As the sun rose in the distance, Dorian was out running his morning jog. As he finished, he took a quick gulp of water and sighed. While I don’t run as long as I used to, I’m still feeling tired. Maybe I have softened up a little. His mind flashed to his defeat yesterday versus Meredith. I’m definitely going to need to increase my training regimen. She was definitely strong, but not the strongest opponent I’ve faced. I can’t get any weaker than I’ve already become. Taking in a deep breath, Dorian continued jogging, starting to increase the length of his jog.
*Two hours later*
“The Battle of Pratian Fields was the turning point of the Eastern War. During the battle, Drengardian forces were to liberate the easternmost town of Zoba, which was the first to fall during the Aulan invasion. However, while Drengard was victorious in this battle, the discovery of the atrocities that were inflicted upon the Zoban villagers were barbaric. It was also during this battle that Drengard and its allies decided that when the war was over, in the peace treaty, the militaries of all nations would ban firearms and revert back to swords, bows and arrows, and other ‘primitive’ weapons.”
Dorian was writing down a few notes during the lecture, a lesson taught by the military historian of the academy, Lukas Holland. His attention was drawn to a hand being raised next to him.
“What exactly caused us and our allies to go along with this drastic decision?” Dorian looked over and saw Olive, hand still raised, talking. “Firearms such as guns helped increase the fighting strength of every nation’s military, including our allies. Didn’t we go backwards when we ratified the treaty with this clause in it?”
Lukas nodded. “A fine question Ms. Richardson. Many politicians and generals in the military also thought along those lines. With firearms, even our smallest allies could be a deadly foe, able to kill multiple hostiles, limiting the numerical advantage. However, that’s exactly the reason why they were banned. Casualties in the war were astronomically higher than they were during the previous era of swords and shields. What went from tens of thousands of casualties changed to hundreds of thousands. A charge against an enemy position almost meant certain death to at least half of the charging forces. It was during the battle for Zoba that commanders and politicians realized how many thousands of lives could be saved by the switch. Thus, the switch was made.”
Olive nodded. “I see…thank you.”
“Any other questions before we continue?” After a few seconds, Lukas nodded. “Alright. Now after Zoba was liberated…”
As Lukas continued the lecture, Dorian noticed Olive sigh. I wonder…didn’t she seem like she didn’t like the switch?
As the day rolled on, Dorian and the rest of the class struggled to keep up with all the information thrown at them. After what seemed like an eternity, Meredith walked into the room several classes later. “Looks like you all survived yet another grueling day of classes!”
There was a collective groan in the class. “Why must we be given so much more classwork than the other classes? I never thought we’d have so much classwork on top of our physical training.” Amira asked, visibly exhausted from classes.
Meredith chuckled. “You might want to get used to it. Special Operations is naturally going to have a higher workload than the other classes as you’re going to be having the harder missions, where an increase in knowledge should help complete your missions. Your workload is going to be nearly twice as large as the others.”
As the class slowly accepted their fate, Meredith continued. “Anyways, before I let you all go, I do have a couple things to announce. First, next Wednesday, we’ll be having our first official graded mock fight.”
Dorian perked up when hearing this. “Now it won’t be one half of the class against the other. Instead, it’ll be a one-on-one fight versus me. I’ll be grading you on the techniques I’ve taught you and how well you’ve improved with your weapons. A failing grade means extra time will be required of you in the training hall.”
Ethan raised his hand. “Do we have to beat you in order to pass?”
“No you don’t. You need to show me how much you’ve improved since I last saw you fight and how well you’ve mastered the techniques taught to you. Do those two things and you’ll have a high grade.”
After waiting for some more questions that didn’t come, Meredith continued. “Also, next weekend, you’ll be sent on your first field assignment.”
Everyone paid closer attention as she continued. “You’ll be split up into two teams and sent to two different locations. Once at your location, the commanding officer there will be in charge of you and assign you missions to complete. I expect a written report for each day you’re there to be turned in to me the first day of class after you get back. Failure to turn in those reports will result in an automatic failure. Am I understood?”
Everyone nodded. “Good. Now, to give your brains at least a bit of a break, I’m ending the last period of homeroom early. Use it however you want, whether you want to get a head start on homework or just go to your room and sleep, it’s all up to you. I’ll see you all after the weekend.”
Meredith left the classroom as everyone else gathered their books. Dorian did the same and stuffed them into his backpack. After zipping the top of the backpack, he started to walk away when he saw Farnell wave him down. “So, how you feeling about this mock battle coming up?”
Dorian shrugged. “I’m not too concerned about it. After all, we’re just being graded on simple techniques taught to us, and I’d guarantee you our instructor won’t be fighting all out, just strong enough to gauge how much we’ve learned.”
Farnell sighed. “I thought you might say that. It seems like almost everyone at the school here has some sort of military background or knows how to fight…then there’s me who doesn’t even know what I want to be when I graduate.”
Dorian chuckled. “You’ll be fine. As our instructor said the first day of school, she had someone in her class who also enrolled because she wanted to go on a journey of self-discovery. If you want, I could help you tonight in the training hall tonight. I have some time and I need to train more today anyways.”
A relieved look spread across Farnell’s face. “I would appreciate that!”
“Alright, then let’s head there right now.” As they walked towards the training hall, Dorian thought of what Meredith had told him earlier. Farnell isn’t even close to being ready for what we’re going to be put through…I hope there’s enough time to train not only him, but everyone else to be ready for what’s to come.
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