked his feet into the world's most fragile balloon, but it was enough to push him just a bit higher.

He landed perfectly, his armor knowing what to do even if he was too stunned to really think. “I did it! I really did it!” Realistically, it wasn't that impressive, it had probably only given him another six inches of distance. But that wasn't important. What was important was that he had done it. “I can double-jump!”

Of course everyone had to try after that, and no one but him managed it on their first try. Hedrek demonstrated the technique, and Cid could pull it off, too, though he was uneven and stumbled when he hit the ground.

Their armor started to give out after about an hour of practice, and on the run back their hearts were soaring. Now that they had a glimpse of what their armor was capable of, it seemed that the sky was the limit. The fact that their armor was completely out of power didn't even dampen their moods. They'd been running around in non-powered armor for months now and it hadn't held them back, so a little weight wouldn't bother them now.

Brin's armor, of course, still had plenty in the tank and he had to forcefully turn it off to get any benefit out of the run, but he did anyway.

They kept up their high spirits all the way until they got back to their barracks, and there was a notice waiting for them. And, in complete contravention of the entire way that Brin had learned that his life worked in this world, it was good news.

“It says the joint exercises will begin morning after next,” said Cid.

Hedrek raised a cheer with a fist in the air and the men followed suit. “We're going to crush it!”

Brin couldn't help but agree. The last few mornings they hadn't improved their routine much at all, but only because Brin couldn't think of anything they could do better.

That night, Brin saw evidence of the armies beginning to prepare for the joint exercises. Several large groups of knights arrived, likely from other fronts in the war. Soldiers and commoner servants were sent to clear the fields, even out ditches, and clear away the ash using a mixture of powders and Skills so that they’d have a nice place to drill formations.

Brin had Invisible Eyes everywhere, so he heard the news spread through the camps; apparently this wasn’t going to be an affair for only the knights-at-arms. All the soldiers and even the great beasts would practice their formations.

He also got a good look at their competition. An experienced Lance from the Order of the Luminous Serpent was spending all its time drilling their morning preparations, and Brin remembered them as the winners the last time they’d done this. He’d always wanted to talk to a [Knight] from that Order, just to see what they’d make of Marksi. He had an inkling that the Order worshipped or revered Marksi’s mother. After all, how many luminous serpents could there be? Or perhaps they hated her, in the way that the Order of the Long Sleep had been founded to oppose a different dragon.

The other Lance Brin had his eye on was one from an Frenarian Order, called the Order of Nasciment. Brin thought that was a rather lame name. Did they feel bad being named after some random person when everyone else had cool symbolic names?

This Lance arrived that night and Brin had never seen them before; he was sure because their armor was memorable. Where most knights-at-arms favored bold, strong, solid-looking armor, these ones were a lot more elegant and artful. It looked like the type of armor elves would wear, and were curvier than a lot of guys would be comfortable with.

It was clear that was part of their brand, because in a world of Strength-mains, these knights-at-arms clearly focused on Dexterity. They moved through the camp set up with a dizzying speed. Brin knew his own Lance couldn’t match that speed, but he still thought they had a chance to finish faster, just based on greater organization and timing. These guys didn’t really work together, they just all moved really fast.

Later, when they sparred, he saw that calling them a Dexterity Lance wasn’t quite accurate. Their average Dexterity was probably higher than normal, but when they practiced it became clear that two of them, a [Knight] and a [Lancer], were focused on Strength, while the rest zipped around them with high Dexterity. Those ones didn’t practice or refine any single movements–that would be a waste of time at their level. Instead, they took advantage of their space and fought wide, running battles that darted around everywhere.

They were a bit of a mystery, in a way that Brin had trouble putting his finger on. It wasn’t just the Dexterity thing. There was something else odd about them. He couldn’t follow them into their tent; for some reason they had a pretty powerful anti-eavesdropping enchantment sewn into it. It wasn’t until they sat down and removed their helmets for a meal that he finally figured out what was so odd about these guys.

These guys weren’t guys at all. This was an all-female Lance. It was obvious now; he could’ve figured it out just by [Inspecting] their names. He just hadn’t been expecting it. He supposed there wasn’t any real reason women couldn’t become [Knights] here, other than the fact that it just didn’t happen that much. It would never happen in Prinnash, and he wasn’t sure about Olland, but Frenaria was a little more egalitarian, though apparently not by much since this was the first one he’d ever heard of. Like women who broke into male-dominated fields in his old world, they had something to prove. They wouldn’t be content at landing somewhere in the middle; they were aiming for the top.

Their discovery gave Brin an uncomfortable twisty feeling that made him have to think for a while to figure out why he was suddenly feeling so bad. It was Zilly, he realized. If it was possible for a woman to become a [Knight], then he probably could’ve pulled some strings and gotten her into a Lance. Instead, he’d ignored her situation completely, mostly because he’d been mad at her. It was an annoying thing to feel bad about, because there was nothing he could do about it, and also because he was still upset with her.

The next day, Brin’s Lance was called to the front lines again, though this time Grimwalt didn’t even make a pretense of trying to take more ground. Instead, the armies guarded a group of enchanters who scribbled anti-Wyrd spells into the ground.

He also saw people in robes that covered their whole bodies to the point he couldn’t tell if they were men or women. They were completely immune to his [Wyrdic Inspect] and were spread out here and there in the armies. Brin knew they were counter-Wyrd and thought maybe they were fate readers or fortune tellers, because they would point and the army would fling spells, boulders, or a volley of arrows wherever they said. It was impossible to know if they hit anything. Even Brin couldn’t see through the illusion wall, not unless he wanted to destroy it with lasers, and he wasn’t ready to show that card yet.

That night, they received orders to move their tent to be in line with all the other Lances on the open field. There would be no other warning. When the trumpets sounded the wake-up call in the morning, the contest would already have begun.