The training room floor was a landscape of exhausted bodies. The final set had broken them, leaving the four scattered like discarded puppets.
They were draped across the cold stone, their chests still heaving violently after the three hundred sit-ups.
"Grey, this bastard," Aeron complained, his voice raw and punctuated by gasps. He weakly lifted his head, only to let it fall back with a thump. "Where did he go after tormenting us like this?"
"Don't you dare curse him like that, you useless piece of shit!" Lenore glared at Aeron with fierce intensity, her loyalty to Grey overriding her fatigue.
"He is doing this for us. We wanted to grow strong. He's putting his time away to help us. You should be saying thank you, not things like that." Blaze said, leaning against a pillar, slowly massaging his shoulders.
There wasn't a trace of complaint in his words for Grey, only deep-seated respect.
