Exhausted

With fire burning in his eyes, the helplessness had all but disappeared. Xiezhi walked over and lifted Varick off the ground and asked him a simple question, "Do you want to save her?"

This was obviously not much of a question as the answer was beyond obvious. After the last time Kirin disappeared, Varick vowed to get stronger. Of Course he knew that this incident couldn't be helped however he still felt powerless at what had happened. Nevertheless he stood and with a firm determination in his eyes he nodded to Xiezhi and waited for him to tell him how.

"This training can kill you are you sure?"

He nodded once again. He dared not open his mouth to speak just in case his will faltered. This time he refused to break down, this time he will get her back, this time… He Will Not Be Useless!!!

The training involved a lot of repetition, at first Xiezhi placed weights on all four of Varick's limbs as well as his waist and his shoulders. Next he had him run. Everytime Varick was about to stop and drop, Xiezhi gave him a pill. With it he instantly became re-energized. This continued until he no longer felt the burden of the extra weight. Then Xiezhi added more weight and had him resume. 3 days had passed with more and more weight being added. Varick was only allotted to stop to rest and eat. The resting period lasted no longer than an hour each time he could rest or sleep or eat.

Once he was able to handle over four hundred pounds of added weight it was time to move on to the next session. With the weights still attached he began to teach him martial movements without any weapon. The goal was that Varick had to be able to land a single hit on Xiezhi. The problem of course was Xiezhi had no weights attached, while Varick had almost four times his own weight.

Throughout the blocks, side passes, and dodges he had gotten close to touching Xiezhi but never landed a hit. In the midst of this he also was learning new techniques as well as to be able to think on his feet.

"Come on Xiezhi at least give me some slack! You don't have a single bit of extra weight on you, how am I supposed to move fast enough to touch you?"

The look of extreme grievance was plastered on his face, though he looked like that everyone felt it was far better than his out of control look from before.

"That is exactly what you have to figure out for yourself. Get faster, smarter, stronger or all of the above if you are truly serious!"

Xiezhi dodged once again but added a well placed slap on Varick's back while he was at it, sending the poor boy flying.

Varick slammed a fist into the ground and charged up and ran headlong into Xiezhi, just as he was about to hit him Varick turned with a spin and threw his leg out towards Xiezhi's back. He reversed his momentum leaping into the air and sent his fist flying. He managed to catch hold of Xiezhi's clothes this time but was still thwarted from making full contact.

"Good you have improved, go take a rest."

Liping over, Varick took off the weights as he headed back to the Inn to get some sleep and think on his next strategy. His mind was filled with all of the gains and losses recently as well as on the one figure that was no longer by his side.

Once the last weight came off he felt as if he were floating on air. He had not removed them since they started. Instantly he noticed the effects of all of that training and gained a new found respect for the method that was used.

'Maybe I was just too harsh on Xiezhi just now. He is after all doing all of this for us without wanting a return. And I can't deny the results right now I feel as light as a feather.'

With that thought in mind Varick had renewed vigor in his training. The complaints he had before, lack of motivation, and inability to appreciate what was going on and why Xiezhi did what he did.

Training in this way was grueling but the results were amazing. With this under his belt he felt closer to getting Kirin back. As he thought of this he ran up to Xiezhi and asked. "Increase it further, this is not enough… nowhere near enough to get me where I need to be."

Xuezhi just shook his head in exasperation as he had no idea what came over the youth in front of him. In truth he was going easy on him. He wasn't from this world, how could Xiezhi expect him to handle the real training? Well since he asked for it…

Everyday Xiezhi pushed Varick yarder and harder. He increased the weights, the difficulty in the methods, everything each day without giving Varick's body time to adjust to the new strain being placed on him, like he was doing before.

Not a word of complaint was uttered out of Varick's mouth. He continued to endure and push himself to the limits. It was almost as if he were possessed by something that he didn't feel pain or fatigue.

Another week had passed by this time. The visible fatigue could be seen all over Varick's body, with fresh and old bruises dotting every inch of his skin. The weeks of harsh training had absolutely taken its toll on him. He was exhausted but didn't dare slip or stop. To him there was nothing more important than getting saved by Kirin at this moment. Granted It was at this time that Qin came sprinting into the training yard in a panic.

Completely out of breath… Qin rushed over and while slightly panting she exclaimed quickly, "Master Xiezhi, Master Varick something bad has happened! I just received a message from Master Jun…"