Adi smirked and his mind drifted to deep sleep as there were tons of work left for him tomorrow. Training his men, deploying modules and making new plans. The next day is going to be a exhausting again.
The next day, Adi woke up before sunrise and quickly freshened up. Today was going to be a long one, with many tasks in hand, training being the first. He had gotten his hands on the way to train soldiers yesterday and now he will implement it.
After getting ready, he made his way towards the courtyard where his future soldiers were waiting. Adi came to the courtyard and saw his men already standing in positions. Seeing him coming, all men greeted him together,
"Good Morning Your Majesty My King."
He nodded smilingly towards Pratap and the four company commanders and greeted, "Good Morning Pratap. Good morning to all of you as well."
He then sized them up with a serious look on his face. The previous smile vanished like it was never existed. He looked in each of the men's eye and they couldn't help but become restless under his gaze. Most of them couldn't stand it at lowered their eyes in defeat.
Adi's goal was not to defeat them or belittle them. He wanted them to become the best in business so he sized them up so as to know about their personalities a bit. His aim was to increase their confidence, to fire them up so much that they become the best shields for the people of Rai and a nightmare for their enemies.
After carefully sizing them up he startled them with a loud voice. "My Knights, from now on there will be no need of any Knights in Rai."
All the knights standing their paled in fright as they thought that they had somehow angered the King and they will be thrown out of the empire. As they were given to him by the King of Kalinga, they would not be recruited by any other noble.
Although there was nothing much in this land, and the situation was not promising enough they subconsciously were confident because of their King. He had an air around him which could make people believe in him with zero doubts.
Now, hearing his words, they were afraid of getting kicked out. Only Pratap was not frightened by Adi's words as he had already known the departure of Knight system and arrival of Army system.
Adi registered their reactions, then continued in a loud voice and went louder and then ultimately roaring,
"From today you will not fight with just swords and arrows and spears, but also with more advanced weapons like guns, grenades and cannons.
From today, you will no longer just fight on a horse back, but on armored vehicle.
From today, you will not win wars based on the number advantage, but based on weapons and technologies.
From today, you will not be training as a Knight, but as a soldier.
From today, you will not fight one at a time, but as a group as brothers in arms.
From today, you will not be the most sloppiest knights whom no one respects, but the best war machines who will instill fear in hearts of the enemy with just their presence.
From today there will be no Knights in Rai, but we will now have our Army.
From today you all will no longer be knights, but the soldiers in the army, My Army.
From today, you will not follow what you were taught, but only follow what I say.
From today, my commands will be the only commands you will follow.
We will show the world how to fight wars.
We will show them consequences of belittling and banishing us.
We will show them that only having strength does not matters but having persistence does.
Will you follow me to show the world what you are made of?"
Adi's words shook each and every person to their souls. Even Pratap was swept by the overwhelming statements. Everything Adi said resonated deeply with something within their hearts.
They were labelled as a trash and thrown at a God forsaken corner along with their King. Everyone only belittled them and nobody ever believed in them. Adi was the first person who did not shunned them.
Now, his words and claims were something which would have been treated as ramblings of some mad men but not them. For them, it was igniting a spark of hope. He was the beacon of hope.
A hope to get back at the world. A hope to become the best war machines which the enemy would fear. A hope to become the nightmare of people targeting their King. A hope for salvation from the past.
As Adi said, from today they would follow everything he said.
The men, including Pratap, loudly replied with their eyes wet, in unison, "We will follow you My King"
Adi shook his head and maintained the roaring voice, "I didn't hear you. I asked you all a question. Answer me."
"We will follow you My King", this time in an even louder voice such that the whole palace heard them but Adi was still not satisfied.
He roared in an even higher volume, "I didn't hear you. AGAIN."
"WE WILL FOLLOW YOU MY KING!"
This time they were so loud that their voice not only echoed in the palace but even the whole village could hear them.
Adi then broke his stone cold expression and a devilish smile crept on his face, "And now you are ready for training."
His smile scared the shit out of his men and Pratap too broke out in a cold sweat. He commanded the men, "First, we will jog to the city walls and back here twice then we will start with stretching our body. Then we will do interval running, which means we will alternate between sprinting, running and jogging.
After that we will do other exercises. Remember to stay with your company. Commanders take note of your team. Let's get going."
Then, under the lead of Adi, all 1000 soldiers jogged out of the palace courtyard. The villagers were already out on streets and were amazed by the sight.
Adi was in the front and Pratap just behind him. After that Jack, Sean, Uday & Ajit followed them with their respective companies. The four Lt. Colonels jogged in a straight line, and their men after them.
After they completed jogging, Adi made them stretch to complete the warm-up. After it was done, Adi proceeded with the interval running. It was difficult for many of them. After completing it, everyone was covered in sweat and most men were already panting.
Adi smirked as he saw it but quickly hid his expression. Then he made them do push-ups, sit-ups, chin-ups, squats, planks, lunges, crunches and many more. At the end of the two hour long training, the men felt that their bodies do not belong to them anymore. They were numb.
They now understood why Adi gave that devilish smile, and they shivered up again at the thought of it. It would probably be their nightmare for some time.
They turned to see Adi's condition and were left speechless. He was only covered with sweat with no other signs of panting or numbness. They were very impressed by him.
Adi noticed from the corner of his eyes that the soldiers were looking at him. He was so impressed by his mind that he wanted to pat himself on the back.
Actually, he did not had such fitness before. He was weakened when he woke and then got a strength booster from system. Today morning he had taken the wise decision of convincing system to increase his stamina and agility.
After he woke up :-
He had said, "System i have a complain. Where do I file it?"
System asked back, "What complain does Host has? Let me know and the system will address to it."
Adi complained, "System, you provided strength to my body after I woke up but you did not finish that task. My stamina is next to zero and my agility is the same. Without them, how can my body be good enough to complete the missions? Today, I have to accompany the soldiers in their training to lead them from the front. If I don't, then it will set a bad example. And if I do, I am sure that even before finishing the jog, I will pass out. So, you have to make it right by compensating with stamina and agility."
System heard his complain seriously and replied, "Host, i know what you are trying to do. I can give you an agility and a stamina package but it will cost 50 points. No bargaining allowed."
Adi humphed in his mind and thought, 'System has become more cunning. It knew what I needed urgently so it put up a price which is not too much nor too less.'
"Okay. I will buy them", Adi said in defeat and there was again the usual chime of system.
System : "50 points are being deducted for purchase."
"DING"
"Congratulations for Purchasing Stamina and Agility Package."
"Congratulations Host for getting all the three aspects upgraded. Host can now be seen as super human among others."
Adi rolled his eyes on the last remarks given by system but he was happy from the previous one. Having no competition means when others will be dead tired, he might be just getting warmed up.
He laughed in delight about thinking what happened in the morning and also gave himself a thumbs up for becoming a role model in front of his soldiers. He then dismissed his men,
"All of you are dismissed. You will be given one hour to complete you breakfast and it will not be served any later. After two hours, I need all of you ready and we will go to continue yesterday's work. Go."
The soldiers quickly dismissed themselves and went to get their breakfast in a hurry as they were famished.
On the other side, Adi stopped Pratap and informed him about the biggest thing in their life, "General Pratap, I want you to call Kali, Kaif and Shane to the palace after having breakfast. I have important matters to discuss. Its a matter of life and death."