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Chapter 15 - The training

It was now midday, and Arthur laid down on the grass in Niles' back garden. He's been training for close to seven hours, and it was hell. He was questioning if his body truly went through an upgrade, because he has never experienced this intensity in training before.

"One minute is up! Get up." Niles shouted as he stood still on the other side of the garden.

Arthur got up straight away. Last time he tried to stay on the ground for just one second longer, Niles came and kicked him lightly over twenty feet in the air. he was not going through that again. Arthur was panting with his hands on his knees, trying to get as much oxygen as he could whilst Niles just smiled at him. He only let Arthur relax for one minute every hour, for almost seven hours straight. His only free time other than the one minute breaks, was when he was forced to email his professors and tell them he was not going to be present.

Arthur was sweating profusely. He was expected to drink water in the one minute he had, and one minute was not enough to both rest and drink water. He put his hands up, ready for whatever Niles was going to hit him with. His smile became even bigger, he was getting ready to attack. Arthur's clothes were stuck to his skin by both sweat, and blood. Niles was not going easy on him, telling him he's going to recover fast anyways.

Niles took one step towards Arthur, and that one step was enough to cover the twenty meters that were between them, instantaneously. Arthur couldn't even see him really, but he dashed to the left, trying to dodge his attack. 'Now how do I attack?'

He successfully dodged the strike, but in the millisecond that he took to try and figure out how to attack Niles, he felt a blow to his solar plexus as if someone used a sledgehammer to try and kill him.

"Too slow. Think faster." Niles said, looking down on Arthur who was on the floor hunched up into a ball hugging his torso. "Get up."

Arthur staggered as he got up. 'How many more hours of hell do I have to endure?'

"I thought you said that for a beginner…" He started coughing uncontrollably. " I though you said I'm fast for a beginner."

"Oh you are for sure, but I'll be damned if I let a pupil of mine stay at the level of a beginner."

Arthur was regretting his choices. His blood was boiling, or at least the little blood that was still in his body. Niles dashed towards him again, and he dodged perfectly and without thinking, he threw a left hook.

He was expecting to feel some contact on his fist, he was not expecting for the sledgehammer to hit him again, and this time in the liver. Arthur dropped to the floor, and vomited… he doesn't know what he vomited, he didn't even eat.

"You didn't even think this time. You just threw a wild hook and hoped that it'd make contact. Disappointing." Niles said disapprovingly. Arthur didn't know what expression he had on his face, he was too busy trying to ignore the pain.

"Get up."

***

Arthur finished his shower and when he left the bathroom, he was confronted with a massive bedroom. Niles told him that this is his room, and Arthur was ecstatic. He might've been completed decimated just half an hour ago, but now that he was in his room, he was happy. Niles wasn't lying, his wounds were all healed and only some bruises were left on what used to be his pristine skin.

The room that Niles gave him was on the second floor, with an unobstructed view of the plains and forest that was on this side of the mansion. The room contained an emperor sized bed, a couch in one of the corners, a large tv mounted on the wall with a couch just a couple of meters away from it. There was a desk and chair by the window, with a bookshelf close to it. Niles didn't furnish this room too much, Arthur was free to modify it as he wishes. All he needs to do is tell Niles what he wants and it'd be in his room the next day.

Before training started, he asked Niles about how sleep works for enhanced people, and found out they only needed to sleep once every week or month depending on their strength, and some of them don't even need to sleep. This is unless they exert themselves too much, and Arthur was surely exerted enough to want sleep right now.

He was under the covers in his comfy bed, but instead of sleeping he was thinking of what happened in training. He may have been borderline tortured, but he had to admit that he learnt a lot. They kept sparring until Niles deemed that Arthur could break his limits. Arthur found that when enhanced people break their limits, they emit some sort of smoke with colour dependant on the person. When Niles saw white and blue mist surround Arthur, he told him that training is finished for the day.

Arthur started thinking back and wondering what he could've done better. He was replaying every single spar that happened between the start of his training and the end of it, which was around five in the afternoon. Before he could fully analyze even half the spars, he was taken in by his tiredness, and he fell asleep.

***

Niles was sitting on a chair in his basement, scribbling some words in a notebook in a language that he created to make it impossible to decrypt.

'Arthur is strong and he's got great mentality. Good.'