Calea's clothes was stained in mud, not only that, but her beautiful white hair also got dirty, turning some of it into a brownish color.
Once the impact was over and there was no more flying muds heading towards her, she then opened her eyes again and moved her hands away from her face, the others soon followed aswell.
It was not unexpected, but Calea's wooden scythe broke after being slammed like that by Scythe, some of the pieces were stuck on the ground, while the others flew to an unknown place.
"Isn't it gorgeous?" Scythe said, his dark cloak was also stained with mud, that's to be expected when he just did something like that earlier. "I'll give you a new one later– Here's your first task, replicate that technique until you reached 99% resemblance."
"H— HUH!? W- WAIT A SECOND.." Deon complained. "Shouldn't you atleast teach us the basic of using a scythe first!? All of us here only had wielded a sword before, some even didn't have any fighting experience! How do you expect us to do that with just simple training?!"
When the other students heard Deon's complain, they thought that it was reasonable and pretty logical, although they didn't speak personally, all of them nodded to Scythe, hoping to change his mind.
'Deon is right..' Calea thought. 'This is our first time using this thing, i doubt even the most talented and monstrous people on this continent can pull that off by just training for a few days..'
"Hah? Did your ears have something in it? When did i say that you only have a few days to do it?" Scythe responded, displeased with Deon and everyone who had misinterpreted his words.
"Then—" Deon tries to talk, but Scythe cuts him off.
"Two Months— You all have two months to prepare, i'll train you everyday so that you can achieve that level of skill in just two months." He insisted. "Don't try to negotiate, understood?"
Everyone was left speechless, they couldn't talk back now, even Deon was silenced, if he asks for more time than 2 months, then it would count as a negotiation, and he doesn't want to know what would happen if he tries to go against Scythe's order.
"...Understood." Said all of the students simultaneously.
Chirp!
Chirp!
The birds are coming out of their nests, chirping beautifully as their noises echoed throughout the forest, it is a sign of a new day, and the morning fogs began to vanish gradually.
'I hope the training wouldn't be that bad– I've seen my brothers training before, he usually just stood still slashing the training dummy with a wooden sword.. Im sure we would do that too, but with a scythe instead of a sword.. Right?' Calea thought, reassuring herself that it might not be as bad as she think.
***
A Week Later, in a sunny hot day at noon.
"URGGHHH!!" Calea grunted loudly, her face was all sweaty, multiple drop of sweats fell from her chin, from the looks of her eyes, it seems like she was incredibly exhausted.
Calea and all the other Scythe students were told to do 120 push-ups, and they have to do it consecutively with no breaks, there's no punishment for those who failed to do so, however they would be left behind by those who manages to complete it as this training didn't only consisted of push-ups only.
It was Calea's 113rd push-up, she was barely holding on with her hands shaking uncontrollably, her weight felt way too heavy, its as if her body became a giant boulder that she need to lift by herself, there's only a couple more push-ups infront of her, the number was low, but it felt like forever to do even one push-up with her current state, despite her exhaustion, Calea didn't give up, she pushed her body more, lifting the giant boulder with every strength she had left.
'1- 114!!!' She screamed on her mind. '115!!!'
Scythe was standing beside Calea throughout the whole training, watching her struggle and enjoying it for the whole time, the sun is burning hot, its shining rays shone through the ground, the open field outside of the wooden shack became the training ground for the students, and Calea was in the middle of it, burned by the sun flare while she risked her life just for a push-up.
"What a disappointment." Scythe said, upset with Calea's stamina.
Some of the students was already at the third stage, which consisted of running 50 laps around the open field, while some were at the second stage of swinging the wooden scythe 120 times, this 3 stage training was done on a daily basis, and everyone took part in it since a week ago, Calea was the only person who's still at stage 1 today.
"Arrgghh!! My arms are about to give up from swinging this scythe.." Said Orbeth who's at the stage 2 of training.
"Just swing, don't think of anything else.. It'll be over before you know it." Endi tried to calm Orbeth down, he's on stage 2 aswell, and among the other students in there, his ability to stay calm and stabilizing his heart rate is still unbeatable.
"Carsel, you're done– You are allowed to rest." Scythe said when he saw Carsel, he was running around the field on stage 3, and he's been doing it for a while now.
'This guy is not bad, he's better than everyone else, but i can't call him good yet.' Scythe thought to himself.
Hearing Scythe's order, Carsel then stopped running and instead walked to the closes shade beneath a tree so that he can rest and cool down his body.
'1— 120!!!!!!'
"Hm? Karera, you're done with the push up, go pick up your scythe."
"Y- Yes..." Calea replied, her voice sounded dry, like she was dehydrated, she didn't get any time to relax at all, after she was done with the push-ups, she immediately stand up and walked to her wooden scythe to grab it.
'C- crap.. i- i can't feel my hands.. My muscles are tearing apart, it hurts.. It hurts...'
Scythe then looked at Vedra when he was at stage 3, he's been running for a while and is tailing behind Carsel. "Hm? Vedra, you're done– You're allowed to rest" He said.
It was like a rival, Vedra and Carsel both had similar body and stamina, they're like a beast in term of skills, one day Vedra came out first and completed all of the training, while the other day, Carsel was the first to complete all of the trainings, even though they seem similar, at the end of the day, Carsel was the one reigning superior.
Looking at the open field from afar, it seems like everyone was able to somehow adapted with their new routine, except for Calea, who had fallen behind by a lot.
***
The night after the training..
The sun had just set, Calea and the other students were all inside the wooden shack.
Calea was seen laying on the floor, her whole body became sore, she could barely move her hands and legs, if something were to happen, she would not have any chance of fighting back.
Thankfully for the past of these 6 grueling days, everyone have been sleeping in peace, there's no one that caused any problem inside the shack, it was probably because they were scared of the guards outside, if any of the students dare to open the door at night, the guards would instantly beat them up, Vedra actually tried to go outside a few days ago, only to be kicked and thrown back to the shack again by the cloaked men.
'I hate it here..' Calea cursed to herself. 'It hurts.. My body won't move..'
Creaakk!