Chapter 25
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"Words are easily said but not easily proven; I assume since you said them so easily you can back it up with fact?" Undoubtedly the noble was sceptical that this young boy could run such a large business.
"Well to prove it all you need to do is ask Mr Fletcher, didn't you wonder why he treats me so well, I mean he's lent me 10 of his best guards for just short of a week, he also was happy to arrange this meeting for me. Kindness only goes so far in this world." With that the nobles began to realise further just how strange this young man was, to be able to achieve the things he had, if any 12 years old had been able to do only one of the things he had done they would be hailed as a genius, but he had completed 3 astounding tasks in quick succession.
A few nobles decided to readjust their moods and pay more attention to the weapons demonstrations feeling that the young man wouldn't have asked to meet them if he didn't have confidence in them liking what they saw.
"Would the next man come up please." For the next hour, man after man went up and was eventually defeated using the spears. There were another two swords that had been cut clean through; lastly, there was the man the inner city noble had brought with him left to fight. James had decided to leave him last to either secure a 9 out of 10 win rate or to finish by crushing all ten men. Either way, he would come off looking good.
He had saved Franklins best man for the job of beating this nobles man. While he didn't look like much, he had barely managed to awaken as a mage when he was a child through some lucky encounters; unfortunately, he was left unable to advance any farther than being what is called a 'half-step magus', but it still made him worlds ahead of what ordinary people could achieve.
The noble had bought his best as well, and he was a brute of a man who towered over everyone here by at least a head, he made James look like an ant comparatively. The man stepped up and obviously from watching the previous bouts he had been able to find a plan to counter the spear which was harassing the opposition by leaving them no space to move and use the reach to their advantage. Unfortunately, James had made sure to have the men train against this tactic and had decided to incorporate a light metal plate down the side of the spear to directly counter it.
While the spears could stand up to the shock of being hit with a sword thanks to the properties of the ash wood, it, unfortunately, wouldn't withstand the wood being chipped away at by a sword. The man with the spear merely adjusted his grip to use the spear as a polearm instead and defended the attacks while using his fast speed to open a gap.
He ducked below the man's swing and sprinted to open a gap for himself, afterwards, he thrust forwards with everything he had and stopped just short of the man's throat, it was clear that if he had wanted to, he could have taken his life right then.
Left with a sour look on his face the man conceded defeat, leaving James with a satisfied expression. Fletcher's men had truly outdone themselves. He had never expected that his men would be able to win every single match, it was like a dream come true for him.
"There is another part of the demonstration that I would like to do myself if you don't mind" After saying that James walked over to where the spears had been racked and waited for the maids to pull out ten straw targets for him. After they had all been set up, he pulled out a small tool he had Tobias make him and used it to remove the nail from the spear that holds the spearhead on and threw the spear at the target as hard as he could. Watching it fly through the air and firmly embed itself in the target all of the nobles showed a shocked expression, they hadn't thought of the ranged capabilities of the weapon.
After throwing all ten spears into the targets, he asked each of the nobles to go and retrieve a spear each. As each noble gripped the spear they pulled with full effort and found themselves stumbling backwards as the handle of the spear was the only bit left in their hands and the spearhead was left in the target.
"Once thrown this can prevent the enemies from throwing them back and causing damage back to our side." James had truly thought of every angle of his demonstration to show off his weapons prowess. "There's one final demonstration I would like to do if you don't mind" James then handed each one of his men a shield and ordered them into the formation that had shaken his original world, the phalanx formation.
James then turned to the nobles to issue his challenge "I would like you to tell me how you would defeat this formation."
"Isn't it obvious? Just shoot over their shields with a barrage of arrows!" The inner district noble was the first to fall for the obvious trap of the phalanx formation.
"Shield wall!" After hearing their command, the men overlapped their shields completely covering themselves making arrows ineffective.
"I will save us all a lot of time and tell you that the only way to defeat this formation is to break it apart which is easier said than done thankfully. And all you have to do is give each man a sword as well then they will be able to fight even if they are broken up, although you couldn't say this is a true phalanx ideally all the men would have heavy armour and such, this is just a proof of concept."
"It's marvellous; it was worth coming here to see the formation alone let alone the spears!" The level of the military was truly horrible in this world. Clearly, these men aren't used to practising with large numbers so aren't able to coordinate for large formations.
Obviously, James knew that the phalanx had become obsolete, but he didn't have much time to practice anything else and could only throw this together at the last minute to finish his demonstration.
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"Words are easily said but not easily proven; I assume since you said them so easily you can back it up with fact?" Undoubtedly the noble was sceptical that this young boy could run such a large business.
"Well to prove it all you need to do is ask Mr Fletcher, didn't you wonder why he treats me so well, I mean he's lent me 10 of his best guards for just short of a week, he also was happy to arrange this meeting for me. Kindness only goes so far in this world." With that the nobles began to realise further just how strange this young man was, to be able to achieve the things he had, if any 12 years old had been able to do only one of the things he had done they would be hailed as a genius, but he had completed 3 astounding tasks in quick succession.
A few nobles decided to readjust their moods and pay more attention to the weapons demonstrations feeling that the young man wouldn't have asked to meet them if he didn't have confidence in them liking what they saw.
"Would the next man come up please." For the next hour, man after man went up and was eventually defeated using the spears. There were another two swords that had been cut clean through; lastly, there was the man the inner city noble had brought with him left to fight. James had decided to leave him last to either secure a 9 out of 10 win rate or to finish by crushing all ten men. Either way, he would come off looking good.
He had saved Franklins best man for the job of beating this nobles man. While he didn't look like much, he had barely managed to awaken as a mage when he was a child through some lucky encounters; unfortunately, he was left unable to advance any farther than being what is called a 'half-step magus', but it still made him worlds ahead of what ordinary people could achieve.
The noble had bought his best as well, and he was a brute of a man who towered over everyone here by at least a head, he made James look like an ant comparatively. The man stepped up and obviously from watching the previous bouts he had been able to find a plan to counter the spear which was harassing the opposition by leaving them no space to move and use the reach to their advantage. Unfortunately, James had made sure to have the men train against this tactic and had decided to incorporate a light metal plate down the side of the spear to directly counter it.
While the spears could stand up to the shock of being hit with a sword thanks to the properties of the ash wood, it, unfortunately, wouldn't withstand the wood being chipped away at by a sword. The man with the spear merely adjusted his grip to use the spear as a polearm instead and defended the attacks while using his fast speed to open a gap.
He ducked below the man's swing and sprinted to open a gap for himself, afterwards, he thrust forwards with everything he had and stopped just short of the man's throat, it was clear that if he had wanted to, he could have taken his life right then.
Left with a sour look on his face the man conceded defeat, leaving James with a satisfied expression. Fletcher's men had truly outdone themselves. He had never expected that his men would be able to win every single match, it was like a dream come true for him.
"There is another part of the demonstration that I would like to do myself if you don't mind" After saying that James walked over to where the spears had been racked and waited for the maids to pull out ten straw targets for him. After they had all been set up, he pulled out a small tool he had Tobias make him and used it to remove the nail from the spear that holds the spearhead on and threw the spear at the target as hard as he could. Watching it fly through the air and firmly embed itself in the target all of the nobles showed a shocked expression, they hadn't thought of the ranged capabilities of the weapon.
After throwing all ten spears into the targets, he asked each of the nobles to go and retrieve a spear each. As each noble gripped the spear they pulled with full effort and found themselves stumbling backwards as the handle of the spear was the only bit left in their hands and the spearhead was left in the target.
"Once thrown this can prevent the enemies from throwing them back and causing damage back to our side." James had truly thought of every angle of his demonstration to show off his weapons prowess. "There's one final demonstration I would like to do if you don't mind" James then handed each one of his men a shield and ordered them into the formation that had shaken his original world, the phalanx formation.
James then turned to the nobles to issue his challenge "I would like you to tell me how you would defeat this formation."
"Isn't it obvious? Just shoot over their shields with a barrage of arrows!" The inner district noble was the first to fall for the obvious trap of the phalanx formation.
"Shield wall!" After hearing their command, the men overlapped their shields completely covering themselves making arrows ineffective.
"I will save us all a lot of time and tell you that the only way to defeat this formation is to break it apart which is easier said than done thankfully. And all you have to do is give each man a sword as well then they will be able to fight even if they are broken up, although you couldn't say this is a true phalanx ideally all the men would have heavy armour and such, this is just a proof of concept."
"It's marvellous; it was worth coming here to see the formation alone let alone the spears!" The level of the military was truly horrible in this world. Clearly, these men aren't used to practising with large numbers so aren't able to coordinate for large formations.
Obviously, James knew that the phalanx had become obsolete, but he didn't have much time to practice anything else and could only throw this together at the last minute to finish his demonstration.
"Words are easily said but not easily proven; I assume since you said them so easily you can back it up with fact?" Undoubtedly the noble was sceptical that this young boy could run such a large business."Well to prove it all you need to do is ask Mr Fletcher, didn't you wonder why he treats me so well, I mean he's lent me 10 of his best guards for just short of a week, he also was happy to arrange this meeting for me. Kindness only goes so far in this world." With that the nobles began to realise further just how strange this young man was, to be able to achieve the things he had, if any 12 years old had been able to do only one of the things he had done they would be hailed as a genius, but he had completed 3 astounding tasks in quick succession.A few nobles decided to readjust their moods and pay more attention to the weapons demonstrations feeling that the young man wouldn't have asked to meet them if he didn't have confidence in them liking what they saw."Would the next man come up please." For the next hour, man after man went up and was eventually defeated using the spears. There were another two swords that had been cut clean through; lastly, there was the man the inner city noble had brought with him left to fight. James had decided to leave him last to either secure a 9 out of 10 win rate or to finish by crushing all ten men. Either way, he would come off looking good.He had saved Franklins best man for the job of beating this nobles man. While he didn't look like much, he had barely managed to awaken as a mage when he was a child through some lucky encounters; unfortunately, he was left unable to advance any farther than being what is called a 'half-step magus', but it still made him worlds ahead of what ordinary people could achieve.The noble had bought his best as well, and he was a brute of a man who towered over everyone here by at least a head, he made James look like an ant comparatively. The man stepped up and obviously from watching the previous bouts he had been able to find a plan to counter the spear which was harassing the opposition by leaving them no space to move and use the reach to their advantage. Unfortunately, James had made sure to have the men train against this tactic and had decided to incorporate a light metal plate down the side of the spear to directly counter it.While the spears could stand up to the shock of being hit with a sword thanks to the properties of the ash wood, it, unfortunately, wouldn't withstand the wood being chipped away at by a sword. The man with the spear merely adjusted his grip to use the spear as a polearm instead and defended the attacks while using his fast speed to open a gap.He ducked below the man's swing and sprinted to open a gap for himself, afterwards, he thrust forwards with everything he had and stopped just short of the man's throat, it was clear that if he had wanted to, he could have taken his life right then.Left with a sour look on his face the man conceded defeat, leaving James with a satisfied expression. Fletcher's men had truly outdone themselves. He had never expected that his men would be able to win every single match, it was like a dream come true for him."There is another part of the demonstration that I would like to do myself if you don't mind" After saying that James walked over to where the spears had been racked and waited for the maids to pull out ten straw targets for him. After they had all been set up, he pulled out a small tool he had Tobias make him and used it to remove the nail from the spear that holds the spearhead on and threw the spear at the target as hard as he could. Watching it fly through the air and firmly embed itself in the target all of the nobles showed a shocked expression, they hadn't thought of the ranged capabilities of the weapon.After throwing all ten spears into the targets, he asked each of the nobles to go and retrieve a spear each. As each noble gripped the spear they pulled with full effort and found themselves stumbling backwards as the handle of the spear was the only bit left in their hands and the spearhead was left in the target."Once thrown this can prevent the enemies from throwing them back and causing damage back to our side." James had truly thought of every angle of his demonstration to show off his weapons prowess. "There's one final demonstration I would like to do if you don't mind" James then handed each one of his men a shield and ordered them into the formation that had shaken his original world, the phalanx formation.James then turned to the nobles to issue his challenge "I would like you to tell me how you would defeat this formation.""Isn't it obvious? Just shoot over their shields with a barrage of arrows!" The inner district noble was the first to fall for the obvious trap of the phalanx formation."Shield wall!" After hearing their command, the men overlapped their shields completely covering themselves making arrows ineffective."I will save us all a lot of time and tell you that the only way to defeat this formation is to break it apart which is easier said than done thankfully. And all you have to do is give each man a sword as well then they will be able to fight even if they are broken up, although you couldn't say this is a true phalanx ideally all the men would have heavy armour and such, this is just a proof of concept.""It's marvellous; it was worth coming here to see the formation alone let alone the spears!" The level of the military was truly horrible in this world. Clearly, these men aren't used to practising with large numbers so aren't able to coordinate for large formations.Obviously, James knew that the phalanx had become obsolete, but he didn't have much time to practice anything else and could only throw this together at the last minute to finish his demonstration.
