The next morning at 5:48, Kiera walked to the training ground with bloodshot eyes and the enthusiasm of a dying dog.
"I should've just rolled the dice; death is a blessing compared to waking up this early." She complained bitterly.
"You think you're joking, but you'll definitely feel that way before the end of our first training day." Kaze grinned from behind her, making her eyes widen.
However, she didn't look back in protest. "Isn't avoiding death the point of this torturous training?"
"Precisely." He smiled, "That's why I'll only take you to the brink of death."
She turned to him with horror in her eyes. "You're being serious, aren't you?"
"Of course." Kaze grinned maliciously, "You'll be horrified to learn how honest I am."
Kiera swallowed nervously. "Can't you take it easy on me, chief? For practical reasons,
I mean. If you nuke my enthusiasm, I'll turn into a Debbie Drowner, and Depressing Debbies are notoriously useless, you know?"
"Oh, I'll take it easy on you." He chuckled ominously, "Comparatively. Follow me."
"Comparatively?" She asked seriously, stopping, "What type of sketch, illegal training are you running here!?
You're not taking me to a dingy basement for resistance training, are you?"
"Stop your buffoonery and catch up." He yelled from a distance, "I'm not wasting my time training a child."
Kiera panicked and ran at full speed, catching up. "Seriously though, we're not resistance training, right?
Full disclosure, I'm eighty thousand percent non-pro-torture. Not a fan, I'll scream."
"Silence. Your perpetual declarations of your desires have grown unbearable." He scoffed, "You may leave at any time unless doing so will kill you, but I will not allow you to return."
"Did you just say that leaving could kill me!?" Kiera cried in panic, looking at him. She looked at him for answers, but he ignored her.
When she finally gave up, she pursed her lips and turned forward. When she did, she saw an area walled off, surrounded by electric fences in the distance.
"Whooooooooa, woah-woah-woah!" She cried in true horror, "H-Hold up! Tell me we're not [training] in Area 51!
Training that can kill me in that place? No thanks. Trust lost, no dice."
He stopped moving and turned to her with a serious expression.
"Then leave." Kaze replied coldly, "Turn down the opportunity people would die for and return to bed to halt this grisly torture and your unendurable suffering.
However, you will hold your tongue if you walk through that door.
The two people inside know the true meaning of suffering and are training to prevent future suffering.
They will find your irascible behavior and declarations of injustice and pain offensive.
Since I seek to prevent you from being like them, it's best to show you what you're up against and why you should take training seriously."
Kiera stopped and trembled for a moment, looking back at that walled-off area with a beating heart. She was truly afraid and had every right to be, as she'd be genuinely risking her life.
She looked at the gates and back at him. "Look, I want to train, I'm grateful, and not trying to cause problems, kay? This is just the way I express my anxiety."
"And your tongue will get you killed one day, regardless of your intentions." Kaze reiterated coldly, "So keep quiet and learn what true training is."
Kiera gulped nervously, going through dozens of potential scenarios. She desperately sought to learn why his words constantly spread doom and gloom.
However, all she could decipher was that he was dead serious, and she'd regret turning him down once his reasons came to light.
"I'll do it." She said, looking at the ground.
"Good, now come." Kaze replied gently, easing up and leading her to the gate.
When he put in the code, and the door opened, she stared at the beautiful area in shock.
"Three words—Not Area 51." Kiera whispered to herself, nearly imperceptively, "Also, how cute… w-wait, that's—"
"The cultivator who gave you your techniques." Kaze interjected, "She's not with the cultivators, and you will never tell anyone you have met her before or where. Do you understand?"
Kiera's eyes shook in anxiety and fear, looking at Crux, but she kept her mouth shut and nodded. Luckily, her mind instantly switched directions when she saw Evalyn.
The blonde was balancing on one foot on ice the size of her foot, 50 feet out in the lake. She was covered in cuts, soaked and shivering, and her clothing was tattered.
Her shivering made her unstable, requiring her full concentration to remain standing.
The divine beast was in her cute low-thigh frog hoodie with steely eyes and a domineering pose.
"Kaze, how do you say the words wrong, pathetic, and imbecile?" Crux asked from 200 feet away, not turning to him.
Kiera couldn't hear her, but he responded as if it was only natural.
"Correct, marvelous, and [you're impressive]." Kaze replied.
"CORRECT!" Crux yelled at the blonde, "YOU'RE IMPRESSIVE!"
Evalyn's eyes shot open in puzzlement, unsure why the divine beast learned words, spoke for the first time, why the words were positive, or why they sounded so vitriolic.
The confusion made her fall into the water again.
"MARVELOUS!" Crux yelled, waving her hand.
A massive tidal wave crashed into the blonde, sending her toward the massive rock in the center.
Evalyn adeptly turned her body to control her position and hit the rock with her feet, flipping onto it without getting hurt [again].
The same thing had happened at least thirty times since their training started.
"How do you say, [not terrible]?" The cat woman asked dryly.
"Survivable." Kaze smiled.
"SURVIVABLE!" Crux yelled dryly.
"What are you doing?" Kiera asked in shock.
"Promoting communication." He grinned.
"If she doesn't know the language, isn't telling her the wrong thing wrecking communication?" The pink-haired woman asked.
She already knew the woman couldn't speak English, as she had met her.
Kaze shook his head, pointing to each woman. "No. If I gave her the right answer, there'd be no reason for Evalyn to teach Crux language.
There's now an opportunity for Evalyn to correct her, starting a communication system.
Language isn't important for training, so I haven't helped Crux learn English to promote bonding and signal reading."
Kiera gulped and nodded nervously. She had no idea what he was talking about, but what she was watching was too surreal for her to question it.
Evalyn stepped off the rock, freezing the water under her feet. The water was extremely choppy, so she surfed on the water to get back to the location. It was extremely skilled.
However, it got increasingly difficult as her body dropped in temperature and her shivering continued.
"Ummm… if it's permissible, can I ask a question?" Kiera asked quietly, hesitant to speak.
"Sure." Kaze nodded, "So long as you're respectful."
"Yeah… so, isn't that bad for muscle memory?" She asked discerningly, "The longer they do this, the colder the water will get since it's freezing every step.
That increases the amount that blondie… Evalyn shakes. It nukes concentration and adds another variable in something already complex… right?"
"That's an astute observation." Kaze replied, genuinely impressed, "That's true. However, this is fatigue training and also resistance training.
Crux is desensitizing Evalyn to pain during training."
Kiera's eyes widened in shock, and she turned to him with pleading eyes.
"While your training will be painful, as cultivation training is, I won't do this to you." Kaze replied seriously, "Unlike her, you're not asking for resistance training."
The pink-haired woman turned to Evalyn. While they were in the distance, she had a sky-grade technique and could see the look in her eyes. "No resentment…."
"None." He confirmed straightly, "That's the type of determination one can only develop by loss and suffering.
Evalyn doesn't want to ever experience loss again, so she's making the most of this training. She'll practice even if it might kill her before we can save her."
"Isn't that… counterintuitive?" Kiera asked, genuinely perplexed but curious.
"If she dies during training, it's her fault—that's her mindset." Kaze replied, "She understands that danger in the real world is beyond her control, but she knows what's coming in training.
So if she dies despite knowing what's coming, it proves she wouldn't have made it in a real situation. Simple as that."
"I… don't understand." She whispered.
"Exactly. Now observe." Kaze said before switching languages, "Crux, do you have a healing cultivation technique at this point in your life?"
The cat woman turned to him with a serious expression. "You do realize how absurd that question is, right?
The medical families and schools strictly guard those techniques."
"Figures." He chuckled bitterly, waving his hand and casually walking through a spatial rift to stand before Crux. She panicked, jumped backward, and waved her hand reflexively.
A massive slash of warping space cut through the atmosphere.
Kaze clicked his tongue and jumped back onto the lake, standing on the water in front of Evalyn, and waved his hand at a ghostly speed.
The warping Qi in front of the two twisted into his hand, contorting violently with high kinetic energy as he contained it.
At the same time, violent tidal waves spread in the water on both sides of them before—
BOOM! Boom, boom! CRaaaccCk, Thud! Thud!
The wind slashes cut through two trees, felling them before smashing into large boulders that he had set up for that exact purpose.
However, he hadn't expected a divine beast to show up, so it cut them in half and sent them crashing into the wall, leaving huge dents.
Kaze clicked his tongue again and waved his hand upward, releasing the Qi into the sky. It went into the atmosphere.
While it didn't touch the clouds, the force released was enough to create a small indent in the cumulous cloud in the sky. It was horrifying.
Everything happened in a second.
Kiera and Evalyn's bodies shook in horror.
Kaze and Crux looked at each other with serious expressions laced with battle intent.
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