Chapter 16: Birth of the Femboy Warrior
It was still dark in the village of Steelweld. Everyone was asleep, except for Varpol and some amazonian soldiers that were stomping down the hallway, walking to the rooms where Tiafell and the others were staying. Three of them were carrying buckets of water with chunks of ice floating in them. The group stopped, standing in front of four doors.
"Do it" commanded the general.
With her command, soldiers opened the doors and the ones carrying buckets quietly approached the sleeping Tiafell, Nadia, and Cirris. Since Mirya had been deemed too frail for training, she was going to be spared the icy fate of the others. At once, the bucket-carriers splashed the contents onto the faces of the other three, greatly startling them awake. As the other three sat up in their beds, Mirya was awakened by the commotion.
"WHAT THE FUCK????" Nadia screamed.
"I'm going to kick someone's ass!!!" Cirris shouted. Tiafell merely screamed without saying a word.
"Bunch of entitled pussies!!" Varpol yelled, "who the FUCK said you had the luxury of sleeping until sunrise??? You pieces of shit are my bitches now, and from now on, you won't eat, sleep, piss, or even shit unless I give you permission! Now get your lazy asses out of bed, your training starts now!!!"
The three of them began to slowly get out of bed, only to be grabbed by soldiers and yanked onto their feet. Mirya, who had initially felt left out, was glad she was not a part of this, though she was concerned for her friends and twin brother. They were dragged into the hall in front of Varpol, who stood with her arms crossed.
"We can get out of bed on our own!" Nadia spat, her eyes were glowing red, indicating that her vampiric side was still active, which was fortunate for her as the amazonian general landed a punch to her gut that brought her to her knees. At night, Nadia's vampiric powers increased her stength, speed, and endurance well beyond human capabilities. But even with that, Varpol's punch overwhelmed her. The impact would have broken her spine if the sun had been up, when she was more human than vampire. Tiafell and Cirris were too terrified to react as Nadia gasped for air.
"Thanks for giving me a chance to show what happens when you talk back to me, you blood sucking whore!" She growled. "That was me being nice. The next time one of you talks back, I will seriously fuck you up!! Am I clear????"
"Y-Yeah!" Cirris nervously nodded, Tiafell did the same.
"I don't want to hear that 'yeah' shit! When I address you, you will answer me loudly and say 'Ma'am' when you finish! Let's try that again, AM. I. CLEAR???"
"Yes Ma'am!!" all three of them shouted, with Nadia struggling to do so, standing up.
Varpol smirked. "Good, you might not be worthless pieces of shit after all! Now come on, put these on!" Some of her soldiers throw thin pieces of clothing at them. They are cheaply made loincloths, with Nadia getting a top to go with hers.
"What are these? Why can't we wear what we have on?" Cirris asked hesitantly.
"Those are your training uniforms. We Amazons feel that clothing restricts movement, and your ability to move can be the difference between victory and defeat. Now, get changing!" Varpol demanded.
The three of them went back into their rooms, coming out minutes later wearing the thin garments. Tiafell and Cirris were topless, wearing only their loincloths, while Nadia was also wearing the flimsy top.
"Good, now you're ready. We will begin every morning with a jog outside the village's walls until sunrise, which gives us an hour! Then we'll have a light breakfast before we go on to the next phase of training. Get moving!!!" With that, the trio followed Varpol and her soldiers outside. Mirya slowly stepped outside her room once she was certain the coast was clear. She navigated the walls of the barracks and found Samora's room, she knocked on her door.
"Mom? Are you up?" After a few seconds, a groggy Samora, wearing a see-through dark blue nightgown and nothing underneath, answered. Her hair was in a mess.
"Yes, honey?" The sleepy witch rubbed her eyes.
"Sorry to wake you, but they just came and took Cirris and the others for training. The commotion freaked me out and I don't think I can sleep anymore."
"Oh, it is that time of the morning, and they are quite aggressive. Would you like to stay with me? Every morning is going to be like this from now on."
"I'm okay, but I was thinking that it isn't fair for me to take it so easy while the others are going to be pushed so hard. I'm not going through the same training, but I want you to push me as much as the others will be. I don't want to fall behind!!"
Samora smiled, patting her daughter on top of her head. "That's my brave girl. Alright, I'm going to train you in the way that Father did me. I never said that you would have it easy, your mind and spirit will be pushed to their limits and beyond. But if you endure it as I know you can, you will become an exceptional mage. I hope you're ready."
Mirya's expression hardened, determination burning in her eyes. "Yes, I want this! Give me all you've got!"
"Alright, we'll get started as soon as I get dressed and we have something to eat." Samora went into the next room to change into her clothes for the day. "So much for sleeping in..." she sighed.
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Outside, Tiafell, Nadia, and Cirris were jogging around the outer wall of Steelweld, following Varpol and some soldiers with others following behind them.
"We have to do this for an hour every morning...?" Cirris huffed.
"Heh, this may be tough for a human like you, but it's nothing to me!" Nadia boasted.
"You're only saying that because your vampire side still in effect. Once that sun comes up, you'll struggle just as much as Tiafell and I."
"Are you sure about that?" Nadia glanced at the elf, who was deeply focused. Though panting a little, he was pacing himself better than his friends were and was not dismayed by having to jog for an hour.
"Woah..." Cirris was amazed, the elf didn't seem bothered in the least.
"I'm sure he did this in Elfandall too, just saying." Nadia shrugged.
They jogged until sunrise, which caused Nadia to revert to a human. Once finished, they sat down as soldiers passed out small breakfast sandwiches to everyone.
After their meal, the general stood up. "Hope you three aren't tired already, because that wasn't even the warmup! Next up, aerobics!" Varpol lead them to an area with large boulders and wooden structures of all shapes and sizes scattered around. Amazons were already there, running and leaping over them, some were balancing themselves on others as they walked across. "After breakfast, you will come here to train your speed and agility! Pick a spot that isn't being used and start there, but you will need to visit every spot at least once before you are finished. Your goal is to be able to run, jump over, and walk across every object within three minutes."
"But... I'm counting... thiry five.. thirty six.." Nadia counted.
"Forty-seven obstacles, don't waste your brain power, Fangs!" Varpol interrupted. "I'm not going to ask you to do that right away, but you WILL be expected to do it at the end of the month!!!"
The three of them looked utterly shocked, realizing they only had a little over two weeks to become strong and agile enough to complete the task.
"Okay maggots, pick an obstacle and practice jumping over it! I want all of you to clear at least twenty in the next hour and a half! Go!!!"
With that, they picked their targets, getting running starts to leap over them. However, they all failed their first attempts. Nadia barely cleared hers but fell on her face, Cirris painfully straddled his, and Tiafell jumped too late and ran into a stone chest first.
"Ugh... they're doing worse than the kids do..." Varpol facepalmed.
They spent the next hour and a half clumsily attempting to clear obstacles. They did have some success, but their bodies began to give out soon after they began, although Tiafell lasted the longest. Ultimately, none of them succeeded in clearing twenty objects.
"By the gods!! You three are really gonna have to ramp things up if you want to survive this training!! We're only just beginning the day's work!! Now come on, it's off to strength training next!!"
The General took them to a new area where warriors were lifting stones, logs, and other heavy objects over their heads.
"This is exactly what it looks like. Here, you will be lifting weights, whatever you can lift. Although, I'm not expecting much out of any of you at this rate! Pick something and try to lift it over your head twelve times, then repeat.
Nadia and Cirris picked up stones, with Tiafell taking a thick, tree branch, being the weakest of the three. They did better with the strength exercise, but their arms felt rubbery afterwards.
"Good, not entirely disappointing. Keep those same objects, I will demonstrate every exercise I want you to do with them!" Varpol picked up a thick log and demonstrated every workout. Bench presses, lunges, squats, and many others were shown to the trio, who felt their hearts sink into their stomachs.
"I want at least two reps of twelve of those done in two hours!! Take small breaks between them, but don't take too long!"
Like with the aerobics training, the trio failed to complete every exercise within the time limit, becoming utterly exhausted.
"I can't believe this shit.. I trained twice this hard when I was little!" Varpol bellowed. "But what could I expect from someone who isn't of Amazonian descent. The next two hours will be a break. Take a nap, do whatever you have to do to regain your strength. We may train hard, but we rest hard as well. Your bodies cannot grow stronger unless you give them a chance to build themselves back up. That is why tomorrow will be a day off. We will train every other day for a few weeks, then move up to training for two days in a row with a day off, and finally three in a row with two days off. Take your break, then we will have lunch and move onto sparring. Report to the Mess Hall in two hours, dismissed!!" Varpol walked away, leaving the exhausted trio alone.
