THE 'TRAINING'

"IS THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT YOU PATHETIC EXCUSES FOR MONSTERS AND ELVES?!" Mrs Kelly screamed from up above the sky as she flew around the training course that the castle just had to conveniently have.

I tried increasing my pace but contrary to how I thought the run would go( since I was no slacker in training) my strength failed me today.

We were barely in the third day with her, and I was already wishing I could get my revenge on her for what she is putting me through. She told us; me, Queen, Earl and the other elf, who I later learned was called Alvin, that the best way to build our stamina was a few laps around the training.

If only she could have informed us just how many laps we had to run, and what pace we were to travel in, maybe some of us would have already given up before we even began!

"ARE YOU SLOWING DOWN, CHAOS CHILD?!"

"*huff* No... *huff* MA, AM!"

"DON'T WORRY, THE FIRE COMING YOUR WAY WILL GIVE YOU ALL THE MOTIVATION YOU NEED!"

I felt a dangerous amount of heat coming my way, prompting me to immediately increase my pace less I wanted to turn to Furrha-fry.

***

<*heat resistant has climbed a level!*>

–––

[What?! The fire didn't even catch me!]

<Yeah, and yet still you received some damage from the after blast. Skill 'self healing' is about to reach its limits with healing your unnecessary injuries>

[Unnecessary injuries?! You think I enjoy being blasted in the back by that life threatening fire Mrs Kelly is firing at me?!]

<Run faster!>

[Go to hell, Bradley!]

***

Yup, Mrs Kelly has been blasting each and everyone of us with her powerful flames to give us a 'boost' as she calls it. And she didn't start today mind you.

On the very first day, I was in my new gym clothes, making my stretches with Queen, thinking that it would be just like any normal run around the track, maybe even give an extra lap around just to push myself to the limits.

If I remember correctly, we even entered a little competition with her, betting that whoever run the most laps would have to be served by the loser for an entire day. Oh, how ignorant we were back then.

Anyways, we started the laps, of course getting fatigue after around twenty or so, the normal limit of a monster. The elves were even worse off since they didn't have the resilience that we do, but nonetheless still managed to keep up with us.

I thought that that would be the end of training since everyone was already slowing down, that is until, Mrs Kelly started screaming at us to push ourselves an extra twenty.

We thought she was joking and almost came to a stand still, and that's when Earl was suddenly blasted by a fire ball that wasn't as damaging to his body, but was still incredibly painful that he screamed out in pain when he fell on the ground.

Alvin tried going over to help him, but his fireball came around him larger and more faster, forcing him to leave the down elf and try dodging the fireball. He succeeded, at first, that is until, the fire ball changed direction and caught him right at the back him too joining his elf friend on the ground.

"What the–"

"MAX!" Queen screamed at me as she pointed at two other menacing fire balls flying towards us.

"RUN!"

Cause unfortunately, that was the only thing we could do. I tried using water magic to neutralize it, Queen trying the same with ice, but they just evaporated like they weren't even there in the first place. They only left us alone after twenty more laps, dispersing like they weren't just gunning for our lives just a moment ago.

The elves painfully joined us around the thirtieth lap, but unfortunately for them, they had to run the extra ten with their injuries, as two more fire balls added themselves to the mix.

"Good work everybody. If you have injuries head over to the castle doctor, she'll help you. Tomorrow, we add about fifty more, so you better get some rest cause I won't just be firing some small time fireballs that barely even graze you like today."

"SMALL TIME?!" we all shouted at Mrs Kelly while looking at at Alvin's burnt back.

She just smiled at us before ordering us to start some pull-ups to finish the day. It's safe to say that I and Queen pretty much forgot about our little competition, and that was just the first day.

In present time now, I was just coming around my...ah... I don't even remember what number of lap I was taking! But I was sure of one thing, it was my last one, Since body felt completely at its limit, even with the large fireball still giving chase at me.

The elves were lucky enough to finish theirs just earlier. It was only Nephis and I who were taking a few more extra ones, just like last time. But thankfully, since we are both half monsters, our stamina and strength were rapidly improving so we could handle the amount of training we were given.

Once we were through with the lap though, the fireballs did NOT stop just as they have always done. Both I and Queen stared at each other in shock and turned to the principal.

"We're done with our laps! Why won't they stop?!" I asked her in anger as I dodged mine and prepared for its next attack.

The principal shook her head before turning her back at us, back to the elves she was forcing to take push-ups.

"Gods she's the devil!" I complained.

"She's your principal. Now I know why she's called the heartless principal in all the camps," Queen said as she formed and ice barrier, which was holding both flames back, but it was only a matter of time.

We were both heaving due to the extra laps, and now we had to deal with impossibly powerful fireballs?! We catched our breaths after a few seconds, and tried coming up with a plan.

"Is your ability something to do with water?" Queen asked me once she too recovered for a little bit.

"Not necessarily, but yes, it does also involve water. Why?"

"How much water can you use before you ran out of mana?"

"Unfortunately, I only have two skills that use water. Where it's not the mana that's the issue, but the skills themselves. In short, I've only got to skills with me that can conjure up water," I answered, and erected an earth barrier to slow down the fireballs, as it looked like they were about to get through the ice.

Queen raised an eyebrow in question, "Dual abilities?"

"Nope. Just one that uses all four elements, like let's say, Magic. Though it's not as powerful as the real thing. Now, about the water..."

"Oh, yeah, but we'll continue discussing this later. I've got an idea on how to defeat this things,"

She explained to me her plan, and I found it might possibly work, mostly because I couldn't come up with a better one myself.

"Alright, let's do this. Or we die trying," I said as the earth barrier I had just put up began to crack.

"You better be ready for this Max. It all depends on risking both our lives to to this so no slip ups,"

"Don't you think I know that? Look alive, here they come,"

The barrier finally gave way and both flames came up towards us, like they were angry that we stopped from burning us to a crisp.

"You know what to do,"

"Yeah, yeah,"

We both separated from each other, making both flames change direction before I used my speed to dodge mine, then joined Queen with hers and together, we formed an even stronger barrier of both ice and earth. That fireball will have a had time trying to by pass that by itself.

Now all that's left is...

"Max, NOW!"

***

<*ability 'Warlock king' is in use!*>

<*skill 'water manipulation' has been activated!*>

***

I waited for my fireball to finally come into a good range, a few metres at least, before I fired three tunnels of fire that even for the fire, was a bit too much for it to evaporate quickly. If it were given time, maybe it would have, but that's were Queen came in.

She raised her had and all the water I had just fired froze up immediately it came into contact with the fire. The fireball was immediately neutralized with both our powers at work.

"YES!" we both screamed in joy and gave each other a high five due to our brilliant work.

I guess Queen was right. She said that forming ice was a lot harder than just freezing water, so she knew the only way to defeat the very hot fireball was to use its exact opposite, pure ice.

"Now it's your fireballs turn," I said. We didn't even give the fireball a chance to breakthrough as we ourselves came up to it and did the exact same thing we had to the previous one.

"Hahahaha!" we both laughed out in relief as we could finally sit down in peace without having to worry about impeding doom from the fire.

Mrs Kelly flew down towards us with a smile on her face.

"You both finally learn how to use you powers to complement each other, and you did all that while you were still tired. Maybe there's hope for you guys yet," she said.

"Now, wake your butts up. We still have a long day to go. You guys as still not nearly as ready as you should be for the next training session,"

Our faces whitened in fear as Mrs Kelly began forming another, much more larger, fireballs for us to face.

***

"Max? You're not going down for supper?" Cathy called me from my room.

"Can I be excused this time? I'm too tired today after all that training,"I answered back, while snuggling myself in bed, my sore muscles still throbbing due to the heartless training we are put through.

"You know better than I do that you need the food to get you through tomorrow. I'm not going to ask again," she said with an edge of anger in her voice.

*sigh*

Guess that's why I unconsciously dressed in evening wear right after a much well deserved bubble bath.

"No rest for the wicked, I suppose," Queen said as we walked down to the dining together.

"Between you and I, who's the wicked around here? Anyways, I hate how the four grown ups in our group are completely exempted from this hellish training,"

"With good reason, Max. You think you can keep up with them when they actually get serious. I mean, have you seen how your general looks?"

"Wait, why are you eyeing my general again?"

"Need a change of pace from seeing bones to muscle,"

"Hmm? I see. Now I understand. Just the same as how I need a change of pace from washboard to large p–"

Queen sucker punched me right on the face, sending me flying to the ground.

"If you ever in your life say that in front of me again–"

She she didn't get to finish her sentence as I swiped her leg and she went crashing down on, face first to the ground to join me.

"You don't get to sucker punch me like that and get away with it!"

"Oh, yeah?!"

"Yeah!"

***

"Shall we continue with the discussions about the–"

The dining room blasted open before Sally could continue talking and an angry looking principal walked in, holding the two young kids of the group. Both looked bloodied, but the injuries weren't that serious.

"Just realized why those two were running late for the daily meeting. Max, don't you have something to say?"

"No!" I answered while turning away from Mrs Kelly. Why did I have to apologize first? She started it!

The princess of the castle sighed before placing both kids on the ground.

"We're dealing with this now. You two look like you still have some energy in you. Do I have your permission, general, to issue any punishment I see fit?"

"Do what you will to the kids. Provided they don't die, or anything," the leader of the elites heartlessly answered and returned his attention to the map he was ealier viewing before he was rudely interuppted.

Mrs Kelly smiled before lifting us both back up in her arms, "Why don't we pick of from where we left, you two?"

"NOOOO!" both I and Queen screamed and tried attaching ourselves to the door, but it was a futile attempt.

"I'm going to have fun with this," Kelly smirked as she peeled the both of us from the doors and lifted us towards the training grounds.