This time I was sprinting faster than I had before while cautiously keeping one hand to my mouth and the other in front to navigate the obstacles.
I rushed towards the prison and on arriving there found Leonidas who was cracking his knuckles delightedly.
“Took you quite some time to reach here,” He said, with a diabolical laugh.
“Teacher, what’s going on here?!” I cried out
“What you ask? Why Training of course!” He smiled, as he stretched comfortably
“You have 3 goals.” He said as he stood on his toes.
“1. Survive. 2. Survive. 3. Survive.”
My blood chilled.
“Wh-what do you mean? Stay back! I-I-I will throw up on you again!” I cried out, as I backed away
A black look crossed my Teacher’s face as he lifted up another finger and said, “new rule! Try to give up!”
“I gi-ooof” I screamed, as I flew backward like a ball.
Then cries of anguish and agony began sounding out until they petered off to silence eventually.
A refreshed Leonidas walked out of the prison with a spring in his step.
Blowing on his knuckles, he mused to himself, “Boy’s got tough skin alright. Nearly half an hour of pummeling and he’s still able to wobble about. Impressive.”
Catching sight of his first disciple who was standing pale-faced near the prison, he called out, “ah Alessia, just in time, go in and-”
Before he could finish, she had already dashed inside.
Bemused, he could only follow inside behind her.
Only to find that she was doing exactly what he was going to ask her to do.
Which was to beat the snot out of Faustus!
Dumbstruck, Leonidas scratched his head as he wondered whether his first disciple had developed psychic powers.
Soon, there was only a cooked shrimp shriveled up on the ground and a happy Alessia, who was busy strapping her sword to her waist.
“Sia, I just wanted to give you the sword that you left behin-oof”
“You dare speak of that again? You haven’t had enough?”
“No-no-no, I did. I’ve had more than enough! Can’t you see, I am the shrimp now!”
“Please mercy boss Sia,”
“That’s right, I’m the boss” She harrumphed and coldly turned to hide the smile that was spreading across her face.
Turning back, she found a trembling hand extended towards her.
Grasping it, she pulled Faustus onto his feet and smiled brilliantly at him.
Dazed, he kept holding onto the hand and only let go when Sia began squeezing it with a murderous look in her eyes.
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Shuddering, he quickly let go and then turned to the Teacher with snot and tears running down his face.
“What did I do wrong?” he asked aggrieved. “You beat me up, Sia beat me up. What next? The walls will actually beat me up?”
“Actually, since you ask,” Leonidas smirked as he stepped towards a point on the wall which he pressed upon.
Smoothly, the wall flipped around and the side presented to us was full of weapons.
Grabbing a huge wooden tower shield behind which I could have easily hidden my body entirely, he tossed it to my hand. Or rather, he tossed it, and whether deliberately or not, it hit my pointed nose before falling down to land accurately on my hands.
Grunting with the pain from the hit as well as the weight of the shield, I sank down and looked at it before looking at Teacher with narrowed eyes.
“Why are you giving me a shield?”
“Why to clear your doubts, of course!” He said with a smile.
“Weren’t you curious as to why a gold-ranked knight such as myself would find it disadvantageous to defend himself if I was an ordinary gold rank man?”.
“I told you that I would answer your question later, well later is now.”
“Wait, wait!” I cried out again.
“What?” Teacher said impatiently as he fondled a sword that he had produced from god knows where.
“Why did you beat me up? At least let me know what I did wrong, yes?” I said pitifully.
“Fair point. I suppose I’ll answer your question before clearing your other doubt.”
Sighing in relief, I relaxed, only to tense up when I realized no blow was incoming.
Suspiciously, I shot a glance at my teacher only to discover him peacefully sitting on a chair that had again appeared from god knows where.
Sitting gingerly on the ground beside Sia, I waited for my teacher to begin speaking and he obliged after only a moment of contemplation.
“Your warforce has still not awakened, despite you triggering it twice in succession. The first time, your body barely escaped destruction. I thought that the chances of you triggering it again so soon would be minuscule. But who would have thought that you would be so stubborn as to squeeze out every bit of your potential and trigger it again!”
“Then why did you knock me out before I finished the 32 kilometers?” I asked, not with a hint of anger in my voice.
“Because had you crossed the last step and relaxed, not even Falka would have been able to save you from implosion. The warforce would have destroyed you without a doubt as it erupted without an outlet to divert it.”
Frowning in confusion, I asked, “But if you knocked me out so I didn’t relax, and the warforce kept erupting, then shouldn’t I have still exploded?”
“There your teacher used his medical arts to guide the warforce raging inside you into your body, much like an iron rank would do. I would build it up to the point of destruction and then divert it to another part.” Pausing here, he said with admiration, “In the end, I ran out of parts to divert it to in your body and almost considered sending it to your brain instead. But I don’t want a mentally crippled disciple, so I took in your warforce and condensed it within that potion that you used to enhance it.”
“What!” I jumped up in fright.
“You mean to say I was bathing with warforce? But I submerged myself in it completely.”
“What!” it was the Teachers turn to jump up now.
“Why would you do that?”
“Why would you give me that?” I countered.
“Because that’s a healing potion from the ancient ages,” Teacher said, with frustration in his voice, “Do you know how valuable that is?”
“What!” I yelped.
Of course, I knew how valuable an ancient potion was. Most nobles wouldn’t even take one out to save themselves, preferring to leave it for their descendants.
Yet, my teacher had given it to me out of his own free will?
“Teacher!” I yelled, emotionally
“Disciple!” He yelled, equally loudly
“Teacher!” I yelled, even louder.
“Disciple! Will you stop shouting?” He cursed, even more loudly
“Ah, yes..yes. I was just too overwhelmed by Teacher’s generosity.”
“What generosity? I just wanted you to heal faster so I could ask payment from you for my doublet,” he said annoyed.
Freezing in the middle of wiping my eyes, I looked at him incredulously.
Only for him to shake his head helplessly.
“That was one of the reasons, yes, but the main reason is that if you didn’t temper your body soon enough, you would have still exploded. Don’t you remember what I told you about filling your body parts with so much warforce that you might burst? For that reason, I had to beat you up to integrate the warforce within you.”
“Also, that counts as payment for my doublet,” he said with a small voice.
Enlightened, I understood everything. But thinking of the beating, I trembled again,
“How many times would you have to beat me up Teacher?” I asked respectfully
“Hmm, not many times. 5, just 5 more times would do,” the Teacher replied as he stretched out five fingers in front of me.
“5?” I asked as I felt like crying.
“5,” he nodded affirmatively.
“Sigh, let’s get on with it then,” I said morosely.
“Thought you’d never ask!” He replied insidiously