What Lies Within Us.

Chapter 20: Training Day.

Kaiser's P.O.V.

"Welcome to your first day of training." Said Milo as he paced back and forth. "How did you guys sleep?"

"Sleep? What's that?" I asked, struggling to keep my eyes open.

"Question..." Dale began. "Was it necessary to wake us at at 7:30 am even though we literally just got home 2 hours ago?"

"Get used to it." He said evilly. "I haven't slept in a week."

"Oh great." Brooklyn mumbled.

"So today we'll focus on testing your physical abilities. We'll get started with endurance. All I want is for you guys to run a lap around the Mezzarin.

Ava's eyes dropped. "But this place is like 12 miles in circumference..."

"15 actually." He replied.

"That's over half a marathon." Brooklyn retorted.

"Indeed it is."

"And if we die?" Dale questioned.

"Make sure your body is easy to find. Annnnnnd go!" He said before we could pester him any longer.

I'm not gonna lie, running those 15 miles was a challenge. But it wasn't THAT dreadreadful. When I was done I even had time to rest while I waited for the others.
Dale finished next and came running up to Milo and I looking as if he'd been running for 3 days straight with sweat literally POURING down his face.

"I'm... pretty sure.... this is considered.... torture." He said as he fell to the ground in exhaustion.

A million years later Ava and Brooklyn finally showed up.

"I was starting to think you two had died." I remarked.

"Nah..." Brooklyn began. "We just gave up after the 2nd mile and walked the rest of the way."

"Nice of you two to finally join us." Milo said. "Okay now for the results..."

"Wait you timed us?" Asked Dale.
"Of course. I need to track your progress. Alright Kaiser, your time was 62 minutes and 7 seconds with an average of 4 minutes and 13 seconds per mile, Dale your time was 106 minutes and 23 seconds with an average of 7 minutes and .08 seconds per mile, Ava and Brooklyn your time was 212 minutes and 36 seconds with an average of 14 minutes and 16 seconds per mile."

"How do you run a mile in 4 minutes?" Dale asked me. "That's almost impossible."

"Me and my cousin Morgan used to run every morning and every night around the forest with my uncle Raes. We had nothing better to do."

"We had nothing better to do." He mocked.

"Next is the strength and agility test." Milo stated.

We followed him to the tree that stood in the very center of the Mezzarin.

It was a huge tree about 50 feet high at least.

Our task was to climb to the very top and hang from one of the protruding branches for as long as we could.

"What if we fall?" I asked.

"Try not to."

"What if we're afraid of heights?" Asked Brooklyn.

"Good luck."

"Why can't we just do pushups?"  Ava asked.

"Too easy."

"Is your goal to kill us?" Asked Dale.

"Not entirely."

"Wait what?" We all asked simultaneously.

"Nothing, now get to climbing."

The climbing was the easy part. Climbing trees was kind of a specialty for me. Hanging from the branches was a bit more difficult.

I managed to break 6 minutes, Dale broke 3, while Ava and Brooklyn struggled to break 30 seconds.

And yes, the landing was as bad as you'd imagine though miraculously, none of us broke anything.

The final test was combat.

"So we have to fight eachother?" Asked Ava.

"No, you have to fight me."

"Aw man." Dale replied as he stomped his foot on the ground. And I'm pretty sure he spoke for all of us.

First up was Ava.

"Go ahead, try to hit me." He said.

"Just, a normal hit?"

"Yep."

She punched him softly in the arm.

"Um... What was that?"

"A punch." She retorted.

"No Ava, punch me as hard as you can."

"I did."

"Do it again."

She did it again, the exact same way.

"Okay, nevermind. You can barely punch so I'm gonna assume you don't know a thing about fighting."

"I've never had a fight before." She subtlety remarked.

"That explains it, Dale you're up-"

Before he could even get the sentence completely out Dale threw a punch right at his abdomen but Milo caught his fist.

"That was way too predictable Dale."

Dale threw another punch though Milo caught his fist once again.

"You're making this way too easy."

Dale then charged at him which only resulted in Milo taking one step to the right and sticking his foot out causing Dale to trip and fall.

"Next." He stated.

He instructed Brooklyn to do the same thing he told Ava to do and that was simply to hit him.

Brooklyn slapped him.

"Brooklyn you can slap an enemy in combat." He told her.

So she punched him as hard as she could in his arm."

"Oh come on, you hit like a girl."

"Jerk!" She exclaimed in offense as her fist went flying across Milo's face causing him to stagger back a bit, holding his jaw in pain.

"That's better." He grunted.

After regaining his composure it was my turn.

"Alright Kaiser, throw a pun-"

As he was wrapping up his sentence I through a left hook, he caught my fist so I threw a right hook in which he caught as well so I spun to free my hands from his grip and did a roundhouse kick in which he blocked with his forearm then I went for a low blow to his stomach to which he grabbed my wrist as I went for one last uppercut, he dodged it, grabbed my forearm and spun me around so that my arm was folded behind my back causing me drop down to one knee in pain.

"Not bad. Raes has taught you well over the years. I'm impressed." He said, letting go of my arm. "But you're still too predictable."

Ava, Brooklyn, and Dale stared at me in shock.

"That was.... hot." Said Brooklyn.

Ava nodded her head in agreement.

"How the hell do you predict a roundhouse kick?" Dale asked Milo. "People don't usually just roundhouse kick other people."

"Well when you've been in as many fights as I have you kind of learn every trick there is to combat."

"My uncle Raes says the same thing." I remarked. "Right after he kicks my ass."