I do not own Chaotic nor anything related to it. It belongs to TCDigital.

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The Captain of the Guard

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"Michael!" a voice says firmly. I feel something shaking my body.

I groan and roll over, hugging the covers closer to me.

"Michael!" It's suddenly very cold as the blanket is torn off me.

I sit up and blink. "Huh?" I rub my eyes. "Morning Isis..." It's a little odd still, waking up next to her.

"You missed Mudeenu's promotion!" Isis says while staring at me.

I turn my head side to side, stretching out the stiffness in my neck. "Good for him..."

Isis looks exasperated. "Did you forget what you need to do in the morning?"

"What in the morning?" I mumble. Then it hits me. "Crap! I'm not late for training, am I?"

"You will be if you don't hurry!" Isis says, grabbing a plain robe and tossing it at me. "Get moving!"

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I could not have look less like a prince if I had tried. I'm out of breath and there's sweat and sand all over my robe. It's a good thing Isis gave me a plain one, my royal robe would have been ruined given this treatment.

Everyone's staring at me as I make it to the barracks. "Hey," I gasp, putting my hands on my knees and breathing hard. "Am I late?"

"I don't think so," a Mipedian in leather armor says. "Prince Mudeenu isn't here yet." He raises an eye ridge at me. "And I thought Humans were trained in the evening."

His neighbor elbows him. "That's Prince Osiris! Show some respect!"

I close my eyes and sigh, then straighten up and stand with the Mipedians. Everyone's in a row and waiting. Several minutes pass.

"Are we early?" a Mipedian asks.

Nobody answers him. After a few seconds, there's a flicker in the air in front of us, and Mudeenu suddenly appears in front of us. He's no longer wearing a simple black breastplate. Instead he has a full set of plate armor, colored black, except for the chest which is a dark blue with a pearl-colored stripe, and trimmed with gold. At the bottom of his sternum is a symbol of a dragons head, and on the sides of his shoulders is a symbol that looks a lot like the Egyptian Eye of Horus. He still has his blue cape, though. Actually, didn't I see him wearing this armor in his "Champion of the Guard" picture in the card game?

Mudeenu bares his teeth. "Did you all enjoy waiting for me?"

Nobody answers.

Mudeenu barks, "I said, 'Did you all enjoy waiting for me?'"

"No, Prince Mudeenu," someone mutters.

Mudeenu points in the direction of the voice. "There's a good soldier! Answering when he's asked a question! Everyone follow along with him! I said, 'Did you all enjoy waiting for me?'"

Everyone, including me, shouts, "No, Prince Mudeenu!"

"Then don't ever make me wait for you!" Mudeenu bellows. "You'll be here at the crack of dawn every morning unless I say otherwise! Is that clear?!"

"Yes, Prince Mudeenu!"

Mudeenu points at the crowd. "Now all of you are used to me being a Prince. Here, though, I am your captain, and you will address me as such. You will end all of you sentences addressed to me with Captain while we're training. Not Prince, not Prince Mudeenu, not even Captain Mudeenu. Do you understand?!"

"Yes, Captain!"

"Good!" Mudeenu puts his hands behind his back. "Now, some of you may have heard this before, but I will reiterate. There are punishments for causing trouble." He shouts, "If you're late, I will beat the tar out of you! If you slack off, I will beat the s*** out of you! If you give me any lip, I will beat the ever living f*** out of you! Twice! Are we clear?!"

"Yes, Captain!"

Yikes, that was almost exactly the same as how he threatened me yesterday.

Captain looks down the line. "I see that most of you are wearing your armor. Others of you are wearing ordinary clothing. Strip. Now."

There are surprised mutters down the line. Someone says, "Captain? Why-?"

A piece of cloth flies through the air at the Mipedian who spoke. "I said strip! Those of you who can fully retract your penises can stop there! If your penis is too large to fully retract, or if you feel more comfortable with clothing on, you wear one of those!" He starts tossing pieces of cloth at various Mipedians.

Several Mipedians snicker.

Mudeenu glares at the crowd. "Who's laughing?!"

The snickers stop.

"I thought so," Mudeenu mutters loudly before tossing a piece of cloth at me.

The cloth hits me in the face, and I pull it off. It's a... it's a loincloth. This particular kind is basically a leather strip meant to be tied around the waist with a rectangle of cloth hanging over the privates. It's... not the best way to maintain your dignity. A particularly strong gust of wind could lift it up.

I give Mudeenu an incredulous look. He glares daggers right back at me. I quickly put it on under my robe before taking my robe off.

The Mipedian rookies all finish, and we're all standing awkwardly in a row again. Mudeenu walks down the line, nodding. "Very good. Now, run to the south gate and back, everyone!"

"What?" someone shouts.

Mudeenu puts his index finger and thumb very close together. "That was this close to giving me lip! Run to the f***ing south gate and back! NOW!"

I bolt. Mudeenu means business.

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My days of working at the dew farm and training under Sett have done me well. I'm only half-dead by the time I make it back to the barracks. I'm not the first one back, heck no, but at least I made it.

"Pushups, now," Mudeenu growls when I come into view.

"Yes, Captain!" My voice almost becomes a squeak when I see him. Mudeenu's now wearing nothing but one of those loincloths he gave everyone. He's... well, he's got pretty much the same muscle mass as Chaor. It's very intimidating.

I take too long to drop to the ground, so Mudeenu pushes me down. "Fifty pushups. Hands shoulder width apart, chest all the way down so it touches your hands."

If I hadn't already been hardened by a solan of life in Al Mipedim, I wouldn't have even it to even five pushups. I'm at around forty pushups when my arms give out, though. Mudeenu doesn't say anything while I lie on the ground, panting.

When everyone makes it back to the barracks, most of them ready to collapse, Mudeenu barks, "Everyone back in line!"

It takes a while for everyone to get back on their feet and in line. When everyone does so, Mudeenu points at me. "Michael, stand in front of me."

There are mutters among the Mipedians as I hesitantly step forward. Mudeenu glares at them. "Yes, I called him Michael. Yes, I know he's Prince Osiris. While he's here, though, he's not a prince, he's a rookie."

Ouch, Mudeenu. We get it.

Mudeenu turns to a wooden rack, grabs something from it, then walks back and thrusts it into my arms. "Hit me with it."

I look down at the object he handed me. "Uh, this is a sword."

Mudeenu nods. "Hit me with it."

"Okay..." I look at Mudeenu. "Where?"

Mudeenu bares his teeth and growls, "Anywhere."

He's probably going to demonstrate how to block or disarm when you don't have a weapon. I grip the sword with both hands and look around for where I'll hit. How about his chest? I take a step forward, twist my body, and swing the sword in a wide arc. As the sword approaches Mudeenu, I watch for his reaction.

Mudeenu doesn't do anything. The sword hits him directly on his left pectoral muscle and bounces off. There isn't even a gash in his scales. The momentum of the rebounding sword knocks me off my feet, and I land on my butt in the sand.

Mudeenu bends over and takes the sword away from me. He holds it up and states, "You will be training with blunted weapons! You will be training with low-charge weapons! It will still hurt like hell when you get hit!"

"That doesn't look like it hurt at all," someone says with a laugh.

Mudeenu's face darkens. He marches towards the line, grabs a Mipedian by the back of the neck, and drags him in front of everyone. "Back in line, Michael," he snarls.

I hurry back to the line.

Mudeenu growls at the Mipedian he's holding, "That was lip."

The Mipedian already looked scared. Now he looks terrified.

Mudeenu releases the Mipedian's neck and swings the blunted sword into his stomach. The Mipedian doubles over and yells. Mudeenu withdraws the sword and slams it on the Mipedian's back. The Mipedian collapses.

"Stand up," Mudeenu says.

The Mipedian's arms and legs tremble as he gets to his hands and knees. Mudeenu grabs the back of his neck and stands him up. Then he swings the sword into his chest, then each shoulder.

The Mipedian collapses on the ground, curls up in a ball, and sobs. Mudeenu gets on one knee and lowers his head towards the crying rookie. "Please inform everyone how much that hurt."

The Mipedian is sobbing so much he can't speak. Mudeenu stands up and raise the sword. "These weapons will still hurt like hell! Anyone else want to contradict me?"

"No, Captain!"

"Good." Mudeenu lowers the sword. "Tomorrow we will spend our whole training session with these swords. You will not make it out of training unscathed tomorrow. Dismissed!"

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Up next: The Art of Public Speaking

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Like I said before, Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

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