We had gone through most of our new daily routine, woken up by the children, wash up, eat, get our freshly washed clothes and head out. Silas would have to part ways with us during the day as me and Deandre would head to the Abbots personal train grounds. We were taken to a secluded part of the Abbots building, there stood a door, which led downstairs. The floor glowed a faint orange and red because of the torches on the wall. The air seemed to get heavier, I swallowed tightly. Our guide warned us of the Abbots strength,
"He is the sole reason the enemy village has not yet attacked." Said the guide.
We finally entered what appeared to be an arena, it was huge. It was circle shaped with many seats. It had a slippery surface which made it hard to walk. There the Abbot stood on a ledge above it all, it was the first time we had seen him without his robes. He was very muscular for a man of his age, he was topless with his hair down now, he wore training pants and had no shoes on.
"Welcome to my paradise, I spent many days here with my father, training, laughing. Now it is where you will spend your time going through grueling training, but you will grow in time. I understand Killian is now at five days left, while you big man are on six. We'll focus on building stamina and using your abilities for an extended period of time. I'm sure you've realized at this point that using your abilities, especially for battle, takes a great toll on your body, and requires great stamina." The Abbot explained.
"So, what do we have to do?" Dre asked.
The Abbot smiled as he started to explain,
"You will have to fight mechanized training dummies, they are very durable and strong, each one infused with my wind abilities. There are about a thousand of them, each armed with a different weapon, some of different sizes, speeds, and tactical genius. They will come in groups of twenty every five minutes, if you do not succeed, there is a chance you will die here."
Me and Dre gave each other serious looks, we had to get through this, the trials would be just like this.
"Also I forgot to mention it will be quite....
The Abbot laughed before he finished what he was going to say,
quite, quite windy today."
We immediately knew what he meant.
Suddenly entrances leading in opposite directions opened. Suddenly out came the mechanized training dummies, all different shapes, but they all could somehow keep their footing. To make it worse the Abbot used his abilities to make it windy, this would be a challenge that would push us past our limits. A quick one charged at me, but I couldn't move, it decked me right in the face and I fell on my ass. Dre put his foot in the ground to keep from slipping and grabbed it with his hands and tore it apart.
Before he could help me up, a tricky one swung a wooden sword at his back, Dre wasn't hardened so he felt the full force of the swing. In a rage he released his foot to turn around and enlarged his fist. He swung to crush the dummy, but a gust of wind made him fall backwards. This was even harder than we thought, and if we didn't take these dummies out soon, twenty more would come in to join them.
With our backs against the wall, it was hard to see how we'd win.
I wondered just what type of horrible training Liwei Zhang was making Silas go through when suddenly an idea popped in my head. I could emit electricity, but could I throw it?
The Abbot saw my thinking expression and was intrigued. He wondered what I would do next.
Still sitting down for more stability, I activated my ability and concentrated and closed my eyes, I imagined a lightning bolt forming in my hand like Zeus. When I opened my eyes there it was, this long bolt of lightning in my hand, popping and waiting to be released, I picked two big enemies getting ready to charge at Dre. I released the bolt with great force that it sent me back sliding across the floor, but it worked, the dummies were pierced and exploded on impact like a lightning kebab.
"Good looking out Killian, you just keep getting better at this." said Dre.
But I knew we'd have to get even better to survive this.