Awakening: I Ascend Alone-Chapter 27: Training Montage

Melvin pushed the door open to be met with the fantastic setting of the physical conditioning chamber.

The hall was large enough and so was able to house various training equipment placed at strategic positions, with corner walls demarcating each of them.

There was a simulated, tall surface erected at a closet by his right corner.

’A climbing wall,’ he surmised.

His eyes darted further, and he also found stone lifting blocks with adjustable weight, which would be good for building muscles and loosening fibrous entanglement; resistance cables that looked like they were made from enchanted fibers; balance beams; and even an agility obstacle course.

All these tools were indeed very important for a physical conditioning trainee, but that was not what Melvin had come here for.

Melvin had come to train for flexibility.

He came to master how to raise physical awareness for his body so that he can be able to transfer power from his core to various other parts of his body. Doing that was going to be beneficial, as a skilled whip user shouldn’t focus on moving the arm alone but also the hips and torso to add speed.

Then, there was also the need to stabilize his footwork and balance. He needed to learn how to coordinate and perfectly time his movements and build stamina and endurance.

But most of all, the whip creates large circular motions that travel from the shoulder to the elbow to the wrist. Hence, Melvin was going to control the whip mainly through wrist snap and forearm movement, plus he needed to establish stable shoulder mobility.

Putting all these into consideration, Melvin didn’t think the tools he had seen earlier were going to serve as the main boost to achieving them. Hence, his eyes settled on a towering structure erected in the middle of the hall.

It was a horizontally lined pole structure, built from a collection of woods and reinforced planks, rising sharply toward the never-ending ceiling of the hall. Above the structure, on both sides, were hanging orb-like objects, floating paradoxically from one end to another, changing their positions by the second.

That was the best equipment for beginning his training, since it was going to cover both flexibility and weapon engagement.

Melvin sighed in relief.

"Let’s get started."

Closing the door behind him, Melvin turned to a corner that should lead him to the dressing room. But upon setting his eyes on the way forward, they widened in utter disbelief.

There, sitting innocently on a bench, was an ash-brown-haired girl who was currently, quietly munching some snacks.

This was the weirdo Selene had talked about while he was still at the library, and for some reason, he was tempted to think this was the special case girl Principal Edrin had talked about. The girl, who, according to the principal, had left a similar impression, just like him.

But none of this was troubling enough to have kept him frozen at the spot.

It was the fact that Melvin recognized this girl too well.

He remained frozen at a spot that he didn’t realize when the girl moved from her sitting position and was currently waving before his eyes. After some time, the wave of hands from the girl was able to call Melvin back to reality.

Standing right in front of him, everything became clear. Her pale lavender-gray eyes that were calm and reflective, light-brown skin, and the embarrassing feature among other – her height.

She was currently acting weirdly before Melvin without saying a word. She extended the hand currently occupied with the hamburger she was munching earlier, as if offering it to him, but Melvin didn’t move; he just stood dumbstruck.

However, the girl seemed to have misjudged the silver-haired boy’s action as a result of shyness. So, she didn’t pay Melvin any more attention or comments but passed by his side toward the door, leaving an afterimage for him to stare at.

As she left, her smooth and finely kept hair, adorned with silvery undertones, flew down her back like spun silk.

Once she was gone, Melvin shook his head to regain himself. Then, his chin flushed red in realization.

’Does she think I’m hungry for her snacks?’ he thought, recalling her actions earlier.

"Most of all, why do I feel like I have met this girl before now?"

***

With the girl’s absence, Melvin had changed into the training attire of compressed white shirts and trousers and headed to the structure.

Upon reaching the structure, he wasted no time. With a fluid motion, he leapt onto a small, protruding climber and, with momentum, launched himself upward until he landed on top of one of the poles. Then, he carefully began moving from one to the next until he reached the end.

Melvin counted each to-and-fro movement as one, and when he had moved three times on the poles, enough to regularize his standing, the main challenge was going to begin.

Back at the first pole, he relaxed a bit so that his mind and body would resonate in harmony, and after letting out a deep exhale, he resumed his movement onto the poles.

He jumped to the next pole, then the second, then the third, but nothing happened. But as he was leaping onto the fourth pole, its size suddenly diminished, almost pulling Melvin down below, but his instinct kicked in.

His hand shot forward, and with a seamless motion, he performed a front flip that led him with a projectile motion as he stepped onto the next pole.

A flicker of panic surged through him. If he had known the tricks played by the equipment beforehand, maybe he would have done better.

But it was already too late to reconsider. After all, whatever challenge posed by this process was not going to harm him but mold him into something unimaginable.

He calmed his breathing and moved steadily in rhythm onto each step. Passing the challenges of poles that either magnified in size, shooting further upwards, or the reverse.

As soon as he reached the end of the structure, Melvin didn’t waste time like in his previous movement. Instead, he performed a footwork he never imagined he could have.

His hands flung upwards as he landed on the last pole on the tip of his right foot, then balanced it with his left leg as he turned swiftly in the left direction. Not losing momentum, he leapt onto another pole and continued.

Then, without warning, one of the floating orbs shot toward Melvin.

Without hesitation, his shoulder twisted, his body flowing in a seamless motion that was built in minutes as he stepped onto the next pole, evading the projectile with precision. In anger for dodging one of their member’s attacks, other orbs began to shoot from different directions.

It was time for whip practicing.

Melvin summoned his whip and took them right on, evading the ones he could and crackling his whip to crush the stubborn ones.

He was able to hold up against this new development, his shoulder twisting fluidly, his body flowing in perfect synchrony as he swung the whip... evading both the shooting orbs and the endangerment of having the whip’s tip kiss his skin.

A smile tugged at his lips. He was enjoying every last bit of the training. He wondered if other newbies like him performed with such seamless motion.

More to that, his speed seemed to be increasing, his mind and body working in synchrony to stabilize his movements simultaneously. Cool wind whipped against his skin, liberating the feeling of wariness that wanted to elope him. He had never felt so free; he couldn’t deny it.

This led him to wonder if any of his system features were behind the sudden simulation of his body movements. Even he never expected to achieve perfection in one go.

’I will revise my stats once I’m done,’ he thought.

Just then, he heard the wind split beside him, a sharp whistle that only meant one thing: something was coming. Within seconds, a pale-looking orb shot from the side.

Melvin didn’t hesitate.

With practiced grace, he performed a backflip, his leg calmly stepping onto the next pole behind him, his purple eyes tracking the passing orb as he connected it with his silver whip, slicing it in two. However, this fluidity wasn’t meant to last.

His mind had been disrupted earlier with external thoughts; hence, Melvin wasn’t able to evade the attack of the orb from behind as it bashed him. The force of that attack was unimaginable for a small-sized orb, as it sent him off the pole.

However, Melvin didn’t let this mistake of his shatter his entire composure. Resonating with the moment, he dismissed the whip, descending as he landed lightly on the stone floor, and let out a calming exhale.

Sweat streamed down his face, his muscles suddenly flailing out of exhaustion as his legs gave out and he collapsed moments later on the floor.

’Ahh. How come I never felt this while in motion?’

Only then did an unfamiliar voice sound from a corner of the hall, prompting Melvin to raise his head and see who it was.

"Excellent."

The voice belonged to the girl he had met earlier upon entering the hall. She had returned and was now sitting back on the bench.

Struggling to get on his feet, Melvin ventured forward and soon joined her on the bench.

"Here," the girl said, handing him a newly packaged hamburger and a can of chilled water. "I thought you might need it."

Melvin didn’t reject the offer. His hands moved with their own minds as he collected the snacks, somewhat lost in the moment.

"What?" the girl asked, looking uncomfortable under Melvin’s sweeping gaze.

"Nothing. Uh... I just realized something."

"..."