A/N: Ok, so I'm finally getting back to this… Sorry about that.

Anyways, here's chapter two of Into the Darkness…

Lupa hadn't been kidding when she said she was going to break me.

Well, actually, she did her best to break me. It just wasn't exactly enough.

For the first few days, all I did was train against her wolves. It wasn't easy, but I also realized that, with my inherent fighting ability, I had probably faced tougher opponents many times before.

That doesn't mean that I made short work of them.

For example, on my second day at the Wolf House, I was faced with five wolves at once. My blade had been magically blunted so that I wouldn't actually kill the wolves, merely bruise them. I wish I could say the same for their claws.

The toughest and fiercest one, Ferociter, was proving to be a problem. Most of the time, a wolf would jump at me, I would sidestep, and then strike them with my blade, "killing" them.

However, this particular she-wolf was learning. It was obvious that the wolves weren't used to my style of fighting. They were more accustomed to a sharper, more angular flow of movement, as opposed to my languid and fluid motions that seemed to dazzle the bystanders.

Their unfamiliarity with my style was helpful, but I recognized that Ferociter was catching on. Instead of jumping blindly at me, which would cause a stricter opponent to simply back off in order to reach a better angle, she would creep in while I was being assaulted, then bite my leg.

Like I said before, I wish that the wolves had blunted their weapons as well.

It was apparent that it really didn't matter to them whether I lived or died.

I was quickly realizing that I was going to have to do something about that troublesome she-wolf. However, as I began to actually try to plan something, I realized that I consciously had no idea what I was doing. My instincts were in total control.

So I built off that.

I turned my attention to the other wolves, completely focusing on them, consciously ignoring Ferociter. I swung, ducked underneath a leaping lupine, twirled Anaklusmos around in order to block a clawed paw, stabbed at a wolf that was getting a bit too close for comfort, used the momentum on the pull-back to take a diagonal swipe at a toothy jaw, and then…

All of a sudden, every nerve in my body screamed at me to continue that momentum for a downward strike at an opponent I couldn't even see.

Which turned out to be Ferociter.

The strike caught her on the head, effectively knocking her unconscious as if she had been struck by a large metal club. Which, with the magical blunting of my sword, she practically had been.

I quickly finished off the rest of my enemies, then lowered my sword into a resting position.

Lupa trotted within five feet of me, then looked up into my eyes. Congratulations, Son of the Sea. You have defeated one of the greatest squads of warriors ever to walk the surface of Gaea. We now move on to the second phase of your training—mock battles against the undead warriors of Rome's past.

My only thought was, "Second phase?"

To give you a point of perspective, I later learned that there were a total of ten phases of training, and that I only had time for four of them. So I would be skipping around a lot. My "second phase" was most trainees' fourth.

Oh, what fun.

A/N: Sorry about the shortness. Promise the next one will be longer, but I felt I had to give you guys something.