Chapter 87: Intense Training (Part 1)

FIFTH DAY — PHYSICAL TRAINING AREA

The days kept passing at the camp, but the pace imposed on the recruits never seemed to truly ease up. Every morning started early, often far too early for their liking, and their days immediately filled with shouted orders, repeated exercises, and new instructions to learn.

Yet, despite the exhaustion that continued to build, something was gradually beginning to change. Their bodies were slowly adapting to this brutal environment, their reflexes were becoming faster, and each of them was beginning to understand what the instructors truly expected from them.

That morning, the training was almost entirely focused on their physical conditioning. The exercises followed one another without giving them much time to recover: running, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, pull-ups, followed by several sets designed to test their endurance.

As soon as one exercise ended, another began almost immediately. Later that day, the recruits also had to cover a long distance while carrying their equipment, adding several extra kilograms to bodies already exhausted by hours of physical effort. 

For Amadeus, the day was particularly difficult. Her intelligence allowed her to immediately understand the instructions, memorize the movements, and even anticipate certain mistakes before making them.

But her body did not always keep up quite as easily. She simply wasn't used to being pushed this far physically. Some exercises already demanded a great deal of effort from her, while others forced her to try several times before she could properly perform what was expected of her.

With each new set, her muscles protested more, her breathing grew shorter, and she regularly had to dig into the last of her reserves just to keep going without stopping.

Flash, on the other hand, was doing noticeably better. His naturally athletic physique and the years he had spent practicing various sports gave him an obvious advantage. Yet even for him, the training was anything but easy.

As the hours passed, his movements became less explosive, his legs grew heavier, and it took him longer to properly catch his breath between sets. The exhaustion was clearly beginning to show on his face, but he still refused to slow down any more than necessary.

Unlike on his first day, this time he managed to make it all the way to the end without stopping. Where he had still needed to fight just to finish the exercise a few days earlier, he now seemed much better at managing his effort, as though his body were already beginning to adapt to the camp's particularly demanding pace.

Several yards away, Morasson and Mark watched the recruits complete their final sets. The two instructors remained attentive to the entire group, but their eyes regularly settled on certain recruits who were already beginning to stand out. And Flash Thompson in particular.

— "Impressive… he's really in great shape for his age." Sergeant Mark murmured.

— "Definitely." Sergeant Morasson replied calmly.

When the training finally came to an end, most of the recruits looked completely drained. Some remained bent over with their hands resting on their knees, while others had simply dropped to the ground to catch their breath.

Amadeus eventually caught up with Flash a few moments later. He too was drenched in sweat and still breathing heavily, but unlike many of the others, he was still standing.

— "Nice job, man! Your endurance and strength are seriously insane! I'm impressed!"

— "T-Thanks…!" Flash replied, catching his breath.

TENTH DAY — FIRST AID TRAINING AREA

Ten days had now passed since the recruits arrived at the camp. Waking up remained just as difficult, the days were still exhausting, and the instructors certainly hadn't softened the way they spoke to them. Yet despite everything, the group was slowly beginning to change.

There were fewer complaints, orders were carried out more quickly, and the recruits gradually seemed to be finding their place among one another. Some rivalries still existed, but their growing familiarity with camp life and the hardships they had shared were already beginning to create a sense of cohesion.

This time, however, no test of strength awaited them. The entire day was dedicated to first aid and the procedures a soldier needed to be capable of performing when someone was injured.

Under the careful supervision of their instructors, the recruits learned how to respond to different emergency situations, how to remain calm enough to quickly assess a victim's condition, and how to carry out the necessary procedures without wasting time.

They were trained to control bleeding, perform the appropriate resuscitation procedures, and temporarily stabilize certain injuries until more advanced medical care could be provided. Every movement had to be precise and methodical, because one wrong move could worsen the condition of the very person they were trying to save.

The instructors also taught them how to move and evacuate an injured person without making their injuries worse. The recruits had to work together, learn to coordinate their movements, and understand that a poorly organized evacuation could quickly turn an already dangerous situation into a complete disaster. Acting quickly wasn't enough: they also had to act correctly.

For once, Flash's physical strength gave him no particular advantage. His muscles couldn't help him memorize a procedure or correctly perform a delicate movement. Everything depended primarily on his composure, precision, and ability to remember the different steps they had been taught earlier that day.

And in that area, Amadeus proved particularly capable.

Where she had struggled tremendously during the physical exercises, this time the roles almost seemed reversed. She absorbed the explanations with remarkable speed, easily remembered the different procedures, and reproduced the required movements with a precision that contrasted sharply with her difficulties during endurance training. Every new instruction seemed to find its place in her mind almost immediately.

Flash, on the other hand, was less naturally comfortable with it. Sometimes, he needed more time to think before moving through the different steps, and certain procedures required greater concentration from him. Yet despite a few moments of hesitation, he managed to correctly perform most of what was asked of him, showing that he wasn't only capable of relying on his physical abilities to make progress within the camp.

TWENTY-SECOND DAY — TACTICAL TRAINING AREA

More than three weeks had now passed since the beginning of the camp, and as the days went by, the exercises were gradually becoming more complex. It was no longer simply a matter of testing the recruits' endurance or their ability to follow orders under pressure.

The instructors were now beginning to demand more thought, coordination, and adaptability from them when faced with situations where physical abilities alone were no longer enough.

That day, part of the training took place on a vast wooded training ground specifically designed for that purpose. The recruits were divided into several groups while the instructors moved among them, carefully observing their movements, correcting their mistakes, and above all studying how they reacted when placed under pressure.

The first part of the day was dedicated to close-quarters combat. Flash quickly found his footing. He had no real technique, and it still showed in the way he moved: some of his movements lacked precision, and he sometimes relied more on his reflexes than on any genuine mastery.

Yet his physique, quick reactions, and especially the experience he had accumulated through the many fights he had gotten into in the past allowed him to improvise well enough to defend himself and strike back whenever an opportunity presented itself.

However, he was far from being the best in the group. Whenever he found himself facing recruits with more technique, his weaknesses became much more obvious, and several of them managed to put him in serious difficulty.

Despite that, for someone who had never truly learned how to fight properly, Flash already had some interesting foundations. His instructors quickly noticed it: with enough work, his physical abilities could become far more effective once combined with genuine technique.

For Amadeus, on the other hand, this part of the training was much more difficult. She could understand a movement almost immediately after seeing it and grasp the logic behind a technique, but understanding something didn't mean being able to properly reproduce what her mind had already absorbed.

Her lack of experience, strength, and especially automatic reflexes regularly left her a step behind her opponents. Several times, she correctly anticipated an attack or understood what she should have done to counter it, but her body simply couldn't keep up with her reasoning at the same speed.

The next part of the training, however, completely reversed their roles. The recruits were sent into the wooded training area and had to learn how to move as a group, constantly monitor their surroundings, limit their exposure, and communicate effectively without losing sight of the instructions they had been given.

Some exercises required them to locate a specific position, study their surroundings in order to choose a route, or react when an unexpected element suddenly disrupted what they had planned only moments earlier.

And this time, Flash was much less comfortable. Used to solving problems by acting immediately, he had a tendency to move too quickly. His first instinct was often to do something before he had properly observed his surroundings, which sometimes caused him to overlook details that were actually important.

Where his strength, reflexes, or endurance usually allowed him to make up for certain mistakes, all those qualities were almost useless when he was simply being asked to slow down, observe, and think before acting.

Amadeus, on the other hand, finally seemed to have found an environment perfectly suited to the way her mind worked. Every new constraint became a problem for her to solve. Her eyes constantly scanned her surroundings, her mind analyzed the different possibilities, and she regularly anticipated the others' movements before they even happened.

Where her body had limited her during the close-quarters combat exercises, her intelligence now took over. She sometimes found solutions that some of the other recruits hadn't even considered and quickly adapted her reasoning whenever the situation changed.

By the end of the day, their differences had become particularly obvious. Flash was naturally effective whenever a situation demanded strength, endurance, or an immediate reaction. Amadeus, meanwhile, excelled whenever she had a few seconds to observe, understand, and think about the best way to act.

And without even truly realizing it, the two of them were already beginning to work in a complementary way. Wherever one struggled, the other seemed naturally capable of making up for their weaknesses.

TO BE CONTINUED.