The class on combat tactics ended after about an hour and now the recruits were allowed to take their free time, where they could do whatever the wanted for an hour.
Oliver and his party just went back to their long house and talked among themselves for free time. Loki just slept on Oliver's bed while the party talked about how they would fight as a party. For them this came relatively easily. They were all trained from a young age on how to cooperate as a party because everyone in Shadow Glades had to be able to work together in case of a beast tide.
At the end of the hour they all made their way back to the field in the center of the long houses where Richard was waiting for them. After everyone arrived Richard began their next lesson.
"Now that everyone is here let's jump straight into your next lesson. Your next lesson will be Group Combat. Now group combat will be you and your party either fighting another party of recruits or you'll be facing off against a group of beasts that have been captured. These battles will take place in the arena which is to the south of these long houses. We will make our way to the arena and from now on you all will meet me there when its time for your group combat lesson." Richard explained.
Richard then led them to the south of the camp where the eventually saw a large arena made of stone. The inside of the arena was about the size of a sports field and had tall walls that eventually turned into seating for people to watch what was going on in the arena itself.
"Now I will divide you into groups based upon what I have seen of everyone's abilities so far. Today you will only be fighting against each other without you soulbounds. Ill divide you in a way that I believe will be as fair of a match as possible. Now first up will be Shadowmere's party versus Vincent's party. From what iv seen so far I believe that your parties are the most powerful of your group of recruits. I want everyone to watch how they work as a party because its clear they have decent combat experience already. Both groups make your way down to the arena floor and wait for my signal to start." Richard says.
Oliver and his party make their way down to the arena floor where they find racks of practice weapons for them to choose from. Once they choose their weapons they arrange themselves in a basic combat formation with Brutus being in the front with his sword and shield. Trevor is ten yards behind Brutus with Tina being just a little further back than Trevor. Oliver is right next to Brutus on the right side and just a little behind him.
Across from them is Vincent's party who is in a formation almost identical to their own. The large heavyset man with plate armor is in the front, his name is George. Vincent is right next to him while Lenny their scout is ten yards behind them. Their cleric Paul is a little further back than Lenny. George is a Knight while Vincent is a warrior.
Both groups have their weapons at the ready and are ready to use their skills as soon as Richard gives the signal.
"I'll count to three and on three the battle will begin. One, two, three!!" Richard exclaims.
On three the two parties move almost as one. Both of the knights George and Brutus activate their Taunt skills which make their opponents focus on them for ten seconds. Before either of them get their taunt skills off though Oliver had already turned into a shadow using his Shadow Step skill, it turns out that Taunt doesn't affect him while in Shadow form.
Both of the knights collide with each other while the two scouts fire blunted arrows at the two knights because of the Taunt skill. Vincent is pounding on Brutus's shield with George having been hit with the taunt skill as well. Paul the cleric casts a two buff skills called Sacrament and Blood lust on Vincent and George. Sacrament increases defence by ten percent while Blood Lust increases their attack by ten percent. He also casts Blood Lust on Lenny their scout too. With both of their front line fighters being buffed Brutus has a hard time holding them both back, his heavy plate armor is constantly taking a beating as he desperately tries to hold back their party's combined offensive.
Then something unexpected happens, Oliver pops up behind their healer Paul. Oliver then uses his Assassins Blade skill which increases his attack power by ten percent to non vital areas and twenty percent to vital areas. He uses this skill then hits Paul's unprotected head with the handle of the dagger that is in his right hand. Paul immediately falls to the ground unconscious. After he does so you would expect for his buffs to stop working but they don't, the buffs are timed buffs and not channeled buffs. Each buff last or one minute even if the caster is incapacitated.
With Paul being down Oliver activates his Fleet Footed skill which increases his movements speed by twenty percent. He then rushes at Lenny the scout and begins to assault him. Lenny is still affected by Brutus's Taunt skill so Oliver is able to knock him out with Assassins Blade as well before he's even able to do anything.
In under ten seconds Oliver was able to incapacitate two of Vincent's party members leaving just Vincent and George left. At this point the taunt skill wears off and Vincent is able to take his focus off of Brutus only to turn around and find his teammates passed out with Oliver sprinting towards him. Vincent turns around and plans on assaulting Oliver but suddenly finds himself bound by vines that came out of the ground. This is Tina's Nature Shaman skill Entangling Roots, which causes Roots to spring from the ground and entangle your target for five seconds.
Vincent tries to cut at the roots entangling him but as he does he finds his arms also get entangled which pins his sword to his chest. Oliver then approaches him and puts his dagger to Vincent's throat which clearly signals that he's out of the fight.
That leaves only George. Another set of vines comes out of the ground and entangles George to which Brutus just rests his sword against George's throat signaling that the match is over.
Tina releases her Entangling Roots skill, setting both Vincent and George free. Vincent is fuming after his party barely lasted even ten seconds against Oliver and his party. He looks at Oliver with pure fury in his eyes with thoughts of revenge swirling in his mind.
"That was a surprisingly one sided match. I thought you would be much more even but I guess this outcome should've been expected when you have a Shadow Assassin and Nature Shaman in the same party. From now on unless we're fighting with soulbounds as well, your party will strictly fight against the beasts we have caught. That was a great display of picking the wrong formation when facing certain opponents. Vincent now that you know that Oliver is a shadow assassin you should stand next to your healer and you both should stand far enough back to avoid their knights taunt skill. This will allow you to protect your healer from Oliver while also keeping you out of range from Entangling Roots." Richard says.
"Also this is also a good time to explain how to combat against the Taunt skill. To break out of a Taunt skill you must have high willpower and forcibly break the skill. Not everyone has an overpowered ability like Shadow Step to avoid Taunts so it's I pretty high priority to increase your willpower if you hope to survive this war because Taunt skills will be common on the front lines." Richard explains.
"I want everyone to take notice that Oliver took out the healer first. Typically this is the ideal first target to take out. if you leave a healer on the field that just means that you'll have to exhaust their mana by attacking their their other party members. The reason being that you'll have to get an instant kill on your target or else the enemy's healer will just heal their party member back to full health which will increase the time it takes your party to overcome the enemy. Now taking out the healer is easier said than done but if you can at least keep pressure on the healer it will make taking out their other party members a lot easier. Classes like assassins are ideal classes for this." Richard says.
"Now Vincent wake up your other party members and be sure to tell them what I just said. eventually I'll have you fight Oliver's party again and I expect you to use the formation that I just taught you to make the match last longer. You'll also get another chance to fight them when we include your soulbounds in the battle as well." Richard says