Hounds of War [Yandere Generals x Female General Reader]

11. The Punishment For Deserters.

The next day dawned bright and early, and the first rays of the sun peeked up over the horizon, signaling the start of the eight-day trial. Esclave and the six other Estainian soldiers who General Denlleonis brought with her were excused from participating in the trails as they had already completed them, but everyone else had a grueling eight days of torture before them.

The eight-day trial was a special training method created by general Denlleonis as an instrument of sorting the worthy soldiers from the unworthy. During the eight days, the soldiers would be denied food and shelter and forced to complete a laborious task every day. It was made to push the human mind and body to its absolute limit in a meer eight days. As such, many would die or be proven unfit to continue. General Denlleonis gave this practice the tender nickname of 'thinning the herd'.

Y/N had ordered the other Estainians to help her see that the rules were enforced and the tasks completed, (even with the threat of a whip if necessary.) It was Esclave's first time overseeing an eight-day trial, and he was quite enjoying himself.

Having once suffered through the torturous tasks himself, he got a feeling of twisted pleasure from being the one riding through the ranks of miserable soldiers seeing to it that they continued whatever march or drill they had been instructed to complete.

He would get an intoxicating rush every time one of the soldiers would resist an order and he would kick them in the ribs from where he road to punish their insubordination. He recalled vividly how grueling his eight-day trial had been and how he longed for it to be over, but now that he was leading it he found watching the other men suffering so addictive that he didn't want the trials to end.

The eighth and final day dawned, bringing with it the promise of the most arduous task of all. The night before a team of ten strong draft horses had been harnessed to drag a large stone into the center of the prairie. It would be impossible for anyone to move the mammoth bolder on their own, but that was the task.

It was meant to be an impossible task. It was meant to teach a soldier that even if it was impossible, he still must do as commanded. Esclave had passed the final trial by refusing to give up and straining to move the immoveable boulder for hours, until the sunset on the eighth day.

He smirked at the memory as he sat astride his horse next to general Denlleonis, looking out at the exhausted and bedraggled remnants of the Army. One-quarter of their number had either been proven unfit for war or died in the trials.

"Today marks the day of your final trial," General Denlleonis' voice rang out clear and commandingly over the army. It sent a tremor of fear through the gathered army as every man now was aware just how brutal she was. "your command is to move the boulder behind me. You will try it one by one, anyone who fails will be punished with five lashes for disobeying orders."

"N-No!! I CAN'T TAKE ANY MORE OF THIS!!" I sudden scream was heard from among the ranks of men. Weary from the seven previous trails, one man's resolve finally broke and he fell into hysteria and bolted away.

"I was hoping someone would try and run," Y/N muttered to Esclave, a wicked smirk stretching her lips. Every time she held a trail at least one soldier would try to run, and the punishment for deserting was severe. "I've been looking forward to a bit of hunting."

She spurred her horse in pursuit of the soldier. The men that stood in her way threw themselves out of the path of the horse's hooves, knowing that she'd be more than willing to run any of them down in the pursuit of her goal.

It didn't take long for her to catch up with the soldier, she was on horseback and he was running in a wide-open prairie, making him easy to spot. Lost to reason he was not running in a logical manner making him even easier to catch.

Once she was in range Y/N took hold of a coil of rope with several weights at the end and flung it at the soldier. The contraption tangled itself in his legs, bringing him to the ground. Before he could scramble back to his feet, she gave the rope a firm tug, setting the rope around his ankles in place.

She turned her horse and trotted back towards the gathered army, dragging the attempted deserter through the mud behind her. By the time she halted her steed before the giant boulder the man was covered in mud from being dragged across the ground.

General Denlleonis dismounted from her steed and freed the soldier's legs. Before he could attempt to run again, she bound his hands to a wooden pole that had been prepared earlier and forced him onto his knees. She tore the back of his tunic open and pulled a long whip from her saddle. "It's time you learn the punishment for deserting."

She brought the whip down against his exposed flesh with a crack. "This is how disloyalty is rewarded." The soldier shrieked as the whip lashed his back, again and again, leaving bloody red lines in its wake.

"Shut your sniffling mouth and take it like a man!" She ordered him with another blow from the whip. "With every lash, you lose a bit of weakness. Do you feel yourself becoming stronger? DO YOU?!"

Esclave smirked as he watched. Tingles of pleasure traveled down his spine at the sight of Y/N brandishing the whip accompanied by the screams from the soldier. The scars on his own back prickled as he remembered the severe whippings he had undergone in his time as a soldier.

The lashing continued until the soldier's back was a raw, bloody mess, but still, Y/N showed no signs of abating her onslaught. A raw fire had taken hold in her eyes as she struck him, but she faltered when someone took hold of her raised hand, stopping her from landing another blow on the soldier.

She turned her head to look at the man who had the gall to stop her, a mix of irritation and curiosity in her eyes. Everyone in the Army was too terrified to intervene and risk suffering the same punishment as the soldier currently tied to the pole, everyone but him.

Baccoso towered over Y/N, clutching her wrist in his over-sized fist. Due to his large stature and calm demeanor, he had done better in the trails than most of the army, he could have even given Esclave a run for his money when it came to his performance, something that was not lost on Y/N.

He looked down on her with dark emotionless eyes and said in a deep rumble "that's enough. If you beat him anymore he'll die."

She turned her attention to the bound soldier and was quite surprised to see that his whole back was already littered with bloody lashes. "You have a point, Baccoso," she eyed him up and down as she wrenched her hand from his iron grasp. "I don't normally like to kill my soldiers."

Returning her whip to its holder on the saddle, she retrieved a flask and poured its amber contents over the soldiers back. He screamed as the alcohol flowed into his open wounds, cleaning them. Before he had any chance to recover general Denlleonis untied his hands and shoved him towards the giant rock. "Your order is to move it, soldier. Fail to do so and you will be punished with five lashes for disobeying orders."

A/N

General Denlleonis is back!!! I bet you spent the last ten days convincing yourself that Y/N Denlleonis isn't that bad; she's that bad.

Sometimes I think that I've made her too brutal, but then I think of how fun she is to write, and then I don't feel so bad.

Either way, it's great to be back writing this book, and

Until next time I'll see you on the other side

~J. C. Coltt.~