THE BENCHMARK

18 FEBRUARY, THURSDAY, CONTINUED

"Don't let you body cool down Sam." Ben warned me again, "The more you cool down in between, the harder the hiit would be."

The hit? Oh, he meant the HIIT... High intensity interval training. Ohhhh... Hank's exercise was pretty ingenious. This way everyone was going to be worked out to our max. The stronger we were, the greater the intensity. Oh, so sneaky, he was killing us with our own strength. 

Anyway, too late, my alpha wolf had already recovered... Totally cooled down. Plus I was linked to Mate's wonderful healing magic, and since I was also sneaking in a bit of wolf power for the extra omph, I was also siphoning the healing, just a little, to repair the little rips where I had overloaded my system.

I was quite impressed. My wolf had somehow managed to balance the damage from overloading on wolf power, and healing to cover that damage, perfectly and automatically. Despite its many glitches, my wolf was the automated sort that didn't require a lot of thinking to operate. Very convenient.

Now except that I was drenched with perspiration, I was fine again. And distracted too, because Bell and Ki had come down to the mat.

Bell... He was still dry and clean, unlike everyone else in the training hall. Of course he was only reading the training manual while the rest of us were doling out the punches.

And then I got distracted by his hair. Tonight, it was a dark mess of curls. I really liked his hair that way, he looked wild and free... Actually, I also liked it when he pulled his hair back...

"Ben, swap with me."

I tore my gaze away from Mate to Harvey. Very few people could order Ben this way, but Harvey was definitely one of them.

"Yes! Ben, swap!" I agreed at once. This was a brilliant opportunity! When I had practiced my drill on Jude, Harvey was the one who could pick out all my mistakes in a glance.

"One minute." Hank announced.

"Fine." Ben agreed. He passed Harvey with a friendly hand grasp and warning, "Watch out when you're Part B."

Harvey nodded with a quiet, "Noted, thanks."

Yay! Harvey and I took our positions.

"You do Part A first." I told Harvey. I wanted to see how my good beta would do it.

"Alright." Harvey winced and I remembered that he didn't like to hit girls.

"Don't hold back." I told him. Then I decided that I wouldn't hold back, so he would have to go all out. Hahaha.

Harvey hesitated.

"PPHHEEEETTTT!!!" Hank's whistle went off.

Harvey hesitated a second more. If I were Part A, my fist would be in his face, but I was Part B, so I had to wait for him. That's why Part B was so frustrating.

And then Harvey started, he was definitely warrior trainer material. His movements were sharp, accurate, and steady. It was easy to match, but I couldn't feel satisfied with that. Plus, I felt Harvey was definitely holding back, the way my trainers did so as not to hurt me should I miss the block.

As if I would miss!

But like I said, I couldn't make it got any faster. Part A controlled the rythym. I could only respond to each movement in sequence.

But nobody said I couldn't hit harder. So... Part B was mostly dodging and blocking, BUT it also included other basic attack strikes, just used defensively as a counter measure.

So I needed to wait for it, the moment Harvey reached the movement allowing a more intense attack, which he obviously held back on, keeping all the movements evenly powered, I struck on the defensive - but hard. Like wolf powered hard. Short of shifting, I put in all the wolf I got into the next punch and kick.

"Shi-" My good beta was completely caught off guard, but he quickly cut off his own cuss and figured he had no choice but to attack harder to counter the sudden surge of power. Hahaha.

Yeah, Harvey was a strong fighter, an older wolf, and a more experienced warrior, so I would say he was actually an even better fighter than Ben ATM.

Ben had a lot of raw power, but Harvey had a lot of control over his power.

Come to think of it, did that make Harvey a better fighter than me? Omo.

I wanted to test this, but I couldn't think of a way to do it within the confines of this drill.

We completed our parts and switched over. I took Part A now, but unlike with Ben, I wanted to try to keep it controlled the way Harvey had. Okay, deep breath, focus, and go!

Ben had been impressed at my ability to (randomly) accelerate and decelerate my movements, but trust me, keeping the pace and power of each move perfectly constant was far harder.

And also far less interesting. Wolfie strained to break free to play her way - which was to turn kraken and terrify everyone, {Fun?}

No Wolfie, no fun. Focus.

I won't lie, it was a struggle. Luckily I had started fast - so in keeping with the steady pace, all my movements were fast and furious. Even though Harvey had taken a full 7 minutes to complete Part A, I finished it in about 4.

We had 4 minutes rest till the next whistle.

Hahaha, Harvey didn't look at all like my cool and calm good beta after we were done. In fact, he looked really hot. His face was red and wet from perspiration.

In the next mat, Jack fell over.

"Get up! Keep moving!" Hank yelled from across the room.

Ben pulled him up and gave him a friendly shove forward. Jack stumbled like a baby deer, and then nodded and started walking.

Harvey went over, "You went too far, Ben."

"What? Sam was fine." Ben shrugged. By now Ben was dripping wet, like he just stepped out of the shower.

"Our alpha has a different wolf from normal warriors." Harvey said.

Of course I'm different. I'm the alpha.

By now Hank had come over, "Jack, are you alright? Walk, breathe..."

Jack was breathing heavily, but he kept pacing, a hand on his waist.

"Don't bend over. Keep moving!" Hank shouted at him. Like Hank really shouted. Jack walked in a drunk roundabout circle.

"He overexerted." Hank observed aloud. He narrowed his eyes at the three of us. For a moment, I thought he was going to yell at us - particularly Ben, but Hank only shook his head, "The gap between a Tier 1 and Tier 2..."

By now Jack had caught his breath again. He walked over jauntily in a bid to cover his embaressment, "What the hell was that?"

"You overexerted." Hank informed him, "You can't just stop when that happens. You need to keep moving and allow your body to regulate."

"Yeah, I know, sir. Sorry." Jack answered sheepishly. To us, he tried to joke, "I meant them - are you guys trying to beat the record for fastest drill work or something?"

Eh? Was there such a record?

"What's the record?" I asked.

"Oh no." Ben said. I decided to ignore him.

"I heard some warriors can complete a set under 4 minutes." Jack said.

No way. Ben and I were only getting it under 10 minutes at best, even if you took my half of the round with Harvey, it took all of 4 minutes. Assuming Harvey could match it, we could only have done it in 8 minutes tops. 

Did that mean I needed to finish each part under 2 minutes to beat the record? How was that even possible?

Only one way to find out, "Okay. Next round is a speed round."

"Understood, Alpha." Harvey pulled off his shirt and used it as a towel to wipe down. I couldn't do that, so I had to resort to just using my sleeves again.

"You know, if you wanted to beat the record, wouldn't it make more sense to do it when you're both fresh?" Ben pointed out.

Yeah, it would, but I was never good at waiting.

"It's just to see how fast we can go, like a rough urm..." I searched for the right word.

"Benchmark, alpha?" Harvey offered.

"Yes." I nodded quite pleased, that was the word, "Just a benchmark."

"Last round. Girls may sit out." Hank announced. "One more minute, get ready."

Naturally, Savy and Jessica came over. I was actually really surprised Jessica came today.

"Are you okay, Jack?" Jessica asked her brother.

"Yeah, just overexerted." Jack said, "Tier 1 is crazy. They're trying to beat the warrior level drill record."

"Yeah, Savy, help me to time this. Do the split when we switch parts." I instructed her, "Harvey get in position."

"Yes, alpha." Harvey moved over to his place on the mat to face me.

Savy set her sports watch to time us, "Okay."

"PHEEEEETTT!"

Just in the nick of time.

I took Part A. I had forgotten to tell Harvey though, and I realized he had assumed we were going to repeat it in the same order as before.

So we both raised our legs to kick at the same time, but I think Harvey realized it the same time I did, because we BOTH switched immediately to Part B. Omo.

Somewhere to our right, I could hear Jessica gasp.

"I'm A." I told Harvey.

"Understood." Harvey readied.

We had wasted enough time. Grrr... I decided to really push it as fast as I could, pacing be damned. I just raced through all the movements, I nearly skipped a step at the end, but since that time when Harvey pointed it out, I had been more careful.  Far be it from me to be the alpha who forgot a step in our basic warrior drill (and secret family alpha training manual).

And then we switched parts. It happened so fast, I was caught off guard. Luckily, my body responded automatically thanks to the many years of drilling, and I completed the first movement and then the next ones in successions. I hope Savy spilt the timing right.

And then we were done.

By now, I felt like Jack. I wanted to just drop to the mat. Harvey had crouched a little, his hands propped on his knees to keep himself upright.

"Don't just stand there!" Hank yelled at us, "Walk! Deep breaths!"

We're trying to! But I was panting too hard to actually answer Hank.

I walked two steps, then I stopped and stretched, because my side was starting to cramp. Harvey straightened and walked a little. He stopped when he noticed that I was holding my side.

"Sam, stretch, like this." Harvey demonstrated for me.

I tried, but you know, when you're having a cramp, it hurts like hell to stretch it out.

Harvey began stretching his calf.

But our cramps were only a light and momentary trouble, and both Harvey and I recovered in a few minutes.

I was really feeling the toll on my body now though. I'm glad this was the last round. Ben was right (as usual), each round took its toll. I didn't think I could last another.

"I spilt the time to exclude your start." Savy informed me, "Your time was 3"43. Harvey's time was 3"58."

"We did it, Alpha." Harvey nodded, satisfied. He picked up his shirt from the floor and used it as a towel to rewipe himself.

I had my collar over my mouth, eh? My collar dropped back down, "Wouldn't that make our time..." I struggled with the mental sum and decided to just round up, "Like nearly 8 minutes?"

That would be like double the record time of sub-4 right?

Savy was the first to understand my confusion, "Sam, a set is only half a round."

Oh.

So we were doing a warrior level sub-4 timing all this while?

Oh.

That was kind of a let down, "That's it? I thought it was going to be something amazing cool."

Harvey raised a brow, "Alpha, a sub-4 timing like this takes years to train up to. Even adult warriors have to work very hard every year to maintain it."

Oh.

"Sam won't get it." Jessica informed Harvey, "She's always been super talented when it comes to these things."

Savy nodded and decided to inform everyone, "Dad said Sam's talent in physical combat is a one in a million."

Harvey nodded, "I've noticed. My Alpha excels in everything."

Okay, now you're pushing it! I shook my head and stepped away.

Ben and Jack just finished on their mat and, huffing and puffing, they came over.