The next morning was met with a different energy than the previous. Instead of apprehension, Florian knew what he needed to do for the first time in a long time. He threw on his clothes, strapping on the limited armor that he owned. The bracers were in a sorry condition, but the chestplate seemed to be holding out fine.

Arriving at the drill yard, Florian found that he was the first to make it there. Briefly debating whether or not to meditate, Florian chose to instead just rest and sit on the dirt. Whatever focus he had needed to be saved for later. Fortunately, Anna showed up within the next ten minutes or so, coming from the direction of a large swathe of tents.

“So where do you sleep?” Florian asked after exchanging a greeting with the surprised woman.

“Women stay with their families in the tents, if their families are here,” Anna answered, picking up a wooden spear from the rack. “Unlike the men, women aren’t conscripted. If you’re fit and capable, you’re one of the Warriors.”

“So what about Joel?”

“There are always exceptions,” Anna replied, a frown settling on her face. Still, she didn’t elaborate further. Florian knew a touchy subject when he heard one.

One by one, the other Warriors of Leeds shuffled onto the drill grounds, and almost as if he knew exactly when to make his appearance, Hornbeck showed up just as the last stragglers took their place in line. The man walked with confidence, his pale gray eyes inspecting all of his soldiers as he strode past them. “Anna, how did the new recruit do?” he asked after returning to his spot in front of all of them.

Anna answered quickly. “He adapted quickly, but is struggling with maneuvering about the walls with speed.” Florian winced; the review sounded more rebuke than praise.

“To be expected,” Hornbeck crossed his arms, looking Florian in the eyes. “You’re with her again today, son. Do your best to learn quickly.”

That was surprising to Florian. There was an expectation in those words, but it wasn’t impossible. The Commander’s next words were equally surprising, if a little more frightening. “We’ll need all hands on deck for the lumber run next week.”

Florian hadn’t quite considered the logistics of felling trees to create new gates month after month until that moment. That project required no small amount of wood, and not even the most skilled lumberjacks could fell trees fast enough to not be noticed by the Hellwolves. They’d need to be guarded while they did their work, and without the safety afforded to the Warriors by the castle’s walls, it was a greater risk than dealing with a few stray wolves here and there.

Given, Florian had traveled on the roads through those woods for days before stumbling upon Leeds, but he had been escorted by Theo and the pair of them could handle an invisibility spell for an entire night. During the days, Theo proved to be a capable warrior, even if he couldn’t use much of his magic from exhaustion. Florian didn’t know how these lumber runs went, but he did know that this information didn’t really affect his plans.

Instead, after a brief period of conditioning overseen by Hornbeck, Florian eagerly followed Anna to the top of the walls, constantly keeping an eye peeled towards the gate – the only part of Leeds Castle that wasn’t surrounded by a massive moat. As luck would have it, they had only just ascended the stairs when he heard the distinct sound of scratching on the gate.

Everyone that had climbed up with them shared a quick look and raced down another flight of stairs toward the side exit. Florian cursed; he’d never be able to race them like that. With a thought, Florian guessed that the distance from the walls to the ground was leg-breaking distance and not death-by-falling distance.

He threw caution to the wind. Florian leapt off the wall, focusing hard as he tried to fiddle with gravity to make himself weigh less. It was a good idea on paper, but Florian had failed to consider two important – very important – factors: that he had just a moment or two before he crashed to the ground and that manipulating gravity was fucking hard.

Without a concrete idea of how to achieve what he wanted, Florian’s body was only slightly slowed as he fell. As he collided with the ground, Florian tried to perform a roll. It succeeded for the most part, but he ended square on his back with five angry Hellwolves staring straight at him. Florian scrambled to his feet, wincing at the pain that flared up when he put weight on his good leg. With Bludgeon extended outwards, Florian focused on a different and more familiar kind of magic.

He forced the mana around him to envelope his weapon, the blue sheen visible and glowing even in direct sunlight. The Hellwolves circled him like a pack of vultures. Knowing that he was dead if they all chose to lunge at him at the same time, Florian took the fight to a random Hellwolf, sprinting as fast as he dared. The Hellwolf snarled at him and tried to land a bite on his unarmored leg. Unfortunately for the beast, Bludgeon collided with the thing’s head just a second before it could have latched onto its target. The Hellwolf’s skull caved in, and the monster stopped moving. The sheen on Bludgeon dimmed.

Florian turned as two of the closest wolves leapt at him. Florian flooded his mace with more mana, and with as much strength as he could manage, Florian swung his mace as if it were an extension of a whirlwind. Bludgeon smashed through another skull before continuing on its path to the second airborne monster. It impacted the Hellwolf, throwing it off the side and stunning it. This time, it was alive, though.

Florian gathered more of the mana around his weapon, imagining a thick layer of blue coating Bludgeon. His head started to pound, but Florian kept going, seeing that a few of his fellow Warriors were already outside the walls and sprinting over to help… or poach a wolf.

Bludgeon swung twice more, striking at the dazed wolf first and then at the only wolf of the remaining two that had been stupid enough to stay behind. By the time Anna had made it to him, Florian was surrounded by four carcasses and an inordinate amount of gore, some of which coated him much like the mana had coated his mace earlier.

Anna’s nose wrinkled. “How did you even make it down here so fast?”

“I jumped.”

Her eyes went wide, and her mouth opened and closed repeatedly, as if trying to find the right question to ask. Eventually, she settled on, “is that broken?”

Florian looked at where she was pointing and took in the full glory that was his right ankle. It was a swollen mess and now that he focused on it, hurt a lot. Still, he could wiggle it about and it didn’t seem to be broken.

“I don’t think so,” Florian replied. “If you help me take these guys inside, I’ll pay you back for last night.”

“With interest?”

“With interest.”

Man, fuck interest.