Chapter 183: Payback

(Inside Professor Mike’s Morning Training Class, Riven’s POV)

Professor Mike’s morning training began exactly two hours before sunrise, with nearly four hundred first-year students gathered across the physical training ground while the muscular professor stood before them with his arms folded across his chest.

Unlike their previous class, there was going to be no simple endurance run today, as the training ground behind Mike had been prepared with an enormous obstacle course stretching seven hundred meters from beginning to end.

Wooden walls stood at varying heights across the course, followed by trenches, balancing beams, climbing ropes, weighted sleds and several stretches of open ground connecting one obstacle to another, with the entire circuit eventually looping back towards its starting point.

"Today we’re testing something slightly different," Professor Mike announced, as his booming voice carried easily across the gathered students.

"Running until your legs stop working tells me plenty about your endurance, but endurance doesn’t mean shit if your body becomes useless the moment you’re forced to climb, jump, crawl or suddenly change direction."

Mike pointed towards the enormous course behind him before turning back towards the students, many of whom were already studying the obstacles they were soon going to be facing.

"You’ll be running this course in four batches of approximately one hundred students each, and every batch is going to remain on the course until I tell you otherwise."

"Your objective is simple. Keep moving, complete every obstacle properly and maintain the fastest pace your body can sustain, because anyone I catch deliberately skipping an obstacle is going to repeat the entire fucking exercise after everyone else has finished."

Riven was assigned to the third batch, giving him plenty of time to observe the first two groups while they ran and memorize the most efficient method of approaching each obstacle.

By the time Professor Mike finally called the third batch forward, Riven already knew where he was going to accelerate, where momentum mattered most and which sections of the course were going to demand the greatest amount of energy.

"THIRD BATCH! GET YOUR ASSES ON THE COURSE!"

Mike declared as nearly one hundred students began moving towards the starting area, although it took Riven only a few moments to notice several Aureate students deliberately repositioning themselves around him, as Circuit’s warning from earlier immediately returned to his mind.

’Are they really going to try and mess with me today?’

Riven wondered, as he immediately grew more cautious.

There were five of them within his immediate vicinity, with another handful scattered farther ahead and behind, and judging by the repeated glances passing between them, their positioning was anything but coincidental.

’Well, if they do, then I must put an end to it today itself, before the problem grows out of hand.

I cannot take it lying down.’

Riven thought, as he tried his best to not show any outwardly reaction.

For a few minutes, nothing untowardly happened, however, once everyone started to settle into a rhythm, one of the House Aureate members finally decided to stir trouble.

"Look who we have here...."

He muttered from Riven’s right.

"It’s a fucking savage. I was wondering why this training ground smells like wild grass and rabbit poop.

Turns out, we have a hillbilly amidst us."

He joked, as his friends chuckled and moved closer to Riven.

"Better watch your step today, Dawnriver. Would be a shame if something happened to you while Professor Mike wasn’t looking."

Another warned, as Riven continued staring straight ahead.

His expression did not change, his breathing remained steady and he gave no indication whatsoever that he had even heard them.

"Nothing to say today, Mr Sword Catcher? Are we not good enough for you to waste words on?"

A third jibed, as Riven still remained silent, while Professor Mike started to look at their direction once again.

"WHY ARE YOU LOT BUNCHING TOGETHER UP THERE?

RUN HARDER!"

Mike yelled, as the group immediately surged forward together, while Riven outran them and took a comfortable lead.

’I need to outpace them...’

He thought, as he tried to outrun his problems for a while, however, much to his irritation, the Aureate members refused to back down, and started to burn Aether to stay around him.

"You won’t shake us off today, Dawnriver."

"Yeah, we won’t be outdone by a savage."

They muttered, as they continued to insult him whenever Mike was not looking.

However, Riven ignored every single one.

He cleared the first wooden wall, landed on the opposite side and immediately continued running without looking towards any of them.

He crossed the balancing beams without breaking stride, crawled beneath the wooden barriers, dragged the weighted sled across its designated stretch and continued onto the next lap without once allowing his expression to betray what he was thinking.

Even when someone called him a disgrace to House Dawnriver, Riven did not respond.

Another lap passed.

Then another.

The longer his silence continued, the more frustrated the students surrounding him became, as what had initially begun as confident mockery gradually turned into increasingly desperate attempts to provoke some visible response.

’Is this bastard even listening to us?’ one of the Aureate students wondered, as he looked towards Riven’s completely indifferent expression.

They had expected anger.

After watching Riven lose control against Gary and hearing what happened with Milano inside Argent’s common hall, they expected only a few insults to be necessary before the supposedly savage Dawnriver finally snapped.

Instead, Riven continued running.

His breathing remained controlled, his pace remained consistent and his eyes stayed fixed upon the obstacles ahead as though the Aureate students surrounding him did not even exist.

Eventually, one of them had enough.

As they approached another stretch of open ground, the boy gradually accelerated until he was running slightly ahead of Riven before shifting across his path and deliberately extending his leg backwards.

Riven’s foot caught against it.

His balance disappeared for several steps as his upper body pitched forward, although the conditioning carved into his reconstructed body allowed him to recover before he could fall.

"Oops," the boy said, before immediately laughing.

Several Aureate students surrounding them burst into louder laughter.

Riven said nothing.

His expression remained exactly the same as before.

He simply corrected his stride and continued running.

However, his lack of reaction only emboldened his hecklers.

If the insults were not enough to provoke him, then perhaps embarrassing him physically was going to accomplish what their words could not.

For the next couple of laps, the interference remained relatively minor, as students occasionally crowded Riven against obstacles, moved unnecessarily close while overtaking him or forced him to alter his path.

Riven continued accepting all of it without complaint.

Until another Aureate student finally came alongside him during an open section of the course and drove his elbow hard into Riven’s ribs.

The impact forced Riven half a step sideways.

This time, his attention immediately shifted away from the course.

However, he did not look towards the boy who struck him.

He looked towards Professor Mike.

The professor was standing farther across the training ground, his attention currently focused upon several students struggling with one of the climbing obstacles.

Mike had not seen it.

"What happened?" the Aureate student asked mockingly, as he continued running beside Riven while waiting for some reaction.

Riven gave him none.

He simply continued running while occasionally glancing towards Professor Mike, watching the professor’s movements as patiently as he watched opponents during a fight.

A few moments later, Mike turned towards their section of the course.

Riven did nothing.

He continued running.

Mike’s attention remained there for several seconds before eventually shifting towards another section where a student had fallen from one of the wooden walls.

Riven waited another moment.

Then he looked towards the Aureate student beside him.

The boy was still smiling.

However, this time Riven’s fist smashed directly into his chin.

THWACK!

The student’s head snapped sideways as his legs immediately lost coordination beneath him, sending him stumbling across the course before collapsing heavily onto the ground.

Several students around them froze.

Riven continued running.

The Aureate students surrounding him stared towards their fallen companion in disbelief before one of them immediately accelerated towards Riven.

"You fucking bastard!"

Riven heard him coming.

The boy attempted to shoulder Riven from behind, although Riven shifted his weight at the final moment before turning and swinging his arm violently across the student’s upper chest.

BAM!

The clothesline ripped the boy from his feet and sent him crashing onto his back.

Riven stopped.

The student groaned and attempted to rise, but Riven was already standing above him.

His fist slammed into the boy’s face.

THWACK!

Riven struck him again.

BAM!

The second punch knocked the student unconscious, leaving his body motionless against the ground while the students surrounding them hurriedly backed away.

For several seconds, the entire section of the obstacle course descended into confusion.

Some students continued running, others slowed down to watch, while several Aureate members began shouting towards Professor Mike in an attempt to draw his attention.

Riven calmly rose from above the unconscious student.

His eyes moved across the Aureate students surrounding him.

Nobody laughed anymore.

"DAWNRIVER!"

Professor Mike’s voice thundered across the training ground.

Riven turned towards him.

Mike was already storming across the course, his expression furious as students immediately moved aside to clear his path.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"

Riven remained completely composed as the professor stopped before him.

"They threatened me before the exercise began, Professor, and then spent several laps insulting me while deliberately interfering with my run."

Riven gestured towards the first student who had tried to trip him.

"That one deliberately tripped me earlier, and everyone around him laughed when I nearly fell. I didn’t retaliate."

His attention shifted towards the boy he had punched in the chin.

"Then that one elbowed me hard enough to knock me sideways. I looked towards you because I wanted to see whether you had noticed what happened, but you hadn’t."

Riven finally looked towards the unconscious student lying on the ground.

"So I understood that if they were allowed to attack me whenever you weren’t looking, then I was allowed to defend myself whenever you weren’t looking as well."

His gaze returned towards Professor Mike.

"They threatened me, assaulted me and apparently believed I was going to accept it because they happened to be doing it behind your back."

Riven’s expression remained perfectly calm.

"They were forgetting their place, Professor, so I simply put them where they belonged."