Deep in the forest nearest the Vulfax Mountains, both Alto and Elise were on the move. Through the bushes, through the clay-like mud, through fallen branches themselves. They dashed ahead without pause, Alto on both hands and feet rushing like a dog while Elise charged along with an object to each hand. She swung her hands, a branch hung low splintering at the impact.
“Not bad, that pole still has its uses even in two pieces as you can see,” Alto called back as the branches crashed.
They tore out into a clearing, Alto skidding to a stop on just his feet now. With a turn he met Elise as she barreled into the clearing. Her own feet dug down, stopping her as she held both poles ready. A slight smirk rested upon her face. Alto nodded.
“So this is it then, the place where your own people have trained for centuries?” she questioned.
“Yes. I know it doesn’t look like much right now but trust me, this clearing has its history. Mannequins behind the trees, targets to practice leaping, oh yes the whole works,” he replied.
“Quite a history,” Elise mumbled looking around the area.
“Indeed. So. Here’s what I’m thinking. You already have strength and speed, and I’d venture to say you’re quite durable after everything in your life. You just need to learn to focus that raw emotion.”
He spun round, walking towards the opposite end of the clearing with his hands pressed together. He stopped, spinning around again to face Elise from a distance. His hands parted and his arms were at once held open, as if welcoming something or someone. She stood in place, head tilted a touch, looking around him. Beside him sat a wood pedal, sticking out of the ground.
“I am going to force your reaction time to spike, I am going to work on your coordination with weapons, work on your hand to hand combat. You will be pelted with rocks, you will be forced bat them away and to dodge when you can’t. You will be forced to catch branches and whatever else I throw at you, and throw them elsewhere. You will be dodging wood as well, mind you. You will be forced to evade me in my Wulfn form. And finally you will be forced to fight me hand to hand or weapon to weapon. Understood?”
“Got it,” she chirped.
“Good. Now then, be prepared for I will not be doing these consistently. We will be switching on and off to keep your mind on the up and up. Are you ready child?”
“So long as you don’t call me that again, yeah, let’s do this,” she chuckled.
“Alright then, you asked for it. Here comes the hurt,” Alto yelled out, his foot flying down right on top of the wood pedal.
BOOM
Leaves danced in the sky, branches sent crashing along the surface of the ground. Dozens of objects flew straight forward over Alto’s head, gray and white in color primarily. Large sections of leaves pooled away from the trees, revealing multiple tubes going to a large blue air cannon. It had just blown, and what it had blown were rocks.
Rocks flew through the air and dropped right at Elise. With a blink, her feet skipped back. She flew down to the ground, hitting face first with a turn as the rocks soared by. Wood crackled behind her, rocks flying all off the trees in pieces. Bark dropped along with more leaves.
Pebbles danced and skipped, landing right beside Elise’s head. She slowly perked up, looking around.
“Shit! Those were not supposed to be full of rocks, what the crap!?” Alto yelled out.
Elise, bit by bit, pushed herself up. Her hands pressed down as her feet hit. Up on both, she looked back to the trees and then back ahead at Alto. His jaw hung a bit as he too looked around.
“Th-that, that was, huh?” she stuttered.
“Uh… alright. Moving on- it seems like you dodged all those. Well done Elise uh, that’s step one. Your reaction time is good enough to dodge an air cannon spitting rocks at, uh, I dunno. What was that, a hundred and twenty meters? Took about two or three seconds. I think.”
“You fricken idiot, that could have easily killed both of us!” she spat.
“They were supposed to be the red barrels full of foam balls!”
“Good lord man, ugh- can I, can I just take like five here. None of the sass or surprise just, give me five or I will kick your face in,” she huffed, breathing heavily right after.
“Ya-ya know that’s fair, that’s very fair considering I just about accidentally killed you.”
“Guhhhh that was terrifying,” she groaned falling to her knees, slumped against a tree, “Didn’t have my life flash before my eyes but I definitely- definitely saw white.”
“I uh, yeah. Next we’ll just, we’ll move onto the mannequins and test your everything else,” Alto mumbled walking away, “I’ll be back.”413Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgIr0phffab
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“Dodge!” Alto yelled.
“Whoa-” Elise stammered
THWACK
Elise rolled to the left just barely evading a blurred movement. Behind a small dent became placed in the tree following the sound of impact, then a slight skipping sound across the ground. Many pebbles lay around this single tree and many lay around Elise as she fell; her body covered in red marks and spots of swelling, her breathing heavy.
The sun was perched lower, having descended from the sky for a fair while now. The many trees around them lay scarred and some naked. Alto chuckled as Elise began to stand.
“Heh, not bad kiddo.”
THWACK
To the right she rolled again barely evading yet another sent flying to where she had been, “You practically killed me earlier Alto, of course my guard is going to be up.”
“Fair fair. Alright, I’ll take your word for it for now. I’ll let it slide and get on to this. Take those poles and swat them back!”
Rocks flew through the air as Alto barked, the sound of swooshing and many grunts following. She flipped back and with a crash, heaved against a tree. Slowly she stood back up with a huff, “Ack! Christ! Did anyone ever tell you that you can be a major asshole?” she barked out.
Elise swung both arms as more came in, the poles in her hands flying. Some rocks were sent flying off the pole halves, some missed her entirely, then some nailed her in both arms and legs. She yelped and stumbled back, bruised and rather battered.
“For God’s Sake Alto, I’m not trying to be a bitch and complain all the time but you’re coming at me about as bad as those rocks that nearly took my head off earlier. Would it kill you to use those foam rocks and not these hard hitting actual ones you shot out of that damn cannon earlier!?”
“The enemy won’t go easy on you cadet. No pain no game. You’ll learn faster this way now move it private move,” he spat while quickly lobbing more rocks at Elise, many of which continued to hit her body.
“I’m not a soldier jackass!” she barked back.
“Alright,” he replied stepping next to several ropes, “Then drop the rods and redirect these.”
Claws extended from where his fingernails had rested, slashing through the ropes. Logs flew down out of the trees and quickly arched towards Elise as she stood. Her eyes puffed as the rods left her hands, clambering to the ground now covered in rock. They came in heavy and fast, smashing into the trees behind Elise with the force of a car a piece. She shot left and right, rounding around the first few, then came the fifth dead center in her dodge path.
Her arms went out and up as one came down right in front. A thud followed a grunt as Elise was flung back, crashing into another tree. She slumped down, saliva flying out of her mouth. Behind there was another crash, the crash of the log as it struck the tree.
CRACKLE
SNAP
Then came the snap as the top half of the tree fell. It crashed backwards and behind, snapped many meters above Elise where the log had hit, far above where the others hit the other trees. Her eyes glistened up, then shifted towards a smirking Alto. She had begun to stand now.
“And now logs from hell. You really are trying to kill me aren’t you?” she groaned.
“Haha, well heck, you can dodge and redirect them a little now. That using your opponents weight and speed thing is kinda coming in handy,” Alto replied with a laugh at the end.
“Rocks that nearly kill me to pelting me with rocks to firing off wood logs, back to back to back. Ugh. It’d mid day and I’m already exhausted.”
“What, quitting already Elise?”
“I just, just need a bit to catch myself. I feel like jello, my arms are dead and my legs are rotting off,” she groaned.413Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ06rn2E6ZVc
The sun began to hang and barrel down inch by inch as their shouts became loud and very audible. Elise swooped back evading a swing from a wood sword. At once she thrust her own forward at which point she was smacked on her hands by Alto’s, “Ow!”
“Not good enough. Again. One two three four five!” he shouted advancing swinging away.
Elise swung up deflecting, then down tilting blocking, off to the side for the third and left for the fourth. She held it in the middle as it was thrust at her again, blocking with the wider part of the wood sword instead of swooping back. Her foot swung forward and landed. Alto stumbled as Elise moved forward and smacked away Alto’s wood sword with her own. An opening lay present though only temporary as a sweep sent Elise falling back, “Aieee-”
Alto stood over her as she fell, “Again!”
SMACK
Elise tumbled backwards breathing heavily with shaky arms as Alto yelled.
“Again!”
A fist came at her. Elise quickly ducked her head right as the fist swooshed right by. A knee came at her gut, quickly caught by both hands on the block. A swooshing came from above, a fist making contact with the top of Elise’s head driving her down into the ground, “Ooomph.”
Alto huffed and looked down, “Are you going to quit?”
Elise gave no response as her shaky arms attempted to push her off the ground.
“Are you going to quit?”
“No!” she barked pushing herself back up.
His eyes lit up and grew bigger as she pushed up with her hands despite the shaking. A step back as she took a step up, shifting for a brief moment. She stood with her stare locked on Alto. Elise stumbled forward with shaking eyes, quickly standing ready for more.
It hit.
She collapsed backwards onto her back, arms flung to her sides, hands open, all tension leaving her at once. She breathed in and out heavily, still bathed in red. Alto stood before her, hardly a scratch to him. He looked down upon her, grinning. With a tilt of his head, he turned way and began to walk.
“Why am I this shot already? You’ve only thrown rocks and logs at me, and tried to swat me like a damn fly” she continued.
“Because you’ve been battered here more than you have ever before. And this is barely a whole first day. There’s a reason for that though.”
She remained there, huffing, her breath slowing as time went on. Alto remained before her, back to Elise. He continued, “As is the way of my people, training has broken you as it breaks us all. Truth is, the rocks earlier and the cannon, not a mistake. That was to bring you close to potential death to awaken your instincts. Most people when they have a gun pressed to their skull, with an open window to act of course, will act. And me battering you down throughout the day, that was me breaking your mind open. Now we’re ready to reshape you into a fine warrior.”
“Ugh,” she groaned, her head shaking up to let her eyes rest upon him, “You suck. You- you were trying to kill me. How does one day of this open me up!?”
“I warned you this would be rough. See I could make you run kilometers or lift a truck, maybe blast a little motivational tunes to get you going like people do these days. Humans, I don’t get it. That’s just slow for one who already has what they need. Your mind is your barrier and breaking your body breaks the mind as well, as I said. This was faster, and very necessary Elise.”
“Yeah well thanks for not killing me!”
“Heh heh, right then.”
He chuckled, strolling away. She heaved herself up as he moved, her elbows and the tree behind supporting her weight, “What now?”
He stopped in place, his head turning a smidge, a tilt beginning, “Well, that’s easy. You rest for now. I’ve broken you so your body is ready. Tomorrow is day two and uh, we’re going to work harder with less attempted murder and less battery. Genuine training is about to begin.”
“Gee, thanks,” she huffed.
“Get some rest,” Alto chuckled walking away with his head fixated forward, “You’re going to need it for what I have in store for you, heh heh heh.”
Elise fell back down, rolling off the tree to her side. Face first, she planted herself to the ground with a groan.413Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi0Yi0aDSU4
