Chapter 185
Beatdown
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The mess hall was right in front of the storage area . It comprised several connected gable-roofed sheds supported by log pillars beneath . Though it looked simple, there was a primitive, rugged look to it . Under the sheds were long wooden benches for the eating soldiers to sit .
Claude estimated that it could seat around 900 or so men, a little more than a tribe of troops . He could more or less tell from the number of long benches and tables . The military didn't seem as well-equipped as those from old Earth .
They didn't have any regulation on who could dine at a certain time, or whether they had to wait their turn or not . Instead, everyone simply ate at a certain time . Apart from some who stood guard on duty outside, most people could go to the mess hall . The meal time was also rather long, being at around two hours, and the number of benches there could only fit around half the men in the base . It wasn't hard to come to the conclusion that this base was quite under-manned .
The militaries of the various nations on Freia largely shared the same structure . Aueras, for instance, didn't split their units into squadrons, platoons and companies . Instead, the units were simply organised into tents, bands and clans . A tent had around ten to twelve men, just enough to fill up a tent . The leader of a tent would sometimes be known as tentsman and usually bear the rank of staff sergeant, the lowest rank for an officer, or sergeant major .
Four tents made a band, which, when fully manned, would number 54 people . The band leaders -- bandsmen, as they were called -- were usually sergeant majors or second lieutenants and the units were also staffed with signallers, healers, guards and logistics troops . Four bands formed a clan that had a maximum of 320 people and was led by a second lieutenant or a first lieutenant who would be helped by an right hand, ordermen, signallers, healers and more guards .
Four clans formed a tribe, the smallest independent combat unit of the kingdom's army . They could act independently to execute missions assigned to them . The role of a tribesman would usually be given to captains or majors . A tribe had a second-in-command, right-hand, staff officers, a tent of signallers, a tent of healers, a tent of enforcers and a band of guards . A full tribe numbered around 1200 men .
Due to the line-and-shoot nature of warfare, the militaries of the various kingdoms employed a four-four hierarchical structure . Four smaller units formed to become a larger one . Above a tribe was the line, and beyond that was the folk . Four folks formed a corps that had around 50-to-60 thousand men . In peacetime, that number was almost halved, and they only had to maintain a certain level of combat ability .
It was still rather early by the time Claude and the others reached the mess hall . There were only 200 or so soldiers there . Everyone got into four tidy queues since there was only four points where they could collect their meals . The other one was for officer use only and normal soldiers weren't allowed to use them .
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Claude picked one line with fewer people and joined it . Surprisingly, nobody rushed him away because he didn't have a shoulder mark . Even the soldiers that joined behind him kept their quiet and didn't make the slightest move to harass him .
The cook in charge of dishing out food worked quickly, taking only ten or so seconds to deal with each soldier . After taking a look at the other eating soldiers, Claude came to understand why the cook was so fast . There wasn't much choice for food . Everyone had their canteens filled with meat and potato stew, two pieces of black bread sandwiching a piece of bacon, a fist-sized baked apple and free-fill red tea available for the taking at one side of the hall . Many soldiers used the cover of their canteens to fill it up with tea to use as a dip for their bread .
The food served there wasn't much better than what he had at his middle school cafeteria, but at least the amount was larger . It was enough to fill his stomach, but he had no idea about the taste . Claude despaired at the thought of having to eat the same food over and over again for half a year . It was quite torturous for a food lover like him .
The queue advanced quickly and by the time there were only seven to eight people left, another wave of soldiers entered . They chatted loudly as they approached . Claude gave them a glance and didn't really mind them, but his bare shoulders attracted quite a lot of attention .
Soon, two soldiers from the crowd approached Claude .
"You, come out here!" yelled a horse-faced soldier fiercely .
Claude ignored him and stared ahead . There were only three people left .
"Hey, I'm talking about you! Can you hear me?" said the other round-faced soldier as he gave Claude a push . The other soldiers nearby looked at them . Even the cook stopped all movement .
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Claude rolled his eyes . "What? Do I know you? Or do you know me?"
"No, no I don't," the round-faced one said with surprising honesty .
"Then why should I bother with you?" Claude turned back and remained in the queue .
"Hey, kid, where are you from?" The horse-faced soldier came closer .
"Why's that your business? Are you the boss here? Are you in charge of this base?" Claude was feeling rather annoyed . They were the ones that bullied the four nobles . The two before him had rather high ranks . The lanky, horse-faced one was a sergeant and the round-faced one was a corporal, denoted respectively by the two red lines and one red line on their shoulder marks .
"You're not part of our base, so you can't eat here!" The horse-faced sergeant refused to back down and pointed at Claude's shoulders .
"Oh? This is weird . I didn't think that permission to dine at the mess hall was up to a sergeant like you to give . I think you ought to wash your face and freshen up . I'm sure you're half asleep . Buzz off and stop bothering me while I queue up," Claude snapped back without restraint .
The onlookers were getting more heated . Some said, "Jem, show him!" while others laughed mockingly and said, "Oh, I didn't think you were in charge of our meals, Jem . " Some other soldiers asked Jem to wash his face like Claude suggested . They didn't seem to mind letting it escalate and couldn't wait to see the fight break out .
"Step out here now!" The round-faced soldier lost his cool from hearing the commotion and made his move, trying to pull Claude out from the queue by his collar .
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Claude held his canteen in his right hand and tried to stop the two hands of the other, but it was pointless . The round-faced soldier had more force, and he pulled Claude out of the queue with a tug .
Angered, Claude dashed forward, lowered his body and harshly squatted down .
Snap! The round-faced soldier's scream reverberated through the whole mess hall . A few others were completely stunned from the sound .
Nobody could withstand the intense pain from a sudden snap of the wrist and the round-faced soldier jumped around in pain with his wrists hanging loosely down .
The horse-faced soldier snapped out of it and raged . "You dare hurt someone?!"
He rushed at Claude with his fist clenched, striking his left cheek . Claude shook and only stopped after taking two steps back . Snapping out of it, he tussled with the horse-faced soldier .
Claude himself was shocked at the cry of the round-faced soldier . He only intended to get the guy to loosen his hands, yet he didn't expect his action to be so powerful as to cripple both the poor guy's hands .
That move was something he learned in his past life . There was once when he went to the gym with his boss and met an instructor of self defense, so he listened in to the class . The instructor happened to be teaching how one ought to react when one's collars were grabbed . Without panicking, one should grab the opponent's hands back and squat forcefully with the body leaning against the opponent . The other would have to loosen their hands or risk dislocation .
Claude himself was taken aback by what transpired and wasn't able to react to the other's attack . He only snapped out of it after taking the punch and launched into a tussle . The mess hall was like a pot of boiling water . The soldiers that were there to eat surrounded the two as they cheered for the fight . As for the poor round-faced soldier, he had gotten used to the pain and finally stopped squealing, looking at Claude from the sides with his hands hanging weakly .
The horse-faced man wasn't Claude's match at all . In front of the cheering soldiers, Claude gave his opponent a chin uppercut and a suplex, smashing the poor guy into the ground harshly . He didn't fare too well himself, however, with his left cheek bruising and swelling and messy hair . Two holes were also torn in his new uniform .
After seeing his opponent remain on the ground unmoving, he breathed a sigh of relief . Just as he was about to look for the canteen he dropped, the soldiers in the area moved aside and six more came in . One was shocked to see what happened and asked, "Jem, Enk, what happened?"
The round-faced soldier was already tearing up . He acted like a woman complaining to her parents about being bullied by her mother-in-law . After a quick explanation, the soldiers pointed at Claude and roared . "Beat him up!"
Fortunately, only four of them rushed in with great vigour . The other one helped the beaten horse-faced soldier up and one more checked on the round-faced soldiers injuries . The crowd nearby cheered for the encore .
If Claude could use magic, he could easily take down the four with Magic Missiles . However, he couldn't afford to let himself be discovered, so he relied only on brawling . The soldiers of Bluefeather were harder to take down compared to the Blacksnake thugs . Claude beat one down, kicked another flying, but was eventually subdued by the other two before the remaining four pummelled him nonstop .
That was when the onlookers complained about how unfair it was and that it should've been fought one-on-one, and how embarrassing it was for the four to gang up on a single person . Claude was already dazzled from the repeated hits . He couldn't take on all four with only two hands and had suffered a few punches to the face . The corners of his lips cracked, and he tasted blood .
Even so, he didn't surrender and beg for mercy . He doubled down and ignored the other three and grabbed one of them to beat him down no matter how many punches or kicks landed on his back . When he was about to pass out, he saw how close the necks of one of them were and bit down on it without a second thought . Blood spilled all over and the scream once more shocked everyone in the mess hall .
Claude heard the voices around him die down . The light from the glass oil lamp hung on the roof looked white and round as it swayed above his head before it scattered into countless spinning stars of light . He swayed weakly before falling to the ground unconscious .