I'm going to guess that the high end of the magical combat ability range is /very/ high, and the only way they can find the really powerful ones is through trial and error - so they train the kids up enough to have a decent chance of surviving the initial encounter, and then just keep throwing them in the deep end until they find the ones who are insanely strong. So the investment in the hundreds of kids who don't make it is paid off by the handful that end up being seriously valuable. I can't really see any way this would make sense otherwise - there's just too much time and effort being spent on kids that seem to be treated as pretty close to expendable.
Or it's just not well thought out and it really doesn't have any sense to it . . . not sure which way I think it'll go.
No comments on the whole idea of sending kids into combat - it's too fucked up for words, really. But I suspect this will end up being the point of the story . . .
Or it's just not well thought out and it really doesn't have any sense to it . . . not sure which way I think it'll go.
No comments on the whole idea of sending kids into combat - it's too fucked up for words, really. But I suspect this will end up being the point of the story . . .