Chapter 20: New Procedures

"Wait," Lucius shouted, stopping the squad before they could disperse into the surrounding forest.

"If this is an attack procedure, what are your win conditions? I'm guessing you plan on attacking me, but it's nearly impossible for you guys to hurt me to any significant degree, so what will we count as a 'kill'?" he asked, referring to the blatant size and volume difference between them.

"Hmm, I hadn't thought about that," Alpha replied after taking a moment to think about it.

"How about this..." Lucius responded, putting his hand to his chest, "If you any of you manage to touch my chest, you win." The leaflings looked at each other, a look of disbelief on their faces.

"I'll take it easy on you guys. Just try your best."

"Surely you-" one of the leaflings in the squad tried saying, but Alpha stopped him mid-sentence.

"Thank you, Captain," Alpha replied, before gesturing for his squad to continue their attack procedure. Within seven seconds the team was nowhere to be seen, they're presence completely cloaked by the darkness of the night forest.

~I wonder if the moonlight will be enough for me to see them,~ Lucius pondered, as he slowly stalked his way into the forest.

~Though this is good exercise. If I neglect training I might lose my edge.~

The forest was deathly quiet, it seemed that the leaflings had learned a little something about stealth during the hiding exercise he had carried out a few weeks prior. Though this was an attack excerize where he had to be playing on the defensive, he figured that they were still leagues below him when it came to tactics and actual stealth, it would take them months, if not forever for them to actually catch him if he took this seriously.

~They were actually doing so well, but I guess it takes more than a week to become good at this,~ Lucius thought to himself as he spotted a leafling foot poking behind a shrub.

~If there's one over there, then the others should be close by~ he thought, looking around for other leaflings, however, the moonlight that trickled past the overhead forest canopy was barely enough to let him see more than a few meters away, so he had to squint his eyes quite a bit to make out anything.

~He's alone?~ he wondered, looking back towards the leafling shrub only to find that the leafling had disappeared. He walked towards the shrub to search for footprints, but before he could, he saw that the leafling had moved to another shrub further ahead.

~Are they unaware that they're feet aren't hidden?~ he wondered to himself, moving towards the shrub, but as he got closer the leafling bolted, disappearing into the night.

~He saw me?~ Though he wasn't taking this seriously, his stealth should've been sufficient enough to fool the leaflings, unless...

~Are they watching me?~ he thought, turning around to see if they were any eyes on him.

Silence.

If they were watching him, then they were doing an excellent job at it, none of them seemed to be moving a fiber.

As Lucius searched through the dark, he just barely noticed another leafling foot a few meters away, this time he approached it nimbly, without making so much as a decibel as he zipped through the forest. Still that was not enough, the leafling bolted the second he approached, disappearing into the night once again.

~They're definitely watching me,~ he realized, deciding that chasing them was foolish.

*Crack*

Lucius shifted his focus to where the sound had come from. It came from his left, just a few meters ahead.

~Aha,~ he thought, backing away from the source of the sound. However, another sound emanated from right behind him, whatever it was approaching fast.

~Trying a pincer maneuver? Nice try Alpha, but we're out in the open, I can escape in any direct-~ his thoughts were brought to a halt as several other sounds emanated from all around him, the leaflings had surrounded him, he had fallen for their trap.

~So you've trapped me?~ Lucius thought, a smile on his face as the sounds kept getting closer and closer.

~Sadly, just trapping me isn't the win condition, Alpha,~ he continued, running towards a nearby tree. Though their plan was sound, the execution seemed to be flawed. The leaflings weren't approaching him at the same speed based on the sound of their movements. A few of the leaflings lagged behind, meaning that he could force an encounter before they got the chance to gang up on him.

Lucius put his back to the tree so that they wouldn't be able to sneak up on him from behind, and looked forward to face the leafling that was coming from his front. However just as the leafling seemed to have caught up to him, the sound of movement vanished.

~Huh? What's goin-~

"Gotcha!" shouted Ghost, pouncing on him from above.

"Ghost?" he asked, catching her midair and slamming her to the ground, pinning her with one arm. A split moment later all five leaflings rushed at him from the sides, "Surround him, he can't take all of us if we jump him at the same time," Alpha shouted.

~Sigh, how wrong you are.~ Lucius kept his right palm on Ghost's back and spun like a tornado, sweeping all five leaflings to the ground before they could even so much as touch him.

"Did we lose?" asked one of the leaflings, picking himself off the ground.

"You surpassed my expectations, but yes, you did lose," Lucius responded, getting off of Ghost.

"I didn't know that Ghost was playing too?" he added as the leaflings grouped up in front of him.

"Sorry, we had to cheat in order to catch you off guard, it was the only way," Alpha responded.

"It would've worked too if you hadn't attacked me. What gives, I thought we were the only ones allowed to attack," Ghost complained, a few scratches on her leaf from Lucius's earlier counterattack.

"You never said I couldn't, and besides, I doubt you'll ever meet an enemy willing to fold their hands while you attack them."

"But still, good job. Now let's review your shortcomings, and discuss a suitable punishment for your failure, even despite the use of trickery," Lucius hollered, his demeanor akin to that of a training sergeant about to prey on fresh cadets.