Onyx

[ CH 3 ] - Rippling Effects

"This is torture..." Shia flopped to the ground with a groan. Sweat seeped into her clothing, sticking them to her like glue. Next to her, Jon and Kory were laid out on the ground while they fought for air.

"Uh-huh, right, right. You guys have been saying that all morning." Richard scoffed as he took a seat on the nearby fallen logs of their training grounds. Stabbing his wooden training sword into the ground, he leaned onto its hilt and stared at them. "You asked for training, and I'm giving you training."

"Yeah, but isn't this too much?!" Kory groaned, pushing himself to sit up. "We could barely do fifteen laps yesterday, and now you're making us do twenty!"

"And now we know you can do twenty!" Richard smiled. "Don't worry, tomorrow, you guys can run-"

"If you say any more than twenty, I'm telling Mom." Shia deadpanned.

Richard gasped, feigning pain over his heart. "Wha-?! Shia! How could you!? Don't you want to figure out what your limits are?"

"Yeah, maybe once and a while! Not every single day!" Shia countered back. "Bonking us on the head with your fist whenever we started falling behind was too much too!"

"Well, I couldn't have you guys just taking all day to run the laps again." Richard shot back. "The title 'Guard's Captain' isn't just for show."

"Right, but I mean, look at Jon!" She looked back at her friend, who was staring at the sky, swirls spinning around in his eyes with a few bumps on his head.

"I-I'm fine." Jon muttered quietly as he slowly shut his eyes to a close. "Just... Just gimme a minute."

"He's fine, see?" Richard smiled widely. "Meaning we can try twenty-five tomorrow!"

"No thanks, I think we already found out where our limits are, if you ask me." Kory commented dryly as Shia nodded in agreement.

"Well, that's no fun." Richard crossed his arms. "Look, you guys got through it okay, and Jon's a strong kid. You'll be fine!"

"Actually, I think Jon is out cold." Kory called out as the two demi-humans looked over to see the boy shaking his friend to gain zero response.

"Out cold..." Shia repeated as Richard sweatdropped. "Strong, huh?"

"He's totally fine..." Richard waved off, moving over to gently tap the side of the boy's face a few times. "Huh... but to be safe, can you get Naomi, Shia?" The girl scoffed, rolling her eyes in response before prying herself off the ground and dashing off. Soon enough, she returned, her mother in tow behind her.

The woman sighed. "First off-" A fist swiftly smashed onto Richard's skull before she kneeled down to the boy. "That's for pushing them this far."

"Ow." He grumbled, rubbing the point of impact with a sour look.

"You should've seen this coming. Seriously! These two barely even go outside, and you make them do all this instead of easing them into the process? They're not in a rush or anything yet." Naomi lectured as she spoke softly under her breath. A bubble of water quickly began manifesting in the air above the unconscious boy as the woman's sapphire-like eyes glowed. "I'm just glad Kory goes outside to actually do things unlike this little bookworm."

"Thanks?" Kory raised an eyebrow, watching as the bubble of water descended onto Jon, gently coating the boy. The water began to shift to a green hue within seconds before being absorbed by the boy.

"Luckily for you-" Naomi sighed, standing up again. "- he's just exhausted, so your head-bonking wasn't doing too much. If you're going to keep doing that though-"