A shocked silence hung in the room.
A moment passed where Leon, Finn, and Fanny stood with eyes wide and breath held. Finally, they hurried without saying anything to the enormous rock that was holding Isla. They grunted and heaved and pushed with all of their might. The rock roiled but didn't give.
"Come on!" Leon yelled using every muscle he had.
With one last heave they all thrust against it and the rock rolled a tiny bit enough to clear the big rock away from Isla and crash against the wall behind it where there was now a big crack on the wall where the rock had struck it and also on the ground of their release.
Leon immediately pick Isla up off the floor. "Come on, stay with me!" he yelled at her.
They sprinted down the corridor into the nursing room all holding Isla close to them and her eyes seemed to flutter slightly as they moved.
"Isla, what happened?" Leon asked breathless.
Isla tried to respond but very little came out other than noise at this point.
"Don't say anything save your breath. We're almost there." Leon responded back to her.
They crashed through the door at the nursing room, and to their surprise Darius Sir was there waiting for them now. He stood there with a calm look as if he expected for them to be there.
They gently placed Isla on the bed.
Darius didn't ask a single question. He didn't ask about her injury, and he clearly wasn't confused about why they were there. He just started feeling Isla all over with quick, practiced motions.
"I blinked in confusion. "Sir, you're not even going to ask how this happened?"
Darius looked up and gave a faint smile. "No. I had several students come in like this already today."
"What do you mean?" Leon asked. He was confused.
"She was injured in Edric Sir's training, to keep it simple," Darius said, like that explained everything.
Our jaws hit the floor.
"Are you kidding me?" Finn said. "How could you injure someone this badly in training? What kind of session was he running?"
Darius adjusted his glasses. "I'm assuming you haven't gone to Edric's session yet. By any chance, did you happen to run into a very large rock?"
Leon nodded slowly. "Uh, yeah... we found Isla underneath... it took us all three to get it out from under her."
"That waving rock, is the training," Darius said sheepishly.
Fanny's eyes widened. "Wait… you actually mean we have to move that thing?"
"That is right," Darius confirmed. "Every student must push it at least ten centimeters without using their metahuman powers."
Fanny and Leon appeared to turn pale; every ounce of life had been sucked from them.
Leon could not manage to look up and simply stared at the ground. "That is insane."
"I did say learning Edric's training would not be easy," Darius replied as he stood and walked towards the door. "And I firmly believe mine is harder."
After reaching the exit he turned back to face them, "Wait here while Isla sleeps. When she wakes up you may rejoin the others."
"Ok, Sir…," they both mumbled with little resolve.
Once Darius exited and the door clicked closed behind him Finn slumped back in his chair and had tears begin to form in his eyes. "How the hell are we supposed to do that? Alone? There is no way."
Fanny nodded in agreement. "We could barely move it with all three of us. What kind of cruel training is this?"
Leon was thinking exactly the same thing, however he said nothing and just sat quietly with a whirling mind.
Finally, a light rustling broke their silence. They all turned to the bed, Isla was waking up.
"Isla?" Fanny rushed to her side and grabbed her hand.
Her eyes fluttered open. She looked around, bewildered. "Why… am I here? Wasn't I training?"
"You were," Fanny said softly. "We found you unconscious. You were under a massive rock."
Isla's eyes widened as everything came flooding back. "Oh… Right. I tried to push it but it started rolling towards me and I slipped. That's the last thing I remember."
Leon leaned in closer. "So it's true… In Edric Sir's training, we have to move that rock?"
Isla nodded, "Ten meters. No powers."
She started to sit up, but Fanny and Leon stopped her.
"What are you doing?" Leon asked.
"Let me go!" Fanny scolded. "You need to rest! You aren't going anywhere!"
Isla gave her a small, tired smile, "Alright, alright. I'll stay. But you guys should go."
"You sure you're going to be okay?" Leon asked.
"Of course. Just don't come back looking like me." She joked weakly.
Finn muttered, "I don't want to go? I value my life."
Fanny grabbed his collar, "Waddle out of here, crybaby."
"Monster!" he cried as Fanny dragged him screaming and digging in his heels toward the door.
Leon gave Isla one last look. "Take it easy okay?"
She returned a smile. "Good luck."
Leon sighed, "We will need more than that."
Outside, as they walked to the grounds, two students rushed past them in the direction of the nursing room.
Leon frowned. "Looks like we aren't the only ones struggling."
Finn mumbled, "We'll be joining them back there soon."
They pushed the doors open-and froze.
The field was littered with unconscious students on the ground. Edric stood in the middle, barking orders like a general, appearing unaffected by the bodies lying all around him.
"Why are you so willing to give up?" Edric demanded, "You think it's hard now? You haven't even begun yet!"
He caught sight of them. "Ah, you three! Perfect timing! Come, your boulders are waiting. Push them ten meters- no powers."
Finn hesitated. "Y-Yes, sir."
As Edric turned to leave, Finn grabbed Leon's arm. "Did you see all the students lying around?! We are going to die out here! Edric can't even move that thing without powers!"
As if he heard Finn, Edric stopped at the door. Then, nonchalantly, turned and kicked one of the enormous boulders.
The boulder razed across the training area before striking a wall with a bang.
Jaws dropped.
Leon and Fanny, even they were too shocked to move.
Subsequently they made a move towards their respective boulders.
Leon placed both palms against the icy boulder and stomped his feet into the ground. He gritted his teeth and pushed as hard as possible, legs shaking, arms on fire. But the boulder never moved.
Never the less, he refused to stop.
Finn tried too, all scrunched up and frustrated, but no use. The boulder did not budge.
Fanny made a fist, gritted her teeth, and put all of her strength into it. The boulder moved, but not enough.
One at a time they each fell to the ground, panting and exhausted.
It was not long after that Isla came running on to the field.
"Are you guys alright?!"
Finn did not respond, lying flat on the ground as if dead. Fanny gave a flimsy thumbs-up. Leon smiled slightly. "Just... give me a minute."
Isla was saying something else, but Leon did not listen he was still trying to make sense of what had just transpired.
Behind Isla were a couple boys, twins. They stood behind her smirking coldly.
They had not forgotten about the way Isla embarrassed them in front of everybody the last week. Here was an opportunity. One gave a small nod. The other did the same. Thunderclouds were building over Isla. One twin lifted a hand and shot a spray of water, aiming for the rock. The other twin was using his ice powers to freeze Isla's feet to the ground. She heard the rumble. Her eyes grew wide. The rock was coming—very quickly. She tried to move. But her feet...were frozen solid.