Youth World

Chapter 8 – Training the Spearmen

Today's lunch was beef stew, cooked in the clay pots that were made by some of the kids. As usual, I would be the last to eat, since doing so would make the kids respect me more. Like yesterday, I also helped serve the meal, dumping small portions of stew into small clay bowls.

It took a good half hour to give everybody a spoonful of stew. After all that, I finally received my portion. I was absolutely famished and gulped the whole thing down without a second thought. Well, that certainly quenched my hunger. Now, it was time to talk to the spearmen, for I needed them to be at the forefront of my new army.

So far, the strategy I had planned was to deploy spearmen, which I would later equip with halberds as soon as those were made, to be arranged in a checkerboard pattern in groups of 25. Cavalry would be arranged in a triangle to attack the enemy left flank, while archers and slingers would stay at the rear to provide cover, moving up if needed. It was a foolproof strategy that was tried and trusted, but it would all be moot if the troops weren't any good.

The archers under Robin were working hard right now, and the equestrians led by Lucas were out in the plains, surviving on their own and attempting to tame horses. Larry could train the slingers, so it was my job to deal with the spearmen.

They were scattered all over the camp, so the fastest way to ȧssemble them would be to task a few young children with spreading the world around the camp. I'd patiently wait for them to gather near the lake, quite close to where a group of fishermen were busy spearfishing.

After about 15 minutes, all of the spearmen had showed up. In total, there were about 350 of them. This batch would be enough for now.

"Hello, everybody! Thank you for showing up! As of now, I am your commander. Therefore, you must all follow these drills through and through. Got it?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Good. First of all, we will run for a full mile with a heavy rock in our hands. I'll do it too. Ready?"

"Wait, what? That's so tiring!"

"Yeah! You sure we have to do this?"

"I am absolutely sure. If we don't train now, we'll all be killed by people or animals. Besides, we're all gonna get ripped, so that's a plus. We can't waste any time. Leave your spears here and let's go!"

"But I just ate!"

"Doesn't matter. The enemy doesn't wait for you to digest. Hurry up!"

I picked up one of the largest rocks on the ground and raised it above my head, my arms locked completely straight. This was called a farmer walk. Then, I began to speed walk along the edge of the lake.

The spearmen hesitated for a while, not sure if they wanted to do the drill. Eventually, the strongest of them, a bodybuilder named Julius, raised a heavy rock above his head and began following me.

Julius' rival, a guy named Arnold, also decided to follow him.

"I sure as hell am not losing to Julius! I'll catch up to Alexander before he does!"

After these two began running, the rest of them also decided to follow, all of them carrying rocks over their heads.

This was a very tiring drill. Since I was excellently conditioned, I wasn't as phased as the rest. However, sweat was still dripping from my hair and I was intensely huffing and puffing. Many of the teens behind me had already dropped their rocks, and they were lying sprawled up on the beach.

This couldn't happen. I turned around and sprinted to where the teens were lying.

"Men! You can't rest yet! We're bȧrėly halfway there and you're already resting? If you do this in battle, you'll die immediately!"

"B-But we can't breathe!"

"Nonsense! You guys did this in football practice! You guys did this in soccer practice! You guys did this in wrestling practice! You can do it!"

"We only had to walk across the field three times. This is way harder, and we're using stones instead of weights! It's impossible!"

"Come on! I'm doing it! You guys can't stop now!"

"Dude, you're superhuman! We don't have infinite endurance!"

"You know what? I'll carry two rocks instead of one! If I do that, will you guys run too?"

"Sure! Not like you'll be able to do it, anyways."

"Let's see about that."

I stacked a slightly smaller rock on top of my original rock, and I began bolting towards the far tree that marked the end of the approximately mile long course. My legs felt like they were about to give out and my arms felt like they were about to snap, but after much difficulty and pain I made it to the tree. I immediately dropped the rocks, which lodged themselves in the sand.

I turned around and waved towards the spearmen. To my surprise, they were not very far behind, clearly motivated by my show of strength.

I so wanted to sit down and rest. But doing so would discourage the spearmen. Fighting through pain was an important trait of a leader. I mean, what kind of half competent leader wouldn't lead his men himself?

"Good job, everybody. I think that you guys deserve a five-minute break. Since you guys have clay canteens with you, might as well drink up. The next part will be slightly easier."

The spearmen all slumped to the ground after hearing that sentence, and many of them began resting against trees and chugging their water. It was a good thing that we built our camp relatively close to water, since we could easily collect lake water and use the clay water stills to clean it.

I also took a big swig of water, but I didn't rest for long. I had to set up the next drill, which would be sparring. Of course, using actual spears would be too dangerous, so we would have to make do with long sticks. I probably should have told the kids to specifically tell the spearmen to not bring their weapons, but I doubt they would be able to remember that much.

"Alright, everybody, break's up. However, if one of you can beat me in a sparring match, it will be extended for 10 minutes. Who's up for the task?"

I just said that to prove my domination and supremacy over the rest. Naturally, they would respect me more and actually listen to me. Who would listen to a commander that couldn't beat you in a one-on-one fight?

"I'll try."

"Sure, Julius! You see that pile of sticks over there? Just pick one, and let's begin!"

Julius picked up a stick and turned around to face me.

"What are the rules?"

"They are quite simple. Whoever hits any part of the opponent's body wins. Torso, legs, arms, head, everything's fair game. In war, there are no rules."

"Ah, got it."

"Ready? Three, two, one, go!"

He instinctively lowered his stick to block my blow, and he turned to his right to prepare for an attack. I immediately got up from my swooping position, blocking his blow with an attack of my own and dislodging the stick from his hands. Before he could regain his footing, I pointed the staff at his neck.

"I win. Good job though. You aren't the best linebacker on the team for nothing."

"Good game, Alexander! Who knew that you were such a talented spearman!"

"Is anybody else up for the challenge?"

"I'll go."

"Oh, Arnold, you want to give it a shot? Sure!"

"Yeah, I'm going to destroy you! I'll prove that I truly am the best linebacker on the football team!"

"Sure! Just pick up a stick from the ground and-whoa!"

Before I could finish my sentence, Arnold was already charging me with his stick, swinging at my head with a force that looked strong enough to kill.

I wasn't just gonna sit there and let it happen. I lined up my stick horizontally, blocking his vertical blow. Using my leverage against his, I disarmed his weapon and kicked him to the ground. Then, I pointed my spear at his neck, forcing him to surrender. Another win for me.

The spearmen were clearly not very happy at Arnold's dirty trick.

"Boooo!!!!"

"Don't boo him. Arnold did well. If you're in battle, do you wait for your enemy to position themselves before fighting? No! You strike when they're unprepared! In fact, Arnold did the best thing he could have done!"

"Dudes got a point," Julius reasoned, "I may not like Arnold, but the man's got some brains."

"That's enough one-on-one fights for the day. We should practice some actual spear techniques. Speaking about those, you guys aren't even going to be using spears in the future. You'll be using halberds and pikes instead. Here, I'll teach you guys some moves. Does that sound good?"

"That sounds more fun than running with rocks above our heads for a mile, so sure. Besides, you're the expert in this matter, anyways. So how do we start?"

"Well, thing is, we should probably go recover our spears. So, that means we have to run another mile. However, this time it's without rocks, so it should be easier. Oh, and you guys get only 10 minutes to get there. See you!"

Leaving the others in the dust, I bolted as fast as I could towards the pikes. I made it in about six minutes or so. Most of the others arrived after 10 minutes, and only one was late.

"Derrick, you're going to have to do 100 sit ups for being too slow. Go!"

Derrick ġrȯȧnėd, but he eventually got started. As he was doing that, I began to instruct the spearmen in the arts of the pike.

"First things first, we must learn the thrusting movement. I know that sounds really inappropriate, but now's no time for jokes. This is how you do it."

I demonstrated a proper thrusting motion to the spearmen. They immediately started doing the same, and most of them were pretty damn good. I walked around, correcting those who had done the motion incorrectly. After an hour or so, everybody could do the motion perfectly.

"That's enough techniques for the day. Now, for the last task you guys have to do. Pull-ups. If you can't do pullups, you'll have to do pushups."

"Pullups? But we don't have pullup bars!"

"Just use a tree branch. Like this."

Using a boulder as a steppingstone, I swung from a thick tree branch and began pulling up and down on the branch. The others followed suit, and soon enough everybody was dangling off a tree branch.

As I struggled to do a one-armed pullup, a bloodcurdling scream reverberated through the forest.

AHHHHHH!

One of the weaker teens, a ninth grader named Mikey, fell from the branch and landed on his buŧŧ.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I was just shocked, that's all. Can I do pushups instead? I've never done a pullup before, so I'm not very familiar with them."

"Alright. You can do that. Come on, guys, just 15 more minutes and we can head back to camp!"

After much struggling, everybody had completed their fair share of pullups. I gave the order to return to camp.

"Julius, Arnold, can you two come here for a second? I have to discuss something with you guys on the way back."

"What do you need?"

"I need you two to be commanders of the spearmen and drill them when I'm gone. I'll run through the drills and techniques as we walk back to camp. If you guys have any questions, ask away."

"Got it."