Lucian and Alstair stood side by side, and in front of them stood Zeydris.
"As I said, your first lesson would be to master your reflexes and intuitions," Zeydris said.
Alstair asked hesitantly, "Umm… Teach, why are reflexes and intuitions our first lesson? I mean, they're important, but shouldn't you like, teach about mana or ordinations first?"
"I would have done that if a certain someone had awakened their sigil first. Don't worry; it's not your fault, though," Zeydris replied sternly. That made Alstair shut his mouth.
"So, does that mean I won't be able to learn about mana and ordinations from you much?" Lucian asked. Hearing his question, Alstair felt a pang of guilt in his chest as he lowered his head in shame.
Zeydris shook his head. "I have some plans for that. You both will be able to train your mana after I make some arrangements." As Zeydris explained, Lucian nodded, and Alstair's spirit and enthusiasm came back as he looked at Zeydris with shining eyes, but he didn't say anything.
Seeing that neither was raising any more questions, Zeydris pulled out two blindfolds from his pocket and handed them to Lucian and Alstair, who looked at them in confusion. Nevertheless, they took them from his hands.
It was Lucian who asked this time, "What are we supposed to do with this?"
A grin spread across Zeydris's face.
Then, he pulled out a wooden bat from his dimensional space.
Lucian and Alstair looked at the bat, then at the blindfolds in their hands, then back at the bat. Alstair turned to Lucian and asked, "Are you thinking the same shit I am right now?"
"I-I'm afraid so," Lucian replied.
"Now put those blindfolds on and try to hold out for as long as you can. Ah, one more thing, if you decide to run away, I won't be coming to save your asses," Zeydris said.
Gulp.
Both Lucian and Alstair gulped at the same time.
They hesitated but complied. They both thought the same thing,
'We're screwed.'
"Try to dodge every attack I make. Follow your intuition and harness your senses. Oh, one more thing. I'll be infusing mana into the bat. If you don't want to end up broken by the end of this, you better dodge every hit."
"T-the heck…!" Alstair shouted, exasperated. Right at that moment-
Swish.
The sound of the bat swinging reached Lucian's ears, and as if on cue, Alstair's scream echoed loudly, "AGHH, FUCKK, MY HAND!!"
"You both better start dodging. Alstair, your hand ain't broken. I made sure of that. But if you keep getting hit, it might be."
Just as Zeydris finished speaking, a tingling sensation alarmed Lucian. He rolled to his left as Zeydris slashed horizontally, aiming for his head.
But Zeydris didn't give him a break; a follow up attack came, aimed at his legs.
"Ughh!" Lucian grunted clutching the place he got hit at, but he didn't waste a second and stood up. There was no attack from Zeydris yet, which meant he was targeting Alstair now.
As if proving Lucian's thought true, a grunt came from Alstair's direction.
Then, suddenly, Lucian felt like another attack was coming for his right arm, so he sidestepped, but his intuition was wrong. The bat struck his ribs instead.
The hit sent Lucian skidding back a couple of meters from the impact.
'This hurts like hell!' Lucian thought, standing up and clutching his ribs.
Slashes kept coming from all directions at him and Alstair. They dodged some hits, but most of the time, they got struck.
They endured it for five hours straight without a break.
Yeah….they endured the torture for five hours straight.
Their bodies screamed for rest, but Zeydris didn't give them any.
At first, the attacks were slower, and after a while, they started recognizing a pattern. But just as they began predicting the next move and started to dodge or block in accordance to that,, Zeydris increased the speed and randomness of his swings.
It got harder for Lucian and Alstair to dodge, and soon, they were beaten black and blue.
But after five long hours of torment, they were finally free, at least for the rest of the day.
"Okay, that's enough for today. I've got preparations to make for your future training. You can go rest now. We'll keep doing this until your reflexes and intuition meet my expectations, and from today's lesson, I'd say it'll take at least three months. So prepare yourselves. This is just the beginning."
With that, Zeydris turned and walked away, leaving behind a groaning Lucian, who collapsed onto the ground, rubbing his sore muscles.
Lucian was covered in bruises, some parts swollen, his hands a dark shade of blue from repeated hits.
"UGGHHH!" Alstair's voice made Lucian glance over, and he immediately regretted it.
Alstair was puking, his body even more swollen and bruised than Lucian's.
"…Bro, do you think you'll live?" Alstair asked, letting himself fall back to rest.
"…I don't know…..don't fucking ask me. Getting beaten by Vespralith built up my pain tolerance, I guess… but I don't think I can survive this training for long," Lucian replied.
"I've got some fractured bones, and my foot was dislocated, but that monster just hit it back into place. That shit hurts!" Alstair complained.
"What about you? Any broken bones? I thought he'd go easy on you since you just recovered from nearly dying, but I guess I was wrong," Alstair said, glancing at Lucian from the corner of his eye.
"…Some fractured bones, yeah… I covered myself with mana, so no serious injuries right now…" Lucian groaned as he stood up.
"Let's go inside. You don't want abyss creatures attacking us right now, do you?" he added, dusting off his clothes.
Alstair stood up too, groaning like a madman.
Then, Lucian and Alstair limped their way back to their resting place, leaning on each other to keep each other from falling.
"We're in for hell," Alstair said, grimacing.
Lucian couldn't help but agree.