10000 Slashes

"Ten thousand?" he exclaimed, a stupified look on his face as his eyes widened at the sheer magnitude of swings.

"Yes, ten thousand of each different swing," she confirmed before he could voice further doubts.

'Doing something like this only sounds good in theory, not in practice. It's crazy,' he thought, realizing the enormity of the swings he was about to undertake.

"Now, begin swinging your sword; we don't have time to spare, each second is gold for us," she urged, noting the urgency.

'No matter how ridiculous it sounds, I don't think I have any other option,' he thought.

With no alternative, he assumed his stance, gripping his sword's hilt firmly, and commenced the repetitive motion of swinging down his sword.

"1... 2... 3... 6... 9... 15... 25... 50... 69..." He began the rhythmic motion, counting each swing and slash.

"75... 100... 130... 160... 200..."

Not that he wasn't eager to hurry, but he couldn't afford mistakes; each one meant an additional fifty swings. Alaya observed him closely, attuned to every move.

"245... 290... 350... 420... 500..."

Moving his sword steadily and firmly, he completed his first five hundred swings in just five hundred seconds, maintaining a pace of one slash per second.

"560... 620... 700... 780... 860... 1000...."

As he reached his thousandth slash, his hands began to slow down. The transition from five hundred to a thousand took over ten minutes, a slowdown of over a minute.

"1111... 1222... 1333.... 1444... 1555... 1777.... 1888... 2000..."

As he reached his two thousandth slash, his speed further deteriorated. It took him twenty-five minutes to complete this thousand slashes, compared to the initial twenty minutes for the first thousand. The continuous swinging was taking a toll, evident in the visible fatigue slowing down his hands.

"2200... 2400... 2600... 2800.... 3000..."

As he reached three thousand slashes, his hands began to go numb and ache. His wrist, elbow, and shoulder started to stiffen, making movement more difficult. While he wasn't yet at the level where it pained him to move his arms, the discomfort was noticeable. It took about an hour to complete three thousand slashes out of the ten thousand.

"3222... 3444... 3666... 3888... 4000..."

By the time he reached four thousand slashes, his arms were nearly unresponsive, numbed by the continuous motion. The persistent ache in his wrists, elbows, and shoulders had escalated to a point where pain hindered every swing of his sword.

"My arms have gone numb completely... I can't feel them," he grunted.

Nevertheless, he ignored the pain and persisted in his slashes. Alaya observed, noting the reduced rate and evident discomfort, but she patiently waited.

'Well, he won't be able to hit the target of 10,000 slashes since more than 2 hours have already passed, and I knew that from the beginning.'

She had anticipated from the start that completing ten thousand slashes in just four hours would be a challenging feat. That's why she had Naya, whom she instructed to expedite Lloyd's recovery, removing any fatigue to facilitate a faster process. This strategic approach aimed to ensure he could complete this practice in the shortest time possible, considering the additional ten thousand diagonal slashes he had to undertake.

'Well, I could abuse Naya's power to make him train unstoppably, eliminating fatigue and pain. However, the true essence of training and improvement comes with pain. One of the fundamental rules is if you want to get stronger, be prepared for pain,' she explained, knowing the reality of using her power to heal Lloyd and train him.

'That's why I don't want to rely too much on borrowing Naya's power—not because of ethics, but because it's not as effective as the conventional and natural way of training that both challenges and naturally heals your fatigue and muscles,' she added.

She elaborated on her rationale for avoiding excessive use of Naya's power, emphasizing that her concern wasn't about ethics but rather the effectiveness and efficiency of the training process. In her view, traditional methods provided a more thorough and quick approach to becoming stronger.

'Whenever she heals him, she also restores his muscles, healing some percentage of the microtears, which means he gets much less out of his efforts,' she explained.

The inefficiency of this approach lies in the healing process. While she avoided healing his muscles entirely, a portion of restoration still occurred, hindering the natural recovery process. This method yielded suboptimal results for anyone else, as healing could only restore something to its previous state, not advance it to a future state, requiring time magic.

Training solely dependent on healing potions and medicines proved futile since it only brought things back to their former state. However, using medicines to remove fatigue and provide an energy boost, alongside lightweight energy potions, could yield minor positive effects by increasing productivity.

"4200... 4500.... 5000..."

'Shit! My arms are begging to stop because it fucking hurts, this sharp pain,' he rasped, pulling up his sword to swing again although he couldn't handle the weight of his arms right now.

Struggling to hit his fifth thousand slash, he barely managed it. Naya was promptly instructed to heal him and provide an energy boost, aiming to help him reach ten thousand within the remaining time.

"5020... 5025... 5030..."

'The pain has disappeared, and my arms are energized again. Looks like I should say thanks to Alaya. I wasn't expecting her to instruct Naya to heal me in the middle of the practice. I thought she would only do it in the end,' he thought, grateful for the unexpected intervention.

"5500... 5750... 6000..."

After the boost from Naya's healing, his pace of swinging almost tripled. What used to take him half an hour to complete a thousand slashes, he was now achieving in under ten minutes, feeling alive and kicking again.

"6250... 6500... 6750... 7000... 7500... 8000..."

With full force, he completed two thousand more slashes in just under twenty-five minutes.

"8500... 9000..."

Entering the last remaining hour, he now had the final thousand slashes to complete the first ten thousand.

"9100... 9200... 9300... 9400... 9500... 9600... 9700... 9800... 9900..."

Within the next few minutes, he was in the last remaining hundred slashes away from completing the task.

"9910.... 9920... 9930... 9940... 9950... 9960... 9970... 9980... 9990..."

He entered the last final ten slashes.

"9991... 9992... 9993... 9994... 9995..."

'What's this feeling? I don't know but I feel like a burning sensation...'

He felt a burning season something similar sensation to a burning feeling in the body after eating something spicy.

"9996... 9997... 9998... 9999..."

"I want to puke I feel like I'm going to burst..." He shouted to Alaya.

When she heard Lloyd's words she smirked.

*****

Couldn't upload yesterday coz busy and didn't have much time to right longass A/N so cya tmr.