Before Mr. Till knew what he himself was doing, he had already sent a huge body of water at Dirin. Mr. Till had progressed down water as his element and specialized in waves and long, narrow rivers. The body of water hit Dirin with a loud splash and knocked him on his butt. Dirin looked up, but before he could even say anything, he was already hit with a long whip made of river water.
Mr. Till was drawing water from the ground quickly, which was very noticeable since droplets were escaping from beneath the sand and collecting randomly in the air. This ball became long and thin and snapped at Dirin's ankle and wrapped around before it pulled him in.
He could notice that Dirin was caught off guard a lot since he thought he was safe, but Mr. Till's idea was to give Dirin a reason to grow stronger, and that was by having him train while defending himself. Surely, someone who was progressing in everything would also need to do some progression while being attacked, right? He didn't know, nor did he care at this point, as Dirin was now dragged to his feet.
"I'll only let you progress to Rank 1 once you can land a hit on me. I don't care how you do it. Just. One. Hit. Do this while you train. Think of attacking me with that mind of yours if you must. Learn how to predict what I'm doing. Run faster than I can attack. For the Flame, try to attack me if you think you're able to. During your time here, you won't be able to rest at ease. I'll attack you till you collapse." Mr. Till then used the whip of water to send Dirin back to the wall.
The other students were watching, but Mr. Till didn't mind as he kept sending waves of water and snapped at him with whips. He was honestly enjoying seeing Dirin try to dodge, but he could still see that the surprise was making him react slower. It was just another reason to do this in Mr. Till's eyes. If he was caught off guard for too long, then it was a bad habit that Mr. Till would train out of him.
Not even a couple of minutes passed before Dirin was already fully concentrated on what Mr. Till was throwing at him. That didn't change anything, though, except now he could comprehend what was hitting him. Mr. Till found it funny as Dirin's eyes widened every time another wave was sent to him. It didn't take long for him to try to dodge, but it was still horrible since the waves would just redirect themselves towards him.
It was a highly unfair fight, but that was what Mr. Till was planning for. He saw how bored Dirin was getting and decided that the best thing to do was to do something more physical, and that was fighting him till he progressed in multiple ways during this fight. If he dodged the waves, then that was both movement and prediction. If he got close to Mr. Till, that would also be movement and surprise. If he tried to use some form of astral projection, then that would be training for his spirit. Anything he did right now would train more than one thing as long as he tried, and, as Mr. Till was seeing it, he was trying something.
Another whip went towards the same spot as it did every time it went towards Dirin, but this time he moved his leg up and pulled back just before it could wrap around, but sadly, the next wave hit him and sent his other foot off balance and toppled him. His clothes were already drenched with a mixture of water and sweat. He was breathing heavily, not from overexerting himself, but from simply not getting enough time to breathe.
He wasn't in a very good position to begin with. Mr. Till wasn't holding back towards him, and he didn't even know how to fight him. Checking the time, Dirin saw he had about three more hours of this left. All he needed to do was hit him, but first, he was going to have to get past these waves.
He went into a full sprint sideways and nearly avoided one of the waves, but it still crashed into him and sent him back to the wall. Thankfully, Mr. Till used the water to cushion the blow, so it didn't hurt physically at all. He kept trying to do the same thing, but it only got worse and worse, and that was only mentioning the waves. The whip now switched between the legs, and between that and the waves, it was nearly impossible to remember which one it was going to hit next.
Dirin tried to rack his brain on everything to get out through the waves. He then turned around and sprinted towards and wave and tried to dive through it. The wave wasn't thick, so he popped out quicker than he expected and landed on his stomach on the ground and got hit by the next wave. He figured out how he was going to get through them now.
He tried it again, but instead of going through another thin wave, he found himself in there for a much longer time. The water also slowly started to compress on itself and caused him to feel some form of pressure that was released not too long after. Before he could get up and move again, the whip already found itself back on his ankle and flung him towards another wave that sent him back to the wall.
This happened for a couple of hours with Dirin being absolutely tired to the point where he had to just stand there and take it, and Mr. Till never stopped sending the waves despite Dirin's obvious surrender. He also couldn't recover due to not being able to get a good breath of air after a while.
Only when the sun finally set did the waves stop attacking him. He looked up with heavy and tired eyes at Mr. Till, who only walked towards him. "You broke through the waves, but you lack a lot of stamina despite all that jogging. It seems you aren't able to work your whole body long due to being out of shape, it seems. I thought after all that sparring with Ritchard, you'd be better. It seems only so much can improve in just a couple of days. Get some rest and study. Tomorrow will be the same thing." Mr. Till helped Dirin up and walked him back to his apartment while making sure he could still walk.
Once Dirin was in the apartment and finally away from that monster did he groan and collapse onto the floor. Keith was making food, and the smell only made Dirin nauseated from all the stupid salt he sensed. Markus was unloading the dishwasher with an unusually big smile on his face.
Dirin was shaking as he sat on the ground. His arms were sore and screaming at him, while his legs were long since numb from all the work they had given. He was breathing in deeply and too quickly. His lungs were on fire, and his hair was a mess that went in every direction while multiple strands clung to his forehead.
Markus stopped putting the plates away and helped Dirin onto a seat, which he got a long exhale as a thanks. He didn't ask any questions, but when he tried to put a plate in front of Dirin, he could see him trying to raise his arms to push it away, so he put it away himself.
Dirin didn't even know how he found himself in his bed. He was lying on his back in his wet clothes, but he never felt more comfortable in anything else for some reason. His exhaustion took him almost immediately as dreamless sleep took him.
With a dry mop in hand, Markus was cleaning up the puddles and drops of water that Dirin had come off him. He didn't complain since this was the first time he saw Dirin so exhausted. Normally, he was a put-together person who often had some energy radiate from him, unlike Keith, who constantly radiated that energy. Today, he saw all of that energy used up, which surprised him.
Keith was eating as he looked towards Dirin's door from time to time. "Never knew someone could get so wet." Markus almost tripped over the water as he heard that, which made Keith smile widely. "I wonder how he'll be tomorrow."
"What if he doesn't do it tomorrow?" Markus asked. "I barely wanted to do blacksmithing after what Rose put me through."
"I thought we were calling her Hammer?" Keith asked and Markus just shrugged in response. "Anyway, Dirin will go back. It started, and now he'll feel lazy if he doesn't do it. I'll also make fun of him if he doesn't. There was a small reason why I dared him to do everything after all.