139 Harder exercises

Aminui had the blood of everyone running with that short run but he was far from over after that was done. Emp had many more challenges to overcome. At first, everything was pretty simple, sit ups, push ups and so on until everyone participating had their whole body burning from the exertion.

It was only after this that Aminui got really into it. Until then, there were still many students that did their best to keep up and managed to make it but after that point, they started dropping like flies. Even Nessa had to drop out from a challenge were he threw sandbags at the students and asked them to not get knocked over.

The sand bags would fly across the field at high speed and ram into them, or just past them if they moved quickly enough. A guy from another class cut open three of them and secured his position. Nessa dodged two and got all the air knocked out of her lungs by the third, Brenia punched them to a stop and Emp just took them head on against his armor. Seeing he wasn't making any efforts at all, Aminui threw the last one much more strongly at Emp and had him slide over fifteen meters back from the impact but Emp kept standing anyway Gathering loud cheers from the crowd.

Every time someone was eliminated, they would sadly go join the rest of the crowd for drinks and food and watch those that survived in amazement. His friends in the crowd were really supportive, especially Mable who kept dancing and bouncing whenever he passed a new challenge. It made him smile brightly every time he saw that.

Of course, the rest shouted their support often and all seemed to have quite some fun too.

The guys were taking bets and laughing about who they thought would last the longest.

Frits and Rica sat in the arms of each other and cheered whenever someone from their class passed on to the next round.

Heida was complaining about how Nicolas wasn't that good and that he should try harder, while he was trying to enjoy some food in peace and tried to shut her up with some fruit wine.

Her usual partner in jibe Gervaise was especially egregious today with the presence of Aminui. She took every little thing that was out of place as a grave affront to their collective dignity. From disorderly clothes to the bubbly actions of Mable and passing through all the ways the students were defeated in the trial, she considered it all to be unsightly. She complained about everything all day long, chiding everyone on how they were ridiculing themselves in front of such a big figure.

She was particularly vocal about Josseline. She fluttered from guy to guy as they were getting eliminated, apparently trying to get a feel for them. She'd go over, ask for their name and try to be charming, if they didn't react too much, she gave up right away and moved on to the next.

A bit behind the rest of the group, Penny was taking notes of the results and didn't call out to the participants but Emp could see her smile or frown whenever someone form their group won or was eliminated.

George was there too and looked like he didn't want to be just as usual, even though no one dragged him here. Zoran was sat at his side and cheered mostly for Nessa, he looked devastated when she got eliminated and George patted his back.

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Oliver, Oran, Kenneth and Odilon heard about Aminui late and asked if they could join the training midway. Aminui let them in with a bunch of other latecomers from the other groups and had them do all the trials from the start while he moved on with the survivors. Odilon dropped out before the end of the run even though he seemed the most confident. Oran and Kenneth followed about an hour later in the challenges but Oliver got quite far. He was known to be always training with his spear after all. Emp had heard others call him a training junkie before, a title that was also stuck to him.

Juniper also came to cheer but more importantly, she astounded the crowd and the participants by going up to Aminui and trying to sell him glass in front of the whole school. She was afraid of him when she learned his name but now, apparently, her attitude was completely turned around. Emp felt she had gotten a lot closer to Mable as well since she learned his name but that might just have been an impression. She didn't strike any good deals with Aminui however.

"You don't have windows?"

"No, they're a structural weakness, we only have slits to let arrows through. Even if I did have windows, covering them in glass is pointless because nothing can go through anymore."

"But how do you light the inside?"

"Magic."

She felt very disturbed by his answer but still tried something else.

"How about drinking cups made of glass then?"

"They break too easily, we had a bunch before but my wife kept breaking them on my forehead." The old man said very seriously.

Juniper had a deadpan face while the rest roared in laughter. In the end, whatever she came up with, nothing interested Aminui in the least. Finally, she sat down in defeat with the other girls and just enjoyed the feast like normal.

Aminui continued to throw all manners of test on them until there were just a handful of people remaining. There was of course Kaisla who went through this sort of things often, Emp whom Mable apparently felt very proud of, Brenia who was too stubborn to drop out from training, Norval who struggled to keep up but still survived through it all and Noirantel who wanted to improve how Aminui viewed him.

In the crowd, his friends, Celtine and Harriett were beaming because more than half of the remaining ones were from their group C. Speaking of Harriett, it seemed that Mable sent one of her servants to get her at some point to let her enjoy the festivities with everyone. Emp was glad about it, he would have been troubled if she stayed in their room up there while everyone else was having fun down here.

Going back to the cheering and the festivities, Emp didn't quite get why this training caused all this excitement but he waved back at his friends anyway. The only important part for him was to get stronger, it didn't matter who could last the longest in that training session.

Winfred the combat teacher soon showed up with a large crate he placed down next to Aminui. The old man thanked him and opened the crate to show everyone present some sort of disk made of clay.

"Those are some throwing disks, I will use them for the last exercise I'll have you do. Usually, we get some living flying monsters but those will do just fine. Here's what you'll do. I'll throw those disk towards you and you'll have to smash them to pieces before they hit the ground or obviously, before they get out of your reach. You are forbidden from using a bow for this but everything else is fair. Kaisla, you go first to show them how it's done."

Since the beginning, he always had Kaisla do the examples, she was obviously used to all of those training exercise.

She stepped forward to give herself some room and stood, about five meters in front of Emp, facing Aminui who stood twenty meters further. The old man threw the disk in a way showing how used to it he was and the clay target whistled through the air. It didn't seem to take him that much of an effort to throw it so far and fast. The disk flew three meters above Kaisla's head and two meters on her left, reaching her vicinity in no time.

The knight jumped towards it at high speed and swung her sword which curved like a whip and broke the flying target with a clear sound. Pieces of it dropped everywhere and she fell back down on her feet with a satisfied face.

She took back her place in the short row of four and Brenia stepped forward in her stead. Emp had learned throughout all those exercises that she liked to be complimented on her victories so he congratulated her once again with a short "Good job."

She smiled back his way seemingly even more satisfied while his grandfather threw the next disk. This time, it flew more over Brenia's head than to the left or right, she jumped into the air to receive it and kicked it with the heel of her foot as it passed close to her. It made a sound like a smashed pot and exploded in pieces.

Unlike Kaisla, Emp felt he would get smacked if he praised her so he refrained from doing so and simply smiled alongside her. The crowd clapped for her like they did for Kaisla and Norval stepped forward.

He had barely hanged on up to now but this time, he seemed too exhausted to jump and hit the target. He took a deep breath and focused himself before Aminui threw the disk his way. It went far to the right but not so high up. Emp felt that the old man was pretty good at keeping the same sort of distance in between each throw even if they seemed so random.

Norval decided to not move at all and just threw his sword into the air instead with a shout. The crowd hollered in surprise and expectation but sadly, Norval missed. The timing of his spinning sword was just slightly off and flew in front of the disk, if he had thrown it an instant after, he would have hit the mark. Loud disappointment was heard from the crowd and the sword bounced into the dirt while the disk continued its flight.

The disk ended up bumping in the back of an unlucky guy who wasn't paying attention and made him fall over his table under roars of laughter from the rest.

Finally eliminated, Norval dejectedly made his way to the crowd where the guys form their group started to cheer him back up. Emp thought it was disappointing since it was the last exercise and he had almost made it to the end but he also felt that he should improve a lot thanks to today's exercises. He'd be able to do it to the end in no time.

Noirantel was the next to step up. He was the last one remaining that didn't belong in Emp group excluding Kaisla who didn't belong in any group. He looked confident in his ability to pass the test and soon nodded towards the old man to show that he was ready.

Aminui threw the disk just as high as all the previous ones and a bit on his right. Noirantel sprung to action despite his own fatigue and jumped to meet the disk. He couldn't jump as high as Brenia or extend his sword like Kaisla did but he still had enough strength and reach to cut down the disk with a crisp sound announcing his victory like a bell. The crowd cheered and clapped once more and soon enough, it was Emp's turn to step up.

The crowd stared in curiosity, up until now, he kept doing things that seemed ridiculous to the rest but somehow kept passing each and every test. At many points throughout it all, the crowd felt that Aminui had something against Emp because he kept imposing seemingly unfair disadvantages to him. The rumor spread that it was because Mable whom he protected kept nagging at the old man. Yet, somehow, despite doing his best to get rid of Emp, he was still standing there.

Of course, none of this was true, Aminui was just trying to feel Emp's limits and adjust the training accordingly. Here again, he did something that looked unfair for the spectators. The disk he threw this time went at the same height as usual but went way further on the left than reasonable for anyone else than Emp. It was a good twelve meters off and at the high speed it was going, no one else here but Emp could have possibly ever caught that one.

Emp didn't even move and just waved his arm. Somehow, the crowd saw him reach and smash the disk with his sword, giving everyone a headache trying to figure out how it was even possible.

Like that, the last test had come to an en/

"I'm sure Emp can jump higher than all of them combined so throw that target higher old man! He's gonna go up like fwoosh! you'll see!" Mable shouted from the back.

"What?"

The crowd as well as Emp reacted with mixed levels of puzzlement. No one understood what she wanted to achieve with that demand.

"I see, that's a good point, he didn't even have to move this time. Should we go for a second round then? I'll throw it much further this time."

"Let's!" Mable said with conviction, standing with her arms crossed under her breasts.

The crowd took her side right away, eager to see that second, much harder, round. They all expressed their desire to see that. On the other hand, the four participants left had a much more mixed reaction. Emp didn't mind because he was pretty sure he'd be able to get it wherever it went but the rest weren't that confident. Aminui seemed eager to take on that proposal too and disregarded the discomfort of the three.

"I heard the crowd, in that case, Emp, are you ready? This one will be hard to get."

If even Aminui said it would be hard, he should take this one seriously. He took a stance which would let him move into action right away and called out to the old man.

"Ready!"

If he was challenged to do it, he had to get it or it would embarrass Mable.

Aminui smiled for the first time since the start of those trials and put strength into his arm. He brought it back behind him while holding a new disk and threw it with great power almost straight upward. The disk flew into a perfect spin, ripping the air apart on its way up, and easily reaching the highest tower of the school before curving from the air resistance and gravity, finally moving forward at such a ridiculous height that most only saw a dark spot in the air over their heads. They all had to bend their neck back ninety degrees to see where it was going.

Emp heard many gasps and Ivar said it was impossible to hit even with a bow. He didn't pay attention to any other comment and instead crouched to give more power to his jump. He felt the sky come down closer to him and extended his legs with a snap, flying upward higher than he had ever attempted. Despite the weight of his armor, he reached the height of his own balcony in the school building and swung his sword upward at the "close-by" disk.

From down there, it looked like he jumped up really high an a metallic blur smashed the disk. They barely heard the impact before Emp fell back down and landed so abruptly that he fell on his hands and knees with a boom. Shortly after, a rain of disk pieces fell all around and someone in the crowd had to use a wind spell to protect everyone from them.

Thanks to that, the crowd didn't get bothered at all and was able to react as strongly as they wanted. There was a lot of clapping and cheering as well as disbelieving shouts and simple wild cries. Some like Noirantel were left speechless instead. Mable just threw her arms up in the air with her fists clenched in victory, jumping three times over in joy and making a high pitched noise.

Emp got back up to his feet, feeling numb in his legs and arms. He'd jumped too high and now he felt like the landing was echoing in his body. He had won though so he felt satisfied. He shook his extremities a bit to help with the uncomfortable sensation while the crowd kept the volume of their reactions up.

They had to wait for a rather long moment before everything quieted back down.

Aminui had been very pleased by his success but didn't say a word about it and turned his attention towards Kaisla instead.

"Do you think you could do it?"

"No way grandfather, I mean my lord, its impossible." She denied right away.

"How about half that height then?"

She looked back up at the sky and hesitated for a moment, the whole crowd held their breath until she gave her answer.

"I'm willing to try but I'm not sure I'll manage to do it."

"Ohhhh!" The crowd cried in excitement.

Even though it would only be half the height, they still didn't think anyone of them would be able to do it. Hearing Kaisla boldly say she was willing to try it brought their hopes up. They wanted to see something great a second time in a row.

She switched place with Emp returning his "well done" from earlier on the way and prepared herself for Aminui's throw. A moment later, the disk sped up in the air and everyone watched with attention as she jumped as high as she could to reach it, well before the disk made the distance to her.

For someone who hadn't drank an elixir and was wearing a knight's armor, she reached pretty far up, Emp would have been surprised if he hadn't known that Aminui was supervising her training. However, it was far from enough to even get close to the disk... Or so it should have been but Kaisla still had the sap sipper.

She trusted her blade upward and it elongated itself into an extremely long and thin spear. With her body stretched in the air, the tip of the sap sipper barely made it to the disk and accurately pierced it through the center as it passed above her. The target cracked and flew in three large piece to the ground further away.

She fell back down and landed on her two feet, earning the roaring claps of the crowd.

"Well since that's the case, let's make this the new height to get for the last trial." Aminui said, putting a sudden end to the cheering.

Everyone was stunned to hear the words of the old man.

"That lad and lass will have to achieve the same to pass. I'll train you further if you can do it."

The two of them paled while the rest gulped.

"Don't worry, I'll still provide the help and advice I promised earlier to you lass." He added to Brenia's attention. After all, he had said so after she sparred with Kaisla.

The crowd held their breath again as Noirantel was beckoned to step forward and take Kaisla's place. Obviously, there was no way he'd ever reach that far up with his sword, even if he threw it into the air. He decided to leave it in its scabbard and made a sign towards Aminui to signify he was ready.

The crowd wondered what he was doing until the disk was launched and he started to mumble to himself. He had clearly decided to shoot down the disk with magic which wasn't technically against the rules.

A ball of fire grew quickly over his extended left hand until it grew to the size of his palm. He bounced it in the air once to catch it with his right hand and threw it upward with a clear effort of his whole body, twisting his waist, upper body and his whole arm in the process.

The fireball flew up and up but slowed down drastically with the distance. The crowd all hung at the edge of their seats as they watched the two objects get closer and closer. Was the timing right? Was the angle and speed right?

Finally, the fireball missed the disk by half a meter and fell back towards the ground, leaving the target to continue its flight freely.

Disappointed sighs ran through the crowd along with a few laughter from those who disliked the man. Noirantel himself cursed once and dropped his shoulders in disappointment. He had come so close.

Before the fireball fell into the crowd, Emp reached out with his arm and cut it down with his sword, dispersing its flames in a scatter of tiny inoffensive sparks.

While everyone was reacting to Noirantel's performance and how he stopped the fireball, he asked Brenia if she could do it, his voice almost drowned in the surrounding exclamations.

"I don't think so." She shook her head in frustration.

"Would you be able to do it if you used me as a step ladder?"

"What?"

That didn't seem to register properly in her head, he repeated his idea in more details.

"He said everything is allowed as long as you're not using a bow so just jump from my shoulders or my head instead of the ground you'll gain a bit of height. Just trust me, I wont let you down."

She blinked once and then he saw that large grin show up right away, the one she always had while sparring with him.

"You might be the only guy I'll ever trust with those words. Alright."

After giving him a single nod and rolling her shoulders, she turned back towards the old man. She stepped to the front and removed a few bits of her armor on the way to make herself lighter.

"What were you two talking about?" Kaisla asked curiously in a whisper.

"Just how to get up there." He answered.

That was clear enough an answer for Kaisla who stood back straight and waited to see what solution Brenia came up with that gave her such a predatory smile. The strong girl stretched herself a few times more and took a position that would let her sprint back to Emp as quickly as possible. Nobody but her and Emp understood what she was planning to do. Meanwhile, Emp made sure his two feet where solidly anchored to the ground, twisting his body slightly to make sure he wouldn't loose his balance once she jumped on him.

The disk was thrown, just as high as the two previous times, and the moment it left Aminui's hand, Brenia darted back towards Emp, axe in hand. She jumped up like a cat and landed a feet on top of his helm as was planned, bending her leg until she almost sat on him. Many sounds of surprise were heard around them and her second jump started right away. She sprung herself up and forward, stretching her whole body like that of a frog. Emp felt the whole strength of her body push against the back of his helm but didn't move an inch even while his armor complained with a grating sound.

Right away once in the air, she spun on herself with her axe extended forward and threw it upward with all her might. Her and her weapon were thrown in opposite directions at the same time, she was propelled downward fast but still managed to land unharmed with an elegant roll.

Meanwhile, her axe spun far into the air and passed just in front of the disk, it's flight path brought it into the spinning axe and smashed it to pieces. The crowd burst out into wild cheers right away as the axe came back down and landed safely into the waiting hands of Brenia. She had just barely made it high enough, the crowd couldn't believe what they just saw.

Their whole group jumped from their seats like Mable and screamed wildly. She showed a great smile to everyone and Emp turned around to face her, raising a hand into the air. She slammed her own into his gauntlet with a loud bang to celebrate her unexpected victory while Kaisla stared wide eyed at what just happened.

"She did it!" Kenneth shouted in amazement.

Aminui showed a grin like that of a giant predator. He made no particular efforts to calm down the crowd but as he started speaking, it naturally fell silent in front of his thunderous voice.

"You showed me your talent and resolve, I'm willing to train the remaining three further. There will be no more eliminations after this."

There was another wave of noises in the crowd but Aminui disregarded it and continued on with his explanation.

"The school here has for goal to raise everyone to at least the level of a knight but from now on, you two will go for a higher goal. I will drag you to the level of an imperial knight, forcefully if I have to. I know exactly what they're all made of because I was the one in charge of training and testing them, they all went through me.

For those who failed today, remember this; What I had everyone do this afternoon is truly the whole warm-up routine of the imperial knights. They all do this everyday before their actual training and they don't take five hours to go through everything like what we did today. My goal wasn't to eliminate everyone, my goal is to show you what you need to rise above the rest.

What those three showed you all isn't some impossible feat, they exhibited physical prowess on par with royal knights, they are well on their way to reach the imperial ones. They might loose in technique or experience against them but with more training and discipline they'll surely equal them in the future. This is why they are worth training to me, I can help them on the path between royal and imperial level of competence. The rest do not have the endurance or strength yet, they wouldn't last through the actual training. All I can tell you is to keep at it, work harder, put your soul into it and either next week or in ten years, you'll be worth training. I'll be waiting for that moment, the only way for you all to truly loose is to stop trying.

Now, normally, we'd get into the actual training but it seems that some sort of festival built itself around us while we were warming up. I guess it can't be helped, the heat is way too heavy anyway, let's start over tomorrow. That will be all for today."

Emp felt rather disappointed that he'd have to wait to learn new things because he had been waiting all day for it. He didn't complain out loud however because he understood that showing him the familial techniques in front of the whole school wasn't the best of ideas.

After that, a lot happened again and the end of the afternoon went relatively well. The party went on and everyone had fun feasting and praising Brenia and Emp. In particular, they loved how Brenia won that last round. Kaisla hesitated on whether this was cheating or not but in the end, she decided that Brenia deserved her place and congratulated her politely anyway.

Mable felt like showing off and kept boasting about how great were Emp, Brenia and Nessa even though she hadn't reached the end. It got even worse when Aminui came closer to declare that she was right about Emp and that he was pretty sure he could take on the imperial warm-ups at the normal speed.

He explained once again that it didn't make Emp as strong as an imperial knight at all, it just made him into an unusually well physically trained student. An unusual woodcutter was still a woodcutter, even if he shared the same endurance and physical aptitude then a knight. Mable would have none of it though and kept behaving as if Emp was already amazing.

"No but you really are amazing, even if you're just a student, you can keep up with an imperial knight's training. That's more than enough to be considered impressive I think." Juniper said from the side.

The way she told him was more like she was trying to explain to him why everyone was excited rather than expressing her own feelings. Maybe she thought it was obvious he'd perform this way since she knew his name?

As for the rest of the group, even though they all had been eliminated, they all felt satisfied that the only two who'd get to train with the legendary Muracier elder were from group C. Cyril in particular seemed very inspired by what Aminui said at the end and explained to the others that he was determined to do that training everyday until he could complete it.

A few from other groups weren't as accepting of the results however. Noirantel in particular felt that he would have been taken as well if Mable had kept her mouth shut before. He couldn't really blame her in front of everyone so instead, he boldly came forward and asked the old man for a spar to prove himself.

"Heei?" Was the scream-like reaction of everyone who heard him ask.

Aminui just looked towards him with his usual stone face and flatly denied him.

"No, in fights, I always go all out."

The old man clenched his fist as he said it, the one with a missing finger.

"I'd rather not kill a student here just for training. I'm not sparring with anyone. I can keep throwing disks your way for practice however, we still have an almost full crate of them."

That didn't satisfy Noirantel who left in frustration.

Norval was also rather disappointed since he came really close too but kept his cool and focused on his food and drinks.

Aminui then discussed with Winfred the combat teacher, Sofenne the fencing teacher and the duo of Brenia and Emp. He asked to borrow them from their classes from now on and the two teachers agreed going as far as to say that it would be an honor for the two students to train with Aminui rather than them.

They worked on a schedule to get as much free time as possible to train and the old man made sure that he'd have some time alone with either as well as some joint training when it fit better. The reason for the personal training was primarily because he couldn't teach Emp what he needed to know in front of Brenia who was an outsider.

Because of all that, it was only the next day that Emp managed to train alone with his grandfather. He had some trouble sleeping on the night in between because he couldn't wait for finally learning about what made this family so strong. Because of this he had plenty of time to think about how the day ended up. Looking back at it, he though that things went pretty well. He was glad that Mable and Aminui didn't destroy each other right away.

From his point of view, the most troublesome had been Kaisla who was treated like an outsider by everyone. She was not part of their group and too strong to really mingle with them. Plus, because of the misunderstanding at the start, his own group didn't like her much and she ended up eating alone and studying the group from afar. He wondered if he should try to help her.

He spent the rest of the evening writing letters for all the girls of his generation related to the Muracier house. There were a whole lot of them and those were only the few Blackbull knew about and thought might be able to do the job. It would probably take him days to write all the letters he needed, even with the help of the other him in Dark-glint.

Like that, Aminui had to find a strawberry cake for Mable.