The forest was quiet the next morning—too quiet. Even the birds seemed to sense Ridgebrook was changing, shedding the skin of a village and becoming something sharper, harder. Something preparing to kill or be killed.
Leonidas started before dawn.
His roar shook men out of beds and off sleeping mats. "Up! Shields in hand! Spears ready! MOVE!"
Villagers stumbled outside, still blinking sleep away. Some cursed under their breath. Others prayed. But no one disobeyed.
Liam rubbed his eyes as he staggered outside. "He trains people before sunrise? What the hell, man…"
Sun Tzu walked past him, calm as ever. "Spartan discipline begins before thought. It forces the body to work while the mind complains."
"That sounds awful."
"It is," Sun Tzu agreed. "But effective."
Leonidas marched the militia into rows, stomping into position like they were bricks in a wall he was rebuilding with his bare hands.
"Shields high!"
Wood thudded.
"Higher! Are you defending yourselves or inviting arrows?!"
The militia scrambled to adjust.
"Feet wide! Brace your weight! You fall once and you die!"
He stalked down the line, shoving shields, kicking feet into proper placement, adjusting spear angles with the precision of a master sculptor refining marble.
Sun Tzu observed from the side. "His technique is crude in voice but flawless in execution."
"Crude? He's terrifying," Liam muttered. "I can't even look him in the eye before breakfast."
Lira appeared beside him, arms crossed. "You should rest. After yesterday—after everything—you look exhausted."
"I'm fine," Liam said.
"You're lying," she said.
Orin landed beside them with a clank of armor, panting from running laps. "Leonidas said I have heart," she said proudly.
Liam blinked. "He said what.
"Heart," she repeated with a grin. "Heart becomes spear."
Lira groaned. "Don't encourage her."
Orin flexed. "I'm going to be strong, Lira. Strong enough to protect him."
Liam choked on air. "Protect me?!"
"You almost died last battle," Orin snapped. "And I wasn't strong enough then. But I will be."
Leonidas barked from across the yard, "RED-HAIRED GIRL! FRONT ROW!"
Orin straightened. "That's me," she said, then sprinted off like a child called by her favorite teacher.
Lira watched her go, jaw tight. "Does she think she's the only one worried about you?"
Liam opened his mouth—closed it again. No answer felt safe.
Leonidas suddenly pointed his spear at Liam. "CHIEF! Forward!"
Liam froze. "M-me?"
"You broke through. You train."
"Ah, shit…"
Leonidas tossed him a heavy shield. Liam barely caught it before it crushed his foot. The Spartan king didn't explain—he attacked immediately.
Liam barely raised the shield before the spear slammed into it, sending a shock through his arm that nearly dislocated his shoulder.
"Too slow!" Leonidas barked. "Your stance is weak! Again!"
He struck again. And again. Liam stumbled backward, shield vibrating, feet sliding in the dirt. His ribs screamed.
"See?" Leonidas said to the militia. "This is Rank 2 strength—yet undisciplined. Power without technique is wasted."
Liam tried to counter with a clumsy thrust.
Leonidas slapped it aside effortlessly.
"Good," he said. "You attack with anger, not thought. Anger is useful when tempered. Again!"
It went on for nearly an hour. Liam ended up on his back more times than he could count. Lira hovered anxiously, but Leonidas kept pushing him back into the center.
"You get up fast," Leonidas said. "Good."
Liam spat dirt. "Because you keep knocking me down!"
"Experience," Leonidas said solemnly.
Sun Tzu chuckled quietly.
Training continued until the sun fully crested the treeline. Leonidas finally dismissed the exhausted militia.
"Eat. Drink. Return in one hour. War waits for no man."
Former farmers staggered away like they had been beaten by gods.
Leonidas turned to Sun Tzu. "Now your turn."
Sun Tzu nodded and walked toward the field outside the wall. Liam followed, wiping sweat from his eyes.
Sun Tzu pointed. "Here. We build."
Within minutes, he began mapping lines in the dirt.
Traps.
Fallback routes.
Kill zones.
Archer layers.
Decoy weaknesses.
Leonidas leaned over to look, arms folded. "This is clever," he admitted. "You herd the enemy."
Sun Tzu didn't look up. "And you break them."
They shared a rare mutual nod.
Liam stood between them, realizing—with a sudden, terrifying clarity—how different each of his summons were.
Vlad killed to terrify.
Leonidas trained to conquer.
Sun Tzu calculated to win.
He had all three at his side.
But the enemy had two hundred men and siege weapons.
A chill went through him.
Near noon, a runner sprinted from the southern edge of the forest, pale and trembling.
"Chief! The corpses—hanging—just hanging—
Liam's stomach dropped. "Vlad."
He found Vlad returning from the treeline, hands stained darker than blood should ever look, humming quietly.
"What did you do now?" Liam asked.
"Motivation," Vlad said simply.
Sun Tzu inspected a carved warning in the bark of a tree: crude, terrifying, and unmistakably Vlad's work.
"This will harm their morale," Sun Tzu said. "But it may also provoke anger."
Vlad shrugged. "Angry enemies are reckless enemies."
Leonidas nodded approvingly. "Fear breaks weak men."
Liam resisted the urge to rub his temples. "Why is every summon here insane?"
Sun Tzu looked at him with pity. "You summoned us.
Later that evening, scouts returned with something strange—a scrap of cloth unlike any used in this region. The weave was foreign, tight, too precise for local looms.
Sun Tzu examined it. "Rathmore's mysterious advisor again."
"You think he's like you?" Liam asked.
Sun Tzu shook his head. "No. Summons follow patterns. This man does not. His methods are… alien."
A shadow fell over them as night crept in.
Leonidas lit torches along the walls. Men took shifts. The village felt like a pulled bowstring—ready to snap or fire.
Liam climbed the wall and stared at the horizon.
Then he froze.
A faint glow appeared far, far away.
Not lightning.
Not torches scattered randomly.
A line.
A line of marching fire.
Leonidas stepped beside him, eyes narrowing.
Sun Tzu appeared on Liam's other side.
Vlad perched on the railing above them like a bird ready to tear flesh.
Orin and Lira held their breath behind him.
The enemy was already moving.
"They march sooner than expected," Sun Tzu murmured.
Liam felt his pulse hammer.
Three days.
The clock had started.
Leonidas raised his shield.
"Good," he said. "Let them come."
And Ridgebrook braced for war.