The syllabus for the sophomores emphasized on bi-weekly joint training sessions among the squads. This was to test team cohesion and adaption. Fighting in the frontlines needed these two skills to be effective when larger platoons were formed.

  Avryn’s squad paired up with one of the lower ranking squads. It was their usual training sessions. They simulated a Corpse elimination mission up in the training rooms. Avryn and Valoche were busy holding off against packs of mutts. Tvira and Rinna were swarmed with Corpse birds. The other squad were having trouble keeping up.

  “Uh guys, we could use some help here,” Avryn exclaimed.

  They bungled around and finally organized a counteroffensive. It was late, but better than never. They were sloppy with finishing off the Corpses. They were, the four of them, all tired. The battle calmed down as the last of the Corpses in this leg were slain.

  “You alright or something?” Avryn turned to the other squad’s leader.

  “We’re just not as good as you guys,” the leader frowned.

  Rinna was silent, but her glare told another story. She let them go for now. They continued to the next leg. Rabid Corpse deers were particularly hostile in this simulation. Tvira and Valoche’s aim were impeccable. Valoche’s battle axe cleaved through the deers as arrow after arrow soon came after, hitting their marks.

  Soon enough, the bodies piled up. Avryn’s squad had finished warming up it seems, while the other squad were almost dead tired.

  “We’re not at the halfway mark just yet, suppose we should rest for the sake of our, uh, friends,” Valoche suggested.

  The two leaders agreed and set up camp.

  “I’ll go scout the next area,” Rinna left.

  Avryn sat on a log,

  “So, you good?”

  “We’re just not as good as we thought we’d be at,” the leader was ashamed.

  The other three barely spoke. They were all slumped. Their body language screamed to be anywhere else. Their morale was dwindling. Avryn leaned back, thinking of a good response. A gunshot was heard. More fighting was coming. Avryn rallied the charge.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Four packs of Corpse wolves led by two Alpha Direwolves were ravenous for blood. They surrounded the seven. Rinna rejoined the fray just in time. Avryn gave her a look. He believed she did that on purpose but more pressing matters were afoot.

  “Me and Val can take on the direwolves. The rest of you take care of the rest and make sure we don’t get surrounded,” he thought up.

  Avryn had reached the point of familiarity with the creatures. He deftly dodged its attacks while his counters and parries hit their mark. Valoche was the same, but in a more brutish way. He tanked through its hits while his axe’s bite was ravenous as the wolves themselves.

  The other squad finally found their cohesion and fended off their share of the wolf pack. Tvira and Rinna made light work for their parts. The former already read the latter’s gaze. They went into autopilot mode, firing off shots from afar while saving their energy. The shots came close to the other squad’s members but all hit the wolves.

  Corpses littered the gray battlefield as each cried as they were put down on the ground. Eventually, there were no more of their sounds. The shifting of the winds became the only sound left.

  “This is gonna be a long one, huh?” Avryn rested his gunblade on his shoulder.

  A couple of the other squad’s members were wounded. Valoche offered his healing crystals to them.

  “Maybe fighting’s not your forte--”

  “Clearly,” Tvira interrupted Valoche.

  Avryn was checking his Scribe. Based on the data, there was a few more groups of Corpses left. It was a grueling half our, but they got it done. Rinna saved her words until they got out of the training room.

  “What the hell was that?” she turned to the other leader.

  He flinched from her voice. He could not form an answer. He looked at her again and felt her presence. It was like a small prey cowering before a lion.

  “Well? Out with it,” she remained poised.

  Avryn was finicking with his Scribe, he was looking at the results. In terms of time, they took too long by twenty minutes.

  “Twenty? Hoo-wee,” he grimaced.

  He turned to see the other squad’s leader profusely apologize to Rinna. There were tears streaming down his face. Avryn quickly moved in to separate them.

  “This is all you have to show after two years of training? That’s rather pathetic,” she emasculated him.

  “Come on, come on, we’re all comrades here,” Avryn stoop to his defense.

  Rinna scoffed,

  “We’d be good as dead by now if we hadn’t picked up their slack,” she argued.

  “You do know why we gotta do these joint squad trainings, right?” Avryn pleaded.

  “Learning about team cohesion is different from actually having it. We were already fine by ourselves,” she paused. “That’s all that matters.”

  Avryn looked at the other squad. He felt pity for them. He saw a glimpse of how hard they were trying to keep up. To be in their shoes is not something he would want. He thought of a solution to this developing problem.

  “Maybe fighting’s not what you guys are good at, but hear me out,” he told them.

  He went on a speech that seemed to rally their hearts. There were many ways to help in the expeditions that didn’t involve fighting. The logistics branch, for example. Their expertise helped maintained the weapons and repair the armor for the soldiers. Another was the medical branch whose hands helped heal the wounds sustained by the soldiers. That was just two examples.

  Avryn’s optimism managed to seep into the other squad. Every word he said was absorbed fully. Tears were shed at his perceived glowing aura.

  “Thank you, we’ll do our best,” the leader bowed.

  “No problem,” he bid them goodbye.

  Rinna sighed. They returned to their dorms to contemplate. Tvira was the first to retire to bed. Valoche followed soon after. That left Avryn and Rinna.

  “That was rough, even for you, you know,” Avryn spoke up.

  “I stand by what I said,” she replied.

  “We won’t be able to have each other’s backs. Sometimes we might be on a mission and we’ll be separated,” Avryn leaned back on his chair. “We have to learn to work well with others.”

  Rinna was silent. Avryn sighed.

  “You don’t have to agree with me, just think about it, even a little. Goodnight.”