Vendetta's Rise (The Dragon Realms Saga: Book 1)

Chapter 54

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.