Once the Monk began to sweat and look a bit winded, Karl backed off and smiled at him.
The Monk nodded. “That was good exercise, I needed that after two months here. The new limbs are still a bit sluggish.”
They left the ring, and more groups moved in, Awakened Elites, who went four teams to the ring, as they weren’t moving nearly as far as the Commanders had.
The new doctors all seemed to be in shock, even now that the fights were on a closer to human scale. They had been so overwhelmed by what they had seen at the start, which they could see was a game between friends, with no harm done despite the brutality of the event, that they still hadn’t managed to get themselves under control.
One of the younger doctors was sitting with her head against her knees, working to control her breathing. She didn’t look alright, so Karl went over to check on her, snagging a couple of bottles of water off the table by the ring on his way.
“Here, sip slowly, it helps.” Karl informed her as he sat down in the grass beside the young doctor.
She numbly sipped the water as she stared at the Elites sparring.
“Do you know why I became a psychologist? An Awakened Rank Giant Wolf Spider took residence in my hometown while I was in the city at school. It killed half the population, and the ones the army recovered from the cocoons were never the same.” She whispered.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean it as a personal thing to anyone. The spider Golems are just renewable, so I could show everyone an actual fight without injury.” Karl replied.
She nodded slowly, her heart still pounding so hard that Karl could hear it.
“I know that. It was just so… so…”
Karl patted her back. “I know, and so does everyone else here. Every Elite in this hospital has seen that level of battle and much worse. Most of us have been sent on those rescue missions to invaded villages. But look how much fun everyone is having now. That was the goal of coming here, right? To get everyone’s mind back into a good place.”
The doctor smiled at Karl as she got to her feet. “That’s right. Thank you for reminding me. But I should give you some advice as well. If you’re going to spar in a hassock, put pants on first.”
Karl laughed. “I am wearing shorts underneath. I’ve been yelled at for that before, so I changed before we came out.”
A few of the other doctors laughed, especially the nature priests.
As the doctors from the University began to see the camaraderie between the Elites, they began to relax and look at them differently. Not as a problem to be solved, but as people who shared something that the rest of the world couldn’t really understand.
And so, the morning meetings were changed to morning outdoor activities, at least on the days with good weather. Wheelchair basketball, sparring, any sort of game the Elites came up with was incorporated into their recovery regimen.
Many of the doctors had pushed for this from the start of the Elite program, but it was considered unconventional, or too risky for the wounded, even when they were confined to a basketball court, where they could easily be kept within the range of an area healing spell for treatment while they exercised.
So that was how Karl’s next week went, with exercise in the morning to bring his arm back up to his standards, and lessons with Morgana all afternoon to catch up on the schooling that he should have been taking during the first and second year, before he was sent out into the world.
Karl didn’t even know that some of those historical eras had happened, much less that they had their own architectural style that was likely to contain magical relics. It was enough new information that even Thor’s prodigious memory was struggling to remember it all.
The only easy part was the public speaking lessons, as Karl wasn’t bad at that to begin with. The challenge was learning how to turn everything into polite doublespeak so that you could convey your message without antagonizing anyone, even in a hostile crowd.
But all fun things must end, and at the end of a week, it was time for the review of the party members’ progress. He had been healing well, but it was still unlikely that he would be discharged early.
Ophelia might be, as she was doing much better now that she got to spend her mornings in Werebear form, wrestling and sparring. It was Dana that Karl was concerned about. She had gotten quiet since the battle, and had lost a lot of the bubbly personality that used to come out at every chance.
Perhaps that was just part of the experience, but it still seemed like she could use a bit more time with the priests. Or perhaps that was the problem, and she just needed to get back to normalcy with the other students?
On the final day of the week, instead of the morning games, Karl was called to a meeting room where five doctors in five different cleric robes sat as a panel behind a desk.
“Commander Karl, initial prognosis, nerve damage to the left arm and a severe concussion. We are pleased to inform you that your time with us is now ended. You are cleared to return to duty at any time. The Academy should be contacting you later today to let you know of their deployment plans.”
Karl smiled. “That is excellent news. Have you met with the rest of my team yet?”
The doctors shook their heads. “No, you are the first review of the morning. There are a number of other patients between you and them, but you should have answers before you go anywhere.”
That seemed to signal the end of the meeting, and Karl stepped out into the hall, where his three roommates were waiting along the wall for his results.
“I’m good to go. It’s been a pleasure, gentlemen.” Karl informed them with a smile.
“Where are they sending you? Back to the Frost Giant border to freeze again?”
Karl shook his head. “No, once my team is ready, we will be off to the Hill Giant border with the students from the Academy. I haven’t graduated yet, after all.”
The trio laughed. “We heard a curious rumour about you. Is it true that you’re still in the first year?”
Karl chuckled. “Yeah. Halfway through my first year at the Academy. I know it doesn’t really look like it anymore, with the advancements and their physical improvements, but I was in the last batch of serum injections.”
“Shit, we should try getting on the good side of some monsters. Maybe that’s the secret.” The blonde man joked.
“Ask the nature priests about that one first. They have many stories about the appeals and hazards of trying to cuddle the danger floof.”
Behind them, Doctor Xander laughed. “You’re a bad influence on the entire Green Dragon Priesthood, you know that? Do you know how many of them have tried to make new friends in the last week and nearly ended up in the emergency room?”
“I claim no responsibility for that. They were like that before I arrived.”
“That is true, I suppose. But speaking of which, we will be moving you over to the Cathedral tonight to wait on the rest of your team, unless they’re all released and ready to go today. I believe some of them were suggested to stay another week.”
Karl nodded. “Yeah, I believe that the two Priestesses are already there waiting for us. I’m sure that after a week in the Capital Cathedral, they’re ready for some less exciting days.”
The doctor laughed at the thought that being with a military unit at the border was either less exciting or more enjoyable than the cathedral, but Karl knew that they would be stuck with all the paperwork that he had been dodging for the last month.
Compared to that, sitting with a thousand students in a camp at the border sounded much better. The two Priestesses weren’t students, so they wouldn’t be asked to take lessons while they were there, and they were part of Karl’s team by contract, so they wouldn’t be reassigned to some menial duty, as they had to stay near the action to please the Red Dragon.
Plus, Lotus had to be going crazy without any animals around, other than the cats of the Cathedral.
