After all the fights had taken place, the mont finally ca when Rurik would announce the test results.
"Of the forty who gathered here today, twenty-six will beco rookie soldiers."
"As I said, it wasn’t necessary to complete all the tests. Just show potential, and then I will mold you into soldiers." Rurik’s voice echoed through the courtyard as he pointed toward the approved recruits.
Soon, only twenty-five young people remained in the courtyard, while the others left the barracks.
So had big, proud smiles. There were also those who didn’t want to be there, but Rurik’s threat not to hide had ended up making them give their all.
"You now have to choose. You can live in your hos or in the barracks. But be here when the sun is rising."
"No delays. UNDERSTOOD?"
"UNDERSTOOD, CAPTAIN RURIK." They all shouted even louder.
"Good, training begins in two days. You’re dismissed!" Rurik said, turning his back to everyone and walking toward the ss hall.
After Rurik disappeared from the young n’s sight, everyone left the barracks.
****************************************
The sll of at and fresh bread filled the air of the ss hall. It was practically empty for now, with only four soldiers sitting and chatting in a corner.
On the other side, there was a child who had already eaten more than ten loaves of bread and still had a few more on the table.
Kyrian was happy, he was very hungry and was finally able to eat properly. In fact, ever since his body had suddenly grown stronger, he always felt hungrier than usual.
But during the trip, he had always had to eat little, just enough. Now he was going to enjoy it.
anwhile, the conversation of the other guards reached his ears.
"How many do you think will pass this ti?" one of them said.
"I doubt fifteen will pass, at most ten, like every year," another grumbled.
"No, this ti it’s different. We need more people. The bandits are cutting off our only supply route. If it keeps up, the city will start to go hungry."
Kyrian chewed as he listened to every word.
’Again this thing about bandits... Rurik is very strong, can’t he get rid of them?’ he thought curiously.
At that mont, Rurik entered the ss hall. The four soldiers greeted him respectfully. He nodded back before approaching and sitting at the table where Kyrian was.
"You’ll live here in the barracks, I imagine. You’ll get a room later. You won’t train with the others, but I will train you personally every day."
"We’ll start early tomorrow," Rurik said, looking at the little one eating his third loaf of bread since he entered the ss hall.
"Great, I’ll be in the courtyard as soon as the sun rises," Kyrian said with an expressionless face but happy inside.
Then the rest of the day passed. Kyrian didn’t stay idle during that ti. He walked all over the barracks, getting to know every place in the two main buildings. The older soldiers looked at him with suspicion.
But they soon realized that, despite his childish appearance, he didn’t act or speak at all like a child. Though he was a bit naive at tis, when interested in sothing in the barracks, he asked direct questions, without beating around the bush, and only stopped asking when his curiosity was satisfied.
Many soldiers beca the target of his questions about the city and about what the soldiers did. But the one who heard his voice the most was certainly Captain Rurik.
Then night ca, and Kyrian was in a small room on the third floor of one of the barracks buildings. It had a bed, a wardrobe, a wooden chair, and a table. There was also a book with all the rules and things a soldier should do there.
After reading, Kyrian quickly lay down to sleep.
When he opened his eyes, it was still night but starting to lighten. For so reason, he had always woken up at this ti since he was little.
He left the room quickly and sat on the courtyard floor, waiting for Rurik to arrive.
After about thirty minutes, heavy footsteps were finally heard.
Kyrian opened his eyes, and Rurik was already in front of him, holding two wooden sticks. He handed one to Kyrian and kept the other.
"Hmm, you arrived early, it’s good to be excited." Rurik began to explain.
"I’ll explain how it’s going to work. Usually, I start by training the bodies of the new soldiers. You’ll also do that, but not as much as the others."
"You already have ridiculous strength. I don’t know exactly how you can have that strength. Were you born like this?" Rurik asked curiously.
"Actually, no, but ever since I was born, I’ve been able to see things everywhere. Like here, for example, here, here, and here. These particles I see, I don’t know what they are, but I’ve always put them into my eyes, and then one day I suddenly got stronger, much stronger." Kyrian spoke sincerely about what had happened, pointing to various particles present, hoping Rurik would know sothing about them.
"Particles?" Rurik asked, confused, seeing nothing.
"Yes, I’ve always seen them, but I don’t know what they could be. Do you know?"
"No... I have no idea what those things are. But if they made you strong, it’s really sothing incredible," Rurik said with envy.
"I only know two ways to get stronger, one is to train your muscles to the limit. The other is to use a martial arts technique, along with countless dicines, to temper the body and beco a martial artist."
"The second, very few people have the talent for. But I know you definitely do. And that’s why I’ll try to get you to beco a disciple of one of them." Rurik said excitedly.
Kyrian didn’t fully understand what Rurik ant, but he understood it was to get stronger, and if that was the case, he’d be happy.
"Alright. Now let’s start, stand up and attack ." Rurik said, extending the stick.
Kyrian did the sa, but when Rurik looked at it, he was extrely surprised.
Then, without waiting long, Kyrian stepped hard on the ground, propelling himself forward at speed and swinging the stick toward Rurik.
Rurik raised his stick, fully blocking the attack and sending Kyrian flying backward, his hand trembling slightly.
Although surprised, Rurik now frowned. He approached Kyrian until he was beside him. Kyrian thought Rurik was going to say sothing and praise his stance and the strike. But he was wrong.
Instead of praising him, Rurik gave him a light tap on the head. It didn’t hurt, but he didn’t understand why.
"Hey, why are you hitting ? I’m sure I attacked correctly." Kyrian said, slightly irritated.
"You’re copying my movents from the fight yesterday, aren’t you?" Rurik asked, crossing his arms, not caring about the boy’s complaint.
Kyrian nodded, confused.
"Kyrian, don’t do that again. Your body is completely different from mine. Lighter, your muscles aren’t trained like mine, and most importantly, your size."
"My fighting style isn’t at all compatible with your body. If you were older and copied the movents, fine, but it would still be bad."
"Each body is different. Instead of copying exactly what I did, learn the why of each movent, of each muscle used. And then adapt, adapt it for your use, for your body that hasn’t fully developed yet." Rurik said calmly so Kyrian would understand.
Kyrian tilted his head slightly but understood. Indeed, when he had moved like Rurik, he had done the sa movent his eyes had seen, without any flaw. But he hadn’t felt entirely comfortable when attacking, still, he thought it was right.
He then closed his eyes, feeling his muscles. He moved with his eyes closed, his hands gripping the stick as he swung from side to side.
Then he rembered Rurik’s movent and did it again.
But this ti, sothing had changed. If soone were watching, they wouldn’t notice, but Kyrian had used strength at different monts, different muscles. Even though the attack looked the sa, Kyrian had perfectly adapted it to make the movent comfortable for him to use.
Rurik, watching from the side, held himself back from letting his jaw drop to the floor.
’Damn. This boy is really... a freak,’ Rurik thought. He had expected it would take a while for Kyrian to understand and then even longer to actually do it, but the boy managed on his first try.
"Like this? I think I got it, now it really feels right. Co on, I’ll attack again to test it," Kyrian said with a smile at discovering sothing new.
Rurik looked at the boy and laughed.
And so, the real training began.
***********************************
Days slowly turned into weeks. Kyrian ran more than everyone. Trained more than everyone. His muscles now outlined themselves under his skin, small but compact and defined. His strength increased continuously, but not as much as he’d like.
What really increased at an absurd speed was his technique.
Kyrian had superhuman endurance, he trained morning, afternoon, and night if Rurik didn’t stop him. In addition, he began to learn more about the city and the world. Rurik taught him everything he could.
But Kyrian’s favorite part was actually when he had to fight Rurik.
In the beginning, the captain held back. His movents were fast but simple, his strength restrained.
But Kyrian learned quickly, extrely quickly. His eyes saw everything, and his increasingly trained body now reacted with total precision to it.
He quickly beca aware of how to control his body, no longer wasting the extraordinary advantage his eyes gave him in battle.
Soon, the fights between the two beca a spectacle at the barracks. They started with sticks, but after a while, iron spears began to be used.
They clashed in sequences so fast that the other soldiers could barely keep up.
The nickna ’monster’ and the respect had already spread among all soldiers, whether new or old.
Kyrian didn’t care, he just wanted to improve more and more.
And so, a year passed.
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