CH 19: 1st Trial (pt 1)

Jason was surprised about his current situation. He was having too many surprised happening to him at the moment. He just found out he was Wakandan royalty, he just found out that Thor is really a god and not just a guy going with a theme, and he found out that the cat he named 'Smelly' was the avatar of a god that could end his life with a single sneeze.

'Please do not hold this against me, Smelly. I'll buy you all the treats you want.'

Jason felt a gaze on them before looking forward and seeing the large panther with Jason in its eyes as if it could hear Jason's small prayer. It then gained a small mischievous glint as if it could hear Jason's thoughts and was mocking him for it.

What Jason did not realize, was that in this domain, Bast was truly god. The spirits of everyone there were summoned and controlled by her conscious. She was a filter from their main bodies lying wherever they were and would, therefore, receive all the thoughts the bodies sent to the spirit forms.

'You wish to bully one of my avatars? Partially her fault for never explaining it to you but you will still be punished for calling her, and by extension me, smelly.'

Jason felt a chill go up his spine but thought he was just imagining it. He thought he was imagining the look Bast was giving him because of nervousness.

'No deity would be that petty.'

Bast gathered all of the royalties' attention by letting out a low growl.

"The 1st trial is simple. It shall be a war game. Time here flows differently than the outside world. 1 week here is an hour out there. So I will be giving you all 100 men and women with great physiques and bases filled with a large number of weapons. The soldiers' personalities will be influenced by yourselves and they learn very fast.

Your bases will each be different. Some may suit you and some may be something you are unused to. All of your weapons will be cold weapons to ensure that actual training is conducted.

You will can train them however you wish or attack the other bases whenever you feel your soldiers are ready. The game is over when only 3 of you remain standing. You will be scored based on your actions. Besides that, there are no other rules. The trial begins now."

Jason felt himself being sucked away and his body was filled with pain. He closed his eyes to try and focus on suppressing the pain but the moment he did, the pain immediately left.

When Jason opened his eyes, he noticed he was no longer before the decaying yet thriving city. He was standing atop of a castle on a mountain. He was on the outer wall and could see all of the land beneath him as well as the other 7 castles.

Jason turned around and saw that his castle as a whole was smaller than all the other ones. He also saw his men standing in the center of the courtyard and standing straight as arrows while waiting for commands.

'So I have a smaller base to compensate for me being atop a mountain and having a better view. Normally, this would be a disadvantage. With these small numbers and my lack of military training, this actually is much better for me.'

Jason thought of the rules of the war game and began planning on how he was going to win. While Jason was not interested in being the Black Panther, he did not want to lose so easily. He knew he lacked the qualities of a king but he did have the mentality of a ruler.

Jason turned to face his soldiers.

"Good morning! Our goal for this war game is not victory. We do not need to be first place or even the top 3. Our Main Quest is to ensure that we have fun fucking with everyone else. Winning is only a side quest that we can ignore.

Everyone, follow me to the armory. We need to see what we are working with."

Jason walked down the ladder to stand before his soldiers before leading them to the armory. Jason was given a map inside of his head that showed all parts of his fort, even the hidden rooms, as well as nearby areas.

When he arrived in the dungeon, Jason saw that it was an incredibly large room that was filled with countless weapons and armors of various shapes and sizes that looked to have never been used. There were also many different jars and containers around.

When Jason looked inside of them, they were filled with things like oil and sulfur. Jason smiled unconsciously to himself when he saw that did not just have weapons but also materials.

'So I have all the materials I need to cause a shit ton of trouble. This is gonna be so much fun.'

Jason ordered for each of his people to grab a quiver of javelins as well as 3 daggers and light armor. He also ordered for them to each bring out a large jar of oil and sulfur as well as a shovel.

Jason led the group back into the main courtyard before having them set everything down off to the side while he began teaching them krav maga. While it might not compare to the training the other princes and princess would give, it was still better than nothing.

After he got done with 3 hours of training, he saw that every one of his soldiers had improved rapidly. He also noticed that he himself and none of them seemed tired.

'I guess we really are just energy. That makes this training so much easier.'

Jason then began learning and trying to teach the others how to use the javelins as long-range and short-range weapons before taking them out and down the mountain for some live target training.

'There should be some animals down there for us to hunt.'

And so, Jason's first experience as a commander had begun.