Rōnin

Akira stood behind and beside Luna in front of a moderate group of new trainees. These were the ones he was supposed to train, and he had a good feeling about it. He saw several very muscular men and others who weren't so bulky. This was good, he had planned for differences and to train them accordingly. The bulky and muscular ones he would probably train to use the kanabo, a heavy oaken club studded with or encased in iron.

He had plans, big plans.

Big Macintosh Apple, he had defected to the Bat Clans soon after the war started, and was joined by Fluttershy and a few others. He stood in line with the other trainees, and stared at the warrior who had quickly become legend. His armor was simple and looked rather light, but no less strong for it. His helmet was fearsome, it was a metal cap with skirting plates that covered the sides of the head, but what was fearsome about it was the antlers on it. The antlers made him look bigger than he was, and it was a very intimidating factor. More intimidating still was the mask. He had on his face a mask of the same metal painted red and shaped to be a hideous scowl on a monstrous face, that coupled with the antlers would make him think twice about fighting this guy.

Big Mac let his gaze return to the princess who was addressing the trainees, at her hip was a pair of swords identical to those carried at the other warrior's hip. He didn't know if he had an extra pair or had another pair forged for her, but he just knew that they both had to be really good with them.

The first thing they did for the training was actually an assessment. They were told to jog as far as they could along a main road until they couldn't go any further. Big Mac jogged for quite a distance, his farming years having given him extensive stamina. He and the more burly men tended to go farther than most of the smaller guy because they were also mostly consisted of farmers or blacksmiths. The samurai marked something down on a piece of parchment he was holding.

The second test they had was of strength, they had four different logs that they were told to lift in order from lightest to heaviest. The smaller guys could only lift the first two logs and maybe the third every few times, only the biggest of men could lift the last log. Once all of them were through the samurai marked on his parchment again, them told them to move through to the next test.

The next test was one of flexibility. They were all told to run through a very difficult obstacle course, one that the smaller men excelled at if it could be called excelling. In truth all of them struggled, the bigger men more than the rest. Big Mac was one of the last through the course. He almost fell to his knees in exhaustion when he was through. The samurai marked on his paper again, then had them line up again in a different order.

The order was based on who did better where. Big Mac and the other more burly stallions were put together in one of four groups. They were organized by being called light, medium-light, medium-heavy and heavy. After this they were told to remember their place and dismissed. Big Mac and the others were free to return home at the end of this. So Mac began the short walk to his home.

Big Mac opened the door to his home and found that Fluttershy had already put dinner on the table. She was none too happy about him joining the army but she supported him nonetheless. Mac all but collapsed into his chair in exhaustion when he got there.

"That bad huh?" Fluttershy asks coming up behind him and wrapping her arms around him from behind, putting her head right next to his.

"Not bad Shy, just exhaustin." He says back looking at her. And he was met with a peck on the lips.

He saw a grin on her face, and met it with his own.

"Well lets just hope it gets easier from here on in." She says.

It didn't get easier. If anything it got harder. Big Mac and the other stronger stallions were given enourmous logs with handles, called kanabo. The weapons were almost as tall as they were and heavy as all he'd get out. He was told he would be fighting with it when he was done.

The guys in the medium-heavy got katana, curved swords that were identical to that the samurai carried. The people given them looked at them curiously, they weren't quite sure what to think. The medium-lights were given big polearms with curved blades at one end, naginata they were called. The lights were given bows with shorter version of the katana called the wakizashi for close combat.

Big Mac and those given the kanabo were brought to a separate room, same case for the rest except for the ones given katana. He didn't know how the others would be trained, but he knew that this would not be easy.

Day after day he would come home sore and sweaty, and over a few months he got even bulkier than he was to begin with. He was given armor to train in once he had managed to use the kanabo with relative ease, which just made it harder because the armor was quite heavy. His armor, and all those of his fellow kanabojutsu trainees, wasn't unlike that of the samurai's armor.

It was made of heavy steel plates that covered his entire body, but instead of a full helmet he was given a large mask of steel that covered his entire face instead of half. His mask looked just plain demonic, with a hideous face with enormous tusks and fangs that came from the mouth of the mask. It was called a somen, a full face mask. After that his already impressive strength was only growing, as was his flexibility, and he became a formidable warrior, just like everyone else who was under the samurai's watch.