'What is this hell?!' Nico screamed internally. He lay on the earth gasping for air. His peers were all in similar states, but the brown-haired boy was by far the most exhausted. His skinny frame dealt him a massive disadvantage.
William stood facing the trainees with a smug smirk on his face. A soft breeze ruffled the man's white hair. They were currently in an open square near the Weapons Pavilion. Contrary to most of his student's expectations, the instructor didn't start off with weapons training right away.
Instead, he did something more devious… something that gave the older man no shortage of pleasure.
The white-haired instructor made the trainees train… physically. Push-ups, laps around the square, sit-ups and planks. You name any bodyweight exercise, and they had done it, Nico thought bitterly.
The brown-haired boy's chest rose and fell as he greedily gulped all the air in the surroundings he could. His muscles screamed in protest and his clothes were slick with sweat.
Henry wasn't faring any better.
The raven-haired boy panted heavily, although to a slightly lesser degree than what Nico was doing. His legs ached. Sweat matted his brows. He spent his period of rest on the ground cursing William and his ancestors.
Leon, however, was a completely different story. The burly boy only seemed a little out of breath. His work in his father's forge had raised his physical endurance by several notches.
Shifting his gaze to the duo, who looked as if they were about to die from exhaustion at any moment, Leon tried to hide the grin on his face.
If there was anything that allowed him to escape his thoughts, it would be to exert his body. Hence, he had no qualms with the feeling of his muscles burning in agony. The stocky young man was used to it. And dare say… even enjoyed it.
"All right. That's your one-minute break up. Back to work!" William's voice, full of barely contained glee, boomed across the square. All the trainees groaned before reluctantly standing up. They each walked to a different station.
Nico ended up in the push up station. He muttered some curses before getting to work.
Up. Down. Up. Down. Up. Down.
The brown-haired boy continued to exert his muscles over their limit. Keeping his back straight, he made sure his chest hovered within an inch of the ground before using his muscles to propel himself back up. Just these three pushups alone strained his body even more.
William had already been making them work for the past hour and, albeit with extreme unwillingness, gave them an occasional break. Nico grit his teeth. He had to weather through the pain and strengthen his body.
As the saying went, no pain, no gain.
The speed of him completing the pushups, which was already abysmally slow, became even slower. The lanky teen's arms quivered from the exertion. He was about to collapse.
"Stop! You have thirty seconds to move onto your next station." Luckily, before Nico could fall to the ground from fatigue, the Instructor shouted across the square. Wiping the sweat on his face with his sleeve, the brown-haired boy staggered to his next destination.
Soon, the rest period ended, and Nico resumed his training. The next few stations passed by in a blur. Crunches. Leg raises. Sit-ups. The skinny boy didn't pay attention to his surroundings. His mind focused on a singular goal:
Not giving up.
"All right! That's enough for today." William spoke in a regret-laden tone. A chorus of cheers rose from the exhausted trainees. Nico, who had no energy to do anything other than pant, let his body collapse to the ground with a thud.
'I did it!' the brown-haired boy marvelled. To Nico, this was a massive accomplishment! In the past, he couldn't last less than half an hour, working at such an intensity. Now, he had lasted for well over an hour.
'I guess this goes to show what determination and a strong will can do.'
However, that success came with a price… which the boy starkly realised. His whole body hurt. It was as if his muscles were literally on fire.
Minutes passed as the instructor let his students recover some of their spent energy after the brutal workout.
Five minutes after the training session ended, Nico could finally sit up, albeit with high difficulty. Shifting his gaze across the trainees, he soon spotted his room-mates.
Henry lay sprawled across the hard ground. The raven-haired boy stared at the sky intensely. He was probably reminiscing, the brown-haired boy thought. Next to him, the burly redhead had a small smile on his face.
Beads of sweat slid down Leon's face.
This was what had made his hellish childhood bearable.
Exercise.
It was the one thing that wouldn't abandon him… or judge him because of the purity of his blood.
Leon sighed and began gazing at the firmament above. The cerulean skies were devoid of any clouds. Rays of heat cascaded down from a fiery ball of mass, high above. The burly boy basked in the warmth with a peaceful smile on his face.
Nico shifted his gaze again. This time toward the centre of the trainees, where another redhead sat arrogantly with his nose turned up. Slight perspiration appeared on his brows. Other than that, it appeared the haughty trainee hadn't exerted himself that much.
The brown-haired boy wouldn't put it past Lucas if he found it beneath him to exercise. It seemed as if there was no limit to the noble's arrogance. Nico thanked his lucky stars that he did not end up like that.
Arrogance was a deadly poison.
It worked its magic slowly over time… weakening your will and causing you to become stagnant and eventually made you view others as inferior. Your pride would become your biggest weakness.
In a world where death was always around the corner, either by the hands of corrupted Demons or some other nasty horror, underestimating your enemy was extremely foolish, Nico thought.
Another five more minutes passed before William's voice resounded once again. "Now that you've received sufficient rest, it's time to move on to the last part of today's session." the instructor's gaze swept through the exhausted trainees. "You will choose one weapon that you will focus on for the rest of the Training Camp. But first, we're all moving to the Weapon Pavillion."