It had been two weeks and a couple of creatures had disappeared. Everyone left said they had quit for one reason or another, but I wasn’t so sure. They were here one day and gone the next morning. It was a bit freaky, but I didn’t question that and primarily focused on myself and the occasional chat with Blackfur. Everyone else kept to their own groups for the most part.
Shiversnout and Mary were one group, the last of the good creatures left in our training cohort. Then there were the rats Grizzle and Sharpfang. Blackfur and I made up the third group. Knaves Swiftpaws was by himself.
It was down to just seven of us now. Every day had been an endurance challenge running with pebbles and the obstacle course. Or it had been swimming. Everyone was getting faster and better with the constant exercise.
I had managed to get another point, putting me in the lead with two points. The endurance run with pebbles was easily my best challenge, then the obstacle course. I was the worst at swimming to the amusement of the other creatures. Blackfur had gotten a point during swimming for being the fastest. Sharpfang managed to eek out a point from myself and Knaves in the obstacle course, which he had been training constantly on.
Mary had gotten a point yesterday at the end of a marathon session when we had a much longer day of training than normal. No one complained when we went over the 8 hours, through the night and into the next day. But the point was made that we needed to be at peak performance for long periods. I was dead on my feet at the end of it all. Being large, meant my endurance struggled while other creatures held on.
Still my group had three points, compared to everyone else’s one point and I had two personally, putting me in the lead. I was quite confident with how things were going so far.
We all lined up five minutes before the appointed time in the morning. No one wanted to test Paladin Bloodclaw’s patience or be kicked out of this program. Paladin Bloodclaw strode out and looked over our group.
“You have managed to last two weeks and there have been no complaints from any of you. You aren’t complete failures and wastes of time. Now we will move on to the next phase of training as applicants. Combat training. Many of you might ask why we don’t use guns or explosives.” That was something I was wondering about as well.
“They are high collateral and ineffective against Ancestral Spirits. Also, the cost of forging and crafting the metal used to combat such things is neither cheap nor abundant. We would be picking up every bullet fired and then the damage to the surroundings would get even worse.” Paladin Bloodclaw shook his head.
“In addition, none of the Ancestral Spirits use firearms or explosives. Such devices are also heavily regulated. While you will be trained as a Neophyte in such things, they are not your primary tools. You will either use a blade or some other weapon of your choice. Some use claws, others a blade on their tail. I care not what you pick.” He looked at each of us one at a time.
“You are assassins and deniable assets of the Covenant Church. Your purpose is to get in quietly to an area, investigate a situation, find and kill any heretics, retrieve any dangerous artifacts, and disrupt any ancestral spirits before they become a problem. Not blow stuff up and shoot civilians.”
“Now you will each engage in five-minute rounds against our combat specialist. You may move anywhere in the gym. Do not use me or your fellow applicants as cover. For each one of you he wounds, one year is taken off his remaining 987 years he was sentenced to for mass murder and eating other creatures. You can attack him and try to kill him, but my advice is to run and last as long as possible. The time only ends after five minutes, he wounds you, or you kill him. If you wound him, he is allowed to kill you without consequence, so think carefully. Bring out the prisoner!” An upright cage with a creature bound inside was rolled out by two mice. My danger sense spiked looking at the creature and only grew as he was rolled closer.
“Brought me out again Bloodclaw?” the creature asked. It took me a moment to realize what species the creature was. His gray fur was matted and unkept. His large muzzle showed he wasn’t a dog, but a wolf. I felt a shiver of fear run through me.
“Indeed Fenrir. You have five minutes per applicant as usual. When I call switch, you will move onto the next one.”
“Oh, a cat. I will enjoy this. A cat put me in here you know.” The wolf was as big as Paladin Bloodclaw and there was drool coming out of his mouth through his oversized snout that was bound by a massive muzzle. “Haven’t had meat in a while. And it will be hilarious when my time is up, and they let me go.”
“Fenrir here killed and ate 31 creatures that we know of, but I suspect it was much more. Mittens you are up first. Everyone else to the side. When I call your name, you will move away from the other applicants and try to survive for five minutes.” Paladin Bloodclaw walked over to the cage Fenrir was tightly bound in. “If you don’t listen, then I will fight you and end you.”
“Don’t worry shiny. I don’t plan on messing this up. Best part of my year,” Fenrir said. The other applicants had moved away to the wall. I was poised and ready to move. My claws were extended. I noticed Fenrir also had claws. Big ones that were quite sharp.
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I focused on my breathing. I could do this. The locks were unlocked. Then Paladin Bloodclaw unlocked the muzzle and pulled it off. He then stepped back as Fenrir stepped out of the cage shaking himself. “Begin!” Paladin Bloodclaw said.
Fenrir began walking towards me slowly. I kept the same distance between us while retreating, everything about him screamed danger. “Don’t want to fight me cat?”
“Perhaps, but you are a wolf. And even locked up, you seem to be much stronger and bigger than me,” I replied. I kept my breathing steady to keep my fear under control.
“I am. But I see the fear in you. Even the cat who captured me was afraid. I could sense it through smell. The nose knows.”
“All creatures fear, but true challenge is overcoming it,” I countered with something my father had told me. Fenrir paused and the snarled slightly.
“The cat who captured me, said the same thing. I see a family resemblance. I will enjoy eating you and imagining it is him.” He picked up his pace towards me. I turned and retreated while trying to think of how I could exploit any kind of opening.
Fenrir was racing after me quite fast. But one area that cats excelled in was flexibility and movement, more than any other creature. Also my skills had made me even better, the knowledge locked into my head about how to optimally move. I raced for a wall. Fenrir right behind me. I could hear his claws scraping against the concrete ground as they dug in and propelled him forward.
I reached the wall and raced up it. He was forced to come to a stop as I backflipped over his head. My paws lashed out, but he had his ears bend down while ducking his head, avoiding my strike. I landed as Fenrir spun and lunged at me.
I cartwheeled backwards and he was forced to slow down as my paws flashed in front of his face, claws extended. I landed pack on my rear paws as Fenrir began to circle me. His red eyes entirely focused on me. He lunged again and I leapt to the side, his claws barely missing me.
“Impressive cat.”
“The name is Mittens.”
“You have to wound me before I will acknowledge you. I would like to know the name of what I eat. I have always wanted to taste cat. I heard it is the most delicious meat to eat.” I felt a bit sick but forced that feeling away. He was trying to unnerve me, so I made a mistake. I couldn’t afford to make a mistake.
I felt a spike of danger and could kind of sense where it was coming from. Fenrir lunged once again, but I dodged and struck out. He twisted out of the way and avoided my strike. We stood apart again and he began to advance on me slowly, but I kept circling, so I didn’t get pinned against a wall again.
My danger sense spiked, but less this time. He lunged again, but it was a feint, and he moved to intercept me. A clawed paw swiped outwards. My arm was already up and blocking his strike. His claws easily cut through my fur and flesh. I went tumbling along the ground and brought my bleeding left arm up to my chest. He began to lick the blood, one claw at a time.
“Delicious,” he said with a feral grin.
“Switch! Knaves Swiftpaw!” Paladin Bloodclaw called out. Fenrir turned away from me and began chasing the fox. I slowly made my way back to the line of applicants. Blackfur gave me a nervous look, but then focused back on Fenrir chasing Knaves about.
“Use the medkit on the table,” Paladin Bloodclaw said while gesturing at a nearby table. He didn’t take his eyes off the fight. I went over to the table and began to clean and bandage my arm. Thankfully it was only a flesh wound and didn’t require stitches.
The fox was quick, but in the end took a blow to the chest right before time was called. Knaves limped back to the medical table while Sharpfang was sent out next. One after another, each creature was injured before the next one was sent in.
That was when I realized that Fenrir was pulling his strikes a bit. It wasn’t obvious, but having each of us getting wounded right before time was called was a bit too obvious. No one dared to try and wound him. “That’s it!” Paladin Bloodclaw called out as Shiversnout went tumbling across the ground, his face heavily damaged. Fenrir came to a stop. “Take yourself to the medical table and patch yourself up. Fenrir, your opinion?” Paladin Bloodclaw asked.
“At least they were all decently quick. Only the cat and that one rat tried to land a blow on me.” Fenrir walked over to Paladin Bloodclaw towards his cage. “You want to have a round, my blood is barely moving.”
“Back to your cage, vile beast.”
“Hehehehe,” Fenrir chuckled lightly. “Train hard kids. Those were just some love taps.” Fenrir walked into his cage, where the two mice from earlier locked him up again and rolled him out.
Paladin Bloodclaw spun at us. “You all failed. But that is no surprise. Fenrir is a genius at personal combat. Can anyone tell me why each of you were struck?” Paladin Bloodclaw asked. No one answered before I raised my paw. “Mittens, speak.” I had been thinking about this and how he had even fooled my danger sense.
“He changes his speed. While he is fast, when he struck each of us, he sped up. Also, he is able to alter or adjust his attacks to be feints in the moment,” I replied.
“Good eyes. That is correct. You got pulled into his rhythm and pace of combat and were unable to adjust when he sped up. Thinking you had knowledge of how fast he could move. Let this be a lesson to you all.”
“Combat is more than just killing, it is about understanding the flow and tempo of the fight. Mary, you seem frustrated, speak.”
“I know there will be larger creatures, but aren’t we training to be assassins? Won’t we be attacking from stealth?” Mary asked, with blood dripping down her snout.
“You will be. But when your stealth fails. When you are forced to put your life on the line. You need to be able to escape or win. My time isn’t cheap. This facility isn’t cheap. The training you will receive isn’t cheap. If you die, then the Covenant Church will have wasted its investment.”
“Every one of you will eventually encounter a foe stronger and better prepared than yourselves. Some of you will die. Others will live. But you need to learn to handle the fear and pressure when faced with an opponent who is orders of magnitude stronger than you.”
We were all silent at this. Paladin Bloodclaw looked over all of us. “You will have the rest of the day and tomorrow to heal and recover. You are not to train or exercise. After that you will begin personal weapon training. I want you to reflect on this fight, so the next time a situation like this occurs, you aren’t wounded. Dismissed.”