Author's Note

I am sorry for how long this turned out to be. Got lost writing for a while. If you like it give it a like and comment what you like so I can keep it up for you guys. If not then feel free to give it a downvote.

Push Harder

“And what do we have here?” A loud and exaggerated hum sounded from the stallion’s throat, "Another weak willed desperate Changeling?"

"Y-Yes sir!" The insect saluted.

A loud smack resounded, the sound echoing across the silent field. Samuel could almost feel the sting.

"Did I say you could answer me worm!? And for Celestia’s sake, salute with the right arm you damnable fool!" The tall and imposing figure turned to his entourage of marshals and captains, "The nerve of this is not to be overlooked! Anymore of these mistakes and I will punish all of you. Am I clear!?"

A terrified chorus of yes sirs was shouted in unison.

His glowering eyes ripped into his staff like daggers, "Good, I want no more of this, now let’s continue."

The sad bastard who'd been hit, to her credit, didn't make a sound. Tears streamed down her face over the now cracked chitin shell but she kept her posture straight, chin up and eyes forward.

With slow and deliberate marauding steps down the line the general of the Equestrian Foreign Legion continued tormenting his underlings.

"A minotaur I see." Andrik kept silent as he had been instructed, "Not many of you join, so why have you? Not that it matters I suppose, you're quite big for one of your kind." The high ranking officer reached out and gave the bovine's exposed muscular bicep an invasive squeeze, "You’ll be useful in battle, I can feel it. Now please, show me you can salute correctly unlike your comrade."

The minotaur wordlessly obeyed, he gave a full proper salute, his legs clamping and heavy fist slamming into the bronze colored breastplate upon his chest. The boom of the metal was impressive.

His observer gave a small and conceited smile, "Well done, I look forward to seeing you on the field.”

He made a point to again look back to his fellows, “This one can salute correctly, if the rest of them can’t do it this well by next inspection replacements to your positions will have to be made.”

They nodded solemnly at his thinly veiled threat.

It had been almost an hour since the general began his "inspection", as expected it was nothing more than an intense unnecessary hazing process for soldier and officer alike. The general, who Samuel was certain was a wealthy noble that had bought his way into the position, was a middle aged pony.

His fur was chalk white and short cut mane a deep grey. He wore armor similar to what the rest of them had been issued only well fitted and embroidered with gold along all the edges and muscle indentations.

The noble, as Samuel had noticed, seemed to be more concerned with the the appearance of his men than anything else. As he marched up and down the lines he made a point to tell troops to freshen up better, others to cut their hair or shave their beards, he even asked a few why they had even joined if they were unable to look good for inspection.

Seeing how well he groomed himself and how loftily he acted the young man suspected the general fancied himself a master chess player. One that needed his pieces to be uniform perfect just like him.

Any mistakes made in answering questions, saluting or even standing the right way by the nerve wracked solders were punished without mercy. Ruthlessly he would slap, kick and punch anyone who had the gall to falter in any way. A few even made him so enraged when they tried to explain themselves or talk back that he unsheathed his short sword and hit them with the flat side of it.

The sadistic son of a bitch even had one of the troops, who kept attempting to stutter out an apology with every mistake, taken away to be locked up in the fort’s hold for the rest of the day. Somehow that was going to help him understand how to behave the right way in the presence of an officer.

The knowledge that this was to be his commander for the next four years gave Samuel a queasy stomach. He could only imagine how bad it would be if they actually went to battle under this guy.

At least two hundred recruits had arrived the same day as Sam's group, all in different sized sets. Lots of different types of peoples had coalesced here, gryphons, zebras, changelings, crystal ponies and even a few yaks.

Alongside all of this multiple cartloads of low level pony criminals had been dropped off too, choosing to serve their court sentences here rather than in some dark dungeon. Which one was the better choice though that was a definite debate to have.

Altogether the six rank deep formation of would be warriors was one of the most diverse and patchwork groups he had yet seen in Equestria. Hell, some of the foreigners could barely speak Equestrian all that well, but they sure as shit knew not to mess around right now even if they couldn’t understand what exactly was going on.

Because he was so busy torturing the crowd it took the general a full half an hour after interacting with Andrik to near Samuel's position in the ranks.

He stood in the fifth row back, towards the right end of the line. Gwindor steadily waited at ease to his left and to his right a tall lanky zebra stallion who looked, understandably, more scared than a fly in a spiders web, shook in fear.

The closer their commanding officer came the more the zebra panicked. His posture, beginning to falter, drew Samuel’s attention.

For a moment he watched, then the sod even began to quietly hyperventilate. Feeling an unfortunate bout of compassion, he hoarsely whispered, “Hey, it’s okay, we’re all in this together. Just gotta do what the sergeant said and you’ll be fine.”

The zebra looked startled for a second, then sending a side eyed glance over towards the hairless ape, he confirmed that it had been talking to him. A small shaky nod was given to show understanding of the human’s words.

Deep breaths came from his mouth as he slowly calmed himself, forcefully holding his arms at his sides and keeping his back straight he managed to pull himself back into an almost proper stance. It wasn’t great but far better than the degenerating situation he was in just before.

The striped equine managed to come together in time for the general to reach Gwindor down the line.

“Another gryphon? So many of you joined up, I suppose the warmonger reputation must be true.” He rapped his knuckle on the bird’s helmet, “Can’t help joining an army no matter where you are eh?” Not having been looked in the eyes when he was asked the question Gwindor didn’t respond.

“Now, since I’m certain you’re dying to ask, if we take a city or win a battle I’ll have no indecency. I’m not like some of the barbaric commanders famous in your homeland, no looting, pillaging or raping is to take place at all.” He gave a small chuckle, “Of course, by the time we’re done making you battle worthy you’ll be to busy fighting and dying for anything like that to happen.”

His demeanor sporadically changed back to the harsh disciplinarian when the gryphon remained resolute, “Give me a salute.”

The raptor complied immediately, his salute was prompt and adequate so the general, seemingly satisfied, payed him no more mind.

Another couple steps forward and he stood before Samuel.

His eyes narrowed and head twisted, “What in the Tartarus damned hell are you? Never seen anything like you before, like some kind of monkey.”

He had looked down right into the boys eyes, “A human sir.”

The interrogation continued as he raised an eyebrow, “A what? Hu-man did you say?” He shook his head, “Never even heard of anything like you.”

He gave an exaggerated look up and down, “Can’t say your making a good first impression for your kind though human. Skinny, short, raggedy.” He reached and grabbed hold of Sam’s chin, pulling his face from side to side the General continued, “You’ll have to cut the long hair and shave this filthy beard.”

A sigh came from him, “So what is your name then?”

“Samuel sir.”

“And what are you good for Samuel?”

“History sir, military history specifically. My own people’s of course.”

“Hmm, why would something like you join my army then?”

“My expertise isn’t much good for making a normal living in Equestria and since I’m not much good at anything else I joined up.”

The stallions eyes narrowed, “So you’re completely useless at everything important and decided to mooch off of our good graces here to make some money? That’s what your saying?”

The human kept his eyes forward and mouth shut, he silently resigned himself to his fate.

“You selfish fuck!” The generals arm exploded from his side and the tightly clenched armored fist it carried slammed into Sam’s stomach with a heavy thud. The young man gave a wheeze and fell forward.

With the wind knocked out of him he barely managed to land on his knees, his mouth gaped as he gasped rapidly struggling to pull in oxygen.

Gwindor watched with horror, two rows forward Andrik smiled smugly.

The white stallion, standing over the struggling boy, roughly grabbed hold of Samuel’s hair and lifted his head up, “You join the army in such a sorry state and expect us to just accept and fix you?! Why?! How are you going do in battle if we suddenly had to march off to fight, how are the people standing next to you going to know they can depend on you?!”

With a frustrated shout he ripped a handful of red hair out, “Fuck, at least have the strength to get back in line maggot!”

Wheezing and struggling Samuel fought the pain as best he could, slowly he shakily rose upwards working to follow his orders. Still doubled over he got to his feet and took a few tentative steps backwards, involuntary tears fell off his face onto the ground.

The general continued shouting as he watched, “Now I don’t care who or what you are, but if by my last inspection you still happen to be so weak, I’ll throw you out of the gates to fend for yourself with my own bare hands!”

Samuel nodded, the air, slowly coming back to him, allowed the boy to push out a final, “Yes sir.” And in a tremendous display of willpower pushed his upper body up to give a salute.

His legs came together and his fist made a strong heavy sound on the chest plate.

This gave the general pause, for a moment he eyed the stance, the sudden change was unexpected. He harrumphed, shook his head disapprovingly and resumed his forward march to the next one in line.

~

There were a few mess halls in the fort, after all one wasn't enough to feed the maximum capacity of thirty thousand troops. They were fairly well thought out buildings with two big entrances, one was for meat eating troops to line up and the other where herbivores formed up.

Everyone got the same looking greyish brown slop though, one had meat chunks mixed in and the other had vegetable chunks. It was quite similar to the slop eaten on the march here and as Sam had noted the only thing making it better was the much more filling portions.

The only rules of the mess halls were to keep your head down, conversation quiet and once you chose a place to sit you were there till you were done. Any breaking of the rules and you were presumed done with your food, if this happened you got sent outside and your food was taken while you waited until everyone else had finished.

Not particularly lenient but at least you could talk.

After the terrible event that the inspection was the sergeant, who finally introduced himself as Hammer, had brought them over to get some food. Thankfully he had taken it easy on them so far, toning down the insults and threats, it was going to come back as soon as the meals were over but in the very least he seemed to understand the troops better than the general did.

Samuel was sitting at a table near the back of the mess hall, of course his friend sat across from him and they talked quietly as they ate.

“That son of a bitch hitting you like that, couldn’t hit someone his own size so he took it all out on you.” He growled quietly, “How are you feeling dude? Your head okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” He took a spoonful of the chunky meal in, “It’s just some hair, there was a bit of stinging and it was over.”

Gwindor shook his head, “Maybe it’s not so bad now but gods damn I wanted to break his fucking nose Sam.”

The human gave a quiet chuckle, “Look my friend, I was close to losing it myself, but I would have had the shit kicked out of me if I’d hit him back and then I’d have been kicked out without a cent to my name.” He smiled, “I appreciate how much you actually give a shit, but in this case it’s better to let the guy have his power trip.”

A sigh came from his beak, “Your right, no arguments from me as per fucking usual, just wish it hadn’t of gone down like that ya know.”

“I do, trust me, better than anyone else I think.”

They shared a small laugh.

“Yeah, well anyway, at least it’s over.” He took a gulp of water to wash down the bland taste of the food, “You know I gotta admit though, some of his questions about you were ones I had too.”

Samuel raised an eyebrow, “You know you can ask me whatever you want, I know I’m not exactly an open book but I don’t mind talking about some things as long as you don’t ask like he did.”

“You really don’t mind? I’d just figured you might not want to talk about certain things, after all you did join this, uh...” The annoyed deadpan look he received made him stop, “Right, should’ve of figured you weren’t exactly sensitive to begin with.”

Samuel snorted, “Anyway, if you want to know something, ask. If there’s something I don’t wanna talk about I’ll let you know.”

He nodded, “Right, well, I know what you are but I’m still kinda unsure about where you’re from?”

“Where I’m from?” He grinned, “A different planet and possibly plane of existence.”

The gryphon cocked his head, “Huh?”

Samuel smiled, he knew this was a ridiculous story, “So a little over two years ago I was coming home from work then poof, everything goes blue and I pass out.”

He shrugged, “No idea why and nobody else here seems to have an answer for me. Anyway I woke up just outside of a small village near Los Pegasus, got found wandering aimlessly, brought to the local authorities and the princesses were brought in.”

His friend narrowed his eyes suspiciously, “Luna and Celestia, the demigod monarachs of Equestria, personally came?”

He nodded, “I only actually saw them for maybe a few minutes, they and some special higher ups checked me out to make sure I wasn’t a danger. When they decided I wasn’t they got a teacher for me as well as kept me under observation and over time I learned to speak the language as well as understand the culture of the kingdom.”

He smiled, “Not much more to it, the bureaucrats I was placed under let me go once they thought I could acclimate to society and gave me a startup loan.”

“The rest of the story and the reason I’m here you heard when the general asked.”

Gwindor’s beak twisted and his eyes turned down, “I’m not sure I can believe all that.”

“That’s fine.” Sam laughed, “Nobody since it happened has believed me.”

The gryphon shook his head with a smile, “Heh, well, alright.” He dropped his spoon down into the empty wooden bowl beneath, “So since yo-“

He was cut short by a new figure joining them at the table, the pair looked over to watch as the zebra who had been in line next to Sam. The pair stared as he set down the bowl of food and cup of water.

Plopping himself next to Gwindor he gave a slow little wave with his hand and a sheepish smile.

“You need something?” The bird eyed him piercingly.

He averted his gaze from the intensity of the gryphon over to Sam, who looked puzzled rather than murderous, “I, just wanted t-to say thank you.”

“Ah, yeah.” Sam waved with his hand, “No need to be so hard on him.” He looked to the zebra, “Your welcome friend, no need to worry about it.”

“N-No it is important, you uh, took a hard beating back there but you helped to stop me from getting the same thing.” He looked down, “I just, have no real way to pay you back for that.”

“Well you’re welcome and there’s no need to, it’s nice to meet you...” He leaned over and held out his hand, which the zebra took.

“Chakris.”

“Chakris, haven’t heard a name like that before, I’m Samuel.”

Gwindor watched with confusion as they went back to eating, “Wait a minute, who is this?”

Sam explained it all as they ate the rest of their meal, soon enough it was over and the slog of military life resumed.

~

“Okay, let’s get some things explained before this whole three month cycle of pain starts for you new pieces of meat.” Sergeant Hammer stood before the company of recruits, all of whom sat cross legged on a patch of grass.

“When we’re training you’ll be in full armor with your swords in their sheaths and shields on your backs. You won’t be wearing your packs with any normal training, after all you’re never going to actually fight with them on. Only time we train with them is when we march.”

He squinted, “This means I expect the gear we use to be cleaned and oiled every night, maintenance of your equipment is important, especially in the field. We will cover how to do that before down time tonight.”

The stallion paced back and forth, his head on a swivel and eyes focused on them, “Another point, battle ready gear as opposed to dress gear isn’t quite that regulated. The armor and weapons you have now can be used for both battle or dress but must be used for official events that require them to be worn, like parades.”

“If you so choose though, in your free time you can commission weapons and armor for battle from our smiths in whatever style or design you like. As long as you can still fulfill the role of whatever unit your assigned to in battle not a single one of the higher ups will care. If you can’t however you won’t be allowed to use it.”

“Now before anyone asks what unit you’ll be a part of, infantry or skirmisher, that will be decided soon. Formations, making camp, constructing fortifications and such will be drilled after thats all figured out.”

“Finally, be prepared for sitting at a desk because all of you will go through some basic traditional military school classes, when that will start I don’t know, it’s not my area.”

“Those that do well in these classes may just be plucked up and made a sergeant like me. I doubt any of you will, but it’s possible.”

He stopped walking and a devilish smile overtook his face, “So, now that bullshit is all out of the way, we can finally begin”

~

The first bout of training for the group was rough, they were to run an obstacle course with the objective of making it through in fifteen minutes or less. The troops would all continue doing it until every single one of them made it through in the time limit or they had been at it for three hours, which meant they would probably be at this for weeks.

The course started out with a field of mud, over which was laid a layer of sharp wire held up barely two feet off the ground. They had to crawl under it on hands and knees, much to the disgust of many.

There was no room underneath for any of them to get their bellies off the ground and the more claustrophobic of the bunch managed to cut themselves up in a panic. By the time those that got through were out, they had mud all over themselves, hair, mouth, ears, everywhere was touched by the wet dirt.

Andrik was the first one out, his strength and endurance negating the effects of the mud on him and earning praise from the sergeant for his feat. The bull made a point to grab the struggling Samuel’s attention and shout obscenities, Hammer had to remind him to move on.

Samuel couldn’t help but feel more than a little annoyed by this seemingly unjustified antagonism.

Sam and his friends barely made it, the human didn’t do so well, taking more than five minutes to get through and choking down more mud than anyone ever should. The gryphon fared better, his feathers stuck to his body but he pushed through.

Chakris though, he freaked out and managed to cut his hands up before Gwindor grabbed him by the wrist and simply dragged him along.

The next objective was to run a half mile, covered in mud mind you, all the way to a twelve foot tall structure. At the top of said structure was a long thin platform, beneath which dangled a series of ropes. The recruits needed to climb all the way to the top, then climb back down on a second set of ropes on the other side.

By the time the huffing and puffing trio reached it the minotaur was already climbing down. They and the others trickling in beside them struggled, their arms strained and shook with each pull upwards.

The zebra fell only once, from about halfway up, his arms giving out on him. His second attempt was slower but he made it. The raptor, being in better shape than his friends climbed up relatively well, it was a struggle but not a difficult trial by any means.

In the first two minutes, Samuel fell down at least six times. With frustration turning to anger he squared his shoulders and grabbed hold.

With his emotions driving him onwards he climbed, each shaking arm pulling him up further and further. He was nearly at the top when he let out a yell, his grip failed him and he once again flew through the air to thud on his back...

And so the day continued, with all the comrades restarting after every fifteen minutes. Samuel and some of the others got stuck at the second obstacle every time.

By the end of the three hours all the soldiers were in pain, their chests were sore, shoulders dead and a terrible fatigue held sway over them.

Only Andrik and a scary looking female gryphon made it to the end of the course.

It had already been a long day when the sergeant revealed they were moving on to practice long distance marching.

~

“Alright, now these classes have two objectives. Number one is to teach you all basic tactics, flow of battle and to give you a general idea of how the standard conflict might go.”

The professor, a blue furred older mare with glasses, a scar across her forehead and a grey mane done up in a bun continued, “Number two is to test and see which of you have potential for leadership, if any of you meet the requirements or show astounding promise, you’ll be made a sergeant at arms.”

She sighed, “Not that any of you should get your hopes up for it, it’s a small chance no matter what. Usually we don’t offer raising from the ranks but since the war in the north took such a heavy toll we need more low level officers again.”

The mare walked over to the chalkboard at the front of the room, from their tables they watched as she wrote out her name across it and the date beneath, March first two hundred sixty three SLR. Beneath that the subject of the day, the legion’s organization and chain of command.

Despite how boring it sounded this was a much more welcome activity than the past week’s training gauntlet.

Every Saturday classes were to be held for Samuel and his batch, other groups of recruits went on separate days so that they all got these classes without too much administrative scrambling. From nine o’clock to two o’clock they would learn from a teacher who had once been an officer in the legion and presumably seen action.

What they all looked forward to though was after class, when done the rest of the day was free to the soldiers. It was recommended they use the time to study or train more but there wasn’t anything telling them they couldn’t just sleep the duration of that free time.

The group welcomed this change of pace even if it was only for a single day out of the week.

Today’s class wasn’t exactly invigorating, mostly just how the ranks worked, who listened to who, why it was set up that way. Only a few payed real attention and one of those few was Samuel. After all having had an interest in historical militaries back on earth this wasn’t all too unfamiliar to him.

He followed quite well in fact and as the class neared it’s end, when she gave a summary of what they had covered in detail, he already had it down.

“Okay, so just to make sure I’ve covered all the main points in this lesson let’s review before you go." She stood up from her desk, grabbed a wooden pointer and tapped the diagram on the chalkboard.

"The lowest level of the chain here is what you’ll all become in a few months time, a soldier. These are the standard troops that do most of the work. Fighting, constructing defenses, setting up camps and whatever else that needs to be done. At our full strength we are allowed to field around twenty eight thousand of them. Is that all correct?”

Nods and yes ma’am’s confirmed it.

Her pointer moved up, “The next rank up we have sergeant at arms, they handle the training of recruits, logistics of those under their command and in the field they lead around twenty troops each. They ensure orders are followed and work to meet whatever commands the unit is given. At full strength we have fifteen hundred of them.”

She eyed the classroom and ensured they were still paying attention.

“Next you have lieutenants, they number a hundred and fifty at our full strength. They are the ones responsible for the sergeants with each one being given the charge of ten of them. The duties they have are as follows, relaying commands from captains, keeping the front line formation organized and shepherding the units in the right direction.”

More yes ma’am’s signaled her to continue.

“Finally you have captains." The board rattled as she tapped, "Top of the enlisted troops achievable rank. They take orders from the marshals and pass them down then make sure they are followed. They also work on keeping up morale during battle, correcting mistakes made by other officers beneath them and in keeping command informed of deserters or fleeing troops. Ten of them are assigned to each flank in any battle meaning there can only be thirty altogether.”

She set the stick down in the slot at the bottom of the board and turned to the students, “Last of all you have the three marshals who oversee the deployment and overall movement of a flank in any given battle, they are also the officers to which all captains report and receive orders from. These ranks are held by whoever the general assigns them to, they report only to him and take orders only from him.

She talked as she walked towards her desk, "The general himself, is somebody that the princesses personally assign and is basically impossible for any of us to ever hope to reach no matter how good we are.”

She let out a heavy breath, “That’s all I think you guys need to know from today, it’s a lot, so I suggest you take the papers I gave you and study them as much as you can. Next meeting we’ll open with a short test to see what you remember then review it again before our next lesson starts.”

She sat down and cleared her throat, “Any questions?”

A resounding no shook the classroom, they had enough information for the day and were ready to get to their free time. She smiled to herself as they all scrambled to leave, the door didn’t even get a chance to swing as they swarmed out. Memories of her first year here surfaced as she kicked her legs up on the desk, the excitement of free time and the illusion of relaxation. It was always nice to see that things hadn't changed that much after so long.

Closing her eyes she leaned back for a moment, only to reopen them and see the odd creature who had been in the class standing before her desk.

She gave a polite smile, “Is there anything I can help you with?”

He nodded, “Yeah, I had a question actually, if you don’t mind.”

The mare shrugged, “Sure, go ahead, it’s why I’m here.”

“Right, well I was wondering, if the general is the one who picks his marshals, can he pick anyone at all or are there rules?”

Twisting her mouth she answered, “Well I suppose so, though it’s somewhat taboo to not choose a pony with military experience there’s no actual rules in place saying whoever is in charge couldn’t just grab some pony and make them a marshal.”

Samuel pursed his lips and looked to the side, thought crossing his face, “Interesting, well thank you ma’am.”

“Of course, though you better not be getting any grand ideas from this news.”

He shook his head, “I don’t plan to, I’m not all that ambitious, just curious.” He paused for a moment, “After all I doubt anyone who’s not a family member or someone with money gets that rank anyway.”

“Ah, so you really do get it.” She gave a half smile.

He nodded with a small smile of his own, “Not so different from old armies back home. Say would you happen to know if there was a way for me to get some books here?”

“Books?” She cocked her head.

“Like books on history or maybe geography, I’m interested in all that and, well, I want to learn what I can in my free time rather than sit around bored.” He scratched the back of his head, it embarrassed him to admit how much of a geek he was out loud.

The mare was somewhat surprised, “I can help you with that, that’s the first time anything like that has been requested though, just caught me off guard.” She brought down her legs with a grunt and opened a drawer, pulling out a pen with a piece of paper she began to write, “We have a small library past the second set of walls, you should be able to find it easily, it’s on the ocean facing side of the fort.”

Handing Samuel the paper she set the pen down and gave a last smile, “This’ll get you past the gates, when you find the library hand it to the librarian, he’s an old friend of mine. Tell him what you want and he can help you.”

They said their goodbyes and off went one of the weirdest troops she’d encountered in a long time, who asks for books on a day off?

~

The library wasn’t that big, with just enough room to store a few thousand books it contained a rather small collection all things considered. Though once the knowledge that it was only really here for the officers, the normal soldiers not being expected to spend much time reading, it made some sense.

The caretaker here was an old crystal pony, much older than the professor, but he remembered her and because she requested it, allowed Samuel in.

They spent a while discussing what exactly the boy wanted but eventually came to agree on a small bundle of selected books. Histories of the Equestrian Kingdom, Gryphon Kingdom, Zebrican tribes, petty Yak kingdoms and more. Even a book of the most up to date maps, with geographical details and political borders was included.

With the agreement that any damages to or loss of the tomes would be taken from his pay Samuel gave his thanks and left. He went on to spend the rest of the day in the barracks reading as the rest of his fellows lounged happily enjoying the rarity of rest.

~

This was the sixth time so far they had been set to work on overcoming the obstacle course, once again it was like being put through hell. The acidic salty ocean air, moist morning fog and constant pressure from the Sergeant made it almost unbearable this particular morning.

Nevertheless they began.

They started out quickly crawling underneath the wire as fast as they could, mud splattering them all. All of them had gotten better at it over these past two weeks but still it took a sizable amount of effort to pull through.

Chakris performed well this time, his claustrophobia having been beaten down by force. Doing this over and over again helped and it showed. His skinny form slinking it’s way through the mud with haste proved that he no longer needed a helping hand.

Samuel had improved too, Gwindor noticed his speed and determination growing with each passing attempt. Now the human kept up with the gryphon most of the way, spearing through and disregarding the mud he doggedly pulled himself along.

By the time the bird had gotten passed the wire Samuel had even overtaken him and was already hopping to his feet. Gwindor watched from the ground impressed as his friend didn’t even stop to breath, he shot into a run as soon as his feet were on the ground and at a breakneck speed.

That was when the raptor saw, ahead of Sam was Andrik. Now he got it and the situation surprised him, the human was actually competing with the brute this time. Something that hadn’t yet happened.

The two had built this rival like attitude towards one another over the past weeks, stemming from something insignificant that happened before the training ever started. The other recruits noticed it too, but most just figured that eventually the bull would kick Samuel down without much of a fight. Gwindor felt the same too as much as he didn’t like it.

However it looked like now Samuel was actually starting to push back, there might really be some kind of substantial rivalry now and no matter how it turned out the gryphon liked that.

Samuel, to the others surprise, was quite fast on his feet. Even faster than Andrik when going all out and now that his body had acclimated to running daily he was able to show off how fast his form could move consistently.

He ran with determination, his breathing steady and paced. Before long the human was almost caught up with his foe and as he neared the bovine made a move to stop him.

His elbow suddenly shot out and his armored forearm cracked loudly against Sam’s helmet. The blow was hard and the boy was immediately thrown backwards, the minotaur kept running as his human enemy landed on the ground with a metallic clatter.

A deep laugh sounded.

Samuel groaned, the throbbing in his head made his vision double. He fought to sit back up and as he did so his head head seemed to spin back and forth. It took a moment but as his vision came back to normal he saw the bastard up ahead climbing already.

A surge of anger shot through his body and with a shout he threw off his helmet and leapt upwards. Forward he charged with his full strength put into every step, his face contorted in rage and others around him couldn’t help but feel trepidation at the sight.

When he reached the ropes he didn’t stop, beside the others who had run by him in his stupor he climbed. Andrik was already down the other side now but it didn’t matter.

He grunted with each pull, his arms through sheer force of will held strong. Even Hammer who had been watching Andrik’s impressive run turned to watch when he noticed.

With another yell the young man grabbed the edge of the platform and in one power filled pull hoisted himself up to the top.

The first time he had ever made it.

Wasting no time in enjoying the personal victory he moved to the other edge, dropped to a knee and went to grab the nearest rope.

Inexplicably he stopped dead, his face slowly changing as though suddenly in deep thought.

The sergeant raised an eyebrow.

Slowly Sam turned to look over his shoulder, back below many of his fellows still struggled trying to climb. Making his decision he stood back up, went to the front side and knelt down again.

To the surprise of the others climbing upwards his dangling hand seized the closest climber, he gave her a pull and worked to raise her up. When she made it up over the edge and to the platform proper he shouted, “Come on then, you’re this far already now get back down and keep running, let’s finish this shit!”

“Yes Sir!” The mare shouted instinctively before moving on.

And so he continued, with all his strength he pulled as many as he could up. The recruits he helped were all surprised, yet despite the confusion at his actions they all gave their thanks as they continued down the other side.

When the time limit on the trial ended he had helped more than half the group pass over to the other side. More than had ever made it before.

The other trainees started looking at the young man a little differently. He received pats on the back and some of the others even started helping him on further attempts in the course just as he did them when he needed it.

The whole time the interested gaze of the sergeant lay on him, his focus on Andrik lost at the sight of the earlier scene. Every movement, word and action was watched and analyzed.

So too did the minotaur look and watch, furious eyes boring holes into Samuel. Once again his performance was upstaged by the smaller figure and his pride as a minotaur had been damaged...