Training 1

I woke up from my sleep regretfully on time. As the schedule didn't have any time to sleep, I rested as much as possible with my limited time. Remembering my pledge to rise to the top and my will to honor it, I quickly readied myself and made my way to the training ground.

Sitting on a rock near the entrance of the training grounds, I found one of the three potential recruits Hela pointed out yesterday. His name was Bjarte or something. He looked absolutely thrilled for some reason, his gaze darting around as if frantically looking for something while running his thumb over the blades of his twin axes.

His eyes widened with joy when he spotted me, and he spoke with a wide grin: "There you are, Escanor! The rest are already ready and waiting with the warrior who is going to train us. Hela is off-world for now, so we can get REAL close without her interference."

I was taken aback by his sheer enthusiasm. I had never seen him before yesterday, yet he seemed to be enamored with me already. I replied, "A good morning to you too, Bjarte."

His eyes widen even more somehow while the edge of his lips seems to twitch. He stood up and sighed while looking away from me. He said, "It's Bjorn, Escanor. Now follow me to the training ground."

Eh, close enough.

As we went to an empty area in the grounds where the rest were waiting, Bjorn seemed to tremble more and more violently, seemingly in excitement. He then called out to the one who seemed to be in charge, "Escanor is here. Can we start on the first thing on the itinerary?!"

The Einherjar raised an eyebrow and replied, "Well, it looks like someone's excited. Sure, as today is the first day of your batch's special training, I have no idea how good you newbies are. I don't know if you are strong enough to hold the line or just wasted potential. Do not get arrogant simply because General Hela picked you as a candidate; that does not mean you are a berserker already. Now, start sparing in the decided pairs."

Arne and Yrsa simply nodded quietly and moved further back into a slightly more isolated corner of the ground before starting their spar. On the other hand, Bjorn smiled with his eyes closed as he raised his face to the sun, and his grip on his axes tightened.

"Draw your axe Escanor. I don't want to win because you weren't ready."

'Ho~?' I thought while listening to his provocation while drawing my axe and gripping it with both hands, though I would be able to wield it with one hand if I used my magic.

As soon as he saw me ready my axe, he wildly lunged at me with one of his axes raised. When our blades collided, I felt the strength of the blow travel through my axe and into my body. The power left me sliding away a short distance, and the trajectory of his axe continued down to the ground.

I gritted my teeth in annoyance as I felt my arms quickly become numb from taking that impact and saw Bjorn cackling wildly as he said, "Oh how I've waited for this day to arrive you arrogant prick. Years I've spent enduring your hubris mister too-strong-to-train. Years I've endured that sickening gaze of yours. How does it feel being the pebble now ESCANOR!"

He yelled as he delivered slow, strong blows. I tried to recall the training I had never paid attention to before and block the blows as much as I could, but each strike sent me reeling. The most infuriating thing was that he seemed to wait for me to recover before delivering the next blow.

This continued until my arms lost all their strength, and he stopped his next blow mere centimeters from my neck and whispered, "You have no IDEA how long I have waited for this day to come. Don't worry. I won't end this quickly. I intend to savor it. And, once I've had my fill, I'll make you kneel."

'That's it!' His provocation made my rage boil as my magic empowered me once again, and I sent him flying with a blow. He skidded to a stop, somehow still on his feet, as he spat a mouthful of blood and gasped for air. The instructor quickly ran in front of him, covering him, while he pointed his spear at me and yelled, "Candidate! Release your magic! Now!" However, I ignored him, too occupied with getting back at the pebble that dared to insult me.

Seeing my reaction to his words, or a lack thereof, he pulled out something that looked like a remote switch and pressed the button on top.

All of a sudden, I felt my body go numb and was unable to think anymore as the electricity ran havoc in my body. As I passed out, I saw Bjorn with a mad, bloody grin and mouth out, 'I win.'

—

A/N: Heya! Sorry for being so late with this chapter, the storage on the laptop where I saved the written chapters got corrupted and had to re-write. In exchange you can expect more frequent chapters for a bit.

Also, it seems I really don't know how to end a chapter without the MC fainting. pls help

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