[Cafe] 115 – The Lord’s Work Must Be Done

With the completion of the Tournament, Zerref faced a rising tide of new customers, and he was not alone. Joshua was facing dozens of people every hour seeking to be trained. Many Joshua denied, but a few, Joshua felt a certain...pull from them, as if they were important pieces for the future.

Joshua, as the honorable teacher he was, gave them what they asked for: training. The men and women who undertook Joshua's training soon found themselves gathering in the simulation room, where Joshua stood, his natural glare making a few of them feel on edge.

"You have all come to seek my training, and you shall have it. Prepare yourselves," Joshua began, turning away to activate the simulation.

"Uh...prepare for what?" Someone in the crowd of twenty people asked.

"Me," Joshua warned, activating the simulation room.

In an instant, everyone found themselves standing in the middle of a decrepit town with minimal defenses and resources. Joshua was nowhere to be found.

...

Over the course of three days, Joshua attacked the group of people using Guriella and hit-and-run tactics, killing them off one by one, ruthlessly exploiting every shown weakness, taking out those who split off from the group, those who slept, those who wished to relieve themselves, no one was safe, and Joshua proved that.

Once the last woman fell, one 'Lucky,' a rather skilled combatant at the level of a veteran Frumentari, Joshua had the group try again. After a few hours of Training, the group was trial by fire until they fixed their mistakes, which led to most of the group rivaling a skilled soldier of the NCR or Caeser's Legion, a result Joshua was not satisfied with. Joshua knew very little of the coming battles the people of this Earth would face, but if this is how skilled the soldiers of this war would be, whatever threats were coming would stomp them.

Stepping out of the simulation room, Joshua walked up to one of the Zerref clones watching over the Gym.

"Joshua?" The Zerref clone questioned as he approached.

"I need help with the training," Joshua spoke rather straightforwardly before clarifying, "I am but one man under God, and there is only so many I can train at once for the Battle ahead, some show promise and talent, but the others, they will continue to struggle until they find a suitable method of combat.”

A small smile formed on the crest of Zerref’s ‘face,’ before he said, “I am glad you are taking their training seriously, but if some are struggling under your teachings, perhaps try other ways to train them? I’ve noticed that you have been favoring a more…defensive training method for them. Why not try and have them attack a base or scout behind enemy lines?” 

“They do not have the strength for it until they get into shape, the best method I have found has been to train their minds, hone their reflexes, and teach them to use their minds, perhaps you can ‘hire’ a new instructor to get them into shape?” Joshua offered, surprising Zeref for a moment.

“Interesting proposal, the problem is, I do not know what kind of instructor I will get; for all I know, we could end up getting someone trained in the mystical arts rather than the martial arts,” Zeref responded, rather expressively as he talked with his hands.

Joshua hummed before saying, “That is not a problem. Even if they specialize in ‘Magic’ as you have told me exists, they can always help with the training.”

“Alright, come, let’s get some privacy,” Zeref beckoned Joshua to follow.  

Following behind Zeref, the two stepped into the Gym, where only a few were using the facility. Looking around the gym, Joshua still did not recognize more than half of the equipment available in the gym, nor could he guess their uses.

Stepping up to one of the boxing rings, Zeref looked back, "Alright, let's see who we get."

With a wave of his hand, yet another pillar of golden light bathed the entire room in golden light, somehow even brighter than the one that Joshua came through, and when the light dissipated, Zeref raised a finger to his head as if pondering what to do with the mountain of a man before him, standing at nine feet tall, in ornate silver armor with navy blue trimming.

"A Space Marine?" Zeref suddenly spoke before continuing, "What chapter do you hail from?"

The towering knight in Power Armor held a massive silver axe in one hand and a pistol in the other. The blue cape on his back was static from the lack of airflow; the Knight looked between Joshua and Zerref in silence before speaking after more moments of silence, "I am Artor Amrah, Chapter Master of the Astral Knights; tell me, is it true?"

"Is what true?" Zeref inquired, curious.

"This is Terra? From before?" The 'Space Marine' asked, his rather monotone voice gaining a bit of heat.

"Ah, I see. Yes, this is Earth, long before your Emperor came to power, long before the threat of Chaos," Zerref explained, much to the confusion of Joshua, who had trouble following the conversation.

"Then your will is my command. I will do whatever is needed of me," The Marine stated, standing rigid and at attention.

Zeref gestured to Joshua, "Joshua here will inform you of your new...duties. If you need anything, just approach one of my clones or my Prime in the main lobby."

Not a moment later, Zeref walked away, leaving Joshua and the giant Power-armored soldier alone, with a few observers watching them as they went about their workouts.

Joshua didn't sigh or even show much expression outside of a small visible raise of an eyebrow, "Come," he gestured for the soldier to follow. He took him straight to the simulation room, ignoring the many eyes that tracked the two, which were short distances from the gym and the simulation room in the main lobby.

Once inside the simulation room, the rather large Soldier looked around in confusion.

"This will be a test. I want to see how well you preform in combat, in stressful situations, and how you handle being pressured," Joshua informed the soldier, who stoically replied confidently with, "I will pass all of your tests."

"We will see," Joshua responded simply, pressing a button and thrusting the Space Marine directly into a simulation, one that should be unwinnable, though the Space Marine would prove that notion false quite quickly. After all, Artor, a Space Marnie and Chapter Master, has lived for centuries, in a Galaxy forty-thousand years in the future, that only knew War, a War at a scale hither to undreamed of by mortal men, its scale unfathomable to the human mind.