Chapter 7 The power of food
Panting on the floor was Cyan, 5 hours has passed has passed in this hell that Arlom called ‘training’.
Every two hours the pain inflicted by the poison would come back to haunt him, but each time Arlom has delayed by one minute into giving him the violet potion, why?
Well that’s because each time the piles of rocks at the side of Arlom will increase, and with a bigger amount of rocks Arlom started to thrown them faster, but somehow they still depleted in two hours and 1 minute, increasing one minute each time.
This was his plan all along to teach Cyan the basics of skills of the legendary category, math’s, and the sub category, time counting!
In this world a university student would be considered a genius in those skills. In this 5 hours, Cyan has learned the skills that he did not knew he have in him. Like keeping track of how many rocks were left by looking over the height of the pile rocks. The time interval between each rock thrown that would change every two hours becoming faster and faster. How to keep track of the time, every second need to be counted and an accounted for to dodge the next rock.
Meanwhile he was learning how to move his body, while gritting his teeth’s getting ready to get hit, no rock has missed his mark as of yet.
He also has learned other not such good things, like the oppression to be against a terrific opponent that you could not beat, and even worse the nerve twisting pressured to be against the clock, every two hours there will be an unbearable pain, and Arlom will delay giving him the violet potion by one more minute each time
The pain of getting his by a rock was like a joke to him now, it really hurt and he was in pain, but it was nothing compare with pain the poison in his body did, at least his fingers would not be broken anymore, he had learned that blocking with his hands was also a bad idea too.
He also has learned a new cheat that Arlom would do, if he still have some rocks by the side even when the two hours are up and the poison has taken effect, he will keep throwing rocks until the pile is empty, he also learned that the poison was always on time, without a single second of delay.
Cyan was learning how long 2 hours can truly become when ones perspective of time changed, as the time can become very long or very short, he wanted to drag the time as long as he could in the previous 2 hours, but when the pain started he wanted to be over with it as fast as he could, changing his vision of how time is perceived.
But the thing was, Cyan did not managed to dodge a single solitary rock until now, with 1 hour and 3 minutes left into the clock, and with all those skills that were just approximations that he was making, and not a real and exact number.
Even if his most accurate number was time, and his brain has never stopped working, trying to calculate everything, trying to guess where the next rock will be coming, how much time is left in the clock to the poison to take effect, how many rocks are left, where he need to move to dodge the next rock and how that will affect the his next movement.
Even with all that, he still has not managed to dodge a single rock so far.
In this last hour, Cyan has just started moving on with his body reflexes, it was what you call instinctive movement.
But in actual fact it was more like his own body was too tired of being hit by the stupid rocks, and was revealing against the brain, and so, it started moving on his own, it was like his body was saying something like.
‘you are a worthless brain, you keep getting us hit, over and over again we get hit, you are to slow, I will not listen to you any more, I will handle the movement from now own, you just keep track of the time and predicting where the next rock will be, I will handle the rest, but I am sure you are so stupid that can’t even just do that’
It was like his own body was developing a brain of his own and was actually calling Cyan brain stupid.
But of course even with that, at the end of the hour the result did not change at all, Cyan still got hit by all the rocks until the end, you could even hear the brain mocking the body now, it was like it was saying something along the lines of
‘HA! See, who is the stupid now, is not like you could dodged a single rock too, you stupid body, you are slow as a snail, is not my fault that we keep getting hit, it is because you just are too slow, are you in pain? are you? Good, you deserve it for being stupid, I will not help you with the pain now’
The only thing the body could was ‘tsk’ and keep moving on.
In the fight between the body, that was in huge amount of pain, and the brain, that was tired to death for overworking his own being, a huge roaring sound was heard breaking them apart.
The brain and the body went in silent, now that it was the turn to the stomach to act, he was awake now and very angry, after all, what the stomach thought, it was plate full of tasty food was in fact, food full poison, so, more than the brain or the body, he was in a world of pain right now.
But even so the stomach still refuse to throw out the tasty food out, there were good stuff in that food that can’t be waste, and the hidden reserves of the body were empty.
‘Throwing out the food? Don’t joke with, whom would be able to thrown a perfectly fine food just because it has a little poison in it’
After all, it was his personal battle again the poison, a battle that he was losing from the beginning.
But every two hours and some minutes help would come, Cyan will drink a potion that will calm down the pain, making the stomach able to bear with it and sleep while still trying to neutralize the poison, but now the time was up, and the stomach was roaring with full force now, and it was making Cyan to suffer immensely, it could be metaphoric, but the brain, the body, and the stomach, all of them were part of the same entity called Cyan, if one of them is to suffer, all of them would too, even if just was with less intensity that the others, they were connected.
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The brain could not help but to sigh.
‘look what you have done, you have awoken up him, that stupid stomach that can only think of food and can’t even throw the food when I told him to, we would not be in this mess right now, I don’t know who is more stupid you or him’
The body was speechless, why are you calling me stupid when was the stomach that did that not me.
‘Shut up you stupid brain, it was supposed you that needs to keep track of time and when he would wake up, you should be the one trying to calm the stomach down, this is all you fault after all, because you could no convince him to thrown out the food with the poison back then’
The brain sighed, this was a pointless fight, what is done is done, they just need to hold the pain and wait, and it will be over eventually, this fight has repeated three times already and it was always the same.
Even while this chaotic ambient was taking place inside, Cyan has keep trying to dodge the rocks until the last one, this time, he needs to bear the pain for 3 minutes, 3 full minutes with strongest pain he has felt so far, the longest and pain filled moments of his entire life.
A pain that was making him unable to move
But in this history there is a hero after all, and that hero is…..
‘You Fools, did you think I would throw out such perfectly fine and tasty food, this pain, this poison…. This is nothing I will also devour it and I will have the best food ever after that. ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRRR’
With a big roar that has come of the stomach, the pain that was making Cyan almost unable to move, lessen enough to the point that he could move out of the way of an incoming rock, this was also thanks to the tremendous efforts of brain and body were always putting, even if they were shocked by the stomach, they still knew this was not over, it was never over.
With the pain out of the way, they could try one last time before the pain came rushing back, they did not wanted to be hit again, they hate it with everything they have, even it was just this time, just this one rock, they wanted to dodge it.
Even if the body was barely holding up, he still did not give up, the body was ‘thinking’ something like
‘That stupid stomach, if he could win against that stupid poison, even if just for one moment, I can also win against a stupid rock, hey! Stupid brain are you ready’
The brain has also not given up
‘You don’t know anything else that calling stupid to everything?, but whatever, you better be ready too, you stupid body, I always have been keeping track of the stupid rocks, the next one will be at the head and center, with how is Arlom personality is, it will be there I can guaranteed it’
The body nodded with his imaginary head
‘You better not be wrong about this, or I will always call you stupid brain’
The body could not stop to say his last words to the brain, now, everything was in his ‘hands’
As soon as the rock left Arlom hand, Cyan body started to move automatically without him being aware of it, the body moved without checking out the trajectory with the brain or anything else.
‘Dodge dodge dodge’ was everything that was in Cyan brain, body and…. stomach.
Sometime before all that drama inside Cyan body started, Arlom has keep throwing rocks at Cyan.
Even went he went immobile due to the pain of poison, no, it was easier hit him this way, with Cyan not moving at all, so he aimed to his head, the best target he has thought of, so he threw the next rock without thinking too much about it, so, he did not put any especial method or anything in it, this time, it was Arlom being stupid and over confidence, and maybe it was his soft heart acting up.
Cyan looked the rock flying in slow motion, he knew where that rock was headed, he did not think about it, but he knew where it will land, but, this time the pain was gone, and now he could move again.
‘I just need… to get out the way… of this… one rock’
Cyan thoughts were actually too slow, his body has started to move even before that.
It was like responding to his wishes even before he made them.
He could not look so he chose to close his eyes, he did not wanted to see the rock now, and he just wanted to concentrate into moving out the way of the rock.
He was moving with everything he got now, but ‘it is too slow, I can’t dodge it with this speed, the rock will surly made a ‘s’ or a ‘u’ curve like the others and will not miss me’.
He the target was sure about that, but even so, he did not stopped moving, he can’t give up now, and he has to move forward, what comes after that will always come.
‘What if the rocks does an impossible curve, so what, I would still be trying to dodged it’
After thinking that, he hear it, it sounded like the first rock throw that Arlom has made at the beginning.
PAHHH!!
And then he fail pain in his head, he was sure of it, the rock has ricochet and has hit him he has failed.
‘I was hit after all, but this time, it felt somewhat different, maybe he use a harder rock? Well it doesn’t matter the next time for sure. I will dodged it, if not then next after that until I can dodge one’
A harder rock, Cyan was truly stupid somethings.
Opening his eyes he could see that his face was against the floor, his head has hit the floor, and with a stupid look in his face, he looked up in the direction where his master was standing, he was expecting to see him throwing him another rock, but what he saw was the frozen figure of Arlom not moving at all, and just looking behind Cyan with a fix gaze and his expressionless face.
Cyan could not help it and follow the gaze of his master, turning around he could see it, behind him, in the target wall there was two holes.
The first hole was made by the rock that Arlom had thrown as a demonstration, and now there was another one, even when the rocks had ricocheted off the wall before, none has left a mark in the target, it can only meant one thing and one thing only.
Cyan has finally in fact dodged his first rock, well you can called a strike of pure luck, but never the least he did it, he dodged it.
Letting a sigh Cyan lost all strength in his body and fainted on the spot only thinking
‘I did it master I really did’ with a smile in his face Cyan was now in the dream world again.
Arlom in the other side was happy, but, at the same time he was angry with himself, he had done it again, that last thrown was a metaphoric mercy kill, it was just to knock out Cyan, so he can take rest and not feel that pain for the full length of 3 minutes, with the poison that was at its peak.
Even if this was a training session, his soft hearth for Cyan was growing, after 8 hours of what you can call torture, Arlom though ‘you have done it very well until now Cyan, here have some rest, we will carry on tomorrow’,
Cyan was not supposed to move and dodge that, he was immobile by the strongest pain a human could feel, but he did, he move out the way and dodged it, and that was not only luck, he has also move faster than before to dodge that.
If he has moved like always, he would surely get in the head, even if was a throw without any tricks on it, it was still the faster thrown Arlom has made, it was the same speed as the first, as his demonstration.
‘The poison has loosed the effects 1 minutes before the estimated time, did I miscalculated? No, Cyan body has become tougher than I thought it will take’ Arlom nodded his head ‘Good’ he thought.
In actual fact there was not last bottle of violet potion, after 8 hours and some minutes, the poison in Cyan body will lose all the effects naturally, so there was no need to giving him one last potion for the pain, he has just to hold for 3 minutes, the rock training it was all about this last tree minutes.
Those last minutes will concentrated all the of 8 hours pain, normal humans beings would die just with that amount of pain alone, but Cyan not only has managed to survived it, he overcome it, this is amazing on his own rights, but at the same time, he has also overcome his own speed too.
Letting a sigh, Arlom started to walk to Cyan, and without saying anything he took him to Cyan his room and leave him there, turning around and walking away, you could hear his voice while he talking away.
[Arlom]: “You did very good today Cyan, I will be back in 2 hours, rest until then, I will bring you the best and tastiest food you ever had, so wait for it”
‘ROAAAAAAR’
A sound that was like a roar was hear, it was like the stomach was saying something like ‘don’t make wait too long you stupid poison freak’
Arlom did not notice what the roar meant beyond that Cyan was very hungry, so Arlom hurry up and left Cyan room.