The entire field hummed and glowed a light-blue. As the light died down, tracks appeared around the field, with very tall walls blocking their way at irregular intervals. They had ropes hanging from them.
The field had also turned to a swampy area all around, save for the little space they occupied.
(A.N: Yes,Swamp! Not mud, but stinky, disgusting swamp.)
"Don't fall behind or you are all missing dinner as well." Officer Bridgestone said and turning around, he led them through the swamp to the tracks where they spent an entire hour alternating between jogging, running and climbing. Then, he led them right into the deepest part of the swamp and put them through various rounds of pushups, squats, swamp-swimming and underswamp breathing exercises.
Needless to say, many of them puked their guts out. To make matters worse, the vomit only added to the stench.
Bronze felt sick to the stomach. Enhanced physiques always came with a sharp increase in the sensitivity or modification of one or two sense organs. One was usually, hardened skin. That is, increased skin toughness and as for Bronze, the second one was a heightened sense of smell.
He was usually very proud of his nose, but right now, he wished he had no nose at all.
And then, as if things weren't bad enough, they were ordered to submerge themselves in the swamp completely.
The Shock. The Hurt. The pleas. The hopelessness. Were all apparent on their faces.
Bridgestone noticed all that. HE could not care less about their facial expressions. Instead, he chose to give them a lecture at that moment.
"Do you know that Country D is ninety percent water? And that a good forty-five percent of Country F is filled with swamps and nasty lakes? All we have here is dirty stale water and you dare to want to give up? You will spend a significant time of every single day of your training burying your lazy asses into all kinds of poor simulations of liquids found in the enemies' land. And you will get used to it and love it. And as for those of you who have gifted your gut constituents to sister Swamp, well, that's on you. Do you understand me?"
The response was low, dispirited and scattered.
Bridgestone did not like it one bit.
"Is that supposed to be a response?" He yelled in anger. "I said, do you understand me?"
"Yes Sir!" More than a few yelled their responses in tears. They looked so pitiful, Officer Bridgestone nearly lost control of himself and was this close to laughing out loud at them. He decide to give them a little incentive.
"Whoever lasts the longest down there, gets to eat breakfast."
Silver looked at the swamp that reached his waist and chuckled. There was no way the winner would have appetite for breakfast. Not after this disgusting last exercise. The meal, no matter how sumptuous it was, the person would only see green algae, muddy water and possibly vomit too.
"Heads go in at the same time. In three… two… one… Heads in!"
All bodies sank into the swamp until they were completely immersed in the murky, disgusting water.
Ten seconds later.
A head bobbed out of the swamp. And immediately puked. Again.
"I can't do this! I can't do this! I'm sorry! I just can't." She was crying.
Officer Bridgestone waved his hands and two winged students swooped down and carried her out.
Another five seconds later.
Two heads emerged from under simultaneously, gasping for breath. They had reached their limit. It was obvious they were new to holding their breaths.
Officer Bridgestone instructed them to remain in their positions.
Through the next one minute, more heads emerged, having reached the limit of their breath-holding as well. Some of them puked again, but that was about it. No one was hysterical like the first lady.
Another one minute passed, Bronze could hold it no more and rose up. He aggressively wiped his face and spat out a complaint.
"Ah! Stinks so bad!"
Another minute passed.
Silver's finally could not hold his breath anymore. He stood up from his lotus-style sitting position. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around. When he saw Bronze towering above everyone else, except Wood of course, he smiled a little.
Bridgestone did a headcount of those he could see. Fifty-one.
Another three minutes passed.
"One more person." He declared. "Eyepatch! Out! Now!"
Eyepatch came out calmly and unhurried.
"What the f*ck were you doing there? Taking a nap?" Officer Bridgestone yelled in anger. And a little bit of jealousy. During his academy days, he never lasted longer than three minutes in the dang, smelling, oxygen-deprived swamp.
TO everyone's surprise, Eyepatch looked down guiltily. Officer Bridgestone nearly choked on his own saliva. His face was flushed from unspoken words.
What the f*ck are you?" He finally got some words out. "A f*cking amphibian? Do you breathe through your skin and then filter out the mud or something?"
Eyepatch said nothing. His eyes shifted to another side.
Bridgestone, upon realizing his angry guess was right, could not hold back a curse.
"You F*cking Son of a B*tch!"