Chapter 69: Warming Up a Little. (2)
Natasha didn’t wait another second.
"Well, let’s start with the first exercise," she said with total naturalness, as if what she was about to propose had nothing special about it. "First you’ll do a small warm-up. Fifty laps around the courtyard."
Some took time to react.
Others simply looked at her, expecting her to add something more.
"Come on! What are you waiting for? By the way, every ten laps," she continued, "the pressure will double. So I advise you not to slacken your pace."
Silence.
A heavy silence. People seemed to have forgotten how to walk.
"Do you need me to make you a diagram or...?"
There was no starting signal. But it was clear it was time to begin.
The first to move did so almost from inertia, followed by the rest. In a matter of seconds, the courtyard filled with footsteps, with held breaths, with bodies trying to adapt to a load that already, at base, was uncomfortable.
Aku began running without changing his expression.
His pace was constant from the beginning. Neither fast nor slow. Efficient.
The weight of the pressure fell on his body, trying to drag him down, forcing each muscle to work more than normal. But the body he inhabited... resisted well. Strong, adapted, much more than it seemed at first glance.
It wasn’t a problem. Not yet.
After all, the body inherited from Alexander was quite resistant.
Beside him, Bīng Xuě advanced with an almost absurd lightness.
"What a weak warm-up. It was harder running through the mountains," he commented, as if taking a walk. "Though I guess it’s fine for the first day."
His breathing was stable, his posture relaxed. He didn’t seem affected in the slightest.
The mountains where he had trained weren’t normal. The pressure, the altitude, the cold... everything had molded his body in a different way.
For him, this was... familiar.
Even fun.
"Though they could raise it more," he added, almost disappointed.
Further back, the situation was very different.
Gerald was already suffering.
From the first lap.
His breathing was irregular, heavy. His steps lost rhythm easily, and his body, clearly out of shape, didn’t respond as it should. Sweat began accumulating too soon, and every time he tried to recover his breath, the pressure crushed him a bit more.
Even so...
He didn’t stop.
He gritted his teeth, adjusting his glasses in the middle of the run, as if that gesture could help him somehow.
"Shit..." he murmured between breaths. "This... is worse than it seems... I shouldn’t have stopped training."
The tenth lap arrived.
And with it...
The change.
The pressure increased.
Suddenly.
Some stumbled. Others immediately reduced their pace. The air became heavier, harder to fill.
Aku noticed it.
But didn’t stop.
Bīng Xuě smiled slightly.
"Now we’re talking."
Gerald... almost fell.
But he didn’t. He kept running.
The pressure didn’t stabilize again.
That was the real problem.
It wasn’t just the initial weight, or even the first increment after the tenth lap. It was the accumulation. The fact that it didn’t stop, didn’t retreat, didn’t give respite.
Twenty laps.
The pressure doubled again.
The change was brutal.
Several students drastically reduced their pace. Some began walking. Others directly stopped, leaning forward, trying to recover the breath that seemed to escape before even filling their lungs.
The air became dense.
Each step required double the effort.
Aku maintained his pace.
Not exactly the same, but close enough that the difference was barely perceptible. His breathing became a bit deeper, more controlled. His muscles responded efficiently, absorbing the load without collapsing.
Alexander’s body was resistant.
Very much so.
But even so, Aku began to notice the exercise’s real weight.
It wasn’t something he could ignore indefinitely.
Beside him, Bīng Xuě kept advancing.
Slower than before.
But smiling.
"This is better now..." he murmured, letting out a small laugh between breaths. "Much better."
His body adapted naturally, as if remembering something he had already experienced before. He didn’t seem to suffer. Not in the same way as the others.
Thirty laps.
The pressure multiplied again.
This time, the impact was immediate.
A student fell to his knees.
Another stopped completely, unable to take another step.
The atmosphere filled with heavy breathing, gasps, bodies at their limit.
The ground seemed to pull them downward.
As if each muscle were being crushed from within.
Aku slightly reduced his speed.
It was inevitable.
His body kept responding, but could no longer ignore the accumulated wear. Sweat began sliding down his forehead, and his breathing, though controlled, was more evident.
Even so...
He didn’t stop.
Bīng Xuě tilted his head while running, observing the others.
"They’re all falling..." he commented, almost curious.
Then he looked ahead again.
"I guess it’s normal."
Forty laps.
Another increment.
This time, even the simplest movement became heavy. The advance had been exponential. If the heroes were still normal humans, they would have been crushed.
Though Natasha wasn’t unfair. Though it didn’t seem like it, she had detected those who didn’t have a sufficiently resistant body to withstand the pressure, being gentler with them.
But that didn’t remove the difficulty.
Lifting the foot. Taking a step. Breathing.
Everything required conscious effort.
The courtyard was no longer full of runners. Now there were few. Very few.
Aku remained among them.
His pace was slower, yes. But constant. Without wavering. Without breaking.
Bīng Xuě too.
Though now his expression showed something new.
Interest. As if he were finally being challenged.
"This is... starting to feel like a real warm-up," he admitted.
And then...
Gerald.
He kept running. Far behind. Very slow. But he kept going.
His body had been at its limit for a long time. His breathing was chaotic, his posture unstable, his legs trembled with each step. He had stumbled several times. Had almost fallen several others.
But he hadn’t stopped.
"Don’t... stop..." he murmured between gasps. "Don’t... stop..."
He adjusted his glasses again, though he could barely see clearly. His legs weren’t responding well.
His body screamed for him to stop.
But he kept going. If never giving up was his only talent, he couldn’t fail now.
Fifty laps.
The last increment. The pressure reached its maximum point. It was crushing.
Literally.
The air seemed solid.
The ground... impossible to push.
The last steps weren’t running.
They were dragging.
Aku crossed the mark without changing his expression... but his breathing was deep, marked.
Bīng Xuě arrived shortly after.
And smiled.
"That was good, for warming up at least."
Gerald...
Took longer.
Much longer. But he crossed.
And the moment he did... He fell to the ground. Exhausted.
But not defeated. He had made it.
Natasha looked at the heroes with disapproval. Most hadn’t made it, but she didn’t expect more either.
The pressure began to diminish slowly.
Releasing it suddenly would be a mistake, since it would cause a pressure difference the body couldn’t withstand.
"Well, looks like many couldn’t even handle the warm-up," the woman commented disappointed. "Well, since it’s the first day we’ll leave it here, but tomorrow will be twice as hard."
The woman announced, thus ending the class.