"So let me get this straight. You went against my orders when I told you to kill all of the pups. And instead, you decided to keep and train the smallest and weakest one because you felt bad for it. Is that correct?" Erik asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"More or less, yes. That's why I tried to run so I could keep it a secret. But I should have known I didn't stand a chance against you two" Ian looked depressed as he spoke.
Erik let out a long sigh. He didn't know what to make of this situation.
Emmett, on the other hand, was off to the side. He watched everything unfold without saying a word.
Ian looked up at Erik and said, "I'm sorry for going against your orders. Please don't be mad. And if you are, then please spare Lucky. I will suffer for his well-being."
Erik let out another long sigh and said, "I'm not mad. I'm annoyed more than anything. I never expected you to be the type to disobey me. You normally do as you're told when asked, so this is unusual."
Erik pauses for a while before saying, "Okay, this is what's going to happen. I will allow you to keep Lucky for now. Since you've been training him and taking care of him for the past few months, I can at least tell that he listens to you. However, If he steps out of line once, I will have no choice but to annihilate him."
"You won't have to worry about that. Kevin already said the same thing. You'll have to fight him if you want to be able to kill Lucky," Ian says, a bit relieved.
Erik perks up at what Ian said. He turns to face him and says, "Wait, you mean to tell me that Kevin knew about Lucky and he didn't tell anyone?"
Ian realized what he said and covered his mouth. Sadly, it was too late for that. Ian uncovered his mouth and explained how and why Kevin knew about Lucky.
Listening to Ian's explanation, Erik seems to get a bigger headache. After another long pause, Erik said, "Okay, this is what's going to happen. You will be allowed to keep Lucky."
Ian perks up happily upon hearing this. He gave Erik a joyful look but it didn't last that long.
"However, I'm still going to punish you for disobeying me," Erik said. He still sounded annoyed with the whole situation."
Ian got worried so he asked, "What did you have in mind?"
Erik didn't even stop to think and said, "Until you leave for the academy, you will take part in the daily morning workout sessions the village guards have to do."
Upon hearing this, Ian's face filled with dread. Even Emmett was shocked by this. Both of them knew how difficult the daily workouts the guards had to do. All of the guards have voiced their thoughts on how difficult it is. Even Erik's best men, Klev and Roy, have talked about how difficult it is.
The reason for this is that these daily workouts and training sessions were designed to be performed by crystal ranks. Roy and Klev, who are crystal ranks, have trouble completing the daily workouts and usually barely manage to finish them on time.
As for the other guards, who are mostly gold-ranked, they never manage to complete it on time. Those who don't finish on time are made to do more work.
If people who are gold rank and crystal rank have trouble getting through the workout session, then Ian, who is copper ranked, wouldn't stand a chance.
Ian voiced his thoughts on the matter and explained how impossible it would be for him to do such a thing. Ian also explained how he wouldn't be able to finish the workout since he still had a job to get to. But Erik didn't listen.
Instead, Erik said, "I don't expect you to be able to complete the workouts alongside everyone else. That's why anything you don't finish in the morning will be completed in the evening. This way you can still go to work and participate in the workout sessions. However, that would still be too light of a punishment."
Ian was already worried as is, so when he heard that there was more to his punishment, he began to feel dizzy. The workouts were going to be enough. What else could Erik add to that?
"To make your punishment more fitting, I will also add that you will not be given dinner until you finish any leftover workouts you failed to complete in the morning." Erik seemed satisfied with himself. The punishment he was giving Ian seemed fair to him, but to everyone else, it seemed hellish.
Regardless, Ian could not complain about the punishment. Trying to go against the strongest person in the village was a death wish, so he would not argue with Erik.
After giving Ian his punishment, Erik stood up and walked back to the house. He entered the kitchen where Crystal and Ellie were cleaning and told them everything that just happened.
Crystal seemed unhappy with the punishment Erik gave Ian. But she knew Ian had to be punished so she didn't voice her opinion. Ellie on the other hand thought Erik was going too easy on him. She wanted Erik to punish Ian harder. She believed that anyone who went against her father should be punished severely, even if it was her brothers.
Ian and Emmett stayed outside for a while longer. Emmett tried to comfort Ian. He knew how hellish Ian's punishment was going to be, but there was nothing he could do. All he could do now was give Ian his full support from a distance.
After the shock fully settled in, Ian accepted what was to come and just enjoyed the fact that Lucky could stay with him. Ian and Emmett stayed outside for a while. Ian showed Emmett what he had taught Lucky and explained how he'd been training him. After talking and hanging out for a while, the two brothers went inside to sleep for the night. They both knew what awaited Ian in the morning.
The following morning, Ian was woken up by Erik at the crack of dawn. Erik had a big smile on his face as he woke up Ian.
"Wake up, Ian. It's time to start your punishment. You don't want to be late on your first day." Erik used his water abilities and threw an ice-cold water ball on Ian's face.
Ian woke up in a panic. He coughed up some of the water he inhaled, trying to catch his breath. He started to shiver as the feeling of the cold water started to set in.
"What the hell, Dad!? Why'd you do that?" Ian turned to face Erik.
Erik gave Ian a big smile and said, "You're going to be late for your first day of training. So I had to wake you up. Now come on, get changed, and let's get going."
Ian didn't argue with Erik. He got out of bed and quickly got changed, drying his hair as well. Once he finished, Ian walked outside where Erik was waiting for him.
As soon as Ian stepped outside, Erik began to walk away. Ian didn't say anything, he just followed Erik from a distance.
After walking for a few minutes, Erik and Ian arrived at the designated meeting area for the guards. There were around twenty men sitting and standing, talking to one another. Among them were Klev and Roy. They were talking to each other.
Once they all spotted Erik approaching, they all lined up and stood up straight. Klev and Roy stood in front of everyone else. This was to show they were higher ranked than everyone else. As Erik continued walking towards them, all of the guards noticed that Ian was following him closely from behind. They all wondered why he was there but no one said anything.
Once Erik was standing in front of them, all of the guards saluted him. At the same time, they said, "Good morning, sir."
Eriked raised his hand to signal them to stop saluting and to greet all of them. Once they all stopped, Erik cleared his throat and said, "I have some important news to tell you. Starting today, Ian will be joining us in our daily training sessions. I want you all to treat him as one of your own and help support him through this endeavor."
All of the guards had a concerned look on their faces. Even Klev and Roy looked concerned. Roy was the first to speak, "May I ask why Ian is going to join us? He's too weak to handle such an intense workout."
Klev spoke right after Roy and said, "Most of our men struggle as is and you plan to add a copper rank into this. Is that a wise decision?"
After listening to their concerns, Erik explained the reason why Ian was joining them. Upon hearing why, all of the guards had a look of shock. They all looked at Ian like a dead man walking. None of them would ever dare to go against Erik's orders, so hearing what Ian did shocked them all. Even Klev and Roy were surprised. But no one argued with Erik. They all accepted Ian into their group and prepared to start soon.
Once Ian lined up with the guards, Erik said, "Alright everyone, since we have a newcomer, I will explain what it is we have to do. We'll start by doing 20 laps around the village. Next, we'll do 400 push-ups, followed by 100 handstand push-ups. After that, we'll do 300 sit-ups. Then, we'll do 200 squats. Finally, we'll end it off with 5 restricted laps around the village."
Everyone had a tired look on their face as they listened to Erik list off what they were going to do. Only Ian had a worried look on his face. He knew the training the guards did was intense but he never knew what exactly they did. After hearing what they had to do, dread started to settle in.
Erik looked at everyone and said, "Now then, let's get started." Afterwards, he bolted away to start the training
When everyone saw Erik run away from them, they all started to run after him. None of them wanted to fall behind so they ran as fast as they could to catch up with Erik.
Ian followed the group's lead. He tried his hardest to keep up with the group but soon started to fall behind. He noticed that everyone, even Klev and Roy, activated their powers to strengthen themselves.
Ian didn't want to fall behind so he too activated his power, alongside his gauntlets, to increase his speed. However, even with his boost, it was not enough. He quickly fell behind.
But this wasn't the worst part. Little did Ian know that someone was approaching him from behind. It took him a moment, but he eventually heard heavy footsteps coming from behind. Ian turned to see what was coming at him, only to see Erik quickly approaching.
Behind Erik were Roy and Klev. The two of them looked like they were struggling to keep up with Erik. Erik, however, didn't seem like he was struggling at all. Even though he was running extremely fast, he looked like he was casually running.
Before Ian even had a chance to react, the three of them blitzed past him. Ian could feel the intense wind pressure as they passed him. It almost knocked him off his feet. Thankfully, Ian managed to keep his balance. He kept running at his top speed but it was not enough. Eventually, Ian lost track of the group ahead of him and was soon lapped again by Erik, Roy, and Klev.
By the time Erik, Roy, and Klev finished doing their 20 laps around the village, the other guards had only finished 14 to 15 laps. Ian, on the other hand, had only finished 8 laps.
Before Erik, Roy, and Klev continued with the daily workout, they sat and waited for the rest of the guards to finish their 20 laps. After a few minutes, all the other guards started to pile in. Once they all arrived, Erik called in Ian and told him to finish the laps later. By this point, Ian had only finished his 11th lap.
Ian was covered in sweat but he wasn't tired yet. He was mad at himself for not being able to complete the first part of the workout.
Once Erik called him over, he walked over to where everyone else was. Once he got there, Erik told everyone to begin the next part of the workout. No one said anything and they all did as they were told. They all lined up next to each other and began to do their push-ups.
Erik, Roy, and Klev finished their push-ups fairly quickly. It only took them a few minutes to finish. The other guards were still doing their push-ups, but most of them were close to finishing.
However, Erik, Roy, and Klev did not wait for them to finish before starting the next part of the workout. The three of them were almost done doing the handstand push-ups when the others finished their normal push-ups.
When Ian saw that all of the guards moved on to the next part, he stopped doing his normal push-ups and began to do the handstand ones. He had only finished slightly over 200 push-ups when he switched to the next ones.
However, He only managed to do 36 handstand push-ups before having to switch over to the next part. Ian had trouble keeping his balance which led to him falling even further behind.
Next came the sit-ups. Ian had an easier time with them but he didn't get to finish them either. He only managed to do slightly under 200 of them.
By this point, Ian was starting to feel extremely tired. He was beyond covered in sweat. His clothes were soaked in it, but he couldn't stop yet.
Once everyone else started to do squats, Ian joined them. His legs were a bit tired but he still managed to do over 100 squats.
Finally, everyone got ready for the last part of the training. Ian didn't know what restricted laps meant. It wasn't until he saw Erik passing out weighted gear to everyone. The gear was composed of a heavy vest, two weighted wristbands, and two weighted ankle braces.
All of the guards started to put on the gear and readied themselves to begin. When Erik reached Ian, he gave him the same weighted gear and said, "Good luck. This is the hardest part of the training."
As soon as Ian grabbed onto the gear, he dropped to the ground. Ian wasn't expecting it to be so heavy. He tried putting on the gear but even that was a struggle. Once he got it on, Erik turned to everyone and said, "Alright ladies, it's time for the last part of the training. You're all nearly done. One final push and you can all get started with your day."
After Erik spoke, he bolted away while also wearing the weighted gear. He was still very fast but he was running a bit slower. Roy and Klev, on the other hand, had slowed down a good amount. They weren't able to keep up with Erik but it didn't look like they would get lapped by him. As for the other guards, they were all dramatically slower. They were all running as fast as Ian had without his gear on.
Ian had it the worst. The gear was too much for him. His legs were already tired from the squats and laps but he still managed to move forward. He was moving at a slow walking speed. It looked like he was going to be crushed by the weight. Even with him using the gauntlets to increase his strength, he was still moving slowly. By the time everyone else had finished doing their five laps, Ian had only finished one. He now understood how truly hellish this was going to be.
Erik walked up to him and said, "Ian, that's enough for now. The training session is over and you need to get going to work. You don't want to be late for that." After speaking, Erik grabbed Ian and removed the weighted gear off of him.
Ian looked extremely tired but once Erik removed the gear off of him, he dropped to the ground. Having the weight removed helped Ian catch his breath and made his body feel better. But he knew it wasn't over. He knew he had to finish the training later in the day after he got out of work. He was dreading that fact.
Ian didn't say anything to Erik once he removed the gear off of him. Ian just turned away and started to walk towards Zoey's.