McCoy (2)

"Now I am going to explain how to earn your position..." the alpha looked out at us all. We were primarily level one and two warriors, but they looked uneasy at his use of the word earn. We all came from a pack where you are born into your position; if your father is a level one, you are a level one. "There are five levels of warriors and a lead from each one. To earn a position, you will fight for it by fighting my leads. If you beat a lead, you will join the next level up. If you lose, you will join that lead's group. No one will take the lead position today because that requires some knowledge of the pack, which you do not have. For most of you, this is enough information." The alpha looked out at the group of us, sizing us up. One pup, about 18, born a level one with no sense in his brain, shouts to the alpha.

"what if we beat the level one lead?" he was cocky and inexperienced. There was no way he would be doing that. The alpha gave him a cold smile sent to the rest of us, causing the crowd to shiver. Our old alpha didn't have power like that.

"If you technically beat the level one lead, you hold that position. The next challenge would be the six master positions, starting with fighting the master of maintenance, then the master chief, then the master of education, then the master tracker, then the master of the hunt, then the master of arms. As you beat each of them, you take their position, and they take the one you vacated. After the master of arms is the delta, then the gamma, then the beta, and finally, you can issue a challenge to me:" The alpha zeroed his gaze on the stupid boy. "does that answer your question

"yes, alpha," he piped in.The fifth lead stepped forward, and the alpha nodded to him.

"normally, the warriors in the fifth group are fresh adults, and the freshly turned. We have many of them to determine if you have the stuff to be in the warrior class; you must beat one of these level-five warriors or have extenuating circumstances as if you are newly 16 or newly shifted. If anyone falls under those conditions, please step forward now," one of the three female wolves stepped forward. She was small and must have just turned 16. now, there were only 14 of us.

A young wolf stepped up to each of us as we spread out into the fighting formation. My kid was scrawny. He eyed me like a monster going to eat him. he was only in a defensive position; someone must have told the kids we would attack first. His footing was messed up, and as I circled him, he had trouble readjusting.

"Did no one teach you an offensive position yet" I questioned? The boy looked to his lead as if asking permission to talk to me, leaving him defenseless. "Eyes over here, boy, never take your eyes off your immediate threat and fix your stance. If I swung low, you would be down."

"like this," he asked as he tried to correct his stance again, taking his eyes off me.

"Fighting is not something you can perfectly replicate; the demonstrations of stance and hits your instructors show you are in the best-case scenario. You then have to take that and apply it to a real situation. Does that stance feel balanced regardless of what it looks like?"

"no," he mumbles.

"then make yourself feel balanced. It is all where you feel comfortable." he adjusted his stance. It was much better now that he was feeling it.

"Now hit me," he swung, and it was lackluster at best. I grabbed his fist and shook it. "There should be strength the whole way through the hit. Don't give up on a hit." I was about to release his arm and let him try again, but the gamma approached me.

"Not that we all don't love the lesson going on here, but this is also designed to gauge your skill, so could you demonstrate the ability to take Thomas down" The gamma gave an apologetic look to the boy Thomas I took the fist I was holding and used it as leverage to throw the boy over my shoulder and slam him into the ground where he immediately submitted.

"apologies, Gamma," I stated, then helped to boy up. The 14 of us gathered back together and looked to the alpha.

"it has been suggested that since there are so many of you, it would be faster to have you not fight the leads and instead the members of each level. I agree with this, so you all have three hours, the average amount of time for a wolf to recover their strength, and then you will be partnered off with a level 4 fighter. We will do levels 3 and 2 tomorrow. If needed, you will all be sleeping here until you are assigned to a level." The alpha looked at all of us, "Use your three hours wisely."