His voice was louder than the stormy winds of the night.

"This is your last term - your last attempt at learning how to survive, how to escape the enemy, how to get to him before he gets to you, how to get strong and stay strong. You slack now, and you won't live to see days you had planned to. And if you die before successfully completing the mission, I swear I'll get you back to life, bring you back here and screw you thoroughly. Then you will beg me to kill you again. I hope you know that by now?"

What a speech! I'm worried about the day he becomes the commander of some academy. The boys will train in pure fear.

"Yes sir!" This is the loudest response I've ever heard from the cadets. They shook the ground by that answer.

"Better. Now show me that you mean it. PT dress. Sixteen minutes. Run!"

What?! It's 10 pm. Their training is supposed to start tomorrow! Or may be not. Its Killer. Nobody taught him maths, logical reasoning and time.

I need to talk to Uncle to help him complete his primary schooling.

As ordered, sixty boys were standing in queue by the end of sixteen minutes. They were panting already, I doubt they'll last till tomorrow morning.

What? You thought they were made to wear PT dress to go back within an hour or two? Funny if you thought that.

I left the boys at their state to get my beauty sleep of atleast 6 hours. I got the message at dinner that I'm supposed to join Killer at 0600 hours. While the news wasn't very exciting, the good part was that I got one extra hour to sleep. How he agreed to it, I'm still confused.

************************************

Preparing myself for a humiliating and nicely insulting day, I jogged towards the ground.

I was eight minutes early to my own surprise. But what was more surprising was what I saw.

I expected Ethan and boys covered in mud, standing or rolling in the ground with Killer rogering them. Instead I saw Killer being rogered by Uncle and none of the boys were in the scene. A single backpack was lying on one side - partially wet - I don't doubt it's Killer's sweat.

He was panting like a Rabid dog and Uncle himself was drenched in sweat. They were both doing suicides with Killer obviously lagging behind.

"Pull up! Pull up! I'm not letting that one go unnoticed!" Uncle shouted while they crossed each other. Killer must have used his reserves to double his speed and caught up to him. He touched the line one second before Uncle in the final count, saving his ass some 'payment'. But that last run definitely drained him. He was lying flat on his back.

"We still have three minutes left. How about...?" Uncle left the last question incomplete.

How about what?

"Sir.." Killer's plead was shut by his father. "Pushups, Crunches and Burpees."

Response was immediate - Uncle dropped down on all fours and Killer turned himself upside down in the same time.

They started doing fast Pushups. Uncle was counting, whispering I must say.

As soon as Uncle finished a count of sixty, he turned to start doing crunches. Killer joined him when he had reached five.

Uncle started doing Burpees while Killer was still at 56. He started doing Burpees at a speed I never thought was humanely possible.

He managed to finish the count along with Uncle. Both of them stayed on the ground panting for a few seconds.

Uncle was the first one to stand up. "She's here. Get on the job. You know the deal."

Great! Another deal. Can these people pass normal orders for one day?

Wait. She's here? Deal? What's the deal that includes me?

"Good morning, Jane." Uncle said, walking towards me.

"Give your best." he whispered and crossed me before I could wish him a good morning back.

"I'll try." I said, knowing he's too far to hear that. But I'm sure he still heard that.

I walked ahead. Killer was standing now.

"Morning, sir." I greeted him. There was nothing good about his morning, I've witnessed it already. So I omitted the word.

"Morning. I'll have some water. You do your stretching till then." Did I hear right? He wished me back? Is the world going to end now?

I nodded and started doing what I was told. Starting with my neck, I stretched all my muscles till the calves, when he came back.

"I hope you haven't worsened your timing. You won't like your backpack dripping with someone else's sweat." He pointed at that thing I noticed long back. The thought made me sick.

I didn't reply anything. There's no point saying anything to this man.

He took out his timer and I left for the first 'timed' run of the day. I completed the round and crossed him with my breath held in my stomach.

I slowed down my momentum and turned back. "One second. That's what you call improvement? Pathetic."

Thank goodness! Being pathetic is better than that imagination.

"Two more rounds. Don't take forever." Can he stop being an ass for one day?

Once my runs were over, Killer started with stamina building. Fast sets of twisted crunches, diamond Pushups, squats and burpees had me at the end of the cliff.

He would know till where to push me and would give me a break only when I was about to die. He was being less verbal today, but I would give the onus to his own breathless state. Uncle had fried him nicely leaving no raw sass.

He had me on my toes for almost an hour, with absolutely no fight practice and I have to admit this was one of the most intensive workouts he has ever made me do. There's definitely something big in this deal with Uncle.

"The instructor for combat fight has his session at 1300 hours. I'll be there with him at the demo area. Reach by 1230 so that you can learn his basics before the cadets arrive."

The boys reported back in their regular training uniform and I was left. Killer is doing well with time management giving time to all three - cadets, me and himself.

************************************

"Early lunch, milady?" Flynn's ever so soft voice made the lunch taste better.

"Not exactly. Just filling my stomach for a few hours. Infact I'll be having a late lunch today. I have an appointment at 12.30." I said winking.

His forehead creased, trying to make sense of what I said.

"Some instructor is teaching the cadets. Killer wants me to learn some things from him."

"I see. Combat fight. Who's the instructor by the way?" "I don't know. Someone named Kelly."

He laughed loudly. "Kelly? He's here? Oh I'd love to see them together."

"How about this - you tell me the reason you laughed so loudly and I'll tell you what happens at the demo area?"

"You make bad deals, madam." "You are the first person to tell me this. Even Uncle has fallen for my deals!" I was about to fight.

He laughed loudly again. "What happens in that demo area will reach my ears before you get your breaths to normal." He said showing off.

"Then what will you take to give me that information?" Okay now I was begging.

"How about you give your 100 percent and a little more to your own training and show great improvement?" He asked very seriously.

"My gut says this is a part of that deal between Killer and Uncle. He's acting normally with me since morning. Isn't it?"

His laughter got louder. "You are way too smart, miss. Yes it is. Your improvement decides how long Nick stays at the HQ. I'm sure you know what state he'll be in for next few days."

It was my turn to get confused. Before I could ask, he explained.

"Colonel Daniel will keep pushing him till either he breaks, or Dan gets bored or Colonel interrupts. Knowing that first two are less likely, Wills went to talk to Colonel, heard a few nice words for asking him to do something he'd never do, but ended up making the deal of training you properly if he agrees to intervene in Nick's state."

"So, if in the next fight, I perform good according to Uncle, he'll get Nick out of Dan's stupid shit?" I summarised whatever I understood.

"Precise yes." Damn it. I knew this deal was big. But didn't know it was this big.

Uncle would never request that asshole to relieve Nick. If he has agreed to do so, it must have been a really tough job to convince him. What have you done, Killer?

"So you gotta fight well to bring Nick back." I nodded and agreed to him.

"I'm going to give my best. Nick deserves this much atleast."

"Now about Instructor Kelly." Flynn said and immediately my mood changed.

"He was the instructor around Wills and Nick's batch. He was hated by the cadets because he would set their obstacles on fire and it would cut down their hours of sleep to heal their wounds or repair their burnt uniforms or arrange new ones."

"Hell of an instructor!" "It doesn't stop here. The cadets got so annoyed one day that they plotted revenge. One day they burnt patches from all of his uniforms hung for drying. He understood who did it, and all three batches got nice ice cold sessions at night. But since that day, his fire stunts came down."

I was laughing so loudly by now. "The boys had guts! I can imagine what he must have done to them!"

Flynn was also laughing. "Then after passing out, Kelly was one of the 8 instructors assigned to train Wills during his CT. And he paid for that revenge all over again during these sessions."

"Killer had 8 instructors?!" "Just for fight training. For other lessons, he had other instructors. Colonel can only teach him a few things. He needed people specialised in specific fields."

Damn. 8 different people to face. His life gets tougher with each word I hear about him.

"So you mean I need to be careful with this Kelly-guy?"

"Not at all. He's cool with girls. You might in fact find his session interesting. He's a very practical man, teaching lessons specific to person and his/her situations. Be free and learn as much as you can from him."

"Understood. But I won't stop looking for their expressions. Thanks, Flynn." We shared another laugh and I left for a supposedly fun filled session.

************************************ I had typed only half of this chapter when instead of saving, I hit the 'publish' button. Realising immediately what I had done, I unpublished it as fast as possible hoping that it doesn't get visible in your notifications.

But like I expected, my luck ran out.

But what I did not expect was so many messages in my chat asking me what's wrong with the update. That too within few minutes of the whole stunt. 'Overwhelmed' doesn't cover it, but I can't find a better word.

Thank you so much.

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