Adopted Soldier

"From now on you no longer have names, you will be called henceforth as number one, you number two, you number three. You number-" Alex pointed at each of the ten men, the leader of the group the supposed A rank merc was now called number one.

"Finally you are number ten. From this day forth you are now my subordinates and I your commanding officer. When you wish to speak to me, you must first ask for permission. Also when you speak to me, the beginning and end word you should be using is Sir. Understood?" Even though Alex was still talking in his usual indifferent tone, the pressure in his words were real. Now knowing how frightening Alex's level of strength was, the ten men didn't dare to not follow his orders anymore.

"Sir Yes Sir!" The ten men answered in unison.

"At this point forward, I will train you into a powerful force. The training will be torturous, it will be demeaning, and it will be painful. You might wish for death as the training goes on. You might think that my training is hell, but trust me when I say, hell is a paradise compared to what you are about to go through. Still no matter if you are in the verge of dying I want you to stand up and continue on, If I order you to. Do you people understand?"

"Sir Yes Sir!"

"If any of you disobey an order, I will dislocate each of your joints, and I will leave you like that for about ten minutes, then I will put them back just to dislocate them again. That's what you going to get for the first offense, for the second offense the punishment wont be as kind. Do you people understand?"

"Sir Yes Sir!"

"That's good to hear. So let's begin training now. all of you follow me."

...

Alex headed out of the warehouse and to the back. There in the open area behind the warehouse was a customized pool that had a depth of twenty feet.

"All of you put your hands behind your back." When the ten men heard Alex's order they followed it without hesitation. Now Alex proceeded to tie their hands.

"Okay then will start simple. All of you will jump into the pool, and while your hands are tied behind your back. I want you to swim from this end to the other end and swim back." The ten men looked at the distance Alex was talking about. This pool was around sixty meters long.

"Well then begin." The ten men hesitated at first, but when they heard Alex's voice telling them to begin they had no choice. The ten men all jumped into the pool. They tried swimming without their hands and as expected it proved more difficult than they thought. While they were still having difficulties swimming, Alex added something as they surfaced every now and then.

"Oh right the last one to reach the goal will be the lucky one to start off the next training course. No rest for the losers." Hearing what Alex said the ten men started to swim faster. When the first one finally got to the other end, and was ready to swim back, an arrow suddenly whoosh passed him.

"In real combat you never know when the enemy will strike. So you got to be ready at anytime. Don't you worry I will not hit your vitals."

Does that mean you'll try to hit any other part instead. Alex continued to fire arrows at the ten men, but of course he wasn't really aiming at them. He was simply aiming close enough that they think they were going to get hit.

...

It took them a few minutes but all ten men were able to swim back. As they got out of the pool, Alex untied them.

"Number seven front and center." The heavily panting number seven stepped forward.

"You are the last to finish, so you get to start off the next training. Follow me."

...

Alex brought the ten men into the area of the warehouse they haven't been to yet. This area was like an open field, and in it were six hoops. Alex then handed each men a loaded rifle.

"Okay number seven, while holding that rifle I want you to run and jump through those hoops." When the ten heard what Alex said, they felt a bit relieved wasn't this easier than the swimming with their hands tied. They were felt relieved too soon. Alex approached the hoops and lit them up, now they were flaming hoops. "Also since you guys got wet, I better dry you up."

"Begin!" Number seven didn't want to do this, since a loaded gun and flames don't really go well together. Still he had no choice and he started to run. Number seven who was running while jumping through flaming hoops, felt an extreme adrenaline rush. Midway through the run he stopped being scared.

The other nine also experienced the same thing.

"Okay now that the warm ups are done, time for the real training." When the ten men heard what Alex said, they almost collapsed in fear. That was a warm up!

"Follow me men."

...

The next location Alex brought the group was in the forest, near the warehouse. Alex and the group walked deeper into the forest. This time the ten men had backpacks each having different stuff inside.

Once the group was deep enough into the forest Alex spoke.

"Okay then, now I want you men to get back to the warehouse from here. You will set out after five minutes. This training will test how you will cooperate with each other. Let me warn you before hand, I have planted land mines in this whole forest. If you can't remember the safe path we took, then you got to figure a way to find the land mines and pass them safely. Don't worry the land mines I planted aren't strong enough to kill you, but they'll still hurt very much. You will feel like your flesh is tearing. Also if you people don't get back to the warehouse two hours from now, I'll start shooting you from afar. Don't worry I'll be using rubber bullets."

When the ten men heard what Alex said, they wanted to say something but couldn't. What the hell is wrong with this kid! No this wasn't a kid, this was a demon! How the hell was this training?!

"Okay then, timer starts now.." Alex retreated back to the warehouse, while the ten men looked at him in a daze.