“Mahon?”

He turned in place at his name and watched the detached head of Margot calling for him.

“Mahon?? Why are you like this?”

He watched, powerless, as green scales appeared on his arms, legs and torso. Seconds after, he was fully wrapped, but they still continued to emerge by the dozens. Soon he couldn’t see anymore, engulfed in the stream of green scales. They cascaded down his throat into his lungs and he started suffocating.

“Mahon?? Wake up!”

By reflex, he sat up and opened his eyes. Immediately, a terrible headache seized him. He took his head between his hands and groaned in pain.

Uhhhh...it hurts!

“Ah! You’re awake!”

Groggy, Mahon tried to open his eyes again and was met with a face much more different than Margot’s bloody one. It was round and showed a worried but amused smile. Its brown eyes were expressive enough to convey the same feeling of amusement. The natural dimples and squeezy cheekbones added the final touch to this very likable and happy face.

“Zac? What happened?”

“What do you mean, what happened? You overslept and all the others are almost ready to leave for this morning’s lesson!”

“What?! But I closed my eyes seconds ago and…”

“No time for that! Get yourself ready and let’s go! Quick!” Zac interrupted him.

Two minutes later, Mahon and Zac left the house together and walked to catch up to the others who had moved ahead.

“So what are we doing today?”

“You didn’t read the program?”

“When? You woke me up like three minutes ago!”

“Haha, true. Let me resume it then.”

The further they walked, the more people they saw leaving their houses and going to school. Seeing that they were not too late, they slowed down a little as Zac explained what he learned.

“We have physical training for the entire morning. Then lunch and a theoretical lesson. Plus, we have to choose three specialized lessons sometimes in the day for the late afternoon. After that we are free for the evening and it starts over on the next day for 6 days straight and then we get a free day.”

“What kind of specialized courses are there?” Mahon asked.

“There are a lot! Like more than a hundred. But we agreed to discuss it during lunch with the others, so don’t worry about it.”

“Uh, ok, perfect.”

They walked a bit more in silence before Mahon spoke again.

“Thanks for waking me up, by the way. I don’t know what happened. I just…”

“Hey, don’t worry, Mahon.” Zac gestured it was no big deal at all. “That’s why we are here for each other. I trust you would have done the same for me.”

Mahon nodded and when they arrived at the training field, they were chatting and laughing about random things. It was hard not to get along with the jovial Zac. They caught up with their roommates and partook in the lively and joyous atmosphere that was the training field. Groups of people were discussing everywhere with enthusiasm, and they were all eager to share their thoughts about their houses, the specialized lessons or the Last Green badge.

“You think you’re here for a picnic? Start running until I tell you to stop!” An angry voice interrupted their peaceful gathering and they all started running the next instant.

A tall and athletic instructor arrived from the side. He was not the kind of man to have an overwhelming mass of useless muscles, but more the kind that has the perfect muscles in the perfect place. The kind one could not acquire by training. One had to fight for his life repeatedly to build these. The impressive scar traversing the instructor’s bald skull also attested of his violent past. The man walked up to the disorganized group, running in all directions in a chaotic mess.

“Oh Fada! Who found me those idiots? Just run this way! Make a circle, don’t be so stupid!”

The students all rushed to follow the instructions of the madman and soon, they were all running clockwise around the field.

“See! It wasn’t that hard! From now on, you will start running like this every morning before I even arrive. If I happen to see another group of chuckling turkeys when I come here, you will be in trouble, trust me.”

The students were still running, and none of them dared to say a word back to the instructor.

“Good. You know when to listen, it’s good. But how do you even call this running? I want to see sweat! I want to see shaking legs! I want to see gasping breath! I want to see... No! This I don’t want to see!”

The instructor ran to Mahon, who was trying his best, but his weak legs were stiff from the pain and his speed was ridiculously low.

“What the fuck? Are you even trying? I’ve never seen a man so slow in my entire life. And I know a lot of grandpas! You’re in an entirely different realm, it seems. And of course you had to choose my training camp? Eh? Not answering, are you? I know a one-legged man, maybe I should invite him so you could have a partner in your training? What do you think? Not a good idea? Yes, you’re right, you’re even below that! I would have to make a level below one-legged men to train you! By the Fada, what happened to you? Got nursed your whole life? Never ran before today?”

Mahon gritted his teeth at the continuous flood coming his way. Even if he had found a brief break in the deluge to answer the instructor, he was so out of breath from the physical effort that he would not be able to do so.

Seeing that Mahon didn’t reply and was focused on the exercise, the instructor looked for another target and moved to trash talk someone else. Like this, he haunted the pack of running people, never stopping his sermons for more than a second.

After what felt like hours to Mahon, the instructor moved out of the circle and ordered them to stop. Most of them collapsed on the floor as they tried their best to inhale some oxygen.

“What you doing?? Stand up! You’re not slugs, are you? Everybody still on the ground at three will go run another dozen laps. Three!!”

The students jumped in terror and some leaned on each other to stand up and face the instructor. The man gave them his best sadistic smile.

“You’re young, you have energy! Did you like this little warm up?”

They all grumbled and cursed him.

“Great! I loved it too! I will now explain what we will do next, so listen carefully. You know what is the greatest asset of our army?”

They were all recovering and thought the question was rhetorical, but the instructor proved them wrong.

“No answer? Still sleeping? Go run another lap! It will wake you up!”

A lap and a lot of cursing later, the group was again facing the instructor.

“Better, now? Then what is the greatest asset of our army?”

“Rankings!”

“Fada!”

“Weapons!”

Answers fused from the group of scared students.

“Wrong! Wrong!! Wrong!!! That’s it? Nothing better? Need another lap?”

“Duos.”

“Yes! Oh, but it’s my little below-one-legged-man! All brain but no muscles, I see! Good, good. Listen to me, you other brainless mollusks! It’s the duo that is our greatest strength against the Amentiae! Having a partner you can always rely on and with whom you have practiced countless times is invaluable.”

Some people glanced in recognition at Mahon after he had given the right answer. Zac, who had joined him after the course, even showed a quick thumb up.

“That’s why you will always train in a duo! For now, you will pair with the closest person who sat next to you at the banquet. It means you’re both the same rank!”

The students soon walked around to find their duo and, as they started talking among them, the scene turned into a mess.

“Oh! Isn’t it my dear chuckling turkeys? I WANT TO SEE DUOS AT THREE! THREE!!!”

The cacophony stopped the next instant as if a magic spell had been cast on the disorganized group. They all found their pair in a blink. Since Mahon and Zac had already been close to each other, they paired without trouble.

“Good. You may have trained and fought before and you think you know something but let me tell you. You know shit. You may be able to win a drunkards battle but you’re no warrior. Until you pass this class you’re worth nothing. Now let me show you different stances that will help you build the muscles and balance required to fight. As a warrior.”

The lesson progressed under the hard guidance of the instructor. In the first minutes of holding the various stances, it was clear that Mahon was the weakest of them all. By a large margin.

All his body was shaking, and he often had to stop midway to rest his legs. When he did so, the instructor's harsh words roasted him and Mahon had no other choice but to pick between enduring the insults or resuming the exercise.

Much like the Nightmare instructors Mahon knew, this instructor was pushing his trainees to their limits. And when it came to limits, insults and taunts often helped to break it. It was not enjoyable. It was not pleasant. But it was effective. And the instructor knew it too well and flooded anyone who seemed close to break or needed some encouragement.

Mahon was not the only to suffer the wrath of the instructor and some students broke down and retorted back at the insults. When that happened, the instructor told them to go back home and ignored them for the rest of the lesson.

It had to do with the old military tradition that said a student had no right to answer an instructor if he could not make it through his workout. Although it looked so, the custom was not just a stupid piece of crap. An instructor was someone who knew their student’s bodies the best and with one look, they knew up to where they could push them. They were people ready to create a full workout tailored for their specific needs.

The least the students had to do was to honor their work and do their best. If they were not able to bear a few insults at the worst moment and had to stop to retort back they didn’t get the point of training. And if they had spare time to talk back, it means they were not giving everything they had at the task. In short, they were disrespecting the instructor’s work and dedication.

Of course it was hard to stay impassive under the trash talk of the instructor, especially with how often he heard it, but Mahon gritted his teeth and immersed himself in the task. The day he would pass this workout without a sweat, he would tell the man to shut the hell up. Until then, he had no strength to spare thinking about it. Different strengthening exercises followed the numerous stances until the instructor finally gave them a break.

“For the last part of the session, you will fight duo against duo. Inside these rings.” He pointed to the ground, where multiple rings were marked with ropes over a sandy field. “The rules are simple enough for your little brains. Just push your opponent out of the area. Once out, you cannot come back. The last duo standing inside wins. Questions?”

The man waited a single second before continuing.

“Perfect! Now go fight whatever duo you want and report the results to me. I want each of you to fight at least ten times. Go!”

At this stage of the training Mahon was utterly exhausted and yet he had to fight with Zac against other duos. Mahon could barely stand up, so resisting being pushed was way ahead of his ability. Nonetheless, he tried to coordinate with Zac to win some fights but the strength difference between Mahon and the other students was too big to overwhelm with trickery or strategy.

He was out a few seconds after the beginning of the fight and even though Zac was well in shape and pretty agile, he stood no chance in a two versus one match. Whatever they tried, the results were always the same. Incontestable loss.

Mahon was glad he was paired with Zac because any other person would have blamed Mahon, with reason, for their repetitive losses. But Zac was as happy and focused for the last fight as the first. Even though Mahon could see his duo was disappointed about their series of losses, he said nothing about it.

The instructor was busy reporting all the results for a time, but once he finished, he resumed his attention to his class.

“So the last fight marked the end of this little training. We even finished a bit early for lunch. Perfect!”

The students were all sighing in relief as they thought the instructor still had a surprise waiting for them. As they started to leave, the thunderous laugh of the instructor froze them in fear.

“Hahaha! Who am I kidding, eh? What is a training session without a nice finisher? If you’re not crawling on the floor, you did not train! Go run twenty laps and every time I say ‘Oy!’ you touch the floor and jump to the sky! Go! Go! Go!”

The group dragged their feet to the runway under the unwavering smile of the instructor.

“Oy!”

Cries of agony reverberated among the training field, but most of them managed to jump before resuming their running.

Hundreds “Oy!” and twelve laps later and not a single student was standing. As the last of them collapsed to the ground, the instructor left with a pleased smile.

“See you tomorrow, slugs!”