**** Steve's PoV
'Four days.'
'Five days?'
'No... two days?'
I wasn't sure anymore. Time blurred together, hammering itself into my skull ever since this hellish training began under Arkas.
My entire body ached, every muscle torn and screaming. Pain had become my only companion.
For some number of days and nights, all I had known were the cold stone walls of this chamber and the dim lamp flickering weakly on the right wall.
It had started with Arkas dragging me to an Abomination nest. He gave me a single task—kill.
But only when I was sure one strike would end the fight. No wasted blows. No second chances.
That meant I had to fight high-level Abominations with a handicap. I had one hit. One shot. The rest of the time, I was dodging, getting slammed into the dirt, feeling my bones shatter and my flesh tear.
Again and again, I had to crawl back up, battered and bleeding, just to search for that one opening.
