Will of a Prince

"Hey, why do you keep looking at me like that?"

"Looking at you like what?"

Avala glared down at Squabee with a mean eye.

"Like that! You keep looking at me like you’re about to eat me! Stop it!"

"You’re overreacting. I’m going to make this exercise much harder for you just for that comment."

"What kind of trainer are you? You don’t look very strong to me."

Squabee crossed her arms and looked away. Avala’s face grew red with rage.

"What did you just say to me?! I’ll have you know that I am a well accomplished veteran of thousands of battles! Looking at your soft hands I can tell you’ve never truly struggled before."

"These soft hands can still kick your butt! Quit being such a grouch all the time!"

Avala looked like she was about to explode. She exhaled angrily through her nose as she stomped towards the others who were ready to start training.

"I hope you all can hear me because we are about to start training! You can thank Squabee’s small little comments for what’s about to come!"

Enki looked like he was going to vomit. He raised his hand.

"What do you want, old man?"

"Why am I in this training exercise? My expertise is with charms!"

"Shut the hell up and drop to the floor!"

Enki gulped and fell on his hands and knees. Avala looked over everyone else.

"Everybody does the same as each other! Drop to the ground and get into a push-up position!"

Everyone, including Squabee, positioned themselves as ordered.

"Good."

An evil smirk appeared on her face.

"Now none of you are allowed to eat until you do one thousand push-ups. Good luck!"

Lucy, Sarah and Squabee stared at Avala in awe.

"One thousand?! That’s ridiculous!"

"Everyone here can hardly do one hundred!"

"You’re being too cruel!"

Avala frowned and began walking towards Gabriel who was already trying to rep out his push-ups.

"Oh... thank you so much for reminding me."

Avala threw her leg around her body and slammed it into the ground. A strange shockwave flowed all over the surface of where they were positioned. Immediately, people’s hands slipped under themselves, causing their face to smack into the ground. Groans of pain escaped the mouths of those unlucky enough to catch themselves in time.

"Now you may start! This amount of friction requires your form to be absolutely perfect, or you will slip and fall under yourselves!"

Avala walked over to a large chair that was watching over everyone. She laughed and clapped her hands together as everyone around her groaned and struggled to do even a single push-up.

However, her laugh was quickly extinguished when she saw what Squabee was doing. It looked like she was repping out pushups with little to no effort at all. But her form was beyond anything Avala had ever seen before.

"What the-... Hey, blondie! There’s no way you got the hang of it already! Don’t make me come over there!"

Squabee whispered next to Enki who was also doing his push-ups with relative ease.

"Shit. I think she’s on to us! Hide the charm!"

"I’m trying! It won’t fit inside my shirt!"

Aval walked over to Enki and picked him up by the back of his robes. He dangled in her grasp as he played with his fingers innocently.

"Ehe... beginners’ luck?"

Avala threw him on the ground away from Squabee, the charm shattering in his clothes upon impact.

"Nice try, cheater. Just for that little stunt, you just earned everyone an extra one thousand push-ups."

Harold, who was normally quiet in these situations, screamed out in protest.

"I hate training my arms! My power has nothing to do with them! Please let me do squats instead!"

Avala smirked devilishly and walked towards Harold. Seeing his mistake, he quickly took back his comment.

"I mean, I’m just kidding! Two thousand coming right up!"

As he finished speaking, he slipped and fell on his face. Thanks to Squabee’s ridiculous power, Avala forgot that she still had the charm equipped that allowed her muscles to never grow tired. The longer she used it though, the more she thought to herself.

’Hm... I wonder what the drawback of this will be? I hope my power will save me from that too.’

Lee and Steel kept pushing each other over, trying to knock the other one down.

"Steel, you keep bumping into me! Stop it or I’m going to throw you towards Avala!"

"You stop bumping into me! You’re lucky I don’t cut you where you stand!"

Aval stomped her foot in the ground loudly.

"If I hear a peep out of anymore of you, I will double what you need to accomplish! Do I make myself clear?!"

Everyone went as quiet as possible.

"Good! Now get to work!"

Avala slowly walked over to Gabriel and studied his face. There was no emotion showing on it except for pure determination. She looked into his eyes, but he refused to look back.

"Hm... you seem to be quite determined to get strong. Is this exercise too easy for you?"

Gabriel remained silent and kept looking forward, his muscles shaking as he would come up from every push-up. He refused to even make grunting sounds as he struggled. Avala’s eyes widened.

"Interesting."

Suddenly, Avala began to step on top of his back, balancing herself as he continued moving himself up and down.

"I’m going to stay here a while. Is that okay?"

Gabriel once again didn’t make a sound. His push-ups slowed drastically and he had to take breaks way more often. However, he never once complained. He kept pushing further and further, even when it felt like his arms were snapping in half with every rep.

Avala, for the first time, felt elated to have someone as strong-willed as him under her wing.

"Yes... you will do nicely as my subordinate. If we get more people like you, those wardens don’t stand a chance."

Countless hours later, Slimo and Lidia walked out of the palace to search for everyone.

"Is Avala’s training still going on? How long is it supposed to go on for?"

Slimo sighed heavily.

"Damn it. I should have expected this out of her. I bet Squabee pissed her off and now they’re stuck doing extra work."

Right as he said this, both Lidia and Slimo found all their friends laid out flat on the ground, completely passed out. Gabriel was the only one who wasn’t asleep. He still had Avala standing on his back as he struggled to do even a single push-up. He was clenching his teeth so hard in effort that small streams of blood would come out of his gums with every rep. Even Avala looked down at him dumbstruck.

"This man..."

It took her a few moments before noticing Slimo and Lidia were watching them.

"Apologies. I wasn’t expecting guests."

Avala stepped off of Gabriel and tried walking towards them. However, a hand suddenly wrapped around her ankle. It was Gabriels. His face was drenched in sweat, his eyes looked faded and weak, his mouth was covered with blood, but his face looked more determined than ever. He panted out the only words he could.

"Don’t... get off... yet..."

Avala’s eyes widened from such a ridiculous notion.

"Y-You will let go this instant!"

"PLEASE!"

Gabriel screamed out into the air. Avala was left speechless. However, after three moments of hesitation, she reluctantly climbed back on to his back as he continued to struggle through his arduous training.

Slimo looked at Lidia, not knowing what to say.

"I see that you’ve instilled some good willpower into them, Avala."

Avala took a moment to respond as she looked down at Gabriel.

"This isn’t from me. This man... I’ve never seen anyone like this before."

She looked over at Slimo and Lidia.

"What the hell happened to you guys out there?"

Slimo sighed deeply before answering.

"Loss affects people in different ways."

Hearing that come from Slimo after everything that happened between him and her older brother made Avala’s heart ache, but she wasn’t offended by his words.

"I see. I was going to offer to feed everyone early considering how hard they worked, but I don’t think I can until this man finishes his push-ups. By my count, he hardly has any left. To be honest, it’s possible he may have already finished them and simply wants to keep going."

Suddenly Simo noticed something out of the corner of his eye. A slight movement coming from Squabee followed by an obviously fake snore. Slimo walked over and picked Squabee up.

"Shoot-... I mean... Oh, hi Slimo!"

"Were you faking to sleep this whole time?"

"What?! I would never do that! By the way, are we done with training? I’m hungry!"

Avala shook her head and slapped her face.

"I don’t know how you travelled with that thing for so long. I’ve never seen someone luck-out of so many situations before."

Squabee, realizing that Avala had zero clue what her Zalo was, scratched the back of her head.

"Wellll about that..."

Avala looked at her confused.

"What? What about it?"

Lidia walked over to Avala and whispered in her ear. Avala was reacting out loud to every piece of information she was told.

"What? To her benefit? No control? PROVIDENCE DEITY?!"

Lidia flinched hearing her reaction to the last part.

"Unfortunately, yes. To be honest with you Avala, I don’t think you can train her... at least not physically. She would probably be most useful in an instruction-type setting."

Avala sighed deeply.

"Very well. I can give her to my right hand, Orvo. He is possibly the best tactician I know."

Suddenly, Gabriel finally collapsed under Avala’s weight and refused to move a muscle. He had officially completed all two thousand push-ups with Avalas added weight on top.

"By the way, what’s this gentleman’s name again?"

"Gabriel."

Avala looked back down at him.

"Gabriel..."