Pre-Party Rumble [Valhallan Fighters]

Justice made a face to herself when Aurielle asked her and the other wolves who'd participated in the last raid to share their experiences, but as the others spoke she did give some thought to what she'd say. She gave Domari an approving grin at his contribution - she wouldn't have expected him to say that, but approved heartily - before sitting back and squinting at the younger wolves who had yet to go into a real fight. "Most important thing to start with is that nothing we do in this training or in the practice raid is going to really make you prepared for a real raid. You might think because someone's given you a few cool scars you're ready for that but you aren't. No one is. Fuck, probably no one who's been through the last one is going to really be ready either. This isn't just a straight up, one on one fight. No matter how vicious a one on one fight is, it's not the same. A raid's not just someone biting you and then you're done and you run off to the healer to get a bandage. It's not being sure who's who or where, your nose too full of the smell of blood and dirt to smell anyone, being in pain and fighting anyway, ignoring it because if you go running for the healers it means that someone else is going to have to fight this fight and they might be hurt or killed because you were worried about a few cuts on your own hide. It's seeing your friends and family hurt and bleeding and hearing people screaming and not knowing if it's one of your pack or the enemy or maybe you. It's needing to go on living later with what you'd done, with what was done to you and what your friends and family went through. We had pack members crippled, we had them blinded, we had them kidnapped, and even though we won it changed everything about all of our lives after that. Even when the raid was over it was hard. We had to hunt for everyone who was too injured even though we were hurting ourselves. We had some that never really fully recovered. It ruined lives. It broke people. That's what real battles do."

Her voice as she spoke was harsh and her eyes were fixed straight ahead, not looking at any of them, but now she blinked and looked around. "So yeah, this isn't going to prepare you for a raid, at all. But it will give you the muscle memory that will keep you alive when your brain is too overwhelmed to process what's happening. So yeah, fucking pay attention and work your ass off in these practice fights so we don't have to be dragging you back to the healers with your guts hanging out or or eyes ripped up. I don't feel like digging a hole for one of you kids because you screwed around and didn't work hard." With that grim addition she glanced back at Aurielle, indicating that she was done with the speechifying.