'Who could have found out.'
Alex thought as a cold sweat trickled down his forehead. Alex decided to stop his reading and sleep as his body was still weak from the previous events and revelations that had transpired in his life. Alex entered his bed and covered himself as he fleeted away from the plane of consciousness.
"I see you are back you insignificant being," The being he had seen earlier on in one of his dreams.
The being was still casually sitting on its throne but unlike before where his head was blank and had no facial feature and even hair currently he has a mop of dark blue hair but he still was devoid of facial features. Alex tried to speak but he could not find his voice just like before.
"Either way the resolve in your eyes currently unlike before where you were unfocused intrigues me," the being said.
"I hope you show me something interesting as eventually we will meet again but here is our parting gift," the being said while pulling out a broadsword and slashing downwards causing a red arc of light to be released from the blade causing Alex to be erased from that plane of existence.
Alex woke up immediately trying to calm down his nerves and regain his composure by breathing in and out deeply until his heart rate returned to normal.
'Who is that being and what does he mean by we will meet again?' Alex questioned his thoughts.
Alex looked outside and saw that it was night-time and he put away those thoughts to the back of his head in order to not think much about it as drifted back to sleep forgetting the earlier incident in his dreams.
The rays of sunlight peered through the window in Alex's room to signify it was daybreak, the rays of the light squarely landing on his face causing him to turn in his sleep and cover himself even more with the blanket. To his dismay the sun wasn't comfortable with him just in bed; it was as if the rays curved to hit him squarely in the face, causing him to turn once again in his sleep. Alex felt as if his ankle was grabbed causing him to stir awake as he was dragged out of bed and was dangling upside down as his shirt obscured his vision. Once Alex removed the hem of the shirt from obscuring his vision using his hand he saw Zein who had a very large sadistic smile as he had a closed eye smile which signified his intentions were clearly torture not training and this time Emilia cannot save him from this ordeal.
"Old man, can I please have breakfast?" Alex requested looking for a way to get out of this ordeal.
"Those who don't work don't eat," Zein merely said he dragged Alex out of his room and then out of the guild.
Alex was still dangling in the air during the trip out of the guild Zein carried Alex to a forest on the outskirts of town. Once they arrived Alex was thrown to the ground causing him to backflip in order to prevent him from landing on his head.
"You shitty old man, are you trying so hard to kill your student?" Alex questioned in anger.
"It just conveniently slipped my mind on how to let you down," Zein said while shrugging his shoulders as if to say there is nothing he could do about it.
"Conveniently slipped your mind! So you were lowkey waiting for my injury!?" Alex questioned in anger.
"I see you are spirited now it's time to get into your training," Zein said.
"Huh…," was the only intelligent reply he could come up with.
Zein pulled out a scroll from his cloak which 'accidentally' fell off from his hand causing it to roll over revealing its contents which enticed Alex to look at it causing his eyes to widen in disbelief. Alex saw that there was a long list of things to do and his face paled drastically causing Zein to gain a satisfied smile as he watched Alex's despair kick in.
"Old man, you are crazy!" Alex shouted at Zein causing him to conveniently pick his ear.
"Hmmm… you say something," Zein said, causing Alex's ire against him to rise significantly.
"First of all I want you to complete a set of five push ups, five sit ups and finally try to dodge my attacks for five whole minutes," Zein said while having an even more sadistic smile as he said the part of dodging the attacks.
"It sounds easy but it won't be as you will be wearing weight's five kilograms on each limb," Zein said.
"Isn't that overkill?" Alex questioned, clearly fearing for his life.
"You are lucky you are a child because I would have used heavier weights," Zein said as he tied the five kg weights on each arm and each leg of Alex.
Alex felt his movement become heavier and stumbled before regaining his will power through sheer will power.
"Now get to it dear student I mean brat," Zein said knowing which buttons to poke in order to provoke a reaction from Alex.
These words caused a fire to light up in Alex's eyes in order to prove that he wasn't a brat leading to him entering the push up posture which caused him to truly feel the weight of the weights he was currently wearing. Alex did the push up tho with a lot of difficulty as he nearly collapsed while doing the fourth one. Alex did the sit ups but was able to succeed as it was slightly easier than the push ups which he was doing earlier.
"Let us have a break. Tho I wouldn't recommend you eating or drinking anything now unless you want your bowels to be more empty than before," Zein said, causing Alex to sweatdrop as he fell on the ground on his back as he tried to regain his breath.
After fifteen minutes Zein started jumping around while stretching his body causing multiple 'pop' sounds to be heard this heavily alerted Alex's danger senses kicking them into overdrive leading him to narrowly dodge a punch.
"I am giving you a headstart. Last part of today's training commences now," Zein said, his voice becoming ominous.
Those words caused Alex to take off running into the deeper parts of the forest while evading trees and branches. Alex hid in a hedge hoping that it would save him from Zein's attacks.
"I am safe from the old man for now," Alex whispered silently while sighing as he tried to spy through a small opening in the hedge in his crouched position.
"Who is safe from who?" Zein asked in a slightly higher pitch of tone.
"Mahn you haven't met a crazy middle aged man," Alex said but something clicked in his mind and turned his head to meet with a smiling Zein who was also in a crouched position as him.
Alex upon seeing this he got up and immediately took off from his position in the hedge. Zein threw a right hook narrowly missing Alex's head but the force from it was enough to dent a tree. Alex upon seeing the destruction caused by that rogue punch he paled a considerable amount. Zein ran quickly appearing as if he teleported into the path of Alex as he readied a punch causing Alex to slide through the Apart legs of Zein. Instead of continuing his run after the slide he used his hand to propel himself to the height of Zein and delivered a kick on Zein's 'unguarded' head causing a smirk to appear on Zein's face. Capitalising on this distraction Alex ran away with all his might as he dodged the occasional attack or two and even multiple that came from Zein. Alex accidentally tripped on a branch giving Zein an opportunity to deliver a punch that Alex sensed the immense pressure coming from it.
'Wait, wait, wait, now,'
Alex thought as he waited for the punch to near his face. Upon seeing the punch where he wanted it he used the branch he had tripped on to slow down the momentum of the punch giving him an opportunity to dodge. He jumped on the hand which was about to punch him and capitalised on the slight shift of weight to deliver another kick to Zein's face. He back flipped from Zein and continued to take off into the forest.
'I can't win in my current state. I need to go to the opening where we were earlier in so as to check the time,' Alex thought as he cleverly climbed on a tree and stealthily hopped from one branch to the next.
Alex reached the opening and saw that Zein had left a stopwatch there he grabbed it and saw that he had five seconds remaining to dodge Zein's onslaught of attacks. He dodged a punch from Zein aimed at him and was cornered against a tree causing Alex eyes to slightly widen and he dodged right on time only for him to see Zein had stopped attacking and chasing him.
"You did better than expected," Zein said as he gave out a bright grin.
"You are interesting. Now come have your reward," Zein said after pulling out a large amount of food from his pocket dimension.
"Food!" Alex shouted in joy.
'He really is something. He didn't realize it but if I hadn't coated the side of my face he kicked in his last attack it would have most likely been fractured. Alex I can't wait to see what the future has in store for you,' Zein thought impressed as he anticipated what the future held for his apprentice.