“Anyone not interested in getting in trouble should start waking up and getting ready!” Someone shouted in the barracks, and I rolled out of bed. My internal clock was letting me know it was just before sunup, and honestly I was a few seconds away from getting up. I had skipped my magic lessons, not wanting to let everyone know that I had special circumstances.

“Fuck off, what time is it? The sun isn’t up yet? I ain’t getting up, that’s commoner hours.” Came a reply from deeper in.

I quickly put a hand out, stopping a guy from going back there and causing a ruckus, “Don’t bother. It’ll just cause a fight. They’ll learn about soldier hours after today.”

“Soldier hours, I like that. You do realize we aren’t likely to see set hours?” The guy responded.

“Exactly. Brandon Clayson.” I said, offering a hand.

“James Markson. Your dad in the legion as well?”

“Nope. Frontier farmer.” I said, shrugging. “I got lucky and had some hands on training, but we can catch up at break. Let’s get our bunks in order so we can head to breakfast.” He nodded, and we both quickly went to clean up our areas. Looking around, I noticed that the majority of the commoners were up, but so were about 2/3 of those I thought came from nobility. They all moved with purpose, and quite a few gave me nods of recognition as they made sure their areas were tidy before standing at the foot of their bed. Deciding that they were likely right in what they were up to, I copied them just as the door burst open and the light crystals burst to full intensity.

“RISE AND SHINE RECRUITS! IT’S INSPECTION TIME!” Screamed one of our instructors, as two more went quickly down the rows. All of the people who hadn’t gotten up earlier were quickly on their feet, as the instructors started berating everyone for any little infraction.

“WHAT ARE YOU GAWKING AT RECRUIT? YOU THINK YOUR SHIT IS ANY BETTER THAN THEIRS?” I immediately turned to see an instructor bellowing in my face.

“No sir!”

“GOOD! BECAUSE YOUR BLANKET IS SLOPPY, YOUR ARMOR STAND ASKEW, AND YOU GOT CLOTHES HANGING OUT OF YOUR DRAWER! DROP AND GIVE ME 60 PUSHUPS!” I immediately complied, trying to listen and figure out how many pushups were going to be given for each infraction. By the end of the half hour inspection, everyone was doing pushups. I felt badly for the ones that had a lot to do, but didn’t dare start looking around again.

“Right! Just so you know, you will have inspection every morning until the entire unit passes to my standards. This will be done every morning before sunrise, and then we will head over to eat. After than you will report to the yard for physical training until lunch. After lunch you will have some classes to go over important knowledge. Light training to end the day, followed by dinner. Any questions?”

“Sir!” I said, waiting for him to get in front of me.

“Go on recruit.”

“Two questions sir. What about those with dietary restrictions? Second question, I have specialized night training. Will I be excused for that as well?”

“You must be Brandon, right? I’ve been briefed on your situation. You will follow me to the kitchen once we arrive. Cooky will have your meals ready there. As for your training, just make sure you have your badge on you. Any other questions?” I heard a bit of grumbling from the others, but I ignored it. They were more than welcome to try and have night lessons with an ancient vampire.

“Right. We’ve wasted enough time. Squad, move out.” He ordered, and we obediently formed twin lines and followed him out and over to the mess hall. While everyone else went through a rapidly moving line, I followed our instructor back to the kitchen area. “Cooky!” He called out, and the lady supervising everyone as they mixed different things into different pots turned to look at him.

“Instructor Daniels! What a surprise! I got your special recruit’s breakfast on the counter next to you. This him?”

“Yes ma’am.” I answered, straightening up but unsure if I should salute her or not.

“Hah! He’s got the discipline right enough. Here’s the deal boy. In here, I am God. God doesn’t like anyone in her domain. So you do not enter without permission. If you must enter, before you do you will examine the domain and find a spot where you can ask your questions without disrupting the flow of my domain. If you disrupt the flow of my domain, you will feel the wrath of God. Your meals will always be on the table to your left. Questions?”

“No ma’am!” I said, taking a gulp. “None at all.”

“Hahahaha!” Instructor Daniel’s bellowed. “As intimidating as ever, Cooky. Don’t worry kid, her bark is worse than her bite. Go ahead and down your breakfast and rejoin your squad.”

“Damnit Daniels! Don’t go giving away my secrets!”

I shook my head at their byplay as I downed my glass of blood. Not knowing what to do with the glass, I simply left it sitting on the same counter and headed back into the mess hall. I saw the group I had met yesterday sitting near the end of the table with one open spot, and headed over.

Joffrey asked, “So. Special diet, eh? Care to fill us in?”

“Not here.” I waved him off. “Later tonight I can. It’s not a fun thing, trust me.”

“Fair enough.” Clint nodded, tucking back into his food. From the looks, everyone got a bit of scrambled eggs along with some toast and sausage. The rest of breakfast was rather quiet, as people seemed far more interested in getting their food down and heading out to the parade grounds to get the day started. Our group made it in the middle of the pack, and almost everyone made it before instructor Daniels was back in front of us with a frown on his face. Ten minutes later, and our last recruit came sauntering up.

“And our last recruit finally manages to join us. Tell me recruit, is it breakFAST or is it breakSLOW? I wasn’t aware I had told everyone to take their sweet damn time with it.”

Most of us kept a straight face, but poor Joffrey couldn’t help but let out a giggle. Daniels was on him in an instant. “Something funny recruit?”

“Yessir!” He chuckled. “I’ve never heard of breakslow before, but it sounds like something I would like to try.”

“Oh thank the merciful gods, I’ve found you early.” Daniels chuckled while looking upward. “Tell me recruit, are you a joker? You find things funny?”

“Yessir.”

“Excellent! I love funny things too.” Daniels said, pulling Joffrey out of line with an arm around his shoulder. They walked over to the dirt track circling everyone, and they stopped at a line drawn in the dirt. “In fact, I think I’ll introduce you to one of my favorite games, how does that sound? SARGEANT AMELIA!” He bellowed, not giving the hapless Joffrey a chance to react. An incredibly fit woman with blazing red hair came jogging over in full armor.

“Instructor Daniels?” She asked, looking at Joffrey. Once she was closer, I realized she was barely five feet tall, and she had a thin wooden baton in her hand.

“Recruits, meet Sargeant Amelia. She is hands down the fastest instructor you will ever have, and is going to play the bad guy in my favorite game. Let it be known, if you end up pissing me off, you will end up playing the game. If I ever need to make an example of you, then you will face her.” While he talked, Amelia got a cruel smile on her face and her eyes lit up.

“Now, some of you seem concerned, and that’s good. Here’s the rules, and I hope you pay attention Joffrey. You get to go first. In order to win, Joffrey needs to complete five consecutive laps. He will get a ten second head start on Amelia. If she catches you, she hits you. She must wait two seconds between strikes, and if she hits you five times then she must wait an additional ten seconds. If she manages to strike you ten times in one lap, that lap no longer counts and you will be given time to finish that lap without any more interference. Get struck seventy times, and you will lose. You will need to finish your current lap, and run an additional three laps afterward. Any completed laps will count towards the punishment laps, so don’t go thinking we don’t care. Are these rules clear?”

“Um, sir? What do you-“ Joffrey started, but Daniels didn’t care.

“GREAT! GO! ONE! TWO!” Joffrey got the idea on three, and took off running. The track looked like it was close to a quarter mile, and I just knew that Joffrey was going to be in for a bad time. At ten seconds, Amelia took off like a quarrel from a crossbow. She flew down the track, and even if Joffrey had nearly a quarter of a track lead, it was rapidly closing. I thought she would hit him in the back and stop to wait, but she had other ideas. Her first blow was to the back of his thighs, and at her full speed.

“GAAAH!” Joffrey cried out, dropping to his knees and trying to roll into a ball.

“Get up boy! You aren’t going to outrun her by crawling, that’s for sure!” Daniels shouted encouragement. Amelia came back and delivered the remaining blows, alternating between legs. Once his ten seconds started, Joffrey started hobbling down the track.

“You better learn to bear the pain better recruit! She’s got four seconds before she comes at you again, and I guarantee that she’s gonna target them legs one more time!” Daniels called before turning to the rest of us. “You. The late recruit. What’s your name?”

“Darren, sir.” He said, voice trembling.

“Darren. Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you. After Joffrey is done with his punishment detail, you are up. Until then, the rest of you get to do jumping jacks. I’ll count them out, and at every fifth one you will drop and do a pushup. One. Two. Three. Four. Down.” He started counting off, and we got to work while keeping poor Joffrey in our eyes. When he rejoined us, he was limping. Amelia must have had a bit of a heart, as she stopped targeting his legs after that first lap. Darren got the same treatment, and we did physical training the whole time. Once that was done, we were given training swords and sent to the pells. Our task was to keep our shields off the ground and deliver lines of mid strikes. Three strikes, then head back to the back of the line and wait our turn. I saw several others using the trick of balancing the bottom of the shield on their boot, and we all quietly passed it along to others. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I saw instructor Daniels purposefully trying to find things in the opposite direction of people passing on the knowledge. Despite our tricks, even my arms were getting tired by the time we broke for lunch. Thankfully nobody dropped their shields on the ground, as we all noticed that Daniels was watching us like a hawk. Instead, we all calmly formed lines to replace the shields on the racks and headed in.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Welcome to the first of your lectures as soldiers. I know, you aren’t technically soldiers yet, but I can’t be bothered. I am here to teach you things necessary to your survival. You can call me Instructor Michio.” After lunch, we were sent to an auditorium type room that was blessedly cool. An older man with short, white hair was standing in front of us talking, and we were provided personal notebooks to keep track of things.

“First thing’s first. Vampires. Our major enemy. You, what’s the quickest, best way to kill a vampire?” He said, pointing to a random recruit.

“Uh? The sun?”

“The sun. Wrong. Tell me, if you were killed by the sun, would you let people pull you into it? Or go easily? Maybe if they ask nicely. ‘Pardon me, I know it’ll kill you, but would you kindly step into this here patch of sunlight? It’ll be ever so helpful.’” He mocked, getting a few chuckles from the rest. “Enough!” He roared, silencing us. “This is no laughing matter! It could be your life on the line, so pay attention!”

Glaring at us until we all settled down, he straightened his toga and got back to lecturing. “Now. Sunlight will kill the lowest tiers of vampires, those known as younglings and fledglings. At around 20 years of age, a vampire becomes a master. At this point, their magic is enough to survive direct sunlight, but most of their power is nullified. Should you be lucky enough to battle them in the daylight, you will find them only marginally more powerful than a strong human.”

“There are several ways to ensure the final death for a vampire. Destroying the heart or head, or removal of the head are great places to start. That is why the majority of our strikes that you will learn are thrusts. Angled correctly, you can kill a vampire hiding within the masses of their thralls with it. It won’t be easy, but there’s a chance. The other way is to destroy the majority of the body. Burn it, crush it with a rock, anything that will cause massive trauma. Be aware though, that vampires do not burn quicker than any normal human. The best way to kill them with fire is to have a wizard on your side.”

“Sir?” One of the recruits asked. Getting a nod, he continued, “I was wondering. You described tiers to their society. Can you tell us more about that? And what the likely power we will be facing in the field will be?”

“Sure. We were going to hit that after tactics, but it might explain a few things. So like most societies, vampires are divided into a pyramid structure. Unlike most though, there are two sides that are roughly equal. To start, we will go over the political side. This side is composed entirely of vampires. At the bottom of society are the slaves, followed closely by mundane people. There is a branch on the right side that is between the levels of slaves and people, but we can talk more of that later. Younglings are next, and are vampires less than ten years old. Poor impulse control, but with considerable strength. Think of a person who has done manual labor all their life. That is about the strength level of a youngling. Above them are fledglings, those under 20. Half as strong again as younglings, they still lack impulse control. This is also where a third distinction comes in, and it is a very dangerous distinction that will get an entire day to go over. Vampires that can use magic start out as Blood Novices, and are automatically ranked equal with a fledgling. Though technically equal, you would be hard pressed to find a fledgling refusing the order of a blood novice.”

“As we said earlier, vampire masters are at least 20 years old, and old enough to harness their magic into blocking the effects of the sun. In the dark, they are easily twice as strong as a human. They have also fully matured, and have very little issue with controlling themselves. Their magical counterpart is a blood apprentice, a novice that reaches ten years old. For the rest of the tiers, strength and magic start increasing exponentially instead of linearly, so there isn’t much we can say to generalize things. Just know that each tier is vastly more dangerous than those beneath them.”

“Blood knights and blood journeymen have all reached 75 years of age, and again the journeyman will be more powerful than the knight. At 250 years, we have the next tier of blood barons and blood magi. Blood counts and blood masters have reached 500 years. This is also the highest a vampire born without magic can strive to achieve. At a thousand years, the blood master becomes a blood duke. In all of our recorded history, we are only aware of 10 blood dukes. And thankfully the final tier has only been achieved once, and was destroyed before fully coming into his powers. The sanguine emperor likely has the power to challenge the gods, and can only come about when a blood duke consumes the power of another.”

He gave us several moments to complete whatever notes we were taking, then continued on, “The other side of the spectrum has next to no political power in theory, but have amassed enough power that they can’t be safely ignored. The first, and lowest portion are between slaves and people. These are known as ferals and ghouls, depending on how far the failed transformation passed. Ferals have lost all their reasoning, but are essentially vampires. Ghouls are pack hunters with near human cunning, but must feast on raw meat. They are unaffected by sunlight, and are constantly used as shock troops. I’ll give more on them later, as they deserve an entire lecture on their own.”

“Equal to younglings are the thralls. These are people being groomed to become vampires themselves, and often have been enhanced in some way. Rumors are that the longer the person is a thrall, the more likely they are to become a blood novice. The next tier is empty, but at 50 years a ghoul evolves into a ghoul lord. Again, I will go into far more detail in the future, just know that they are far more deadly than what you probably realize. The final tiers are for vampires that don’t have any political aspirations and all the backstabbing that goes along with it. At 75 they are elder vampires, 250 they are ancient vampires, at 500 they are Argentums, and at a thousand they become timeless ones. We have confirmation that these titles exist, but have no knowledge if anyone has ever claimed these titles.”

Before he could go on, we heard a gong from the training yards. “Very well, that’s all I have for today. Learn the ranks, it may save your life. Tomorrow we finish the tactics.” Dismissing us, we headed out for a light hour of training before dinner. Today was rather simple, as we just cleaned the armor for half the time before running a mile and heading to eat. I was zoning out, thinking through the rankings of vampires before realizing that we were a bit later than I thought heading back. Excusing myself as we neared the barracks, I headed off to meet with my night trainer.

Sanguine Emperor

1000 years

Blood Duke

Timeless one

500

Blood count

Blood master

Argentum

250

Blood baron

Blood magi

Ancient vampire

75

Blood knight

Blood journeyman

Elder vampire

20

Master

Blood apprentice

Ghoul lord

10

Fledgling

Blood novice

Youngling

Thralls

Normal people

Ferals, ghouls

slaves