Back to School
Duke, Frost, and Amel waited in the War Room for the four stallions who had passed the physical test to show up. Today was the day that they would be going over the skills they would likely need and practice techniques, in combat, stealth, and first aid. It was going to be another long day.
Duke decided to start in the classroom to try to make everything simpler. They would go over the skills, review them, then practice them in the training room. Unfortunately, there could be no written tests or assessments outside actual training scenarios. The men just had to hope that it would work out for them.
While they waited, Frost busied himself and Amel by going over her English. She was getting a better grip on the language by now; one might have a hard time figuring that it was her second language. The only thing that gave it away was her accent. Her language skills were coming in handy so far.
Duke had grabbed a drawing pad, some paper, and a feather and ink from a spot on the table to start making some drawings. He didn’t know where the large feather came from, and he didn’t really want to either. To prepare for his classroom session, he drew rough sketches of the skills they would be going over, like the Door Breaching, Escape and Evasion, Survival in the wilderness, and stealth. The odds of getting everything finished today were basically zero.
At exactly the time they told the stallions to show up, not a minute sooner or later, they walked in through the doors. At attention, the four remaining stallions from the previous day waited for their orders. Duke definitely liked this; punctuality is a key part of special operations.
“Alright, take a seat on any four spots and we’ll start with some basic skills.” Duke ordered. Once the words were translated, the stallions sat down next to each other, eager to learn.
One spoke something. “He says...” Amel translated. “‘What kinds of skills will we learn today? Do you have fighting secrets and special tactics?”
Duke raised an eyebrow at the stallion who spoke. Slowly, he replied, “Well, we have tactics to teach you, but you all seem proficient in close combat. We’ll be going over a few important skills today that we’ll be using a lot in the near future.” When the stallion got the words, he failed to hide his excitement in the form of a silly-looking smile. Duke let it slide this time.
He looked back at Frost, who nodded and stood by his side. “Alright.” he began, drawing all attention from the soon-to-be horse commandos. “The first skill we’ll be learning is Door Breaching.” He pulled up the crude drawing he made, depicting a stick man kicking at a rectangle.
“Boss. You suck at drawing.” Frost snickered. Duke rolled his eyes and ignored him.
“What we do is we go up to a door in groups, and one designated guy kicks the door down. Once he has, the rest of the team moves in.” He waited; none spoke. “Any questions?”
One stallion raised his hoof after a moment, and Duke pointed at him. After he finished his question, Amel said, “He asks, ‘How do we decide who kicks the door down? Also, is there added danger to the door kicker?”
Duke nodded slowly, arms now crossed. “A fair question.” he said. “Yes, there is added danger, but you knew that when you volunteered for this job. The door kicker is more exposed, but if the team does what it’s supposed to, you should be fine. As for the kicker...” He had to think about this for a second. “The kicker is whoever has the strongest legs. The first guy in is the most talented fighter in the group.”
The stallion didn’t wait to ask another question. Amel let him finish, then said, “He wants to know who gets to go in first.”
“I’ll decide who gets what roles later. Right now, I need to see what you guys can do for this skill. So let’s go.” Duke replied, turning around and walking to the training room. Frost followed first, then Amel, and then finally the stallions. Behind the men, the stallions were all talking amongst themselves, trying to put a hush to their excitement.
Duke walked into the room and looked around. The night before, he had went to King Sauri and asked him more about the room and its contents. What he found out pleased him, to say the least. He had found out that the outlines on the floor were spots where walls and doors could be raised out of the ground by pushing a block near the entrance. There were several blocks, too; one was for a few walls, another for doors, several combinations, and one last one that made the room an outright maze. Sauri said that they never really used that button except for entertainment, something that Duke barely didn’t facepalm to.
Once everyone was in the room, Duke found the block he needed to press and leaned on it. “Now we practice.” he said. He would have liked more time to go over the skill itself, but they didn’t exactly have months to train these guys. They would have to teach as they went along.
Several doors and walls came out of the ground around the room, making the stallions even more excited. It was like watching little girls getting their nails painted; neither man ever thought they would see a group of hardened warriors so different from their usual MO.
Once everything was ready to go, Duke started walking and ordered, “Let’s move out!” The stallions followed without missing a beat.
Frost got up next to Duke and leaned in. “How many times do you think they’ll screw up before they figure out what they need to do?” he asked. “My bet’s on ‘until we tell them’.”
Duke snorted. “Well, you stole my bet, Frost.” he said. “I wonder how many stallions can fit through one of these doors anyway?”
Frost snickered. “Probably not enough.” Duke smiled and shook his head as they walked on.
The men stood off to the side of one of the now raised doors and stood waiting. The stallions were still whispering amongst themselves, not paying enough attention. Amel was listening for anything that she thought the men might need to hear, but when she got nothing, she just looked to them impatiently.
Duke had had enough of the silliness. “Alright, kiddies, get ready to start practicing the breach.” With no translation for “kiddies”, it took Amel a moment to translate. “Figure out who’s gonna kick the door in first and who’s gonna go in first. We’ll be watching.”
Duke and Frost watched on as the stallions, left to their own devices, tried to figure out what they were going to do. They understood the drawing and the action they would perform, but they had no idea who would do it. With no leadership amongst themselves, they soon started trying to take various roles. All of them wanted to kick the door down first, and it took them several minutes just to get through that. Then, they had to decide who would go in first, which took another few minutes. When they were finally done and looked ready to go, almost ten minutes had passed.
“Some more work to do.” Duke thought with a groan. “Alright, when I shout go, breach the door.” he ordered. The stallions all lined up at the door, and once all was said, Amel nodded to Duke. “GO!”
The door kicker shot his legs out at the door, busting it open and nearly taking it off its hinges. The first stallion in the group immediately went to move in, but before he managed to get a foot inside, he tripped over the kicker’s legs and fell flat on his face. The other two followed close behind, the first one trying to jump over and hitting his head on the doorway and the second getting a faceful of ass. Finally, the kicker collapsed under all the weight, and the whole group was reduced to a pile of tangled legs and necks with bodies thrown somewhere inside.
Duke lightly pinched his nose and breathed in deep while Frost openly laughed at the phenomenon. Never before had either of them seen a group of warriors screw up a door breach so badly. It didn’t help, either, when the stallions started pulling out of the door like their hind legs weren’t working. Slightly ashamed at having just witnessed that, but also having somewhat expected it, the men walked forward, trying to hide what they thought of the situation. Amel ran up next to Frost, giggling away at the stallions.
“Alright, I wasn’t expecting anything quite that bad.” Duke said. The stallions all shrank when they heard it from Amel. “But I suppose that it’s your first time. What were you guys doing before you went for the breach? What did you talk about?”
The stallions gave their answer, after which, Duke looked to Amel. “They say that they discussed who had what roles. They thought that it would be easy to do.”
Frost shook his head. “Well, things in our job are rarely easy the first time. That was quite frankly foolish of you to think it would be.” He waited for them to understand, which, once they did, made them look to the ground. “One thing you’ll learn from us is to never think it’ll ever be easy. It rarely is, and when it is, it’s because you thought it would be the hardest thing in the world, and that’s what you prepared for. You have, have, HAVE to train like you’re in combat, or combat might just kill you.”
Duke nodded. “Precisely.” he said, waiting. Once Amel gave him the clear, he went on. “You have to prepare for everything possible so that there are no surprises. You need to make your plan before you act and you need to have contingency plans for when that plan goes down the drain. You need to be like a surgeon’s scalpel; sharp, precise, and have a razor’s edge. You are going to supposedly be the best soldiers Sauri will have; make sure you show that.” He waited, and when the stallions didn’t reply with anything but looks of understanding and determination, Duke ordered them, “Now, let’s try it again.”
The men watched the stallions as they went forth and continued attempting the door breach. The same two stallions kept being the kicker and point stallion the whole time; they were having some trouble with the whole concept. After over an hour of trying to breach just this one door, the group eventually managed to do it right. The door shot open, and a moment later, after the kicker’s legs were out of the way, the point stallion led the other three in. On the other side, there was nothing waiting for them except for the pride in finishing.
But that pride wasn’t going to last long. “That was pretty good.” Frost commented nonchalantly. “But I would say that it doesn’t mean a ton without enemies on the other side. You, boss?”
Duke nodded. “I agree completely.” he said. They walked over to the stallions, who were celebrating their pseudo-victory with great enthusiasm. “Listen up!” he shouted, garnering the attention of all present. “That was fine work there.” he complemented. He waited for Amel to translate and see the happy looks on the stallions’ faces before giving them the bad news. “You seem to understand it now. But you can’t just practice against an empty room.”
When the stallions’ faces fell, Frost chuckled and chimed in, “Yep. So on the next one, we’ll be waiting for you on the other side. You have to get in, tackle us, and hold us down. Then, we’ll think about passing you for this test.”
The stallions all looked horrified at the new prospect of attacking their human mentors; some even looked shaky in the knees. “For this test, we will strike back. Albeit lightly, but you will get smacked a bit. Oh, and we want some other guys to take the major roles.” When they understood, two of the stallions groaned loudly, knowing the abuse that was to come.
Duke walked to the other side of the door. “Let’s do this, Frost.” he ordered.
“Aye.” came the reply.
Duke turned to Amel. “You wait on the side, watch them. If it looks like anything is really wrong, like serious injury or something, shout it out.”
“Yes sir.” Amel responded.
The two men took positions on the other side of the door and waited. Thanks to the wall, the stallions would have no idea where they were standing or how. They would be forced to react quickly and without thought to pass the test of skill. During combat, people don’t really rise to the occasion; it’s pretty rare. What happens is that people fall to their training and do what they learned during training. That was the goal here.
The men had no weapons on them at the moment; they wouldn’t need them. After checking their stances and balance, Duke and Frost both looked to Amel to give the order. At first, she didn’t understand why they weren’t doing anything. Once she got it, though, she, with great fervor, announced, “GO!”
The stallions breached the door and filed in in a nearly-textbook breach of the door. But it was only nearly-textbook. As soon as they were in, they were disorganized just enough that they didn’t know who was doing what. The men took advantage of their helplessness and tackled two to the ground. Once Frost got his down, he went after the third in and threw him back through the door, right into the kicker. They fell with an unceremonious series of what was probably expletives.
Duke got up and looked around, then sighed disappointedly. “Well, that was pathetic. I thought I told you to plan ahead!” he shouted. The stallions who had fallen outside rushed back in and the group made their line again, ready to get chewed out. “Why didn’t you take us down?” he asked.
After getting the translation, the stallions spoke amongst themselves for a few minutes, then finally gave their reply. “They did not know where you would be, and thought that they could just look for you and attack on sight. They believed that they could team up on the two of you if they entered fast enough.”
Frost shook his head while Duke sighed. “Sorry to disappoint, but that isn’t how it works.” Frost explained. “You have to know who’s going where at all times. You can’t just look around and hope for the best; that’s a good way to get stabbed by an unexpected enemy. You have to designate who goes where and when so that you cover all possible areas of the room. The point of a team in breaching is so that you can each cover a section of the room. The point man- stallion- is in the most danger because he’s in there alone, and that’s why the best fighter goes in first.”
Duke nodded at Frost’s explanation, then gave out his next orders. “Alright. Take it from the top, and do what my friend here just explained to you. Maybe you might stand a chance.” Everyone went back to their starting positions; but Duke and Frost moved elsewhere behind the door; and got ready for round two.
A few minutes of prep and hushed talking later, it was all good.
“GO!” Amel shouted.
The stallions kicked in the door and rushed in, though this time, each one went straight in some direction and didn’t look around too much; just enough to see if they would get flanked. The point stallion went straight forward, while the two who followed went to either side, and the last one ran in straight forward as well. Duke and Frost were off to their right and straight ahead, so they were able to spot them and engage quickly.
Unfortunately, they were dealing with humans. Humans who have arms, and hands, and fingers. The humans, with their much greater maneuverability in tight spaces, easily dodged the stallions and took them down, one with a throw over the shoulder, the other by being slapped across the face and tripped. After slapping the one, Frost ran forward to get another helping. He caught one unexpectedly in the side, sending him sprawling across the floor.
The last stallion, though, had decided not to attack Duke. Instead, he went after the distracted Frost and went for the tackle. Frost heard it coming and just barely managed to dodge him. With no human to stop his forward momentum, the stallion went face first into the wall and crumpled to the ground in a heap of disappointment.
The men brushed themselves off and observed their handiwork. It was actually pretty good, how they handled themselves. They weren’t exactly trained to fight highly trained human special operators, so all things considered, they pretty much did pass. Griffons would be easier for them to fight anyway.
“Not bad.” Duke said as the stallions all got up to hear what they did wrong. They were all pretty surprised when Amel told them what Duke just said. “Considering that you aren’t trained to fight us, and how we’re more trained than you, you did well. We never really expected you to take us down; we just wanted to make sure you did the breach correctly.”
Frost nodded. “Yeah. If you ever need to do a breach, the enemy will likely not expect you to enter like that, at least in this world. You should be able to take them by surprise and do it effectively f you do it like you just did. Of course, you can get better. And the only way you’ll get better is through practice.” Both men smiled when the stallions groaned at Amel’s translation.
Duke looked to her and used his fingers to tell her Come here. She walked on over, curious, and stood by Duke’s side, looking up to him for an explanation. The man didn’t look down, and instead, looked to Frost with a mischievous grin on his face. Frost returned it, drawing cautious suspicion from the mare.
“What?” she asked.
“How would you like to be our damsel in distress? Our hostage, to be rescued by these valiant young bucks who live to serve?” Duke asked, putting both hands on what would be Amel’s shoulders. “To be the mare that they want to serve, then slap them when we give you the all clear?”
Amel blinked. “Uhh... okay.” she replied.
Duke shot up. “Wonderful!” he announced, drawing the attention of the stallions. “I have good news for you!” he said.
“So good.” Frost said, nodding.
“Tell them what’s about to happen.” Duke said to Amel. She turned to the stallions and began to explain, and slowly, like caterpillars on a leaf, the stallions’ expressions began to change. At first, they looked worried, but then, as Amel went on, they seemed to grow eager. Toward the end, they all looked unusually excited about the exercise, and were chattering about, sometimes looking right at Amel.
“I think that they don’t quite understand.” Amel said. “They think that they can impress me by rescuing me from you.”
Duke shrugged. “Oh well. More fun for us.” he said. “Come on,” he ordered as he turned around. “We need to get ready for this. Oh, and tell them that we won’t hit them this time; but if we can get both hands on you before they get us, they fail, and they all have to carry you back to our room alongside us.”
Amel smiled and translated the new rules for the stallions, who looked confused and now unsure of their new task. She then ran to the men and waited in between them with each one about eight feet to either side of her. Neither man was even facing her.
“Tell them that they can go whenever they deem it proper.” Frost told the mare. She shouted out to the stallions on the other side, and after a second, a whole lot of noise could be heard from them. The men steeled themselves as they prepped for the attack.
The door burst open once more; this time breaking off the hinges; and the stallions ran in. Before they could even hope to react, the men were wrapped around Amel like a burrito, hugging her tightly to brace for potential impact. The point stallion gave up instantly, already seeing the failure, but the ones behind him had no idea. They ran right into him, getting more facefulls of ass, causing him to trip over the busted door on the ground and create yet another pile of failure.
Frost and Amel laughed, while Duke just disengaged himself from the trio and looked down at the stallions with mock disappointment. He hadn’t expected them to pass the first time; truth be told, he wasn’t sure they ever would. If they ever needed a point man in a hostage situation, it would be either Duke or Frost with guns, which would be much better for ensuring the safety of the hostage. They might as well practice, though. They could need it in the future.
“Alright, that was sad.” Duke admonished. “You could try to be coordinated. And don’t be so predictable in when you go. You could have waited for a minute or two and then went.” Amel translated for him from Frost’s grasp as he stood up and walked over without putting her down. “You need to think, guys! We won’t always be able to tell you what to do out there, so you need to get your minds in the right set, or you’ll be killed. Plain and simple.”
Duke waited for Amel to finish translating, which took longer with Frost holding her, then made one last statement. “That’s right. And you could easily get hostages killed, which is unacceptable. We’re going to keep doing this until you can get it right.” The men went back to their places behind the door and wall in a hurry, trying to get the stallions to hurry as well. “Come on, let’s go!”
The training in door breaching went on for the rest of the day; they never got to anything else. The stallions had a slow improvement rate, but it was improvement nonetheless. Every time, the men would have to critique the stallions and tell them exactly what they did wrong and the various ways to fix it. And every time, the stallions would focus on that, but leave something else out to go wrong. They managed to actually get to Amel before the men on two occasions, but unfortunately, that wasn’t good enough for Duke and Frost.
At the end of the day, around 1800 hours, the men decided to pack it up. The stallions pretty much had it, and they were so exhausted, and pretty beaten by slaps from the men when they got too close to Amel, that they could barely register what was said.
“Alright, I guess we can learn more tomorrow.” Duke said, which ended up getting cheers from the stallions. “Let’s head to the War Room for a debrief, and discuss tomorrow.”
They all left the training room, leaving all the training gear out for the next day, and walked at an easy pace to the War Room. Once inside, the stallions all sat in their usual line at a table, and Duke and Frost stood before them on the other side. For a moment, Duke sifted through his crude drawings from earlier to find the sneaking one he made.
“Alright, here it is.” he said as he pulled it up. Everyone stood ready to listen and speak. “Tomorrow, we’ll go over escape and evasion, plus throw in stealth and remaining hidden. I’ll see if I can’t get some strings pulled to get some more stuff in there, but what we have might work. It’ll involve a few takedowns, maybe a hostage rescue, but mostly, you guys will be trying not to be found by us in there. Questions?”
One stallion had a question, which he didn’t hesitate to ask. Duke looked to Amel for his question. “He wants to know what you mean by not being found.”
Behind Duke, Frost smiled widely and let out an evil chuckle. “It means we’ll be hunting you in there, and you won’t be allowed to fight us. You have to remain hidden and not need to fight us to pass.”
Duke nodded. “Yes, though if we catch you, you will be given a chance to fight us off and run away. It is escape and evasion, after all.” He looked over the group of tired stallions. “Anything else?”
No one spoke, and they all just looked at him, waiting for their next set of orders. He did have to admit, he liked that about these stallions. They followed their orders when given, and he didn’t doubt that they would do so to a fault. It would be useful to him and Frost in their search for OGA to have such dedicated, skilled warriors at their disposal. He just hoped that he didn’t need to use them for too long.
“Alright, good work today. Dismissed.” The stallions let out little grunts of pride and turned to leave the room together, eager for some rest.
Duke collected up his drawings, and he, Frost, and Amel walked on out. Initially, they were all quiet, one thinking about his little class, one about tormenting his partner’s class, and one who was satisfied with quiet.
Eventually, Frost broke the silence. “Well, boss, that was quite a day. I can’t wait to see what we have tomorrow.”
“That makes me glad; it’ll be a lot of fun.” Duke realized something, though. “Those stallions aren’t carrying Amel back.”
Frost looked at the mare, who also realized that they had forgotten. “No worries; we can make them do it in the morning. I’ll send a messenger.” The mare gave him a big, toothy smile as he finished speaking.
They took care of everything they thought they would be needing the next day, ate some food, and then headed to their quarters for a good night’s rest and some mind-numbing weapons maintenance. Who knew; they might decide to bring them the next day.