The next two weeks passed in a blur.

Sunny had so much to do that there was no time to concentrate on any one thing for too long. The First Evacuation Army camp around him was in a similar state, becoming increasingly more hectic and busy as the date of the naval convoy's departure approached.

Luckily, he was more than familiar with having to act fast while enduring immense pressure.

The first thing Sunny did after introducing himself to the members of his cohort was briefly reiterate the key objectives of the upcoming campaign, as well as share several pieces of information about the hardships they would most likely have to endure and the intended role of the First Irregular Company that his soldiers had not been privy to before.

After Sunny finished his briefing, the mood in the empty gymnasium turned somewhat grim. Not wishing to let the six Awakened stew in their apprehension, he immediately transitioned to the next stage of getting to know his subordinates.

Summoning the Cruel Sight, Sunny smiled pleasantly and asked them to attack him, one at a time.

He wanted to kill two birds with one stone by dueling each of the cohort members right off the bat.

First of all, Sunny knew that he had to win their respect. No matter what Master Jet had said, these experienced soldiers were not going to put their trust in him easily. He was young, small, and a complete stranger. Although forging a real bond would take more time and effort, a simple demonstration of strength was a good start.

Secondly, he needed to understand their powers and techniques better. A simple duel was the best way to do that. Sunny had an additional advantage in that regard, since his mastery of Shadow Dance allowed him to learn much faster, and peer much deeper, than almost anyone else.

In the next thirty minutes or so, he ruthlessly demolished each of his subordinates without even breaking a sweat. Although all of them were very good at what they did, his power and skill were simply too domineering.

The only ones who gave Sunny a bit of a problem were Dorn and Samara. The former's Aspect was very insidious when used with sufficient foresight. While Sunny was strong enough to shake off the force of the big man's Aspect, even he had to improvise when subjected to it at exactly the worst and most inconvenient moment.

Samara presented a different challenge. Although her preferred method of combat centered around infusing bullets with charged soul essence, she was perfectly capable of simply forming her essence into projectiles without a tangible medium. Even if these soul darts weren't as fast or far-reaching, fighting her meant being subjected to a constant barrage of explosive energy.

It was a good thing that the gymnasium was built with Awakened in mind. Otherwise, the whole structure might have collapsed.

In any case, neither of them managed to really slow Sunny down. Of course, he took care to exert just enough strength to defeat the members of the cohort in a decisive fashion, but not wound them.

After the six duels were finished, he had a much better understanding of what his subordinates were capable of. Not only had Sunny been able to grasp the core tenets of their battle techniques, he was also very satisfied with adding six nuanced, polished styles to his mental library.

Knowing what to expect from the six Awakened not only allowed him to form a tentative vision of how the cohort would perform in battle and how to command it to achieve the best result, but also helped him come up with an optimized training plan that would turn them into a semblance of a cohesive fighting force in a short amount of time.

Sadly, four weeks was not nearly enough time to turn seven relative strangers into a truly coordinated battle unit. The insight he had received due to Shadow Dance helped substantially accelerate the process, but the progress was still insufficient. Hopefully, they would reach at least the minimal threshold of mutual understanding by the time the naval convoy reached Antarctica.

After coming up with the plan, Sunny did not linger before putting it in motion.

To his amusement, the training facility assigned to the cohort happened to include seven Dreamscape pods. These were different from the one he had back home, however. Instead of being connected to the public selection of arenas, it was integrated into a closed network operated by the government.

It was also centered around battles with simulated Nightmare Creatures, as opposed to personal duels. Sunny was even able to tune the battle scenarios to fit his goals and personal preferences, to a certain extent.

At first, he was very enthusiastic about this novel method of training, but then grew slightly disappointed with it. Dreamscape was simply incapable of simulating the true madness and dread of the Nightmare Creatures. The illusory monsters they fought were strong and threatening, but lacked the spark of life and the perverse intelligence that made the real deal so deadly.

Illusions were simply incapable of pressuring the cohort enough.

So… Sunny found something else to really pressure his people.

Himself.

After the first few days, he allocated significant time to battles where all six had to contain a single target — their captain. While Sunny looked much less frightening than a Nightmare Creature, his subordinates quickly learned that he was infinitely more terrible.

After an especially intense clash, the six Awakened crawled out of the Dreamscape pods and wandered off to grab a bite and rest for a bit.

Soon, several of them gathered in the staff kitchen attached to the gymnasium. Luster was rubbing the shoulder he had bruised in one of the real-world training sessions as he groaned:

"...devil! He is a devil!"

Sunny, who sat comfortably in his luxurious Memory chair on the other side of the building, studying a topographical map of Antarctica, looked up from the screen of his communicator and grinned.

'That guy is closer to the truth than he thinks...'

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, Samara glanced at Luster with disapproval and shook her head. Unexpectedly, Kim decided to support the young man:

"Actually, our captain, he… he might really not be a human. I think."

The aloof beauty looked at her with confusion. Exposed to so much attention, Kim shifted uncomfortably.

"That… uh… all humans share common weaknesses. Temple, inner thigh where the artery is close to the skin… and so on. But Captain Sunless, he d—does not. It's like his skull is indestructible, and he doesn't bleed."

Luster's eyes widened.

"See! I am telling you, guys, he is a Nightmare Creature in disguise! We will all die before even reaching Antarctica!"

Samara stared at him for a few moments, and then said nonchalantly:

"You know that he's probably listening, right?" © 2024.

Luster flinched and almost fell off his chair.

On the other side of the building, Sunny put a hand over his mouth to stifle a wicked laugh.