Chapter 557 Preparation

"You're late!" Crea huffed

"I'm actually exactly on time." Rui retorted.

"If you arrive just on time, then training begins late, so you're late!"

"Training begins after I arrive and I arrived on time, thus training begins on time as well."

"The entrance exam is in a week. We don't have time for delays!"

"Well, you're the one delaying it now with your little tantrum, you know."

Rui chuckled as she glared at him, doing her best to intimidate him, in vain of course.

"Colonel Jenken." Rui bowed lightly, happening to run into the man on the way to the training grounds.

"Squire Quarrier, I'm glad to see you've arrived on time." He nodded stiffly, ignoring his daughter's reaction to his words. "The entrance exam is just around the corner, and we're in the final stretch for preparation. She's made incredible improvements at your hand, validating my decision to commission you. Good job and good luck."

He turned towards his daughter, bending to her as his military posture relaxed a little as he smiled. "You've already made me proud. Do your best. I love you."

She nodded, a little embarrassed.

He got up, turning back to Rui. "Alright then, I've got to head to work, as you can see."

He gestured to his military garb and adornments. It was an ostentatious uniform with badged, medals, and several stars. None of which were adornments that would decorate the uniform of an ordinary Martial colonel, Rui was sure.

Rui and Crea quickly reached the training grounds after bidding him goodbye.

"Alright, let's begin!"

Rui smiled, nodding, as he walked back and forth. "We've already reached the climax of your training under me. There is no time to start anything new, the only thing we can do is polish what has already been built, and more importantly..."

He turned towards her. "... Condition your mind and body to be at their absolute peak. Understand?"

She nodded.

"All the training you've done in the past few months, and perhaps even the past few years will be utterly meaningless if you do not take appropriate care of your mind and body for when the time comes," Rui warned her. "In fact, an intense workout will coincide the day before the exam where you will be denied rejuvenation potions so that you can get a real organic night of sleep to time it right so that you will wake up completely refreshed for the exam, and your tolerance for rejuvenation potions will be refreshed."

"Ok Ok." She impatiently nodded. "Let's begin training."

"Alright, as usual, let us begin with mental fortitude training." Rui nodded.

Her eyes narrowed as she exhaled.

Rui wordlessly exerted a little bit of pressure on her as he removed his mind mask slightly. Currently, he was exerting just a little above what he had experienced from the Martial Apprentices in the first round of the exam. This was the only round of the entrance exam that didn't change because of how important and useful it was. Thus, Rui paid an immense amount of attention to it.

She handled it well, of course. Otherwise, Rui would be very pessimistic about her chances of cracking the entrance exam.

She gritted her teeth as she stared him dead in the eye. She had a brave face on, but Rui could tell she was under significant pressure.

Ten seconds later, he eased up. "Well done."

She exhaled deeply, massaging her sweaty forehead.

"This is another reason why you should ensure you're at your mental peak," Rui advised. "It takes the entirety of your focus to muster up the mental fortitude needed to resist the pressure you will experience in round one, if your emotional state or concentration is sub-optimal, you will fail."

"I know that." She grumbled. "I did just fine this time and many other times, didn't I?"

"No harm in reminders." Rui smiled.

He hadn't informed her that he was actually exerting more pressure on her than what she would be subjected to in the entrance exam. This was to increase her chances of nothing going wrong in the entrance exam. He didn't want to tell her this for fear of her letting her guard down and making a blunder causing her to fail the round.

An hour of continuous mental resistance training later, she was quite exhausted.

"You're doing good." Rui lightly complimented her. "Here."

He handed her a mental rejuvenation potion.

Half a minute later, she was on her feet, ready for more.

"Let's go for some dynamic omnidirectional sparring, as usual." Rui casually said. Yet she stiffened at those words.

"What's with that face? This is quite important, you know."

She took a light stance with arms close to her body.

Rui smiled as he walked towards her.

POW!

He threw a quick, by human standards, a jab at her. She blocked, yet Rui had already disappeared. Her eyes widened as she sensed him behind her.

POW!

She just barely managed to block yet another attack from him with an incomplete turn.

POW!

This time, Rui had appeared on her left, throwing a straight kick at her.

POW!

POW!

POW!

Rui continuously appeared and disappeared around her, launching attacks from all directions. Crea gritted her teeth as she struggled to keep up, barely blocking or evading his attacks. She didn't even know how Rui was teleporting around, was teleportation an ability that all Martial Squires had?

In reality, Rui was just moving very fast. Even with a tiny portion of his speed, he could easily surpass her vision, becoming invisible to her every time he shifted, creating the illusion that he had teleported. However, Rui was quite careful to ensure that his attacks didn't exceed her limits. Even though he shifted very quickly, he made sure to wait around two hundred milliseconds which was just around human reaction time, before initiating a human-level attack. This gave her the chance to react and defend against each attack.

He made sure that she was pushed to her limits constantly, allowing her to exercise herself to the peak.