21, Training Begins

John coughed to get our attention. "Now that you've all made nice it's time to begin. We will follow the same routine as the last two days but I will go over it again for Etanali's sake. First is bodyweight training, next is endurance, then flexibility, solo weapon training, sparring, throwing weapon practice and finally for last we have everyone's favorite, core tempering.

Dotam and Minili both made a face when he mentioned core tempering. This made me suspect that this core tempering was in fact not everyone's favorite.

That was the second time Dotam made a face, the first time was when he mentioned stretching. I found it amusing that the son of the earth clan hated flexibility.

"To start, we are doing squats. Everyone assume the position." The three of us stood shoulder width apart and waited for further instruction.

"Much better today Dotam, I am glad I didn't have to correct your posture today." Dotam looked very proud at this compliment. "Now on my count we go down until I say to go up. We are doing 30."

"One." we held the position at the bottom. "And up. I am going to raise a platform of sand. I want you to be able to touch it at the bottom but not knock it over. For every time it gets knocked over you all have to do one more."

"Two, and Up. Three, and Up…. Eleven, and up." The sand under Minili was knocked over. "That's an additional squat for everyone. Twelve, and Up. Thirteen, and Up."

This continued for all 31 squats, thankfully we only had one extra to do. It was during this exercise that I noticed that I had really good awareness and could easily tell when I had to stop at the bottom.

"John, I have a question." Dotam couldn't help himself, he interjected before John could respond. "No you don't get to stop. Don't tell me that you are already tired. You can't be that weak if your dreams are big."

I just stuck my tongue out at him. "Yes Etanali, what is it?" "If the Octahedron in your mindscape is at a higher level does your awareness of your own body increase?"

Both Minili and Dotam listened attentively to his answer as this could be important to their future. "It doesn't have a big impact at the lower stages, around the fifth stage it starts to have an impact on your awareness of your body. Afterwards it increases but it still can't compare to activating the top cross. Does this answer your question?"

"Yes, thank you." "Anything else? Otherwise I will move on." None of us said anything so he continued. "We will now move onto chin ups and push ups. Each of you will do one of each until you can't finish. Once you are done you have to start running until everyone is done. That will be the end of the bodyweight training."

John clapped his hands and created 3 bars out of stone with steps leading up to them. "There is one for each of you so you are free to go at your own pace. But remember if you are done first you need to run until all the others are done. Afterwards we have endurance, so pace yourself. Palms need to be facing your head and chin needs to be over the bar for each to count. For the push ups on the bottom you need to lift your hands."

John created a bar in front of him and demonstrated a chin up, he paused at the top with his head clearly above the bar. He lowered himself down slowly and then let go of the bar at the bottom. "I want to see you go down slowly, the last thing I want is for someone to get hurt by dropping down too quickly."

He got down on the ground to demonstrate the push up and rested at the bottom. He lifted his hands from the ground slightly by pulling his elbows behind his back and then pressed back up into the plank position. "I want you to keep your core tight when you do these. Also don't worry about pulling your hands too far up, so long as they are off the ground it is fine."

John got up from the ground and dusted himself off and sunk down the bar he used. "Whenever you are ready you may start."

Dotam and I looked at each other and both started running. He got to the center of the three first so I went to the one on his right and Minili got the one on the left.

I looked at Dotam and decided to make a bet. "First one to run does an extra 5 minutes of stretching. You in?" he grinned and replied "Hopefully you like stretching, those extra five minutes will be the longest in the day. You're on."

"Let's wait for the other to be done before we start the next set, that way it is easy to keep score." "fine. You're going to be the slower one anyway." "Really Dotam? Do you guys need to compete in everything now?"

Dotam and I both gave Minili a strange look, she just muttered to herself. "Whatever, I shouldn't have asked."

I climbed the small steps and jumped to the bar and did a single chin up bringing the bar to my chest before lowering myself down in control. I let go at the bottom and dropped down to the ground for my push up.

It felt weird to do them like this. It was stretching my chest slightly at the bottom but I assumed that was the point of the exercise. I finished the rep, stood up and looked to my left to see Dotam's progress. He was also standing.

I smiled at him and he did the same and said "I'm glad you aren't slow, this should be fun." "Same here."

We continued in pace with each other as we went through rep after rep. This continued on for 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13. On the fourteenth rep we finally were no longer going the same speed, I had slowed down much to Dotam's delight.

"Don't tell me you are getting tired now are you? Is this all you amount to?" "I'm not out yet, I'm just slowing down a little bit. Don't get too excited about your extra stretching time."

We continued going for the 15th, 16th, 17th and on the 18th rep Minili couldn't finish the push back up and had to drop down to her knees to finish her rep. This counted as a fail and she was the first one to run.

Dotam and I weren't done yet but the chin ups were getting really hard to control on the way down. Also my chest and triceps were pumped feeling weak. I was still going steady at my slightly slower pace but Dotam was going slower than me now.

Just in the last two reps he was showing visible signs of fatigue and his pull ups were much slower than before. I lasted another two reps and failed the push up on the 21st one.

After getting up I looked over to Dotam who was just going down to the ground in his push up. He hadn't done the push back up yet so I had to take advantage of the situation.

"Don't tell me you are getting tired now? Is this all you amount to?" I savored saying his own words back to him.

I couldn't see his face but I knew my words had gotten to him. He pushed on the ground to propel his body up and yelled out in exertion as if the sound would push him further.

Before he could finish the push all the way up his arms buckled and gave away causing his face to be planted into the ground. I laughed to myself and walked over to him and offered him a hand up.

He knocked my hand away saying he didn't need my help and tried to get up himself but he failed. His arms were like jello. "Don't worry about it, I also didn't finish that push up." I extended my hand and this time he took it with a scowl.

I pulled him up to his feet and asked him whether we both lost or won the bet since both of us failed on the same rep. "We both lost the bet, I am not taking an easy win from you."

"That's very noble of you but this stretching is going to suck you know." "Yup but that just means I have to work harder next time. I won't lose to you tomorrow."

Minili jogged over to us, she hadn't been running for very long but she still looked tired from the bodyweight exercise. John joined us after.

"Next up we have endurance training, you need to do 15 runs between the Life Tower and reservoir. The goal is to do this as fast as possible and without falling. Start Now."

Dotam took off running right away and Minili followed a second later. Seeing them get ahead of me I ignored the question in my head and hurried after them.

'Why would we be falling? The ground is level, I guess he said this to make sure we watch our feet because we might be tired.' I should have known it wouldn't be that simple.

Dotam was the fastest of the three of us, I was able to catch up with Minili so I must have been slightly faster than her. My bare feet were slightly uncomfortable hitting the stone but it wasn't too bad.

All of a sudden on the third lap towards the tower Minili and Dotam both slowed from a sprint to a jog and I was easily able to pass Dotam.I wondered why they slowed but I enjoyed the feeling of passing them.

It wasn't long before I found the reason for their slowing. The ground under my foot changed from stone to sand instantly as I pushed away causing my foot to slide and to crash on my left side.

The two passed me a few seconds after my fall and Dotam didn't miss this chance to ridicule me. "Didn't he say to try and not fall, guess you should watch where you're going next time."

I stood up and ignored the stinging and blood from my skinned knee and hands and continued running after them, only this time I was jogging fast but certainly not sprinting like before.

The others were also tripped up on the sand that would appear and disappear suddenly. Sometimes it was below the front foot other times it was the back foot but it always happened when we least expected it.

After the 7th lap another pop up obstacle was added to the course. A small block would appear and try to trip us, this was interchanged with the sand still and sometimes they both would appear at the same time.

The block wasn't high, no more than 2 fingers, but it would appear in different spots. Sometimes in front, sometimes behind the foot or even in the middle of where you were planning on stepping causing you to adjust on the fly.

This made the simple exercise much more difficult as I had to move at a speed that was fast but not too fast because I didn't want to lose track of my surroundings. I had to split my attention between the ground, my footwork, maintaining my running speed and making sure I didn't run into Datom and Minili who were close to lapping me while dodging.

For the last two laps we had to run there were no obstacles but this was even more stressful because I was expecting them. I had my own thoughts and anxiety to battle against as I would think a trap would appear but nothing would.

This made these last two laps more mentally taxing than the previous 4 combined. I finally finished the last of the 15 laps and went to join Dotam and Minili who were standing by Joseph.

I was the only person who fell during this run, much to my annoyance. I was also the slowest by far but I gave myself a day and decided that I would work and beat Dotam by the end of the week.