The next morning, the recruits were woken up with rough kicks. They groaned and sat up with puffy eyes as they had barely been able to sleep the previous night.
Arianna could only yawn and rub her eyes. She and Edwin had slept around 4a.m. and it was now 6a.m., it was safe to say that they were tired.
"Get in line, soldiers," Richard said in a loud voice. "You'll take 30. Use that time to eat, pee and do whatever you want to do because the first half of training ends by noon, no excuses."
The recruits unwrapped their wrapped meat from the previous night and ate the cold meat quickly. Those who were feeling brave hurriedly gathered firewood and set a fire and warmed the meat for a bit before taking huge bites.
Arianna and Edwin were in the latter group. They finished up within twenty minutes. They made sure they were prepared for the next round of tests.
After eating, Edwin approached Richard. "Sir, there's something I've noticed."
"What is it?"
Edwin shifted a bit before replying. "When we were hunting last night, we saw huge tracks that didn't fit to any animal or human. They were large and spaced a bit far from each other."
Richard smiled. "You're afraid there's a wild beast out here?"
He nodded slowly. Richard patted his shoulder. "As for wild beasts, no but as for other humans…well, apart from mercenaries and military operatives only hunters could wander around here that late."
He however added after a moment's thought. "I'll have the area checked out after practice today."
The thirty minutes were up and everyone lined up. The area was large and the huge tree with interweaving branches provided a good shade.
Richard proceeded. "Today we won't do anything stressful. I know you're tired and hungry so the first lesson today will be to get yourselves familiar with your surroundings. Look around and make notes what you can do if you were to encounter something out here.
"In the afternoon, we'll move to sparring. You'll get five partners each for the day till tomorrow before we move to shooting practices and moving targets."
Everyone saluted him. He nodded and continued, "Each team will be a team of thirty and each will be led by one instructor just to be safe."
The group dispersed with their bags hung over their backs. They moved in different directions. Richard then went off in a separate direction after he made sure that everyone had left. He checked around the paths and the trees for signs.
He soon encountered the large tracks that Edwin had mentioned. He squatted down and observed it for a while without coming to any solid conclusion. It was like Edwin had said, it was weird. It didn't fit any animal.
Richard nodded and walked along the path following the track but after a few more metres the tracks were no more. 'It must have jumped into the thick forest and left the path.' Richard concluded.
He continued to walk around, looking for signs of the tracks. The only thing he noticed were broken branches as if something had forcefully passed through.
….
Edwin and Arianna felt that the first half of the day wasn't so bad after all. Within minutes, their tiredness had been vanquished and they were now bubbling with new strength and vigour.
Edwin had even made a joke about the fact that the deer they had hunted had some sort of magical powers which was capable of restoring a person's vitality. She only laughed it off.
They followed their team leader who, to her relief, wasn't Marco. She felt that if he was in charge of leading them through the forest then he might have as well made him follow while walking on her knees, grovelling as he called her 'short stuff' and 'beanpole'.
They spent the whole morning marking trees and making tactics on how they could use their current environment to their advantage if they were to encounter danger in a place like this. It was really fun and most of the recruits had different ideas about using their environment.
Arianna listened down the others' ideas as well and stacked them up with her own ideas. 'This might come in handy.' She thought and followed along as they returned back to the camp. When they returned, Richard and two other teams were already there. Richard motioned for them to wait for the other teams to arrive. This gave them an opportunity to gather around and discuss idly.
Richard didn't mind and continued flipping a small coin in his palm. His face was stoic but a glance at him would reveal that he was thinking about something.
Arianna would occasionally glance at him.
It took almost another hour for the other teams to emerge. They didn't look tired at all except those who only had to scavenge for crumbs from their comrades' food last night and this morning.
Richard stood up and nodded at them. "Not bad, not bad. Now that you're familiar with the place, we'll continue with the combat lessons but mostly we'll focus on the environment as well.
"Note that this is your first field training so you won't learn everything in this one week. This week is to show you the basics and get you rooted in the skills you've acquired.
"To begin, the instructors will give you a demonstration but it isn't so you can fight like us. It's to show you how we think we can use the environment to favour us. You might have a different idea which is why this training is unique."
Richard beckoned on Marco to spar with him first. Arianna's eyes sparkled as she anticipated Marco's inevitable defeat and disgrace. She clenched her fist in excitement.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Loud crashes and explosions sounded from deep in the forest and the corresponding shockwaves shook the ground like an earthquake. Richard frowned and turned around to look at the direction.
More and more explosions sounded all around them and then a buzzing sound was heard up ahead. Richard came to a realisation. He quickly grabbed his bag. "Marco, get the recruits under the canopy tree, we're under enemy fire!"
The rest tensed up and froze in place.