"Why is this so hard?!?!" Zhoie was trying her hardest to maintain a wall sit. Curiosity and a naturally competitive nature drove her to start, but it was frustration that was keeping her going. "My legs hurt!!!"

"Oh quit your crying, its only been thirty seconds."

"Thirty seconds?! I don't believe you!"

"Wall?"

"I count thirty three, sir." Wall's face was expressionless, every fiber of his being devoted to remaining in position for as long as possible.

"Good man." Donovan patted him on the shoulder, an action which earned Donovan a smile. "If you feel you really can't continue, you are free to use split to help yourself."

"NO! I refuse!"

"Your legs are looking a bit shaky for how adamant you are. How are you faring Nemo?" Donovan couldn't see her given the massive 'Wall' between them.

"These wall sits have proven themselves to be markedly more difficult than I had anticipated. I must apologize to you and your subordinates for underestimating your strength." Nemo's wavering voice betrayed what would have been a calm visage at any other time. "How many of these are we expected to do?"

"Assuming Wall doesn't falter, we are doing ten sets. Each set consists of two and a half minutes of sitting, followed by thirty seconds of rest. How are you doing Trebar?"

"So far, so good, though I can't see myself being able to last more than three of these sets at this rate." Trebar was probably the most composed of the newcomers, though that didn't mean he was having a good time. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that split won't help me much here."

"Oh? Did you already try it out?"

"Not yet, it's just a feeling I have. It wouldn't make sense for you to be so lax about us using split otherwise." Trebar had instructed Donovan to train them as he would the rest of his men, without the yelling of course. Naturally, that would include holding them to the same standards. "Is my guess correct?"

"Telling you would ruin the fun." Sanna struggled to get the words out, talking interrupted his breathing.

"Would it now? Well, I guess now is as good a time as any then."

Very slowly, Trebar began to supplement his legs with split, easing into it so as to not be surprised by any unforeseen anomalies. Once he hit a certain point his knees buckled and he slowly slid to the floor.

"Aaow." A small, exaggerated cry of pain left his lips. The release of tension was almost as bad as keeping it.

"Welp, that's one down. Congratulations Wall! You aren't the first one to collapse today!" Once again, Donovan patted Wall on the shoulder. His tone was mocking, but who exactly wasn't entirely clear.

"I am ecstatic to see I am making progress, sir." Wall didn't care. He had received praise, he was going to accept it.

Zhoie on the other hand. "What?! The Boss is down? Does that mean I won? Did I finally beat the boss? Hooray!!" She threw her hands into the air, convinced of her victory.

"You haven't won until you complete the rep. We've still got fifty seconds left."

"Damn you!" Zhoie, who was about to start slipping, dug her elbows backward in a bid to stop herself. "Why does the wall have to be so spiky?! It hurts!"

"If it was smooth you wouldn't last a minute." Nemo responded to her wailing comrade with apathy.

"Nrrgh."

"Can it Zhoie, the more you talk the harder it will get." Donovan gave her advice in a bid to keep her from distracting everyone else. "You think they're all being quiet because they want to be?"

"I'd rather be screaming." Len bowed his head forward, his sign that he was beginning to falter.

"Mhm." Titanyana nodded in solidarity.

"Aaaaaand stop."

Everyone collectively sighed in relief, sliding down the wall to sit on their heels before struggling to their feet.

"Why do my legs still hurt?!?!" Zhoie was in the process of violently massaging her thighs, wincing as she went. "Is this supposed to happen?"

"Haven't you ever been sore before?"

"Never this quickly! I thought you gave us rest so that we wouldn't be in pain!"

"The rest is so that you don't collapse. You don't get anything out of it if you don't actually do it." Donovan himself shook his legs one at a time to lessen the fatigue. "Alright, five seconds till we go again. Three, two, one, sit!"

- - - - -

". . . my legs . . ." Zhoie was sitting on the ground with her back propped up against the wall. Currently they were on the ninth rep out of ten, and she had dropped out at the sixth. Donovan honestly thought it was miracle she had lasted that long her first time with those skinny legs, but it was clear that she was paying the piper for it now.

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Sheer willpower and a competitive drive could carry you far, but never beyond the physical limitations of what the body can handle. At a certain point failure is inevitable.

"Think you can last Wall?" Donovan, who was feeling a bit of pain himself, jeered at the weather vane for future repetitions to raise morale.

"For the first time, I see light on the horizon." Wall's eyes were unfocused and he was starting to drool a little. Normally Donovan would be incredibly concerned, indeed the first few times this happened he was, but this was just something that Wall's kind did when enduring incredible amounts of pain. He didn't know the specifics, but Donovan assumed it might have been something akin to deliberate sensory deprivation so that their focus would be drawn away from it, something like the 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' mentality. You can't possibly be screaming in pain if your body doesn't let you know you're injured, right?

"Just don't go walking towards that light, okay buddy? We've got plenty of sayings about lights at the ends of tunnels and such, most of which usually mean that you are passing on to the afterlife. Personally, I'd much rather have you alive."

"Trust me sir, I would be unable to walk to it if I wanted to. It is far too distant for me to approach like this. I will remain seated here as I'm told."

Donovan was relieved that Wall could crack something approaching a joke back at him, though he worried about his apparent lack of breathing. "That's good. Len, Sanna, how are you faring?"

"Considering death, sir."

"Can I break my legs?"

Donovan frowned. He knew this was hard, but he wished they would have a little more fun with it. "I'm going to have to deny you permission to do either of those things. Titanyana, Trebar?"

"Legs hurt."

"Yeah, can't keep it up." The instant Trebar opened his mouth he slid down the wall. He had failed to last the entire minute and a half the last three repetitions, but he was faring far better than Zhoie.

"Not bad for your first time. How about you Nemo?"

"My legs have never been this unresponsive in my life."

Donovan leaned forward to get a view around Wall. He couldn't see her whole body, only her knees, but they were shaking like crazy. "The only advice I can offer is to maybe tighten your core. The shaking only makes it harder."

"Understood."

- - - - -

"Congratulations Wall! You've done it! You've finally made it through the wall sit section without failing. How do you feel?" Donovan slapped him on the back, nearly causing his feeble legs to collapse.

"Accomplished?"

"Good answer. You know what comes next right?"

"How long?" Wall did not seem too enthusiastic about the next exercise.

"As a celebration for your triumph, I think we can cut it down to an hour."

"PRAISE BE!" Len lifted his exhausted arms into the sky.

"In exchange for our incredibly shortened jog, I expect you ALL to dedicate yourselves to resting for the tournament. Tomorrow's workout will be light as well."

"Thank you sir." Sanna was at great risk of toppling, but he bowed in thanks to Donovan regardless.

Trebar did not find the concept of an hour long jog to be very enticing, and was further confused by the notion that this was considered 'short'. "How long do you usually run for, if you don't mind my asking?"

Don held up four fingers as Nemo fell to her knees. "My apologies, sir Strauss, but I may be unable to join you on that run. My legs appear to have failed me."

"Don't sweat it. It's impressive enough that you lasted this long, These three couldn't even get past the fourth rep on their first day."

". . . but we were exhausted from . . ." A small whine reached Donovan's ears, not distinct enough from the heavy breathing to determine who exactly it belonged to, but him turning his attention to the likely suspects was enough to send shivers down their spines.

"Titanyana, as usual you are free to rest so that you can prepare for the lesson today." Donovan disregarded the complaint, now was not the time to punish such insignificant insubordination.

Zhoie perked up at the mention of this, wobbling to her feet. "Will you please spar with me Titanyananana?"

- - - - -

"So are you gonna get up or what?" Rize was tasked with keeping an eye on Cholst while Trebar was occupied with Donovan's exercise, practicing writing the alphabet as Cholst groveled in the corner. "I'm not exactly complaining, but this isn't exactly going to help your image."

"Shut it, kid!"

"Whatever. I've only got to keep an eye on you. I could care less if you blow off my attempts at making you look like less of a tactless dweeb." Rize grew up in an environment that required the bare minimum of deference to status differences, that being the distinction between coworker and customer. He obviously showed respect to his parents and relatives, but in the Sanctum the only people you would ever be expected to bow your head to were the Grand Elders and the Arboreal Maiden with a few exceptions in the form of visiting gods.

Cholst, used to being treated as a superior by most and at worst an equal by his comrades, was blindsided by this blatant lack of respect from someone who he could only see as some worthless commoner. "What was that?!?!"

"Quit acting like a child, its embarrassing. Aren't you supposed to be some big shot?" Rize pointed his stick of chalk at Cholst, irritation very clearly plastered on his face. "I can't see it."

"What would you know about anything, kid?"

"I know that quitting because you get your ass kicked one time is something only whiny little bitches do. Have you really never been punched in the face before? Even though you fight for a living? Maybe Sir Strauss was more correct about you being a spineless wuss than I thought."

"Ha?!"

"Get up, loser. They're almost done with their run."

"Rize!"

"Yes Ma'am!" It only took an instant for Rize to rise from his seat and face the source of the angry voice.

"That is not how you treat a guest, do you understand?" Diana had just come out of the door, and had clearly caught what Rize had just been saying to Cholst. "You are here to learn, both in the academic sense and how to interact with others in a professional setting! Apologize."

"But Lady Diana!"

"Nope! I don't know what went on between you two, but it is unacceptable for you to be so vitriolic when under our employ." Diana's hands were on her hips, her silver eyes biting into Rize's own. "A-po-lo-gize."

Rize wasn't afraid of Diana, in fact he could tell even now that there was no actual anger in her. This was an act on her part, one to both preserve her reputation as well as teach him a lesson. The only problem was that he really didn't want to apologize to this douchebag.

"My apologies, Sir Cholst, for both my words and my actions that served to stain your honor and reputation."

Rize was headstrong to a fault and vengeful to boot, but he was self aware enough to realize that those qualities were undesirable in a merchant. Donovan and Diana were willing to help him improve for free, essentially, and they were even going so far as to teach him things his future competition would undoubtedly be unaware of. English, annoying as it may be, was no doubt the starting point for this.

"Very good. Now, Sir Cholst, I must also apologize for my student's attitude. However I must also ask you to stand up and fix your attitude. Sulking in a ball on the floor like that is unbecoming for anyone, even more so one of your status." Diana calmly walked over to him and tugged him to his feet from his armpits. "There we go. Now if you'll excuse me."