Chapter 3

3

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Once the laps were over, the coach settled for circuits and climbing frames as our next task.
"Line up! We have a lot of work to do!" The coach bellowed, ordering us into battle lines.
"Today we will be doing a number of circuits and climbing routines, so I expect the highest effort from every single one of you! Is that understood?!"
Everyone nodded and saluted, promising that they'd perform at the highest standard possible. Not everyone in the academy could keep that promise, though; it was hard-core training suited for the fittest and the most durable angels in the kingdom, and any less than the best was no longer good enough.

I looked around at the equipment, just itching to start the routines and prove my strength. We had to wait though, for the new students to arrive. The coach had mentioned, a few weeks ago, that there would be more recruits joining our team and bluntly mentioned that our current team was 'not good enough to support the kingdom anymore.' 
What a joke. We were the only people even bothering to support the kingdom; nobody else would do it.

As we waited for the newbies to make their way to the training centre, we were forced to stand in silence and were not allowed to speak until everyone arrived.

 Five minutes passed with no new arrivals.
"Can't I just start without them? I'm going to beat them all anyway," Artemis suddenly said, breaking the silence. I rolled my eyes to the back of my skull.

The coach looked over sharply. "Artemis. BE QUIET! You aren't as great as you think, in fact, you're nothing more than anybody else in this academy!"
Artemis stepped back in shock and closed his mouth instantly. I watched with dirty smirk on my face, brimming with silent satisfaction. Muttering spread around the recruits. Whispers about Artemis and the coach drifted around. I wasn't part of their conversations, but I listened anyway. 
The gossiping continued and got louder. Soon it was out of control and the coach had to step in.
"BE QUIET! This is very irresponsible behaviour from such a highly ranked group of recruits! I'd almost dare to think you're not even serious about fighting for the union!" He roared, sending a wave of silence through everyone.
"Now," he said, in a calmer tone, "I don't want to hear anybody speak unless they have something important to tell me. We are supposed to be setting an example for the new students and-"
His eyes diverted to something behind us. Everyone turned around.
"They're here," I heard the coach say. He walked over with a smile on his face. The new students had finally arrived, geared up just like us, clearly ready for a hell's worth of constant training. I looked at them. Not with a smile though; with a look in my eye that suggested that they weren't here to have fun.
The four of them looked back at me, seeming a bit confused, then smiled and saluted to the coach.

"Welcome to the Cerentine Union training academy, recruits!" He said, acting as nice as possible. I looked away and back at the equipment. How I wished to complain about the lack of skill we were tested against. It was all climbing frames and ropes �" as if that would help us with fighting human machines. But I didn’t say anything �" it was best to keep quiet if I wanted to keep my place in the union. The newbies needed to know that if they stood a chance. They needed us as much as we needed them, since we were ‘helpless’ without them and they knew nothing.

After the 'meet and greet' session was over, we could finally begin training.
"Recruits! Order yourselves into groups of four!" The coach yelled, pulling out a whistle from his pocket. We quickly gathered ourselves together into orderly amounts and positioned ourselves. The groups weren’t there to support you, they were there to compete against you too. Nobody was in an alliance. There were four groups, ten lines, but for forty people ready to compete on the climbing frames.
 I looked left and right; two new students and Artemis were my opponents, among all the others I was competing against. Great.
That meant that if I were to lose, I would face the humiliation of inexperienced trainees beating me or the never-ending mockeries brought by Artemis, who I just could not bear losing to.

I just needed to win.

"Alright! Get in your starting positions!" The coach yelled, placing the whistle near his lips. "THREE! TWO! ONE! GO!"

As soon as the whistle blew, we all sprinted towards the climbing frame in a race to come first place.
I grappled the front of the frame with ease and hurled myself onto a platform. Four others lobbed themselves onto the same frame and caught up with me. They were quick, but I hoped to be quicker. I lurched forward and jumped to the platform above, which was littered with ropes and dummies. The others followed swiftly behind.
"Come on! Come on!" The coach yelled and cheered, as all of us got a hold of the ropes and struggled to untie them. They were tough knots, hard to untie and painful to work my fingers against. But I ignored the pain as the friction against my fingers began to burn. Within a short space of time, I had already untied three, leaving dangling ropes in my sore hands.
The coach kept cheering, the recruits were just behind me; I had no room for delay.
The next task was the dummies. I raced towards them, three ropes in hand, swords by my side, and leapt towards my target with no regrets. One rope. Two ropes. Three. I swiftly tied the dummy around my waist and flew up into the sky. Higher and higher I went, the others not too far behind me. Artemis was particularly close, just inches away from me, and just inches away from possible victory. The others soon caught up too. 
We all flew as high as we could, then flipped and plummeted down towards the ground at breakneck speed.
Faster and faster we got. Clutching my swords, I got ready for the release and destruction of the dummy. Some couldn't take the speed of the fall, so they came to a halt. They were out of the race. In the end it was just me, Artemis and one other left. I was going to win. I wanted to win. I had to win. We were approaching the ground. We got out our swords.

 Three. Two. One.

With one immense blow of our weapons, all three of us demolished our dummies in a few seconds flat. Only a God could have told who had won.  Steam blew out of the ground and the whole academy cheered. We stood there, breathless but standing strong, taking in a shower of compliments. This and saving my kingdom itself, I thought, was the only reason I was sticking around in the academy.

The coach applauded us with great satisfaction. "Very well done recruits! I am most pleased to say that you have all done extremely well, and that you have certainly proved your strength to me!"

All four of us shook hands with the coach and made our way back to the groups. I wasn't happy about ending the race in a tie, but at least I proved myself as strong and at least Artemis didn't exactly win. We got back to the rest of our groups, who thanked us and complimented us on our efforts. I said my thanks back, but quickly glanced over to Artemis, who was sulking behind a crowd. All he wanted to do was beat me. How sad.

 

Author's Note

Tell me what you think!