Rulan sailed through the air, landing hard on his back to join his brother who was still grimacing from the soreness that throbbed all over his body. Lear and Blayvaar were the next to be sent flying into the air, flipping into a cluttered mess on the summer’s grass. Timber and Calsoon both joined forces for an attack but met a similar fate as Elucard tossed them away, sending them rolling into the ever-growing dogpile of recruits.

Elucard shook his head in disappointment. He turned to Essie, who was anxious to come to the defense of her fellow recruits. She shrieked as Elucard grabbed her by the tunic and sent her flailing head over heels onto the ground with an abrupt slam.

“Essie, are you a coward or a medic? You waited until your friends were tossed into a bloody heap before you decided to come to their aid. As an ARO medic, you will fight alongside everyone else,” Elucard said lecturing the winded medic, “Wiccer, get them into the weighted vests, they’re running another mile before we try this again.”

A resounding groan came from the recruits as the dread of a fifth mile set into their minds. The ARO recruits had been training for the last few weeks under Elucard’s leadership and each day they regretted signing up for such a grueling experience. Although the majority already served in the military, this level of rigorous training was not something they were used to. At times it felt to the recruits that Elucard had a grudge against them.

“Elucard, they could use a break. The men have been running exercises and routines for five hours straight! They can barely walk, never mind run. No one could possibly function under this regiment,” Wiccer intervened. Not even his father had him go through such physical abuse.

Elucard looked over the exhausted faces of his men. They were not Rabbits. They did not have the same fear that a new Black Rabbit recruit had, and they did not have the work ethic that he was accustomed to. Maybe he was pushing them too hard.

“Run the mile with the vest, then you can have your break,” he commanded.

Wiccer brought Elucard out of earshot of the recruits, “You’re pushing them too hard. They’re not like us. They haven’t been training since childhood. You ca–”

“If you coddle them, they’ll never be like us. They need to be ready to fight men that have been trained to kill since they were children. A Rabbit won’t hesitate to slit their throats. A Rabbit thinks they’ve been commanded by the death goddess to bathe in the blood of their enemies. Our men won’t stand a chance unless I train them like a Rabbit.”

“Elucard, they’ll break before they follow you.”

Elucard shoved a weighted vest into Wiccer’s chest, “A bone grows stronger after it breaks.”

***

The seven recruits knelt in a circle on the edge of the tall grassy archery range. The sun had set and the moon was giving Wiccer very little light to go over his plan of attack. Elucard stood in the center of the field, waiting for his ARO recruits to try to take him down using strategy, physical force, and stealth. If they succeeded then the month of gruesome training had paid off. If they failed, then he would double their workload to beat their failure into their bodies.

Wiccer spoke in a low whisper as he surveyed the field, “We can’t use weapons in this exercise so we’ll have to use our individual skills to our full advantage. So this is how we’re going to execute this…”

Elucard stood motionless in the grass, his eyes fixated on a lone shadowy figure walking on the outer edge of the grass.

A decoy.

Elucard watched the figure for a bit longer as the grass began to move unnaturally in his peripheral vision. Keeping his attention on this new distraction, he was taken off-guard as both Rulan and Trek dove at him from behind.

Two decoys, clever.

Elucard threw Trek over his shoulder, quickly stomping on his face, knocking the young elf unconscious. Enraged, Rulan wrapped his upper arm around Elucard’s neck and locked his other arm behind Elucard’s head in a fortified blood choke.

Elucard did not have much time to react, as Lear, Timber, and Blayvaar soared from the bushes and surrounded him. Assessing the situation using the years of experience at his disposal, Elucard jabbed his elbow sharply into Rulan’s ribs, causing him to release the choke. At the same time, Elucard swung himself over Rulan and kicked him in the small of his back, flinging him into Lear.

Blayvaar came in from the side with a leg sweep as Timber jumped into the air for a high kick. Elucard back-flipped into the tall grass, disappearing from sight.

“Don’t split up, it’s what he wants!” Wiccer barked as he, Calsoon, and Essie came in from the shadows.

“What do we do, sergeant?” asked Essie.

“Stay tight, make a circle, and watch each other’s blind spots. Remember what we were taught!”

The recruits corralled up, scanning the tall grass in the blackness of the night. Elucard made no attempt to make a move.

The recruits grew weary as they waited and waited. Slowly their eyes began to droop as the lack of sleep began to finally catch up to them.

“Stay awake, recruits!” Wiccer shouted, trying to keep their morale high.

The moonlight faded as clouds roamed across the sky. All went black, all went quiet. The ARO members peacefully drifted in and out of sleep as the soothing, chilled night calmly wrapped around them.

“He’s here, He’s her–” the recruits were stirred awake by Blayvaar’s screams as a series of painful kicks and swift punches laid everyone out with the exception of Wiccer.

Elucard shook his head once again in disappointment, “You think you recruits deserve sleep? Put on your vests, three miles, now!”

“What are we supposed to learn from you running us into the dirt over and over again?! Nothing! I haven’t learned a damn thing, except how much I hate you!” growled Rulan.

Rulan helped a groggy Trek to his feet, “Come on guys, who’s with me?”

Elucard’s memory flashed to Izian making the same stand against Ridge and Baines.

Lear stepped up to Elucard, “You have much talent, Elucard, but This yikahti wants nothing to do with this challenge.”

Elucard was stone faced as one by one each recruit began to walk away.

“Give them some time, friend,” said Calsoon before hurrying to catch up to the group.

Elucard lowered his head, “You were right, Wiccer.”

“I’m afraid I am,” said Wiccer, resting a hand on his shoulder.

***

The Merry Wolf was a popular destination for the soldiers in Lost Dawns. Besides an excellent selection of regional brews, excellent food, and a close location to the barracks, it also provided a small discount to those in military uniforms. The tavern was warm in the winters and cool in the summers. It had a rustic interior that harkened back to the small town inns that many soldiers were accustomed to with a stone hearth that had a pot of lamb stew bubbling and ready for its hungry patrons.

The ARO recruits sat at a large oak table. Timber stared meanly at Rulan who swayed sloppily as he slurped the final drops from his empty mug, still in a miserable stupor. Lear balanced his chair on the back two legs, watching the kanis.

“This yikahti thinks you have something you’d like to get off your chest, Timber.”

Blayvaar looked up from his lamb stew, “She thinks we should have never left.”

Calsoon grinned cooly, “Then why did she leave?”

Blayvaar shrugged as he leaned back, pretending to stretch and catching a small handful of copper trit from a nearby patron.

“I’m a wolf, I stick to the pack, no matter how foolish they are,” she muttered.

“I’m with Timber,” Trek spoke up, favoring a large bump on the side of his head, “Elucard might be a mad man, but I could feel myself getting stronger. I got stronger under him in one month than I would have from a lifetime under any other instructor.”

“Trek, Elucard would end up killing us before he’d be satisfied with our performance,” Rulan said as he tried to wave down a server.

“Essie, you’ve been quiet, what are your thoughts?” Calsoon asked, prodding the issue further.

“I don’t know. I agree with Rulan. Elucard’s methods would kill any normal soldier.”

“Exactly, Essie!” smiled Rulan.

“But, I also think that we weren’t meant to be normal soldiers. We were meant to be ARO.”

“Did you say ‘Elucard’?” A nearby soldier approached the table. The thick stench of ale rose from his breath. He leaned into Essie and asked again, “Did you say Elucard was training you?”

Essie pushed the soldier’s face away from her, “Yes, what of it?”

A small group of soldiers gathered around their table as the drunk soldier ushered himself back into Essie’s face, “Elucard killed our king. He’s a criminal that should be hanged and any soldier that accepts his teachings should swing beside him when he does. You’re all traitors to your kin!” The crowd of soldiers all echoed the drunken soldier’s rant.

Rulan stood up to the best of his ability, “That’s my sister you are threatening! Make another move and I’ll show you what I learned from that criminal!”

“Rulan, sit down, you’re drunk,” Trek pleaded, trying to reason with his brother.

“Sober enough to beat this guy into a bloody pulp!” Rulan pushed his chair away and staggered his way to the other side of the table.

“You mess with the 12th Spearman Division, you mess with all of us!” shouted the drunk. Immediately several more soldiers rose out of their seats, each sporting a 12th Spearman Division unit patch on their coats and tunics. The ARO recruits all stood to support Rulan.

“We are outnumbered seven to twenty-four,” Blayvaar estimated.

“The odds are in our favor, we were trained by Elucard,” Timber grinned.

“This yikahti admits he likes this challenge!” Lear chimed in as he rubbed his claws together.

The soldiers rushed the recruits grabbing chairs and brandishing bottles. Several of the ARO recruits hopped up on the oak table thrashing kicks at the soldiers, knocking teeth loose and breaking noses. Lear made his way through the crowd slashing his claws left and right, dodging countless heavy punches. With expert footing, he twirled a sent spinning heel kicks into several chins, sending them flying into neighboring tables.

Blayvaar’s fast fingers, coupled with his new combat training, allowed him to swipe a belt and use it as a makeshift whip, slapping the leather across faces while still nimbly dodging incoming attacks.

Timber jumped from table to table, making her way to the bar. A pair of soldiers climbed the counter top after her, but were quickly dispatched with a series kicks followed by a shoulder throw that slammed one soldier into the other, sending them both shattering through a window.

The Windfoot triplets somersaulted from the table and landed in front of the first drunk soldier. Trek swept the soldier’s feet, tripping him into Rulan’s oncoming uppercut. Essie finished the combination with a heavy front kick that sent the soldier crashing into a nearby table.

The tavern door flung open and a troop of city guards marched into the fray to bring much needed order to the scene.

“ARO let’s vanish!” Calsoon cried from the shadows of the backroom.

***

The orange sun cracked the skies as it rose, signaling for another morning on the parade field. Elucard and Wiccer stepped onto the field ready to start a new day of recruiting, but were met with a surprising but very welcome sight. Standing at attention in a perfect line were the seven ARO recruits. Their training uniforms were ragged and blood stained, their knuckles were bruised, and their eyes had dark bags under them. It was very clear that they had not seen a night’s sleep. Over their tunics were vests strapped full of weights.

Wiccer smiled at Elucard, who nodded for Wiccer to fall into formation. Elucard walked up and inspected his eight recruits as if checking for imperfections. He stopped in front of Rulan, “A bone grows stronger after it breaks.”

Rulan looked at his comrades to the left and right of himself before replying, “We’re strong, but not broken.”