“Due to the differences between races, and even subdivisions within a country, there was rarely any one particular way in which people fought. Each region typically had their own leanings when it comes to tactics and stratagems, especially in the earlier days.

Around the Times of Turmoil in Alcidea, the norm for the age was to battle in formations, utilizing the might of the many, troop discipline, and camaraderie to outlast their opponents. It was during the later years of that era that some mercenary companies started popularizing the usage of small-unit tactics, in essence a miniaturized type of formation warfare, designed for greater flexibility and maneuverability.” - from a lecture by Ansen Lenos Cardigan, History professor in the Levain Institute of Higher Learning, circa 602 FP.

“I am here to convey my apology, Captain,” said Alvaro that morning when he visited Reinhardt’s tent shortly after breakfast. “We had failed to fulfill our mission as ordered.”

“What do you mean?” asked Reinhardt with some surprise. The former slave-soldier who was now one of his platoon leaders looked positively aghast, yet Reinhardt couldn’t find any flaw with the way the former warforged handled the duel the day before. They had thoroughly crushed their opposition while leaving no room for anyone to question their mettle.

“We failed to pull off a flawless win without any casualties on our side,” said Alvaro with a grave look on his face. “During the fighting, two of ours were too intoxicated by the fighting to the point that they failed to watch their steps and slipped on enemy corpses.”

“How are their conditions?” queried Reinhardt with some concern.

“Ugos sprained his ankle, and Naleva had a mild concussion as he fell backwards and his head happened to hit a discarded helmet,” replied Alvaro sincerely. “We had hoped to be able to present a perfect victory but failed due to their injuries.”

To Alvaro’s surprise, Reinhardt just laughed uproariously at his words.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” said Reinhardt as he stood up and laid a hand reassuringly at the younger man’s shoulder. “Your people did a fine job, there’s no need for such perfectionism, hahaha,” he added even while laughing some more. “It’s plenty that we lost nobody on our side and handed their side such a defeat, you all did just fine.”

“Anyway, since we’ll be training the militia from now on, I will need you and your men to participate and help training them as well,” added Reinhardt. “Think you’ll be up for the task?”

“I… am not certain, captain. Elders Bulegu and Oleas has some experience in teaching others, but most of us were juniors and had no such experience,” said Alvaro as he named the two older blademasters that had also joined the Free Lances.

“You all still remembered how you were trained, though, no?” asked Reinhardt instead, to which the younger man nodded. “Then just do that, train them accordingly. I’m having your people mostly help with training these militia in unit cohesion and discipline, since you’re all particularly good at that.”

“We will do our best, Captain.”

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

“Keep going! In the end, when push comes to shove, those who could fight longer will have the advantage in a battle! Whether you could fight longer and harder than your enemies will determine whether you live or die!” yelled Dacia even as she jogged alongside thousands of militiamen who were part of the training that day. Due to the number of people involved, the training venue was the plains outside the city, around where the group duel took place just days ago.

“Are you supposed to be youths in the prime of your life!? What a joke! I’m old enough to be your mother and you’re already panting for breath before I’m even winded!” she added in a tirade as she slowed down a bit to berate the group that was trailing in the back. “Look at that! Even the actual kids have just lapped you! Do you all have no shame to be calling yourselves adults like this!?”

Sure enough, Alycea’s group of children around ten to thirteen had just ran a lap over the slowest of the militia group. Like Erycea’s group of friends before her, Alycea’s group also intended to join the company once they were of age, and had been training daily for years on end. Even though their bodies have yet to mature, they already possess more stamina than the average adult by far.

Rather, perhaps it was part of the childish exuberance that helped them withstand the grueling training at first, and helped build their stamina at such a rapid pace despite their young age.

Most of the militia men were in their late teens to early thirties, with some from the reserved being as old as forty. The majority of them might have some stamina from the daily labor they were subjected to during work, but there was a difference between the sort of stamina such jobs needed and the sort of stamina a soldier needed on the march.

The mercenaries were training them until they were at least up to that latter standard, and seeing young children – many young enough to have been their own children – doing better than them during such training definitely incensed quite a few of the participating militiamen. Many of them who had grown tired stubbornly tried to keep going so as to not embarrass themselves before the others.

Little did they know that they were merely on the early parts of their training, and that before too long, the mercenaries would have them do the same amount of running while carrying weights. None of the militiamen noticed that under the rather puffy sleeves of the clothing worn by the children they saw, there were weights strapped to their limbs like bracelets and anklets, all as part of their training.

Naturally, it would be too troublesome to make those sorts of weights for so many militiamen, so instead, they would have to make do with logs, heavy backpacks filled with sand and stones, and other makeshift weights instead. The results would be less ideal, but the training would be roughly as effective anyway, so it was considered an acceptable solution.