The small houses on the edges of the field looked cheaply made, but not in a way that made them look shoddy. They were made out of easily accessible materials such as logs and clay to provide good insulation. The roofs were thatched with straw, with beams to provide support visible in the middle of the roofs from outside. They all had windows to easily be able to see outside in case of an emergency, and the sounds of Pokemon talking came from a few of them.

Three Pokémon, a knight and his newest squires, approached the door of one of the huts. Sir Goodwind peeked into the window, nodding to himself before turning to the Pokémon following him.

"This is where you'll be resting your heads while you're training with me. These barracks have sheltered many Pokémon like you two before, and we hope they'll last to shelter more in the future, so don't go breaking the place, understand?"

The Riolu and Rockruff nodded in unison.

"Good. Now then, the Pokémon you'll be sharing a roof with are in here." He then turned around and pushed open the wooden door.

While the outside of the houses looked rather mundane and unassuming, the inside was rather cozy. There were multiple straw beds, seven in total, along the walls of the hut, with the single room being lit by sunlight drifting through the windows. There was a circle of stones in the middle of the room with coals inside for the easy creation of a fire. There were also a few Pokémon of different kinds talking amongst themselves inside. A Pikachu, a Munchlax, a Charcadet and a Ponyta all rested on different beds and noticed the Corviknight's entrance.

The Pikachu was the first to call out to them. "Oi, Sir Goodwind! So we finally got our third team, eh?"

"That's right," the Corviknight nodded and stepped further inside to let the Riolu and Rockruff in. The Charcadet blinked as he saw the small Puppy Pokémon and whispered something to himself, meanwhile, the eyes of the Pikachu that had called out widened as he got up.

"Holy Morrow…" he said as he approached, looking at Draco in particular. "I've heard about mon like you from my Pa! I never thought I'd see a Riolu around here, though!"

Draco tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"What, you don't know? Riolu and Lucario usually just stay up in the mountains by themselves. Some people think they don't even exist!" He laughed to himself. "Oh, but I forgot to introduce myself! Bran Steiner!" He put his paw out to the Riolu.

"Oh, um…" he stuttered a bit as he reached to shake the paw. "I'm Draco. And this is my partner." He then motioned down to the little Rockruff, who smiled brightly up at everyone.

"I'm Guinevere Siara! It's nice to meet you all!"

And as names were being shared, the rest of the Pokémon introduced themselves in turn.

The Ponyta went first, her fiery mane seeming to flow even with the lack of wind. "I'm Gracia Peters."

The Charcadet, who looked quite dirty, raised his hand and went next. "And I'm Cedric. We both came from a farm outside the city."

And finally, the Munchlax, who had been silent the whole time, spoke. "…Just call me Walter."

Sir Goodwind nodded after everyone had introduced themselves, stepping forward. "Now that everyone is here and introduced, we can finally begin. If you'll all follow me, I have something to give you."

All of the Pokémon that were still on the beds got up and followed along, with Guinevere and Draco tagging along at the back. He led them to a larger building built similarly to the barracks and opened the door, revealing some kind of storeroom. Various weapons from swords to spears and axes hung on the walls, though none of them looked dangerous. The swords and axes had blunted edges, and the spears didn't even have metal heads. The Corviknight walked towards the back of the room, looking through some wooden boxes.

Bran entered next, looking at the weapons on the wall. "Oi, look at all the arms… when're we gonna get some of our own, Sir Goodwind?"

Sir Goodwind sighed and looked back at the Pikachu tiredly as if he'd been asked that exact question countless times. "It will be a long time before any of you can be trusted with weapons of your own. You'll have to be trained to make sure you don't accidentally kill anyone with them… but for now, all of you come here and get some armor."

All of the Pokémon walked closer to the box their avian teacher was standing at, looking inside to see various types of leather armor. They all looked rather well-worn and had some sort of emblem visible on the chest. "These will serve multiple purposes throughout your training. They will protect you, obviously, and prepare you for heavier armor later on. But they'll also show your status as squires."

The squires chatted amongst themselves for a moment before digging around in the box to find a piece that fit them. They were all easy to put on, and eventually everyone was fully fitted.

Except for one.

Guinevere, being as small as she was, had trouble keeping the armor made for normal Rockruff on her. The leather constantly shifted around and looked like it would fall off if she moved just right. "Sir Goodwind? I think my armor's too big for me…"

The Corviknight looked over her and put a wing to his beak, thinking to himself. "Hold on…" he then took a small rope off of a nearby wall and walked over to her, using his talons to wrap the twine around her midsection and tighten her armor. "Is that better?"

She moved around a bit to test it. It still shifted awkwardly in some places, but it didn't look like it would fall off. She looked back up and nodded at him.

"Good. We might have to have it refitted later, but for now it will do." He turned to address the whole group next. "Everyone, pick a weapon off of the wall."

Bran looked confused at the sudden request. "Wha… but you said we weren't gonna get them for a while!"

"I did. But I'm not giving you these weapons. Instead, you'll pick a weapon right now to be trained in. It's best to do this as soon as possible to not waste time later on. So find what you like best."

The squires went around the wall, checking everything. A couple of them, however, found nothing that properly suited them… since neither could properly wield weapons. Gracia looked up at her mentor and got his attention. "Sir Goodwind? Me and Guinevere can't use any of these…"

The Corviknight nodded. "That's quite alright. I can teach you how to hone your natural abilities to fight. Some knights, myself included, never use weapons."

Guinevere, who was trying to hold a dagger in her teeth to no avail, dropped the armament and looked up. "Oh, thank you Sir Goodwind!"

The rest of the Pokémon had picked out their weapons soon enough. Bran clumsily tried to spin around a spear, Walter picked out a wooden mallet, Cedric held a lance over his shoulder, and Draco found a small arming sword and a heater shield.

"Hehe! You look like a hero out of a storybook, Draco!" The Rockruff walked around her partner to get a better look at the battle-ready Riolu, giggling.

Walter watched the overexcited puppy and sighed before turning back to the Corviknight. "So, what do we do now?"

Sir Goodwind, who was lost in thought for a moment while he watched everyone, suddenly snapped back to reality and looked down at the Munchlax. "Ah, yes. Now that you've found the weapons you want to use, let's do some practice so we know where you are in terms of combat prowess. Back to the field, everyone." And with that he turned and went back out the door, leading everyone to an unused part of the field. "Now, I'm going to split you all into pairs for this. Draco, you'll be with Bran, Walter with Cedric, and Gracia will be with Guinevere. Get with your partners and practice fighting. But don't go too hard on each other. This is just practice, after all."

The squires spoke between themselves for a moment before splitting off into their respective groups and preparing to fight. Draco raised his shield in front of him while he and Bran circled each other, blocking the occasional light jab from his spear. Walter was more aggressive with his swings, aiming to disarm Cedric or maybe even break his weapon, forcing the Charcadet to keep his distance.

And then there were the two girls. Gracia was most definitely stronger than her opponent, but with how small the Rockruff was it was hard to hit her. But her small size also had its drawbacks; while it was hard to hit her, her hits didn't do much to the Ponyta. Guinevere dodged a light kick from her opponent's front hooves before running around, pouncing and biting at her back legs just enough to hurt. Gracia yelped and bucked her legs, sending Guinevere into the air before landing a devastating kick to the Rockruff.

"GAH!"

Guinevere was sent flying, her yelping getting the attention of the rest of the training squires, who all stopped fighting to see what happened. Gracia turned around and trotted over to her opponent, a look of fear on her face. "Oh, I'm sorry! I-I wasn't expecting that, and I panicked, and… oh, Morrow…"

"I…" The Rockruff groaned before pushing herself back to her feet and shaking herself off. "I-I'm alright! I can keep going!"

Sir Goodwind's eyes widened at the display of perseverance. Pokémon like Gracia had strong back legs, and their kicks were something the Corviknight had learned to respect over the years… but for a Rockruff, especially one of Guinevere's stature, to take a kick and keep going… to say the least, he was impressed. But even as Guinevere assured the Ponyta that she was alright, it was clear she was pushing herself. He approached and put a wing between the two. "That's enough. You both did well, and I know where I need to train you now."

"But… but why?! I can still- GAH!" The Rockruff tried to object, but the pain she was trying to push down became too much for her to handle and she collapsed.

Seeing this, Draco called out to her and dropped his weapons, running to Guinevere and kneeling beside her. The armored corvid sighed, "That's why. You're in no state to keep fighting." Untying the rope keeping the leather armor to her, he turned her over to look at her underbelly, which was already turning red under her fur. "There's a broken bone in there… no, it looks more like a fracture that finally snapped."

Gracia was starting to panic even more now that she could see what she'd done. "W-What do we do?!"

"Calm down, Gracia… it isn't fatal, thankfully. It's something I can deal with here…" He felt along Guinevere's side with his talons for the point where the bone was broken, grumbling when he found it. "Guinevere, what I'm about to do is going to hurt. Do you trust me?"

The Puppy Pokémon weakly looked up at her teacher before nodding, letting her head fall back to the ground.

"Alright… I recommend you grit your teeth." A couple of seconds after he said that he squeezed Guinevere's side to force the broken bone back into position, making her yelp. She stayed still, but she didn't know how long she could with how much pain she was in. "Good, just stay still… Draco, can you-"

By the time he said the Riolu's name he reached down to grab Guinevere's paw to comfort her. He paused for a moment before smiling and turning back to his patient. "We're almost done. There's just one more thing to do." He took a deep breath and closed his eyes…

And then he started to glow.

An aura of golden light surrounded the Corviknight, the black and silvery steel of his armor reflecting what it could as the squires around him watched in awe. Guinevere felt the pain begin to fade as something flowed into her body, like a warm river that soothed her. After a few minutes of this feeling, the pain was almost completely gone.

Goodwind opened his eyes as the glow receded, removing his claw from the Rockruff. "There. That should do it."

Guinevere slowly stood up, looking at her side and moving around a bit. "It… it doesn't hurt anymore…"

"Good. I managed to put the bone back together, but it still needs time to heal. Don't overwork yourself, alright?"

The rest of the Pokémon were still stunned by what they saw. O-Oi… what was that, Sir? That light, it…" Bran tried to wrap his head around what just happened, having little luck doing so.

The Corviknight sighed and turned to his students, addressing them all. "That… is what separates us from the wild Pokémon outside the city. It is something you will all learn eventually, but something you will need a great deal of care to use. But for now, don't worry about that. It shouldn't be difficult to train you all, now that I've seen your strengths and weaknesses in combat. You all did well." He pointed back at the storeroom after that. "Put your weapons back where you found them and rest up for the rest of the day. I have plans for you tomorrow, so save your energy for then."

The squires stayed in place for a while, still stunned by what they just witnessed, before one by one they left to return their weapons. Draco and Guinevere were the last to leave, with the Riolu still worrying about his friend.

"Don't worry, Draco, I'm alright… somehow. I'm still not sure what happened, but… I feel even better than I was this morning!" She smiled up at her ally before they both heard a growl. "But all that fighting made me hungry… let's go get something to eat!"

Draco nodded and went to grab his borrowed weapons, only to see the Pikachu he was training with holding them. "Oi, you shouldn't leave these lying around. I know why you did it, but still."

"Oh… thanks, Bran." He took back the armaments, rubbing off some of the dirt that had found its way onto the blade after he dropped it.

"We should do that again sometime. It was pretty fun, sparring with you. Maybe we can get together sometime and do that again, yeah?"

The Riolu looked back at his sparring partner before nodding. "Sure! Sounds fun. See you later, Bran!" He gave a small wave as he walked off back to the storeroom, happy with how good today went.