Something exhausting

Chapter 21

Out of all the exercises I could think of for the joint training, I didn’t expect it to be an obstacle course, and definitely not something this intense.

“Me neither… hah… but this is definitely… training alright,” Naoya replies to Ori, trying to catch his breath while running.

The first day of Joint Training has started, and he is currently racing against other trainees, both from the Aetheryn Order and the Royal Army, on a very long, magically created obstacle course through Jaruna’s forests. The entire course spanned several kilometers, and participants cannot use any kind of magic by any means.

“You will race through the course using nothing but your own strength and fitness. Just because you can use aether doesn’t mean you will use it for everything. A healthy body will lead to a healthy mind, and a healthy mind will bring you victory.” General Horius’ words from earlier that morning, as he unfurls his majestic wings and flexes his muscles to everyone.

“The course will last throughout the entire day, and you can only take breaks at specified checkpoints. For the first 50 finishers, we have a special prize waiting for them, and for everyone who finishes after that, well, good job! But for those who do not finish the course before the 18th hour of the day, you will not move on to the next program, and you will go through the course again tomorrow, and if you fail that, you will go again the next day, until you finish the course. Is that clear?”

Everyone responds with a resounding “Yes sir!” But Naoya saw a lot of trainees, even ones from the Jaruna’s own Emerald Legion, with worried expressions.

The race officially started at the sixth hour that morning, and six hours later, at noon, Naoya reaches the most dangerous part of the course yet: crossing the torrent at the very edge of a waterfall, by hopping onto narrow wooden posts poking out of the water. He witnessed several people ahead of him slip and fall, never to be seen again, and he tried his absolute best to keep himself safe, staying crouched in order to balance better.

He eventually reached the other side of the river after what seemed like a Herculean amount of effort, and dragged his aching body towards a checkpoint, where he found a pleasant surprise — a pair of fox ears with silvery grey fur.

“Great job, Naoya. You’re part of the lucky half of people who managed to cross the river,” Hisora congratulates him as he collapses on the checkpoint glyph on the ground, catching his breath. She manned the recovery station, a feature on every checkpoint so far that supplied potions and care for the trainees.

“What happened to the unlucky half, then?” Naoya picks himself up and grabs a recovery potion.

“They’re teleported to the last checkpoint. Which I think is after the predator swamp.”

“Damn, I was there three hours ago, I think,” he replies as he finishes the entire bottle. “Am I still within the first 50?”

Hisora raises her eyebrow. “I can’t tell you that. You’re gonna have to finish the race to find out.”

Naoya stretches his legs and prepares to set off once again.

“Well, now that I’ve seen you today, I have enough inspiration to finish in first.”

Naoya flashes a playful smile and dashes away, leaving the fox faunite blushing.

Definitely better than your attempts last night. Good job, Naoya.

As the day went on, he encountered fewer trainees along the way, and he started wondering where everyone was, thinking he might have accidentally taken a wrong turn. But eventually, at sunset, he had successfully reached the course’s finish line, and his confusion turned into an exciting realization.

“Looks like we have our first, and seemingly only finisher today, if no one else arrives in five minutes,” General Horius announces.

Several Knights and soldiers from the Legion applaud as Naoya crosses the finish line and collapses on the ground yet again, still in disbelief of his incredible performance. Cipher and Halo Unit approach and congratulate him for his achievement as a few more trainees arrive after him within the next five minutes.

At the end of the first day, only 16 out of over 200 trainees finished the Fitness Course. Everyone who did not reach the finish line by 18th hour was immediately teleported to it, in order to give everyone enough time to rest.

…

The next day, as the rest of the trainees were once again going through the Fitness Course, the 16 finishers moved on to the next program of the joint training, which focused on magical skills and education. And it was led by two very familiar faces.

“Ummm… good morning, trainees,” Captain Eiren says, shakily fixing his glasses. “I’m Captain Eiren from Aetheryn’s Order’s Halo Unit, and I will lead today’s Magic Exercise. Ummm… yes, thank you. Please go ahead with the rest, Miss Hisora,” he says as he sheepishly retreats behind her.

“Oh, okay then. Right, welcome, trainees, to today’s Magic Exercise Course. This will be less physically intense than yesterday, but of course, you will learn just as much. Before we get started, we have several veteran warriors here with us today,” she points at the group of people at the bleachers of the training hall, and Naoya spots Cipher and the rest of Halo Unit among the crowd, including Ana.

“They will be assisting me and Captain Eiren for the first part of today’s exercise, which will evaluate everyone’s current abilities. We will do this first in order to find out the common points of improvement for everyone, so we can adjust the next few days of exercises accordingly.

“So how will we evaluate everyone? Simple.” She snaps her fingers, and several glass boxes containing what looks like miniature football fields appear around them.

“You will all be fighting to the death,” she casually declares, which immediately makes the trainees confused and anxious.

Captain Eiren steps forward. “T-to further clarify, you will all be dueling three other random trainees, and your goal is to incapacitate or kill your opponent. But don’t be alarmed; none of you will actually die. You will be back to full health once the duels are finished. We believe this is a great way to simulate real life encounters with criminals and terrorists, because they will for sure not hold back, so please focus on achieving the goal. Do not hold back and show us everything you have.”

The Captain’s explanation did little to reduce the trainees’ fears, so in order to motivate them, Hisora announces a surprise.

“Alright, to give you guys something to look forward to, as part of the first fifty trainees to finish the Fitness Course, you will all be receiving a reward according to General Horius’ words yesterday, and that reward will be: completely free access to all services in Jaruna’s most popular hot springs and wellness spa, Viridan’s Rest. And it does mean what you think it means: free everything. The springs, bathhouse, and full body massages. Isn’t that exciting?”

The Jaruna trainees positively cheered, and their excitement infected the trainee Knights who, despite not knowing about the place, were all completely interested upon hearing about it.

“If you all would like to cash in that reward quickly, let’s start the duels.”

She and Captain Eiren hold their hands out towards the trainees, and a large glyph suddenly appears under them.

“You will all be assigned random opponents. Once you hear the signal, start duelling, and don’t stop until one of you is unconscious or dead. Good luck!” Hisora tells them as the glyph glows brighter and covers every trainee with bright light.

Naoya found himself inside a large, open field with short grass, and standing across from him a few meters away was a male faunite with large ram horns. He wore the Emerald Legion’s armor and, like most Jaruna citizens, had well-defined muscles.

“I’m Shiranui Naoya. Nice to meet you!” he bows to his opponent.

“Headford Buttram. Let us have an honorable duel,” the horned faunite bows back.

“Alright then, everyone,” Captain Eiren’s voice echoes through the arena. “Get into position and get ready.”

Naoya and Headford head to their designated starting spots, and prepare.

“Three, two, one…”

“TO THE DEATH!” Hisora cheers.

And the trainees fought to the death.

…

His first opponent fought very aggressively. He struggled quite a lot at the beginning, even sustaining several fractures and injuries.

Realizing that this is what they meant when they said “fight to the death”, Naoya promptly changed his mindset and instantly won, transforming his staff into a large blade and baiting his opponent to charge towards him, splitting their skull open.

His second opponent preferred fighting from afar, soaring high above the field to manipulate the environment on a grand scale, and creating sentient constructs in order to keep him away and crush him.

In the end, after distracting her and her summons with hundreds of clones, he appeared underneath her and threw her back down to the ground, instantly breaking her neck.

His last opponent was craftier, spreading a dark illusion that spanned the battlefield. Their gameplan was to disorient him and easily kill him with one strike, but Naoya had already thought of the perfect way to counter it.

Instead of trying to find his opponent, he decided to simply decimate the entire arena. And so, after forming a protective bubble around himself, Naoya formed his fingers into a gun and started pouring massive amounts of chaotic energy into a small sphere. After almost two years of studying and self-improvement, his miniature sun was no longer just a super-heated ball of fire. It was now akin to a nuclear bomb, and the sheer amount of power radiating from the sphere was enough to completely dispel the illusion. His opponent cowered at the farthest possible place inside the arena, conjuring up as much protection they could. But it was all for naught as Naoya fired the small sphere towards them, and everything turned white.

…

“So, ummm… great job on your duels. We’ve successfully evaluated everyone’s skills and abilities…” Captain Eiren’s sentence trails off as he looks at one of the glass boxes.

These are vessels for small, isolated domains with widespread application, able to contain almost anything inside them. But this one, however, was completely cracked, and if it hadn’t been for Hisora, it would have already shattered into a thousand shards.

Everyone looked at the culprit, some with complete amazement, others with worry.

“I’m sorry, I just have to ask…” Hisora walks over to Naoya, who has a small guilty smile on his face.

“What did you do in there?”

“So, ummm, my opponent covered the entire arena with an illusion, so I thought the most efficient way to clear it was to blow up everything.”

Her brows frowned with skepticism, but a smile formed on her lips. She leans forward and whispers in his ear.

“Fight me later. I want to test you myself.”