I spent the entire weekend just training and learning my schedule so I wouldn’t fuck up with my new partners. I had a week with each pair starting with Wolf and Neumann, next Meyers and Wood, then Connors and Volkov, and lastly Violet and Pat. I guess that as she said, it was the best for last. Wait, why was I saying that Pat was the best? I mean yeah she and I have a good relationship and well, she’s actually the only one I have a relationship with, we also train together from time to time, she’s funny and she’s somewhat attractive I guess… Wait, forget that, I’m going off the rails.

Where was I? Oh yeah, on Monday I woke up early as always, but instead of being greeted by my usual 0 messages, emails or calls, I got surprised by a notification saying I had a new message. I grabbed my phone while still half asleep and saw a message from Frank Wolf, which number I only had because Pat gave it to me. I opened it and read it I between yawns:

“Morning Wagner, I forgot to tell you in the meeting but my tutor and I’s day starts earlier than the rest. Meet me at 8 a.m. in the training room. – Frank Wolf”

Makes sense. I mean, you don’t get those huge muscles just by eating well, you need to train pretty hard, even if genetics are on your side. I didn’t mind the extra training tho, I would just change my morning routine from a full training sesion to a warmup run and then train with Wolf.

I took my usual quick shower to fully wake up and went for a light and short run because I didn’t know what kind of training awaited me, so I had to save as much energy as I could. I eat a full breakfast for the same reason and left my house at 7.30 so I had a couple of minutes of margin in case anything happened.

Luckily, the trip to the HQs was as normal as always and at 7.55 I was outside the training room. I opened the door, and for my surprise Neither Woolf or Neumann were inside yet, so I entered, dropped my bag on a corner of the room so we wouldn’t trip with it by accident, and started stretching a bit.

A couple of minutes passed and there were no signs of them so, tired of waiting, I started doing some shadow sword-play, which was exactly like shadowboxing where you fought an invisible opponent, but with swords. I threw a couple of attacks, jumped back, blocked and dodged the imaginary attacks that were thrown at me by my imaginary opponent, and finished with a combination of three slashes and a thrust to where my enemy’s chest was supposed to be. I stood in that position for a second, but got jumped by the sound of clapping behind me. Standing in front of the door were Frank Wolf and her tutor, agent Emma Neumann.

- Nice moves boy, but you lack some strength on those swings – The agent said while gradually ceasing the applause

- Well I’ve never been a big fan of lifting weights, and since I use a short sword I don’t really need that much power

- Bah, nonsense! Strength is always needed, you’ll see. Mr. Wolf, show our little friend here our morning routine, I have to go take care of my car

- Yes mam' – he formally accepted

- Good. I’ll come join you once I’m done.

Frank stood there, looking at me with piercing eyes, almost as if he was X-raying me.

- Sooo… about that routine… - I asked trying to break the ice

- Come with me – He ordered and walked to one side of the room where the weights and lifting equipment were.

I followed him and waited while he extended two big blue pads on the floor which I assumed where for me and him.

- Since it’s your first day we are gonna start lightly, with one hundred sit-ups and one hundred push-ups – He said while laying down on his pad

- That is light to you? How many do you usually do?

- Normally we go for three sets of two hundred reps

- Three…! Monsters.

- We are not monsters, you are just too weak, but don’t worry, we’ll change that

For some reason he had a mischievous smile that sent shivers down my spine and gave me a really bad feeling.

- As I said earlier I don’t need too much strength since I’m not a double-handed sword user nor a lancer

- Weak and cocky, that’s a deadly combo, for you of course. You always can use some extra strength, even if it’s not for attacking, you can get faster and more precise if you utilize your muscles and body the right way. As you might have guessed, my mentor and I both use heavy weapons, so you also might think that we rely mainly on our physical strength, but that’s not 100% true

I don’t know if it was his calm but firm tone or the fact that he obviously knew more than me about this subject, but something got me really interested and made me want to hear him, so I asked a question to give him a bridge to continue

- So if it’s not your strength then what is your biggest asset?

He made a pause and without changing his expression, he continued:

- I can’t tell if you are actually interested or just want to distract me from training

- I don’t know what ideas you might have about me but I’m not that calculator or cold-headed, and I’m actually pretty curious

He paused once again, analyzing my words and expressions to decide if he believed me or not, and after a moment he closed his eyes, put both his hands behind his head and said:

- I can’t decide if I believe you or not, so I’m going to keep talking while we train, this way I can cover both options

- Fair enough

I laid down on the second pad right beside him and copied his stance. This wasn’t my first time with push-ups and sit-ups, we used to do them on gym class at school, but my last gym class had been almost half a year ago so I was pretty rusty, and if my assumptions were correct, this guy was a hundred times stricter than any professor I have ever had

I turned at him and nodded, letting him know that I was ready, and, responding with a nod of his own he declared:

- Ready... Start!

We began with the sit ups and after only the first one I could already see how hard this would be. I had barely finished my first rep and he was already on his third, and was only getting faster. I was astonished. Not only his speed was incredible but his form was perfect. Even someone like me who knew very little about this stuff could appreciate how flawless his execution was, even doing something so simple as a sit-up

- Come on, I won’t keep talking until you start moving

I snapped out of my thoughts and realized that I had stopped while staring at him

- Sorry, I got impressed by your form. You are really good at this – I said while going back to work

- Thanks. As you can see, this is not a matter of strength, is a matter of how you use that strength and how much control you have over your body. Is not difficult to do a sit-up, almost every person in the world can do it, but to do it consistently right, that’s the difficult part. The same goes for any other exercise you choose, including sword training. For example, anyone can swing a sword but there’s a little amount of people that can do it correctly, and from that little people, there’s even less that can do it correctly and powerfully. We enter in that last category, but even then we are not perfect at it, there’s always room for improvement, and I think the best way to achieve that improvement, or at least the one that gave me better results, is to strengthen your body and learn how and when to use that strength to your favor.

I was in the middle of my 100 sit-ups, concentrating to do them at the best of my capabilities while listening to Frank, and out of nowhere he stands up and looks at me before adding:

- Not finished yet? You are going to slow us down

- Don’t tell me you already finished, that was inhumanly fast

- Don’t worry, if you heard what I just explained and let my tutor and I teach you one or two things then you’ll be able to catch up pretty fast.

- Is agent Neumann as fast as you?

- Oh no, she’s even faster, she usually slows down so I can keep up with her pace but one day I saw her training a bit by herself and I got tired just by seeing her

- I’m starting to doubt if I’ll reach the weekend alive…

- Don’t worry, I’ve heard that only one person died from her training

- I didn’t know you could be sarcastic, I preferred the strict and serious version

- Who said I was being sarcastic? Maybe I should add fifty more of each to show you how serious I am…

- Actually, you are really serious, so no need for that.

- That’s what I thought. Come on then, finish your part so we can move onto the next exercise.

- I thought you were the trainee, not the tutor

- For you I’m both, now hurry

- Yes sir!

I finished my 100 push-ups and sit-ups and already could feel my arms and abs stinging and burning from just those two sets. We kept going for some time, doing different exercises, using weights in some of them, which made them even harder since I wasn’t used to work with extra load like dumbbells and stuff like that. For every different one, Frank showed me the proper technique and the most efficient way to use my strength to maximize potential. He corrected me in almost every exercise but said that I was a quick learner which actually felt really good.

After 20 minutes or so, agent Neumann came back saying that her car was taken care of and it would be ready for her trip back home this afternoon.

- That’s good, I want to get home early since it’s my little sister’s birthday – Frank said with a relieved face

- But what does agent Neumann’s car have to do with your return hour?

- Oh, because we come here and go back together since we live pretty close to each other – he calmly added

- That’s why you were both late today? Her car broke and you two were together?

- That’s correct Mr. Wagner – agent Neumann said coming back from the utility room with a big training sword in one hand, and the short sword I had left on the floor on the other hand.

- I’m assuming that we are done with all the strength stuff…?

- Correct again. I want you to do a little sparring.

It took me by surprise so I put a really shocked expression, which agent Neumann noticed and used against me:

- Don’t tell me you are afraid trainee Wagner. Was our routine too much for you? Or are you perhaps scared?

- I’m a bit tired so that’s not a problem, and I’m definitely not afraid of fighting. I just thought it was a bit premature since it’s my first day training with you

- Oh I’m not doing it just for fun, I want to see what you can do against a person made of flesh and bone instead of a practice dummy. Also, it will be your first time going against someone using a heavy weapon, am I right?

I nodded and she continued:

- I thought so, so it will be a good experience for you, and also for Mr. Wolf here who will also be dueling for the first time against a short sword user. In the end is a win-win situation.

- I guess you are right. Let’s do it then - I said confidently

- Is that okay with you Frank? – she asked his trainee, even if she probably already knew the answer

- Yes mam'

- Perfect then. Here are your weapons. I’ve already cleared the room so you have enough space to play around. Please Theo you go there and Frank over there

She pointed to opposites sides so we had enough distance. We walked to our positions and we both started stretching since we had been training for almost half an hour before.

We both ended almost at the same time, but Frank was the first one to take his stance, and I got surprised that he chose a defensive stance, holding his sword with both hands in front of his body completely pointing upwards. It seemed that he wanted me to make the first move, so I decided to give him that and test how much stronger than me he was, adopting a very generic and obvious offensive stance, lowering my back, leaning forward and holding my sword behind and over my head, prepared for a big swing.

Agent Neumann walked towards the center of our imaginary arena and nodded to both of us to make sure we were ready, at which we both responded with nods of our own. She then walked back to a safe distance so she wouldn’t get caught in the rumble and said loud and clear:

- Ready? 3…2….1… Fight!

I ran forward giving short steps so I could pivot in case he threw a quick swing, but it didn’t matter because he stood firm on his feet waiting for me. I admired his resolve, but even if he was big and strong, he couldn’t stop a full swing of my blade from a complete still position, so I put all my strength in that one swing to knock him into the floor with one attack.

In the span of a couple of seconds I covered the distance between us, and with all the strength I could put into my swing I threw my blow from below aiming for his shoulder. He turned his sword in my direction and subtly moved his left foot back to help him mitigate some of my attack. Our swords collided with a thud and I thought the victory was mine, but for my surprise, Frank Wolf was still standing in the same position he was before, with his sword up pushing against mine.

I managed to catch a glimpse of a movement right when our swords met which I didn’t think mattered, but it seems that I was wrong.

- That was your attack?

- How..? - I asked with a stupified voice

- I already told you how: strength and body management

I knew that already, but to be able to completely negate my attack and hold it in place like that… This guy was no joke. Of course, in a real battle with actual swords, doing this continuously would really damage your weapon, and if you were not careful enough, you could end up weaponless in the middle of a fight, so he was just doing this because it was a mock battle… But still…

- So all that crap wasn’t just words, huh? – I laughed about it trying to hide my amazement

- That crap as you call it just completely stopped you on your feet

- Yeah, it seems it is good crap. I definitely need to learn some

- Well, allow me then, to demonstrate a bit more

As soon as he said that, he gave a step forward and almost as if I was a practice dummy, he pushed me an entire step back, and I had to hold myself really strong to not fall from his pressure. He then gave another step… and another… and another… and I couldn’t do anything about it. It was as if I was trying to move a concrete wall. If this continued, I was gonna end up against a wall or down on the floor, so I had to act and I had to do it fast.

He tried to step once more, but this time, I let him do it, jumping to the side and rolling on the ground to stand back up as fast as possible.

- Phew! That was close, I felt my wrists breaking over that force – I said while recovering some air

- Now you know what I’m capable off, so it’s your time to show me what you can do

- Sure you want that? I’d hate to hurt you

- Hah! You are funny

- I know – Letting out a last breath, I took an offensive stance once again, looked at him with a smile on my face and a confidence gaze and continued – Well, if that’s what you want, here I go, Wolf!

- Bring it on, Wagner!