::Frank::

Disclaimer: Not mine.

A/N: Action lovers, rejoice.

*

Daleria was frankly amazed at the amount of weapons that lay arrayed in front of her. Throwing daggers, fighting daggers, broadswords, sabres, rapiers, nearly every available weapon of Salamandastron must have been there. Training was looking to be an interesting one that day. They had been told to pick one, any one, of the weapons, save for the one they were best used to. Which meant nothing long for her, no sabres, rapiers or anything in that league.

Argh.

Settling instead for two close combat fighting daggers (Think kodachi, people) she weighted the two daggers, which were long and slim, straight and deadly, up in her paws. They were surprisingly light, well, at least compared to her usual sabre. Made for sharp and fast whirls and a hundred and eighty degree turning moves, the two blades were keen, sharp and lethal. The hilt was of untarnished metal, smooth and cold to the touch, but with engraved carvings of vines that increased the grip greatly. The double edged blade gleamed in a bright sheen. Silver hafted and straight, they looked harmless and small, but dealt out major damage. Daleria was happy enough.

Remora, who normally used short swords herself, had resorted to using a fencing sabre, not curved as most were, but straight and long. The blade fit her quite well, and she was cutting at air, testing the balance. Though not practised in it, the brigadier had enough experience so as to be able to handle the weapon quite, if not very, well.

Longrunn, a sabre using hare himself, went for the rapier. There was not much difference between the two, save for the fact that most sabres were curved whereas rapiers were not, and the rapier blade was the finer and sleeker of the two. Shaking her head, Daleria thought,

No creativity, the lot.

Rapieratce on the other hand, had quite a bit of creativity of his own. What he had picked was something like a scythe, only that it looked more like a quarterstaff or a lance with a straight instead of curved blade attached. (Think Japanese soldiers) Having used both quarterstaff and lance on many occasions, he was coping quite well, considering that he usually never parted with the rapier unless forced to. She was forced to turn her attention back to the badger lady when she starting talking.

Evidently, they would be going against a couple of practice officers, who had all been trained in such ways. The only limitation was not to kill anybeast, just disarm. Even with her knowledge of blades, Daleria felt rather insecure with her current selection. But since she was considerably better at them than with a rapier, which was too fine bladed in her opinion, she kept with the daggers. Swallowing her emotions down hastily, she set off into the training course, which happened to look more like a obstacle course in her opinion, since it was made to make things more difficult, as well as doubling as cover for the "attackers". Meaning : Wherever and whenever, there could be an ambush.

The four were sticking together as a defence, each looking out for the other. Out of nowhere, a hare jumped out near Daleria's side, brandishing a sabre. Instinct made Daleria drop to the floor, and using her forepaws, pushed herself away just before the sabre came whistling down in the position where her head was seconds ago.

Talk about intense...

Not missing a beat, she swung her legs from behind her, sending the ambusher sprawling. Before she could get up though, the ambusher had already kicked away one of her daggers, her right one. Leaving her vulnerable with only her weak paw to defend herself, the ambusher lurched at her, but was cut off but Rapieratce's blunt end of his quarterstaff, which sent the hare flying backwards. Daleria scrambled up in a flurry of sand, dashing over to the hare before he could get up. With a swift kick, she sent the hare's sabre flying upwards, catching it in her free paw before tossing it away somewhere, as was the rules. Just as she as about to head back to the group, the sound of something behind her alerted her into action.

Once again dropping to the floor, Daleria rammed the hilt of her remaining dagger hard into the ankle of the hare who had tried to creep up behind her, causing him to fall. Catching his armed paw, she tried to wrench the rapier that he held away from him to no avail. This time, no help came, as every one of the others were also occupied. Rapieratce was busy fending off somebeast with two rapiers, Remora was... seemingly fencing, and Longrunn was typically playing fancy and trying to disarm the hare before him. Resorting to kneeing the hare, she took advantage of the fact that he was clutching his stomach and rammed her elbow into his temple, knocking him out and flinging his weapon away. Jumping to her feet, Daleria ducked as she saw a blunt arrow, for safety's sake in case it hit its mark, come flying her way before dashing over to her fallen dagger and retrieving it.

Rapieratce was not having an easy time either, considering that the hare that had ambushed him was carrying two blades instead of one, which only made life more difficult. Struggling furiously, he used the staff to fend off the two blades, but found himself in peril when the hare switched strategies and sandwiched his staff inbetween his blades. His mind thinking up the fastest plan he could in the shortest time, Rapieratce brought down the staff before suddenly raising it up and turning it into a double twist vertically. This sent both blades flying off somewhere, and the ambusher backed off in defeat.

They always pick on the colonels, don't they? Being high ranking comes with its disadvantages.

Rapieratce saw Daleria join Remora, and ran off to help the sergeant, who did not look like he needed help, though. Rapieratce reached him just in time to see the other hare being disarmed with flourish. Keen eyes saved the day, though, while Longrunn was busy ridding the fallen hare of his weapon, Rapieratce heard the sounds of a crossbow being deliberately drawn slowly back. Instinct seized hold of him, and he yanked the sergeant down just in time to see a arrow embed itself in a wooden marker some distance away. Nodding his thanks to the colonel, both hares got up and went to aid Daleria and Remora.

The brigadier and captain were not in good positions, Daleria having two on her back and Remora trying valiantly to battle off three. Longrunn tripped up the one behind Daleria with the basket hilt of his rapier, jumping nimbly up as the hare tried to take a swipe at his footpaws even in his fallen position. Rapieratce locked the blade of his pike with the long dagger of one of the hares who had cornered Remora, seasons of experience and practice coming into play as he disarmed the attacker with a swift, low and sudden dip of the blade followed by a upward twirl, sending the dagger whistling off in the opposite direction because of the momentum.

Daleria was handling the other hare with superb speed, crossing both her daggers in front of her as the sabre of the hare in front of her crashed down on her defence. The attacker only realized his mistake when it was too late. Grinning, the captain pushed the crossed daggers downwards, trapping the sabre blade in between before forcefully swinging herself to the left and rolling off the back of her attacker, sending the hare's sabre spinning across the grounds as she gracefully rolled off. Remora had had a little trouble, as her attacker was using a quarterstaff as opposed to a blade, but had used her head and resorted to a feint to the left before stretching her paw out and grabbing the quarterstaff and pulling the wooden staff towards her, while her footpaw came up and kicked the handler away. Successful, she threw the staff away like a javelin and turned to face her other opponent, only to find him cornered by both the sergeant and the colonel. There was no hope for the attacker, and true to her suspicions, another blade came flying out of the fray seconds later. Ducking as the blade whistled past, Remora limped over to the other three.

None had got away scott free, Daleria had a gash across her shoulder in addition to a bruise in her side, the sergeant, a wound in the left footpaw and a split lip while the colonel had attained an injury to the knee and a streak down his shoulder blade. The brigadier herself was sporting a bleeding lower thigh and a partially dislocated shoulder. All panting, they paused to recover their wits, but the silence was broken by a clapping, which turned out to be Consellariel. The badger lady walked slowly up to them, smiling,

'Very well done, if I do say so myself... I never knew out colonel here to be good with a quarterstaff...'

Coming raggedly to attention, they waited eagerly for dismissal, as they badly needed the rest, reason being that they would be leaving the mountain the next day. There were only two more dawns to come before Seppak reached Salamandastron. Seeing their tired appearances, Consellariel finished up quickly.

'Fine then, place the weapons back there, and get yourselves cleaned up. The three of you, dismissed. Colonel, stay back a bit, will you?'

After placing their weapons back, the three hares shuffled off quickly to the infirmary while Rapieratce lingered behind to wait for what Consellariel was going to say. Standing still at attention, he awaited any orders. Consellariel waved him into a stand easy position.

'Colonel, whatever may happen on this mission, I do not want any of you to get hurt, do you hear me?'

Nodding and keeping his eyes ahead, Rapieratce waited it out.

'If any one of you are to be injured, which is still to be avoided at all costs, return to the mountain at once, understood?'

Rapieratce was about to protest, but before the first word could leave his mouth, the badger lady cut him off.

'I do not care if you attain the cure or not, if you do not, you come back and wait until it has blown over. It is safer.'

Shutting his mouth resolutely, the colonel nodded.

'Very well, dismissed. But do not forget my words.'

Saluting, the colonel turned and left, heart heavy, and duty descending down on his shoulders like a dead weight once again as he moved off towards the infirmary to get patched up.