"Just give up already!" Annie snapped to the back of the scout.
She was laying on her back, holding the neck of the scout in a lock with her arms, suffocating her slowly. Annie's legs were tightly wrapped around the torso of her opponent. She won. Her opponent could not escape. And yet this stubborn idiot refused to hit the ground with her paw, admitting her surrender.
Well, then go to sleep, Annie increased her hold on her opponent's neck, blocking access to air entirely. Even though she herself suffered countless defeats in this way and even some wins, using this move always scared her. Just one wrong application of the force, just one mistake, and the fight could end badly, no even worse than badly.
She released the hold as soon as the body of her opponent went limp. For a brief moment, she lay on her back, afraid. Then she heard the heartbeat of the scout and smiled, taking her off herself gently and laying her on the floor.
"Congratulations, scared girl," Carty clapped her paws. Two other scouts, all with bruises and cuts on them, begrudgingly joined the clapping. One other scout was still unconscious. Annie lifted the defeated opponent and carried her to the unconscious scout, laying them next to each other. She should probably call the medics, but…
"Thank you so much for training me," Annie bowed to all the scouts, including Carty, "I have become so much stronger."
It was true. She could feel how her bones were getting thicker, how her eyes were slowly becoming sharper. When she was concentrating, she could even see the movements of a falling stone in slow motion. But such feat strained her eyes and caused her head to hurt. Carty encouraged her to keep doing it, saying that eventually her brain will adapt to a new perception. Her muscles hurt, but it was a pleasurable pain. She was getting stronger, bit by tiny bit.
"Your turn!" Annie dared to speak to Carty, and the scout's smile widened.
Carty was a weird one. Even wolf hags were wary of her, yet the scout never made an attempt to raise herself in rank. She never made fun of the wolf hag in front of superiors, whether normies or warlords. Outside of that, it was all fair game for her, no one was safe from her sharp tongue. But at the same time, Carty never bothered with dominating anyone either, she was fully content with helping others grow. When someone felt down, Carty tried to find a way to cheer them up, causing Kayleen to become angry. The wolf hag took her duties quite seriously, the morale of her pack was of the utmost importance to her. Despite constant beatings, Kayleen always finds time to speak with her soldiers, learning about their problems and finding solutions to them.
"Carty, she is just a cub…" One of the scouts said, when Carty stepped into the training area, stretching her body, with her back turned toward Annie.
"I am well aware, but unless you keep putting wall after wall before cubs, they can’t really grow." Carty closed her eyes demonstratively and turned to Annie, putting one hand on her chest and another on her waist, "Well, stupid girl, you wanted show, let me give you on…"
She was cut off as Annie jumped in the air, attacking while her opponent was still posturing with closed eyes.
Soldiers have no need for honor, Annie remembered the words of the warlord. It was true. Soldiers do not often fight with equal opponents. Quite often, the opposition was stronger, faster, and more talented. As long as it was legal, Dragena encouraged her pack to use everything to even the odds.
The leg of Annie almost touched the jaw of Carty, as the hand of the scout moved. With two fingers, she touched the ankle of Annie, turning the massive body of her fellow scout around in the air. Then Carty bent over and used the same hand to slap Annie across the belly, sending her to the ground.
The scout felt how the stone cracked under her back, but she barely felt pain, the adrenaline in her blood was driving her to try again. She jumped to her feet, turning toward Carty and sending a punch to the smiling face. Still smiling, Carty disappeared from sight, Annie sensed the perfume of the scout to her left and then something hit her across the ankles, kicking her legs back. Her body began to fall forward, but before Annie could land on her hands, a strong hand grabbed her by the back of her head, sending her to the floor at the speed of a racing car.
Annie closed her eyes, expecting pain that never came. Carty stopped her fall right as the fur of Annie’s snout came into contact with the stone floor. With a single movement, Carty pulled Annie up, taking her by the shoulders as she put her on her two feet.
"You are pretty fast now, songbird," Carty smiled happily, slapping Annie on the shoulders, "Crafty too. Your judgement was solid, but you missed the crucial part. Sometimes an enemy can lure you with a sense of false arrogance. Do not mistake arrogance for negligence, or you might pay badly in the future. Anyway, you beat up four scouts and are pretty winded up by now. Let’s call it a draw."
"You kinda won…" Annie mumbled, but the fellow scout only laughed.
"Anyway, ladies, call the medics and tomorrow evening we will all go drinking. And no, not juice this time, Annie, like it or not, you are in. You knew what you were getting into. I am paying, so no worries everyone. By the way, Annie beat all of you, the first one of you to fall under the table will be the one who is losing her rank to Annie."
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
"Why tomorrow?" Asked the scout who was worried about Annie’s wellbeing when she challenged Carty.
"Cause some of us are still unconscious, stupid." Carty sang in reply, reaching for the communicator and calling for medics.
****
Annie moved across the training field. The long and busy day was already over, and the pack was slowly getting back to their dens in the barracks. Here and there, warriors were taking off their armor, the sounds of whining were heard as some warriors were venting their anger at the males. Annie forced herself to breathe slowly, today was not the day to stop the beatings, the warlord called for her specifically. Kayleen, without power armor, lifted a warrior clad in full power armor over her head, smashing her against the ground with enough force to create a small crater. The wolf hag smirked, beckoning the warrior to stand up, then deftly dodged every single hit, humiliating her opponent, before knocking her out. She turned around and went to demand submission from a couple of males nearby, biting them by the necks. In the Wolf Tribe, males were weaker than females. Their fangs were less durable, their muscles were weaker, and they were smaller. Because of this, other warlords often neglected males. Dragena trained everyone equally, while males in the ranks of her soldiers were often filling the ranks of field medics, according to Carty and Kayleen, in the heat of battle, they always had your back when needed. This created another problem, however. Because of equal time in training, females viewed males as equal to themselves. Instincts demanded a show of domination, leading to males getting beat up often.
One day soon, Annie promised herself as she walked toward the warlord. She tried to stop Kayleen several times, during fits of rage. It always ended up with Annie biting the dust, sometimes literally. The wolf hag was strong, no matter how hard Annie tried, she utterly failed to even force her opponent to be on defense.
Annie made a full circle to avoid the area where wolfkins trained with firearms. Most likely everyone has already left, but why risk your hide? The scout found the warlord standing in front of the newest members of the pack. Dragena was in full armor, the lenses of her helmet were bright with light as she looked down at the soldiers before her. These were five wolfkins, but Annie frowned as she saw how skinny they were. The only female among them had only a tiny bit of muscle, her elbows were sticking out and her hip bones were visible. The girl looked weaker than a normie. Her body was covered with the same number of scars as the bodies of everyone else. The scout frowned, trying to understand why the new recruits looked so weak. Maybe one of the villages suffered from a shortage of food? And then Annie saw the brand on the girl’s shoulder. A mark of broken bone burned onto the skin. Each of the newcomers had it.
Cubs of the Crippled. Things made a bit more sense, not every village cared enough to provide enough for the Crippled and their cubs often received less than scraps. The cubs of the Crippled were also subjected to special inspection upon birth, the shamans were generally unhappy when the Crippled produced offspring. According to their teachings, if one loses parts of the body, how can one produce a proper cub? Thus shamans treat such cubs more harshly and brand them, as to mark them as most disposable members of the Tribe, meant for only manual labor instead of war. Such ostracism was leading to cubs getting bullied over and over in pits, lack of food and milk prevented them from ever becoming strong enough to stand up for themselves. Annie herself was dangerously close to being branded. But she was born before her father lost a limb, making shamans accept her.
Dragena lowered herself on one knee, removing the steel gauntlets of power from her hands with a soft hissing sound. She then touched the muscles on the arm of the female, clicking her tongue in disapproval.
"Lucendra. Your muscles are too underdeveloped for your age. Your bones are also too frail. This will not be allowed to continue."
"I am sorry, warlord. I swear I will work really hard and…" The girl said with pure desperation in her voice, and the warlord lifted her head in surprise.
"Sorry?" The warlord asked, genuinely trying to understand her new subordinate, "What for? You have made no mistakes so far. You were all placed in my care and under my command. For the time being, you are nothing more than raw steel, but steel nonetheless. I will reforge you all into proper soldiers, ones who will be of use to the state. You have nothing to be sorry for, recruit, superior is responsible for everything and everyone under her or his command."
The warlord stood up, turning to face Annie, just as the scout approached. Scout pressed her hand to the heart in salute, and Dragena returned the gesture:
"Annie, these recruits will be put in the pack of Kayleen. They are not to be challenged for half a year. Domination is also strictly prohibited against them for the same amount of time. If they throw the first punch, I expect you to eat it and report it to me, so I can discipline them through non-violent means. No claws, fangs, or fists are to touch them. Is this understood?"
"Yes, warlord." Annie bowed low, unsure why the warlord was saying this to her. Surely it would make more sense to tell Kayleen this?
"I will consult with medics about the training program of Valerye."
"Valerye?" Annie blinked in surprise. Valerye was one of the most legendary warlords among youth. She rose as a shining star and fell down like a comet after encountering Alpha. Previously known as Red Streak, now Valerye was known as Foulsnout because of her horrible injuries.
"Yes. She proposed… let’s say it like that… a plan to captain Scorpio. Each ach year we lose good number of soldiers because of stupid prejudices against cubs of Crippled," Dragena explained the situation calmly, and Annie felt a bit of dread under her fur. For her, the word of the warlord was law, but her superior was on the verge of disparaging shamans, the undisputed rulers of the Tribe's civil life, "Valerye decided that this would not stand. Shamans grumble as usual, but Scorpio is very good at persuasion. As a part of an experiment, several warlords now have new recruits made from branded cubs. I will prepare a proper training and feeding program to ensure that new soldiers of the state will be able to catch up with the rest of the pack in time. It will be a good challenge for all of us. If we are to win this challenge and cubs of the Crippled are to be finally allowed to serve in the military, then it is my task to ensure they will have the same chance to exceed as others. I bet Zero is happy that her efforts have not gone to waste."
"Warlord?" Annie asked in surprise.
"No matter, just musing my own thoughts out loud. Keep our new allies out of trouble, scout Annie."