Sword unification (2)

After a few rounds of practice, the five skeleton swordsmen in unit one appear to grasp a bit of that synergy I am hoping to teach them.

Their teamwork is still in the budding stages but as long as they practice there will be continuous improvement. If I can get all the groups to the standard of unit one I'll be satisfied enough to let this boss room go.

Do you stop working over the night, Navi? I recall you said I could contact you anytime.

Then I'll continue here too.

I don't think I can sleep without finishing this and today is Thursday anyway so after tomorrow I'll have the weekend to spend with my family. Pulling an all-nighter with my current stats shouldn't be an issue, correct?

My next twelve hours or so are spent training with the skeleton swordsmen. There's only one of me so I needed to train each group individually. On top of that, I had to take a few breaks since my stamina could at most hold out for two hours continuously and that was pushing it.

Finally, all the groups are up to the minimum standard and I feel like I never want to fight a swordsman again. This training is more brutal for me than it is for the skeleton swordsmen. After all, they just watched me fight when it wasn't their turn.

Now the boss room has been raised to a level of difficulty that I can proudly stand by. I could do better but the time needed for that would totally outweigh the improvement.

However, before I leave this place to start on Hades' little love child there is one last thing I want to do.

There's no change of mind here. The last thing I want to do won't have much of an influence on the combat strength these skeleton swordsmen exhibit. Since there will be no remarkable increase in combat power I do not see a reason to count it as such.

Nothing of the sort. I didn't do so with the skeleton mages since they should be able to think of it by themselves but these skeleton swordsmen don't seem the type.

Therefore I need to teach them what to do when they start having casualties without being completely wiped out. The newly created skeleton swordsmen won't know the things I taught the old ones.

"Next lesson. If some of you are defeated and the newly spawned skeleton swordsmen are to replace those positions you will have to integrate them into the groups. That means you will have to partially teach them and learn to fight with them. Without me!"

They all shudder at my declaration which sounds rather funny since their bones literally begin to rattle. But I can't go easy on them now. They won't be having my help once I leave either. If they can try in a somewhat protected environment now they will be more secure later.

"All of you form new groups of the same size with other skeleton swordsmen. Once you have your new groups start practicing to reach the same state as before with your new allies. I will only be watching so you are on your own."

I can feel their frustration and helplessness as they take nearly fifteen minutes to form those new groups. There are still some members of the former groups that stayed together in the new groups but that is unavoidable.

They begin to practice and the lack of their former allies becomes apparent. They learned to form a synergy with only a select few and now they need to do so with others. The difficulty of this task certainly isn't low.

Without me as a clear target that they can attack they are forced to use an imaginary foe. They strike at the air trying to avoid each others' swords. They have yet to even begin to show any actual synergy.

I watch them train for nearly two hours before I finally see a ray of hope. One group gets it and a vague sense of teamwork emerges from their attacks. Soon a second group manages to grasp it and with every few passing minutes their number increases.

After another hour I tell them to stop as I am satisfied. Every single one of the groups has managed to reach a level close to what I taught them before.

If they actually have to teach replacements to fill in it won't go so smooth or happen in just a few hours but this experience should allow them to manage.

I'll still have to return if they get wiped out because a strong group of adventurers passes by. But yes, this will free up some time for me to use elsewhere. Gods know my schedule is full enough already.

I can try to but why is there any need? Do you want me to go home earlier?