Ch 44: Hell (2)

Twenty minutes of active recovery later, "Alright, how y'all feeling!" Ray asked the crowd of sweaty students while hiding a scroll behind his back.

"Tired." Some of the students answered back. Everyone was standing on their feet, looking up at Ray, wondering what was next and what these metal bands were for. Ruby and Yang, who knew what they were for, dropped to all fours in preparation. Blake and Weiss, who were next to them, remembered what Ray had said about the Gravity Bands earlier and decided to follow their example.

"Are you? Well, if you can still talk, then you must not be too tired!" Ray leaned forward as his smile grew. "Anyways, congratulations on completing your warm-up!"

[[Uh, warm-up?]] almost all the students thought, the confusion and apprehension showing on their faces. Ray's bright smile suddenly seemed to have a rather sinister edge to it in their eyes.

"Yes, warm-up! I hope y'all liked it! 'Cause, we are doing it all again! But doing the exact same thing would be boring, so let's make it more interesting." With a grin that was definitely malicious, Ray whipped the scroll out from behind his back and pressed a button. Suddenly, all of the students felt like the gravity around them had increased as the first band of purple on their wristbands lit 1/3rd of the way up. The sudden change forced all of them to their knees, and some even fell face-first into the ground. Only Ruby, Yang, Weiss, and Blake, who had braced themselves beforehand and a few others who were strong enough to endure, like Yatsuhashi and Pyrrha, were able to avoid embarrassing themselves, barely.

"The metal wristbands you have all put on are the latest training tool from Atlas. The Gravity Band. They can increase the weight of gravity on a person by up to +210%. What most of you are currently experiencing is +10%. For those of you who have already made some achievements in Aura Manipulation, the increase is greater. +20% for Shaping, +30% for Sight, +40% for Weaponization, and +50% for me at Realization. Now let's go! Back in the water! Three sets of 100-meter sprint swim on 30-second intervals! Remember, those who fall behind get zapped!" *splash* Ray dived into the water and started the cycle all over again.

31.5 minutes later, "Back on dry land! 50 Push-ups! 50 sit-ups! 12 pull-ups! 6 sets! 3-minute intervals! GO!"

18 minutes later, "Get those feet moving, people!"

3 minutes later, "And Jaune gets the first zap of the day! Come on! Run boy! Run!".

49.5 minutes later, "Rapid fire! Go, Go, GO!"

22 minutes later, "Good job. Another 20 minutes of active recovery. Make sure you eat and drink during these long recovery breaks."

Twenty minutes later, "Alrighty! So, how y'all feeling now?" Silent, tired stares and the sound of many people still breathing heavily answered him. Many people had fallen behind the pace and now stood with spiky hair from Ray's 'encouragement'. "Hmm, not as energetic anymore, I see. Well, maybe this will cheer some of you up." Ray held up the scroll he used to control the Gravity Bands again. Some of the more naive students looked up at him with hope in his eyes, but the majority dropped to brace themselves against the ground.

"Let's double your gravity!" Ray shouted with glee and pushed a button on his scroll. The poor naive students that hadn't braced themselves in time fell to the ground with tears in their eyes as 2/3rds of the first band on their wristbands were now lit up, applying +20% gravity on them.

"Whyyyy…" groans and cries could be heard from among the students at this torture.

"Remember, students. I gave you the option to back out before you started. Now we are all stuck here together. So tough it out, buttercups! Back into the water! Let's do it again!"

*Splash* Ray jumped into the water to begin his sprint swims but didn't forget to send a few lightning bolts at a few of the people who weren't moving for the water.

20 minutes later, "Remember I do this because I love you, Weiss." Ray said as he shocked a member of Team RWBY for the first time.

[This is not how I wanted to be confessed to!] Weiss cried but had no breath to spare to voice her objection as she forced her tired body onward.

11.5 minutes later, "Back on dry land! 50 Push-ups, 50 sit-ups, 12 pull-ups, 6 sets, 3-minute intervals! GO!"

18 minutes later, "Come on! Let's go! Get those feet moving!

52.5 minutes later, "Rapid fire! Go, Go, GO!"

22 minutes later, "Good job. Whew! This is a pretty good workout, don't y'all think?" Silence met his question as no one had the energy remaining to talk. Everyone, even Ruby, Yang, and Nora, who had had her Semblance temporarily nullified by a teacher's Semblance, were sporting the electrified hairstyle now, and even Ray was starting to show his exhaustion now from the intense workout. A few people wanted to flip him the bird for his joking comment but decided to prioritize recovering the ability to move. "Another 20 minutes of active recovery. Again, make sure you eat and drink during these long active recovery breaks."

20 minutes later, "Alrighty! The good news is we are now more than halfway through." Cheering broke out as everyone had recovered at least enough energy to speak now and wanted to psych themselves up for the last half.

[We are halfway through this hell!] The thought brought tears to their eyes for various reasons, but Ray wasn't done yet.

"The bad news is…" Ray held up his scroll again, and this time everyone promptly dropped to their hands and knees, "+30% gravity!" Ray shouted as he pushed a button, and the first band on everyone's wristbands fully lit up. "Let's GO!" *Splash* and the cycle began again.

15 minutes later, Jaune couldn't take it anymore and almost drowned but was hauled out by Glynda and given emergency treatment by Professor Peach.

16.5 minutes later, "Back on dry land! Push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups sets! GO!"

Nine minutes later, Jaune was deemed to have recovered enough and thrown back in. By this time, several more people were lying on top of the stage as if dead, receiving treatment from the nursing staff and Professor Peach.

9 minutes later, "Come on, you slackers! I'm doing all this under +150% gravity! What are all you wusses complaining about a mere +30% for?! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!"

51.5 minutes later, "Rapid fire! Let's see some hustle, people!!"

22 minutes later, *gasp* "30 minutes of active recovery this time." Ray was gasping and panting for breath as he stood with his hands on his knees, legs shaking slightly on top of the stage. *pant* "Those who can still move *gasp* try to come closer to me. *pant* I am going to enter meditation and draw as much Aura from the surroundings as I can to saturate the area around us. *Whooh* This will speed up everyone's recovery and increase our gains as the excess Aura in the air enters our energy-starved bodies. *haaa* The closer you are to me, the greater the effect will be." Ruby, Yang, and a few others, including Velvet surprisingly, staggered to their feet, and half walked half crawled towards the stage. However, only Ruby and Yang, despite both having been subjected to +120% gravity the last cycle, were able to climb up the steps and sit with all three of their backs together as they entered meditation. As everyone was resting and recovering, Ray set the Gravity Bands to decrease the increased gravity they were exerting on everyone slowly over the course of their break.

Thirty minutes later, "Everyone feeling better now?" Ray asked the assembled students. This time everyone had a determined look in their eyes as they looked up at their tormentor. They could feel that the effect of gravity on them had decreased since they had started resting and felt much better from the nurturing of the Aura field he had generated. They had come this far and were now determined to finish. After almost 11 hours of hell, they could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

"Alright, one last cycle at +10% gravity, and then we are done. Come on! We can do it!" *Splash*

31.5 minutes later, "Come on! Stay with me! You just did this under +30% gravity. You can handle +10% now!"

18 minutes later, "Almost there! Almost there! Don't give up now!"

51.5 minutes later, "Last set! Rapid-fire! Go, Go, GO! Finish strong!"

22 minutes later, "Good job, everyone! Just one thing left. We started in the water, so let's finish in the water. I want everyone to cool down with a 20-minute easy swim. Let's get that lactic acid out of our muscles. Then you can all go die in your beds." Nobody laughed at his joke as they removed the Gravity Bands that Ray had just turned off from around their wrists and plopped into the water one after the other.

Twenty minutes later, "Excellent job, everyone! I'll see all of you next week." At Ray's reminder that they would have to go through all of this again next week, the light left many of their eyes, "Though this is only mandatory for first years, I hope all the upperclassmen will set a good example and not chicken out next week. You wouldn't want your underclassmen to suddenly completely surpass you? Now would you? And please feel free to bring your friends next week as well so that we can all grow stronger together."

At Ray's last words, the light returned to everyone's eyes, a fervent, desperate, almost demonic light. That's right, if they had to endure this torture, why should the others get to escape. Everyone should be suffering together! And with that, Ray had all but guaranteed that the entire student body of Beacon Academy of 200 plus students would be at his hell training course next week and the following weeks. The only way anyone was able to get out of it was by being out on a mission.