The Crimson Horde
The sun beat mercilessly upon the plains.
Day after day, the khalasar gathered under Leonidas' command. Twenty thousand riders accustomed to chaos now faced the impossible: order.
The Spartans drilled them like iron-smiths hammering raw ore into steel.
"Shields locked!" Leonidas barked, his voice carrying across the field.
The Dothraki fumbled with borrowed bronze shields, unused to the weight. Horses whickered restlessly, riders cursing. When one man laughed and tossed his shield aside, Leonidas hurled his spear into the ground before him, the bronze tip quivering an inch from his foot.
"Pick it up," Leonidas growled. "Or be crushed by it."
The man obeyed.
The training began with pain. Riders tripped over formation drills. Horses panicked at the clash of shields. More than once, tempers flared — until Spartans broke them down with brutal efficiency.
Daenerys watched from the edge of the camp, silver hair glinting in the sun. She saw men who once scorned her struggle, sweat, bleed under this new discipline. She saw their pride clash with the Spartan way — and bend.
Days turned to weeks.
The Dothraki learned to march in ranks. To hold a shield wall. To thrust a spear in unison. Their chants grew steadier, their lines straighter.
At night, Leonidas stood before them, cloak red against the firelight.
"You are not Dothraki alone," he told them. "You are not Spartans alone. You are the Crimson Horde. The storm that does not break. The wall that does not fall."
The riders roared their answer, slamming shields to the beat of their horses' hooves.
"A-oo! A-oo! A-oo!"
Daenerys' heart swelled. This was no longer Drogo's khalasar, a horde of chaos and fire. This was something new — a weapon forged in blood and discipline.
And it was hers.
The System pulsed in Leonidas' mind:
> [Quest Complete: Train the Horde]
Reward: Crimson Horde unlocked — 20,000 disciplined riders with Spartan phalanx training.]
New Ability: Cavalry-Phalanx Hybrid Formations.]
Leonidas turned to Daenerys then, his face fierce beneath the bronze. "They are ready," he said.
"Ready for what?" she asked softly.
He met her gaze, voice like stone.
"War."