Hookwolf watched with approval as the two squared off.  It was clear from the start that Bradley was thrown off guard by how strong Menja was, and doubly apparent that he wasn’t used to fighting someone with better reach or more power behind their hits.

Yeah, to be fair, most opponents aren’t like Menja.

Many opponents in this world aren’t like anyone.

But he was trained, and he was familiar in how to use his body, and he adapted quickly.

Which makes knowing how to adapt one of the most critical skills in a battle, even more so than it already is in our world.

Bradley shifted to the defensive, and Menja struck with sharp kicks to his side and lunging steps forward to jab at his face.  He timed a grab and quickly shifted to an arm lock, forcing Menja to bend over.

Not bad!

For just a moment, it seemed like he had control of the situation, but Menja snapped back to her normal size, slipping her arm free, then struck at him, simultaneously growing.  He was shoved to the ground.

Whoop.

“Enough,” Hookwolf said.

So, how’d he do? Was that good enough to not be embarrassing?

Menja smiled, then she grew a foot and a half.  Bradley stood at a height of just over six feet, but she still loomed head and shoulders above him.

Can Menja talk? At this point it’s starting to feel like she can’t. We’ve never had any dialogue from either of the giant sisters.

She unstrapped her armor and threw it aside.

hot uh, I mean

Of course, the natural armor that comes with the power doesn’t count.

Bradley looked at Hookwolf, a flicker of concern crossing his features.

This is unfair, but it makes tons of sense for it to be. In this world, if you do go on to fight for Hookwolf, chances are you will from time to time be up against enemies like this.

So if Menja’s pick fights her… does Ralph have to fight Hookwolf?

“Part of the reason for this is that I want to see how you do against someone bigger than you,” Hookwolf said.  “You’re tired.  You’ve been training and sparring all day, Menja hasn’t.  Tough.  If you’re going to represent the Chosen as one of our elite, you’re going to be expected to go up against capes.  Things will be just as one-sided or worse.”

Yeah, pretty much.

Hookwolf is a garbage human fighting for awful things, but his training methods, so far, seem reasonable to me.

“Some of you have earned special attention.  You’ve fought harder, meaner or better than the others.  Bradley, come here.”

He’s framing it as an honor that is given because the people picked are better, not because the other people are worse, if that makes any sense.

The bald man approached.

“Menja.”

Menja stepped through the gathered recruits to stand beside Bradley.

This is very reminiscent of what the Slaughterhouse Nine are doing.

“You two are going to fight.  No weapons, no armor.  Menja?  You can use your powers, just a little.”

Oh wow.

I suppose it makes sense that the mundane mooks need to be trained in dealing with enemies that can use powers, too.

He could see a few of them stand a little taller at that.  Hookwolf had been a fighter before he’d been a fighter with powers.

Oh yeah, he was part of an underground fighting ring or something, wasn’t he? I think we learned about this in 5.1 or 5.2.

He had spent a great deal of time around athletes, knew all too well that just a little recognition and a little motivation could make a world of difference.

Between this and apparently being able to memorize nearly 34 names over the course of three days of interacting with the entire group?

Hookwolf might want to consider becoming a teacher.

Of course, the whole wanted Nazi serial murderer thing might get a teensy bit in the way, but he might want to consider it, at least.

“Stop!” he ordered.

As one, his recruits pulled away from their fights and sheathed their blunted swords.  Not all of them were able to stand straight.  More than a few had bloody noses or black eyes.

That seems like it’s to be expected, with how they were wailing on each other.

“You’re three days into our week of training.  If you’re still here, you’re doing us proud.”

Okay yeah, I don’t think Bonesaw is hiding among them. Probably not any of the others either, but almost certainly not Bonesaw. She sounded way too impulsive to keep up a ruse like this for three days.

Hookwolf looked at Menja, and she raised one hand, two fingers extended.  Signalling, she pointed to two of his thirty-four recruits.

Found some with the killer instinct?

Also, what if today’s Slaughterhouse member has snuck in among the recruits?

I’m sure they’d have the killer instinct.

A bald man in peak physical condition and a twenty something girl with the ends of her hair in thin bleached blond braids.  A little too much like cornrows for his liking.

Wildbow is sometimes disturbingly good at writing the perspective of awful human beings.

So, could the girl be Bonesaw? By the sound of it, she might be a little too crazy to go for the sort of infiltration tactic I’m halfway suspecting, though. Or maybe she’s Shatterbird, or the newbie, or Crawler (I don’t know Crawler’s gender). Or she’s none of them, and maybe the guy is one. Or maybe I’m just spouting a load of nonsense and it’s neither of them.

Maybe it was supposed to be ironic.

I suppose.

He liked her first pick, though.  He’d noticed the bald man.  He’d committed their names to memory on first meeting them, but he’d forgotten some.  He knew the man was Bradley, the girl was Leah or Laura or something like that.

Seem like alright names. Bradley – or rather, Brad – does have connotations to jock-hood, I think, but considering “peak physical condition”, that might be appropriate.

His own pick was a lean scrapper in his early thirties, Ralph.

He wrecks things for a living.

The main adversaries of the Chosen were mercenary soldiers, police and trained heroes.

Hm, sounds like they’re not really fighting the Pure. For now, at least. I’m guessing we might learn more about the split later, quite likely before this chapter is over.

Why should the standards of his Chosen be any lower than theirs?  No, if his group was to represent the true Aryan warrior, they had to have higher standards.  They had to be the best.

The ideology he’s backing it up with is disgusting, but from a pure strategical standpoint, his logic is sound. If he really wants to do well against the group’s enemies, why should his standards be lower?

It was that knowledge, that commitment that drove his trainees to give their all.  Too many saw the Aryans as hatemongers, failed to see the greater picture, the hope for raising humanity to a higher level.

Yeah, sure. You don’t think the massive hate crimes and, well, hatemongering might have something to do with that?

Also – and this is not a criticism of Wildbow’s writing or choices – Hookwolf saying “the Aryans” in that fashion legitimately bugs me on a personal level. Sure, it covers almost all Nazis without conforming to that term, but here’s the thing: As the German Nazis saw it, it also covers me and most people I know in real life. The Germans invaded Norway early because we – except the Jews, of course, and others on their no-good lists – were worthy in their eyes.

So when Hookwolf implicitly equates Nazis and Aryans like this? He’s dragging me down with him, saying that in his eyes, we’re equals. It’s like Kaiser staring at Bastion, but unlike Bastion, I’m not a racist piece of shit.

I do suppose he might be saying that others don’t see the difference? Still, though, it does hit personally.

He stopped at one end of the room to watch their progress, watch for the ones who had the killer instinct he needed.  Stormtiger and Menja were at the other end of the room, looking for the same.

I’m sure killing people you don’t like has nothing to do with people thinking you’re all about hate.

Stormtiger had cast off his mask, and wore only face paint.  He still walked a little stiffly from the gunshot wounds that he’d taken to his legs.  Othala had attended to them over the past few weeks, would give him a half-hour to an hour of regenerating ability each night until he was better, but knees were slow to heal.

Hm. Sounds like Othala’s power is sort of like Flechette’s except instead of giving inanimate objects temporary reprieve from physics, she can bestow temporary powers to people. This might be limited to only a few different types, or even just the regeneration. 

Also, it seems like she has a limited amount she can do this, since she’s only giving Stormtiger 60-90 minutes or regen per day. Maybe it’s exhausting, or maybe she has a limited number of uses for each power per day?

Menja wore her armor, her expression stern as she watched the form and habits of the combatants.

This is a long paragraph.

What’s up, Menja? Coping with the loss of your sister alright?

Cricket sat in one corner of the room, typing on a laptop without looking at the screen, taking notes on the trainees.

I suppose there’s no one better to do this. No reaction time, start typing the moment something noteworthy is seen.

The high-pitched song of steel rang through the air as sword parried sword, struck shield and fell to the ground.

Oh, interesting. Some sort of medieval fighting classes, or something like that?

Somewhat less sweet were the guttural grunts and muffled slaps of flesh being battered and struck.

This implies that whoever is narrating likes the sound of these weapons being used in battle against each other. I suppose “song” does too.

Maybe Hookwolf is having his mundane subordinates learn to use bladed melee weapons?

A boot in the stomach, an elbow or fist striking a face.

Looks like they’re not limiting themselves to the weapons, which suggests this leans more towards training for genuine fights than for sparring.

Hookwolf walked between the groups of his sparring recruits.

Eyy, I got it right! 😀

They were tired, pushing themselves through their exhaustion.  All wanted to be here.  The training was too punishing for anyone who didn’t.

That’s ominous.

With small exceptions for eating and sleeping, their days were filled with exercise, hand to hand sparring, gun training, and practice with melee weapons.

Got some variety. That’s good for them. Especially the fact that they’ve got gun training and aren’t foolishly limiting themselves to melee weapons to stick with Hookwolf’s power theme.