Dawn of Warriors

Chapter 3 A

Through dust and water

There was no waiting time. The moment the door to the academy closed behind him, everything had to be organized and on time. He got ten minutes to get to his new dorm, to change into the approved uniform of the academy and to get to the correct pit for training. He managed to find the dorm quite easily through directions coming from the rest of his new classmates around the sleeping area. He placed his backpack on the perfectly made bed and changed into the academic uniform: a pair of black sweatpants, that fell comfortably loose on his legs, and a sleeveless tank top, grey in color, made to be covered with a warm heavy hooded jacket for areas of the academy outside of the training pits. He did not have any unpacking to do other than his limited underwear and his socks, he was used to leaving his home in a hurry, so he never kept much around. He noticed a second bed in the room, but there was no trace of anyone being assigned there yet. The first thing that came in mind was to keep the bed empty waiting for his brother, Chris, to get the scholarship.

Alex found his way down the staircases, leading to the open area of the pits and the indoor equipment. Once outside he witnessed the full glory of the Sherion Academy, one of the top esteemed schools producing soldiers that met all of the genders, shapes and backgrounds. They only asked for their candidates to be flawless in what they do. That included the physical and mental training the academy offered. The school was in the famed position that it was due to making sure their products knew how to recite Celestial History while shooting their way out of a battlefield. And the couch that met him on the first physical training class was one hell of a representation for the academy. Coach Moris, he demanded to be called Moris and nothing else, was a middle-aged man who was known for still having the strength to torture the newly joining soldiers. His reputation had a long list of names belonging to creatures who were winners from the moment they were born and who all had given up on the first week of joining his class.

Moris approached the new addition to his class quickly before starting his training session. He was a tall man with the torso of a man and the legs of a bull. He had a pair of golden clear glasses decorating his face forcing the student who had never met him assume that the man was kind in his nature. "Your name, boy?" he announced in a surprisingly based voice. "Alexander James Gray" the boy replied. "I do not care for your last name. I asked just for your name" the coach quickly shut him off. "The name is Moris. I will be your coach and the only voice you are going to be listening to while you run around the pits. The benches there are for your bags. LET'S GO!" he announced with the last bit being screamed into Alexander's ears. He quickly dropped his backpack on one of the empty benches and removed the jacket from his shoulders.

By that point, the class was forming around Moris quickly. The semicircle stopped just by the coach's peripherals so Alexander made sure to stand in a middle back position, where the coach could make direct eye contact if he wished to. From what Moris explained, the kids that formed the rest of the class had been there for three months already and so their skills were building up. Once the clap of his hands was to be heard the group was supposed to pass through an obstacle course to redetermine the training groups based on the abilities of each student.

The course was nothing shorter than a stamina nightmare featuring elements of mud, mechanical obstacles that were designed to make the students trip based on movement readings and a giant stone wall covered in watered down rocks. Alexander did not have much time to plan for the obstacle course before the coach clapped his hands and the competitive spirit inhabited all of the students in the first training grounds. They had not yet entered the pits and Alexander was amazed by the difficulty he was facing; the first thing the students had to face was a long running-way filled with moving obstacles. Alexander had the confidence to run to the front of the students but, never passing in front of the first lines. The students who run just in front of him seemed to have a level of ease seeing the course so it would be wise to pick one and follow their moves.

Alexander saw a female who seemed to go slower than the others against the obstacles, the metallic bars got always higher when a student jumped over them aiming to hit the top of their feet. The female jumped over the obstacles in a vertical way pulling her knees to her torso as quickly as possible. Alexander followed the same path. For the first five meters of obstacles the bars hit the edge of his heels but never managed to trip him. His legs quickly got warmed up and so he was able to follow the speed of the girl perfectly. Just when he jumped the last obstacle his mind ordered his legs to stop for a tiny millisecond; then it realized they were not finished just yet.

Just a few running steps away from the obstacles stood proudly a large pit of mud deep enough to reach the students' torsos. In the space between the landscaping change was a stand of riffles for each student to pick one out. They run as fast as possible through the mud with the weapon just over their heads. The voice of Moris screaming "THE BEST TIME WILL EARN A PASS TO THE SECOND BEST CLASS! MOVE IT!". The pit of mud seemed easy enough for Alexander, mainly because he had grown up with a brother and next to a forest, that was the obstacle that felt perfect for his physique. He used his elbows to the rest of him out of the mud quickly, pushing the gun on his back with its strap just like everyone else did. He gained a significant advantage from the rest of the class through the mud, so just under the watered down wall was himself and a couple of other students that watched the first row climb up.

The slippery rocks seemed perfect for Moris' attitude since not even an experienced climber would not be able to predict when one of the slippery objects will betray their balance. Alexander made sure to take as much time as it was needed to climb safely over the wall, once at the top he simply slid down against the edge of the wall in an attempt to regain some of the lost time. Behind the shadow of the rocky wall was a white line sprayed down against the flat surface of the ground, which the students recognized as the end. There were thirteen who finished ahead of Alexander and around twelve more who were just out of the mud or climbing the wall. Moris slowly approached the finish line, always having his hawkish eyes on the course. "The first fourteen will be class one. The rest class two. You may go to your next course" that was all. For the rest of the five months he was to spend in there with the scholarship, that last phrase would be all he would hear from the lips of the bull man. "That would be all, go to your next course".

"That would be all, go to your next course"

"That would be all, go to your next course"

"That would be all, go to your next course"

"That would be all, go to your next course"

"That would be all, go to your next course"

Each time Alexander passed through the seven circles of training, in the span of the time he had spent there, he found his body learning a tiny bit of skill further from the point he was before. He noticed a significant change in muscle mass through his training, the distribution at least. He had lost most of his fat percentage during those months while his muscles had made sure to make the rest of him as ergonomic as possible for both running and handling heavy weapons. He had gotten accustomed to the strict schedule of having intense work out plans three times per day, with an extended meal in between and of course theoretical classes on history and battle strategies through time. Between those close classes and then the hours of studying he had managed to keep a single friend. Lydia, the only friend Alex had made, was three months ahead of him in the program and she was the female who unwillingly helped him pass to the advanced physical class during the first day. They started to study together after training making sure to share their notes between them.