Chapter 36 - Growth - III
The sun had barely risen, and the training courtyard was already echoing with Lesley's shouts.
"Push! Push! Move those legs, you little shit! One more minute and I'll add another stone!" Her voice, harsh and merciless, cut through the air like a blade, making it clear that there would be no mercy that morning.
Lesley was in a bad mood, and that meant I would pay the price. The previous day had been tough, but what was coming promised to be even worse.
I was ripped from sleep by a kick that sent me straight to the bathroom, trading the comfort of Dália's embrace for a training session that felt more like medieval torture.
Unlike the day before, weightlifting was replaced by a resistance circuit.
Four courses, ten blocks of five by five meters. The first block weighed five hundred kilograms; the tenth, five thousand.
I was pushing block 2, one thousand kilograms, up a steep and uneven slope. With every step, the block threatened to slip, and I struggled not to be crushed.
Lesley gave no respite. Since breakfast at 5 a.m., she hadn't looked me in the eye. Her orders were brutal, her words cutting. My body was already at its limit, muscle fibers snapping like ropes about to break. And to make matters worse, I still had to control my energy flow, as my reserves were almost depleted.
Two days, and I had slept less than two hours. One hour the previous night, forty minutes this one. Damn Dália's treacherous claws.
But the worst was yet to come. The endurance training was just the prelude to the disaster that would happen in the weapons combat.
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