Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 52: A day of Training

A few days passed since the announcement that Bradley was going to be the next mayor. Since that day, Bradley had been busy going to the mayor’s mansion to learn from him.

His workload had been nearly halved as a result, but he still had some work he had to do around the town and even in the veil.

The two brothers barely met each other anymore other than around the evening during dinner. Their morning training had been effectively shut down as well.

The date of the new Mayor’s instate was also closing in, so the man had been busy. Since it was going to be set right after the census was collected, there were no more than 10 or so weeks remaining.

Stanley arrived at the training area and started warming up before the training began.

There were some people around him that spoke in whispers, but he acted like he didn’t notice. All they talked about was how he was the next mayor’s brother and how that would most likely give him some sort of advantage.

’What advantage? I don’t even want to be a Defender in the first place,’ he thought. However, he had to stick with it as this was the only way for him to get his revenge.

While there were many 1st and 2nd years also training on the other side of the area, the number of 3rd years was quite low.

From what Stanley could tell, only 1 out of every 6 students were available right now. Meaning, no more than 7 people were available for the training today.

The others were all working with the Defenders.

"Hey!" a voice spoke from next to him.

Stanley turned and found Freddy standing next to him. "Hey," Stanley greeted him back. "Did you just arrive?"

"Yes," Freddy said and quickly started warming up as well.

"Are the teachers here?" he looked around.

"Not yet, but should be in a bit," Stanley said.

The teachers came a few minutes later and started their daily training lessons.

The training involved some strength training such and some laps around the area; everything that was necessary for someone to fight a Crawler without using their power.

After an hour or so of that, the trainees would then rest and learn about their job as a Defender.

This included learning the laws of the town, communication lessons to talk with the others, the history of crime and violence in the town, as well as learning stuff like how to de-escalate a situation in case it was needed.

However, this time around, they were learning something else.

"You 3rd years will go back to work tomorrow, so there are a few things you will have to know about," the teacher started saying.

"Currently, there is something happening in the town. Some people are trying to rile up the normal folks into taking arms and fighting back. Stanley here has already been a victim of theirs, so you have to be careful when you’re out there."

"Trust no one and always be on guard. If you see something suspicious, report it back here immediately. At the same time, try not to make it obvious that you are trying to find something."

"They won’t show themselves if you reveal that you are after them," the teacher explained.

They discussed the topic for a while before the teacher stopped. After they were rested, they went back into physical training.

Only this time they trained their powers. With more than 100 people training on their powers at the same time, it usually became hard to keep track of who had who.

As the number of trainees was cut down each batch, it became easier and easier, but with over 40 trainees in the 3rd year’s batch, it was still quite hard to keep track of everyone’s powers.

Not to mention, Stanley usually was an outcast in this situation, so he would always go train his sword against a dummy during these times.

But, for the first time in his life, he had a power he could train as well.

However, when it came time for the training, he still had to do the same training as his physical strength didn’t give him any additional powers at all.

Stanley simply decided to go back to hitting the metal dummy.

"Hey, Stanley, do you think you can help me?" Freddy asked him all of a sudden.

"Help? With training?" Stanley asked.

"Yes," Freddy said with an embarrassed smile. "I usually trained with the others, but since not many of us are here, I was hoping you could help me. Unless you want to train by yourself, you know. You don’t have to do it."

"Sure," Stanley said. "I don’t really have much else to do anyway."

So, he helped Freddy practice his teleportation technique on him.

Freddy was still trying to perfect his technique by figuring out how far he could send someone, and how accurate it would be.

He pushed himself to the limit while testing his own techniques and learned a lot.

Stanley didn’t mind being thrown around. It was much better than fighting the dummy for hours on end anyway.

At least with this, he was also training his reflexes by adapting to a new environment as quickly as he could.

After a while, they stopped training. It was an afternoon at the moment and now began their daily fighting session to put everything they had learned into practice.

Usually, only a few students got to fight in a single day, but due to the lack of trainees, everyone would get to fight that day.

"Stanley, Johan, on the stage the two of you," the teacher said.

Stanley took a wooden sword and walked onto the stage. Opposite him, the chubby Yohan walked onto the stage as well.

"Same rules as every day," the teacher said. "3 hits on the opponent lets you win. No going for the head, and definitely no going for the privates."

"Since neither of you has powers that directly hurts the opponent, you are free to use them as much as you want."

"Now, begin."