The second day went well for Eneas until it was time for the advanced hand-to-hand combat class. Although that day he loaded the predefined dodging tactics into his neural link, it seemed that his body refused to internalize them and assumed them as its own. .
He wasn't the only one, but that didn't console him; he didn't move forward, he didn't progress, he didn't get the hang of it, he received blows and more blows, and even when trying to force himself blows that in the previous class he had learned to dodge he received square in the face.
His face was a poem, not just cuts and bruises; he had received a real beating over the course of two hours of class.
Lieutenant Achilles remained unchanged; he did not even change the exercise or give a single explanation, he simply watched as the cadets beat each other to death, the most skilled escaped better, the strongest knocked down their opponents with a bad blow many times.
He did not bother to help them or take care of them; that was the rest of the cadets' things, as if he were not in charge of their health and well-being.
The next day was even worse; that day he received the beating first thing in the morning, so he spent the rest of the day depressed and in pain, which affected his performance in the rest of his subjects that day.
When the fourth day of school was at its worst, he could only think about what would await him in the sparring session. All the progress he had made in handling the Cyclops came to nothing; he stumbled when he moved the robot's legs incorrectly and was left lying on his back like a cockroach, unable to get up.
By the time he got to the gym, he had the word fear painted all over his face. At Ajax's first punch, he fell on his ass. He had reacted with fear and apprehension. He was not an inexperienced cadet; he was a soldier who had spent a year of hard training in the afterlife and an entire war. But his body reacted with fear; he did not feel able to dodge those blows, and he did not want to receive damage. His body prevented him from doing so...
Lieutenant Achilles continued without saying anything, even though he saw everything, not a word of motivation, not a piece of advice, nothing. That afternoon, Eneas, determined not to let himself be defeated, went to the gym. It was full of cadets exercising, but he chose a return ball training machine. It was a simple mechanism; when the ball was hit, it was thrown forward after recoiling. Emulating a blow.
Every time he was hit and every time he fell, Eneas got up. The rest of the cadets looked at him and laughed. They made fun of him, but he didn't stop. The gym was gradually becoming empty, but as Eneas continued, his bruised face began to be an unrecognizable bloody mass.
Exhaustion overcame him, but when he approached the door Lieutenant Achilles was there.
"Good night, Lieutenant. If you allow me in, I'm going to sleep, I'm exhausted.
Despite all his effort, despite all the pain, Eneas had not progressed even a bit; he felt bad, sore, tired, frustrated and sad. If I continued like this, getting a position at Argos would be an unattainable dream.
Lieutenant Achilles did not move. Eneas did not understand what was happening.
"Do you want something? Have I done something wrong?"
Achilles put a hand on his shoulder and said.
"Follow me"
"Lieutenant, it's been a hard day so I'd appreciate it if he let me in."
Rage was beginning to well up in Eneas's exhausted body, his fist clenching, although he doubted he had the strength to raise his arms and put himself on guard.
"I told you to follow me, cadet Eneas Dardano, it's an order"
Were they going to demote him and send him to the soldiers? Had his performance been so disappointing in those days? Didn't he serve as an officer? Eneas was wondering all this at that moment as he followed the lieutenant through the corridors.
When they reached the door to the simulation room, the lieutenant opened it.
"Access authorization code B51A12402E, enable the A7 capsule, load Ragnarok advanced simulation program"
The lieutenant simply pointed to the simulation cabin and did not say anything else. Eneas did not understand anything but he entered the cabin, connected his neural link and began to assimilate the information from the different screens that appeared on the visor of his helmet.
"In this simulation, you will pilot a fighter whose weapon system has been damaged, so you will only be able to dodge the attacks, the training objective will be met when you exceed two minutes of simulation, for each additional minute you will be awarded an additional score, press accept to start the simulation"
Although it was the first time that Eneas used this simulation program, he was a great pilot and had real combat experience in which the weapons available to his fighter were as if they did not really exist. He knew perfectly how to overcome the challenge.
Despite the fatigue, despite the pain, Eneas did not leave the cabin until 7 minutes and 23 seconds had passed. On the screen in the room, Lieutenant Aquiles had followed the entire simulation, and the system showed a score marked as A+.
"Cadet Eneas, before you go to sleep, listen to the question I'm going to ask you; you don't need to answer me; just think about the question: how can it be that one of the cadets with the best piloting skills is capable of getting an A+ score after four days of an unparalleled beating the first time you use this simulation, and you are not able to understand the essence of an Advanced Close Combat Class? Thoughts on that: if by tomorrow you have found the answer, I'll wait for you at the gym; if you haven't found it, I recommend you quit before you hurt yourself.
Lieutenant Achilles turned around and walked away, leaving Eneas in the silence generated by his question.