Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening-Chapter 99: Team Effort

"Ughh! Not again!"

Kieran rose from his bed, his head banging, his shirt sticking to his body, soaked in sweat. He looked like someone who had just had a nightmare.

The dark circles underneath his eyes and the little eye bags that had begun to form only helped to accentuate that image.

He slowly shifted into a sitting position, burying his face into his palm and running his fingers through his hair which was also slick with sweat. He really looked like he was on the verge of collapsing.

He took his eyes to the table at the side, the only accessory in the bland room. On it was a small book – looking like a diary.

After a short moment of staring at it non stop with what seemed to be hesitation or fatigue, he approached the table and picked up the book, which was slightly propped up due to the pen in the middle.

Opening it up, a handwriting that was barely legible was revealed.

"I should have asked for writing lessons while at it too"

His voice was steady, betraying his appearance while containing a hint of self mockery as he observed his own poor writing.

Having been raised in an era where everything was digital and things like papers were seen as antiques of a dead era, it was surprising that he had even manged to figure out how to hold a pen properly.

Kieran fingers through the pages of the book he had gotten from the blacksmith who claimed to have some sort of connection to the antique market.

After watching the replay of all the fights in the tournament that had concluded about a month ago, he had the idea of documenting his progress, something he could use to see his improvements in real time. His watch could pretty much help with that, but his curiosity had won over after reading somethings about the old world in the library and some of the common habits back then.

"Heh!"

Kieran scoffed, thinking of how he had locked himself in the library after, in another session of clue hunting. That had been cut short though, as his instructor, August had dragged him and the rest of his teammates — Ricahrd and Derrick who tried his best and failed to outrun the instructor who was still livid at him.

"Now that I remember.."

Kieran rubbed his forehead, his voice suddenly becoming stress filled with hints of dread as he suddenly thought of the instructor.

Just on cue, his watch rang with a tune that made his face darken.

<<It’s time for more. 10 mins.>>

It was a short and concise message, one from August, the last person he wanted to be related to right now.

Still, he picked up his weight and walked towards the bathroom, suddenly stumbling at the entrance and supporting his weight with his hands on the wall.

"Ughhh"

He let out the same pained grunt as when he woke up, his head throbbing seriously before calming down a few moments later allowing him to regain his bearings and rush into the toilet. The instructor had given him 10 mins to appear at the unit building which was quite far some distance away and with the way August currently was, he didn’t want to risk getting put on the red list, like Derrick.

A few minutes later, Kieran stepped out, looking much better than before, but that wasn’t enough to hide the weary air around him.

He picked up his military jacket and made his way out of the room, speeding up his steps as he approached the unit building in a half sprint, half walk.

The images of what he was about go face again flashing across his mind and sending shivers down his back.

After the tournament ended, August summoned the three of them with a livid expression and went fishing for Derrick who had planned on ghosting the man for a while. It only took a few moments for him to return with an unconscious Derrick with a swollen cheek.

August woke him up with a hit to the back of his head, tossed him to the side and started off with a speech on how disappointed he was with their performance.

Deep down Kieran was shocked, considering that all that was coming from a man who said he wouldn’t be surprised if they all lost and embarrassed themselves. Shouldn’t he be happy?

Unfortunately, the instructor talked with passionate anger, like a person in pain as he scolded them and pointed out several mistakes, making sure to poke at Derrick’s stupid decision of forfeiting his battle.

August kept on mentioning instructor Selena and her recruits who just happened to be Sabrina and her fellow bodyguards; Ethan and Liam. That was all they needed to know that this was something more just about them. It seemed like there was something between instructors and their’s just turned out to be shitty enough to take out his anger on them.

August then concluded that he was going too easy on them and that he hadn’t been strict enough. He then went on to create a tailored training plan for each of them, and Kieran had to say, feeling excited and enthusiastic at that development seeing it as something good was probably one of his biggest regrets.

That plan was good enough to be considered as made by the devil himself, sending them to spend some time in the infirmary each day.

Much worse was that their injuries were no longer valid reasons to take a break or skip on the training. No. August had gone ahead to make some devilish deal with the doctor in charge over there and they were treated with the "big guns", taking care of most of their injuries in a few hours, giving Kieran an opportunity to see just what the camp was capable of, if they were actually willing to act.

’Let’s hope he’s a little happier today and I don’t get one of those shitty headaches again!’

The outline of the unit building had appeared in front of him and he still had a few minutes left as he thought about the other things that happened while training that intensely.

A series of brain shaking headaches had started to assault him shortly after the tournament ended and while he thought it was the training which had begun to take a toll on him, he took a break and it did nothing to help at all.

The results he had gotten from visiting the infirmary also showed nothing abnormal with his physical state which left him at a roadblock, and lately, they had started to increase in frequency, just like what happened when he woke up from bed a while earlier.

He even had occasional blackouts with no recollection, but they were very short, lasting just a few minutes each time.

Other than that, nothing significant had happened, but he was still worried about what was going on with him.

"Zoning out? Did you even get enough sleep like I told you too?"

Like cold water on his face, Kieran snapped out of his thoughts looking up to meet the cool gaze of August who stood still in front of him.

"Yeah, I did!"

"Well, that’s tragic!"

The instructor brushed it off, and a small smile appeared on Kieran’s face dispelling the weary aura around him a little bit.

"Alright, while I would like to trash your asses some more—"

August paused at the sudden interruption that came from Derrick who flinched the moment August mentioned trashing their asses and Kieran couldn’t blame him either as he glanced at the recruit who shrunk further under the instructor’s gaze.

He had it the toughest out of all of them as August made sure to make every second of his training extra hellish while he sat and relished in the pained expressions on the face of the recruit.

This was him getting back at Derrick for his decision back during the tournament and he passed it off as needing to fix him and a way of instilling the right values and mindset into him, but in truth, all he did was give the poor recruit ptsd.

After staring at him for a while, August resumed his words.

"While I would like to trash your asses. All this would be pointless without some practice, so you have till the ending of today to get some missions and get your ass out of this camp."

"Ohh, it’s a team effort!"

August dropped one last point that instantly sent the air the room into a mess.

Kieran’s face was as stoic as ever, while Derrick bore a slightly confused and bothered expression. Richard who remained silent on the side had a deep frown of dissatisfaction on his face, standing up to take his leave while the rest just watched.

August who had removed himself from the spot light, smiled widely beneath his mask as one thought ran through his mind.

’This should be fun!’