Ezra rushed only a few steps forward, then keeping himself in check. He’d made a plan, he wasn’t going to be the one that ruined it. With a grunt, he adjusted his hold on his shield and locked it behind Cord’s. The four shields overlapped each other just enough to keep their companions safe, and they marched forward in a lockstep.
On the other side of the battle, under William’s direction, the other squad started to charge forward in a disorganized clump. Seeing the elites’ organized approach, though, William’s face flushed with anger. Only a couple meters separated the two groups, and it was too late for the inner city kids to mirror the same prepared stance. A tall boy, the one who’d gotten the closest, stuttered to a stop, trying to turn his momentum around as he raised his shield to protect himself.
“Cord!” Ezra commanded, and a staff blurred out beside him. The hard wood smacked against the shield and the unprepared soldier failed to keep the shield’s edge from twisting and smacking him on the head. Behind him, William shouted for him to come back, for them all to gather together, but the boy didn’t seem to have the brains to know to escape.
“I’ll kill you!” the incensed boy screamed as he decided he was going to fight to get his revenge. With a face going purple with apoplectic rage, he threw himself at the shields. He crashed into Leah’s, but it just pressed against Cord’s which pressed against Ezra’s and she didn’t falter as her spear punched out and hit him in the shoulder.
“Wounded!” Sergeant Oscar called out. “You have no spear arm!”
The rampaging youth didn’t listen as he tried to hook over the top of Leah’s shield. He dropped his “spear” as he punched at her face.
Leah didn’t hesitate. He got in her face. She grunted and lifted her shield and cracked it into the taller opponent’s chin. His teeth cracked together loudly and he stumbled back as a tooth fell from his mouth and blood trickled over his lips. Boyd was in perfect position at that point and whipped his staff around to crack it into the solitary soldier. He groaned in pain, but Boyd stabbed his spear again and got the boy in the kidney. At that, he fell, though he fought to struggle back to his feet.
“Stop!” Oscar’s voice cut through the sounds of battle, shouting with a command that forced obedience. Both sides halted as the beaten inner city kid got to his feet and glared with hate-filled eyes at Ezra’s squad.
“I don’t know why you’re pissed,” the sergeant scoffed at the other soldier. “You’re the one who’s going to cost his squad. You didn’t listen to the commands. You’re in a plank position on the sidelines, now.”
“But she hit me in the head!”
“I. Said. Plank,” Oscar commanded, stepping forward and grabbing the younger man by the collar of his uniform coat that poked out under his leather chestpiece. Then, without another word, he twisted and threw the whinging child over his hip. He landed heavily on his back, the wind audibly whooshing from his lungs as he smashed into the ground.
“Every time I see your back bending, I’ll kick you,” Oscar said, his voice still demanding yet in a conversational tone. “If you can’t obey a simple fucking order, I will kick common sense into you. Clear?”
“Yes,” gasped the boy whose name Ezra didn’t know.
“What did you say?” Oscar asked, his eyes glinting dangerously. Though in pain, it was less than a second before the felled boy realized what he’d done wrong.
“Yes sir.”
“Better. Now plank. You bend, I kick,” the continuously more imposing sergeant said as he made sure his latest command was followed. When it was, he nodded and looked at William’s squad. They’d gathered together into a similar hoplite formation like Ezra’s, and William’s face was nearly as red with anger as the boy who’d been hit. He stood in the center of the three, and he shifted back and forth with an obvious nervous energy.
“I told you that if someone doesn’t obey a call, the whole squad is penalized. Penalty: You three need to step two meters away from each other.”
“But he’s the one that didn’t listen!” William complained.
“Lose your shield,” came Oscar’s immediate response. William’s eyes widened as he realized how serious the command was. He almost started to complain again, but managed to catch himself. With pursed lips that fought to keep his rage contained, William took off his shield and passed it to Oscar, whose smile seemed as genuine as could be. He didn’t need to restate his earlier command, William’s other two squad mates had stepped away from him as he’d incurred the sergeant’s wrath. At that time, for some reason, Oscar took issue with the boy’s plank at his side, and he kicked him, not too hard but enough to smart, in the ribs.
When Oscar stepped back and glanced at the two squads, he seemed satisfied and shouted, “Begin!”
“Charge, two pairs,” Ezra commanded as the three separated soldiers started to scramble to get back together. “Pick off the ones with the shields.”
The squad split down the middle as Ezra and Cord went to the left and Leah and Boyd to the right. When they closed in on their targets, the inexperienced soldiers desperately tried to fight them off, but they couldn’t deal with being outnumbered. Oscar’s calls came out constantly, and just a few seconds passed before Ezra and Cord’s target was down. Just as they turned to deal with cleanup, Boyd grunted in pain.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“No shield!” Oscar’s call came out as Ezra saw what’d happened. Boyd was keeping the other person with a shield occupied as Leah struck him, and William’d used that opportunity to close in and smash his quarterstaff into Boyd’s left shoulder from behind.
Boyd’s face swelled with rage, but Ezra shouted, “Listen!”
It was a struggle, but as William swung his weapon like a club at him again, Boyd chose to throw his whole body weight into his target. It knocked the other youth’s footing out from under him, and they both went down in a tumble as William’s attack went wide over Boyd. Leah took the opportunity and stabbed her staff down into the second-to-last foe’s chest.
“Dead!” Oscar shouted. “Just lay there for now. Don’t step on him!”
Boyd tried to roll off the other soldier, but their shields got locked together, and William took the opportunity to stab him in the stomach. He wheezed in pain as Oscar called him dead. His eyes burned with fury as he slowly untangled himself from the wincing youth below him, but he obeyed the call, just getting himself a little more comfortable while glaring at William. Leah circled around the two, her shield and spear both held at the ready as she came closer to Cord and Ezra.
“I got one of you,” William grinned, seeming to find some victory in it. “I surrender.”
“This isn’t to the surrender, this is a war game,” Oscar laughed. “You win or lose. I’ll call it when it’s finished.”
The smile on William’s face fell off at that, and as his eyes widened, Ezra smiled and stepped forward. To William’s credit, he was a pretty good fighter. He snapped his spear at the person who was closest at him, trying to keep some distance, but he was outnumbered, and all three of his enemies were out for blood.
“His armor’s pretty strong on his upper body,” Ezra said loudly on purpose. “Focus on his legs.”
As soon as he said it, Cord’s staff whipped through the air and cracked onto William’s outer thigh. He grunted as Oscar called out, “No leg.”
“What does that mean?”
“Only one leg works,” Oscar replied. “Hop, fall down, I don’t care.”
He hesitantly pulled one leg up into the air and Ezra hustled forward to smash his shield into William’s chest. The “crippled” man unthinkingly let his other leg fall to try to steady himself, but Ezra still took him to the ground.
“I’ll use my standard issue dagger,” he called out, and without waiting for a response, he changed his grip on the spear in his right hand so only thirty centimeters came out of the bottom. Then, he raised it up over his head and stabbed the rounded staff’s tip into the center of William’s chest. He wheezed as Oscar called out, “Dead. Victory!”
High off of his win, Ezra stood and deliberately pushed off of William’s head to stand up. His hand came away slimy from whatever it was that styled the idiot’s hair, and he wiped it on his pants before he offered a hand up to Boyd.
“I wanted to get the greasy bastard,” the tall man complained as he accepted the hand. He pulled hard as he got up, but Ezra found himself lifting his larger companion without much issue. “I guess I won’t complain too much because you got a good hit in, and so did Cord.”
“It was for you,” Ezra chuckled but said nothing more as Oscar began to speak.
“Losing squad, run two laps, then return your equipment to the quartermaster. You’re not ready for live drills.”
“But sir, we just lost a fight!” William protested.
“I’ll explain it once for all the people who ate rocks as kids,” Oscar sighed. “You earn the opportunity to do dangerous things. If you’re incapable of listening to commands, you get an extra day of heavy exercising with some new bruises to go along with it. I don’t give a damn if you lose a fight. People lose fights in practice every day and it’s an opportunity to learn.”
William glared at the first member of his squad to lose his cool, but Oscar stepped forward, now right in the unreasonable inner city kid’s face.
“He was wrong to do what he did,” Oscar warned, “but I told you it’s your fault if someone steps out of line. I meant it when I said it and you’re not taking that responsibility. So, it’s your fault that the rest of your squad can’t get more practice in. How hustle. If you’re not done with your laps in ten minutes, there’ll be another two for all four of you.”
William grabbed his shield and ran off towards the quartermaster at that, and Ezra felt his smile widen at the consequences descending on the pompous ass. Oscar turned his attention to the other squad, and Ezra prepared himself to receive praise.
“I don’t know why you’re so happy,” Oscar raised his eyebrow. “You split up your squad and suffered a casualty because you wanted to be faster. You did perfectly in that first contact, held together, supported each other, and dealt with the threat. It was exactly what we want to see from our soldiers. You were doing everything perfect. And then, when you were presented with a more favorable field to fight on, you decided… to make it more dangerous for your soldiers?”
Ezra’s face fell as he thought about it. This was training, yeah, but it was like a battle. Why would he open themselves up to more danger when he didn’t need to?
“Fighting with spear and shield is difficult,” Oscar continued. “Makes it hard to hit the enemies with your spear, right?”
Ezra nodded, feeling the other members of his squad do the same. “It’d be easier if you held your spear to the side and struck out for there, right? In a gap instead of overhand?”
Again, the question was answered with nods.
“And the reason why we don’t do what’s easy or faster is because the right way protects your brother beside you,” Oscar raised his voice, as this was obviously a lesson to teach the entire army, not just Ezra, Leah, Boyd, and Cord. “The blood of your brothers is worth a whole lot more than your comfort. You’re a member of a squad, of a team, of an army. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best damn fighter in the whole world if the rest of the squad’s dead because you were selfish. Soldiers worship the Stone because he’s steadfast, a protector. We’re not followers of the Beast’s ferocity, because we need to be steady.
“Ezra, if you’re going to command at all, you’d better be steady, and all the time,” Oscar said, lowering the timbre of his voice to be more personal. “Even if you won’t, protect your brothers. Don’t let Boyd or Leah or whoever else die because you wanted to be fast or do something easy. Do what’s hard, take your time, and keep them safe. That’s your duty. Got it?”
With the admonishment still ringing in his ears, Ezra stood tall. “Yes sir.”
“Good lad,” Oscar grinned as he shook the younger man’s shoulder. He leaned in and said quietly, “and next time, if you’ve got him like that, you can just hit him a couple times. Keep away from the head and don’t stab him, and he’ll learn his lesson about getting cheap shots in. Up to you, though.”
“Yes sir!”