Christopher was standing in front of the gate of Netello Brave’s manor with the others. He was suddenly feeling much less elated at having reached the second phase of the training. It was a pleasant day at least. Soft white clouds lined an otherwise blue sky. The temperature was pleasant as well, with not so much as a breeze to cause them a chill.

“So, how badly is this going to hurt?” Christopher asked Beteb, worried about what was to come. Beteb had been at the second phase of the training for a few days already.

Beteb winced. “Personally, I much preferred the first stage of the training. It is not so much the pain but the constant terror that is exhausting. At least I fall in less often now.” Beteb said dryly, looking at him with vacant dead eyes as he spoke. Christopher wanted to chuckle at the dramatic delivery, but held it in with the realization that he would be joining them.

Christopher did not ask for more, accepting his faith.

They were soon led inside the estate. The middle-aged attendant in his silvery grey uniform deposited the others on the pink moss matt with Netello Brave, before continuing on with Christopher and the six others in tow. He saw that there were more patches of the pink moss in this part of the estate. Maybe this was the closest that this world had to grass. They walked past the crisscross of small water canals, which had beautiful and exotic flowers lining the slowly streaming water. They soon reached their destination.

That destination was a very large pond, its water somehow producing small lapping waves despite its modest size. Thin and circular wooden platforms were laying on the bank of the medium-sized pond. They were only large enough to maybe stand or sit on. They had slightly raised edges, maybe to keep the water out. Christopher could already guess that they would somehow be involved in their training, there were quite the number of them on the bank of the small pond. They honestly looked rather unstable. The assistant moved to the edge of the water, grabbing a long wooden pole. He was still not quite sure about the man’s role, but it seemed as if he would be leading this training.

The five others looked at the platforms with a look of dread. Christopher wondered about the terrible part was of this exercise. Was the assistant going to hit them while they balanced? That could not be that much worse than before. The others had never come back with any visible wounds or bruises either.

The attendant stood next to the pond with his back straight and the five-meter-long pole pointed up towards the sky. The man turned his eyes to Christopher

“I will give another quick introduction of this part of the training for the new member. Fighting against the Blight is a fight full of unpredictability. To name some examples, there are Earth Slithers that can change the terrain from under you. Faceless Giants that cause the Earth to shake with their steps. Flesh Rippers whose screeches can cause you to lose your sense of balance. An indomitable sense of stability and balance is therefore essential in your fighting. This part of the training will allow you to remain in your proper forms, even when something tries to put you down.”

He then turned his sight to the water and the rafts.

“The exercise is simple, drift out on the water on your wooden platform while I direct you to practice on one of your forms. You will pass this second phase of the training when you can hold them all indefinitely consistently despite the movements of the water.

‘This is not that bad; it is only a variation of the previous exercise.’ Christopher thought.

“Let’s get started, climb onto a platform, and drift out on the water.”

“Christopher, be careful not to fall in,” Beteb whispered.

“Why is that?” he responded nervously.

He did not get an answer, the assistant speaking up. “Get going, master Brave does not like dallying.”

Christopher followed the others and imitated them by picking up one of the circular platforms. The others selected their ones carefully. Christopher imitated them by picking one of the more well build rafts. The other trainees seated themselves on the platforms before slowly pushing away from the bank. They were very careful not to submerge any part of their body below the water's slightly wavy surface. Christopher got the hint and followed their example. He got the hint and was suddenly very frightened of what might be hiding in the depths of the pond. The waves were not really normal either, the wind was too still at the moment to produce any waves.

They were now all carefully balancing on their rafts on the surface of the water, remaining seated and making minimal movement. The water was very dark and did not allow him to watch deeper into the water below. Christopher vowed not to be the first to fall in. He wanted to see what happened when you fell in first. Surely reality would not be worse than what he was conjuring up in his imagination right now.

The raft was certainly unstable, he hardly even dared to stand up, he was afraid of putting a foot wrong and making a tumble. Not knowing what to expect only made it worse for him. He was still somewhat puzzled by the unpleasant part of this training.

“Alright, all of you stand up and get ready for the first stance.”

Damn, he thought about just staying put, but he already knew that was not going to be an option. At least the first stance was simple enough with both feet placed widely and firmly apart. He was the last to get up, already finding that the raft was starting to wobble. The waves also had gotten even worse, probably due to the rafts now in the water.

The attendant yelled with a slightly hoarse voice. “Start your first stance now! Keep it going until I say you can stop. If you stop before that, then I will push you in myself!”

Damn, no escape now! He managed to get himself in the proper stance. He did need to make constant adjustments to not lose his balance, he was putting his entire mind to the task, really not wanting to be the first to fall in. He was severely overtaxing his muscles this way, which he would probably pay for soon.

They stood like that for two minutes before the assistant barked at them to get into the position of the second stance. He was surprised that all had made it this far since he had only barely held on himself, his abs already hurting. He had also clearly passed some kind of stat threshold, since his interface alerted him to an increase. He could not spare the mental effort to check though.

He switched to the second stance, and this one was not easy to balance at all. He almost lost his footing a few seconds in, but he managed to save it just in time. Mina, the tall girl that was balancing in front of him was not that lucky, he was startled to see her body suddenly shift, which caused the raft to wobble out of control. It made her lose balance completely and she started dropping towards the water, screaming on the way down.

Christopher immediately braced himself for the wave that was sure to come, and soon Mina hit the water with quite a large splash. He dropped to his hands and knees, refusing to be rocked in by the resulting shockwave.

The next scene was almost too horrible to believe. As the trainee fell in, numerous white eel-like creatures breached the water, congregating where the girl had fallen in. The creatures appeared to be about as long as his forearms. They also did not seem to have any real features, nothing but long and smooth body. His fellow trainee quickly resurfaced, she did not scream anymore, but there was a look of sheer panic on her face. The assistant now moved his wooden pole to Mina’s location, which she grabbed with a frantic expression. She screamed while the assistant helped her get back on her raft, which had to be flipped first. Christopher’s heart was about to beat out of his chest. ‘Good god, what kind of madness is this.’ This was not what he had signed up for.

“It looks worse than it is really,” said Beteb, floating to his left.

“Well, it looks extremely bad already” Christopher retorted. “Are those things poisonous? Can they bite?”

“What these Soul Suckers? No not really, although they feed of your Soul Force. Just small amounts and nothing permanent. You should be fine as long as you don’t let them stick for extended periods of time. They certainly are creepy though; they seek out anything with Soul Force to cling to. It feels absolutely disgusting and disturbing.”

Soul Suckers! that sounded rather diabolical. It was good to know that they would not cause him any harm. They had looked much more dangerous at first glance. Maybe he could stick with this a little longer.

The panicked trainee had by now gotten herself back on the raft, at which point most of the white Eel creatures let go on their own. Apparently, they did not like being out of the water. The girl franticly plucked off one that remained on her neck, throwing it back as well. Pulling off the slithering creature looked easy at least.

“Oh, and the Soul Suckers purposefully adjust the waves to put you off balance.”

What! Where theses ugly white eels intelligent or something?

“Are you sure that these are not creatures of the Blight?”

“Quite sure, they possess Soul Force like all creatures of Avalla.”

Christopher would like a bit more carrot than stick for their training. Surely that would be a viable alternative to these traumatizing methods.

Their torturer spoke. “Mina can take a two-minute breather. The rest get back to the second stance.”

He was not sure how, but he joined the others by standing up and continuing the second stance. After only twenty second disaster struck. Despite his enormous motivation to succeed, he was the next to fall sideways into the water, and admittedly he screamed on the way down. He would not soon forget the feeling of the White Soul Suckers latching onto his body, and the sheer panic that he felt as he tried to get back on the raft. It felt not only revolting, but the feeling of his Soul Force being forced out caused a strange unpleasantness all of its own. It took him longer to get back on the raft than Mina, not practiced at the required motions. As he lay panting, trying to regain his sanity, he was wondering whether he could continue with this kind of training.

Christopher refused to quit though, which caused him to fall in a total of eight more times during their hour of training on the wooden platforms. The only reason it was not more was due to him receiving the much needed two minute rest after each attempt. He though he saw relief on the faces of the others whenever he fell in. It meant that they had a good twenty seconds of reprieve as well. Every person fell in at least once though, with some even falling in at the same time due to the waves caused from the splashes. Beteb managed to hang on for a good twenty minutes, before he also fell in, probably due to exhaustion. Falling in was the only way to get a two-minute break from the horror.

Christopher hoped that Soul Heal would also heal some of his mental wounds, because he was going to need it after today. The Blight suddenly seemed a little less scary.