Chapter 157: Basic Spear Formation
After this short interlude the class continued and while nobody got even close to creating the formation all of them learned a lot.
"All of you did a good job, but without a lot of training you won't be able to form the formation, so make sure to practice when you have time. You can take those crystals with you and train with them.", Mrs. Mertinez told them when it was time for the class to end.
"The formations are really interesting, I wonder what else one can do with it.", Irena said while they were leaving the classroom.
"It should have a wide range of applications. After all, we will learn some in combat class as well."
"That's true. But shouldn't there be a difference between them and the one we just learned?"
"Of course. Something like what we have just learned shouldn't be applicable during combat. At least not as long as it isn't prepared beforehand. So the ones in combat class have to be different."
They continued chatting until it was time for the next class.
Time flew by and soon it was time for combat class. Thus everyone gathered on the training field.
Mr. Martin started class as soon as he saw that everyone had arrived.
"This morning Mrs. Martinez has already told you some basic knowledge about formation, so I won't repeat that. Instead, we will focus on the three team-formations you will learn during your school life. Or at least those will be the only ones that are officially thought. If you want to learn others as well, you will have to learn them on your own.
We categorize team-formations into active and passive ones as well as attack, defense, and trapping.
Here you will learn a passive attack and defense as well as an active trapping formation, with each of them being only a basic one."
One of the students raised his hand and Mr. Martin asked him to voice out his question.
"Why do we only learn those three formations?"
"A good question.", Mr. Martin complimented the student. "It shows that you have understood that there is something different from the other skills we teach you."
He then continued explaining, "The skills you will learn at school are generally those that can be learned without the use of skill books. Just by manually learning them you can then unlock them. But sadly we haven't been able to find team-formations like this.
Every known team formation requires skill books to be learned, except for the three you will learn. Those can be licensed from the system to be taught to students of a teaching institute."
"But if the passive team formation only depends on the positioning of the team members, then why would they even require a skill?", another student asked.
"Sure it is possible to imitate them to some degree, but something seems to be missing. Call it the soul of the formation. There always seems to be some slight error in the coordination between the team members if a formation is used, without all the members having it as a skill.", the teacher patiently explained.
He then waited, if there were more questions and when he saw that there weren't any, he started explaining the formations they would learn.
"The first two formations I will teach you are the 'Basic Spear Formation', which is a passive offensive formation and the 'Basic Turtle Formation', which is a passive defensive formation.
Those two formations can be trained at the same time, with one team using the defensive formation and the other trying to break it with the offensive formation."
He then pointed at some students, "You will be team A and the rest will be team B."
With that, he had divided up the students into two similar-sized groups.
"Team A will attack first, so get a spear each.", he pointed to a weapon rack at the side, which was filled with simple wooden spears. "For the start, we will use spears, since they make it easier. Later when you have a better mastery of the formation you can use it with any weapon you can think of, as long as they are a melee weapon. You can even mix the weapon types."
He then waited for everyone in team A to take one spear. "Now get into formation.", he then pushed the students of team A into position, until they formed a spear-like formation. One student stood at the front. Behind him stood two other students and after them three students, making them look like the tip of a spear. Because of the team size, the last two students didn't make a full row and were instead positioned in the middle like a shaft.
"This is the basic formation for the 'Basic Spear Formation'.", Mr. Martin explained, "If there are more people, then more rows will be added, with each row having a slightly larger width than the one before. For experienced users, it is also possible to make the core empty, which means that later rows only have people on the outside, while the inside is either empty or filled with other people, that are not part of the formation."
"The true might of this formation comes from a distribution of force when charging. When meeting the enemy, the rebound force will be distributed along the flanks of the formation, thus reducing the force on the leader in the front. At the same time, the shape will also make breaking through defense easier.", he explained the benefits of the formation as well as its usage, which was charging to break the enemy line.
"Later you might even be proficient enough to merge your aura's, making the formation similar to one spear and thus rising it's power much further."
The students in team A slowly got a feel for the formation. Under Mr. Martin's commands, they slowly advanced with their spears pointing forward. Then they tried to turn, which led to great chaos in the ranks. Meanwhile, team B was watching them and tried to learn as much as possible.
"As you can see, one of the biggest weaknesses of the formation is the difficulty in changing direction. Oftentimes this means that once you start charging you won't be able to adjust your direction, so be careful when using it without enough mastery."
Seeing that they had started to work together better he then told them, "Alright, that's enough for now. I will now show team B the 'Basic Turtle Formation', so watch carefully."
The turtle formation was easier than the spear formation since it only required the students to take shields and form a box, with the shields pointing outwards. This meant that, whichever an enemy attacked from, they would only be met with a wall of shields.
The shields used were big and sturdy, which made it possible to place them on the ground and by crouching have them cover the full body of the student behind it.
"The difficulty in this formation lies in moving as well as counterattacking.", the teacher explained. "While moving it is necessary for everyone to be in sync, so the shields keep overlapping and no openings are created.
And while counterattacking teamwork is required so the short openings can not be exploited by the enemy."
"But for now you will first practice withstanding an enemy charge.", he then directed the two teams into position, so the team A would charge at the team B.
"Let's get the party started. I want team A to charge against team B until either the defense line breaks or the time for class is up."
There was still an hour left, so it would be a strenuous affair for team A to repeatedly charge if they didn't manage to break the formation of team B.
Ivan was in team B and he was positioned in the front row in the middle. Because of the team size, they only had three people in a row making the formation quite small. On the right, his shield was in front of the shield of his neighbor while on the left it was behind. According to Mr. Martin's explanation, it was thus especially important to stabilize the left side, since it had to hold the force on his own shield as well as some of his neighbor's. This way, the force would be transferred across the entire formation and thus making his job easier.
On the teacher's command team A started to charge towards them.
When they started charging, the formerly harmless-looking formation of team A seemed to become a sharp spear in the eyes of Ivan and the rest of team B.
"So this is the effect of the 'Basic Spear Formation'", one of the students in team B murmured.
But the change in appearance didn't only exist for team B. When team A started to charge towards the 'Basic Turtle Formation', there too seemed to be a change in what they saw. It didn't seem like they were charging against a row of shields but instead a solid block of wood.
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